My guests will be Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America and Brian Katulis, Middle East expert, from the Center for American Progress. We’ll discuss grass roots organizations and the changes in Iraq.
We’ll talk about the new press secretary, Tony Snow and President Bush’s four-point plan on high oil prices. These topics and more tomorrow on where’s the outrage!
Rush Limbaugh was arrested today. This culminates a three-year investigation into his OxyContin abuse. This will be interesting to see how he tries to spin this on his show on Monday.
Jim Dean, chairman of the grassroots organization Democracy for America is going to be in Asheville May 6 and seventh. He’s doing yeoman’s work in the work that needs to be done if we have any hope of taking back the House or the Senate.
If you are interested, you can sign up at www.dfalink.com/nctraining. It will be at the Highsmith Union on UNCA campus. There are already over a hundred people who’ve signed up and they’re still a few spots remaining. People from Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee all over this area are going to come together on May 6th for this excellent grass roots training seminar.
A new CNN poll shows President Bush’s approval rating to be a 32%. This is a new low for President Bush. He is slowly approaching unprecedented territory.
Today, Scott McClellan, the president’s press secretary for the last 2 1/2 years, resigned. It been widely speculated that he has been placed in an awkward situation in which he gave misinformation to the press on several occasions.
Although technically, Karl Rove, the president’s political adviser, has stepped to a less visible post, he remains in the White House.
Is there more?
Let’s review the things that we know are true. For example, we know that we had an opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden in Kabul before the fall of Afghanistan. We did not capture him. We know, that we had an opportunity to kill or capture Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains. We did not. We had thousands of troops looking for the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda but for reasons that are unclear, we packed up everything and decided to invade Iraq.
In my opinion, Donald Rumsfeld should have been fired over the conduct of the Afghanistan war. The purpose of the war was to kill or capture those who are responsible for September 11. Anything less, has to be looked at as a failure.
Without destroying the Taliban and without destroying Al Qaeda, we picked up and moved on. If we know just a little bit of history, we would’ve remembered that the Soviet Union had invaded and controlled Afghanistan and subsequently lost control. One of the reasons they lost control was they did nothing to win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis. now, look at what we’ve done since we have had “control” of Afghanistan. We’ve allowed the poppy crop to flourish. We have absolutely no control over southern Afghanistan. We’ve not built the roads that we promised. Warlords continue to dominate the countryside. Yet, we declared victory.
I said once, and I’ll say it again, just for the conduct of the Afghanistan war Donald Rumsfeld should have been fired. Especially, when you remember that Les Aspin was fired over not giving the troops the proper equipment in Somalia.
Tom Delay bowed out of district race last week. He has blamed radical democrats for his situation. It couldn’t have the atmosphere of corruption that followed him like Peanuts’ Pigpen’s cloud. Nope. Democrats are to blame for his downfall.
Interestingly, on Washington Week, a question was asked about what is it about the House that leads to corruption? Over the last 20 years there have been Republican and Democratic House Leaders who have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. My only comment is that it is an interesting question and follow the money. The House more than any other branch of government is responsible for the multi-trillion dollar budget. The Speaker of the House is the one person most responsible for getting the budget passed.
Are Republicans looking to their base or to the census numbers? What happens if all the illegal immigrants are allowed to become citizens? Do the majority of them become Democrats? Is this behind the stalmate in Washington? I’m just asking?
Great Guests. Today we’ll talk about the news of the week. We will also have Dan Restrepo from the Center for American Progress and an expert on immigration to fill us in on the latest on what’s happening or not happening in the Senate. Dr. Diane Lim Rogers from the Brookings Institution will guide us thru the confusing land of the budget.
President Bush was in Charlotte yesterday speaking at Central Piedmont community college. Again, for the second time a thoughtful person was allowed to sneak in and even ask a question to the president. -
You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are –
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what’s your question?
Q Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and –
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec — let him speak.
Q And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about. [Read more →]
Where did all of the mojo go? The senate was going to steam roll a compromise thru by today. Yesterday there was a breakthrough. Today - nothing. No agreement. No Nothing. Aren’t we paying these guys to work together for the good of the country?
More evidence from the NY Times:
LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush’s public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair’s top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
“Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning,” David Manning, Mr. Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.
“The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,” Mr. Manning wrote,paraphrasing the resident. “This was when the bombing would begin.” The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons. Although the United States and Britain aggressively sought a second United Nations resolution against Iraq — which they failed to obtain — the president said repeatedly that he did not believe he needed it for an invasion.
Stamped “extremely sensitive,” the five-page memorandum, which was circulated among a handful of Mr. Blair’s most senior aides, had not been made public. Several highlights were first published in January in the book “Lawless World,” which was written by a British lawyer and international law professor, Philippe Sands. In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast several excerpts from the memo.
Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
