Okay, so I had one repost request. That's popular enough for me. :)

Maybe I missed something -- that can happen. In real life, things can sometimes occur that are unexpected. But this seems almost surreal:

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Obama website's opposition to successful surge gets deleted

A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.

The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared. John McCain and Obama have been going at it heavily in recent days over the benefits of the surge.

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Crossposted to ePluribus Media, DailyKos, Docudharma and Below Boston

Maybe I missed something -- that can happen. In real life, things can sometimes occur that are unexpected. But this seems almost surreal:

_____

Obama website's opposition to successful surge gets deleted

A funny thing happened over on the Barack Obama campaign website in the last few days.

The parts that stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared. John McCain and Obama have been going at it heavily in recent days over the benefits of the surge.

___

I remember stories from my grandmother and stepfather about runs on banks. I remember that famous scene from "It's a Wonderful Life." Today my brother left a message telling me he saw an actual run on a bank in Duarte California. It begins.

After today's disgrace of the Senate's vote to pass the FISA Act unamended, Martin Niemoeller's poem comes to mind. If you will allow me a slight variation (Original Poem):

Over at the McCain website, campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb posts the transcript of a McCain radio interview conducted today in Denver.

       ROSEN: One more question and then we’ll let you go. I understood that you only had about 10 minutes with us. As I said earlier, Barack Obama is already modifying his absolute position calling for an immediate pull out from Iraq, if he’s elected. Given the success in Iraq, following our change in strategy, what’s your appraisal of the situation in Iraq, and what would be your approach to it, if elected President.

       SEN. MCCAIN: Well, I think you know that I opposed the failed strategy of the Bush administration. I argued for the strategy that is succeeding.

Really John McCain? You opposed George Bush's failed strategy? Unfortunately for Michael Goldfarb and John McCain the truth tends to not just disappear. Here are some select quotes from John McCain singing the same tune as the Bush administration.

Of course you already knew that, and this is a completely frivolous diary. But you know what? I'm gonna write it anyway, because I am in that kind of mood. Seriously, please, go do something better with your time, because it is going to be wasted here.

Update: Full of fail is leading in the poll. I dunno, I thought failure was a good choice too.

Update 2: Looks like Full of fail is going to take it. Maybe I'll e-mail Glenn Beck the results.

Posted simultaneously on ePluribus Media, DailyKos, Docudharma and Below Boston.

There are words that comprise paper tigers and those which ignite fires; some words are worth fighting to protect, others are not.

Some words forge new nations and ideals amid the forge-fires of conflict, while others are relegated to the dustbins of history as naught but a footnote at most.

There are words, on the page following, which have worth that appears to vary across the depth and breadth of the nation today.  Once -- long ago, perhaps -- they were words that could inspire and entice the people of a nation to do great things. Now, however, their fate appears uncertain.  I ask, fellow Kossacks, just one simple question: Whither the words necessary to marshal a hue and cry of outrage and demand for restoration, restitution and accountability?

Joe says; How dare you, McCain was a POW and a Prisoner and he was beaten and, and, and he can't raise his arms and... Joe, Joe, stop froat-ing at the mouth, McCain's mouth is not broken and he has to show his mind and mouth, match is sharp and has a firm grip on the issues of the day.

The Idiot would be me.

I first posted this as a comment to another story, asking for opinions and solutions to a particular problem, and received only a couple candidate/primary responses.  Shame.

As you will probably be able to tell from what I've written below, I'm no whiz when it comes to the Middle East. But my fears are genuine and concern the Middle East, Oil and how that region will shake out in the near future once we leave.

DHinMI wrote a FP story called Lebanon: Yet Another Foreign Policy Opportunity Screwed Up by the Bush Administrationthat focused on Lebanon, and how the Iraq war has "helped" to affect politics and life in that nation.

It got me wondering about our future as a nation once our nation was through fucking up the futures of the nations of the Middle East, went the hell home and quit sticking our arrogant noses into everyone's business.

It's not unusual for bad news to be interpreted as a death knell:  CDs/digital music would be the end of radio; the Intarweb would be the end of the newspaper; the Patriot Act is the end of civil rights; etcetera ad nauseum.

At the end of the 2006 elections, there was a quiet undercurrent throughout the news that the power held by the Republicans was at an end.  It was even whispered (quietly) that RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) would spell the end of the GOP.  But what's transpired in the last two years has me scratching my head and chuckling at the all too obvious conclusion:  It would be very easy for the Democrats to be destroyed by their very success.

Crossposted from ePluribus Media.

Recognize the title? Perhaps you may, particularly if you are married -- it's a snippet from a marriage vow.

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To Have and to Hold From This Day Forward,
For Better or for Worse,
For Richer, or for Poorer,
In Sickness and in Health,
Forsaking All Others,
To Love and to Cherish,
Until Death Do Us Part.
________

Unfortunately, when I came across the phrase and paused long enough to take each line separately, it was not any type of matrimonial bliss that graced my mind, but instead the unholy union that has resulted in the current disaster currently damning our nation at the highest levels. What follows are the random thoughts I found darkly circling each phrase in the vow; tread softly now, that the imprints left do not permanently mar the once-bright promise and potential formerly associated with it...

Thanks to Crooks & Liars (and in truth Jon Stewart) I've come to realize that President Bush's biggest Iraq problem is that he can't define "victory" as well as he can define "failure."

In regards to ending the occupation of Iraq, he's essentially said it won't happen until there's victory. What's "victory?" Hard to say, since he's claimed military success regardless of whether the number of US soldiers killed goes up or down.

It may have seemed quiet in Iraq these last few months, but that is changing right now.
Iraqi leader orders militias to surrender weapons amid heavy fighting

BAGHDAD — Amid heavy clashes between government forces and Shiite Muslim militants in Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an ultimatum Wednesday demanding that the militias surrender their weapons within 72 hours. Radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr , whose Mahdi Army militia is a prime target of the government offensive, responded by demanding that Maliki leave Basra.

So while Muqtada Al Sadr and his militia start warming up their guns, I thought, what horrible timing, when it's obvious (snark) that this surge is going so well. Everythig has been sooooo sucessful. I then caught this little nugget on crooksandliars regarding the most likely reason our "success" is a sham and is about to slap us right back in our silly little occupying faces.
More below:

The financial crisis is growing and no one knows for sure who are, or what will be the next shoe to fall. In previous posts I have articulated my concerns on both the markets and those who influenced policy. In this post I will discuss how the system fails, how to evaluate the bank you keep you money in, a list of the safer banks in the country at this time, and provide a link to a web video that explains how banks work and fail.  It seems now would be a good time to discuss how to evaluate your local bank in order to know how safe your money is!  

Your local bank should have minimal exposure to high risk investment because if it is not minimal they are at high risk of failure. What happens if they fail? You may lose your cash or at the very least wait at least a year or two to get it back. I can assure you it will not be with interest because I speak from experience because two years ago Refco, LLC failed and it took 2 years to get 40% of my principle.  

The term Manifest Destiny, the belief in an American "mission" to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, was first used by Jacksonian Democrats in the 1840s. It probably arose out of the idealism that accompanied the leaving of the old, rigid order in Europe and the vibrant if bloody settling of the New World. It was revived in the 1890s to justify U.S. expansionism outside of North America.

Manifest Destiny was based upon an unshakable belief in the virtue of the American people and their institutions; the belief that America had a mission to spread these institutions and improve the world by remaking it in the image of the U.S.; and that God blessed this destiny. President Abraham Lincoln’s description of the United States in 1862 as "the last, best hope of Earth" is a well-known expression of this belief (one that would seem to have been at odds with the grim reality of the American Civil War).

I've figured it all out!  I have the answer!  Follow me below the fold and hear my chattering monkeywisdom as I spell it all out and save the world... or, at least the Democratic part of it, which is the only part I want to keep breeding, anyway.

I couldn’t believe I saw this headline again.  My friggin head practically exploded:

Pelosi calls Iraq a 'failure':  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said twice Sunday that Iraq "is a failure," adding that President Bush’s troop surge has "not produced the desired effect." - Politico

Democrats continue to flail in the politics of Iraq.  Their obvious betrayal of the anti-war movement is well documented, but it didn't need to be this way.  By simply proclaiming victory and identifying our current action as an occupation, Dems could have won the debate, peeled off Republican Senate votes and catapulted the Democratic brand as the brand of moral leadership in the world.

The worst part is that Paul Hackett showed us how to win this debate years ago, and we're still fighting like losers.  

Join me for video and controversy below...