Petraeus as President

Not Petraeus for president. Brent Budowsky makes the case that Petraeus acts with the authority of a commander-in-chief as congress postures and preens and does absolutely nothing at all.

In testimony today Petraeus said both that progress in Iraq is significant and that the condition is so fragile that future troop withdrawals be put off for at least 75 days.

Meanwhile bellicose cheerleaders Lindsey Graham and Creepy Joe™ Lieberman worked diligently to conflate Iran, Iraq and a militant Islamist threat against the US.

And the endless war goes on endlessly.

Indispensible words from the Times

The New York Times weighs in on FISA, and Frank Rich makes all of us think twice about our sedentary approach to the out-of-control juggernaut called the Bush administration.

Rich is right. A call a week to each of your representatives in Washington costs virtually nothing and takes only a few minutes. But if enough of us did just this one thing, there would be big differences in how decisions are made.

Don' t waste a call on Creepy Joe Liberman, those holes in the side of his head used to be ears, but are now simply holes in the sides of his head.

Here's a Peggy Seeger lyric from her great, Song of Choice to consider after reading Rich:

Song of Choice

Early every year the seeds are growing
Unseen, unheard they lie beneath the ground
Would you know before their leaves are showing
That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears
Shut your mouth then how can you know ?
For seeds you cannot hear may not be there
Seeds you cannot see may never grow

In January you've still got the choice
You can cut the weeds before they start to bud
If you leave them to grow high they'll silence your voice
And in December you may pay with your blood

So close your eyes, stop your ears,
Shut your mouth and take it slow
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn't know

Every day another vulture takes flight
There's another danger born every morning
In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite
How can you fight if you can't recognise a warning?

Today you may earn a living wage
Tomorrow you may be on the dole
Though there's millions going hungry you needn't disengage
For it's them, not you, that's fallen in the hole

It's alright for you if you run with the pack
It's alright if you agree with all they do
If fascism is slowly climbing back
It's not here yet so what's it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they're growing
It'll soon be too late for the knife
If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing
You may pay for your silence with your life

So close your eyes, stop your ears,
Shut your mouth and never dare
And if it happens here they'll never come for you
Because they'll know you really didn't care

Hooray for Gerry Daley

When a prominent Democratic Councilman in Middletown calls for the impeachment of President Bush, I can offer nothing but appreciation.

Gerry Daley put forward an unofficial resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, and the Democratic town committee passed it. Makes me glad, for at least a moment, that I'm a Democrat in Middletown. Now we must urge Daley to propose it as a resolution that the City Council will vote on. Send him an email and suggest it (gedaley@snet.net).

But we must remember, that it was this same committee which endorsed Creepy Joe Lieberman over the official Democratic candidate Ned Lamont. That may have been politically expedient, but if these Dems are sincere now, then it was morally dishonest. They can call Creepy Joe Lieberman every name in the book now. But they are an important part of the reason he is where he is.

A love letter to Creepy Joe

So Lanny Davis gets all teary-eyed when considering Creepy Joe Lieberman's voting record.

The first clue to Davis' impaired emotional state of mind is his reminiscence on the Pentagon-manufactured media moment when Saddam Hussein's statue was torn down in the public square in Baghdad. Davis recalls: "My heart sang as I watched on television." Ulp. Be prepared for the worst.

So Davis proclaims the wisdom behind Creepy Joe's public chastisement of Bill Clinton's private indiscretion and he champions Lieberman's call for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, and the junior senator's criticism of Bush's handling of the war. What he doesn't recognize is the shrewd timing of every Lieberman statement and vote. He's repeatedly voted on crucial issues only when it's politically safe for him to cast a vote which he can later champion in public. The problem for Lieberman now is that he can't hide. He's in a position as tie-breaker where we can see that he votes with conservative Republicans on nearly every issue where his (former) party needs him.

And please, don't tell me how liberal his votes have been. That's not a reflection of his liberalism, it's a reflection of just how conservative the Senate has been.

Credit to the Courant for identifying Davis as a friend of Lieberman in the byline, but why would they run this love letter as opinion in the first place?

By the way, Davis is a bit thin-skinned about the criticism thrown his way by liberal bloggers. What was it Truman said, "I you can't stand the heat..."

Colin McEnroe's thoughts on the issue here.

Worse still, I find Douglas McKinnon, former press secretary for Bob Dole, calling Creepy Joe, "one of the most decent people ever to walk the halls of Congress." Well, isn't that like saying. "Charles Manson is the best songwriter to walk the halls of San Quentin."

Creepy Joe's History of the Future

Does this man have no shame?

Starving, simply starving for attention, Creepy Joe Lieberman will say anything, even things that make him seem like the most foolish, toadying, fawning, repellent, dimwit.

I hope to God, my child never has to read that history book.

And now for his drum solo, Creepy Joe Lieberman

Our independent Senator grows ever more so as he thumps a lonely tatoo on his war drum.

Seems Joe would have us lob a few hot ones into Tehran to rekindle the fear into the Iranian decision making process.

Read the argument and you'll find he's actually attempting to rekindle the fear into the Congressional decision-making process.

One wonders how the Wall Street Journal's opinion page could grow more conservative under the watchful eye of Rupert Murdoch.

Memo to Creepy Joe: Are we talking about the same surge?

The facts seem to indicate that "the surge" is particularly uneffective.

So, Creepy Joe must belong to a different drum circle than the rest of his Senate colleagues. And with the slip of a vowel, he can encourage continued mayhem in two countries - Iraq and Iran.

It's almost always more convenient to spill someone else's blood

And so, the grand and mighty warrior, chickenhawk, and saber rattler, Creepy Joe Lieberman has declared that Iran has declared war on us. And so, we must declare war on them, because we have good intelligence that they are aiding Iraqui insurgents.

It's probably intelligence as good as the kind we used to get into the Iraq war in the first place.

It's probably the kind of intelligence that isn't.

In Iraq, we've got the enemy on the run?

The surge is working?

Just who does Creepy Joe Lieberman, Mr. "Lieberman for Connecticut," think he's representing. On Sunday's This Week with George Stephanpoulos he makes some claims that seem to fly in the face of the facts being reported from Iraq. He trots out jingoism when he makes a plea to let our courageous men and women in uniform have the chance to do the job they want to do. Most of those good men and women in uniform would rather be home.

He also thinks that the 'big brother" tactics in Britain of TV cameras on every corner should be implemented here and that they wouldn't threaten anyone's liberties.

And he makes the Nazi Germany analogy when discussing Iran.

Besides the enemy on the run, Creepy Joe also indicates that American politicians are on the run in retreat from the war on terror.

When you need a Republican war hawk you can count on, call

Creepy Joe Lieberman. Oh, that's right, he's...an independent. When his hawkish congressional colleagues are slowly walking backwards from the chaos in Iraq, Lieberman is still cheerleading for Bush.

Not only was it a run-on sentence, it was pure Lieberman baloney

"I know that some will say that proposing a forum for bipartisan cooperation on the war is, in the current intensely partisan environment in Washington, naïve and impractical. Perhaps they are right. But what is not naïve or impractical is my conclusion that the return of such bipartisanship in the conduct of this war would raise popular support at home, encourage our brave troops in the field, discourage our vicious enemies, and strengthen the resolve of the Iraqi people and the hundreds of millions of others in the Islamic world who want a better way forward than the hatred and death Al Qaeda offers."

In December of 2005, Joe Lieberman made yet another of his noxious speeches supporting the failing policies of George W. Bush. Then, and later during his campaign to be re-elected Senator from Connecticut, and still later after he was elected, he continued to claim his "independent" role as moderator between clashing Senate forces.

Of course, the truth is, Lieberman is quite the opposite. His rhetorical claim as diplomat is belied by his actions.

Last week he went on a Sunday news show and declared that we needed to bomb Iran to put muscle behind our diplomacy.

Later in the week he misquoted Harry Reid and derided him for telling the truth about commanding generals in Iraq.

Yesterday in East Hartford, realizing that people where suddenly paying attention to him as a result of his outrageous take on diplomacy, he repeated his strategy of "war is peace." Incidentally, he repeated his charge that Iran needed to be punished for killing Americans. If we want to begin talking about who's really responsible for American deaths in a war predicated on lies, Creepy Joe may feel uncomfortable with the fingers pointed at him.

Imagine where we would be if all our diplomatic actions had to be preceded by a bombing run.

Look, look out for "look"

When the honorable Senator Creepy Joe Lieberman speaks, as he did during a morning talk show on WTIC-AM this morning, watch out when he starts a sentence with "look." This verbal tic is a clue that either, he is about to spin, lie or scold. It often is an immediate chatisement of the questioner that, in a word, asks: "How could you ask such a stupid question, but fortunately, I, who have an answer for everything, am here to clear things up,"

So, this morning, he expounded on immigration where he talked about the New Haven ICE raids, and says that in the best possible worlds New Haven would not have proposed issuing special ID cards.

He also talks about threatening Iran, as he has for the past week, bring up the nuclear "smoking gun." He also blames the success of Hamas on Iran.

But listen carefully to his comments about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's criticism of General's Petraeus and Pace. Reid said the Pace had not been candid in his portrayal of our failures in Iraq and that Pace, in talking about the wonderful soccer stadiums in Iraq, "gives you a feeling that he's not in touch with what is really going on in Iraq or just trying to make the president feel good."

Lieberman trots out the ususal "support the troops" jingoism, saying that he called Pace "incompetent" which reportedly, he did not. He also says: "When you start to attack our top two generals, that's wrong."

No, what's wrong is continuing to support an unconscionable war which was foist upon us by a President who lied to get us there and continues to lie to keep us there.

And what's wrong is suggesting we should expand our "war on terror" by bombing Iran.

Look, Joe, look inside and see if you can find a spark of light in that shriveled soul.

Chickenhawk Lieberman Squawks

Creepy Joe can't seem to get enough of any war he doesn't have to fight personally. But a few people have had enough of him.

It may be that Lieberman suffers from attention deficit disorder. That is, when he has a deficit of attention paid to him, it amounts to a disorder in his mind. Whatever the case, his saber rattling, carries the horrible sound of apocalypse.

Another Creepy Joe vote for the Bush administration

And you thought Joe Lieberman represented you? Yesterday seven Republicans sided with Democrats in a vote expressing no-confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Joe Lieberman voted with the Republicans against the no-confidence vote. Interestingly, not a single Republican actually expressed support of Gonzales in debate before the vote.

Meanwhile, Creepy Joe reaffirmed is assertion that the U.S. should bomb Iran. He was challenged by Wesley Clark, who mentioned, ahem, that Creepy Joe is a chickenhawk. Brawwwk.

So that's what he meant during his campaign about getting troops out of Iraq as soon as possible...

So we could send them to Iran! The brilliance of the man's creepiness is astonishing. Lieberman actually talks about abiding by the international rule of law. Hmmm? Is that the same set of laws which forbids torture, abduction of citizens and detention in secret jails, and invasion of a sovereign nation with inadequate proof? Oh, those old international rules of law. Hell, everyone else may as well ignore them. We do.

By the way, he's not talking about "a major invasion." No. He's talking about just a little bit of death and destruction.

Brawwwwwk! Let's not forget Creepy Joe, Chris "Shameless" Shays and WTIC's Jim Devisive-ich

Lieberman, Shays and Vicevich are Connecticut's most noteworthy chickenhawks. Shall we sing along. Call Vicevich and dare to call him on his non-existent service record and you'll hear him sputter twice as much as he usually does.

Creepy Joe does "the bustling Iraq market walk"

from McLatchy:

Then Lieberman walked in, wearing a pair of sunglasses newly purchased from an Iraqi market that the military had taken him to in southeast Baghdad. He'd been equipped with a helmet and flak vest when he toured the market, which he described as bustling.

And.

Next to him, Spc. Will Hedin, 21, of Chester, Conn., thought about what he was going to say.

"We're not making any progress," Hedin said, as he recalled a comrade who was shot by a sniper last week. "It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."

But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.

"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."

Maybe Joe could share some useful information with them, like how he avoided military service when there was a draft by using three deferments.

Or using his Yale credentials, maybe he could share a quote from Shakespeare's Falstaff, from Henry IV, Part 1:

Tut, tut, good enough to toss, food for powder, food for powder; they’ll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.