I'm tired of these through-the-looking-glass argument from the Clintons. It's the second time on a national stage that I've been told the equivalent of "who are you going to believe, me or your lyin' eyes?" and I don't like it one bit. Rather than rant and throw shoes at the TV I'm just going to ask...

If caucuses don't matter why on earth did the Senator from New York spend 74 days in Iowa since the 2004 election and never once make this argument in front of Iowans?

All of Hillary Clinton's Iowa visits are chronicled by the excellent GWU Democracy in Action project. 74 days in Iowa and never does Hillary Clinton argue that caucuses shouldn't count and now she can't say it enough. What does that record say about Sen. Clinton's character? 74 days, not a peep.

When Harry Truman left office in 1953 his sole income was his Army pension of $112.56 per month. To make money Truman wrote a memoir, sold off some family farm property and would have been content to live out his days in Independence, Missouri on the proceeds of these transactions and his army check. Congress, perhaps a bit embarrassed by his austerity, passed the  Former Presidents Act in 1958 providing past presidents (at this point just Truman and Hoover) a pension of $25,000 per year.

In a recent C-Span feature on presidential librararies Brian Lamb aired an interesting clip of former President Truman speaking about the post-presidency and profit. Transcript of Truman video below.

BREAKING NEWS! (more from AFP, BBC, and McClatchy)

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's military said on Friday it had launched a cross-border land offensive backed by fighter jets into northern Iraq on Thursday evening to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerrillas.

Turkish television reported, without citing sources, that 10,000 troops had entered Iraqi territory. NTV said troops had moved 10 km (6 miles) inside Iraq.

"The Turkish Armed Forces, which attach great importance to Iraq's territorial integrity and stability, will return home in the shortest time possible after its goals have been achieved," the General Staff said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The military's General Staff said the cross-border offensive was launched at 7 p.m. (12:00 p.m. EST) on Thursday.

A senior U.S. official said the land incursion was "not the greatest news".

Use this as an Open Turkey/Iraq thread. Any thoughts?

On frames...

For 99% of America 'frames' involve either bowling and pictures of your kids.

'Framing' is something carpenters do when building a new house.

Stipulating that I think George Lakoff is preaching "Liberal Propaganda for Dummies", there is no bigger GOP-"frame" than saying Democrats are "Kumbaya" singers.

Time.com, 10/22/06 (10 days before the election):

Example: the Republican ad deemed "too hot" for TV--a spoof depicting a clownish Madeleine Albright singing Kumbaya with Islamic terrorists--that was "obtained" by the Drudge Report and shown via YouTube.

This is a rant...

Sen. Chris Dodd's recent success in blocking legislation giving retroactive telecom immunity for warrantless surveillance was a real world example of how a detailed working knowledge of the legislative rules and procedures makes a leader more effective. It's not just officials who need to know the process, it's essential for citizens to be well informed as well for our system to work. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." I know I'm thankful for all the work the likes of Kagro X, Adam B, Christy Hardin Smith, Jeralyn Merritt, McJoan and Marcy Wheeler do on a regular basis educating people about the process.

Does Sen. Clinton promote understanding of our process when she says people who vote "present" are avoiding tough choices or is she just promoting ignorance of our system of government? No.

More on the flip...

Obama crushes Edwards by 13 points in Edwardsville. Give it up Edwards E. McEdwardspants!

In 2004 when both Edwards and Obama were on the ballot in Edwardsville*, IL it was none other than Barack Obama who pulled down 64% of the vote to 51% of the vote for John Edwards**. Using my own polling methodology*** I've determined that even in a place that is named after John Edwards**** people still prefer Barack Obama. How much more evidence do you Edwards Cylons need to before you realize you're backing the wrong horse? Now on to victory Obamatons!

LA Times, 9/14/07:

BAGHDAD -- ...a new survey suggested that the civilian death toll from the war could be more than 1 million.

The figure from ORB, a British polling agency that has conducted several surveys in Iraq, followed statements this week from the U.S. military defending itself against accusations it was trying to play down Iraqi deaths to make its strategy appear successful. [...]

ORB said it drew its conclusion from responses to the question about those living under one roof: "How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003?"

Based on Iraq's estimated number of households -- 4,050,597 -- it said the 1.2 million figure was reasonable.

More on the flip...

Bush is going to give a speech comparing Iraq to Vietnam. This diary is a reference for the press, to highlight the past mentions of this analogy by the Bush Administration, all mocking the same comparison. The examples below from a Google search of 'Iraq + Vietnam' on whitehouse.gov:

1) Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, April is turning into the deadliest month in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, and some people are comparing Iraq to Vietnam and talking about a quagmire. Polls show that support for your policy is declining and that fewer than half Americans now support it. What does that say to you and how do you answer the Vietnam comparison?

THE PRESIDENT: I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy. Look, this is hard work. It's hard to advance freedom in a country that has been strangled by tyranny. And, yet, we must stay the course, because the end result is in our nation's interest.

More on the flip...

How did we go from here as a nation...

"This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

...to here?

"It's important for the American people to understand there are cold-blooded killers who want to come to our homeland and wreak havoc through death."

Why does a Democratic Congress identify with the second statement and not the first? Discuss.

WH spokesman Tony Snow said of the $60,000 raise given Paul Wolfowitz's girlfriend Shaha Riza at the World Bank - "it's not a firing offense." Not a firing offense? In the real world your average worker can get fired for being off 9 bucks total over the course of 3 months in counting your drawer.

Every day the cash in each cashier's register would be counted and compared against a master computer printout. The first time a cashier's register count differed from the printout by $3.00 or more, the cashier would receive a written warning. If another discrepancy occurred within 30 days of receipt of the written warning, the cashier would be suspended. A third discrepancy occurring within 60 days from the suspension would result in termination.

This is verbatim from Plaintiff vs. Menards, Inc. - a wrongful termination case where the ruling was in favor of Menards. A minimum wage worker can get fired for a nine dollar discrepancy over the course of 3 months. Why should Wolfowitz be excused for a $60,000 conflict of interest?

There's some talk in Washington, DC about September being the time when Republicans (and some Democrats) in Congress are finally going to get serious about ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq. If you count all the days from today to the day until this September would it look like?

If it looks anything like the past 117 days the next 117 days will look something like this.

Predicted U.S. Military deaths in Iraq from May 9 to September 4, 2007:

May 9-31, 2007
2,10,3,1
8,3,2,4,5,5,3 - Mothers Day
1,11,6,1,1,3,1
6,1,5,1,5 - Memorial Day

= 88 total U.S. dead

Continued below...

BBC, 3/26/07:

The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.

Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet. [...] But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust". [...] Another expert agreed the method was "tried and tested".

Here's President Bush lying about the same:

"The methodology is pretty well discredited,"

More on the sound science behind the Johns Hopkins Iraq mortality studies here and here.

The Clinton and Obama camps' fight over the Iraq War vote has spilled over into the today's WaPo:

Mark Penn and Obama strategist David Axelrod engaged in a pointed and occasionally heated exchange during a public forum at Harvard University over the issue that has become the central point of dispute between the two leading candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination. [...]

The Clinton campaign later supplied several Obama quotations from 2004 to buttress Penn's attack. One came from the New York Times, in which Obama declined to criticize the Democratic Party's presidential and vice presidential nominees, Sen. John F. Kerry and then-Sen. John Edwards, for supporting the 2002 war resolution. "But I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports," Obama said, according to the Times.

All 100 US Senators were privy to the full classifed Iraq NIE complete with INR, DOE, and US Air Force intelligence dissents. Only 6 bothered to read it. Was Sen. Hillary Clinton one of the six?

More on the flip...

Happy Anniversary John McCain!

Exactly 1 year ago you were on Meet the Press saying it wasn't realistic to add more troops in Iraq. Today you call Iraq War supporters who agree with your 12/04/05 remarks "immoral". George Will calls that rigorous moral reasoning. I call it bullshit. Here's John McCain, 12/4/05 on NBC:

MR. RUSSERT: Should we send more American troops and do we have the troops to send?

SEN. McCAIN: I've wanted to send troops. I still think we should have more troops there. But it's not going to happen. And that's just reality. It's not going to happen. But we really needed to expand the size of the Marine Corps and the Army so we didn't have this terrific strain on our Guard and Reserve, particularly our Guard units.

Will says moral reasoning requires If you will an end, you must will the means to that end.

McCain says it takes more troops to win in Iraq but what is he doing about it? More on the flip...

Joe Lieberman wants to be called Democrat again.

AP: WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat.

...In Tuesday's election, Lieberman won strong GOP support and given the closely divided Senate, Republicans are expected to court him....So will he count as a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the majority Democrats? In an e-mail message late Thursday, Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein said the senator will begin his new term as a Democrat.
(hat tip My Left Nutmeg)

Note to Senate Democrats - NO. FUCKING. WAY.

Lieberman can ask to be called Mary Queen of Scots, it doesn't make it so.

NY Daily News 10/20/06:

NEW YORK - Construction workers tearing up a temporary roadway at Ground Zero yesterday made an astounding discovery - at least a dozen human remains and two wallets belonging to 9/11 victims.

The area at the northwest edge of the disaster site was supposed to have been searched long ago - and the Fire Department, which had supervised the vast recovery operation, could offer no explanation yesterday.

Even more stunned by the discovery of the remains - including large, partially intact arms and legs - were victims' relatives, who consider the land where the twin towers once stood sacred ground.

Bin Laden is still at large. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Our elected officials are not leaders. They are derelict in their duty.

Ned Lamont just did the smartest thing yet in his campaign for US Senate. Lamont exploded the myth that Lieberman is a competent leader on Homeland Security. In fact Lieberman's been AWOL on his signature issue.

AP: Lamont also says Lieberman, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, mistakenly agreed to put the troubled Federal Emergency Management Agency under the control of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"I think FEMA worked really well when it had professional management as an independent agency," Lamont said in an interview this week. "And sure, it was Senator Lieberman who said, 'Let's redo FEMA.' It was Senator Lieberman who said, 'Let's put Michael Brown as No. 2 at FEMA.'"

I've been waiting for so long to hear that in a major media outlet. Joe Lieberman has been the worst kind of Monday Morning Quarterback on Katrina. I'll explain why on the flip...

Today, Ned Lamont is the only Democrat running for US Senate in Connecticut. Ned Lamont is the Democratic nominee for US Senate and will appear as such on the ballot this fall. Joe Lieberman will appear as anything but a Democrat according to CT Law:

Sec. 9-453u. (Formerly Sec. 9-378m). Reservation of party designation.

(b) The statement shall include the offices for which candidates may petition for nomination under the party designation to be reserved but shall not include an office if no elector who has signed the application is entitled to vote at an election for such office.

(c) The statement shall include the party designation to be reserved which (1) shall consist of not more than three words and not more than twenty-five letters; (2) shall not incorporate the name of any major party;

By law, Lieberman cannot run again and call himself any form of Democrat on the ballot. More on the flip...