Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Democratic Senate prospects

The race for control of the U.S. Senate is getting more interesting by the day.
The Democrats essentially need to pick up five seats to wrest control from the Republicans and so far there are at least four seats that have been looking real promising.
In Pennsylvania, incumbent Republican Rick Santorum has been down by double digits to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. for almost the entire race.
In Montana, Democrat John Tester is starting to pull away from scandal-plaugued incumbent Conrad Burns.
In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown has consistently held a lead over incumbent Mike DeWine for some time now.
And in Rhode Island, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse has been ahead of RINO Lincoln Chafee since July.

Meanwhile, two more races are looking better recently:

In Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford has pulled ahead of Republican Bob Corker in the race to replace Bill Frist.
And in Virginia, Republican George Allen’s campaign is in a full-scale meltdown over allegations of his racist past. He still has a slight lead over his Democratic challenger James Webb, but that may not last much longer at this rate.

Then in Missouri, Democrat Claire McCaskill is in striking distance of Republican Jim Talent, who had a slender 1-point lead in the latest polls.

The one problem area for Democrats is in New Jersey where Democrat Robert Menendez has recently fallen behind Republican Tom Kean Jr. in the latest polls.
But Democrats are looking good in several other races that were thought to be potentially vulnerable earlier in the year:

In Maryland, Democrat Ben Cardin has a comfortable lead over Republican Michael Steele.
And in Minnesota, Democrat Amy Klobuchar looks like she will hold on to the open seat being vacated by Sen. Mark Dayton.
Also, in Washington, Maria Cantwell is well ahead of her Republican challenger.

So assuming the Democratic tide continues to rise it is not hard to imagine a Democratic takeover of the Senate, even with a loss in New Jersey.

Shameless U.N. bashing

In Jonathan Gurwitz’ latest column he bashes the United Nations with complete disregard for the irony of his complaints. First he is upset that countries he deems to be morally inferior are given equal status with other nations.

Within the august international body, governments that imprison and murder political opponents have equal standing with those that follow the rule of law.

But, but, but... We torture people in secret prisons and we still get equal standing (better than that since we are on the Security Council with a prized veto power that most other nations lack). And as for the rule of law, Bush and company pretend that it does not apply to them in most cases, regardless of whether its the U.S. Constitution, the Geneval Accords or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And then there is this gem:

And regimes that threaten to wipe other countries off the map — in clear violation of the U.N. Charter's prohibition against the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state — are, like every other genocidal regime, members in good standing.

But, but, but... What about countries that don’t just threaten, but actually do use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state? You know, like we did with our unprovoked invasion of Iraq that went directly against a U.N. directive?

Then Gurwitz has this to say about Chavez’ suggestion that the U.N. headquarters be moved to Syria...

A diplomatic ensemble that pays homage to thugs such as Ahmadinejad and Chávez harmonizes far better with the groans of oppression in Damascus than the hum of freedom in New York.

Oh, I see. I guess that is why the Bush administration chooses to send prisoners to Syria to be tortured — so that their groans don’t disturb the “hum of freedom” over in this country.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Total vindication

The report on Sunday about the National Intelligence Estimate in the NYTimes and the Washington Post has totally and completely vindicated everything I’ve been saying about the war in Iraq from day one - which is that it has only made the terror threat worse and not better.

The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded....

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government.


The idiocy of the Bush administration’s response to 9/11 has now been completely exposed (or at least it will be if they ever release the NIE report). Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place. It was like someone who got stung by a swarm of hornets and then decided to go stamp on a fire ant mound rather than search for the hornets’ nest.

Our nation has paid a heavy price for this administration’s incompetence and stupidity. I can only hope that there will not be an even bigger price to pay before we can finally get some halfway intelligent people back in charge of our government. This mid-term election will be crucial in that respect. People who still insist on voting for Republicans this time around are either thoroughly blinded by ideology or simply have their heads stuck in the sand. There is no other explanation at this point.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Terrorism geting worse - Thanks, President Bush!

Oh, my!This is quite shocking:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

So BushCo. has made things worse since 9/11 by launching their misguided war in Iraq, according to our intelligence agencies. They have helped to spread the jihad philosophy and turned more Muslims around the world into anti-American radicals.