Personal news, commentary and ramblings
Rachel Maddow provides some excellent historical perspective as well as outlining exactly what Obama has accomplished.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
My apologies if you had to watch a commercial before the video started.
As I bask in the sweet feelings of victory following the election on Tuesday, I must pause to thank those I think most responsible for Obama’s election (in no particular order):
The New York Times reports that once again, despite previous assurances that they would not, the Democrats in Congress have caved in under threat of veto from President Bush. When the American people elected a Democratic majority to both the House and Senate in 2006 it was assumed by most that the Democrats would end the war. A few weeks ago I watched Nancy Pelosi on one of the Sunday talk shows. The interviewer asked her why Congress had not acted to end the war during the last two years and her response was this:Â The President will veto it and the Democrats don’t have enough votes to override.
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has been criticizing Barack Obama this week for not supporting “the surge.” In a controversially edited interview on CBS News on Tuesday, McCain took Obama to task for saying that the so-called Anbar Awakening should be credited for helping to decrease violence in Iraq over the last 18 months. According to McCain “the surge” was responsible for the Anbar Awakening:
I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.
Unfortunately, as critics would later point out, McCain chose exactly the wrong time to invoke the word “history.” The awakening began in late 2006, at least three months before President Bush went to Congress and the American people in January of 2007 to announce a new strategy in Iraq. This strategy had a working title of “A New Way Forward” but became generally known in the press and with the American people as “The Surge.” Given that it wasn’t announced, much yet implemented when the awakening began, McCain is horrendously wrong, right?
As we hid from the rain in my sister’s giant RV this morning, somebody switched on the TV and we watched George Bush arrive at the new ground zero in Minneapolis. It occurred to me that if I lived in the middle of a disaster area, I would shudder if George Bush showed up. Nothing says “incompetence” quite like the Bush administration.
A local university professor created a chalk tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Iraq war on the sidewalks of Portland’s Waterfront. I saw it for the first time in its completed form this morning on my ride to work. The names go on and on. Some have faded and been washed away by the rain, but it all works metaphorically, I think
An Oregonian article has more.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, I think it was pretty perplexing for many people why the Bush administration never fired anyone when mistakes were made and, in some cases, rewarded perceived incompetence., and getting legal help for this is important, and you can navigate to this website to find more information about this.
There’s an understanding within the administration that everyone knows where the bodies are buried. Furthermore, the understanding seems to be that nobody will do the “honorable thing” and “fall on their sword.” Michael Brown appeared to sacrifice himself so the administration could keep credibility, but when he was subsequently called before Congress, he promptly threw his boss, Michael Cherthoff, under the bus.
So, too, it appears with Scooter Libby. The administration might have thought Libby would be the fall guy for the Valerie Plame affair, but his lawyers seem to think otherwise.
Of course, both of these are minor players. What would happen if Cheney or Rumsfeld was fired? Or Karl Rove? Then we’d find out some real shit about Bush. Because nobody wants to take the blame and everyone wants to place it.
