McCain’s Adultery…

By- Suzie-Q @ 5:30 PM MST

TIME’s Joe Klein on McCain’s adultery
AMERICAblog- John Aravosis (DC) · 8/09/2008 02:13:00 PM ET

Unfortunately, I think Klein got confused. The adultery in question is not McCain and Vickey Iseman – or at least it’s not entirely the speculation over that possible relationship. The adultery in question is the actual adultery that John McCain has basically admitted he committed with Cindy while still married to his first wife. That is not adultery that was denied by McCain or Cindy, to the best of my knowledge.

From TIME’s blog Swampland:

Commenter Ralph wants to know:

Why is Edwards’s adultery a problem for Obama, while McCain’s adultery is not a problem for McCain?

The answer is: Edwards’ adultery is not a problem for Obama any more than Larry Craig’s importunings should be a problem for McCain. As for McCain’s alleged adultery–it’s been denied by both parties and I really don’t care about the Senator’s sex life. I do care about the fact that he is running a campaign filled with lies about his opponent’s positions, a campaign that is conducted in a snarky, subversive tone that is entirely inappropriate to American politics. I wish my colleagues would spend more time talking about what a disservice McCain is doing the country and less time “analyzing” why McCain has to tear down Obama in order to win. (If tearing down Obama is the only way he can win–and this should be obvious, but apparently it isn’t–McCain doesn’t deserve to win.)

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McCain Campaign: Lieberman Potential Vice Presidential Running Mate

By- Suzie-Q @ 4:30 PM MST

Lieberman reportedly on McCain’s VP ‘short-list.’

Think Progress- By Amanda at 1:59 pm
The Financial Times reports that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign is vetting Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) as a potential vice presidential running mate. One adviser said, “[McCain] loves Lieberman. And he is on the [short-]list because Lieberman has never embarrassed anyone, never misspoken. The first rule is, don’t take someone who costs you votes.” The adviser also added, however, that many conservatives “would be pissed as hell.” Lieberman will also likely attend the GOP convention and may be speaking there.

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Suicide Car Bombing In Northern Iraq Kills 25

By- Suzie-Q @ 4:00 PM MST

US military blames al-Qaida in Iraq for bombing

SAMEER N. YACOUB | August 9, 2008 05:21 PM EST |

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq Saturday for a suicide car bombing in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, while an Iraqi official said the death toll in the attack had risen to 25.

An Iraqi security official, meanwhile, said the attacker was a Sunni Turkoman who had been detained by the U.S. military but was released four months ago under an Iraqi amnesty law.

The bomber may have avoided detection at a checkpoint leading to the busy market by having a man ride with him in the passenger seat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The passenger got off soon after the car passed the checkpoint, he added, citing witness reports and forensic tests.

Suicide car bombers are known to ride alone in most cases, so having a passenger next to them could help them avoid detection. Tal Afar, a frequent target of suicide bombings over the past five years, bans males from driving alone.

An indefinite curfew was imposed on the predominantly ethnic Turkoman town, the official said, adding the death toll had risen to 25 after four people died from their wounds.

Initial reports said the blast was caused by an explosives-laden car parked near a fruit and vegetable market. But Capt. Charles Calio, a U.S. military spokesman, said it was a suicide attack.

“One al-Qaida in Iraq terrorist died when he detonated a vehicle-borne bomb,” Calio said in an e-mailed statement.

The blast occurred amid heightened tensions among ethnic groups throughout northern Iraq because of a dispute over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The city is claimed by the Kurds, who want to annex it to their self-ruled region, but its Arab and Turkomen residents want to remain under central government control.

The top U.S. diplomat and military commander in Iraq condemned the attack in Tal Afar, 260 miles (420 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus said in a joint statement Saturday that the “senseless” attack will further unite the Iraqi people to reject al-Qaida in Iraq and the “indiscriminate” violence it inflicts on civilians.

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Why McCain May Well Win

Sudhan @23:20 CET

By Robert Parry | Consortiumnews.com, August 6, 2008

It might seem unlikely that the United States would elect John McCain to succeed George W. Bush when that would ensure continuation of many unpopular Bush policies: an ill-defined war with the Muslim world, right-wing consolidation of the U.S. Supreme Court, a drill-oriented energy strategy, tax cuts creating massive federal deficits, etc., etc.

But there are reasons – beyond understandable concerns about Barack Obama’s limited experience – that make a McCain victory possible, indeed maybe probable.

Here is one of the big ones: The U.S. news media is as bad as ever, arguably worse.

On Monday, Obama gave a detail-rich speech on how he would address the energy crisis, which is a major point of concern among Americans. From ideas for energy innovation to retrofitting the U.S. auto industry to conservation steps to limited new offshore drilling, Obama did what he is often accused of not doing, fleshing out his soaring rhetoric.

McCain responded with a harsh critique of Obama’s calls for more conservation, claiming that Obama wants to solve the energy crisis by having people inflate their tires. McCain’s campaign even passed out a tire gauge marked as Obama’s energy plan.

For his part, McCain made clear he wanted to drill for more oil wherever it could be found and to build many more nuclear power plants.

These competing plans offered a chance for the evening news to address an issue of substance that is high on the voters’ agenda. Instead, NBC News anchor Brian Williams devoted 30 seconds to the dueling energy speeches, without any details and with the witty opening line that Obama was “refining” his energy plan.

So, instead of dealing with a serious issue in a serious way, NBC News ignored the substance and went for a clever slight against Obama, hitting his political maneuvering in his softened opposition to more offshore drilling.

Williams’s quip fit with one of the press corps’ favorite campaign narratives, Obama’s flip-flopping. But the coverage ignored far more important elements of the story, such as the feasibility of Obama’s vow that “we must end the age of oil in our time” or the wisdom of McCain’s emphasis on drilling – and nuking – the nation out of its energy mess.

And, as for flip-flops, McCain’s dramatic repositioning of himself as an anti-environmentalist – after years of being one of the green movement’s favorite Republicans – represents a far more significant change than Obama’s modest waffling on offshore oil.

The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s premier environmental organizations, has repudiated McCain and now is running ads attacking his energy plan. But McCain’s flip-flops – even complete reversals – remain an underplayed part of the campaign story. They just don’t fit the narrative of maverick John McCain on the “Straight Talk Express.”

Loving the ‘Surge’

The major U.S. news media has been equally superficial in dealing with the Iraq War and the “war on terror.” It is now a fully enshrined conventional wisdom that George W. Bush’s troop “surge” was a huge success and vindicates McCain’s early support for it.

On Obama’s overseas trip, it became de rigueur for each interviewer to pound him for the first 10 or 15 minutes with demands that he accept the accepted wisdom about the “surge” and admit that he was wrong and McCain was right.

Continued . . .

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Does Bush Suffer from a Personality Disorder?

anthony @ 20:12 BST

Extract from Lord Owen’s The Hubris Syndrome:

During the last week of George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign, it became known that he had been arrested for driving a car under the influence of alcohol at the age of thirty. Starting in 1999, it had been made fairly clear in unattributable briefings that as a young man the candidate had been too fond of alcohol. This was presented as a passing phase of little consequence; in fact he was an alcoholic. On alcoholism there is no room for complacency. It is a condition that, once it has manifested itself, demands constant vigilance to ensure, alcohol abuse does not continue in total secrecy and with the patient in denial.

Since he has been President, records of Bush’s medical condition have been published every year by his doctors. On only one occasion was there some delay. They reveal little of interest except that he has an abnormally low pulse rate. Yet for some years Bush has been uttering so many malapropisms that besides making him the butt of many jokes, they have focused doctors’ minds on whether or not he has dyslexia, from which his brother Neil is reported to suffer.

There has also been speculation on whether Bush has adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a life-long disorder characterized by overactive behavior, short attention span and poor concentration. A further reason for speculation in Bush’s case is that there is a well-established association between dyslexia and ADHD. Also ADHD is one of four psychiatric disorders, the others being depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, which commonly occur with substance abuse disorders such as alcoholism. Bush claims he has drunk no alcohol since 1987, but there have been rumors in the press to the contrary. On 13 January 2002 he lost consciousness while sitting on a couch in the White House watching a football game. His head hit the floor, resulting in an abrasion on his left cheekbone. The incident was blamed on a combination of not feeling well in previous days and an improperly eaten pretzel. I was contacted by a British doctor who had visited Johns Hopkins University and in talking to a group of young doctors was told that, following this incident, though the President had been admitted to Walter Reed Hospital, a blood sample of his had been sent to Johns Hopkins which showed a blood alcohol level in the range of 200 mg. All such rumors have been emphatically denied by the White House and certainly there are no signs of Bush resuming his drinking habits.

Personality was once thought to play an important role in alcoholism, although it is felt to play a somewhat lesser role today as a contributor to addiction. Yet it is obvious that some people’s personalities are part and parcel of their addictive habit and influence whether they overcome their addiction. Bush has never made any secret of the fact that he does not read much and claims that he is no intellectual. But that does not mean – as some assume – that he has a low IQ. While he was a ‘C’ student, which means he had to rely on the strength of his family connections to get into Yale, he graduated from both Yale Law School and Harvard Business School, which is not possible without a fair amount of intelligence. Some who meet Bush one-on-one claim to be pleasantly surprised by his intelligence. Question marks about Bush relate, therefore, more to his inattention, his incurious nature and inarticulacy: in short, signs that his brain functions in an unusual way.

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Boehner: Voters Are ‘Gonna Hang’ Pelosi

By- Suzie-Q @ 9:00 AM MST

Boehner argues voters are ‘gonna hang’ Speaker Pelosi

Carpetbagger Report– Posted August 9th, 2008 at 10:15 am

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) launched a lengthy tirade about coastal drilling and the Democratic House majority doing some of the exact same things the Republican House majority was doing less than two years ago, when he probably took his rhetoric one step too far.

Responding to questions over whether Pelosi could call a special session – which Democrats insist won’t happen – and vote on other issues that Republicans may not want to face, such as an expansion of childrens’ [sic] health insurance programs, which President Bush and GOP congressional leaders have opposed.

“She’s gonna bring us back and not deal with it? The American people are gonna hang her,” Boehner said. When pressed further, Boehner said it would “be fine, as long as we get a vote on our bill.”

I’m quite sure Boehner wasn’t speaking literally, and wasn’t actually calling on Americans to try to kill the woman third in line for the presidency. But there are certain expectations about how elected leaders are supposed to conduct themselves, and Boehner said something he shouldn’t have.

It didn’t take long for other House members to respond. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said in a statement, “[N]o public official should use language implying bodily harm to anyone, whether they are referring to the Speaker of the House or any other American. That is completely outrageous.” Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) added, “Assertions of physical violence toward the Speaker of the House have no place in the halls of Congress. Period. After a week stuck in an echo-chamber of their own making, this group of Republicans has turned ugly. Democracy is about settling differences through debate, without violence. It is unfortunate that the Minority Leader allowed violence to creep into his overheated rhetoric.”

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Evolution of the blogosphere and Majestic 12

by Geezer Power……8:46 am

…zzzZZZ* Hmm, lets see…

Russia launches air assault on Georgia, sends more troops.

Habbush Letter was on Darth Cheney’s Stationary

John Edwards’ Extramarital shenanigans

$482 Billion deficit!

Massive US Armada heads for Iran

Man, I don’t have the froggiest what to write about today. I’m completely boggled frazzled overamped…like my hard drive is full of Bu$hite and needs a dump. I think I’m going to de-fragment while I cruise the innertubes for the usual nonsense. Oh, I know what I’ll do, just post a video, maybe a billbobjoe. Hmm Joe didn’t do a new one yet so it looks like a good day for a bike ride. Life gets tedious don’t it…G:

Ah, the Majestic 12 documents, I remember reading about them in the 1950’s but never really seen any evidence. These sure look authentic, but like every other thing on the innertubes there are folks who call themselves debunkers just like the ones that were denying the existence of UFO’s in the old days. Project Bluebook if I remember it correctly. It filed most of the reports where they couldn’t be seen or explained them away as weather balloons, ball lightning, or just plain old hallucinations. All I can say is that there are two sightings that they can’t explain to me, because I seen them. So it boils down to separate realities and folks seem to understand it a little more after sighting one…G:

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Pelosi To Boehner: Offshore Drilling Impact On Prices Before 2030 Would Be “Insignificant”

By- Suzie-Q @ 8:15 AM MST

Pelosi to Boehner: Yesterday’s Solutions to Today’s Problems Will Not Achieve Energy Independence

The Gavel- August 5th, 2008 by Office of the Speaker

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter to House Republican Leader John Boehner today in response to a letter sent yesterday from the House GOP leadership.

Below is a text of the letter:

August 5, 2008

The Honorable John A. Boehner
House Republican Leader
H-204, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Leader Boehner:

Thank you for your letter from the House GOP leadership yesterday on gas prices.

America uses nearly a quarter of the world’s oil, but sits atop less than 3 percent of the world’s reserves. According to the Bush Administration’s own Energy Department, if we repealed the offshore drilling ban today, oil and gas production would not begin there until 2017, and impact on prices before 2030 would be “insignificant.” We cannot drill our way out of this problem.

The facts are clear. The New Direction Congress has repeatedly brought forth proposals to increase domestic supply, reduce the price at the pump, protect American consumers and businesses and promote renewable energy and conservation. To date, Democrats have brought forward 13 major initiatives to accomplish the above goals and each time a majority of House Republicans have voted against these proposals.

One of these proposals would codify Democrats’ call for releasing a small portion of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Releasing a small amount from the government stockpile is a positive short-term step that would provide immediate impact on the price at the pump and ease the pain American families and businesses are feeling every day.

The SPR has been tapped or suspended before by President Bush, President Clinton, and the first President Bush, and each time the impact on prices has been dramatic and immediate. In 1991, oil prices immediately dropped by 33 percent. The 2000 exchange drove oil prices down by 19 percent. And the release by President Bush in 2005 resulted in a 9 percent drop.

While a very small band of your colleagues remain on the House floor to discuss gas prices, their constituents deserve to know why their representatives in Congress have failed to support serious, responsible proposals. These proposals would increase supply, reduce prices, protect consumers, and transition America to a clean, renewable energy independent future. Americans deserve real solutions, not rhetoric. Using yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems will not allow us to achieve energy independence.

Again, thank you for your letter, and I look forward to working together on behalf of America’s working families.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI

Speaker of the House

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Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery

anthony @ 14:16 BST

In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks

A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency’s former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.

The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico‘s Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer’s behalf. In it, Richer declared, “I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document … as outlined in Mr. Suskind’s book.”

The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer’s own remarks in the transcript.

“Now this is from the Vice President’s Office is how you remembered it–not from the president?” Suskind asked.

“No, no, no,” Richer replied, according to the transcript. “What I remember is George [Tenet] saying, ‘we got this from’–basically, from what George said was ‘downtown.'”

“Which is the White House?” Suskind asked.

“Yes,” Richer said. “But he did not–in my memory–never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now–he may have hinted–just by the way he said it, it would have–cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president.”

“But he didn’t say that specifically,” Richer added. “I would naturally–I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president.”

“But there wasn’t anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president,” Suskind continued.

“Nope,” Richer said.

“It just had the White House stationery.”

“Exactly right.”

Later, Richer added, “You know, if you’ve ever seen the vice president’s stationery, it’s on the White House letterhead. It may have said OVP (Office of the Vice President). I don’t remember that, so I don’t want to mislead you.”

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U.S. Attacks Russia Through Client State Georgia

anthony @ 13:47 BST

While U.S. media obsesses about John Edwards’ extramarital shenanigans

Paul Joseph Watson | Prison Planet | Friday, August 8, 2008

Georgian forces, trained and equipped by the Pentagon and the U.S. government, killed 10 Russian peacekeepers early this morning in a provocation attack that has escalated into military conflict, but the subsequent corporate media coverage would have us believe that the U.S. and NATO-backed client state Georgia is a helpless victim, when in actual fact a far more nuanced geopolitical strategy is being played out.

Original reports early this morning detailed how Georgian forces had killed 10 Russian peacekeepers and wounded 30 others, which was the provocation for Russian forces to begin military operations, but the fact that Georgian forces were responsible for starting the conflagration has been completely buried in subsequent media coverage.

“Georgia and the Pentagon cooperate closely,” reports MSNBC, “Georgia has a 2,000-strong contingent supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and Washington provides training and equipment to the Georgian military.”

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