more marching

AmericaBlog looks at Colin Powell's recent turn-about.  I love this last paragraph!

I think Powell is having a bit of fun with Bush's "I'm the decider" line. Powell flips it around on Bush and basically says, sure Bush got some advice from me, and other advice from Rummy and Cheney and Tommy Franks. But in the end, Bush is the president, he's the decider, and he's the one responsible for being smart enough to choose the best advice from the varied counsel he's given.

And what happened? Bush wasn't smart enough. That's what Colin Powell said today.

Hee, hee! 

still more marching

Blogger & lawyer Glenn Greenwald tries to ascertain why his new book How Would  A Patriot Act?  is doing so well.  Apparently, the American People are so hungry for people who can explain what's been going on for the past five years.  The mealy-mouthed, overly-cautious, consultant-driven Democrats appear to be simply too frightened, too risk-averse to adopt an uncompromising stance against the President. 


further marching

Just about three years ago, on  1 May 03, Bush flew in an F-18 onto the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and Digby commented on the overflowing libidos of the newswomen who reported on the President's manly feat.  Even some newsmen got into the act:
Chris Matthews on the weekend of 3-4 May 03:
"...can top gun Bush now score a victory for our economy?"
"
Lights, camera, action. The president bonds with the troops in a war-ending spectacle.  Was this a Reaganesque moment or what?"
Well, we've won the war in Iraq. Now can we save the American dream?


still further marching

We've seen many debates over the years as to whether the Bush Administration tried to suggest an Iraq-al Qaeda link.  Looking again at Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech (He never actually spoke those words, but had a big banner behind him saying exactly that.) there's not much question as to exactly what he was trying to say:

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of Al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.

And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because that regime is no more.

In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused, and deliberate, and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September 11th -- the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.

Note: May 2003 minus September 2001 equals 19 months.  "...focused, and deliberate"?  Sure, I'll go with that.  "...proportionate to the offense"?  Only if you believe that "That's our oil under their sand!"



Veterans for Peace, at ease

Oh, and how is the Bush Administration doing on the War on Terror?

Overall, the report tallied about 11,000 terror attacks around the world last year, resulting in more than 14,600 deaths. That is almost a fourfold increase in attacks from 2004, though the agency blames the change largely on new ways of tallying the incidents.

But let's not forget:

Leaders of al-Qaida lost some control of the terror network last year due to the arrests and deaths of top operational planners

Um, okay...so let's get this straight...al Qaeda "lost some control", but still managed to increase the attack and casualty counts four-fold?!?!?!

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