Just saw this over on Think Progress:

Senators want answers on Iran.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Joe Biden (D-DE) write President Bush: "Congress needs to have greater confidence that the Administration is not mismanaging Iran policy as it has mismanaged its Iraq policy."

Yesterday, the Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty resigned. It is astonishing that his boss continues to hang on, as does Wolfowitz at the World Bank, and Rove at the White House. The more egregious the behavior, the more Bush supports them.

If only.

The frustration is overwhelming. Today we learn that a ranger who was with Pat Tilman when he died was ordered to lie by a higher-up.

Ranger alleges cover-up in Tillman case

By SCOTT LINDLAW and ERICA WERNER,
Associated Press Writers 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when he died by friendly fire said Tuesday he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman's family.
"I was ordered not to tell them," U.S. Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
He said he was given the order by then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, the battalion commander who oversaw Tillman's platoon.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

Give me patience.

It seems that the Democrats cannot avoid making moves that make them appear tentative and afraid.  Everywhere you turn, Bush and his gang of crooks are stonewalling and the Democrats temporize hoping they can persuade them to be reasonable and to work with them.

Hillary the bitch.

Over the past week as the country obsessed about Imus and his insults, it became clear that this sort of trash talk and cruelty passing as humor had gone too far.

On radio, the purveyors of this type of behavior are the right wing talk show hosts. It was also interesting to look at who bore the brunt of their insults and who didn’t. People like to say that Imus insulted everyone, yet he is not on record for hiring someone specifically to do Jewish jokes or gay jokes or catholic jokes. He hired someone to do "N" jokes.  Across the board, the primary targets of this locker room humor were black people and . . . Hillary Clinton.

And the Democrats have allowed it. We still have not learned to protect our own.

The woman is still being hit from all sides and as yet, there is no organized and effective response to the lies, the hypocrisy, or to fight back. Had the first Republican efforts at belittling her been met with equal force, and authentic outrage, I might add, this thing might have been over in a few days, as we would have given as good as we got and exposed their hypocrisy so that the media could not mention Nancy without mentioning the Republicans. Instead the congressional Dems still afraid to be too controversial, sat back quietly and allowed the Republican lies to take root. Sure, from time to time there was a positive editorial about her trip, or one pundit said something in support, or pointed out the hypocrisy, but generally speaking the Repug message was the one carrying the day. Days.

She was left to fend for herself.  Clearly, the congressional Dems still do not understand what they are up against or how the Repugs work to diminish and destroy them.

Are they crazy?

According to THINK PROGRESS, Bush & Co are about to deploy a new tactic against the Democrats.  They intend to pull out all the stops to blame the Democrats for the delay in funding the Iraq war.  They will refer to the number of days since Bush requested funding. Like this:

It has been 57 days since he sent Congress his funding request. If Congress fails to act soon, Bush said, "the price of that failure will be paid by our troops and their loved ones."

I wonder how Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Brownback & the other republican candidates would react if Al Sharpton were to invite them to participate in a debate at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Personally,  I doubt any of them would show up.

Not much has changed since victory day.  In spite of new Democratic power, it is disappointing to see that the congressional Democrats are still reacting to Republican frames. Control of the house and senate has given Democratic voices a new resonance. And yet, the Democrats are still on the defensive. Still trying to conduct themselves in ways so as not to present the Republicans with ammunition to attack them. They are not yet bold.

Amazing how history repeats itself.

I was absolutely convinced that there was no way Bush could win the 2004 election. Why? Because after so blatant a theft in 2000, plus all the Republican shenanigans  with voting machines, tricks upon voters etc, it seemed to me that the Democrats had learned their lessons and no way would they allow the same tricks to be played upon them in 2004.  

Well, the Republicans followed the exact same play book from voter purges to tampering with voting machines and the Democrats allowed themselves to be cheated again in 2004.

I for one, am no longer astonished by George Bush's nerve. I am astonished that he still manages to astonish some people. The man is amoral period, and anything should be expected of him. The fact that he's still able to astonish suggests that our perception of him is sometimes faulty, meaning that there are still some things we feel he's above doing.

Over the past few days there has been a lot of talk  about the GOP ad in Tennessee which plays upon pre-existing prejudices about black men and white women. Most agree that the ad is racist.  What is not being said  however, is that this is what we have come to expect from the Republican party.

So says John Hickey the executive director of the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition.
This is not a good way to begin one's day, but I think that the following article from Salon Magazine is a must read if we are to win 2006. IMO, not nearly enough is being said or done about the problem of voter disenfranchisement. We seem to think that our numbers alone will countervail Republican theft.  The article by Art Levine is entitled Salon's shameful six, and it delineates the six states where voter suppression is most egregious. Clearly, if we don't agitate, our leaders will continue to ignore the problem.

Salon's shameful six
http://www.salon.com/...

Joe Lieberman states that he is mounting his independent bid for the sake of the Democratic party.  The nerve. The party he just quit.  Who is he to speak for or to specify what's in the best for the Democratic party?  This is beyond arrogance.

If we want to know the problem with Washington Democrats and why we desperately need some major changes, we should look no further than the Connecticut Senate race.

George Bush's "War on Terror" has become the source of all our evils. I believe that it was born out of his personal weakness and insecurity,  his lack of faith in the American people, and in his capacity as a strong leader. As a consequence, he chose fear as his weapon to hold us, at a time when most Americans were understandably afraid.  

In case you missed them, here are three different solutions by foreign policy experts on how to solve the current crisis. They run the gamut, from war, war, and more war to the more judicious and practical. You will know where you stand.

First up, here is Richard Perle to explain why he thinks the Israeli response is an appropriate one.

For Britain's 267,000 Jews, liberal by instinct and socially progressive, Israel represents their greatest hope and, at times, their deepest shame. The nation that was forged in the aftermath of the Holocaust was once regarded as a bold experiment in democracy and collective living. Now it stands accused of the same acts of terror with which it condemns its enemies.

So begins an interesting article from the Independent about the thoughts of British Jews on the current conflict. Some highlights: