It would be nice ...

If these little "caveats" on the "SURGE" were reported...this will up the estimated $2.5 trillion estimate quite a bit and catch the kicker:

I attended a talk today by Stephen Biddle, a first-rate military strategist who has been working with General Petraeus, about military progress in Iraq...Overall, he presented a rosier portrait than I would have, based on his recent ten day visit to Iraq, but he's a serious guy so I take him seriously - though I noticed that he concentrated almost exclusively on the local level progress and hardly mentioned Maliki or the national political level at all. Without getting in to his arguments or my reservations, I just wanted to lay out Biddle's best case scenario as he presented it: if everything goes right and if the US continues to "hit the lottery" with the spread of local ceasefires and none of a dozen different spoilers happens, then a patchwork of local ceasefires between heavily armed, mistrustful communities could possibly hold if and only if the US keeps 80,000-100,000 troops in Iraq for the next twenty to thirty years. And that's the best case scenario of one of the current strategy's smartest supporters.

It would be nice if one of our media meatheads would mention these little caveats, but they won't. Exhibit A this morning is the Washington Post's Peter Baker who is determined to find the pony.

Question to Ponder...

In ten years, who will have more cats -- Maureen Dowd or Ann Althouse?

Funny

When you toss out the Supreme Court you don't like by declaring martial law and then stuff it with cronies you get a decision in your favor.

Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar dismissed three opposition petitions challenging Musharraf's victory in last month's presidential election, saying they had been "withdrawn" because opposition lawyers were not present in court.

Dogar turned down a request from one of the petitioners to postpone the hearings, and also refused to continue counting ballots in Florida.

Opposition figures had said they expected little from the reconstituted court, which is loaded with justices chosen by Musharraf.*

Once again, the Pakistanis have learned from their GOP masters.



*Portions of the story may have been "enhanced" for your reading pleasure.

That's your media

Could they falate him any more?

Mr. McCain said he knew that attacking Mrs. Clinton would be an easy way to stir voters, but he disapproved of the tactics employed by Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani.

“I don’t think you should take shots at her, like imitating her voice,” Mr. McCain said during a discussion on his bus, referring to something Mr. Giuliani has done at campaign appearances. “I don’t know what you gain by doing that. I guess issuing inflammatory statements can be effective. But I can’t campaign that way.”

Mr. McCain, when asked after the speech why Mrs. Clinton inspired such a visceral reaction among conservatives, said it was fueled by a media environment that thrives on clashes between extremes.

You can peruse the article for it's entire length and fail to find mention of the fact that McCain let's his audience call Clinton a "bitch" and laughs about it.

I just don't understand how Michael Gordon doesn't get assigned to cover this campaign.

Allow me to Summarize

This is the listing for today's "Meet the Press":

NBC's "Meet the Press" — A 60-year anniversary retrospective of the show.

This could be summarized as "How Tim Russert ruined a major American institution". I hope the ghost of Lawrence E. Spivak pimp slaps him silly.

You can tell that "MEN" did this:

Is there nothing about New Orleans that cannot be screwed up at the expense of its residents?

The Army Corps of Engineers released flood risk maps on a block-by-block basis on June 20, but didn't include some technical data, preventing independent assessments of the accuracy of the maps.

The maps showed that the improvements made to the city canals' drainage systems would reduce flooding during a major storm by about 5.5 feet in Lakeview and nearby neighborhoods. The maps were based on a storm that has the likelihood of occurring at least once in 100 years.

But in a report released Nov. 7, Corps scientists estimated that the actual benefit the system would provide would be just 6 inches.

From beginning to end, New Orleans and its poor and middle-class (Democrat voting) population have been the victim of one screw up or act of maliciousness after another. They are either being ignored because of who they are, or purposefully cheated, screwed and disbursed to weaken their political standing and power. Already these screw ups are ignored or blamed on the victims. To the extent they ever come to light in the media it is over-produced to such a degree as to set many peoples eyes rolling as the victims of all this complain. They are no longer allowed to be what they truly are, innocent victims, but whiners and suckers of the taxpayers teat (i.e. "you know how those people are").

Years from now, when the dust settles and the records speak (and hardly anyone cares any longer) the true picture of what happened there will shame anyone who will listen -- and it won't be many.

That seems to be the plan.

"The President wanted me to tell you..."

"How much he loves jelly."

AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams

The first sentence lets you know

You'd rather engage in self-performed root canal than read further:

Maureen Dowd: The debate dominatrix knows how to rattle Obambi.

I read no further, I know how it goes.

In a nation that pays David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, Michelle Malkin, and the Doughy Pantload to abuse the English Language and all proper forms of logic once or twice a week, she still may be the worst columnist on earth.

Of course, I haven't read Friedman's column today so...

MATLOCK!!!

Shorter David Broder: "Shitty television debates are the terrible for their lack of substance. Why can't we have substantive discussions about serious things, like Hillary Clinton's marriage instead?"

Aw, Jeebus

Now Tweety is copying O'Reilly and having Body Language experts on.

All in the name of being the world's most expectorating misogynist. It's truly disgusting.

Digby gets it just right:

Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC varsity club don't have any self-awareness, so I know they also don't have a clue about what's driving this pathetic show of misogyny, but these particular comments are not new to me. I suspect I'm not alone in having been told by men over the years to "correct" my voice --- that it's too strident, too shrill, too grating. That I was being "emotional" and a little bit "hysterical." "Shhhh", "Tone it down, you're hurting my ears." "Settle down." I would guess that most opinionated, smart women who've worked in corporate America (or had a bad boyfriend) know what I'm talking about.

It took me a long time to realize that it tends to happen when I'm winning an argument and that it's actually a bit of misdirection which often, depending on your personality and self-confidence, results in either getting spitting mad or wilting. It can be extremely effective at derailing a good point --- and infantalizing women, particularly when it's done in public.

Buzzy resigns

From Blackwater.

Wants to spend more time with his family: Cookie, Mickey, Buffy, Missy, Muffy, Daffy, Ducky, Duffy, Wookie, Callie, Dusty, Doughy, Dilly, Donny, Molly, Freddy, Guppy, Teddy, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, Gummo, and Earl.

When Preznit LePetomaine

Met Sheriff Bart.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

DaaaAAAD! Driftglass Got into the Photoshop Again!

The kids are so clever with the computers these days.

Ah, the secret

What's the secret to reduced death (though hardly eliminated) in Iraq? Surely, it must be Commander Codpieces steely resolve in staring down Harry Reid?

...or not:

Q: Well what do you attribute this whole change on the ground to? Is this due to what is called “the surge,” or good diplomacy by the U.S. military, or just luck?

BIDDLE: All of those things have some role but I would put “luck” as probably the biggest.

Here's another thing about "luck" -- it runs out.

Of course, one can ask just how "lucky" it has been for the residents of Baghdad who have been essentially cordoned into solely Sunni & Shiia enclaves? When the ethnic cleansing ends -- there's fewer folks around to kill at one's leisure -- you have to work for it, meaning only the clumsy sociopaths are active. By putting thousand more troops into Baghdad we managed to facilitate the cleansing without by not allowing that messy thing called "resistance". Death goes down, repression remains somehow worse. "Luck" comes in only being there for the climatic and tragic resolution.

Of course, there is also the fact that Al Sadr ordered a stand down by his forces at the end of August for six months -- little noticed at the time, it seems to have been the real deal. Meanwhile, Al-Sadr's Shiia nationalists, and other Shiia groups of less national orientation are turning in their "Risk Cards" and assembling their armies for when they pick up the dice again in the Spring. One can hope the pause lasts, but this is Iraq, what are the odds of things going well for all that long?

As Borat would say, "Great Success".

Bush's Buddy in Pakistan

Nobody but Bush could not have anticipated:

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, says he instituted emergency rule for the extra powers it would give him to push back the militants who have carved out a mini-state in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But in the last several days, the militants have extended their reach, capturing more territory in Pakistan’s settled areas and chasing away frightened policemen, local government officials said.

As inconspicuous as it might be in a nation of 160 million people, the takeover of the small Alpuri district headquarters this week was considered a particular embarrassment for General Musharraf. It showed how the militants could still thumb their noses at the Pakistani Army.

In fact, local officials and Western diplomats said, there is little evidence that the 12-day-old emergency decree has increased the government’s leverage in fighting the militants, or that General Musharraf has used the decree to take any extraordinary steps to combat them.

Golly, Mooshy seems to get Mooshier every day. He should really flee the country for 'Murica so he can run FEMA.

I wanted to watch the Debate last night

But I decided to see if I could develop a "self-cutting" fetish instead. Seemed more productive.

YMMV.

Seriously, does anyone learn anything really from any of these debates other than the talking heads are complete assholes? And we haven't actually "learned" it, it just gets reinforced from what we've already known.

And I mean that in a bi-partisan fashion.

Cue (Fake) Wingnut Shitstorm in 5...4...3...2...

Falafel Boy ought to have fun with this one.

Worst Gay Porn Movie Ever

"Brokestache Mountain"

Just sayin'

Mmmmmmmmmm, is it available on BluRay?*

*Don't blame me, blame FeralLiberal

The Osmond Family Endorses Mitt Romney

How totally unexpected. Now if Mitt locks up the Duggars he's pretty much got a plurality of the GOP base locked up (if they can keep from mounting each other long enough to go vote in the primaries).

Of course, you know what this means...

Doorbells ring - in the mornin’? It's our "Mission" for Implorin'.
That Mitt's Number One for replacin' God's son!
Presidin' in his Mormon Underwear.

He's good lookin' there's no denying, for his pants K-Lo's tryin'.
But he's purer than Christ, and at least twice as nice!

Posin' in his Mormon underwear.

On FoxNews Sean can build us a strawman,
then pretend that Mormons are okay.
People will say, "Yeah, but they're all freaks, man!"
Hey at least the Mormons aren't gay.

Later on, we’ll conspire as we dream by the fire.

As snug as a bug in an Osmond girl's rug!
Touchin’ Mitt's open Mormon underwear.

TV Land is bringing back the Classics

FAMILY AFFAIR!

With Cookie, Buzzy, Condi, Dummy, Mrs. Beazley and of course, Mr. French Freedom.