The Carpetbagger Report

Guest Post by Morbo I was pleased to read the Carpetbagger’s post about Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to stop talking to personnel from the Fox News Channel. It’s a welcome move, given that channel’s absurd and inaccurate “reporting” over the phony madrassa story. Now it’s time to take another step: Exclude these phony “reporters” from […]

Guest Post by Morbo Here’s the most horrific story of the week: A woman in Tampa reported to police that she was raped. The police ran a background check on her, discovered two four-year-old outstanding warrants for non-violent felonies, and put her in jail. Wait, it gets worse: After the rape, the woman had been […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * As if the war in Iraq hasn’t cost us enough, the Bush administration will ask for “another $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior administration official said Friday. The requests Monday, to accompany President Bush’s […]

I know there’s been a lot of Iraq-related news today, particularly in light of the NIE release, but I didn’t want to let this story get lost in the shuffle. It might be the day’s most important piece about the war. The U.S. military drive to train and equip Iraq’s security forces has unwittingly strengthened […]

At a White House press briefing today, NSA Stephen Hadley seemed to believe the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq was favorable to the White House’s war policy. “One of the things you should conclude from this NIE is the best plan is to have this plan succeed,” Hadley told reporters. Look, when it comes […]

What’s the best way to lower the number of casualties in Iraq? Easy, redefine “casualty.” Statistics on a Pentagon Web site have been reorganized in a way that lowers the published totals of American nonfatal casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of force health protection and readiness at the Defense Department, […]

This is not at all encouraging. There’s so many things wrong with the report, it’s hard to know where to start. The US News Political Bulletin has learned Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly concerned that President Bush will order air strikes against targets in Iran in the next few months or even weeks. They […]

I think it’s safe to say that opponents of gays serving in the military are officially out of arguments. A new poll from Harris Interactive found that 55% of Americans think gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military. By comparison, 19% of the 2,337 Americans polled said gays and lesbians […]

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, a terrific writer with a biting sense of humor, wrote a piece this week that probably hasn’t generated the attention it deserves. Taibbi watched with some horror this month when right-wing news outlets launched their “madrassa” smear against Barack Obama. It caused him to realize that “even the most outrageous media […]

While positioning on the compromise resolution on the war in Iraq works itself out in the Senate, the Bush/McCain/Lieberman side of the debate is moving forward with a resolution of their own. The White House has reportedly given word that the Bush gang expects some kind of resolution to pass, so they hope to minimize […]