If you were curious, the Toledo terrorists informant known as the "Trainer" is indeed in protective custody.  I rarely agree with Bob Franz about anything, but he nailed this one.  The media dug too deep in the wrong direction.

And speaking of the right side of the blogosphere, WHY DO YOU GUYS ALWAYS YELL?  Not just Bob, but Michele, and Professor Instalinker too. Hey folks, even Matt Drudge knows how to release his caps lock.  (And yes, Callahan, Maxspeak, and depending on who's posting Majority Report have this annoying habit too.)

For the record, Battlestar Galactica is the one show I will not miss now that West Wing moved to Sundays and is in its "last throes."

It's better to listen to Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and This Week on an iPod than watch on TV.  You don't need to see their lips move to tell if the politicians are lying.

Many ugly, albeit intelligent and talented talkers can be said to have a face for radio.  MarKOS has a voice for blogging.  Dude, drink a couple of shots of Jack and smoke no less than five cigaretts, (preferrably camels, non-filters) right before you appear on Air America again, please.  I can visualize your pocket protector as you squeak through my speakers.

I don't know what to think about the India nuke deal.  If I had faith that there was a philosophy behind our relations with other nations beyond proving that we have bigger dicks than everybody else, I might not be so suspect.  As is stands, I agree, Bush blinked.  However, I really don't see why we don't treat a nuclear India more like nuclear France, or China, instead of nuclear Pakistan, Korea and Iran  So I do get it, just don't trust it.

Pre-Nit-Wit probably had no idea they were talking about uranium and plutonium. When the negotiators told him about "New Clear", he must have thought is was some new window cleaning formula.  Certainly they weren't talking about "NuKe-Quew-Lar" weapons.  No wonder he told the Indians, "Fine, Whatever you guys want."  (He was probably bummed he wasn't dealing with the Cleveland Indians so he could throw in Sammy Sosa to sweeten the deal.)

When you are the world's most powerful man, you can make your own schedule.  What a dolt, he's still just playing a part and doing what he was told to do.  Wait till he finds out that the Taj Mahal is not just a big wigwam out on some reservation.  "Hey, ya'all can make as many of them nuke-u-lar thingies ya want.  But we're not gonna let you people have any whisky. That's where we draw the line."

My apologies to any and all Native Americans or firends of same who took offense to that last point.  I would apologize on behalf of the Prez-Nit-Wit, but he's not my fault.  In fact, the list of reasons to be pissed at him are legion.

She's still full of crap.

We are all Condi

we don't think anybody anticipated that things might happen while he was in office and he'd actually have to lead the country

. . . or you have to pay cash.

Emirates Infiltrated By Al Quaeda

Dear Dubai,

You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship, and monetary agencies along with other agencies that should not be mentioned.

Love,
Al Quaeda

United Press International - NewsTrack - Informant in terrorist case disappears

TOLEDO, Ohio, March 1 (UPI) -- A man identified as a government informant in a case against three terrorist suspects in Toledo, Ohio, has disappeared.

There's been enough published about the man know only as Bilal, a.k.a. "the Trainer" that anyone who knows him, probably knows it was him who fingered the three alleged plotters arrested here in Toledo last week.

If the Feds actually have him spirited away to keep him safe it might be the only place he can stay alive.  If he got scared and is on the run he better keep a low profile.  That might be hard since they describe him as looking like Jerome Bettis.


From looking at the indictments (PDF), a lot hinges on this guy and the feds might not be able to make their case without him. Like Mike says, the guys a "rat" and he must have run in some very nasty circles.

At least he's trying to kill some birds.

Bird Flu Determined to Attack U.S.


Meanwhile, it looks like the boy-king's got sum 'splainin' to do about what he didn't know and when didn't he know it.

After a much appreciated critique from Avedon Carol at the Sideshow, I trashed a couple of neat but slow loading graphics, got carried away and revamped the look of the site.


The idea was to make it load faster, if you like the new look, that's a bonus.

Let me know what you think.

Think Progress ? 72% of U.S. Troops Want Out of Iraq Within One Year

A new poll to be released today shows that U.S. soldiers overwhelmingly want out of Iraq and soon. The poll is the first of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq, according to John Zogby, the pollster. Conducted by Zogby International and LeMoyne College, it asked 944 service members, How long should U.S. troops stay in Iraq? Only 23 percent backed Mr. Bush's position that they should stay as long as necessary. In contrast, 72 percent said that U.S. troops should be pulled out within one year. Of those, 29 percent said they should withdraw immediately.� [Behind NYT Select's Firewall for now.]

Isn't this the "gung-ho" crowd?  Usually Republican, overwhelmingly so?  Jean "Only cowards cut and run" Schmidt and all the rest of the straight-shooting stay-the-course bunch can kiss my ass.  You want to support the troops?  Scrawl "Bring 'em Home" across your yellow ribbon magnet.

What the hell are we still doing there? We got there for a variety of bogus missteps, and are staying there to what? Keep the peace?  That's a good one.

1,300 dead Iraqis last week.  That's not a misprint.   That's way worse than the Pentagon was saying over the weekend, and what they were saying was bad enough. And our guys were ordered to stand down and do nothing.  You can't fight them over there unless you, um . . . fight.  Our troops can watch the Iraqis destroy each other from the comfort of their own living rooms if that's all we're doing now.

The argument that we can't leave until there's stability in the country is officially bogus.  No longer operative.  Quaint.  We did nothing to stop what many are now resolved to calling a civil war.  We probably will only make things worse and will double our own dead and wounded if we intercede.  We're done, Bush's war in Iraq is a complete catastrophy, there is nothing to win and everything to lose.

Our soldiers know that.  Their commanders know that.  If we're not going to do anything, we can't accomplish anything (whatever we're supposed to accomplish), except waste more of our best and bravest for an unattainable, ever-changing cause we won't even try to attain.

Pull back to Kuwait , Baharain and Dubai, keep the Gulf open, tell Haliburton they're on their own and can fight their own wars for now on, garrison the Baghdad embassy, guard the Kurd areas (the only place where democracy and oil fields work) and end this criminal stupidity.

That's my plan, there are others.

UPDATE:  HERE'S THE POLL, which includes some very disturbing results of Bushspeak propaganda that our soldiers have been fed:  "Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam's role in 9/11".  It's going to take a long time to deprogram these folks.

The wide-ranging poll also shows that 58% of those serving in country say the U.S. mission in Iraq is clear in their minds, while 42% said it is either somewhat or very unclear to them, that they have no understanding of it at all, or are unsure. While 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks," 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was "to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq."

"Ninety-three percent said that removing weapons of mass destruction is not a reason for U.S. troops being there," said Pollster John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International. "Instead, that initial rationale went by the wayside and, in the minds of 68% of the troops, the real mission became to remove Saddam Hussein." Just 24% said that "establishing a democracy that can be a model for the Arab World" was the main or a major reason for the war. Only small percentages see the mission there as securing oil supplies (11%) or to provide long-term bases for US troops in the region (6%).

How do you tell them that Saddam had no roll in 9/11 or ties to Al Qaeda?  Do you think they know about Santa and the Easter Bunny?

Insight: Cheney To Retire After 2006 Elections... | The Huffington Post

My question is why wait, especially since the 25th Amendment requires that the new VP Nominee be approved by Congress.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

I guess even if the Dems win Congress, Rove thinks they can get a quickie confirmation by the lame duck session between November and January.  That'll work.

It also completely changes the '08 Presidential election dynamic.   Loyal Condi rewarded with a built-in base for a presidential election bid?

Gonzales?  He'd make an interesting swipe at Bill Richardson's base.

McCain?  Only if he does more sucking-up than he has been so far this year, AND Arizona's Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano loses her reelection bid to a GOPer (like Goldwater's nephew, Donny?)

Of course, Joe Lieberman might be looking for a job . . . and he did get more votes for the position than Cheney.

If you look at Political Wire, you'll see that McCain probably doesn't need any help.  47% to 37% versus Hillary.

Media Matters - Only on Fox: "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"


At the risk of sounding like a completely insensitive ass, yes, for Democrats.  But not only is this not what we wanted, whatsoever, it isn't the political tipping point anyone thought it might be.

However, the Prez-Nit-Wit threatening to use his first veto to secure our ports for the Sultan of Dubai must be some sort of cosmic serendipidy.

The very week that Bush's ill-conceived gun-barrel democracy in Iraq displays its inherent instability with the outbreak of unprecedented civil violence, Congress and the American people are presented with the Dubai Port acquisition â€" a deal so utterly wrong on it's surface and so corrupt in it's underpinnings that a GOP revolt is palpable and as imminent as all out civil war is in Iraq.

I am by no means certain of the outcome of any this, and fervently hope that the Iraqis have come to the brink, looked into the abyss, and will decide to take another route than the headlong plunge into all out war.  Their salvation is in their hands and our military forces there are now, more than ever, mere targets.

The perplexing irony is how it is playing out for the administration â€" which is indeed faring worse as Iraq becomes our latest experiment in anarchy â€" but not due to reasons the pundocracy anticipated.

The Dubai Port Buy was a bolt from the blue that conventional wisdom can understandas inherently unwise, but could not predict.  Yet it's completely wrapped in the culture that has always been indicative of Bush's complete lack of qualifications required to lead this nation:  corporate cronyism, incompetent ianagement, Arabian oil sheiks, politically tone deaf hubris, and as time will surely reveal, corruption at the highest levels.

When the likes of William F. Buckley pronounces from his ivory tower that there is no other conclusion but that we have failed in Iraq, you'd think that would be it.  Party over, the end of Bush's support.  The support has eroded, but not because of Iraq alone or other situations on the ground, but rather the situation at sea.

Following a steady downward trend in Iraq, and major blunders at home over the last year (Schiavo, Social Security, wiretapping, Harriet Meirs and Katrina), Bush's numbers had hit a plateau at around 40% representing the stubborn souls who just can't give up on the little idiot.

More and more conservatives are coming to the realization that Howard Dean was right, as distasteful as that pill is to swallow for them.  Andrew Sullivan had jumped ship some time ago, and even Bill O'Reilly. who knows crazy when he sees it, has joined us "pinheads" in opposing our further occupation of Iraq.

But even that might not have been enough without the sheer stupidity of threatening a veto over the Port deal.  Yes, there is still hope that both the Iraqis and the Bush administration can prevent their imminent demise and pull their asses out of the fire. I'm crossing my fingers for the Iraqis, but I can't help but smile watching Bush fall straight past Nixon as the most despised president ever.

---

UPDATE: Sorry, no list of conservatives who have seen the light would be complete without Fukuyama.  How is it that guys like this get paid to be so wrong and only catch up with what I've been saying for three years after it's too late.

Oh, that's right.   hangs out with these kind of intellectual giants.

Thinking way down the road – the road to the White House – while I believe this nation desparately needs a complete change in direction, and the Democrats are the most likely folks to supply such a change, is there a leader in our party who truly captures the imagination?

Hillary may or may not be "electable" but certainly knows how to campaign. What I'm talking about is leadership, statesmanship, not mere political savvy.

Is it John Edwards or Barack Obama, who bring youth, energy and passion while speaking in a soft persuasive manner – lending their passion for the improvement of their fellow man to their rhetoric? Were you inspired by John Kerry or did you find him pompous and unfocused even though you might have agreed with some of his policies? Is Joe Biden a plain-talker or just John McCain without the war record? Is Joe Lieberman a traitor to the party? Did you already forget Zell Miller and just how bad if can get?

Think JFK and Bobby. I'll never forget my grandmother saying that she would have put her hands in fire for Jack Kennedy or FDR. Can a post Vietnam/Watergate/Iran-Contra/Lewinski/Iraq generation ever be inspired again or do we just follow the money?

---

UPDATE: Fixed the spacing cock-up and remembered to add one very important name — Al Gore.

Dick Morris:  History indicates that candidates who won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College have all come back to win revenge in subsequent elections."

(HT: Political Wire)

Is it a little easier to understand the Prez-Nit-Wit's knee-jerk veto threat over the UAE port deal he claims not to have known anything about and is in the process of backing off when this little tidbit is added to the mix?

Chron.com | UAE gave $1 million to Bush library

A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Any questions?

Do you need the to be reminded of the financial ties to brother Jeb (who is the only governor affected by the port deal not screaming bloody murder) and brother Neil's sweetheart financing from his best friend in the dessert kingdom.

We would have been better off electing a true crime syndicate instead of these amateurs.  Mobsters may extort, but they are serious about "protection".

Just a thought, but sometimes it seems like the Bushies think that it is against God's plan that their oil is under Middle Eastern sand instead of Texas switch grass, and they were put on this planet to take as much cash away from those evil heathens and put it where it will do the most good — in their pockets.