If anyone needed convincing that President Bush is on another planet when it comes to the Iraq war – and there still are a few of you out there – Thursday was a keeper. Astoundingly . . . No wait, at this late date nothing the president says is astounding . . . he asserted at a press conference notable for its Through the Looking Glass quality that “the fight can still be won.” The president again batted aside some tough questions with answers so inane that the Queen of...

No, the picture above isn’t evidence of the latest GOP scandal. One day, this campaign 2004 photo will be considered the photo that helped sink a candidacy. Not since singer Sammy Davis, Jr. hugged a seemingly embarrassed President Richard Nixon has a photo be run and re-run so much by so many, usually with derisive motives in mind. It wouldn’t have had impact if McCain’s once stellar image hadn’t taken a nosedive among many voters for varying reasons. And now, with news...

The Bush administration is throwing down so many gauntlets to Congress that Congress can soon sell several sets on eBay. There are so many gauntlets, that if they sell them all on eBay they won’t have to need money from lobbyists ever again. The latest gauntlet to be hurled down with a flourish is a seemingly unprecedented snub — Bush confidante and lawyer Harriet Miers not just refusing to testify before Congress…but actually not even showing up. The GOOD NEWS is that, as many...

Improve your musical knowledge. Here’s Tom Lehrer’s classic set to You Tube images: This is the most complete CD collection of his incredible lyrics and music:

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

Yesterday, President Bush gave a press conference regarding the progress we’re making in Iraq and the need to continue the fight in Iraq: As president, my most solemn responsibility is to keep the American people safe. So on my orders, good men and women are now fighting the terrorists on the front lines in Iraq. I’ve given our troops in Iraq clear objectives. And as they risk their lives to achieve these objectives, they need to know they have the unwavering support from the commander...

I have scant seen more blatant religious bigotry than the reaction of the Family Research Council, a Christian Right stalwart, to the historic prayer of Hindu Chaplain Rajan Zed before the US Congress. It’s disgusting, and despite (and because of!) its attempt to include Jews under its hateful ideology, it is one of the key reasons I will always see them as a threat to my religious liberty and equal standing in American society. These are the words of an enemy, not a friend.

After a quick scroll down the line up of today’s posts, it does not appear that my colleagues have directly posted on the subject of the Interim (Iraq) Benchmark Assessment Report (as officially released vs. leaked and/or speculated), nor on the President’s related press conference earlier today. So for those of you who are hungry for the basics but have not yet had a chance to go scavenging around for the them, I thought the following set of links might be helpful … The Report The...

How Should the GOP Go in ‘08–and in ‘07 on Iraq? Over the decades the Republican Party has secured a reputation as the orderly bunch in our (mainly) two-party system. Its members like to have a designated successor in the White House wings, someone who has worked his way up and deserves the nod. Let the Democrats roam the countryside looking for an antiestablishment maverick, under whose standard they will probably lose. The GOP, the managerial party drawn disproportionately from...

Some people thought they could promote Christianity by disrupting the Senate’s invocation this morning. Sen. Harry Reid had invited a Hindu chaplain from his home state of Nevada to give today’s prayer and these interlopers just didn’t think that was appropriate. I doubt that these Christians attracted the unchurched to Christianity today. Shakesville: Your Daily Dose of Christian Tolerance UPDATE: Coverage from the Times of India: Christian activists disrupt Hindu prayer in US...

My analysis of Tom Goldstein’s list. Out of 30 finalists, only six are White men. Indeed, the list has an African-American plurality. But everybody on the list is extraordinarily qualified, and in a truly color-blind society it shouldn’t bother us to see radical underrepresentation of White men any more than radical underrepresentation of Black women (right?), so I’m sure there will be no claims that the next President is making an affirmative action pick when she or he nominates...

Mike Lane, Cagle Cartoons

With due deference to President Bush and some of my co bloggers who continue to focus on how to keep the bus that is the American presence in Iraq from going off the cliff, the bus went off the cliff a while ago. What we are left with is what happens when it hits the ground. Austin Bay is among those bloggers who might not completely buy into the bus-off-the-cliff analogy, but knows that given realities in Baghdad and Washington (which is to say that the political clock is outrunning the military...

Rabbi David Wolpe in The Jewish Week: A Question Of Values We are forever relearning the lesson: Education and values are not the same. A trained intellect does not equal an active conscience. Doctors can plot to bomb innocent people in London and Glasgow, if they are doctors without values. Professors can lie and cheat and steal, if they are professors without values. As George Steiner so memorably wrote years ago: “A man can read Goethe or Schiller in the evening, he can play Bach or Schubert,...

Even in the White House, he felt the whole world was a club that wouldn’t take him in as a member. New documents and tapes released yesterday by custodians of the de-sanitized Nixon Library and Museum only add to the picture of an angry, isolated, paranoid President plotting to get everybody else before they got him and, at the same time, wanting to be perceived as a regular guy. There is an 11-page memo from 1970 complaining that he never got credit for being “nicey-nice,” listing...

Earlier today, I published a post called “Reality Check” here at TMV (and at my own blog). Several people already responded. I would like to point out two – especially two – comments which basically prove my point. The first is a comment left by JLedell (an American): The world thinks America’s invasion of Iraq was a mistake. I think you and most Americans now agree with that assessment. Our diminished image in the world is a direct result of that MISTAKE. Most Americans...

“It is a dire situation … I don’t think it has gotten any better. It just breaks your heart. . . . Iraqi people are dying, American soldiers are dying. So far it does not seem we have achieved any kind of security there.” -Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a member of the Iraq Study Group, commenting on Iraq in a front-page WaPo story today by the incomparable Bob Woodward. The compassion coursing through this comment is reflective of the traits that...

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri

Jules Crittenden has a good post up, in which he wonders why the different media are not offering “an actual, meaningful, in-depth look at the execution of the counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq by someone who has taken the time to understand what its goals and methods are, and isn’t just interested in kicking the crap out of it from a distance.” Jules looked at the AP, at the NYT, at the WaPo, at other major newspapers / organizations who have made quite some ‘in-depth...

Portland and Seattle are secure, sire. On to Vegas! The straw currently being grasped at by George Bush and the stay-the-course crowd is that U.S. forces have made big inroads among the Sunni tribes in Anbar Province, who instead of fighting among themselves are being bribed . . . er, financed to fight Al Qaeda. And this success can be replicated elsewhere in Iraq, which will lead to peace, an American troop drawdown and Hollywood ending. That’s all well and good, and I’ll take good...

Yesterday, I published a post in which I criticize Thomas Friedman’s latest column in the New York Times. In it, Friedman argues that there are only two options remaining: all in or all out. He ignores the fact that the world will blame the US for what happens. He ignores the fact that the US will appear weak. He ignores the fact that no country will fear American power as much as it once did. So – I criticized Friedman for not taking the blowback into account. When I did, American readers...

Get ready to see a lot of old videos showing Bush administration officials talk about Al Qaeda being on the run, having its effectiveness reduced and about how the war in Iraq is pinning them down over there. Because a new report says that the terrorist group has reconstituted itself and may be nearly back to its pre-911 strength: Six years after the Bush administration declared war on al-Qaeda, the terrorist network is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of...

The Moderate Voice applauds weblogs that do original reporting. The reason: weblogs are an incredible opportunity to do original reporting as WELL as commentary. And there some that do just that. One blog that does it on a regular basis is the always-unique The Talking Dog which has run a series of detailed interviews involving issues related to detainees jailed due to charges involving terrorism. TTD’s questions are quite specific (you can tell he does his homework and is an attorney) and...

Remembering Lady Bird Johnson: you can read a remarkable remembrance about a remarkable woman from a TMV coblogger who personally knew her and her husband Lyndon Johnson right HERE.

Former White House political director Sara Taylor’s testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee committee on the firings of the U.S. attorneys proved to be anything but… testimony: (1) President George Bush cited executive privilege and basically squelched her from answering the panel’s most significant and probing questions. (2) She either set a record for or tied Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the record for “I can’t recall” (and also some...