Month: June 2008

Poll: Bush 24%, Cheney 18%, Rice 39%

Jon Ponder

From the latest Harris Poll:

President Bush’s latest ratings are 24 percent positive and fully 75 percent negative. Previously, his worst numbers were 26 percent positive and 72 percent negative in April of this year. His ratings are substantially worse than those of any president, except for Jimmy Carter (22c-77 percent in July 1980), since Harris first started measuring them in 1963.

Vice President Cheney’s ratings are even worse, 18 percent positive and 74 percent negative, compared to his previous low of 21 percent positive, 74 percent negative last July.

Secretary of State Rice’s ratings are much better than those of the President and Vice President, but also have fallen to their lowest point ever, 39 percent positive and 54 percent negative, compared to 42 percent positive and 51 percent negative last October.

Only 14 percent of the public think the things in the country are going in the right direction and fully 80 percent think they are on the wrong track. These compare to the previous worst numbers in President George W. Bush’s term, 75 percent thought things were on the wrong track in April. The highest number of people who said the country was on the wrong track was 81 percent in June of 1992 during the term of the first President Bush.

However, this dismal news for the administration has done nothing to help the Democrats. Most people seem to wish “a plague on all your houses”. Congress, which of course is controlled by the Democrats, gets its worst ratings ever, only 13 percent positive and fully 83 percent negative. Its previous low point was in December of last year when it was rated 17 percent positive and 79 percent negative. And, Speaker Pelosi’s ratings have fallen to 24 percent positive, 57 percent negative compared to her previous low of 25 percent positive and 61 percent negative in February.

After Wasting 81 Months Since 9/11, Bush Is Now Desperate to Find bin Laden Before He Leaves Office

Jon Ponder

It has been 81 months since Osama bin Laden attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, but only now — with just seven months left in his term, George Bush has become desperate to capture the terror overlord.
“Bush is swinging for the fences in the hope of scoring a home run.”
— U.S. intelligence source
If you factor in the fact that Pres. Bill Clinton tried to kill bin Laden in August 1998, a case could be made that Bush should have started the search for bin Laden on his first day in office, which adds another nine months to the total. That’s 90 months — seven and a half years — during which bin Laden has been at large in the mountains of Pakistan.

With his polling down to a 24 percent approval rating and his legacy in a shambles, Bush is making one last “hail Mary” bid to to capture the 9/11 mastermind before he leaves office.

Traveling in Europe, Bush has now enlisted the aid of British special forces in the hunt, according to the conservative Times of London:

Defense and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source…

The Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment have been taking part in the US-led operations to capture Bin Laden in the wild frontier region of northern Pakistan. It is the first time they have operated across the Afghan border on a regular basis.

The hunt was “completely sanctioned” by the Pakistani government, according to a UK special forces source. It involves the use of Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles fitted with Hellfire missiles that can be used to take out specific terrorist targets.

One US intelligence source compared the “growing number of clandestine reconnaissance missions” inside Pakistan with those conducted in Laos and Cambodia at the height of the Vietnam war…

Intelligence on the whereabouts of Bin Laden is sketchy, but some analysts believe he is in the Bajaur tribal zone in northwest Pakistan. He has evaded capture for nearly seven years. “Bush is swinging for the fences in the hope of scoring a home run,” said an intelligence source, using a baseball metaphor.

A Pentagon source said US forces were rolling up Al-Qaeda’s network in Pakistan in the hope of pushing Bin Laden towards the Afghan border, where the US military and bombers with guided missiles were lying in wait. “They are prepping for a major battle,” he said.

The main operations in Pakistan are being undertaken by Delta, the US army special operations unit, and the British SBS.

Special forces are being sent to capture or kill Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters based on intelligence provided by the Special Reconnaissance Regiment and its US counterpart, the Security Coordination Detachment.

Yesterday, over 1,100 prisoners, including dozens of Talibanis, escaped from a prison in Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. Bin Laden was living in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban when he planned the 9/11 attacks. The prison was attacked by 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers.

It’s just speculation but there would appear to be a strong likelihood the breach of the prison was timed to release the Taliban fighters so they could join the battle with U.S. and British forces on the Pakistani border.

As was noted in these pages last month, conditions are ripe for Bush to capture bin Laden in time to influence the presidential campaigns this fall. There can’t be any doubt that the White House has focus grouped the capture and found it would boost Bush’s polling, which would help his party in November.

Bin Laden is especially vulnerable now because polls in Pakistan give him just a 24 percent approval rating, making him as unpopular there as Bush is in the United States. Being unpopular in his host country leaves him open to betrayal, especially since there is a $50 million reward for his arrest.

Tim Russert Dies of Heart Attack

Trish



First on the New York Post and confirmed by CNN and NBC.

Updated at 3:36 p.m.

Tim Russert, NBC journalist and political heavyweight host of “Meet the Press,” has died after collapsing at NBC’s Washington news bureau, a source said. He was 58 years old.

Russert, who rose from the inside world of politics where he was former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s press secretary and one-time chief of staff to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was able to successfully cross over to political journalism and rise to become one of its leading lights.

In his role as host of the seminal Sunday morning political program “Meet the Press” – which he took over in 1991 – he became renowned for his hard-nosed interviews where he frequently cornered some of Washington’s cagiest political figures with tough questions.

Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of the Today program from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II – a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987 Russert led NBC News weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.

In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Our condolences to the Russert family.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist Steps Up Hetero Pretense

Trish

There’s a highly entertaining buzz going on at the Buzz, the St. Petersburg Times’ political blog. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has been stepping up his campaign to be John McCain’s running mate, talking partisanship here and piety there. It’s that last one that has Floridians snorffling.

Buzz noticed that Gov. Charlie Crist gave a very public nod to his girlfriend Carole Rome, which might just be a first for the governor, at least in a public speech.

“Lt. Gov. (Jeff) Kottkamp and I are lucky guys. You’re blessed with Cindy and I’m blessed with Carole, and that’s a special thing,” Crist said during his speech at a Republican Party of Florida fundraiser on Thursday night.

Crist is widely believed to be gay and his new friend Carole Rome considered a beard to help him win the McCain vice presidential spot. Rome is in the process of a divorce from Bluestar Jets CEO Todd Rome, reportedly because of her wanton spending. Comments to the blog post tell even more.

  • This will not play well in future divorce proceedings.
  • McGreevey, Part II. Wait until the blessed Carole sues the hell out of Charlie for marrying her for political gain. Do you think she is going to be happy in his St. Pete condo?…When it comes time for Charlie to fess up and join the priesthood, we will all enjoin the sideshow of another McGreevey trial.
  • Yes, he is blessed to have Carole because he thinks it will keep the national scrutiny from his life. Sorry Charlie. Everyone knows your game and the gold digger Rome won’t be around once McCain makes his announcement and you finally realize IT’S NOT YOU.
  • I think Charlie is the gold digger. I think she is the one with the money. This story is so predictible it isn’t even interesting. They get married, have a 3 page spread in People (his interest in the Hollywood-type of press coverage) and in 3-4 years, major blow out with boyfriend selling out to the Inquirer and a nasty divorce. Books written by both parties.
  • Getting married at this point would absolutely no political gain; it would just raise more questions.
  • Will Carole be blessed to have him when someone other than Cristi is standing next to McCain on the dais in Minneapolis? If CC doesn’t get the VEEP spot, Mrs. Rome will be dropping him like a rock.
  • She’s married and he is gay. WHAT a pair!
  • 8:58, you seem to forget Charlie Crist’s track record of dropping women like a rock after they have outlived their usefulness as beards. Remember his campaign girlfriend that he quickly dispatched after the inaugural?
  • GET BACK TO YOUR OFFICE AND DO SOMETHING YOU OVER-TANNED, HAIR-DYED, LYING, CORPORATE-PUPPET, PHOTO-OPPING ON OUR DIME, PAPER DOLL FREAKING FRAUD!
  • When Crist retires, he and Carole could live in Beverly Hills, Florida. There’s a Winn-Dixie there for shopping.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

As someone pointed out recently, if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.

— Jean Kerr (1923-2003), American author and playwright

Turf Change: Obama Packs Up DNC to Chicago

Trish

A recent move shows how breathtakingly different a Pres. Obama would be from the Current Occupant, or even the Current Occupant Wannabe. Obama is reorganizing the DNC. Hello, Chicago!

This is partly about ensuring that the Illinois Senator avoids the fate of John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was hampered by behind-the-scenes battles with the DNC

In a major shakeup at the Democratic National Committee — and a departure from tradition — large parts of the committee’s operations are relocating to Chicago to be fully integrated with the Obama campaign.

The DNC’s political department, housed in Washington, D.C., will be dramatically rebuilt, with staffers offered a choice of moving to Chicago, joining state operations, or staying in Washington, DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said…

The move reflects Obama’s desire to maintain an unusually streamlined campaign, as well as his swift and complete takeover of a Democratic Party that isn’t always known for its unity. The move may also save the campaign money, as the Obama campaign can use DNC salaries and staff to pay for elements of its organizing campaign and avoid some of the duplication that has often dogged presidential efforts.

It could also help avoid the John Kerry-tastrophe of 2004.

…this is partly about ensuring that the Illinois Senator avoids the fate of John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was hampered by behind-the-scenes battles with the DNC.

You may recall that the DNC chair in 2004 was one Terry McAuliffe, and in his book, McAuliffe wrote about the back-stage infighting between the DNC and Kerry camps. McAuliffe said that Kerry’s aides had wanted to oust him; that relations were chilly throughout the campaign; and that the Kerry camp muzzled him when he wanted to assail George W. Bush’s military record.

By contrast, upon securing the nomination, Obama very quickly put out a statement showering praise on Howard Dean; is now moving to put staff in all 50-states, in concert with Dean’s approach; and is quite literally moving swaths of the DNC to Chicago to create a unified organization with the sort of party-wide message discipline that has eluded Dems in the past.

In the primary, the Obama campaign was famously devoid of (publicly visible) infighting and/or leaking, and clearly, he’s taking aggressive steps right now to ensure that this success is duplicated in the general.

If Obama can run a government the way he’s running his campaign, America’s future is looking better already.

Biggest War Scandal Yet – BBC Uncovers $23 Billion in Cash ‘Lost, Stolen’ in Iraq

Jon Ponder

You Won’t Hear About in U.S. Media Because Bush Has Imposed a Gag Order, According to the BBC

In October, we wrote about the $12 billion in cash — shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills — that the Bush Administration flew into Iraq on cargo pallets and then lost:
“It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history.”
— Chairman Henry Waxman

In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tons, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22, 2004, six days before the handover.

Now an investigation by the BBC has determined that as much as $23 billion may have been “lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq”:

The BBC’s Panorama programme has used US and Iraqi government sources to research how much some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding.

The British television news service also says that the Bush administration has issued a “gagging order” on the subject, which means that reporting on what may be the most massive fraud in history will go unreported until Bush leaves office — or, theoretically after the presidency of his successor, if John McCain wins in November:

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

While Presdient George W Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

The president’s Democratic opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.

Henry Waxman, who chairs the House committee on oversight and government reform, said: “The money that’s gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, it’s egregious.

“It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history.”

In the run-up to the invasion, one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth $7bn that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.

Unusually only Halliburton got to bid – and won.

Obama Rumors Get Their Own Web Site — From Obama

Trish

When I first heard the Obama campaign was launching a web site just to deal with the false rumors circulating about the candidate, I wasn’t too sure. After all, the conventional wisdom when you’re, say, writing a letter to the editor to refute some dumbass thing someone else said is that you should not repeat the dumbass thing all over again. You should simply tell your side without giving more ink to theirs.

But I have to say, I like fightthesmears.com. It does a nice job of blowing the false rumors out of the water while providing positive information about the candidate. It even invites you to forward any bogus emails you’ve received to watchdog@barackobama.com.

The site just launched so there’s not a lot of material yet but something tells me it will be pages and pages and pages long by November. Unfortunately.

Swiftboat Alert: Right-Wing Theme is Obama’s Alleged Drug Use

Dr. Democrat

Dear Dr. Democrat:

I keep hearing references in the conservative media about Barack Obama’s alleged use of drugs, but I read his book, “Dreams of My Father,” and though it seemed his friends were getting caught up in drugs, he went another way, though he did admit to drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. What’s the truth? Is Obama just another black drug addict?

Scared Straight
doctordemocratsmall1.jpg
Dear Scared:

Smells like swiftboating to me. I watch C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” every morning to get a sense of what’s burbling on right-wing radio without having to sully my ears by listening to it.

If the right-wing callers to C-SPAN this morning are a gauge, the new meme is Obama’s drug use. One caller read a passage from one of Obama’s books (supposedly) it which Obama said he was going to try heroin, but the hand of the junkie who was going to hit him up was shaking so bad he didn’t do it. Another caller asked if we shouldn’t be concerned that Obama was still addicted to coke. A few calls later, someone seconded the question about addiction. Another caller said she’d heard from a missionary in Africa that Obama was sending U.S. campaign donations to his cousin’s “tribe” in Kenya.

One indicator that it is a concerted effort (that this is a new theme being pounded by Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz and/or Sean Hannity) is that these callers were off topic. The topic was free speech, ironically, but in the “rules” of the show, you’re supposed to stick to the topic or the host will hang up on you, unless it’s an “open phones” segment, which is usually in the last half-hour.

A Democratic caller finally came on and presented a lot of what is known about Bush’s coke problem toward the end of the half-hour.

I haven’t read Obama’s books but two colleagues in my practice have, and neither of them remember a reference to heroin.

Just as John Kerry really did lead operations under fire and saved the life of one of his men, Al Gore never said he invented the Internet and the Clintons lost $100,000 on Whitewater at a time when Bill’s annual salary as governor was $35,000, reality is irrelevant to the racists, feeble-minded rednecks and Christian nationalists for whom the lies about Obama’s drug use and cousins in Kenya are directed.

There’s very little we can do about that. The damage is done at the margins, and only works in a tight race.

McCain is teetering on becoming Bob Dole Jr. But until we see signs that a landslide similar to ’96 — Clinton 49/Dole 41 — is in the offing, we have to assume the GOP will take all the red states Bush took in 2004. (My oft-stated theory is, where there are large concentrations of Republicans, you’ll find large concentrations of racists.)

People who identify as Dems or Gops are probably paying close attention already. It’s them darned Independents who tend to wait and focus at the end. If these lies are allowed to take hold, they become “facts” that can turn public opinion in the fall.

Kerry’s biggest mistake was saying he voted for the war before he voted against it. His second mistake was not slamming back on the Swiftboat ads.

If I were Obama, I’d assemble a rapid response team to take these things down in a very timely fashion. He’d need someone with incredibly high credibility to do it.

One name comes to mind: Oprah.

Dr. D.