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Monday’s Mini-Report

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Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The offensive continues in Georgia: “Russian forces continued airstrikes against targets in this central Georgian city Monday as Moscow’s troops moved deeper into Georgian territory around the western town of Senaki. The airstrikes and ground movements came despite an announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Monday that military operations in Georgia are almost complete.”

* Slicing Georgia in half: “Russian forces seized several towns and a military base deep in western Georgia on Monday, opening a second front in the fighting. Georgia’s president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near Gori. Fighting also raged Monday around Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Russian warplanes launched new air raids across Georgia, with at least one sending screaming civilians running for cover.”

* John McCain spent much of the day talking about events in Georgia; Bush was scheduled to address the subject about 15 minutes ago; and Obama is expected to have a public statement any minute now.

* McCain is impressed with himself for working the phones with Georgia, but he’s not actually doing anything.

* The latest in Iraq: “The Iraqi government on Monday suspended a massive military operation in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, offering a limited amnesty to insurgents who surrender by the end of the week…. An hour after the announcement, a woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up near a police station in the provincial capital of Baqouba, injuring 13 policemen and killing one. Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb killed five women who’d been on their way into the city to buy vegetables.”

* House Republicans are still engaged in a sit-in of sorts, which only they and the tourists can see.

* A withdrawal date from Iraq might help improve matters on the ground. Quick, someone tell John McCain.

* Enjoy the Endangered Species List now; the Bush administration may soon try to make it extinct.

* Headline of the Day: “11,000 couples later, gay marriage largely a nonevent in Mass.” Wait, you mean the sky didn’t fall? Civilization remains intact? The religious right was wrong? Ya don’t say.

* The Justice Department wrongfully obtained the phone records of reporters at the New York Times and Washington Post Indonesia bureaus, but the FBI is really sorry about it now.

* David Axelrod is starting to getting a little slyer with his rhetoric: “Obviously, his strategists met on the portico of the McCain estate in Sedona — or maybe in one of his six other houses — and decided what line of attack they were going to use.”

* I wonder if the DC media establishment might be willing to take a few notes from Bob Costas.

* The WaPo really screwed up the story about Obama’s budget plan.

* Hmm: “Scientists are stepping up among those most skeptical of the FBI’s evidence implicating military microbiologist Bruce Ivins in the 2001 Anthrax attacks.”

* The flap over Boehner’s “hanging” comment is not yet resolved

koupit-pilulky.com

, and an apology has not yet been forthcoming.

* I actually like Rolling Stone, and I’m not sure how I feel about it shrinking.

* And finally, I found James Joyner’s take on his “distaste” for the Pledge of Allegiance absolutely fascinating: “My reasons aren’t libertarian, however, but quite conservative. It’s not so much that I find taking oaths distasteful or contrary to our Republican spirit but, rather, that I take my oaths seriously.” Take a look at his post.

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Comments

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    “Scientists are stepping up among those most skeptical of the FBI’s evidence implicating military microbiologist Bruce Ivins in the 2001 Anthrax attacks.”

    Well. Um. Obviously you can’t trust scientists. They live in ivory towers you know. As for those 200 people who attended his funeral, including soldiers stationd at Ft. Marlena? America Haters, all of them.

    Seriously, I thought the Feeb screwed up when it went barking after Hatfill but this takes the cake. “Nothing to see here people, move along!”

    You know what’s going to be interesting? When the DoD asks the Feeb for everything it has on Ivins so it can plug any security gaps.

    Who wants to bet the Feeb won’t stall and cite national security?

    Anyone?

    Damn.

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    And if you haven’t read about HR 676, please do:

    H.R. 676 is a bill for Comprehensive Health Insurance Coverage for All United States Residents. This bill was introduced by John Conyers and has a whopping 91 co-sponsors. This bill offers:

    Every citizen of the US will be covered from birth to death.
    No more pre-existing conditions to be excluded from coverage.
    No more expensive deductibles or co-pays.
    All prescription medications will be covered.
    All dental and eye care will be included.
    Mental health and substance abuse care will be fully covered.
    Long term and nursing home services will be included.
    You will always choose your own doctors and hospitals.
    Costs of coverage will be assessed on a sliding scale basis.
    Tremendously simplified system of medical administration
    Total portability – your coverage not tied to any job or location.
    Existing Medicare benefits for those over 65 will remain the same or be vastly improved in many cases.

    Let’s reiterate a couple of points: You can go to any licensed health care clinician anywhere in the United States that is legally qualified to provide the benefits. There are no deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, or other cost-sharing shall be imposed with respect to covered benefits. You get government administrated coverage at any doctor you choose (if they participate, which almost every one of them will because that will be their baseline bread and butter) and the doctors get paid directly from the government.
    Read more here:
    http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/yo-hr-676-in-da-house-health-care-for-all/

    And…do something to help yourself, your family, and every citizen in America.

  • TCG

    says:

    “11,000 couples later, gay marriage largely a nonevent in Mass.” Wait, you mean the sky didn’t fall? Civilization remains intact?

    But I thought legalized Gay Marriage in the United States was supposed to END the EARTH! Or that is what I was told.

    Learn something new everyday I guess.

  • Glen

    says:

    What in the world could W say about Georgia that isn’t going to make him look like a complete fool?

    A) I looked into Putin’s soul? (But I guess I was wrong.)

    B) I’ve got Georgia on my mind? (What little I have left after all the booze and coke.)

    C) I like hanging out at the Olympics kissing Chinese butt? (Walmart’s paying me to be here!)

    D) None of the above, but even more stupid than I can imagine.

  • libra

    says:

    * The WaPo really screwed up the story about Obama’s budget plan. — CB

    Remember the Faux Noise story, with the chyron: “Mark Foley (D, Fla)”? Same difference. By the time this one gets unscrewed (*if* it does), everyone will remember the catchphrase, about Obama inflating the deficit. Mission accomplished, for WaPo. At that, this is a tad better than the previous story, where they didn’t mention McCain’s budget plans (which will inflate the deficit by close to two million *more* than Obama’s) at all; at least, here, they do.

  • JS

    says:

    Did we pledge to support Georgia in payment for them sending troops to Iraq?
    What has McCain’s campaign person done for the hundred of thousands of dollars he received from Georgia?
    Why has McCain been pushing for Russia to be thrown out of the G-8?
    Why has the McCain campaign been pushing for Georgia to be part of Nato?
    Why has McCain been increasingly Pushing hostilities with Georgia?
    If elected president, will McCain send troops to Georgia?

  • tomj

    says:

    So Candy Crowley on CNN just compared McCain’s “seven point plan” on Georga with Obama on vacation delivering his statement “in sweats”.

    Hmm: McCain didn’t have a seven point plan
    Obama was in his usual blue blazer, unbuttoned dress shirt.

    but where was Bush on Friday?

    Oh right, slapping the butt of one of the beach volleyball olympians, and giving his remarks to nbc “sports”.

  • TCG

    says:

    McCain is impressed with himself for working the phones with Georgia

    I hear that McCain is calling for diplomacy. So my question is, why does McCain want to Appease Russia? Does Bush know that John wants to Appease Russia?

  • Steve

    says:

    someone needs to tell the cretinous critters over at WaPo that I can get better news, faster, more detailed, and less likely to require revisions and/or retractions from Reuters.

    Or BBC.

    Or Billie-Joe-Jim-Bob Abdullah’s Used Prayer Rug Lot in Tehran (which is the place that’s really got all these carpet-shopping neocons wanting to invade Iran)….

  • timeoutofmind

    says:

    honest to God, i can’t stop laughing long enough to write this. whenever Adolph Lite gets up and makes stern, i always just turn his words on him and shake my head over how spot-on they apply to the half-wit that’s uttering them.

    Glen . Comment 7 … What in the world could A-Lite says about Georgia ?

    Russia’s actions were “damaging its reputation and were unacceptable in the 21st century.”

    “The Russian government must respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said grimly. “The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on.”

    Jesus, he makes it too easy. “Actions damaging to a country’s reputation ?” “respecting territorial integrity and sovereignty ?” (what, he couldn’t mention invading troops moving down innocent civilians ? ) Reversing course ? (what, after Putin carefully considers the divergent points of view that he has patiently listened to ?)

    maybe this idiot will learn that his last eight years of criminal debauchery DO have a price.

    eight years ago, the Russian gov’t would likely have carefully considered a US reaction before undertaking an operation like this; now, with a spent Bozo in charge of a ragged army he personally ruined, and world-wide hatred and disrespect for Bush — Putin does whatever he wants.

    Why ? Because after bankrupting our treasury, our standing, our respect and our strength as a nation —- we have no moral authority to weigh in against anyone else. We’re not the Greatest Generation anymore. We’re Abu Ghraib, we’re Haliburton, we’re Guantanamo.

    THAT is your legacy, you stupid bastard. Just #$^$ off, and slink away. You have no standing to comment on Georgia, on Russia, on freedom, on anything. You’re a criminal, and no one wants to listen to your irrelevant lying anymore.

    Put that up in your goddamn library, and take a bow. It wasn’t easy driving a mighty nation into the ditch in eight years, single-handedly, but you did it.

  • jerry sweeney

    says:

    If John McCain is actually talking to the president of the Georgian Republic he is probably in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 953 aka the Logan Act (1799). The language is quite specific, to wit, ” Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.”

  • ericfree

    says:

    Lots to comment on here. Just a few:

    First, thanks for these posts, which go broader than the usual McCain obsession that frequently limits CB. It’s important, but just as important is the evil Bush & Co. are doing in their supposedly last months of power. The destruction of the Endangered Species Act is just one example. Thanks for bringing it up.

    Lou Dobbs, for once, got the Georgian situation right. Putin is trying to reconstruct the Soviet empire, just as Southern Bell rebirthed AT&T. It’s sad and nasty, but it’s not Hitler going into Czechoslovakia. (McCain’s the expert on that region, of course.)

    Pelosi’s answer to the idiotic Republican sit-in should be repeated in every media outlet, but probably won’t be. What will stay in my memory is Larry King: “Tonight, Nancy Pelosi, on why she won’t bring the drilling bill to Congress!” Because it won’t make any difference, asshole.

    On the anthrax case, we should listen to the scientists. The more that comes out, the more it looks like another attempt by BushCo. to hush up another of their old crimes. The first poor bastard had enough guts to sue them and win; the second just killed himself. Out of the Executive Office, to murder a few liberals and provide one more excuse to invade Iraq. Didn’t work, so can’t we all just forget about it? Another reason to impeach, if the Dems had the guts.

    Rolling Stone gets smaller, but it’s been getting smaller since it moved to New York, we’re just noticing it thirty years later. Where I live, the Des Moines Register, once the flagship of Cowles Communications (remember Look Magazine? Yeah I know, a long time ago), now owned by the media destroying Gannett, downsized this spring to five columns. What a silly looking paperlet, but there hadn’t been anything in it for years. Anyone else have the same experience?

  • zoe from pittsburgh

    says:

    What are the odds that Obama is going to have to take some time out of his vacation to make some newsworthy comments about the Russia-Georgia situation? Frankly he has to do SOMETHING. Otherwise he seriously risks McCain showing him up on this issue just because McCain was able to show up. If nothing else it’s an opportunity to “look presidential.”

    Not ot mention the future tv McCain commericals– I expect them within the next few days– that while Obama plays in the Hawaiian surf he ignores the serious problems of the world, yadda, yadda, yadda.

  • beep52

    says:

    “eight years ago, the Russian gov’t would likely have carefully considered a US reaction before undertaking an operation like this; now, with a spent Bozo in charge of a ragged army he personally ruined, and world-wide hatred and disrespect for Bush — Putin does whatever he wants.” — timeoutofmind

    In this case, sit fearlessly next to Dubya at the Olympics. And what about our Secretary of State and esteemed Russian policy expert, Rice? Heckuva job, Condi.

  • hark

    says:

    Interesting comments about the Pledge of Allegiance. I stopped reciting it in high school when I started thinking about the words. Besides finding “under God” objectionable, I considered pledging allegiance to a flag to be ridiculous, and if that wasn’t enough, it was the very first phrase in the damn thing. I suppose that symbolizes our form-over-substance society – first the flag, and then the country for which it stands, almost as an afterthought. And then the whole idea of such a compulsory act bothered me too. So, good for James Joyner.

    I disagree with him on the “In God we trust”:phrase, however. My first reaction to it has always been, “What do you mean, ‘we?'” I certainly don’t. It’s not just unconstitutional, it’s presumptuous. And what God are we talking about here, anyway? One can imagine all sorts of spiritual deities. In fact, human beings have conjured up zillions of them throughout history.

    I’ve never understood this kind of ritualistic behavior, but there’s no doubt that it’s extremely important to many, if not most people. Just last week some heckler interrupted Obama and complained they hadn’t started the affair with the Pledge. Obama did a great job of handling the matter, and started reciting the Pledge to defuse the situation. Masterful. But why is it so important to so many? I’d really like to know.
    What’s it got to do with genuine patriotism? Or faith and piety for that matter? Jesus observed that His God already knows what’s in everyone’s heart. No need to chant prayers, asking for favors and browning Him up. But everyone does it anyway? Why?

  • Winkandanod

    says:

    This may have already been said but, the situation in Georgia marks Preznit Bush as the Neville Chamberlain of our time.

    Just replace “Peace for our time…” with “I looked into his eyes…”

    Incurious George, can you say appeasement?

  • Crissa

    says:

    Question: When is a limit not a limit?

    When it’s your credit card limit. Currently, my bank is letting me go ‘over the limit’ on the credit card without actually limiting the amount on the credit card.

    But of course, I get to pay extra for that amount I’m ‘over limit’.

    What happened to cards that got, you know, declined when they hit a limit?

  • Tom Cleaver

    says:

    Listening to NPR All Things Considered, re3porting on the war in Georgia, and they interview Robert Kagan, identifying him only as “an historian who studies great power politics” and he gets to spout off everything he said earlier, without any question by them. No presentation of any differing view, either.

    All the slant of the news is “plucky little Georgia” and “bad, bad Russia.”

    So muc for NPR as any sort of “independent news” source. This is the saddest they’ve ever been.

  • TCG

    says:

    Cleaver @ 22

    Kagan is an informal adviser to McCain. So now you know how and where to criticize McCain. Just take some stupid thing Kagan said and throw it back at McCain

  • Dale

    says:

    Crissa said:
    What happened to cards that got, you know, declined when they hit a limit?

    Yeah, that’s their latest ploy according to an article I read recently. They’re doing it with debit cards too and they’re charging overage fees from the moment you use the card instead of when the transaction is normally processed. No float time.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    If any of you did NOT click through on Ms. Joanne’s recommendation of the piece from Market Watch on McCain, please do so. This is the single most devastating destruction of the ‘myth of McCain’ that I have seen. Nutting does not just knock the stuffing out of him, he leaves nothing but a pile of sawdust standing where the Senator from Arizona once stood. In fact, the weakest part of the piece is the word ‘mediocre’ in the title, because, once you have finished it, you see he is saying that McCain would be an awful choice, totally unqualified.

    Excepting it does not do it justice, but I have to give the conclusion:
    “He’s neither a dreamer, nor a detail guy. His major accomplishment, in Vietnam and in the Senate, has been merely to survive.
    Just surviving doesn’t make you’re a hero, or a decent president. America needs to do more than survive the next four years.”

    Along the way he destroys the myth of the maverick, the idea that McCain has any principles whatsoever — or any major accomplishments, the supposed ability to work across the aisle (oh, okay, another quote: “To achieve anything as president, McCain would have to win over two hostile parties: The Democrats and the Republicans.”), and even his war record.

    PLEASE read it. Because of how much ammunition it will give you in talking with a McCain supporter, because it comes from Marketwatch — hardly the equivalent of MOTHER JONES or the NATION, and because it will, I hope, give some of you an idea how to attack without the hysterical name-calling that so many of you seem to think you need.

    Ms. Joanne, thank you — and the reason I don’t give a direct link to the piece is because you deserve the ‘hits’ that you’ll get if they start with your blog.

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Thanks, Prup. Did you catch the link I posted in the comments on our blog about the conservative, Farrell, who pretty much evicerated the GOP? He wrote a scathing piece, also from MW. About time the finance people speak out.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Now I am going to get almost everyone mad at me by the time I get finished, but I have to say this.

    To say George W. Bush has been the worst President in history is pretty much like saying that Nolan Ryan was the best strikeout pitcher in baseball history, true, but a statement that underestimates the subject Ryan was so great that the difference between him and #2 was so large that there haven’t been more than a couple of hundred pitchers who in their careers struck out as many batters as that difference. Bush has been that bad, and we can and have spent hours listing all he’s done wrong.

    And certainly the “I looked into his eyes” statement belong on the list of the most fatuous statements by a President ever, and near the top.

    At the same time, I am authentically ashamed at the hysterical vitriol of some of the comments above, especially since Bush’s statement on the Georgia War may be one of the few times he has gotten something right. (He didn’t judge the conflict’s bases — and probably couldn’t — he merely pointed out that this was an act of agression that the world must condemn and do whatever possible to stop.)

    This is one time when Bush, Obama, and McCain are all on the same page — and should be. I would have expected we would have realized this — and that we too would be on the same page. Okay so some of us might have been unable to actually praise Bush for his statements, but then, why comment? Or if you had to point out that Bush may have — in a small way, we aren’t the ‘rulers of the world’ — been an enabler of Putin, fine. I’d have waited until the crisis was over before I said that, but that’s me. (Self-reflexive as always, Maria) And whatever the merits of the Georgian actions, as it happens, they are the victims in this, and they are the ones who are being bombed and invaded.

    But what do I see here? Winkandanod calls Bush an ‘appeaser,’ a ‘Neville Chamberlain.’ But the reason Chamberlain is condemned is that he didn’t go to war against Hitler. Are you calling for War against Russia? I thought that was a position that was only one that the nuttier Republicans who stil were in the Cold War Days — the ones who used to cry “Better dead than red’ took.

    Timeoutofmind lives up to the last part of his name with his “Adolph lite” comments. You might check out the BBC website — and the Beeb is hardly pro-Bush — and listen to the comments that all the European leaders made that it is only America that can make a difference here, and that — to the commentator’s surprise — despite the blows that Bush has given to our prestige, we are still looked on as the most important player in this. (You also might do a little studying about who and what Hitler actually was and did. Bush has been bad, but if he were ‘Adolph lite’ those of us who post here would be sitting in concentration camps, and there would be no Keiths, no Caffertys, no Air America — rather the term Air America would refer to a government sponsored propaganda machine that was the only voice allowed in this country — and we wouldn’t have had a majority in the current Congress because we wouldn’t have had people being allowed to run against The Leader — forget the possibility of someone running on the platform of reversing the mistakes of the Bush Administration.)

    Surprisingly enough, despite the horrors that you mention — and that i certainly agree about — we still do have the standing to make a difference. We have 212 years of history pre-Bush, and that still counts in the eyes of the world. And Bush is still ‘the only President we’ve got’ and the only person who can be effective in speaking for the country.

    Is Bush guilty of the things he is condemning Putin for? To a certain extent he is, yes, but SO WHAT? If a murderer condemns someone else for committing murder, his condemnation is valid, whatever it says about his own hypocrisy.

    Again, I am ashamed at some of you. Write all the articles you want later about Bush, about McCain stealing his ideas from Wikipedia, or about the errors the press made about how Obama was dressed when he made his statement.

    I didn’t think I’d ever have a reason to say this before next January 22nd, but this is one time when I am proud to stand behind my President because, fool that he is in most matters, this time he is doing the right thing and deserves our support.

    (waits for the blasts that he’ll get)

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    MsJ: no I didn’t, just passed through too quickly, but I am going to take time — hopefully tonight after supper and other things — to read a blog that should have been on my list long ago. Of course, being the cantankerous ‘Sweet Old Boy” (or the initials) that i am, I’ll probably argue with you too, but I’ll be there.

  • timeoutofmind

    says:

    prup … you’re missing the point entirely. he has NO MORAL AUTHORITY. he has no credibility …

    let me parse it for you. how can bush judge putin for ‘damaging (his) country’s reputation when he has drastically driven this country’s reputation into the dirt, and beyond.

    “respecting georgia’s territory and integrity” … and he has demonstrated is commitment to this principle, how, exactly ? by igniting a starting a murderous war because he needed a strong photo op ?

    the russian government “must reverse it’s course” … based on his fine example of being mature enough to (re)-consider his course of action and make corrections ? or blunder through and continue to kill and maim thousands because he’s too vain (and insane) to admit any second-guessing … ?

    and no … he’s not locking up his opponents like the Furher … all he does is ruin careers, reputations and lives of those who dare to think differently then he does; like the lives and careers of those who like to point out annoying realities like climate change, or military or economic realities …. oh .. and hire, promote and reward hired goons who like to do that kind of work for him in Justice, the Pentagon … etc.

    and i guarantee you there are kids rotting away in Guantanamo and other places who happen to be guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; and if they’re not dead, it’s only because they don’t have the means to kill themselves.

    and under his guidance: this country has no alternative … it has no big stick to wield. no economic sanctions to inflict … no sway at the un, not even in the security council. no ideas,
    no respect at the executive level, no credibility, no credence. just the rantings of a liar.

    it’s a simple story prup — and if you don’t think this guy is just as dangerous as Hitler, minus the concentration camps, YOU need to take another hard look at history.

  • SaintZak

    says:

    “What are the odds that Obama is going to have to take some time out of his vacation to make some newsworthy comments about the Russia-Georgia situation? Frankly he has to do SOMETHING. Otherwise he seriously risks McCain showing him up on this issue just because McCain was able to show up. If nothing else it’s an opportunity to “look presidential.””

    I have to be honest here. I’m certainly supporting Barack Obama, but what was he thinking? I had to cancel every single vacation day I had scheduled this summer because I got really, really busy at work, and, needless to say, my job is a far cry from President of the United States or even candidate to be such. This situation with Russia has the potential to be a major foreign policy issue for the next President. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with McCain on this or not. He was out there addressing while Obama stayed on vacation. Dumb move. IVery bad move. Let Michelle and the kids enjoy the vacation. He should have been all over this.

  • beep52

    says:

    SaintZak @ 32: I hear you, but what exactly was Obama supposed to do or say? He’s not the president, and I found McCain’s statement nothing but bullshit. Perceptions matter, yes, but this is Bush’s job.

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Perhaps I am a day late, but I heard Obama talk about GA – and the talking heads gave him shit for not being in a suit or some such crap.

    What else he is supposed to do, I’m not sure. He’s not president yet.

  • SaintZak

    says:

    “What else he is supposed to do, I’m not sure. He’s not president yet”

    I’m sorry… CANCEL his vacation! perception means alot, and he didn’t do himself any favors in this. It makes him look unintersted. It looks bad, really bad, and it gives his foes alot of ammunition.

  • MsJoanne

    says:

    Cancel it to do…what? I think that would be presumptuous. His response was typically Obama: reasoned, thoughtful and intelligent. Versus McCain who issues threats in the name of the USA. I completely disagree with you on this one.

  • petorado

    says:

    August is vacation season. Bush is playing hookey in China. Barack is in Hawaii. … And Condi Rice is doing her best Imelda Marcos impersonation and shopping for shoes somewhere. From Think Progress:

    “US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also been noticeably absent on the diplomatic scene, having failed to interrupt her holidays to fly to Tbilisi in support of the Georgian government.”

    How big an international crisis does it take for the highest ranking State Department official to get off her duff and act like she is head of the most powerful nation in the world’s diplomatic corps? This is like watching Hurricane Katrina all over again.

  • ericfree

    says:

    SaintZak, don’t underestimate Obama. The Ryan Lizza New Yorker article, though obscured by the cover, nailed him pretty well. While he is a canny, sometimes conniving politician, he genuinely has elements of the visionary. He’s going to the well. Let’s wait to see what he brings back.

  • William

    says:

    Great, now that we’re the biggest criminal tyranny in the world we should be able to tell everybody else how to govern their affairs! Right preznit boosh, asshole of the universe?

  • Steve

    says:

    Everyone seems to promote that this-guy or that-guy should “cancel his vacation” over the Georgia-Russia dustup. Fine. Cancel the vacation—and do what? Have you seen the images and film coming out of Georgia the past 36 hours? The massed tanks? The smashed towns? The long columns of Russian equipment winding through the mountain roads of Ossetia and Georgia?

    AND DO WHAT? Threaten sanctions against Russia that don’t work against Iran? Shake a finger at the Kremlin and call Medyeved a naughty little boy? Make scary faces at Putin?

    Europe will bluster—and then do nothing—because Russia is sitting pretty atop all the pipelines north of Turkey right now. A flip of the switch, and Europe starts running out of oil and LNG. The EU will collapse—financially, industrially, commercially, socially, and politically—if Moscow shuts off the supply. And as the EU goes, so goes the US, due to the socioeconomic and geopolitical ties.

    Everyone’s barked up the oil-as-a-weapon tree at Iran for years. Well, guess what? It wasn’t Iran after all, now was it?

    If Bush, or McCain, or Obama, or that blasted Flying Spaghetti Whatever Dude wants to do what’s really needed—right now—then they’ve got to start getting us off oil, and onto some viable alternatives that won’t incinerate other basic necessities—like the GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY. Because once Russia has enough control over the flow of oil, it’s a very simple process to begin linking that oil to Russia’s currency. When that happens—when oil is based on the Ruble instead of the USD—you can kiss the American economy goodbye.

    Bombing them into the Stone Age does nothing other than to give them a reason to unleash their ICBM arsenals.

    We sure as Hades can’t invade—that would be like entering a monster-truck demolition derby with a Tonka toy (although Nascar Man might like it—as long as the beer supply holds out).

    Sanctions are a joke (even more so than the super-mega-mondo-illiterate McCain trolls who keep popping out from under their Keating/subprime/Jesusburg landfill).

    The only way to beat the Big Bad Bear this time is in the energy R&D lab. Make their oil obsolete, and you demolish their economy.

    Make their oil obsolete, and you defeat them….

  • zoe from pittsburgh

    says:

    I don’t think that Obama needs to cancel his vacation over this. (To do what exactly? Plus the MSM would spin it as “presumptious” if he did so.) I also I think he should be able to take a week of R&R with his family after campaigning for so long– he also probably needs to recharge his batteries– BUT he needs to make himself available and keep himself in the newscycle and stay engaged even if he is in Hawaii. I suspect he isn’t on a true vacation anyways, I seriouosly doubt he left his blackberry all by its lonesome, BUT he can’t let McCain paint him as being on vacation when the rest of the world is fretting about Russia and Georgia.

  • beep52

    says:

    The larger question, at least in historical terms, seems to be whether 43 stole a page from 41 and implied US backing to the Georgians only to hang them out to dry when they moved forward. I don’t know enough about the situation to have an opinion, but the Georgians seem to think the US was behind them.

  • Glen

    says:

    You’d all better pray that all we see is Georgia getting rolled by a “new” Russia and count yourself lucky. But I’d dare say we’re only just beginning to see the real price of eight years of blatant stupidity and incompetence. I’ve stood behind enough C-in-Cs while I was in the Navy for 14 years and standing behind them was my job. Now it’s time for me to do my duty as a citizen. The President answers to us, not us to him.

    You’d better believe that the Washington pundits and the MSM are all going to wring their hands and look to the President for answers allowing Bush once again to twist a disaster to which he contributed to his political gain. We need to repeatedly point out that all of this was enabled and predictable based upon the stupidity and incompetence from the White House because nobody else will speak up – not in the MSM, not in Congress, no one.

    Are you just starting to get a glimpse of the real, hard, bloody, costly, ugly consequences of the last eight years? We’ve been living in fat city and the bill is coming due – and it’s a whopper. Are you ready for another war? A big war? A draft? An imploding economy? A lost job? A broke government?

    The only way to start to get out of this mess is to get somebody other than McCain elected to a third term of George Bush and to start to repairing the tremendous amount of damage done to our country. There are hard times ahead where todays bad news is going to look like the picnic it is. Always remember the idiots that put us here, or we’re doomed to repeat this.

    As for standing behind this President? When do impeachment proceedings start?

  • zoe from pittsburgh

    says:

    I’m just waiting for Russia to call it a “preemptive strike” or part of the “war on terror.” (Or maybe they already have and I missed it.)

    I know this is hoping too much, but perhaps this will help Americans in general learn the cost of having such a fucked-up, renegade government who seems to be directed entirely by WDWTFWW, GDMF. If everyone acted as we do and followed our example then how completely fucked would the world be right now??

    What truly kills me is that this really is kindergarten-level logic.

    (shaking head and beating it lightly upon keyboard)

  • ROTFLMLiberalAO

    says:

    SaintZak’s angst is well-founded.
    It is conventional wisdom that when Kerry went on vacation he got Swiftboated into oblivion.
    So I understand why Zak is beating the hell out of the alarm bell.

    But… MsJoanne’s response at 37 is sharply played.

    The media is locked and loaded on casting Barack as an upstart crow.
    Were Barack to pretend to lead in regards to Georgia, as McCain is now doing, they’d hang him from the old oak tree faster than you could tie a knot in a yellow ribbon.

    Nope Zak…
    It’s best for Barack to stay clear and count on these two points:

    1) The Georgia/Russia thing is intensely complicated. Trying to get Americans to choose sides and get irate about a new enemy is going to be a tough sell. In other words: Most Americans aren’t going to give a shit about one side or the other. We have no empathy left. We’ve been drained dry by Bush’s Iraq mess. We are more interested in Phelps’s 8 gold medals right now. Our attention spans are screaming: STFU about Russian/Georgia. Let them kill themselves if they must. They will sort it out, but don’t drag my ass into it. By the way, when do the gymnasts go on?

    2) Give McCain enough rope to hang himself by his own wizened wattle. This guy is a klutz and has bad luck. Put him in the cockpit of any plane and he will crash it. He thinks he can broker a deal in the Black Sea? Well… bless his black heart. Let the old fuck try. I am betting he will crash and burn as a telephone diplomat. It is a good bet to make: Sit back and let McVain presume the presidency and shit himself for all to see.

  • libra

    says:

    Obama *has* made a statement re Georgia (and not in his sweat pants, either), which is all he can do, before January 21, ’09. Unlike the still-President Bush and his expert-on-Russia Secretary of State, who, probably could do a touch more than they’re doing. Condi has been in phone touch with Shaakashvili. Well, so has John Sidney (the Third and Least) and so has Obama though, actually solving international crises is really *not* the job of a *candidate*, however presidential.
    http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/obama_no_possible_justificatio.php

  • John Barleycorn

    says:

    If ye love wealth greater than liberty , the tranquility of of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom , go home from us in peace .We seek not your counsel nor your arms . Crouch down and lick the hands that feeds you .
    May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were my countryman .

  • JWK

    says:

    I love the double-standard being applied by the Republicans and McCain regarding popular opinion. On one hand it’s not proper to follow popular opinion if you happen to support the war in Iraq; on the other hand, one should follow majority opinion regarding oil drilling.

    I wish I had time off from work to fly to DC and mock the ‘hippie-style’ love fest that the Republicans are having in the House.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Timeoutofmind:
    I am going to do two unprecedented — for me — things. I am going to respond to your sadly ignorant comments in the early part of tomorrow’s open thread; and, because this is becoming too important a point to continue to ignore, I am going to first draft my comments instead of, as is my usual style, ‘talking with my fingers.’

    I will just say that the equating of Bush or Cheney with the Nazis is a serious matter that i should have responded to months before. It is not merely ignorant of those of you who have done this — and I expect some of you will be already preparing rebuttals — but it is important because it trivializes the most truly evil system on recent — perhaps of all — history. Hitlerism, Nazism was unique, not even comparable to the horrors of Stalin and Mao, Saddam, Pinochet, Amin, or even Mussolini.

    To reply briefly, if you think this guy is just as dangerous as Hitler, minus the concentration camps, YOU need to start looking at history.

    Much more tomorrow.

  • John McCain, dictating to Cindy,

    says:

    I suspect he isn’t on a true vacation anyways, I seriouosly doubt he left his blackberry all by its lonesome

    Obama is picking blackberries? I didn’t know they grew in Hawaii. Huh.

  • Always hopeful

    says:

    MS. Joanne, thanks for the links. If you look at the McCain article at the bottom are other links to other articles written by the same author and one is about how Obama is planning more tax cuts for the middle class than Republicans are and we will be much better off under Dems. Check it out too…