tom's blog

Wow. You should read this.

Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Read below the fold...

Hmmm. It's good to see that W is apparently already being considered as a "bottom five" if not worse. It's good to know my colleagues agree with me.

And what was that I said on the morning after the election?
Read below the fold...

So, finally, W got to the 20s. I had thought it would come sooner than it has but you heard it here first. I predicted 20s for quite a while. Read below the fold...

I'm just going to piggy-back on CD's post below with some links to provide some historical perspective on how we created the monster that was Saddam Hussein. Read below the fold...

Oh, now this memo from my Governor Matt Blunt is hilarious:

Last year there was a great deal of public discussion regarding the Christmas season. Specifically, we heard from those who believe that the Christmas break should be called by a non-religious name such as "Winter Holiday." They also argued that traditional Christmas greetings such as "Merry Christmas" should not be used. Read below the fold...

Via Atrios this morning I learned that Eric Foner, probably one of the rock stars of the historical profession, has ranked W as the worst president ever:

One other president bears comparison to Bush: James K. Polk. Some historians admire him, in part because he made their job easier by keeping a detailed diary during his administration, which spanned the years of the Mexican-American War. But Polk should be remembered primarily for launching that unprovoked attack on Mexico and seizing one-third of its territory for the United States. Read below the fold...

Under President Clinton, Republicans spent more than $ 150 million on investigations and independent counsels and issued over 1, 000 subpoenas to probe often-imaginary malfeasance. They investigated his Christmas card list, for heaven’s sake. Under Bush, New Orleans, a major American city supposedly protected by federal levees, was drowned. Literally billions of taxpayer dollars have vanished in Iraq. Not misspent, vanished. Disappeared. Unaccounted for. Nonexistent WMDs ? No problem. Abu Ghraib ? Not interested. Number of congressional subpoenas issued since 2001 ? Zero. Not one. Instead, as Matt Taibbi writes in Rolling Stone, thanks to super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, “Congress has embarked on a never-ending party, a wild daisy-chain of golf junkets, skybox tickets and casino trips.”

Read below the fold...

And the moral? Don't blame George W. Bush: Chaos in U.S. foreign policy is nothing new. But pity those, whether the Hungarians in 1956, or the Shiites in 1991, who take our democracy rhetoric too literally: Sometimes we really mean it -- and sometimes we don't.

Read below the fold...

UPDATE I can't figure out how to embed this video (I pasted the text and everything!) but just follow the link I've provided to Roy Temple's blog to see the video. Sorry!

You've got to check out this "humorous" parody of the Michael J. Fox ad from the "comedian" at Scrappleface: Read below the fold...

Don't you just love it when your statewide initiative draws the interest of national-level loons? Who then run the opposition campaign from New York and speak for the supposed grassroots opposition in your state? Read below the fold...

I'll go ahead and piggyback on the excellent post below. The Michael J. Fox McCaskill ad is also relevant to the Stem Cell Research and Cures Amendment (co-written and sponsored by former Republican senator John Danforth) we've got on the ballot here in Missouri. Read below the fold...

Get a load of this from Karl's Mighty Wurlitzer:

Amid predictions that demoralized conservative voters might sit out the election, Bush and other senior Republicans will escalate charges that Democrats will raise taxes, weaken national security and liberalize social policies. Read below the fold...

I was about to write a post about how convenient the timing of the looming Saddam verdict was for Republicans. It's scheduled to be on November 5th, two days before the midterms.

But Tom Engelhardt

just wrote an article asking that very question. He lays it out in all its ignominious detail, so I'll just send you there. Read below the fold...

UPDATED BELOW

Wow, get a load of this "analysis' of the looming midterm elections.

Gee, who wrote this?

Well, cloaked Republican operative Mark Halperin of ABC News of course. Read below the fold...

Oh, you've got to watch this history of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders.

As a veteran of the left blogosphere during the run-up to the war this is pretty much spot on. Read below the fold...