oh, ho! howard and jerry are 1st!!!

Congrats to Jerry McNerney for his great campaign and win.    Proud of you. 

Down With Tyrranny blog has a good research article about where the DCCC resources were spent.   Long,, but good reading.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/684

Howard Dean gave Jerry kuds at his press conference the day after the election on C-Span, pointing out it was a grassroots campaign from the start.

Oh, make that kudos...I have not having a preview pane.  Make too many mistakes that way.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all DFAers!!! 

**************

sharing a tidbit about the charged subject of sex education for our young.............'u.s. adults prefer comprehensive teaching of sex education in public schools,' nov 2006, archives of pediatrics and adolescent medicine.  the study's sample consisted of [self-described] 39.5% moderates, 35.5% conservatives, 25% liberals.  the findings reflected a common-sense american value of problem-solving:  82% chose abstinence-plus [other methods of preventing pregnancy and SDIs], and 68.5% chose the teaching of the proper use of condoms.

happy thanksgiving to all and to all a good afternoon.

This reporter from US News and World Report was on CSPAN this morning. I checked out her article. It is long, but not tedious, and you get a picture of what happened in Iraq. It starts out sounding like a smear of Condi, but ends up sounding like she was the only one getting anything done to me. Even if it wasn't 'her job.' Which was maybe at the heart of the problem?? Here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20061120/...

Who Lost Iraq?
By Chitra Ragavan, with Danielle Burton and Stephanie A. Salmon Mon Nov 20, 11:56 AM ET

A snippet:

This is the story of how Rice, a veteran White House insider with close personal ties to the president, failed to pull together the administration's fractious postwar efforts and why her successor, Stephen Hadley, has yet to navigate or even identify a way out of Iraq.

Jerry McNerney: Thank YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving Governor Dean, Jim Dean, DFA and all true friends of democracy

6. Annilow

If we didn't already know it was Rice who lost Iraq, it should have been evident the day she got her promotion.  Bush always rewards the screw-ups!  :-) 

OMG

Ethiopian zoo poisons rare lions to cut costs, official says
POSTED: 11:23 a.m. EST, November 22, 2006
Adjust font size:

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- A major zoo in Ethiopia is poisoning rare lion cubs and selling the corpses to be stuffed because it can't afford to care for the animals, which are the national symbol, the zoo's administrator said Wednesday.

"These animals are the pride of our country," Muhedin Abdulaziz of the Lion Zoo told The Associated Press. "But our only alternative right now is to send them to the taxidermist."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/11/...



Come On! There's got to be some Zoo's here that can rescue these beauties.

but I do believe it is in our national security interest to stop the widening ethnic cleansing in Darfur in almost identical response as to when Saddam was doing it to the Kurds after Desert Storm

....

Did they teach that at the Iowa War Collge...LOL

There is no similartiy between the Kurds and the situation in Darfur.  The Kurds then as they do now completly controlled their "region".  There was no inter "tribe" fighting no security situation to deal with. Saddam's forces were afraid to go into the Kurd areas...they had tried it a few times and gotten their hats handed to them.

In Darfur we have a region of well tribal insecurity that makes Iraq look tame.  To go in there we would have to establish the order that we are trying to establish in Iraq.  To think that there would not be significant casualties is "Chenesqe".

LindaB's Logic (such as it is) flounders on her own sword.  But you are just simply misttating facts.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Furthest REaches of The Republic!

Robert

BTW if the number of volunteers is the issue.  WE are getting sufficient volunteers to fight in Iraq.

Robert

Hey, all good Dean believers ... it's good to see that the blog got fixed!

I'd like to wish everyone an early Happy Thanksgiving!  Unfortunately, I don't get the day off tomorrow but I will enjoy the thought of DFA bloggers having a good day with family and friends.  Kudos to Jerry McNerny for reminding people that not everyone will be sitting down to a feast tomorrow and that we CAN make a difference! 

**********

I hope that Thankful will have something to be very thankful about tomorrow!

Michael Ellis
Wed, 11/22/06
1:12 pm

instead we get a refurbished piece of junk that should have been sold for scrap.............

Mike.

I was curious who would take the bait.

I see that your "MILITARY EXPERTISE" has failed you yet again....LOL

\

Occassionaly I use to think "OH he will figure it out and stop trying to be an expert on something he doesnt know anything about" but  now I just enjoy the fact that we have a "wind dummy" in military and historical affairs.

Comeone a person with ANY KNOWLEDGE could have seen that is not one of ours.  The flight deck is all wrong and the island...

Please keep "commenting" on military things.  It is some good entertainment.

Robert

Nancy Pelosi, set to become the first female Speaker after the Democrats' sweeping midterm victory, is embroiled in a second bitter intra-party battle before she even takes office in January - this time with another powerful Californian congresswoman over one of the most sensitive and important jobs on Capitol Hill.

Last week, Ms Pelosi suffered a stinging defeat when her chosen candidate for House majority leader was resoundingly defeated. Now a new showdown is approaching in what Washington insiders have called "the catfight": her efforts to deny Jane Harman, her one-time friend turned rival, the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

Normally, Ms Harman, the most senior Democrat on the panel, would take charge automatically when her party assumes the majority in the House in January. She is a moderate, respected by Republicans as well as Democrats for her experience with intelligence issues. But that is to reckon without the animosity between her and Ms Pelosi, who as Speaker has untrammelled authority to choose committee chairmen.

Until a few years ago the two women, among the richest and most powerful in Congress, were allies. But for a variety of reasons, that has changed. One factor is ideology. The Speaker-elect, who represents San Francisco, belongs to the liberal wing of her party. Ms Harman, whose district is in Los Angeles, is by contrast a centrist and - worse still - held by Ms Pelosi and others to have been insufficiently tough on the Bush White House for its mishandling of intelligence before the Iraq war. Ms Pelosi voted against the 2003 invasion, while Ms Harman supported it.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2004240.ece

Here's a good column from today's WaPo that makes some telling points.

============

One Syllable of Civility
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; A21

If he wanted to, President Bush could change the tone in Washington with a single syllable: He could just say "ic." That is, he could stop referring to the opposition as the "Democrat Party" and call the other side, as it prefers, the Democratic Party.

The derisive use of "Democrat" in this way was a Bush staple during the recent campaign. "There are people in the Democrat Party who think they can spend your money far better than you can," he would say in his stump speech, or, "Raising taxes is a Democrat idea of growing the economy," or, "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."

But even as he promised to work to change the tone in Washington after the elections, the president couldn't manage to change his language.  [...]

The president isn't alone in his adjectival aversion to "Democratic" when it comes to the party. The provenance of the sneering label "Democrat Party" stretches back to the Harding administration. William Safire traced an early usage to Harold Stassen, who was managing Wendell Willkie's 1940 campaign against Franklin D. Roosevelt. A party run by political bosses, Stassen told Safire for a 1984 column, "should not be called a 'Democratic Party.' It should be called the 'Democrat party.' "

Democrat Party was used, pardon the phrase, liberally by Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy. According to the Columbia Guide to Standard American English, " Democrat as an adjective is still sometimes used by some twentieth-century Republicans as a campaign tool but was used with particular virulence" by McCarthy, "who sought by repeatedly calling it the Democrat party to deny it any possible benefit of the suggestion that it might also be democratic." The word also achieved a prominent run with Bob Dole's especially ugly reference to "Democrat wars" during the 1976 vice presidential debate.

But Democrat-as-epithet has seen its fullest flowering -- on talk radio, among congressional leaders and, more than with any of his predecessors, from the president himself -- during the recent Republican heyday.  [...]

 'Democrat Party' is a slur, or intended to be -- a handy way to express contempt," Hertzberg wrote. "At a slightly higher level of sophistication, it's an attempt to deny the enemy the positive connotations of its chosen appellation."

In the few weeks since the election, the president has followed up his syrupy rhetoric of cooperation with a series of face slaps: pushing the doomed nomination of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, resubmitting the equally doomed nominations of a quartet of offensive judicial selections and naming a physician to head the federal family planning program who works for clinics that refuse to offer birth control.

So it's probably naive to give any credence to the presidential happy talk and blue ties. But if, just maybe, the president wants to do more than pay lip service to the notion of a new tone in Washington, he could start by just paying lip service.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101223_pf.html

linda b
Wed, 11/22/06
1:59 pm..

It is OK consistency in ideological arguments has never been a strong suit of either the left or the right.  I am glad to see you are in the same camp as Mr. DeLay

Have a Happy Thanks giving!

Robert

Pelosi turns on one-time ally in Democrats' 'catfight in Congress'

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Published: 22 November 2006

Nancy Pelosi, set to become the first female Speaker after the Democrats' sweeping midterm victory, is embroiled in a second bitter intra-party battle before she even takes office in January - this time with another powerful Californian congresswoman over one of the most sensitive and important jobs on Capitol Hill.

Last week, Ms Pelosi suffered a stinging defeat when her chosen candidate for House majority leader was resoundingly defeated. Now a new showdown is approaching in what Washington insiders have called "the catfight": her efforts to deny Jane Harman, her one-time friend turned rival, the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

Normally, Ms Harman, the most senior Democrat on the panel, would take charge automatically when her party assumes the majority in the House in January. She is a moderate, respected by Republicans as well as Democrats for her experience with intelligence issues. But that is to reckon without the animosity between her and Ms Pelosi, who as Speaker has untrammelled authority to choose committee chairmen.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2004240.ece

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0129/p06s01-wosc.html

ANKARA AND DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY – There were all sorts of reasons to run.

It was March 1991 when the announcement came: Saddam Hussein's army would descend on northern Iraq to fight against Kurdish guerrillas, and local leaders warned civilians to get out of harm's way.

 (...)

That was in the messy aftermath of the Gulf War, when Kurds who rose up against the Iraqi regime were met with the helicopter gunships and ground troops of an angry Hussein.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

similar to Darfur now that it has crossed the border into Chad

JudyforDean
Wed, 11/22/06
4:54 pm

laws acout posting articles from Newspapers!!!No problem lefties dont have to follow the law.  It makes them feel important.

Robert

Beware of the Iraq chimeras!

=============

John Brown, a former Foreign Service officer who practiced public diplomacy for over twenty years, now compiles the "Public Diplomacy Press Review," which can be obtained free by e-mail. Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years, now works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC.

The war in Iraq began as a war based largely on illusions. But now most Americans realize that the always-illusory option of “staying the course” in Iraq will never work. This was the main message of the recent Congressional elections. Still, there is a great danger that we will fall victim to additional Iraq-related illusions—illusions fostered by the administration, Congress, the Pentagon and the mainstream media.

Three persistent illusions—which, intentionally or not, serve to cover up or minimize the mess President George W. Bush has created in Iraq—stand out:

The Baker/Hamilton Commission is our way out. The possibility afforded by the James Baker/Lee Hamilton-led Iraq Study Group (ISG) for a new approach has been met with knee-jerk optimism in the media. This is especially true of newspapers like The Washington Post whose editorial pages present apologias, rather than the mea culpas more appropriate to the paper’s three-year varsity cheerleading for the war.  

[...]

Training Iraqis will save the day. Training Iraqi troops to replace American ones has long been touted by the administration and the Pentagon as key to success in Iraq, a view reiterated last week by General John Abizaid in his testimony before Congress. On the surface, U.S. training of Iraqi soldiers and police seems like a viable option: It takes Americans out of the line of fire, it “softens” the impact of the U.S. occupation, making American soldiers appear to be instructors rather than aggressors, and, most importantly, it ideally gives Iraqis themselves responsibility for safety and order in their own country.

[...]

We Will Keep Some Kind of Control No Matter What. There is a deeply ingrained belief, perhaps rooted in eternal American optimism, that the U.S.still has the ability to control developments in Iraq to a greater or lesser degree. Advocates for different policies—augmenting U.S. troops or withdrawing them—seldom consider the possibility that local conditions could turn out to be so chaotic that we could not do what we want to do once we have decided to do it. This Green-Zone naiveté may be psychologically soothing, but it is dangerously divorced from reality in Baghdad, which is becoming more violent and fragile each day. In The Guardian (November 15), Simon Jenkins wisely warns against the “we’re in control” illusion:

[...]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/22/washingtons_iraq_chimeras.php

America had a very effective relief mission to the Kurdish refugees in Turkey in 1991.

It could be duplicated in Darfur.

Phil Specht
Wed, 11/22/06
4:56 pm

No PHil, not even close.

The fighting in Darfur is between rival tribes, the borders are just not very important things.  All the "spilling over into Chad" means is that tribes which are cut by international boundaries drawn by Europeans are extending the fighting.

Saddam's forces NEVER CAME NORTH.  It was all hype.  Why?  They didnt want to tangle with Kurdish infantry supplied by Americans with American air cover.

There is no force in Darfur that is remotly like the Kurds.  The Chad and Sudan Army is a joke, the "African League" is even more a joke.

If we go into Darfur the Army Chief of Staff is recommending 200,000 troops.  Sound familier.

YOu and Mike on military affairs...are at least funny.

Robert

America had a very effective relief mission to the Kurdish refugees in Turkey in 1991.

It could be duplicated in Darfur.....

All that means is that you dont understand the Darfur problem.  The problem is not supplies.  The problem is getting them to the people instead of the various fighting factions.

Anne Curry did not run around with a full load of Blackwater security because she was aafraid of elephants.

We will have to do a lot of fighting to feed Darfur and we will be there a long time.

If this were not accurate THE FRENCH would have done it with The Legion.

Robert

Congrats to Jerry McNerney!! You just gotta love West Point progressives!

Uggg...Just spent 6 hours creating walk lists, maps, etc for 1/4 of Rutland City.

OT - The email I got about this said "P.S. Hun"

Anyone know what that means?

A reminder of what could have been, might have been ... and that was lost ... in Texas in November 1963.  But the spirit lives on.

===============

My fellow Americans:

On November 22 four decades ago I left you, and for those of you who think of me, let me ask a personal favor: reflect for a moment on the world we lived in, the things we believed in, the deeds we did, and the Nation we left in trust for you.

I was born as America was winning the First World War, was young when America won the Second World War, and was President when America was winning the battle of ideas that led to our victory in the Cold War.

History teaches lessons; here are some I pass on, to you.

[...]

When I was a young man, we faced and we defeated the challenge of fascism. When I was President in middle age, we met the challenge of communism. Had I lived long enough, I would have been with you, when the last brick was torn down from the Berlin Wall, where I once stood as the leader of America and the leader of the free world.

On that day, I was with you in spirit, there were tears of joy and cheers of triumph from every corner in heaven.

To those of you who are young in 2006, now it is your world, now it is your time, now it is your day to dream and your world to build. On those days you are surrounded by cynicism and war, by anger and chaos, do not let anyone tell you otherwise. It is your day to dream. It is your world to build. We did it. You can do it. Make us proud.

[...]

Think back on those days: the foot of Soviet communism on the neck of Eastern Europe. The danger of nuclear extermination in the air. Little children in America were taught to hide under their desks in school, as though they would not be incinerated if the radioactive bombs fell. Little children under communism grew up to fear the knock on the door, in the dark of their night, when Mom and Dad could disappear.

But we triumphed; America triumphed; freedom triumphed. The world became a much better place. The young children in America no longer had to hide under their desks. The children in Europe no longer had to fear the knock on the door in the middle of the night.

And I ask you: how many countries did America invade to achieve these great goals?

[...]

My message is this: you have allowed the military to deteriorate with some very badly chosen decisions, and you will have to rebuild it. Life is unfair. You made your mistakes. Now fix them.

But: always remember that our great weapon is not the power of our shock and awe bombing, or our preemptive wars. It is the great truth of the power of our ideas. We must always be militarily strong, but the force of our ideas is always more powerful than the reckless use of force.

Remember: sometimes it takes more courage to champion the cause of peace than to bang the drums of war, and always America is strongest when we align ourselves with the highest aspirations of those who's hearts and minds should be joined with ours.

[...]

In the meantime we are up here, Franklin, Eleanor, Bobby, Martin, Abraham, my brother Joe, the guys who landed at Normandy, the dreamers who started the Marshall Plan and left footprints of the Peace Corps, the early test pilots who gave their lives for the dream of touching the moon and cheered when we got there, the heroes who wrote our great Declarations and Emancipations and the words that were born in blood but lived to move the world.

We are all up here together, rooting for you, cheering for you, hoping in some way to lift you, inspire you, and help you have your triumphs, as we had ours. I never promised it would be easy, I promised it would be hard, but I know you can do it, and I am with you, always.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/node/1116/print

BTW the Kurds will be our friends forever for what we have done for them, as uncomfortable as that may make Turkey.

Bush went into Iraq over the objections of Turkey and I doubt Biden's partition plan is sitting well with them either.

Turkey is a strategically located friend that it ignored at our peril as THEY are the secular democratic muslim model we should have looked to as a partner in the region.

but then we would have displeased the kurds who sit on an oil field

wonder which company got that slice of the map when Cheney's Energy Task Force drew lines in the Iraqi oil fields

I'll try Firefox and see if I can link.  Good grief.  

http://www.rawstory.com/
tion, 3-Years Probation, May be Reduced to Misdemeanor after One Year of Good Behavior

In an exclusive statement sent to The BRAD BLOG earlier today excoriating the privatization of America's voting system, whistleblower Stephen Heller says, "Diebold has shown they cannot be trusted to run elections in America."
He oughta know.
As we reported last night, Heller pled guilty yesterday in an agreement with Los Angeles prosecutors, after his arrest earlier this year on felony charges related to his release of attorney-client privileged documents he obtained while working as a temporary word-processor at Diebold's law firm, Jones Day.
The agreement, which required him to sign an apology, pay $10,000 in restitution, and not discuss the documents he released, may also allow Heller's felony conviction to be reduced to a misdemeanor charge after one year of "good behavior."
As well, in exchange for Heller's signed apology and commitment not to discuss the documents themselves (which are already publicly available since he released them originally to both the media and Election Integrity activists), Jones Day signed an agreement that they would not sue him in civil court in the matter.
In a phone call this afternoon, Heller explained Diebold's enormously powerful law firm — where he had worked at night while pursuing an acting career by day — had informed him that they'd planned to convert any criminal felony conviction in the case into a civil suit. Had the case gone to trial, he explained, and been successful, Jones Day had promised a lawsuit claiming losses of "well over a million dollars." Such a suit "would have left my wife and I impoverished for the rest of our lives," Heller says.
He went on to tell us that the plea deal conviction was characterized by his attorneys as a "wobbly felony" — one that will likely be reduced to a misdemeanor after a year, as long as he "doesn't do anything bad." He quickly added, "which I have no intention of doing."

BTW the Kurds will be our friends forever for what we have done for them, as uncomfortable as that may make Turkey.....

Yes when the comparison flounders try and change the subject.  You and  Mike on military matters. 

What ever you want to think.  The Turkish/Kurdish situation has reached a nice "equilibrium" (One of cC's keep the lids on) except this time there is little fire boiling the pot.  There is little fire because the Turks know we kind of control the Kurds becuase we have 150K plus troops in Iraq. 

After that your point seems to just be a desperate attempt to change the subject from your Darfur/Kurd comparision. 

If Darfur was easy, the French Foreign Legion, which is all over Chad would have done it.

The French wont because the task is to big for them...and they dont want to lose the lives that it will take.  The Legion is their only effective fighting force.

Robert

JudyforDean
Wed, 11/22/06
5:07 pm

Now you are just posting complete fanatasy.  JFK is dead.  This is nothing more then the authors opinion trying to gather some creds by masquerading as speaking for a Dead man.

Jack Kennedy is the President who sent us to Vietnam.

Robert

And you righties like to be blog nannies. I guess it makes you feel important. 

Amy Goodman tackles Rummy ... may he receive his just desserts.

================

Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, began life as a slave on Maryland's Eastern Shore. When his owner had trouble with the young, unruly slave, Douglass was sent to Edward Covey, a notorious "slave breaker." Covey's plantation, where physical and psychological torture were standard, was called Mount Misery. Douglass eventually fought back, escaped to the North and went on to change the world. Today Mount Misery is owned by Donald Rumsfeld, the outgoing secretary of defense.

It is ironic that this notorious plantation run by a practiced torturer would now be owned by Rumsfeld, himself accused as the man principally responsible for the U.S. military's program of torture and detention.

Rumsfeld was recently named along with 11 other high-ranking U.S. officials in a criminal complaint filed in Germany by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. The center is requesting that the German government conduct an investigation and ultimately a criminal prosecution of Rumsfeld and company. CCR President Michael Ratner says U.S. policy authorizing "harsh interrogation techniques" is in fact a torture program that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld authorized himself, passed down through the chain of command and was implemented by one of the other defendants, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller.

[...]

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1122-21.htm

Baghdad Bobby bleating badly for attention, I see.

It must be time for a Granny Oler Gong!

Robert

so now the US military only does "easy"?

I'm not changing the subject. Darfur is a blot on humanity.

Right you are, Judy.  Darfur is his latest hobby horse around which he creates straw-man arguments.  Same old Bobbie. 

"bleating", LOL. 

35.

Here ya go, Judy!

No wonder the righties are trying their best to pre-smear Pelosi in every way they can ... h/t to DU at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2778433

=================

PELOSI To Get Off To Good Start - Steal Agenda From Bush

39. jc, as always, you are simply wonderful!!

And cChal, Phil, sea ... to be here in *real* time  is great fun, although I do *see* some of you in my mornings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6174102.stm


Bush pledges to stand by Lebanon
Mourners gather around Pierre Gemayel's coffin in his home village
Lebanon is holding three days of mourning for Mr Gemayel
US President George W Bush has pledged to support Lebanon's independence from what he called the "encroachments of Iran and Syria", a US official said.

Mr Bush's promise came in a call to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, following Tuesday's murder of leading anti-Syrian politician Pierre Gemayel.

Many people in Lebanon blame Syria but Damascus has denied any involvement and condemned the assassination.

Crowds have gathered in Mr Gemayel's village for his funeral on Thursday.

Mr Gemayel, Lebanon's industry minister, was shot in broad daylight in his car in a Christian area of Beirut.

He was the fifth anti-Syrian Lebanese politician to be killed in the past two years, and his murder happened at a time of acute political crisis in Lebanon.

41.

LOL.  I guess I get motivated when I see a bully. 

For some fun ... totally unrelated to politics, here's a message I received today from a very dear friend of 40+ years who is having a ball doing what he most enjoys: being creative and entertaining.

Click on the link and follow to the videos named ... you will have to scroll past page 1.  There are some other fun things to see ... Californians do enjoy life! 

=================

Open www.cw31.com
Scroll down to "Good Day Sacramento" display box, but DON'T click on it!
Click NEXT to it where it says "Good Day Video"
Go to boxes labeled "Custom Puppet Maker brings his puppets to the
studio" and "Puppets of Marianne and Nick do the news" for 2 short
videos (just a portion) of my recent appearance on the program!

When women disagree, it's labeled a *cat fight.*  When men disagree, it's considered normal or a discussion.  Did I already post this?

  Pelosi turns on one-time ally in Democrats' 'catfight in Congress'
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 22 November 2006

Nancy Pelosi, set to become the first female Speaker after the Democrats' sweeping midterm victory, is embroiled in a second bitter intra-party battle before she even takes office in January - this time with another powerful Californian congresswoman over one of the most sensitive and important jobs on Capitol Hill.

Last week, Ms Pelosi suffered a stinging defeat when her chosen candidate for House majority leader was resoundingly defeated. Now a new showdown is approaching in what Washington insiders have called "the catfight": her efforts to deny Jane Harman, her one-time friend turned rival, the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

Normally, Ms Harman, the most senior Democrat on the panel, would take charge automatically when her party assumes the majority in the House in January. She is a moderate, respected by Republicans as well as Democrats for her experience with intelligence issues. But that is to reckon without the animosity between her and Ms Pelosi, who as Speaker has untrammelled authority to choose committee chairmen.

Until a few years ago the two women, among the richest and most powerful in Congress, were allies. But for a variety of reasons, that has changed. One factor is ideology. The Speaker-elect, who represents San Francisco, belongs to the liberal wing of her party. Ms Harman, whose district is in Los Angeles, is by contrast a centrist and - worse still - held by Ms Pelosi and others to have been insufficiently tough on the Bush White House for its mishandling of intelligence before the Iraq war. Ms Pelosi voted against the 2003 invasion, while Ms Harman supported it.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2004240.ece

We're having a POST OFF.  LOL

Hi Judy

does this mean I'll have no one here to chat with when I do my two o'clock barn check?

This story has been reported ... with great glee ... everywhere, including BFA, but Kos is having special fun with it.

=======

This is a little off the beaten track for me. I was in the midst of working on a healthcare diary when I heard CPSAN reporting this story earlier today.

Thanks to "save draft", I dropped everything.  For years I have been waiting for a story like this one, now could someone locate a video?

Bush 41 was in Abu Dhabi giving a (paid) speech to the Abu Dhabi World Leadership Summit. The World Leadership Summit is huge, it's the Clinton Global Initiative of the Arab World. Its chief sponsor/benefactor is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, a sycophant and intimate of the Bush family.

[...]

This is a description of the ADWLS from its web site. By the way, it'll set you back about $1,500 to register and attend.

The Abu Dhabi World Leadership summit will be remembered by thousands as one of the most significant and unique events in the Middle East. A gathering of the world’s most influential and revered speakers will join together to share strategies for excellence in leadership and international business development. The audience will be compromised of Senior Government Officials, dignitaries and international and regional business leaders.

See for yourself, here's a link to the web site:

http://www.abudhabisummit.ae/

Mr. Father Bush was undoubtedly paid an enormous amount of money and given perks--say a private jet to haul his ass back and forth to speak before this gathering. I'm sure he was also guaranteed a friendly audience.  As an aside, never forget you'll rarely find the political class on a commerical airline--even in first class. Says everything about the state of our pitiful "homeland security".

[...]

Do yourself a favor and read the rest. Also keep in mind, before George Bush turned the world against us, Abu Dhabi was a close friend of the United States.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/22/72134/669

48.  I hope to be around then ... you are mighty perky for a guy having to make rounds at 2 a.m.

Jerry McNerney should make a great Congressman. I just love those special interests nashing their teeth over the loss of Pombo.

yyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

way to go mprov

DFA had a great election.

now Jessica is already back at it

*******

Always enjoy a "Post Off" with you, sea ... or with cChal, or anyone else who finds some good tales/comments to share.

And jc's comments always make my day ... David S, Subway and mprov also have some good turns of phrase.

barn time right now, don't let the anti-blog's bleating drown out any of the good stuff

46.  Did I already post this?

Only twice.  I hate to see the RW framing of things that don't go exactly her way.  The catfight bit is just to make it look like she suffered some sort of defeat.   I don't bother reading them when they are negative. 

158.

*** cChalfonte***
Wed, 11/22/06
2:58 pm

Reply to this

Childhood vaccinations are some of the best public health policy that this country has.

*These* vaccines are NOT profit leaders for Pharma...
You can be against childhood vaccination, Fred, but you are fighting two facts...

You are free, personally, however, to pursue conspiracy-based policy. This is still a free country:)

-------

You and Robert Oler sing the same song.

Your PRO-BIG-PHARMA diatribes cannot be dismissed by accusing me and millions of other concerned parents of being hysterical conspiracy theorist.

YOU ARE WRONG about vaccines not being profitable. This was the propaganda drug companies spread to get liability protection in 1986 from Congress. Since then they have been more profitable than ever - but the myth persists.

Quality control is laxed and you have no argument to counter that contention. With a captive market and liability protection, there is no incentive to make vaccines safer. The studies that say they are safe have been industry-friendly studies with no control groups.

You are a big pharma advocate, like them, you think there is no such thing as a bad vaccine, and give vaccines all the credit for elimination of diseases, while you deny the side effects and death from them.

We are not againsts vaccines, we are for better vaccines and bone fide studies that are not done to whitewash the vaccine makers.

46. and 54.

Yes, with a woman in a seat of power, we'll be seeing all the sexist stuff come out.  Maybe the young women who think feminism is something historical will now get to understand some of what their "elders" experienced. 

JudyforDean
Wed, 11/22/06
5:17 pm

-------------------------------------------------------------

Ive never known a soldier like him that tries to make ya feel bloody terrible for just being a citizen of this country.............crikey.........I tell ya

Robert,

Interesting post (10 above) with an even more interesting ending:

"Happy Thanksgiving from the Furthest REaches of The Republic!

Robert"

You really have to make things harder.

So, which is it, you're in Iraq for the altruistic reasons you spout, you like to kill people, or you're performing your 'building empire' dream?

It would also be nice if you knew what you were talking about, JFK didn't get us in Viet Nam, a good general/republican/president got us into Viet Nam, Eisenhower, during the time the neo-cons developed the plan you are following today......

New thread

I always enjoy Robert Fisk's reporting from and about the ME.  He is someone who has certainly "been there and done that" and when he writes about something, it is a good idea to pay attention, whether one agrees with the POV or not.

================

Civil war - the words on all our lips yesterday. Pierre Gemayel's murder - in broad daylight, in a Christian suburb of Beirut, his car blocked mafia-style by another vehicle while his killer fired through the driver's window into the head of Lebanon's minister of industry - was a message for all of us who live in this tragic land.

For days, we had been debating whether it was time for another political murder to ratchet up the sectarian tensions now that the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was about to fall. For days now, the political language of Lebanon had been incendiary, the threats and bullying of the political leaders ever more fearsome. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Shia Hizbollah leader, had been calling Siniora's cabinet illegitimate. "The government of Feltman," he was calling it - Jeffrey Feltman is the US ambassador to Lebanon - while the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was claiming Iran was trying to take over.

Yesterday's assassination of Pierre Gemayel was a warning. It might have been Jumblatt, who has told me many times that he constantly awaits his own death, or it might have been Siniora himself, the little economist and friend of the also murdered former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

But no. Gemayel, son of ex-president Amin Gemayel and nephew of the murdered president-elect, Bashir Gemayel - murder tends to run in the family in Lebanon - was no charismatic figure, just a hard-working unmarried Christian Maronite minister whose unrewarding task had been to call émigré Lebanese home to rebuild their country after Israel's bloody bombardment.

[...]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2004230.ece