Watching The Snowball
 

The "November Surprise" that may actually occur in October will be a Rove-constructed, rhetorical reorientation for W. Presently, God's Own Party is watching a snowball roll downhill, but soon all will be on the same page as Rove will appropriate the Democratic criticism of the Iraq War and turn it to W's advantage. Bush will present himself as someone who is willing to think on his feat, make changes (what the Dems suggested, and what the neocons said was "cut and run"), and change the course rather than "stay the course." Expect some bold speech from our leader that will pull the rug out from under the Dems, even using some of their few suggestions on how to deal with Iraq. Bush will appease his own' party's critics with Rovian rhetoric and W's base will say "Wow! He's finally listening to us," and will concomitantly return to the fold. The Democrats, who have done more complaining than really present a viable strategy for Iraq, will be caught standing with their collective pants down.

Of course, the above is a BCS, and it may end up as too little too late, but W. et al can not keep watching that snowball without doing anything. Or, considering his apparent inability to admit that he and his advisors were wrong a long time ago (if even to himself), perhaps we'll all get to watch that snowball keep gathering speed and more snow. Perhaps today's talking heads shows will reveal something.

Apparently Iraqis have been suggested the plan for America's withdrawal. Maliki is said to be worried because government forces have no teeth and Iraq has never been so violent - and getting more violent.

Of course, the trick is to spin it as a withdrawal - not a defeat. That military defeat must be conducted similar to an American withdrawal from Vietnam - the other American defeat also directly traceable to Presidential lies. James Baker has repeatedly hinted that withdrawal will be his commission's recommendation to the White House. That recommendation is scheduled for release after November elections. Interesting will be if George Jr has it released or leaked before those elections.

Reality remains - without 500,000 troops for one year, then "Mission Accomplished" cannot be won and will only get worse. Why? Exasperated because we are there. Predicted more than 3 years ago by American actions that repeatedly violated Military Science 101 principles.

Andy Rooney of CBS News (a legendary TV news magazine) 60 Minutes has just said "we should have never gone and we should get out" ... if I have quoted him accurately from memory. Is this akin to Walter Cronkite who went to Vietnam and said the war is lost? Well another lying president (Nixon) massacred 35,000 of America's best in Vietnam only because Nixon and his agenda were more important than America.

Even Walter Cronkite told America an obvious fact. And yet, 'big dics' back then still kept massacring Americans in a war that could never be won and that was created by political lies. Deja Vue?

In order for Jr. to engage in the scenario outlined in the OP, he would (gasp!) have to listen to his advisors. Never say, never, but suppose Jr. and the 'Pubs did carry out this last minute campaign strategy (and last minute it will be, November is almost upon us). Do you really think Jr. would keep his word? If you do, you should be locked up in one of those nice places where they take every such good care of you and your relatives visit (or don't) on Sundays.

If tricky George tries that tactic and doesn't come through on his word, the only thing that will save the Republican party in '08 is Diebold.

tw, did you seriously just try to equate Walter Cronkite with Andy-fucking-Rooney? If Bozo the Clown said the Iraq war was bad, would he suddenly become a respected statesman too?

OMG!
 

That is not onlyOrwellian, but likely true. The last time I voted here in GA, I said, sarcastically, "Can I have a receipt for my vote?" They said "No." I then said "Why not?" and the dude said "We're not allowed to say." Holy F*&^%! :neutral:

Is that anything like 'chicken surprise'?

It's difficult, in the realm of political posturing, to disagree just the right amount with entrenched psychological ploys. If you hedge your bets, your position isn't really an alternative, IE John "I'm running against Bush but we pretty much agree on everything" Kerry.

If you're afraid to go out on a limb, that's where you'll probably end up.

The Republicans are much better at "framing" the issues...

The Hollywood cocktail party crowd is so certain the fix is in, they're planning to send their chauffeurs to the rallies.
Gore Vidal will be armed and dangerous with a broken Ketel One bottle in one hand and a plastic sword of speared olives in the other. Avoid Beverly Hills if the Republicans win.

Can you even say things like this anymore? Doesn't this make you some kind of non-human combatant? Seriously...how vague is that new law?

Four years after the entire intelligent world knew, Shrub has admitted to similarities between Viet Nam and Iraq, and has begun the process of setting a timetable for withdrawl.

A - Why did everyone else know before this administration?
B - Did this administration know, but lied?
C - Is the Cheney adminstration now leading the "party of cut and run"?
D - Is this the type of waffling that this administration criticized Kerry of, during the last presidential election?

E - Is that the "Rove-constructed, rhetorical reorientation" Pangloss mentioned?

Well, hey, listen. Bush has never been "stay the course"!

:::laugh::: or :::cry::: @ that link ???
 

Sure, and

"I am not a crook"
and
"I did not have sex with that woman"

What a fucking LIAR!

When he says "we’ve never been stay the course" he means we've never had a "stay the course" philosophy...or, that we did, but the good way...not the bad way. He may have said "stay the course" but he meant it in whatever way can be criticized least...this week.

Or something. Hell, I don't know.

He was talking about soup and appetizer versus main course.

Bush was all "STAY the course", and Stephanopoulos was all "Stay the COURSE?", and Bush was all "no, no - STAY the course", and Stephanopoulos was all "Stay THE course?".

Cut and run?

Who doesn't know this?

plus, dude, relax. CAN you relax? I fear your PTSD has taken over.


Dammit. Now I've responded to a tw post. Damn my hide.

Damn it good.

Brianna, why do you so hate America? Tone reflects the seriousness of those posts. We are not talking about sex in the Oval Office. We are talking about useless murder of Americans. Why do you, Brianna, so hate America as to not even criticize torture, extraordinary rendition, wiretapping without judicial review, secret prisons, etc. Same reasons why four died in O-Hi-O.

53% of America do not know. Even though a majority has only recently agreed with my four year old posts, still (as also happened during Nixon and Vietnam), a majority remain opposed to a necessary unilateral withdrawal. Yes "Who doesn't know this?" Many. Notice the many with so little grasp as to criticize Gen Dannatt.

The bastard even went to CA for a campaign fund raiser as a category 5 hurricane was attacking a city designed only for category 3. But again, how many must die?

Accurately defined long before "Mission Accomplished" was proclaimed were obvious facts such as 'no smoking gun', 'no strategic objective', and therefore 'no exit strategy'. Even 'mission creep' was inevitable. Iraq was denied both four years ago and still denied 2800+ dead Americans later. George Jr administration demonstrates contempt for the troops. Do you?

Probably 10,000 wounded Americans because so many had facts and yet still oppose a withdrawal. Many stay quiet and still oppose the inevitable - just like Nam. Withdrawal is not obvious to most Americans. Over 10,000 casualties for what purpose? So we can 'stay the course'? Bring it on? Religious extremists who actually do vote and who want Armageddon (most here do not vote) – do you really think they who do vote understand why withdrawal is our only option? Need we wait - like during Nixon - for that number to reach 20,000? How many thousand more will die before we admit defeat? How many more amputees need we create?

They don't decide to become a casualty. We make that decision. How many more must die?

If you'd like a good scrubbing, the local fire deparment can hose you down. I hear they have a special crew, just for that.
And TW, calm yourself, child. Anti-American? Seriously? You sound like the R's you villify so frequently. At first I thought it was mockery, and now I realize you're serious.

Of course he's not backing away from staying the course. That would be nonsense.

This from a President who doesn't do nuance.

“I don’t give a goddamn, I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way. Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!“
~ George W. Bush, 2005-11

From Wikipedia:

In the United States, the oath of office for the President of the United States is specified in the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1):

Tony Snowjob
 

So let's get this right. Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, said
that W. constantly using the term "stay the course" "...left the wrong
impression." Really? So why the hell had he been using it so much before?
So what is Snow saying, that W. stopped using the term on his own, or that
Rove TOLD HIM to stop using it?

Why is it that after weeks and weeks of Bush saying we must "stay the
course" that only now his minions determine that it "gives the wrong
impression?" You think it's because all the polls say that people are mad
at his previous "stay the course" philosophy, not to mention the rationale
for going to war in the first place? Remember, Snow's spin is coming from
the same organization that fed "fake" news to TV stations around the
country. How about "Mission Accomplished?" So either we have a president
that, when he thinks on his own, "gives the wrong impression," or we have a
PR Firm that has read the tea leaves of public opinion and has dropped one
of their tag lines from the W. rhetoric machine. Either W is the
intellectual dunce many believe him to be, or he is just a mouthpiece for a
PR firm. Either scenario is pretty scary.

And while I do think the Democrats are great at turning lemonade into
lemons, is it really their place to come up with a "plan" for withdrawal
from Iraq? It's not like they have much political power to do so (at least
now). I can just see Nancy Pelosi handing a withdrawal plan to Rummey:
"Here Mr. Rusmfeld; run with it! The first part of the plan is that you
get fired!"

Here's a piece from today's NYT:


Brother of N.F.L. Star Posts Antiwar Essay

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: October 24, 2006
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 â?? A brother of Pat Tillman, the National Football
League player who was killed in combat in Afghanistan after leaving his
sports career to serve in the Army, has lashed out at the Iraq war in an
essay published online.


Pat Tillman, center, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, with his
brothers Richard, left, and Kevin at his wedding in San Jose, Calif.



Go to Election GuideMore Politics NewsThe brother, Kevin Tillman, who was
in the same Army Ranger unit as Pat Tillman, a corporal who was killed on
April 22, 2004, by fire from his fellow soldiers under circumstances that
the Pentagon continues to investigate, sharply criticized American
political leadership and called the war â??an illegal invasion.â??

â??Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal
invasion becomes,â?? Mr. Tillman wrote in the 660-word essay that was posted
on Thursday on Truthdig .com, a Web magazine offering news and opinion from
a â??progressive point of view.â??

â??Somehow,â?? Mr. Tillman added, â??American leadership, whose only credit is
lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to
steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.â??

In what are apparently his most expansive public remarks since the death of
his brother at age 27, he also does not spare the American public, which he
suggests too often relies on superficial gestures to support the troops
instead of holding politicians accountable.

â??Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a 5-year-old
kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas or
slapping stickers on cars or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a
helmet,â?? he wrote.

Mr. Tillman ended with a suggestion that the elections on Nov. 7 are an
opportunity for people opposed to the war to send a message.

â??Luckily this country is still a democracy,â?? he wrote. â??People still have
a
voice. People can still take action. It can start after Patâ??s birthday,â??
Nov. 6.

Despite Pat Tillmanâ??s fame and the outpouring of emotion after his death,
the Tillman family has generally kept a distance from antiwar protesters,
though they have often spoken of their efforts to find the truth about what
happened. Family members did not answer messages for comment on Kevin
Tillmanâ??s posting.

A spokeswoman for the Pat Tillman Foundation in San Jose, Calif., where the
Tillmans grew up, said, â??It is our understanding that Kevin Tillman is not
accepting interview requests.â??

Pat Tillman, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals, left the team in spring
2002 to join the Army along with Kevin Tillman, motivated in part by the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and eventually training as a Ranger. After a stint
in Iraq, the brothers were sent to Afghanistan.

Pat Tillman died, the Army eventually concluded, after members of his own
unit shot him as they searched for enemy fighters in a canyon in
southeastern Afghanistan. An Afghan soldier fighting next to him also died.

Kevin Tillmanâ??s essay was posted as Pentagon investigators close in on the
latest of several investigations into the case. Initially, the Army had
suggested that enemy fire had killed Pat Tillman. Later, the Army conceded
that his comrades had shot him.

Under pressure from the family and members of Congress, the inspector
general of the Defense Department and the Army Criminal Investigation
Command are examining the actions of members of Mr. Tillmanâ??s unit and the
initial investigation.

Daniel Kohns, a spokesman for Representative Michael M. Honda of
California, a Democrat from San Jose, who pushed for the investigations,
said Pentagon representatives said a month ago that they expected to
complete their work by the end of November or early December.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said Monday that the investigations were
continuing. He declined to comment on Kevin Tillmanâ??s essay.

Robert Scheer, a liberal syndicated columnist and the editor of Truthdig,
based in Santa Monica, Calif., said he had written about the case and had
spoken to family members in the past.

Kevin Tillmanâ??s article was not solicited, Mr. Scheer said, and the site
agreed to Mr. Tillmanâ??s conditions for posting it. The conditions were that
it be posted unchanged aside from grammatical editing, including the
headline he had written, â??After Patâ??s Birthday.â??

Mr. Scheer said Mr. Tillman had made it known that, after leaving the
military last year, he felt now was time to speak out, with his brotherâ??s
birthday approaching. Pat Tillman also had expressed anger about the war to
friends, several published reports have said.

â??He is not proselytizing, he is not a political person,â?? Mr. Scheer said of
Kevin Tillman. â??He just decided because his birthday was coming up he felt
strongly that he had to say something.â??

Since the article went up on the Web site, it has received more than 4,000
responses, though Web server limits have prohibited publishing that many,
Mr. Scheer said.

If you think I posted anything emotional, then get your ears on - you don't yet know what may be coming We are now at the edge of a cliff in Iraq. It is that desperate. Total withdrawal (military defeat) is our only option in a few months. Total disintegration of Iraq will be inevitable; determined by what we do in a next few months. All options will terminate probably at then end of this year. Tell me where panic is in this reality.

Did you notice an emergency deployment of aircraft carriers apparently to the Gulf? Why not? If you think for one minute that I have expressed emotions - then insufficient grasp of logic exists. Most every Cellar Dweller was in ostrich mode years ago - denying what was regarded as an alarmist posts. Did you foresee a thousand dead Americans years ago? Why not? Because that reality was too alarmist back then?

I don't mock. That you even suspected mockery suggests an ostrich grasp of reality still remains. 10,000 casualties is not for one minute an emotion – it is a fact. If you perceive emotion in what was posted, then why is your grasp of reality not so ruthless?

To not stand up for the troops now - to "Stay the Course" - is to hate soldiers as we did to the troops in Vietnam. 20,000 casualties was not mockery. 20,000 is directly traceable to indecision and a lying president. ‘Calm down’ suggests one is too many years behind reality – also called ‘denial’. Nothing posted was emotional. That attitude will be normal in a few years if we don’t save those troops lives now.

They don’t decide to be wasted casualties. We do that - now. Options are about to expire. How many thousands will die is decided in these next few months by us. One who does not see the cliff would say, “Calm down”. Do you see that cliff, headsplice? If not, then why not ... is what you should be asking. All options are about to expire. Why do you not yet see the cliff?

"Rumsfeld Agrees Bush Is ‘Not Backing Away From Staying The Course’" Of course. There are only two options. 500,000 troops in-country for one year. Or complete withdrawal - a military defeat. Anything else is 'stay the course'. And stay the course means 20,000 casualties. 'Stay the course' is what a Cellar dweller promotes if not demanding either 500,000 troops now or a complete withdrawal (surrender).

There are no other options. Decision is that simple. And options are about to expire.

Why are the Democrats politicizing "stay the course"? Why did they wait until just before the election to ... wait a minute...

Ah, so you give us a 'one or the other' choice between agreeing with you and what you have made tantamount to murder. You really are starting to sound like the GOP tw

Because Iraq has deteriorated so quickly in only last three months. US put massive forces in Baghdad including a four month extension of the Stryker brigade. Violence increased proving again that Americans only exagerbate the problem. One option is 500,000 troops in-country now. That option will no longer work in a few more months. A strong hawk named Kagan says that option has only four months left. Opportunity window is closing that quickly. Politics has nothing to do with that reality.

Situation has so deteriorated as to be apparent even in numbers. Deja vue Nam. Exactly what happened in Nam. Long before numbers said how bad it was, it was long before worse. Learn the history of Col John Paul Vann to appreciate the obvious. Meanwhile, Iraq had deteriorated so badly so long ago that it is suddenly becoming apparent this summer - in the numbers.

Politics has little to do with it. You should have seen those numbers coming long ago - as I have been posting bluntly and without any politiness. My recent acidity is because of what numbers are finally reporting. Accounting is finally reporting what Military Science already knew - what those five retired Generals were saying long ago. Too many Americans refuse to acknowledge reality until even accounting says the obvious: 90+ dead Americans and maybe 700 wounded troops in this month alone. Show me where politics has any factor in those numbers - and I will show you a lying president.

Ahh, but conveniently....
 

Saddam's verdict will come out this weekend. It was supposed to be mid-October, but has been moved to this pre-election weekend.

On one hand it could boost the Republicans. Like the Iraq elections, they could point to this as progress in Iraq.

On the other hand, this could set off the bloodiest fighting in Iraq in the past three years, reminding us that these small milestones have no short term effect on the violence and may not have any long term effect.

An interesting note from this article on the verdict.

So, it's possible that the verdict could set a precedence whereby GWB would be unable to visit certain countries for fear of being tried in the world court.