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I suppose every circus needs its freaks, and the well-choreographed "surge is working" sideshow has recruited Brian Baird to be the Democratic House member appointed to be Dick Cheney's trained monkey.
How very helpful. Despite the fact that this is the bloodiest summer ever in Iraq, we are not supposed to believe our lying ears and eyes. Instead we are supposed to believe -- Brian Baird.
Who is Baird, anyway? Well he's one of Matt Stoller's Bush Dogs, who voted against the House version of Jim Webb's bill to give the troops mandatory rest.
Says Howie:
His district spreads out on both sides of the 5 Freeway between Olympia and Vancouver (Washington). He's a Blue Dog and a member of the anti-worker/anti-consumer New Democratic Coalition (think Ellen Tauscher). He has a middle-of-the-road voting record over all, but he has been fairly supportive of the Bush Regime agenda in Iraq, voting for example, with the Republicans and against the Democrats on HR 2206, May 24's bill to fund the war without withdrawal deadlines; with the Republicans and against the Democrats on HR 6061 (the so-called "Secure Fence Act"); with the Republicans and against the Democrats on the circus known as the Flag Desecration Amendment; and with the Republicans and against the Democrats in making the Terri Schiavo dispute a federal case. In other words, he isn't exactly a Democrat you want to support or trust-- unless you're the right-wing propaganda rag, National Review. The stay the course crowd over there loves Brian Baird.
To be fair to Tauscher, she has been better of late. But this guy needs a come-to-Jesus moment, real fast. Anybody know what his district looks like?
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zip?
allo?
tres?
I take it a Bush Dog Democrat is an extra stupid Blue Dog Dem?
I would think the Olympia/Tacoma corridor wouldn’t be quite so blue-doggish…
but that’s just me guessing from way down So Cal way…
Hi Jane. I love it…come-to-Jesus moment indeed!
By the way I just saw Barnicle’s knock down schooling of Ari Fleischer and the ad on Crooks and Liars. That should be REQUIRED viewing of every Dem and every TV “newsperson.” He was smart, to the point and VERY effective in his put down of Ari and the whole group of thugs promoting that trash.
Good afternoon Jane. They’re all about the spin, eh?
Hello Jane. Thanks for the post.
Does he represent Marysville or Bellingham, WA?
That part of Washington is pretty conservative.
In fact, it is where this billboard used to be.
Excepting from Tacoma to Canada, directly surrounding I-5 (West of the mountains), most of Washington is pretty conservative. There just aren’t that many people in the rest of the state, and many are Conservative as a reaction to the ‘Liberal Bias’ of Seattle.
Me? I’m just here for the micro-brew. Viva White Center!
Tucker “You are not a raging neocon”
He wouldn’t have been voted in as a Right Winger so he put on a Democrat costume an it worked - elected.
No, B’ham and Marysville are North of Seattle, eureka. He’s from down South.
Jane, thank you for the background on this freak. Where DO these people come from? I simply hope their days are numbered.
Thanks, t4toby.
Bueller…Bueller
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yZv.....mp;search=
Blue Dogs hangin’ with those Red Weasels, Green Flyin’ Monkeys and Yellow Chickenhawks.
Animal House, it’s not. Animal Farm? You betcha! Orwell would say “I told you so!”
The heat is really being turned up, Ari Fleisher coming on strong, O Hanlon, Kenneth Pollack, Brian Baird seems like everyone is visiting Iraq these days.
Just where do these folks visit in Iraq?
I continue to assert that both major parties are just collections of bad ideas and power grubbing intellectual toddlers that hawk those ideas to the American public.
This is not to say that the two parties aren’t different, they are, but the fact that guys like this even have legitimate careers makes the idea that they’re opposite sides of the same worthless coin all the more understandable.
kathleen @ 18
Sheeeet, where ya think? They sure ain’t poundin ground.
I love Stoller’s Bush Dog Logo
t4toby
Let me see if I’ve got it right.
I live in the area you describe. A high-income area. Lots of professionals.
I hate taxes.
I vote repub.
There used to be a huge John Birch billboard along side I5 in that neck of the woods.
OT, but worth it.
George Bush Meets Graham Greene
August 22, 2007
Support Our Troops
They want us out of Iraq
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11484
Yeah, I linked to it in my above comment.
Johnathan- I think I’m missing your point.
Jesus Mary and Joseph this guy is saying buck up, do not look backwards ( don’t hold anyone accountable for the lies), watch what you say (don’t question get in line and shut up) This guy may be digging his own grave.
He keeps saying “we are making progress” , but is never specific.
Note: Senator Warner (R-Va) to be interviewed now on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Will watch to see if his “Troop Withdrawal” recommendation is smoke and mirrors again for Junya and Deadeye, or substansive.
Past history suggests the typical Repug Shell Game.
t4toby @ 26
I apologize.
I was just fishing to see whether the conservatives you describe (who I guess hate Seattle liberals) are just suburban residents.
Hairball showing the Ari Fleisher ads… I wonder how much the injured soldiers got paid?
Disability doesn’t pay much - hopefully they got paid a lot…
kathleen @ 27
It’s all an excuse for E.C.A.L.A.T.I.O.N.
kathleen @ 18
The Green Room…ahmmmm…pardon me, make that the Green Zone.
kathleen @ 11
*uck *ucker and chickenhawk cliff may
I think I am going to park my NIE analysis here. It will be in two parts and show up in a few minutes.
From the Department of Keeping Our Eye on the Ball:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk.....42,00.html
Mad Dogs @ 28
He also said we were taking the fight to the enemy so the Iraqi Government could do the political component. Anyone heard that one before? Theiu, Ky, Big Mihn, Diem. . .
My assessment of the assessment Part 1:
Reading NIEs is a little like reading teas leaves or getting a prophecy from the Delphic oracle: If you go to war, a great empire will fall, i.e. either yours or the other guy’s. In this most recent NIE, the best paragraph is the first one
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-co.....07-nie.pdf
and the most important one is the last one
You see what this last is saying is don’t mess with the “surge” or you’ll mess things up. That is the take home message, albeit a political one masquerading as an intelligence assessment.
But let’s look at that interesting first paragraph. “There have been measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq’s security situation.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? But isn’t this what used to be called “whack a mole”? The situation improves here but gets worse there. Yet what constitutes these improvements? Anbar is quieter because Sunni sheiks have made a short term deal with us. They are helping us against al Qaeda (i.e foreign fighters, not Osama’s group) but, of course, they are doing this because this “al Qaeda” has been targeting them. It is another example of some group in Iraq letting us fight their battles for them. In addition, we are arming their militias so they will be stronger and better positioned to take on the Shias and/or central government (if there is a distinction between the two) later. Some areas outside Anbar have also become quieter. Why? They have been ethnically cleansed. Meanwhile, counterbalancing these equivocal “gains”, in the Shia South things are falling apart. “Progress” has such an unusual meaning in the Iraq context.
As for al Qaeda Iraqi-style, although they have been hit hard, they still retain their capability for their hallmark tactic of “high-profile attacks.” So if they can do what they have done, have they really been hit that hard?
“Overall attack levels across Iraq have fallen during seven of the last nine weeks.” Again this sounds good, but it is mid-summer in Baghdad and there is a seasonal low in attacks this time of year. At the same time, the “level of overall violence, including attacks on and casualties among civilians, remains high.” So we are to believe there have been “improvements” although the overall security situation in Iraq remains unchanged and lousy.
“Iraq’s sectarian groups remain unreconciled.” The two critical objectives of the “surge” were for us to secure Baghdad and for the Iraqis to come to a political settlement. We have just seen that military and security progress lies mostly in the eye of the beholder, especially if you can squint. “Unreconciled” translates in to no political settlement, no movement toward one, indeed moves away from one. But is this in any way surprising? Reconciliation is a core concept of the Washington based Iraq narrative. It has no resonance in Iraq itself. The Sunnis had the power and want it back. The Shia have the numbers and expect eventually to have that power, and they have no real intention of giving it up or even seriously sharing it with anyone.
Elliott @ 31
…missing a ‘S’, eScalation!!! ;-)
Part 2:
“There have been modest improvements in economic output, budget execution, and government finances.” (my bold) “Modest” is one of those odd little words that show up in reports to suggest that something is happening when it isn’t. Substitute “joke”, “insignificant”, or “on paper” for it and you will get what this sentence is really saying.
Elsewhere in the report the role of the Iraqi Army is played up although 4 1/2 years into our occupation they still remain largely ineffectual.
I especially like the assessment of Maliki’s job security. “We judge that Maliki will continue to benefit from recognition among Shia leaders that searching for a replacement could paralyze the government.” The only reason that Maliki has not been replaced is that it isn’t worth the bother. In other words, Maliki is so marginal to what is going on in Iraq no one cares if he remains Prime Minister or not. But as if that was not damning enough, the comical argument is made that such a change would “paralyze” the government. Haven’t they noticed paralysis is the normal state of the Iraqi government?
Sometimes what a report doesn’t say is as important as what it does say. The Iranians, for instance, are singled out for special attention. Their support for Shia militias is emphasized. No such direct mention, however, is made of Saudi support for the Sunnis. The closest the NIE comes to this is an oblique reference to “the reluctance of the Sunni states that are generally supportive of US regional goals to offer support to the Iraqi Government.” Well, seriously, does anyone expect a bunch of Wahabis to embrace a government run by heretical Shia? Also, while the charge is made that the Iranians are helping the Sadrist militias the Mahdi Army or JAM among others, one interesting and troubling aspect of this is overlooked. It is not good news if a nationalist and essentially anti-Iranian like Sader is hooking up with them (if only for opportunistic reasons). Further, there is the assertion that Shia attacks on US troops have increased but no mention of the fact that most of these are reactions to increased US operations in traditionally Shia areas and targeting of Shia militias.
There is also talk of the “bottom up” political process in Iraq. This was also mentioned in the January NIE. The idea is that the central government is ineffective so local leaders are taking control of matters. This is, if you haven’t guessed it, code. It is putting lipstick on the pig. “Bottom up” is an admission that Iraq is fragmenting or has already fragmented into dozens of small fiefdoms run by those terrible, terrible militias that we hate except when we are supporting and abetting them.
Oh yes, and finally civil war? Not mentioned. Perhaps the idea here is that if the intelligence community continues to deny it or ignores it completely, it will just go away. This omission more than any other highlights the lack of thought and critical analysis in the NIE and shows why the intelligence community is in, and deserves to be in, such disrepute. If they don’t understand what a civil war is or that Iraq is in one and incorporate that into their assessment, what can they seriously tell us about anything? And why should we trust them on anything?
Post Script: The NIE is now being used as part of the dump Maliki campaign. But just as it is garbage as far as a justification for the “surge”, it is equally garbage as a rationale to move against Maliki. Still if I were Maliki, I would watch who was behind me going down stairs.
CTuttle @ 38
CT did you get your wife’s plane arrangements made okay. Hope all of you are doing well.
I missed all that math stuff in previous post comments. Was cleaning the pool. Did you know the ancient Greeks actually killed each other over the existence of negative numbers? i= the sq. root of -1.
Oh sure - leave me downstairs all by my lonesome - talking to myself.
Twain @ 40
Sadly, not yet! Mahalo for the mention!!! :-)
The East side of Lake Washington (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, et al.)tends to be more conservative, but that is where Darcy Burner was barely edged out by Dave Reichart. So even though they are well heeled, they tend to be socially liberal.
The other parts of the state are conservative for social reasons rather than economic.
BTW- Its blackberry season right now. If ever there is a time to visit out here, it is now. Berry vines that grow as almost unstoppable weeds. What will those clever Himalayans think of nest?
“To be fair to Tauscher, she has been better of late.” Yes.
I noticed that Jim Costa CA-20 (Fresno) is on that Bush Dog list. Anybody know anything about him? he also voted in favor of the FISA consent extension thingy.
I just feel bad that one of these people is from my state. How do we get rid of him?
Richmond @ 6
Ari was on Hardball yesterday and Barnicle didn’t challenge him at all. Rieckhoff(I believe that’s his name) was on after Ari and tore him a new a– hole. Did Barnicle have a Come to Jesus moment today? Sounds like he might.
CTuttle @ 38
OOPS!
I am getting worked up over this Rovian business about the Cali electoral votes.
hi jane!
i’m a few threads back and haven’t read comments here yet, so don’t know if someone posted this yet….saved it the other day to pass it on to people here and there….
=======
Votus says:
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I have been reading for quite a while, but decided to delurk because I am upset with Rep. Baird. OT, but important:
Rep. Brian Baird upcoming town hall meetings:
1. Tues, Aug. 28th, 7 pm at the Cowlitz Expo Center in Longview, WA.
2. Mon, Aug. 27th, 7 pm, at Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver, WA
If you live in his district, please come and express your concerns.
Thanks.
Baird appears to be a Republican light type of wolf wearing the sheepskin of a Democrat…
Will he survive another election straddling the fence like that???….
Anagram of Brian Baird: “A bird brain.”
Joe Klein’s conscience @ 47
I thought Barnicle did ok, not great but ok. He certainly called him on not knowing the troopers name.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 49
Certainly, pause for concern…!!!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 45
She still suffers from cases of Teh Stoopids!! See her first statement regarding AGAG’s possible impeachment.
I live in his district and can’t figure him out. He voted against going into Iraq in 2002, but also the votes listed in this post. (I’m at work, so I’ll have to comment more later tonight.)
raven @ 53
I don’t ever see TV, except for the occasional Sunday AM shows, so my standard is Fox or ABC bad, so I was pretty much “stunned” in a positive way by him pointing this stuff out in pointed questions.
Lots of weasel room in this one too…
My guess is “The steep escalation of rates of violence has been checked for now” means that they are still escalating, just not quite as fast.
If Tauscher is getting better, can we say the same for HRC?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 49
well, we have a good Dem Sec of State - if anything’s fishy, she will stop it…
Fern @ 58
Actually as the high heat recedes, we are expected to see more violence not less!
Shorter Senator Warner (R-Va) on News Hour with Jim Lehrer:
“Junya jest needs to pretend to withdraw some troops (mebbe jest 5,000 go home for Xmas - i.e. normal rotation, but no backfill).
Then ah will hold the Senate Repugs in line and deny those cowardly Dimmicrats from cutting off yer
ballsfunding.Then we can drag this out some more jest like this ’til ya leave office. Those Dimmicrats will never catch on.”
Rope-a-dope redux!
Rove is attempting to put my party on the defensive with his dirty work in California regarding winner not necessarily taking all.
OldCoastie @ 60
I don’t know, Barbara Boxer was worried, and had a petition to sign and asked even non-California people to sign it. It was up last week on Huffington
Recently I reread The Quiet American to refresh my memory on the early days of Vietnam and the CIA insidious activity throughout the country. Alden Pyle is no hero. He is willfully naive. No one has more opportunity to understand the Vietnamese people than Alden Pyle and he chooses his white provincialism beliefs over the Vietnamese people’s interest. The end justifies the means and civilian casualty is nothing more than a means to the end.
Pyle’s sneaky plans to blow up innocent people an make it look like his perceived enemy did this dastardly deed is not an act of naivety. This lethal practice continues to this day by the CIA.
Graham Greene is as appropriate today as in 1955.
Baird also works with my Rubber Stamp Congress Critter, Greg Walden, on horrible anti-science forestry bills that are a big giveaway to the logging industry. It also allows Walden to say he is bipartisan because he works with Dems (besides Baird, see also: Herseth, Costa, etc.)
Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall for the Sept. disaster. Instead of splitting the Repugs, it’s going to split the Dems, and the war/surge will continue on through 08. I’ve Had Enough.
OldCoastie @ 60
;0)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 59
I have this image.
GWB with his arm around Tauscher.
Tauscher with a crooked smile.
Just heard the teaser for KO’s news coming up.
It’s embarrassing. Stop it MSNBC, it’s news.
Hugh @ 37
thank you Hugh! good stuff.
The stakes are huge with this California electoral business.
1 in 4 U.S. jobs pay less than a poverty-level income.
During the 1980s, 13% of Americans age 40 to 50 spent at least one year below the poverty line; by the 1990s, 36% did.
Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has steadily risen. Now 13% of all Americans—37 million—are officially poor.
http://www.motherjones.com/new.....hibit.html
Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08.....ref=slogin
A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
http://www.motherjones.com/new.....ilege.html
The Bush plan; to convert the average american worker into Chinese labor
Fern @ 42
See, I tol’ ya Fern would find out. We gotta be quieter next time.
Richmond @ 61
Right - missed “for now”. My god - this was written by a master of weaselatiousness. I’m impressed.
Fern @ 58
Last week I saw an article asserting that a significant part of the recent downturn in U.S. troop casualties owed not ot any “surge success” but to a politically driven tactical decision to quietly put the brakes on surge initiatives in the field in order to abate deaths and woundings in the runup to the Betrayus Report, to make it look like the surge was working. Couple that with the effects of extreme summer temperatures, and you may largely account for any decrement in violence.
Betcha all hell breaks loose right before the Betrayus Report release, though.
Mad Dogs @ 62
And maybe he’ll do that, but it would undermine the only real purpose of this whole blood-soaked exercise - power. I’m convinced that Shrub is not at all concerned about the war or having troops in Iraq… he’s concerned only about the appearance of the primacy of presidency authority.. including the right to wage war wherever he darn well pleases. This war isn’t about strategic objectives.. it’s about an internal power play. And that makes it all the sadder…
Maybe California should secede from the Union.
Hugh,
A big round of applause for your NIE review!
Clap! Clap! Clap!
QuakerGirl @ 76
Do we have to take Jim Costa and our rethugs with us though? Or can we expell them first?
QuakerGirl @ 76
Works for me :)
I for one agree with George W. Bush. Once the US stopped killing somewhere in the line of 2 to 3 million Vietnamese that place went to hell.
-GSD
Blub at 75
I’d bet a little money on your proposition.
I’d bet more on the proposition that Iraq is just as he wants it.
Apparently Baird is my rep if his turf includes Clark county, which is where Vancouver is.
This is a fairly strong Democratic area but has some powerful local Repub interests, especially business related area’s. I have seen a shift in the last few years that suggests the area could well be leaning right more as we absorb more and more of California’s refugees who are driving up real estate prices . More and more I see signs of Republicanism in my local area, they move in and immediately start bitching about things and start throwing money around to get their way.
I don’t like what I am seeing and Baird is a bad symptom.
Listen, how can any American not support the president when he’s fighting the war on bad stuff or something?
Blub @ 78
How about some good editing?
QuakerGirl @ 76
Quaker Girl, I said the other night that Red Bush’s Base should coalesce in an entirely red territory and secede. They can arm themselves to the teeth and listen to Billy O all day.
Caracas to subsidise London fuel
Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, has struck a discounted fuel deal with London mayor Ken Livingstone in exchange for expertise on tourism and public transport in Caracas.
The move will give up to a million Londoners living on benefits half-price fares on the city’s buses.
Under the agreement Venezuela’s state-owned oil company will reduce fuel costs for London by one-fifth.
The Greater London Authority, in return, will set up an office in the Venezuelan capital staffed with advisers on tourism and city management.
RockPaperScizzors @ 71
…with the same Rights! (Constitutional, and others…!) 8-(
dmac @ 50
Nice.
Elliott @ 21
It’s a good one fer sure…
But I feel mine is more realistic!
Jonathan @ 81
Oh I don’t disagree with you. The whole political calculus of this war is fundamentally and totally twisted. I’m convinced that very little is as it seems. War is being waged because that’s what keeps the base together, and war is the basis of the shrubcabal’s power.. or at least their ability to cling to office. It’s sick.
RockPaperScizzors @ 72
The Democrats ought to be able to beat the GOP soundly on the Iraq horror and the economy.
GSD @ 80
Especially when triple that number was left maimed, their hills and farmlands were defoliated (still is), land mines are more common than weeds, their villages destroyed, few people left who can take up as leaders and sanctions to ensure keeping them down just to mention a few fair fighting tricks we employed.
Most congresscritters go to Iraq and take the pentagon e-ticket ride- goin where they’re told to go- seein what they’re told to see- and most importantly- hearin what they’re supposed ta hear- then they come home and make a speech.
It’s total bullshit of course.
Boston1775 @ 85
Great idea!
Hard to believe the Bush spin has convinced people that we’re making progress in Iraq.
More American soldiers have died in the last four months since the beginning of the invasion. Does that sound like progress???
QuakerGirl @ 95
hehe.. amend the constitution to allow pluralities to vote states out of the union? :)
buh bye Texas.
A.Citizen @ 89
I’ll give ya both, two thumbs way up!!! I hate picking one side over another…!!! *g*
Holy shamooly. Between the internet peter-files, the rest area $20.00 hummer to Black men offerers, the knobby’s to sleeping laddies, the coke dealing and all around skullduggery of the morally collapsing Republican Party we can add this creepy story to the list.
Three dead men in a GOP-ers house.
-GSD
Blub @ 96
Heh, The Repugs would relish the Republic of Texas once again…!!! ;-)
Thanks for that very helpful NIE recap and analysis, Hugh.
With regard to Iran, I find these statements by DNI Mike McConnell in his El Paso Times interview very provocative, assuming they indicate one approach McConnell may have used to sell his FISA-gutting bill: appealing to the A*P*C/Israeli authoritarian sympathies (particularly regarding efforts to foment an attack on Iran, helped along by alleging Iranian involvement in attacks on Americans occupying Iraq) of the Democratic leadership in Congress:
The scariest thing to me is unfettered power.
In either the hands of the repubs or the hands of the dems.
I heard the president is thinking about closing off a few miles of the central North Dakota border to protect the American people from terror.
More on the character of rethugs:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08.....mp;emc=rss
Rethug consultants (including a former shrub consultant) have been harassing Elliot Spitzer’s father by leaving threatening and obscene messages on the his answering machine. The victim is 83.