Monday, November 15, 2004

Eyewitness Falluja

posted by durani, 11/15/04 09:16 | link | comments

Merry Christmas!

Members of the city's Emergency Services Hercules unit stand guard in front of a nine-ton, 71-foot high, 40-foot wide Norway spruce from Suffern, N.Y., in Rockefeller Center after it was raised into position for the Christmas season.

posted by durani, 11/15/04 02:12 | link | comments (4)

Thursday, November 11, 2004

'Groundhog Day' in Iraq

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I got a brief glimpse of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's news conference on Monday, as the battle for Falluja began. I couldn't help but rub my eyes for a moment and wonder aloud whether I had been transported back in time to some 20 months ago, when the war for Iraq had just started. Watching CNN, I saw the same Rummy joking with the Pentagon press corps, the same scratchy reports from the front by "embedded reporters,'' the same footage of U.S. generals who briefed the soldiers preparing for battle about how they were liberating Iraq.

There was only one difference that no one seemed to want to mention. It wasn't 20 months ago. It was now. And Iraq has still not been fully liberated. In fact, as the fight for Falluja shows, it hasn't even been fully occupied.

Taking in this scene I had very mixed feelings: a fervent hope that victory in Falluja will start to tip Iraq in the right direction, and utter scorn at the fact that we are now, once again, fighting a full-scale war in central Iraq, without an ounce of self-reflection by an administration that long ago declared "mission accomplished.'' But don't worry. Rummy has it all under control. He hasn't made any mistakes. Everything is going as planned. The plan was always to fight running street battles in Falluja 20 months after Saddam's fall.

So lay off. Shut up. Watch Fox. Wave a flag. Visit a red state. Don't ask how we got into this fix. Shut up. Lay off. Watch Fox. ... [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/11/04 13:35 | link | comments (1)

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/11/04 13:19 | link | comments (1)

Dean Ponders Bid to Become DNC Chairman

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party.

"He told me he was thinking about it," Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday. Grossman was a Dean backer during the former Vermont governor's failed presidential bid.

..."I strongly urged (Dean) to seek the position," he said. "Howard is a voice of political empowerment and that to me is important, for the Democrats to get their sea legs back as quickly as possible, to get beyond the disappointment of the last week and to believe there is a bright future ahead for the Democratic Party." [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/11/04 13:10 | link | comments (1)

Sunday, November 07, 2004

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/07/04 13:46 | link | comments

Friday, November 05, 2004

No Surrender

By PAUL KRUGMAN
President Bush isn't a conservative. He's a radical - the leader of a coalition that deeply dislikes America as it is. Part of that coalition wants to tear down the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt, eviscerating Social Security and, eventually, Medicare. Another part wants to break down the barriers between church and state. And thanks to a heavy turnout by evangelical Christians, Mr. Bush has four more years to advance that radical agenda.

Democrats are now, understandably, engaged in self-examination. But while it's O.K. to think things over, those who abhor the direction Mr. Bush is taking the country must maintain their intensity; they must not succumb to defeatism.

This election did not prove the Republicans unbeatable. Mr. Bush did not win in a landslide. Without the fading but still potent aura of 9/11, when the nation was ready to rally around any leader, he wouldn't have won at all. And future events will almost surely offer opportunities for a Democratic comeback.

I don't hope for more and worse scandals and failures during Mr. Bush's second term, but I do expect them. The resurgence of Al Qaeda, the debacle in Iraq, the explosion of the budget deficit and the failure to create jobs weren't things that just happened to occur on Mr. Bush's watch. They were the consequences of bad policies made by people who let ideology trump reality. [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/05/04 12:42 | link | comments (1)

Brits to America: You’re Idiots!

Well, 51 percent of you, anyway.

By June Thomas

Americans who think post-election anti-red-state recrimination is a U.S.-only phenomenon should check out the cover of Thursday's Daily Mirror: Over a picture of President George W. Bush, the paper asked, "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" Inside, the left-leaning British tabloid headlined its editorial, "WAR MORE YEARS." In a clear demonstration of the trans-Atlantic culture gap, the paper's description of the president's beliefs—clearly intended to strike Mirror readers as a radical agenda—is simply an accurate, if crude, précis of his platform: "Mr Bush opposes abortion and gay marriage, doesn't give a stuff about the environment, is against gun control and believes troops should stay in Iraq for as long as it takes." [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/05/04 12:25 | link | comments

Dear Limey Assholes: A crazy British plot to swing Ohio to Kerry—and how it backfired.

By Andy Bowers

Imagine being an undecided voter in Clark County, Ohio, last month. You kind of think John Kerry has some good points about the war in Iraq and the economy, but you feel more comfortable with George Bush's faith and his resolve. One day, you open your mailbox to find a letter from someone in England you've never met. It starts like this:

Don't be so ashamed of your president: the majority of you didn't vote for him. If Bush is finally elected properly, that will be the time for Americans travelling abroad to simulate a Canadian accent. Please don't let it come to that. Vote against Bin Laden's dream candidate. Vote to send Bush packing.

It's signed Richard Dawkins, a professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University. [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/05/04 12:00 | link | comments

Thursday, November 04, 2004

European Reactions [Read Full Article]

"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" the liberal Daily Mirror asked in a Page One headline. Inside, several pages of coverage were headed "U.S. election disaster."

The Independent bore the front-page headline "Four more years" on a black page with grim pictures including a hooded Iraqi prisoner and an orange-clad detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

The left-leaning Guardian led its features section with a black page bearing the tiny words, "Oh, God." Inside a story described how Bush's victory "catapaulted liberal Britain into collective depression."

Across Europe, many newspapers expressed dismay at the prospect of another term for Bush, a president often regarded as inflexible and unilateralist.

"Oops — they did it again," Germany's left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper said in a front-page English headline. The cover of the Swiss newsmagazine Facts called Bush's re-election "Europe's Nightmare." "Victory for the hothead: how far will he go?" asked another Swiss weekly, L'Hebdo.

A few British papers welcomed the U.S. election result. "The world is a safer place with George W. Bush back in the Oval Office," the tabloid Sun said in an editorial.

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/04/04 17:27 | link | comments

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/04/04 16:53 | link | comments

The Red Zone

By MAUREEN DOWD

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. [Read More]

Two Nations Under God

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The election results reaffirmed that. Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on.

This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way.

My problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad. I respect that moral energy, but wish that Democrats could find a way to tap it for different ends. [Read More]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/04/04 16:50 | link | comments

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Wise, angry, and unfortunately true bits…

"I mean Bush in four years in office, two wars? Come on! It's like hell! I mean what will he do in the next four years? Eight wars?…I hope he will change his policy," worried Ahmed Abu Magd, a student at the American University in Cairo. [Source]

Blair's former foreign minister Robin Cook — who resigned over the decision to back the war in Iraq — said four more years of Bush would be a bad for the world.

"The worrying issue of this election in the global scope is that, not only do we have a divided America, but we also have a president who is highly polarizing in his approach to world politics," Cook said. [Source]

“Bush's victory will produce a second-term president with a mandate for little beyond patriotic and pious posturing.  A majority of Americans have shown that they oppose his war and have no interest in his domestic agenda.  When the offensive starts in Iraq and the casualties rise, his popularity will plummet.  Were he to try to privatize Social Security, move to a flat tax or weaken Medicare, his party will suffer.  When the dollar falls or the economy slows, burdened by debt and oil prices, a broad majority will express their buyers' remorse.” [Source]

“Yesterday more than half of American voters voted for the Values Party. Those who make their livings analyzing why people vote the way the do say the GOP's emphasis on values like gay marriage, abortion, prayer in schools and the sort, gave them the electoral edge over secular Democrats.” [Source]

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/03/04 16:03 | link | comments (5)

Timothy Noah of Slate sums it up best…

The good news: We can probably stop worrying about George W. Bush running for president in 2008.

The bad news: I don't want to talk about it.

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/03/04 15:11 | link | comments

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/03/04 14:54 | link | comments

I blame the voters, and today I am ashamed to be an American. Last time Bush stole the election, this time they elected him.

I was born in 1980, just days before Reagan was elected. This means that I have lived through 16 years of Republican control, and I’m done with it. I am out of this country because obviously our lack of quality education has led this nation to a time when a president is elected based on ‘moral character’…god, guns, and religion.

And what’s the deal with wanting to unite the country? Somehow I don’t think I’ll be inspired to hold hands and sing pretty songs with Right wing zealots. Bush now has four unaccountable years to push his warmongering agenda through a Republican Congress AND nominate up to four Supreme Court Justices.

Now I begin my own exit strategy….

…and to all of you non-Americans, I apologize.

-Amanda

posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/03/04 14:34 | link | comments (2)