Bigtime's totally lost it

This is a very dangerous man.

Better late than never

Actual diplomacy:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States and the Iraqi government are launching a new diplomatic initiative to invite Iran and Syria to a "neighbors meeting" on stabilizing Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

Bigtime goes out of town for a couple of days and W's foreign policy goes to hell. He'll find a way to undermine it.

What Josh says

Sounds about right.

Just like 2001

Birds of a feather

This will help:

Mike Huckabee bolstered his still young presidential campaign Friday by winning an endorsement from one of the most powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill -- Rep. Don Young of Alaska, former chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Maybe Young (R-Bridge to Nowhere) was just making it up.

Behind the Sunni-Shi'ite Divide

This article in Time is informative, as is Thursday's discussion of it on Charlie Rose.

Don't say you weren't warned

Michael Hirsh in Newsweek:

Feb. 22, 2007 - The British are leaving, the Iraqis are failing and the Americans are staying -- and we’re going to be there a lot longer than anyone in Washington is acknowledging right now. As Democrats and Republicans back home try to outdo each other with quick-fix plans for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and funds, what few people seem to have noticed is that Gen. David Petraeus’s new "surge" plan is committing U.S. troops, day by day, to a much deeper and longer-term role in policing Iraq than since the earliest days of the U.S. occupation. How long must we stay under the Petraeus plan? Perhaps 10 years. At least five. In any case, long after George W. Bush has returned to Crawford, Texas, for good.

Contra Bob Novak.

Home run

There's nothing more infuriating than someone who can't admit they were wrong.

The Iran nonsense

RIP

Wapo:

Robert Adler, a prolific inventor, received more than 180 U.S. patents during a lifetime of dreaming and tinkering. But only one of his creations revolutionized an industry, changed the face of modern life, and supplied stand-up comedians with a never-ending source of material.
Adler, who died Thursday at the age of 93, was the co-inventor of the remote control, the device that has bedeviled, edified and otherwise sustained a grateful nation of couch potatoes ever since its introduction. Along with inventor and fellow engineer Eugene Polley, Adler helped bring the first commercially successful wireless TV remote -- the Zenith Space Command -- to market in 1956.

EFPs

Patrick Cockburn:

President Bush has now definitively stated that bombs known as explosively formed penetrators -- EFPs, which have proved especially deadly for U.S. troops in Iraq -- are made in Iran and exported to Iraq. But in November, U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop came across a pile of copper disks, 5 inches in diameter, stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order. This ominous discovery, unreported until now, makes it clear that Iraqi insurgents have no need to rely on Iran as the source of EFPs.
The truth is that EFPs are simple to make for anyone who knows how to do it. Far from a sophisticated assembly operation that might require state supervision, all that is required is one of those disks, some high-powered explosive (which is easy to procure in Iraq) and a container, such as a piece of pipe. I asked a Pentagon analyst specializing in such devices how much each one would cost to make. "Twenty bucks," he answered after a brief calculation. "Thirty at most."

Newsweek:

[C]onsiderable doubts continue to surface about the intelligence presented at the Baghdad slide show, including the fact that the writing on the conventional weapons displayed was in English, not Farsi. U.N. Ambassador Zarif also says that the date markings are American-style -- that is, the month comes first. "There is every reason to believe that this evidence is fabricated," he said. U.S. officials say the weapons were apparently built for the international market. Asked why the writing on the weapons allegedly made in Iran was in English, one U.S. intelligence official responded: "That's a very good question."

Nobody believes these liars and their bogus "evidence" anymore.

They ain't making Republicans like Abe anymore

Except Lincoln never said it. This bit of revisionist history originated in, surprise, Insight "magazine." Wingnuts have among them a bunch of these alternative realities, like "Al Gore says he invented the Internet," etc. Is there any comparable fiction accepted as fact in the reality-based community?

How 'bout them Hogs

Frank's quitting.
So should Houston.
Stan, too.
And Wally.

No problem

Good advice:

SINGAPORE, Feb 13 (Reuters Life!) - Don't cut your hair, don't clean your home, don't get married and avoid the number four if you fancy a chance with Lady Luck this Chinese New Year.
The "Year of the Pig" lunar new year, which starts on February 18, is an important festival for several countries in Asia where Chinese and Korean traditions hold sway.

Too bad about number four. We liked her.

C List

NBC producer: "Letterman has Peyton Manning."
Leno booker: "Dennis Miller's always available."

Nice try

GOP strategy: If we try to support the "surge," we lose; so we'll talk about the terrorists -- that always works. The internets reveal all.

Doesn't get it

McCain tells AP:

"By the way, a lot of us are also very concerned about the possibility of a, quote, 'Tet Offensive.' You know, some large-scale tact that could then switch American public opinion the way that the Tet Offensive did," the Arizona senator said.

"Switch American public opinion?" To what, a majority supporting the war? That would be the opposite of what Tet did. Most people, McCain excluded, already know Iraq is unwinnable militarily.

Liberal media

Chicks!

Didn't the Grammys suck just last year?

Wha?

AP:

Speaking with reporters in Seville, Spain, on Friday before traveling to Munich, Gates told reporters that markings on explosives provide "pretty good" evidence that Iranians are supplying either weapons or technology for Iraqi extremists.
"I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found" that point to Iran, he said.
Gates' remarks left unclear how the U.S. knows the serial numbers are traceable to Iran and whether such weapons would have been sent to Iraq by the Iranian government or by private arms dealers.

"Markings?" Do they stamp "Made in Iran" on them? Why would they do that? "Serial numbers?" Maybe they come with a warranty.

How many hours does this take?

YouTube has been "fetching" this blog's info since 7 p.m. We blame Blogger.

From the copy desk

NYT:

Mr. Rumsfeld did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment.

Thank you. This is the correct way to describe what happened. You do not "return" telephone messages.

Buckle your seat belts

More tk.

Poll shows Arabs dislike Bush

Reuters.
No shit. Why?
ROFLMAO.
Americans, too.

Good idea

Zack Exley has some advice for Barack Obama.

New York scoops the fiveforty

Julie Roehm, Sean Womack and Howard Draft strike back.

Stonewalling

Why does shit like this always seem to have Bigtime's fingerprints on it?

GOP spoils system

McCain vs. Hagel

The more John McCain appears on the Sunday morning chatfests, and he's on one every week, the further his presidential aspirations sink. He probably wishes he hadn't gone first on "This Week," dissembling and vacillating about his unpopular Iraq position. Because Chuck Hagel was up next, and kicked McCain's ass.
And, his "if we leave, we'll just have to go right back" shit's not going to fly, either.

Bigtime's blowup

Who'd have thunk?

They're developing anti-aircraft strategy.

We'll miss her, too

Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

21,000 more troops?

Not exactly. Those are combat forces; they require support troops -- for a total of 35,000 to 48,000, the CBO estimates.