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Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has used his White House access to write yet another book about the Bush Administration and Iraq. This one has to be the least flattering yet. An excerpt was put in the Sunday edition: " There was a vast difference between what the White House and Pentagon knew about the situation in Iraq and what they were saying publicly . But the discrepancy was not surprising. In memos, reports and internal debates, high-level officials of the Bush administration have voiced their concern about the United States' ability to bring peace and stability to Iraq since early in the occupation." That's the gist, here's the story where the title came from: On June 18, 2003, Jay Garner went to see Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to report on his brief tenure in Iraq as head of the postwar planning office. Throughout the invasion and the early days of the war, Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general, had struggled just to get his team into Iraq...

From the WashPost : "With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion."

Media Matters gives their take on the detainee bill passed by Congress this Thursday.

Washington's Gilbert Arenas severs ties with his agent, and Allen Iverson wants to remain a Sixer .

Someday we'll get to the issues. Someday.

"The U.S. Congress on Friday moved to block the Bush administration from building permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq or controlling the country's oil sector , as it approved $70 billion for funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday there was no way to measure if more Islamic extremists were being created than killed in American-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: A pathological need to break the law . Everything you need to know about yesterday's vote...and what's to come.

"Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele has been reaching out to key Republican leaders in recent days, urging them to continue directing resources to his U.S. Senate bid." This from "Mr. Independent Republican." He's not asking for finanacial support from Marylanders...you know, the people he says he wants to represent. He's going to the trough. Not that that would be a problem normally, but Steele has made such a big deal about "telling us what's wrong with both parties" how can anyone in Maryland expect him to criticize any senior Republican when he's begging them for money? If he was getting grassroots donations, things would be different. He's not an independent, and any claim he's making to the contrary is pure deception. And it's not like he hasn't gotten any money: President Bush, former president George H.W. Bush, Vice President Cheney, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Housing and Urban Development Secre...

1. "About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country." 2. "A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found." 3. "A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week -- nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year -- as the Pentagon spends more on establishing regional bases to support the extended deployment and scrambles to fix or replace equipment damaged in combat." I guess the Kool-Aid is beginning to wear off.

Keith Olbermann looks into what exactly the Bush Administration was doing about terrorism.

As Ben Cardin tries to figure out how to get black Democrats to vote an old white guy , Sen. Obama had this to say about the competition: " I know the other guy is taller, and he's got that kind of local news anchor style about him. . . . But I tell you what, that's not what this election is about ." Amen.

That would be gay marriage, according to Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO).

"The NCAA's graduation rates released yesterday indicated slight improvement for Division I student-athletes, although numbers remained below average in football and particularly men's basketball, which had the lowest graduation rate of any sport."

1. Apparently, sending hate mail to Kieth Olbermann is funny to some people, like the media . 2. What is Karl Rove's latest tatic for keeping Congress under Republican rule? Maybe something like this . 3. Via Crooks and Liars: Al Franken vs. Tony Blankey . Nice to see Tony away from the safety of the McLaughlin Group . 4. Via MM: Cindy Sheehan on President Comma .

The Dallas receiver says that mixing "painkillers with supplements" was the cause of yesterday's incident.

1. Stand by your man: "New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has struck back at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the escalating political bickering over which president — Bill Clinton or George W. Bush — missed more opportunities to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks." 2. PGC says goodbye to a soldier and pioneer, Emily J.T. Perez : "The second lieutenant was buried Tuesday at the academy, the first female graduate of West Point to die in Iraq. Perez, a platoon leader, was killed while patrolling southern Iraq near Najaf on Sept. 12 when a roadside bomb exploded under her Humvee." 3. Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys: Dallas Star receiver Terrell Owens admits he tried to commit suicide . 4. When at first you don't succeed, change your party affiliation: "State Sen. John Giannetti, fresh off a resounding defeat in the local Democratic primaries two weeks ago, told a group of Republicans yesterday that he has switched parties and will r...

"It's over for "The Boondocks" comic strip, at least for now. After six years -- a remarkably short run for a strip that found its way into 300-plus newspapers, including The Washington Post -- Universal Press Syndicate told subscribers yesterday they should start looking for someone to replace political/social satirist Aaron McGruder." The article says McGruder took time to recharge. I'm assuming he meant from a comedy standpoint, because there's never been a shortage of racial material in America. Hope he comes back to the strip, but if not, roman candles and all that jazz.

You gotta be kidding me : "A scorching internal review of the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted . The government audit is unsparing in its view that the Reading First program has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use . It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money." It gets worse. The audit found the department: Botched the way it picked a panel to review grant applications, raising questions over whether grants were approved as the law requires. Screened grant reviewers for conflicts of interest, but then failed to identify six who had a clear conflict based on their industry connections. Did no...

There's two kinds of hits in politics. First, there' s the standard kind, like what Governor Ehrlich's feeling right now : " Faced with intense opposition to his proposal to switch from electronic voting machines to paper ballots, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) yesterday urged voters to stay away from polling places during the November general election and instead cast paper absentee ballots. Ehrlich's suggestions -- which he made through a senior administration official -- came after last week's primary, when voters experienced widespread problems at the polls ." Then there's the real kind of hits , like this one: " Was it a "love tap," as one witness described it? Or did Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller walk up to a Prince George's County developer and punch him in the jaw Wednesday? Miller (D-Calvert) might have to address those questions Nov. 2 in District Court in Upper Marlboro. The only thing that was clear yest...

"More than 1,100 laptop computers have vanished from the Department of Commerce since 2001, including nearly 250 from the Census Bureau containing such personal information as names, incomes and Social Security numbers, federal officials said yesterday ."

"With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election , according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll ." However, "the Times/CBS News poll found a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who said they approved of the way Mr. Bush had handled the war in Iraq, to 36 percent from 30 percent . The results also suggest that after bottoming out this spring, Mr. Bush’s approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy have returned to their levels of about a year ago, both at 37 percent. The number of people who called terrorism the most important issue facing the country doubled to 14 percent, from 7 percent in July; 22 percent named the war in Iraq as their top concern, little changed from July ."

"Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was ticketed for public intoxication earlier this month in Dallas, according to a newspaper report."

ThinkProgress has Hardball's Chris Matthews making the claim on Imus that he's "been…against this bullshit war from the beginning." He must be talking about the "War For Factual Reporting," and not Iraq. Why do I say this? Check it out (courtesy of MediaMatters): 8/30/06: " Chris Matthews Show panel ignored McCain's inconsistencies on Bush's Iraq policy " 8/8/06: " Matthews depicted as inherently unprincipled those who support the Iraq war but believe administration botched it " 8/4/06: " Matthews on Democratic criticism of Bush's conduct of Iraq war: ' You can't say he did the right thing but he didn't quite do it right '" 5/17/06: " Overlooking his own complicity, Matthews criticized 'mainstream media" for "continu[ing] to act as if most people support the war' " 3/23/06: " Matthews: 'How can you not trust' Bush? " But he did say "from the beginning...

It looks like the Bush Administration has decided to back down from their "let us torture legally" proposal: "Seeking a deal with Senate Republicans on the rules governing the interrogation of terrorism suspects, the White House has dropped its insistence on redefining the obligations of the United States under the Geneva Conventions, members of Congress and aides said Tuesday. The new White House position, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday night, set off intensified negotiations between administration officials and a small group of Republican senators. The senators have blocked President Bush’s original proposal for legislation to clarify which interrogation techniques are permissible and to establish trial procedures for terrorism suspects now in United States military custody. The two sides were said to be exchanging proposals and counterproposals late Tuesday in a showdown that could have substantial ramifications for national security policy and the political climate h...

Eugene Robinson on Bush and torture : " Bush's view of the world is based on the idea of American exceptionalism: that this country is unique, that its ideas and values are not just worthy or admirable but superior to any others ." Colin Powell on the same subject : " To say that we want to modify, clarify or redefine Common Article 3, which has not been modified for the 57 years of its history, I think adds to the doubt" [about U.S. morality]. Plus I believe that the legitimate concerns that the administration has can be dealt with in other ways ." I would hope that the worst thing Bush has in mind is take away the terrorist's Harry Potter books . And while I respect his decision of not going into specifics, the bottom line is Bush does not have the credibility to be taken at his word on this issue. You just can't trust that if he gets his way, there won't be a story in eight months about soldiers strangling prisoners with shoestring. And no on...

Newly Independent Connecticut candidate Joe Lieberman is getting a boost from New York Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ok: Lieberman claims to be a life-long Democrat, but gets a Republican to raise money for him. He claims to represent Connecticut, but is using a New Yorker to help him out. Anyone else see something...out of touch here?

The WashPost finally catches on to Michael Steele's highly party-absent (aka, deceptive) campiagn ads. I've only mentioned it at least, what? Maybe three times already. Of course, they did do that " Scarlett Letter " story, so I'll cut them some slack. Some.

Ok, So I'm back to blogging here on blogger. I've been away on yahoo 360 and Myspace , became popular (in each respective Hollywood lol), then decided to come back home. So for the next few blogs, Imma give you some of what I had been writing there, in case you just happened not to find me in these 2 area.

Rapper Jay-Z is coming back with a new album.

1. From Michael Moore's site: " War is not a solution for terrorism ...By Howard Zinn ." A sample: Beyond the futility of armed force, and ultimately more important, is the fact that war in our time inevitably results in the indiscriminate killing of large numbers of people. To put it more bluntly, war is terrorism. That is why a ``war on terrorism" is a contradiction in terms. Wars waged by nations, whether by the United States or Israel, are a hundred times more deadly for innocent people than the attacks by terrorists, vicious as they are. 2. MSN Careerbuilder talks about how you can win or lose a job. 3. The cbsnews.com blog says "The White House is Watching:" There’s a small TV camera mounted on the ceiling of the temporary White House briefing room. It’s black, matching the TV lights – and consequently, unobtrusive. I noticed it a few days after we moved into the new space a month ago. 4. And the "Claim of the Week" comes from Robert Drey...

1. "The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial said Thursday that he does not believe Saddam was a dictator ." And I thought Americans had short memories. 2. "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Tuesday his recent trip to the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp showed excellent prison conditions, including '24/7 medical care - better than many Americans' get. " Well, Mr. SENATE LEADER, I wonder whose to blame for Americans not having better care? Maybe it's political leaders who would rather do continuous campaigning instead of helping the people they were elected to represent? 3. Well, paint me green and call me "Gumby": Bobby and Whitney are calling it quits . 4. And, some Iraq War Deja Vu: "U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the doc...

If this Democrat wins, America will have it's 1st Muslim Congressman. Considering the political climate, there's little doubt this puts Minnesota on the front page when the midterm elections start to heat up.

Not exactly "Elvis Meets Nixon," but close : Bush may have to talk about Borat.

The gem from my earlier post on Bush's new PR problems : Both [White House press secretary Tony] Snow and White House counselor Dan Bartlett singled out the effort to quote the terrorists' own words as a tactic they hope will break through to ordinary Americans who may not be aware of the terrorists' aims. " We may be having a debate in this country about whether Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, but our enemies believe it is ," Bartlett said. " We were trying to transcend the political debate in Washington by letting the words of the enemies speak for themselves ." This is how we win? Quote the bad guy? If Rambo, Batman or any other fictional hero came up with such a strategy, they would be laughed out of town. But in Bush's reality, this is supposed to be a winning tactic. Yikes. If using the enemy's quotes is his latest and greatest means of gaining sympathy and political points, then Bush will be staring down the barrel of impeachment ov...

One word: chaos .

1. It's so bad in Baghdad, dating is dangerous : "In a country where intermarriage was long considered the glue that held a fragile multi-ethnic society together, the romantic segregation of Sunnis and Shiites is more than just a reflection of the ever more hate-filled chasm between the two groups. It is also a grim foreboding of the future." 2. Diddy loses his name to ...Diddy. Quite frankly I'm shocked; we all now how Sean Combs has made a career on new and innovative music. 3. The Saddam trial gets emotional as Hussein vows to " crush heads ." 4. Then there's this: "President Bush's Oval Office speech last night was the culmination of two weeks of efforts to rally the nation behind his policies and presidency by summoning the memory of Sept. 11, 2001. Five years after that indelible day, however, this president's capacity to move the public is severely diminished. There were echoes of the language and logic Bush invoked five years ago whe...

"Four veterans of the current war in Iraq along with one supporter were arrested at the Pentagon on Saturday after they attended this first open house at the facility since September the 11th, leaving behind flyers providing information about the lethal effects of depleted uranium."

Want a stable career that will never go out of style? Well, there's at least 12 out there : Doctor, Teacher, Mortician, Waste Disposal Manager, Scientist, Tax Collector, Barber, Soldier, Religious Leader, Law Enforcement Officer, Farmer and Construction Worker. In other words, these jobs are the backbone of the American workforce. They keep things moving. God Bless 'em all.

Dave Chappelle has picked Yellow Springs, Ohio as his new home .

It's pretty apparent that the Bush Administration's weapon of choice for helping Republicans hold on to Congress is fear: essentially, the fear that a Democratic-controlled Congress will lead to another terrorist attack on American soil. Over the weekend, however, there is another tactic. A tactic that is better suited for a smaller audiences: denial. For example: On "Meet the Press," Vice President Dick Cheney (among other things): placed blame of the intelligence that lead to the Iraq Invasion solely on former CIA Director George Tenet, claimed that (despite public opinion) American involvement in Iraq has not created more terrorists and basically dismissed the Senate intel report that conflicted with his latest justification for going to Iraq ( he said he hadn't read it , despite his claim minutes before that he and Bush receive briefings on such matters quite regularly). On Fox News Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said about the Iraq/al-Qaida link ...

What's one of the hardest things for George W. Bush to do as POTUS, according to the man himself? Insure that working families are living above the poverty line? No. Creating security policies that keep our homeland safe without sacrificing our liberties? Nah. Repairing the locations and lives disrupted by Hurricane Katrina? Nope. Howza bout: trying to "connect Iraq to the war on terror?" Bingo ! Normally, such comments don't astonish me. Bush has made a hobby of flip-flopping on the Iraq/GWOT thing, convincing us that the conflict in Iraq was not a result of 9/11 one day, then the next quoting Osama bin Laden (the man responsible for 9/11) as a justification for being in Iraq. No, my astonishment comes from this (which isn't really a shock when you think about it): "Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says , contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Iraq ." And...

PGC executive candidate Rushern L. Baker III was preparing announce his most recent endorsement. Incumbent Jack B. Johnson scooped Baker by getting Jesse Jackson to endorse him . Baker came to Johnson's shindig and demanded a debate...then followed Jackson around...alot. Story here .

It what will either led many jealous hetrosexual men to push for accepting gay marraige or encourage many heterosexual women to fight against it, Brad Pitt says he ain't getting married until everyone can . And by "everyone," I'm sure he means "those of legal marrying age who aren't related to each other." I think.

Eugene Robinson lays the smackdown : "Do we discern a pattern? The lavish attention being paid to veterans' groups isn't about what year it is, it's about what month it is. Unless the Republican base is somehow energized and the rest of us somehow scared stiff by November, the Democrats have a decent chance of taking the House of Representatives and even an outside shot at the Senate. That's where all the administration rhetoric about Nazis, commies, fascism and appeasement has to be coming from, because, absent the political context, it makes no sense. It's all heat and no light." What's that saying about invoking Hitler when you have no real argument to make? What a shame. Sounds like some people have a pre-1939 mentality.

Meet the new voting block that could sway the midterm elections: " Mortgage Moms ." While definitive voting blocks may arise from time to time, I'm hard-pressed to believe it happens every election cycle . But things like this does help but a human face on the American voter. I do take exception with one thing, however: that this group would be adverse to liberal ideas. I'm pretty sure some of these moms would love it if their child could work a job where the minimum wage is more than $5.15/hour.

Being home for Labor Day, I saw one of Micheal Steele's and noticed that President Bush was nowhere to be seen. But it looks like Steele isn't the only one following this new trend.

"Charles Barkley was his usual outspoken self during a recent television interview in which he said, among other things, that he advocates gay marriage, believes Republicans have screwed up the country and is 'struggling with my idea of what religion is.' "

That would be good 'ol Donald Rumsfeld .