Democrats' new strategy

democrat.com

Democrats warn Chavez: Don't bash Bush:

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two of President Bush's staunchest domestic critics leapt to his defense Thursday, a day after one of his fiercest foreign foes called him 'the devil' in a scorching speech before the United Nations.

'You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president,' Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, scolded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, was blunt in her criticism of the Venezuelan leader. 'He is an everyday thug,' she said."

The strategy? Don't bash Bush, only we can do that.

C'mon Dems: don't beat around the Bush.

Chavez on Bush

Julie Jacobson
AP

Holding up a copy of Noam Chomsky's book, Hugo Chávez attacks 'devil' Bush in UN speech:

In a 15-minute address to the annual gathering of international leaders in New York, President Chávez said he could still 'smell sulphur' left behind by the 'devil', George Bush, who had addressed the chamber 24 hours before.

The Guardian also reported that:

Delegates and leaders from around the world streamed back into the chamber to hear Mr Chávez, and when he stepped down the vigorous applause lasted so long that it had to be curtailed by the chair.

When madmen rule...

rawstory.com

First, it was pointing out Saddam as deserving of regime change. Now it appears to be Ahmadinejad's turn.

'You deserve an opportunity to determine your own future,' Bush told the people of Iran.

'The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons.'

Doesn't he worry that people will catch on that he's using the same tired lines before invading a country? Or is it he just doesn't care? What was it he once said?

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

Well, Mr. President, if we can't get fooled again, why are you trying to fool us twice?

Abusing the memory of 9/11

cooperativeresearch.org

Sometimes you wish your predictions didn't come true. I wish mine hadn't. I had predicted in an earlier entry that Bush and the Republican Congress would use 9/11 as a platform to pass laws legalizing Guantanomo torture and warrantless spying. And sure enough, here it comes:

President Bush pressed Congress on Thursday to approve new military tribunals to try terrorism suspects, a day after he admitted the CIA ran secret prisons overseas where accused militants were detained.

And:

Speaking at a public policy forum in Atlanta, Bush also urged Congress to endorse his administration's domestic eavesdropping program.

'I will continue to use every element of national power to pursue our enemies and to prevent attacks on the United States of America,' Bush said.

The one predictable attribute of scum is that you know it is going to stink.

Pentagon Report: Iraq & civil war.

ridiculopathy.com

The New York Times reported acerbically, that:

The Pentagon distributed the report on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, a common time for government officials to put out bad news. A Pentagon officials denied that this was the intent and said the report was issued when it completed.

A snippet of the report:

“Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi population has increased in recent months.”

In the meantime, the U.S. Comamnd in Baghdad is doling out $20 mil of our money to the corporation which will best monitor the "tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media."

Remember the story about fixing the news on Iraq by having soldiers write them and paying Iraqi reporters to pass them off as their own? An intern for the Lincoln group even detailed his experience on Democracy Now!

Well, here's the sequel...talk about bringing democracy to a country by the barrel of a gun or with a barrel full of dollars.