Thursday Midday Headlines
Some of these links are from yesterday, which I started collecting before The Escalater's speech last night. Somehow I just didn't have the energy to post after hearing all that bullshit on my tv. ;)
++ Ted Kennedy wants universal health care. Me too, Teddy!
++ Democratic Senator Chris Dodd joins the 2008 race.
++ The Governator wants me to like him, but I'm resisting, dammit!
++ "Michael S. Dell, who made his name building computers, has a new goal:planting trees."
++ There are 744,000 homeless people in the U.S., according to a new study.
++ 3,000 British troops to pull out of Iraq by May.
++ AmericaBlog says Bush invaded Iran last night. Wait, WHAT?!? So I followed the AP link, which says U.S.-led forces detain 6 Iranian workers. Not quite as panic-inducing, but still a scary precident.
++ Bangladesh declares state of emergency after weeks of violent protests over a disputed general election.
++ Everyone should read Juan Cole's post this morning entitled Bush Sends GIs to his Private Fantasyland.
To listen to Bush's speech on Wednesday, you would imagine that al-Qaeda has occupied large swathes of Iraq with the help of Syria and Iran and is brandishing missiles at the US mainland. That the president of the United States can come out after nearly four years of such lies and try to put this fantasy over on the American people is shameful.
The answer to "al-Qaeda's" occupation of neighborhoods in Baghdad and the cities of al-Anbar is then, Bush says, to send in more US troops to "clear and hold" these neighborhoods.
But is that really the big problem in Iraq? Bush is thinking in terms of a conventional war, where armies fight to hold territory. But if a nimble guerrilla group can come out at night and set off a bomb at the base of a large tenement building in a Shiite neighborhood, they can keep the sectarian civil war going. They work by provoking reprisals. They like to hold territory if they can. But as we saw with Fallujah and Tal Afar, if they cannot they just scatter and blow things up elsewhere.
++ WaPo confirms what yesterday's USA Today poll already told us: Most Americans are opposed to Bush's plan for Iraq.
++ The WaPo also reports: "Senior House Democrats said yesterday that they will attempt to derail funding for President Bush's proposal to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, setting up what could become the most significant confrontation between the White House and Congress over military policy since the Vietnam War."
++ 'Gated communities' planned for Baghdad - which, btw, they tried that in Vietnam, and it was a ‘spectacular failure.‘
++ Better armor lacking for new troops in Iraq.
++ Ted Kennedy wants universal health care. Me too, Teddy!
++ Democratic Senator Chris Dodd joins the 2008 race.
++ The Governator wants me to like him, but I'm resisting, dammit!
++ "Michael S. Dell, who made his name building computers, has a new goal:planting trees."
++ There are 744,000 homeless people in the U.S., according to a new study.
++ 3,000 British troops to pull out of Iraq by May.
++ AmericaBlog says Bush invaded Iran last night. Wait, WHAT?!? So I followed the AP link, which says U.S.-led forces detain 6 Iranian workers. Not quite as panic-inducing, but still a scary precident.
++ Bangladesh declares state of emergency after weeks of violent protests over a disputed general election.
++ Everyone should read Juan Cole's post this morning entitled Bush Sends GIs to his Private Fantasyland.
To listen to Bush's speech on Wednesday, you would imagine that al-Qaeda has occupied large swathes of Iraq with the help of Syria and Iran and is brandishing missiles at the US mainland. That the president of the United States can come out after nearly four years of such lies and try to put this fantasy over on the American people is shameful.
The answer to "al-Qaeda's" occupation of neighborhoods in Baghdad and the cities of al-Anbar is then, Bush says, to send in more US troops to "clear and hold" these neighborhoods.
But is that really the big problem in Iraq? Bush is thinking in terms of a conventional war, where armies fight to hold territory. But if a nimble guerrilla group can come out at night and set off a bomb at the base of a large tenement building in a Shiite neighborhood, they can keep the sectarian civil war going. They work by provoking reprisals. They like to hold territory if they can. But as we saw with Fallujah and Tal Afar, if they cannot they just scatter and blow things up elsewhere.
++ WaPo confirms what yesterday's USA Today poll already told us: Most Americans are opposed to Bush's plan for Iraq.
++ The WaPo also reports: "Senior House Democrats said yesterday that they will attempt to derail funding for President Bush's proposal to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, setting up what could become the most significant confrontation between the White House and Congress over military policy since the Vietnam War."
++ 'Gated communities' planned for Baghdad - which, btw, they tried that in Vietnam, and it was a ‘spectacular failure.‘
++ Better armor lacking for new troops in Iraq.