All hype, no results

Why do people believe in this administration. All we've received from thses guys are endless lies, carefully planned photo-ops and endless misinformation.

Here's more of the same.

Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters and three Iraqi government officials right into the middle of Operation Swarmer. Iraqi soldiers in newly painted humvees, green and red Iraqi flags stenciled on the tailgates, had just finished searching the farm populated by a half-dozen skinny cows and a woman kneading freshly risen dough and slapping it to the walls of a mud oven.

The press, flown in from Baghdad to this agricultural gridiron northeast of Samarra, huddled around the Iraqi officials and U.S. Army commanders who explained that the "largest air assault since 2003" in Iraq using over 50 helicopters to put 1500 Iraqi and U.S. troops on the ground had netted 48 suspected insurgents, 17 of which had already been cleared and released. The area, explained the officials, has long been suspected of being used as a base for insurgents operating in and around Samarra, the city north of Baghdad where the bombing of a sacred shrine recently sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

But contrary to what many many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no airstrikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What’s more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the U.S. and Iraqi commanders.

Have they no shame

Good grief. The only thing falling faster than FOXNews' ratings is the President's approval numbers.

During its initial coverage of Operation Swarmer -- a joint U.S.-Iraqi military operation that began March 16 -- Fox News aired video footage of the wreckage of New York's World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The footage aired during the 11 a.m. ET hour of the March 16 edition of Fox News Live.

I'm speechless.

St. Patty's Day

Oh, I can't stand Blogger. The blogging service was down for most of the morning so I couldn't post and I'm off to report on the St. Patrick's Day celebration in Danbury for my other blog.

What a day! March maddness on a Friday Night AND it's St. Partick's Day. Things could get ugly.

Hope to see many of my readers at the Anti-War rally in Hartford this Sunday. I'll try to do some live blogging from the event but Blogger has been acting wierd for the last couple of days so I can't promise anything.

Oh, Lieberman really got under my skin with his smearing of Lamont. Calling him a one-issue candidate is right out of the playbook of Karl Rove and since I videotaped a number of Lamont appearences (including all of his Q&A sessions), I think it's only fair to show Lieberman just how "one-issue" driven Lamont really is.

...developing.

Whaa, whaa, whaa...Ned's not being fair...whaa, whaa, whaa

Cry baby.

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman took issue Thursday with the tone of his Democratic opponent's campaign.

Ned Lamont formally announced Monday that he will oppose Lieberman for the party's nomination, becoming Lieberman's first Democratic challenger since he first won election to the Senate in 1988.

[...]

Lamont has blasted Lieberman for his support of the Iraq war, calling him, "Republican Light." During his kickoff speech said that unlike the senator, he would never be called, "Bush's favorite Democrat."

"This shouldn't be about one issue or about name calling ... angry name calling," Lieberman told the Associated Press Thursday. "I don't think the public wants that."

How would Lieberman know what the voters of Connecticut want? His own campaign manager admitted that Joe's out of touch with Connecticut voters.

The notion that Lamont is an "angry, one issue" candidate is almost laughable (taking a page out of Karl Rove's dirty book won't work in Connecticut Joe, this isn't a red state). Lamont debunk Joe's silly notion quite quickly in the article.

Lamont denies he is being negative, noting he spent a lot of time talking about issues such as education and health care in his announcement speech.

"I called it an old-fashioned kitchen table debate within the Democratic family," the Greenwich, Conn. businessman said. "I thought it was a great kickoff."

Lieberman said he especially takes exception to Lamont's claims that he is out of touch with his party.

"I know there are a lot of people in the state who are passionately against the position I've taken on Iraq," Lieberman said. "I listen to them all the time. We talk. We generally don't convince each other to change the positions we came in with. The dialogue is important."

You talk to people in the state? The Southbury DTC and the Torrington DFA are still waiting for you to make an appearance Joe...I'm sure you got the message.

Lamont said he is taking aim at Lieberman's pro-war views, in part, because the senator has made it such a high-profile issue.

"To some degree, I've found the senator over the last few years to be all-Iraq all-the-time," said Lamont. "That's the issue that he is most closely identified with."

So Joe can dish out the criticism to his fellow Democrats for all these years but whines to the Courant about Lamont.

Sounds like someone is scared. Lamont just announced that he was running Monday and Lieberman is crying like a scared baby.

Sweet! I can just picture Ned smiling about how scared Lieberman is right now.

Incompetent, lying, idiot

Look like the American people aren't drinking the Kool-Aid any longer.

Deep doubts about the Iraq war and pessimism about America's future have shattered public confidence in
President George W. Bush and helped drive his approval ratings to their lowest level ever, pollsters say.

As Bush launched a series of speeches to drum up support for the war, a new round of opinion polls found growing skepticism about Iraq and distrust of Bush. His image declined sharply, with one poll finding "incompetent" to be the most frequent description of his leadership.

Bush's approval rating dipped as low as 33 percent in one recent poll after a string of bad news for the White House, including uproars over a now-dead Arab port deal, a secret eavesdropping program, a series of ethics scandals involving high-profile Republicans and a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

[...]

"His strong points as a president were being seen as personally credible, as a strong leader. That has all but disappeared," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, whose latest independent poll found a dramatic decline in Bush's credibility.

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the poll found. When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest."

"The transformation from being seen as honest to being seen as incompetent is an extraordinary indicator of how far he has fallen," Kohut said.

Another day, another awful poll for the President

Boy, when it rains...

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll might sound like a broken record, but the tune grows louder as congressional midterm elections get closer and closer: President Bush is once again facing the lowest job approval rating of his presidency, the lowest percentage of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction, and an electorate that greatly prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one.

Yet the poll also shows something else that goes beyond the November midterm elections: A strong majority believes Bush is experiencing a long-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover. “He’s losing his grip on governance,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican Bill McInturff. “It’s now a sense that we’ve seen the best that he’s going to produce as president of the United States.”

Ouch.

According to the poll, only 37 percent approve of Bush’s job performance — his lowest mark ever in the survey. That’s a two-point drop since the last NBC/Journal poll, and a one-point decline from his previous low of 38 percent last November. In addition, just 26 percent believe the nation is headed in the right direction, a tie from the previous Bush administration low, which also occurred in November.

What’s more, 58 percent believe Bush is facing a long-term setback from which he’s unlikely to improve. Twenty-six percent think he’s experiencing only a short-term setback, and 11 percent say he’s dealing with no setback at all.

[...]

Looking ahead to the midterm elections in November, the poll shows that 50 percent prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress versus 37 percent who want it controlled by Republicans. McInturff says it’s a “problematic environment” for the Republicans. “You are working harder as a Republican [candidate] because you are pushing uphill.”

Atta boy Tom!

NEWS FLASH: there are now two Democratic senators with a backbone in DC.

"In a brief interview, Harkin said, “I think it makes sense. ... Quite frankly, I think we ought to have a full-fledged debate on this.”

"When asked if the president violated the Constitution by pressing ahead with the wiretapping effort, Harkin said, “Everything I’ve seen looks that way.”

"Feingold said that even though support for his resolution is low so far, he believes he is already meeting his goal of reopening the debate on the matter."

Meanwhile, the President's approval numbers continue to fall.

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged. Yet the public uncharacteristically has good things to say about the role that Congress played in this high-profile Washington controversy.

[...]

Bush's overall approval measure stands at 33%, the lowest rating of his presidency. Bush's job performance mark is now about the same as the ratings for Democratic and Republican congressional leaders (34% and 32%, respectively), which showed no improvement in spite of public approval of the congressional response to the ports deal.

The president's ratings for handling of several specific issues, particularly terrorism, have also declined sharply. Just 42% now approve of Bush's job in handling terrorist threats, an 11-point drop since February. In January 2005, as Bush was starting his second term, 62% approved of his handling of terrorist threats.

Bush's personal image also has weakened noticeably, which is reflected in people's one-word descriptions of the president. Honesty had been the single trait most closely associated with Bush, but in the current survey "incompetent" is the descriptor used most frequently

SHAME!

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME...



The photos and video are VERY disturbing. It just makes my blood boil knowing that Lieberman had access to all of these images and only had this it say.

Mr. Secretary, the behavior by Americans at the prison in Iraq is, as we all acknowledge, immoral, intolerable and un-American. It deserves the apology that you have given today and that have been given by others in high positions in our government and our military.

I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologized.

And those who murdered and burned and humiliated four Americans in Fallujah a while ago never received an apology from anybody.

Linking 9-11 to this crap? Insane, simply insane.

Third party linked to this comment from Josh Marshall regarding Lieberman's quote.

Ugly, pandering, a display of the cheapest tendencies of the man.

Our moral superiority to mass murderers and people who desecrate people's bodies in town squares is, while thankfully true, simply not relevant to this issue.

This is the sort of subject-changing our parents try to wean us from when we're in grade school. (Okay, I did that. But look what Tommy did!) And of course there's the side-issue that Lieberman is playing to the notion that there's some sort of 'they did this to us and now we did this to them' issue here. And (how many times does it have to be said?) these folks in Abu Ghraib weren't the 9/11 planners.

Nothing Lieberman said is untrue precisely. It does set us apart from fascists and mass-murderers that Americans are outraged by this and that there will be investigations and accountability. But talk about defining deviance down!

In cases like this, emphasis is everything. And his was all wrong.

For Mr. Responsibility and Morality, what a disappointment.

He can take a lesson not only from John McCain but from Lindsey Graham too.

You can now contact me instantly

You can now contact me instantly using either AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. For either service, my contact name is ctblogger so, if you have a hot topic you want to share, IM me and lets chit-chat.

Anti-War weekend

Click on the flyer, print as many copies as you can, and pass them out to everyone you know.

See ya there!

No love for Lieberman among Democratic state officials

Many Democratic lawmakers in the state can't come straight out publically and say they support Ned Lamont but, when you read between the lines of this artice, you can kind of guess what they're saying privately.

Anti-Iraq War sentiment heated up at the state Capitol Tuesday as 11 state lawmakers endorsed a planned rally against U.S. policy in Iraq.

State House Assistant Majority Leader David McCluskey, D-West Hartford, got so whipped up about U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman’s strong support for the war that he made a comment he quickly regretted.

“In spite of all the many good things Senator Lieberman has done, this (Iraq war) is the overriding moral issue, and if he doesn’t change his position, I cannot be with him in good conscience,” McCluskey said during a news conference to promote Sunday’s rally.

He quickly regretted...I understand (wink, wink).

McCluskey said he thinks there will be a lot of Democratic officials who won’t show their unhappiness with Lieberman until they go to vote. “I don’t believe every public official is going to come out and support Ned Lamont. But I believe in the voting booth they will,” McCluskey said.

State Rep. J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, who also endorsed the upcoming rally, dislikes Lieberman’s position, but hasn’t decided whom he will support in the U.S. Senate race.

“I have a lot of respect for Joe on a lot of fronts,” said Sharkey, a longtime critic of the war. “I’ve been very disappointed with his steadfast support not only for the invasion but for his support for the premise for the invasion.”

Got'cha Sharkey (wink, wink). We know who you're voting for...

Great text adventure game

I just had to share this with everyone. It's alittle text game (for those too young to understand what I'm talking about, click here) staring our favorite senator.

It is dark.

>>Light light.

The light is already on. It is dark.

>>Light light.

The light is already on. It is dark. You hear the sound of a door opening.

>>Light light.

The light is already on. It is dark. A voice says "Try to relax."

>> Tell voice "I am blind."

"I am blind."

The voice responds "Your eyes are swollen shut because of the bruises. Do you remember what happened?"

>>Ask voice "What happened?"

"What happened?"

The voice responds "I am sorry to inform you that you were raped and severely beaten. My name is Dr. Lieberman."

>> Ask Dr. Lieberman "Did I receive emergency contraception?"


Dr. Lieberman responds "This hospital does not provide that because of principled reasons. As long as you do something for what you call "principled reasons" you can do anything you want. Fortunately, you live in Connecticut so another hospital is probably a short ride away. I assume, anyway. Ta-ta.

>> Open eyes.

You manage to open your eyes a little bit. It hurts. You are in a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown.

>> Get purse.

There is no purse in this room.

>> Get wallet.

There is no wallet in this room.

>> Get money.

There is no money in this room.

>> Stand up.

You stand up in the hospital room.

>> Get clothes.

You are wearing your hospital gown. There are no other clothes in this room.

>> Exit hospital.

You exit the hospital wearing your hospital gown. It is snowing.



etc...

Ken Mehlman loves Joe Lieberman

RNC talking head and shameless closet Republican Ken Mehlman is the latest in a long list of wingnuts to heap praise on fellow Repub...I mean DINO Joe Lieberman.

Crooks and Liars has the videoclip and you can check out the transcript here.

Karl Rove, who is the president's deputy chief of staff and his political adviser, has said there's a pre-9-11 thinking among Democrats. They don‘t get what you just said. Is that what you believe? Democrats don't get the world you described.

Mehlman: I think Joe Lieberman does. I think a lot of the Democratic leaders don't.

Feel sick to your stomach? Go here and you'll feel better.

Iraq is hell on Earth

Still think things are going well Joe?

Police in the past 24 hours have found the bodies of at least 87 people killed by execution-style shootings — a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian reprisal slayings, officials said Tuesday.

The dead included at least 29 bodies stacked in a mass grave in an eastern Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.

The bloodshed — the second wave of mass killings in Iraq since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine last month — followed weekend attacks in a teeming Shiite slum in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded.

[...]

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told the AP that authorities had foiled an al-Qaida plot that would have put hundreds of its men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies as well as the Iraqi government.

A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al-Qaida fighters were actually recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

[...]

An abandoned minibus containing 15 bodies was found Tuesday on the main road between two mostly Sunni neighborhoods in west Baghdad, not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, said Interior Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi.

At least 40 more bodies were discovered in various parts of Baghdad, including both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, he said.

They included four men shot in the head execution-style and hanged from electricity pylons in Sadr City, where two car bombs and four mortar rounds shattered shops and market stalls at nightfall Sunday as residents shopped for food.

Scores of frightened Shiite families have fled predominantly Sunni parts of Baghdad in recent weeks, some of them at gunpoint. More than 100 families arrived between Monday and Tuesday alone in Wasit province, in the southern Shiite heartland, said Haitham Ajaimi Manie, an official with the provisional migration directorate. More than 300 Baghdad families are now sheltering in the province, he said.

Message to Iraqis: Remember to thank President Bush for all the misery you're dealing with.

Lieberman campaign admits that Joe is out of touch with Connecticut

A reader pointed out to me this money quote from Lieberman's campaign manager Sean Smith.

"We're going to run a campaign. We're going to have him here and be doing this the old-fashioned way: He's going to be asking people for their vote," said Sean Smith, recently hired to run the Lieberman campaign. "He ran for vice president. He ran for president. He hasn't really had a dialogue with Connecticut voters about Connecticut issues in a while. He is looking forward to it."

That's right folks. Lieberman's campaign manager admitted that Joe is out of touch with Connecticut voters. Not like we didn't know this already but it's nice to see someone from the Lieberman camp finally tell the truth.

Yet another reason to vote for Ned Lamont.

Joe stands by his man part two

Joe doesn't support censure? I'm not surprised

Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) said he would prefer to “solve the problem” rather than scold the president

In case you haven't heard

Ned Lamont formally announced that he's challenging Joe Lieberman for Senate.

I couldn't make it to the eventg but it was well covered by the other blogs. Check out My Left Nutmeg and LaResistance for the details.

Game on!

UPDATE: Check out the photos of the big day taken by spazeboy. Way to go!

Lamont's big day has arrived

Ned Lamont will make his candidacy official at 4pm ET at the Old State House in Hartford, CT. Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend the big event but I'm sure it will be all over the local news.

I'm almost finished working out the server problem and I'll get my Lamont story from Torrington posted soon. I would of posted it sooner but the story is more effective with the video. Mark Pazniokas from The Hartford Courant was the other reporter on the scene in Torrington and writes about the unusual Lamont event in todays paper and it's worth reading.

I'm stil wondering what ever happened to those nachos...thank goodness it wasn't on my bill.

Feingold to censure Bush

Finally, a real Democrat who has the guts to stand up to this president.

I know who I'm supporting in '08 already.

Lieberman stands by his man, supports Dubai deal

Has Joe Lieberman lost his mind?

At this point, hasn't EVERYONE had enough of this guy and his blind support of this administration (even the sound woman in the picture is smirking at Lieberman as he talks about supporting Bush's port deal. click on the image and see for yourself).

With Lieberman making silly statements like this, I wouldn't be surprised if he switches parties and campaign for senate as a Republican or Independent. HE has to know that making silly statements like this is not going to win him any Democratic votes and why risk the embarrassment of losing to Ned Lamont in a primary.

It's just not worth my time to quote him, watch the video and watch the ultimate DINO do his thing.

Third party at LamontBlog takes a swing at Lieberman's foolishness.

Even for Joe, I don't understand it.

I don't understand how he can claim to care about security, yet be OK with a foreign government running American ports.

I don't understand how he can claim to be a representative of the people, yet be for a deal that the vast majority of the public as well political leaders across the country from both parties (Sen. Clinton, Sen. Schumer, Sen. Menendez, Rep. King, to name a few in the region) are so vehemently against.

You're doing a heck of a job Joe, keep up the great work. The more you open your DINO mouth, the easier it will be for Ned Lamont to kick you right out of the Democratic party for good.