Bush’s Defense Department recently agreed to distribute “freedom packages” to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, as prepared by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up (OSU). At this point, sticking the word “freedom” in front of something has become a right-wing cliche, but it’s particularly egregious in this case. As the LAT explained today, OSU’s […]
The president’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ national convention was a real piece of work, with the deception-per-sentence ratio running pretty close to 1:1, but as Spencer Ackerman noted, this was one of the more startling deceptions: “In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all […]
The WaPo noted today that congressional Dems, and Republicans that are at least open to the possibility of a sensible Iraq policy, are about to get hit by “an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense.” (And, by using the word “offense,” the Post implicitly buys into the conservative message.) A new […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Mitt Romney’s lead in Iowa continues to get bigger, at least according to a new Zogby poll. Romney now leads the GOP field with 33% support, followed by Rudy Giuliani, who is […]
For the last few years, it seems that prominent conservatives roll out a “Republican comeback plan” about every six months or so. “If only the president and congressional Republicans would do (fill in the blank), then everything would be back on track,” they argue. The latest such effort comes by way of The Weekly Standard’s […]
This is just so frustrating. In a report today on Sen. Barack Obama’s appearance this week at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleney took a decidedly wrong turn in referring to one statement. Zeleney wrote that Obama “said it was wrong for anti-war activists to protest […]
Of all of Bush’s misstatements from the 2000 presidential election, one of the most obviously-false attacks was on military readiness. Indeed, then-Gov. Bush blamed Clinton and Gore directly for “hollowing out” the military. “If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, ‘Not ready for duty, sir.’” […]
With the president’s upcoming report to Congress on “progress” in Iraq just a few weeks away, the White House is, once again, preparing a new public-relations offensive to bolster support for Bush’s war policy. It starts today with a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ annual convention, followed by another address next week to […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The Hill: “House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) demanded Tuesday that 18 federal agencies provide the panel with documents related to ‘asset deployment teams’ managed by departing White House adviser Karl Rove leading up to the 2004 election. According to Waxman, documents obtained by the […]
Just last week I noted that Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards’ wife, had become surprisingly aggressive in going after other Democratic candidates in ways the candidate probably wouldn’t. With that in mind, it’s certainly possible that Michelle Obama would be willing to criticize other Democratic candidates, but after reading a bit about this, I think the […]