Right now, on radios and televisions, websites and blogs across the land, the cry is going out: the province of Anbar is safe, thanks to the brave efforts of Coalition forces and their Iraqi partners. Iraqi security forces are ready and waiting to take over. This will free up American troops to rotate out of country and into the once again restive theater of conflict in Afghanistan.

In reality it's... not quite going down like that .

Let's check the news together below the break.

It should be written down as a political law of cause and effect.

Cheney Effect
Noun CHAY-nee êf-ECT

1.  Security of a president's status from onslaught of opponants seeking his removal and/or psychopaths seeking to do him harm, resulting from the alternative being an even worse scenario.

Seriously.

While we are all in Obama, Biden fever, the useless POS in the White House is trying to drown
New Orleans again.

AP reports that

NEW ORLEANS -- The Department of Defense will hire an independent engineering company to review allegations that pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina weren't adequately tested and might fail during a hurricane.

This does not sound good.  Can any Experts in Pumps, procurement and New Orleans sound off on this?

At a press conference yesterday, President George W. Bush said he did not send troops to back Georgia in their brief war with Russia because Russia had no WMD.

"Look, I'm concerned when nations cross the borders of other nations and bomb and kill innocent people, but the fact is, Russia has no weapons that can reach the United States and no WMD. They just aren't a threat to us."

When pressed further, Bush said he had his staff review the public statements of his vice president Dick Cheney, his secretary of defense, Condi Rice, and former secretary of defense Don Rumsfeld over the last seven years and found that only two or three countries in the world may have nuclear weapons and other "WMD."

With her permission I am devoting this space to Jeeni Criscenzo, to address the "impeachment's never-going-to-happen" enablers of Bush lawbreaking.  In the end this is what gives political cover to Pelosi's I-see-nothing Democrats: acceptance for her appeasement of Bush.  Nothing just "happens," we make it happen.  Are we crazy will it take too long?  Musharraf just resigned ahead of impeachment, boy that took long, didn't it?

By Jeeni Crisenzo:

In the process of editing blogs for a book on the birth of the Progressive Movement, I’ve come to the sobering realization that all the marches, demonstrations, forums and protests I’ve written about in the past five years have failed to change anything of consequence. It’s as if no one ever warned, "If you attack Iraq, it will be a catastrophe." It’s as if no one ever marched a million-strong, year after year, against the ongoing funding of the occupation of Iraq; as if no one ever contacted their congressperson or senator to voice their opposition to warrant-less wiretapping, torture, rendition or off-shore drilling; as if no one ever wrote against imprisoning Sami al Arian, denying habeas corpus to the Gtimo prisoners,..

So Scott McClellan doesn't think his former boss should be held accountable for lying to get his war on, for making torture a SOP, for bringing the economy down, etc... It would be all be too "partisan", you know ? Let's just move on..

The pundits who salivated for the Iraq war, advocated "preemptive wars" and catered to every lunacy coming out of the WH all now say "we weren't wrong, Bush was the one who did not do what we told him, could never get it done right". Yet the same guys applauded Bush at every turn and helped him get re-elected in 2004.

So now we are supposed to forget they got drunk with power, danced on top of the Supre Court tables, tapping their feet to the tune of Nero Bush's insanities, wrapping themselves on the US flag while they let the blood of torturing stain our flag and our nation's reputation ?

I was thinking last night while reading some speculation over when Barack Obama is going to choose his VP, that Joe Biden's trip over to Georgia is going to really mess with the timing of a pick, especially if that pick is, as I hope, Joe Biden.

His presence was requested by Georgian President Saakshvili but it still smells a tad fishy to me.

The REPUBLICAN congressional years 1994 - 2006 (and 2000-2008 President Bush years) will be remembered for all they've accomplished...

Seven year war in Afghanistan, 5 year war in Iraq with close to 660 billion dollars spent, part of which we now owe China to pay for them.

North Korea, Iran and now Russia, are all greater powers then before the GOP took control of government. Pakistan with nukes is about to lose their (U.S. picked) leader. China is now listed as having the most manufacturing companies in the world.

The level of discussion in the traditional media on foreign policy in this campaign continues to deteriorate day by day. Reasoned analysis does not exist. The current state of analysis would have you believe that John McCain has distinguished himself with a forceful response to the events in Georgia, while Barack Obama has made missteps while being overly cautious. The problem is any reasoned analysis leads to the opposite conclusion. On a diplomatic level, John McCain's speech was the dumbest thing he could possibly do, and Obama's response struck exactly the right chord.

I saw this video on YouTube, it got sent to me through The Tubes on MySpace, it's pretty amazing. This guy seems to embody all of the wingnuts who we see comments from on Internet boards (other than this one). I didn't think they were real people, because you never see them in real life, or at least I don't living in Manhattan. This video will show you why they are better off staying in their anonymous posting bunkers - this guy gets absolutely pwned, not so much by Sheehan, but by the vets at the event...

Get your popcorn out and enjoy the carnage below the fold...

MoveOn.org mobilizes its 3.5 million members to stop the Bush Administration's attempt to define contraception as abortion. RH Reality Check is cited as source.

Original at RH Reality Check.

Barack Obama's new ad hitting McCain on the economy drew this response from McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds (though of course, as we all know, nobody actually speaks for John McCain):

Barack Obama has voted in lockstep with President George W. Bush nearly half the time [...]

Yes, President Bush - who was, last I checked, still a member of the Republican Party - is now so radioactive that the Republican candidate to succeed him considers it a viable tactic to accuse his Democratic opponent of being too close to Bush.

Of course, if "nearly half the time" qualifies as "lockstep", what does McCain's 90% or so rate count as? Maybe we can say McCain votes "in straitjacket with" Bush? Or perhaps "in leg-irons with" the President?

The republicans are once again showing how its done.  They pick a theme, and stick to it, and they always make the election a referendum on their opponent.  Bush was president, but somehow 2004 was about Kerry.

They don't do it in secret -- the formula is readily apparent.  They start negative ads in the summer and set the media narrative for the rest of the year.  Kerry as a flip-flopper was a relentless message.

Now they are working to turn one of Obama's strengths -- his mass appeal and charisma - against him by labeling him a celebrity.  But Obama has done nothing to define McCain/.

This election should not be a referendum on Obama or McCain -- the question before the American people is do you want four more years of George Bush's policies, or do you want change.  Everything should be about this theme.  Every statement, every ad, every other word, should be Bush.

August 8, Ivory Towers, Academia. "Those who don't learn from history," it is said, "are doomed to repeat it." The tendency of history to repeat itself is well known, but not well understood. Considering the roles played by women named Monica in the Administrations of current and recent U. S. Presidents, specifically, the role that Monica Goodling played in the Bush Administration, the Justice Department, and the United States of America, and the role Monica Lewinsky played in the Clinton Administration, the White House, and the good ole USA, I have prepared a scorecard that tells the tale of the two Monicas; Goodling and Lewinsky. Dubbed "The Monica Effect," this phenomena, while perhaps trivial and admittedly hard to swallow, must be studied.

The DailyKos seems to me to be to overly critical of our President.  Below the fold I wish to discuss the positive things that the Bush Administration has accomplished.

Since the newest Ron Suskind book called The Way of the World hit the shelves in the last two days most readers have focused on the news of Habbush, the Iraqi Intelligence leader, and the information the Bush Administration received in January and February, 2003 prior to Bush taking our nation to war as we colonized Iraq. The request/demand of the White House from Cheney's office to forge a letter for Habbush to sign that linked Saddam to Al Qaeda and the Nigeria yellow-cake to shipments into Iraq all to push back on the Wilson/Plame crimes has also been featured. I have looked at the book, called my Congress men and women and tried to force some attention on this important issue.
   I'll admit that I have skipped around in the book as I have searched for more exposures. This morning in reading more thoroughly, I saw one that would make me anger enough to kick Bush's ass if I had been Tony Blair. Follow me below and I'll provide a few more details.

Sat next to my friend Chris at a graduation party yesterday afternoon. Like me, she’s a political junkie – although while I favor MSNBC, Chris is a Fox News fan.

Chris is also a staunch conservative and a huge (did I say huge?) fan of GW Bush. "So Chris," I ask. "How’s your boy McCain doing?"

Chris sighs. "I’m just not very excited. Might just stay home this year."

It's time to "play ball".  Barack Obama needs to take a break and soon.  During that break he should be seen at ballgames and sports events.

If there is one thing that makes a man like you, that is seeing you enjoying American's past time.

President Bill Clinton won the fans of basketball by attending those games.

President George W. Bush won the Nascar and baseball fans.