Dohiyi Mir
In Which NTodd Says His Peace
ARCHIVES, ARCHIVES, ARCHIVES!
Since Blogger migrated to the "new and improved" platform, the old archive HTML page is gone. If you're looking for old stuff, see the monthly archive links below the logo in the right navbar...
Changing Media
Buh-bye Blogger: I'm
now found at dohiyimir
dot typepad dot com
I'm moving early. The re-design is pretty much done, and I'm tired of Haloscan loopiness. So please change your bookmarks and blogrolls to reflect the new URL: http://dohiyimir.typepad.com/!
I even have my first "offical" post up: a brief bit on blogs, democracy, and the media.
ntodd
Poor, Poor Us
I was going to try to do a Shorter Brooks, but couldn't boil down his latest inanity in any way that would do today's addled column justice. I don't have the time to do a proper fisking, either. Just go read it to peer into the depths of intellectual dishonesty, cognitive dissonance, and self-pity.
I will, however, note my favorite line:
We went into Iraq with what, in retrospect, seems like a childish fantasy.
So many things wrong with just that one sentence...
ntodd
Mmm...Turkee
Here's the latest tally of Kerry contributions: 13 donations for a total of $750 and an average of $57.69. Thanks, all! Anybody else want to kick in?
If you really still shudder at the idea of giving Kerry money (I understand all too well), then please consider giving to the Democratic National Committee to help the Party in general, or Dean's grassroots organization, Democracy for America.
ntodd
PS--I'm still not a Democrat.
[Update: if the above aren't progressive/liberal enough for you, give to MoveOn. If the above aren't conservative enough for you, uh...]
Bernie Backs Kerry
Apparently our lone Congressperson, Bernie Sanders, somewhat surprisingly is going to work his ass off to get Kerry elected:
Not only am I going to vote for John Kerry, I am going to run around this country and do everything I can to dissuade people from voting for Ralph Nader. The likelihood is, this election will come down to a relatively few votes. Some of the polls already indicate Nader at 5, 6, 7 percent -- it's the margin of difference allowing Bush to be ahead of Kerry.
I consider four more years of Bush a potential horror show for this country, where actions will be taken that literally will be irreversible in terms of the courts, in terms of the movement or the privatization of Social Security, Medicare, the Veterans' Administration, and public education.
So I am going to do everything that I can, while I have differences with John Kerry, to make sure that he is elected.
(Courtesy The Carpetbagger, via Patridiot Watch)
ntodd
[Update: Doh! I forgot to remind you to give some turkee to Kerry.]
Evening Photoblogging
New additions to the photo album:
Something caught Cairo's eye on our daily trek to the mailbox.
No, this isn't what she saw. Can anyone ID this flower? I have no clue, and Stef planted them so long ago she's forgotten what it is.
ntodd
Bush's Hangover
Zogby:
I have made a career of taking bungee jumps in my election calls. Sometimes I haven't had a helmet and I have gotten a little scratched. But here is my jump for 2004: John Kerry will win the election.
Have you recovered from the shock? Is this guy nuts? Kerry's performance of late has hardly been inspiring and polls show that most Americans have no sense of where he really stands on the key issues that matter most to them. Regardless, I still think that he will win.
Still too soon, but it's a nice thought, isn't it?
ntodd
[Update: New USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll shows Kerry leading Bush among registered voters 50-44. Oh, and Bush's approval rating is his lowest ever: 46%.]
Bye, Bye Rummy
Today President Bush told the world that Rummy's doing a "superb job". He then broke into song:
In ev'rything I do,
My sincerity shows thro'
I looked you in the eye,
Don't even have to try,
It's automatic!
I'm sincere!
So it looks like Bush is sticking by his man for now.
Fat lot of good it will do, but you might consider signing Kerry's petition demanding Rummy's resignation. And while you're at it, give Kerry some turkee--it's been a while since DM readers have donated, and I'm sure John has noticed.
ntodd
Rummy's Hangover
ArmyTimes:
This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.
Q: What do you call it when the "best SecDef ever" is fired?
A: A very good start.
ntodd
[Update: found the direct link to the ArmyTimes editorial.]
Still Here
I'm still planning on the official move to TypePad on the 14th. There are still some things to tweak, and I want to explore some other hosting options before I take the plunge for real. But things are in motion--here's a picture hosted on the new photo album:
Finally saw a male rose-breasted grosbeak yesterday! Two, actually.
ntodd
X-Post
Nope, I haven't moved sites officially yet, but while Blogger was down this evening I posted a long thing about how we blew it in Iraq, and a picture to bring some cheer...
ntodd
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
Bowie:
Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace I'm going through
Change is afoot at Dohiyi Mir: catch a sneak preview of the new blog and new photo album. Still in the tweaking stages, so feedback is encouraged. Official launch expected on 5/14.
ntodd
Nancy Backs Embryo Research
CNN:
Former first lady Nancy Reagan endorsed human embryonic research Saturday night at a star-studded fund-raiser.
Such research is generally opposed by political conservatives and many anti-abortion groups because it involves the destruction of days-old human embryos. President Bush signed an executive order in 2001 limiting research to existing embryonic stem cell lines.
However, Reagan and others believe the use of stem cells taken from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts Reagan's husband, former President Ronald Reagan.
"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him," she said. "Because of this I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain. I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this."
Good.
ntodd
QOTD
People ought to get off his case and let him do his job. - Dick Cheney on Donald Rumsfeld
I guess Rummy ain't going anywhere...
ntodd
A Happy Image
Cairo and her friend, Chocolate Dog1, greet each other as we head out to get the mail. Yes, CD is wearing a bandage and a sock. Anyway, they had fun sniffing butts and chasing each other.
ntodd
1 - No, we don't know the names of most of her friends--if we did at one point, we've forgotten them. Thus, descriptive nicknames like Chocolate and Neighbor Dog.
Epiphany
WaPo:
Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who spent much of the year in western Iraq, said he believes that at the tactical level at which fighting occurs, the U.S. military is still winning. But when asked whether he believes the United States is losing, he said, "I think strategically, we are."
Army Col. Paul Hughes, who last year was the first director of strategic planning for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said he agrees with that view and noted that a pattern of winning battles while losing a war characterized the U.S. failure in Vietnam. "Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our policy, we will lose strategically," he said in an interview Friday.
"I lost my brother in Vietnam," added Hughes, a veteran Army strategist who is involved in formulating Iraq policy. "I promised myself, when I came on active duty, that I would do everything in my power to prevent that [sort of strategic loss] from happening again. Here I am, 30 years later, thinking we will win every fight and lose the war, because we don't understand the war we're in."
We are involved in what Boyd called a moral conflict. In fact, I believe we have already lost. We could not win it by torturing prisoners. We could not win it by killing more of "them" than they kill of us. We could not win by lying about our reasons for this war. That is not how you win moral conflicts.
I'm glad some senior military leadership is experiencing an ephiphany about the tactical/strategic dichotomy we face in Iraq. I hope they, and eventually all commanders and the American people, realize very soon that the only thing left to do is make the best of a terrible situation and choose the least bad option.
I keep hearing folks say "failure is not an option". Sorry, but it's not a choice any more. The United States has failed to balance the evil of war with a positive outcome in Iraq. The only question now is how do we deal with our failure.
We missed our window of opportunity to make things right through BushCo's incompetence, arrogance, and lack of planning. I have argued time and again that our troops simply must leave Iraq. I more firmly believe that now than I did last year.
ntodd
Chechnya: Lopping Off Heads Redux
I have a brief post up at Open Source Politics about today's assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov.
ntodd
Out To Breakfast
Took some pics on our meandering way back from breakfast this morning...
These old heaps on VT-128 catch our eye every time we pass by. This time we stopped.
There's some new logging going on a couple miles down the road.
They might be clearing for a new house, or just selling off some lumber. Whatever the reason, they're making a mess.
Looks complicated to operate!
No logging here.
ntodd
The Story Of Little George
Tom Burka has the story:
When George was little, his father put him in charge of the garden in the back yard.
"Now, George, the gardeners are going to make this garden nice. All you have to do is make sure that they do a good job."
"Yes, Daddy," said George.
George had some other things to do, so he put his dog in charge of the gardeners.
When the gardeners came, they burned down the toolshed, destroyed the garden, trampled the yard, and demolished the neighbor's house.
When George's father came back, he was stunned.
"How did this happen?" he asked George.
Read George's response...
ntodd
Milestones
BBWW is celebrating 6 months in the blogoverse! Go congratulate Mustang Bobby.
Apropos of nothing, I'm going to be overhauling DM in the coming weeks as part of a relaunch celebrating my one year blogoversary in June. I appreciate the feedback I've gotten over the past several months, and I hope to make the site more functional, easier to read, etc.
ntodd
Focus
Stef's glasses on her nightstand with today's morning light sneaking past the window blinds.
ntodd
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Depending On The General Spirit Of The People
Moyers:
The war in Iraq has become also a war of images. This week, we were troubled by pictures of tortured Iraqi prisoners. Last week, it was photographs of American soldiers who have given their lives there.
On Friday a week ago on NIGHTLINE, Ted Koppel read the names of the dead and showed their photographs. But their faces and names were blacked out on ABC stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair accused Koppel of "…doing nothing more than making a political statement."
...
[I]t's their right. Freedom of the press, it has been famously said, is guaranteed only to those who own one.
That's just the point. These media giants can be within their rights even while doing wrong. It's the system, dear Brutus, the system...a cartel, in effect, of big companies and big government scratching each other's back.
...
Nowadays, these mega-media conglomerates relieve government of the need for censorship by doing it themselves. So we're reminded once again that journalism's best moments have come not when journalists make common cause with the state but stand fearlessly independent of it. A free press remains everything to a free society.
Thank goodness for blogs.
ntodd
[Update: Tom Curley, the AP's President and CEO, also gets it. Read the whole thing. Thanks to praktike over at Eschaton.]
I Am Enamour'd Of Growing Outdoors
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass:
The sharp-hoof'd moose of the north, the cat on the
house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog ;
The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
The brood of the turkey-hen, and she with her half-
spread wings ;
I see in them and myself the same old law.
A chickadee perches amongst new leaves this afternoon. It brings me cheer.
ntodd
Some Good News From Iraq
The Poison Kitchen: Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked.
ntodd
Speaking Of Rummy
Time to lighten the mood: we have a winner in the latest Rummy Caption Contest! Here's the picture:
As usual, it was a tough choice. The honorable mentions:
- Rummy: You could say we intend to Achy Breaky the will of the terrorists.
Garth: Um, that wasn't me.
space - Gee, Death, you're nothing like I pictured.
norbizness - "Some people see the Grim Reaper in robes, some see him in a cowboy hat. Either way, you're coming with me, Rummy."
folkbum - Cowboy: Yeah, I'd recognize the Rummy Kid anywhere, he's part of the Double-U Gang. Take him away sheriff, he's the worst!
Patrick Taylor - Secretary Rumsfeld secretly wished to himself that he man in the cowboy hat was motioning for him to come out on the dance floor and join him for a waltz. Rummy remembered his youth spent cavorting in the hills above Vienna listening to the grand dances and dreaming that some young prince would sweep him off of his feet and ask him to the governor's ball where he could wear that dress he ever so loved. Was this charming cowboy his secret prince?
"Yes, I'd love to dance," he said with a breathless smile and eyes turned up at his enchanted lover.
The cowboy, a bit confused, said, "Hey, man. I just wanted a smoke."
MercuryX23
The Honorable Mentions and really everybody did an excellent job. And without further ado, the $10 Amazon gift cert goes to:
So, Master Rumsfeld, is this how the Fist of the West Side is done?
You have much to learn, Grasshopper...
(: Tom :)
Congratulations! Thanks to everybody for entering, and for you continued readership.
ntodd
PS--What will we do if Rummy resigns/gets fired? We'll need a new patsy for caption contests.
Godwin's Law Has Been Suspended
2001 State Dept. report on Human Rights Practices in Iraq:
The authorities routinely used arbitrary arrest and detention, prolonged detention, and incommunicado detention, and continued to deny citizens the basic right to due process...Special security courts have jurisdiction in all cases involving espionage and treason, peaceful political dissent, smuggling, currency exchange violations, and drug trafficking. According to the Special Rapporteur and other sources, military officers or civil servants with no legal training head these tribunals, which hear cases in secret. Authorities often hold defendants incommunicado and do not permit contact with lawyers...
2004 Amnesty International report on US detention policies:
Wazir Mohammad was held incommunicado. He was given no opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of his detention. He had no lawyer, no access to his family, and was not brought before any court, including the "competent tribunal" envisaged by the Geneva Conventions to determine prisoner status in time of war. He never met a delegate from the International Committee of the Red Cross either. He was then put on a plane to Guantánamo Bay. He said that he was hooded and handcuffed for the 22-hour flight. When asked about toilet facilities during the flight, he refused to elaborate, saying that he could not talk of some of the things that happened on the plane.(19) Upon arrival at Guantánamo, Wazir Mohammad said that he and his fellow detainees were taken off the plane "like cargo, not people".
The Origins of Totalitarianism:
How important to the total-domination apparatus this complete disappearance of its victims is can be seen in those instances where, for one reason or another, the regime was confronted with the memory of survivors. During the war, one SS commandant made the terrible mistake of informing a French woman of her husband's death in a German concentration camp; this slip caused a small avalanche of orders and instructions to all camp commandants, warning them that under no circumstances was information ever to be given to the outside world. The point is that, as far as the French widow was concerned, her husband had supposedly ceased to live at the moment of his arrest, or rather had ceased ever to have lived.
But we're the good guys, right?
ntodd
[Update: Wapo:
There were no rules, by her account, and little training. But the mission was clear. Spec. Sabrina Harman, a military police officer charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, said she was assigned to break down prisoners for interrogation.
Guess the "blowing off steam" defense isn't cutting it, so we're falling back on "just following orders", eh? Nuremberg. My Lai. Abu Ghraib. Ecclesiastes 1:9:
What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Alas.]
Every Morning the War Gets Up from Sleep
From
Ah! Every morning the war gets up from sleep.
So I place it in a poem, make the poem into a boat, which I throw into the Tigris.
This is war, then.
ntodd
Zen Chess
Rook makes a Zen-inspired move in our epic Bloggers Chess match. Might be time for me to dust off the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
ntodd
Is Our Republicans Learning?
CNN:
A pro-military Democratic congressman's description of the war in Iraq as "unwinnable" unless changes are made sparked anger in House Republicans Thursday.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, in a news conference with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said the problems in Iraq are due to a "lack of planning" by Pentagon chiefs and "the direction has got be changed or it is unwinnable."
Republicans seized on that word, ignoring Murtha's overall point: that more troops and equipment should be sent to Iraq.
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the majority leader, accused Murtha of participating in a "calculated and craven political stunt."
"The Democrats are quitting, calling the war unwinnable while we have our men and women and their families sacrificing every day" charged Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
A few things struck me about this story and the way it was reported:
- Of course, the obvious gross stupidity and/or crass politics in the GOP's response leaps out. Observing that we must change direction or the war is unwinnable is clearly different than saying the war is, in fact, unwinnable.
- It's interesting that the reporter, Ted Barrett, felt it necessary to add the "pro-military" label to describe the Democrat, as though most other Dems hate the military. Some memes die hard.
- I give Barrett full marks for noting that the GOP seized on "unwinnable" and completely ignored Murtha's point. Unusual for somebody at CNN or most of our media outlets to point out such things. Could the worm be turning?
Why is it that Republicans have such a hard time with reading comp? Maybe the private schools they went to should be declared "failing" and shut down?
ntodd
Now That's An Apology
Shocking:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Friday extended "my deepest apologies'' to Iraqi prisoners abused by U.S. military personnel and told Congress he accepts full responsibility for the shocking events.
"These events occurred on my watch. As Secretary of Defense, I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility,'' Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
I didn't think the old goat had it in him. At least somebody's taking responsibility in this administration.
ntodd
Manure In A Pile Of Ponies
288k jobs created last month. Good.
Other items also modestly improved: employment population ratio was up 0.1%; average duration of unemployment dropped from 20.1 weeks to 19.7; there were 159k fewer people working part-time for economic reasons. Good.
Now the manure in that pile of ponies (thanks, Commissar): the number of jobs created were fewer than last month, and fewer than the promised 320k/month; hours worked was stagnant; wages barely budged. Not good.
Overall, hopeful signs in this report. I know the wingers will chastise me for my lack of enthusiasm, but these numbers are nothing to crow about, especially after years of promises--for me this is more of the good feeling you get when you stop beating your head against the wall. That said, I'm happy to see positive job growth, and hope to see this trend continue.
ntodd
Chipping Away
Cairo and I walked to the mailbox yesterday afternoon, as is our wont, and we saw lots of stuff, including a chipping sparrow.
Speaking of chipping, here's Cairo last weekend taking a break from making wood chips out of a log.
ntodd
Caption Contest Reminder!
Even though I said midnight UTC today was the deadline for the current Rummy Caption Contest, it's still really not too late to enter for a chance to win a VALUABLE PRIZE. Winner announced tomorrow. Go now!
ntodd
Meta Apology
Bush today:
I told [King Abdullah] I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners, and the humiliation suffered by their families. I told him I was equally sorry that people who have been seeing those pictures didn't understand the true nature and heart of America. I assured him Americans, like me, didn't appreciate what we saw, that it made us sick to our stomachs. I also made it clear to His Majesty that the troops we have in Iraq, who are there for security and peace and freedom, are the finest of the fine, fantastic United States citizens, who represent the very best qualities of America: courage, love of freedom, compassion, and decency.
How nice of our Narcissist-in-Chief:
The essential feature of the narcissistic personality disorder is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy (DSM-IV™, 1994, p. 658)...Kantor (1992, pp. 203-204) describes the clinical characteristics of NPD as:
- inordinate self-pride;
- self-concern;
- an exaggeration of the importance of one's experiences and feelings;
- ideas of perfection;
- a reluctance to accept blame or criticism;
- absence of altruism although gestures may be made for the sake of appearance;
- empathy deficit; and,
- grandiosity.
Yes, Bush's meta apology is a sign of his real pathology. Hey, if Krauthammer can diagnose people from afar, so can I...
ntodd
[Update: apparently Bush's crap passes as a real apology for the AP's Terence Hunt: President Bush, struggling to control a growing crisis, apologized Thursday for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers and called it "a stain on our country's honor." Puhleeze!]
Grisly Arithmetic
I was arguing with somebody the other night about Iraq-Vietnam comparisons. Inevitably, wingers point out the literal differences between the two conflicts, as though we don't know there are differences and that the analogy requires them to be exactly the same to hold true. One of the most popular reasons they list for why Iraq is no Vietnam is the casualty level, so I decided to take a look more closely.
Of course, it doesn't take a lot of research to recognize that casualties in Vietnam were an order of magnitude higher than what we're incurring in Iraq. But one would expect our casualties to be fewer now, wouldn't we? I mean, we've been told that our military technology is a force multiplier, so we need fewer troops to do the job and all that. But whatever.
First, some raw data. Here's a chart I built comparing the first 14 months of each conflict1:
What leaps out at me is that during the initial combat phase in Iraq, we suffered more casualties than we did in Vietnam. Of course, things got rapidly worse in Vietnam, whereas our quick overthrow of Saddam's regime bought us a relative "lull" in fighting. One other scary thing: we've seen a dramatic upward trend in casualties in the last few months, and May shows no sign of the violence abating.
All told, there were 14,910 killed and wounded during the first 14 months of Vietnam, and 4852 total casualties2 during the same span in Iraq. Great, we've only lost about 1/3 the personnel we did in Vietnam. Wow, I guess the wingers are right that Iraq is totally not Vietnam. It sucks 1/3 less!
What it all comes down to is this: wingers seem to think there is a threshold that we must pass before we can compare Vietnam and Iraq, and before we can call this a quagmire. Okay, so when do we cross that line? Do we have to be knee deep in the Big Muddy (or Sandy) before we recognize we're bogged down? Will we know we're in trouble when we have 1000 dead?
I was asked to put a number on it myself (I'll note the person asking the question never provided his). I said 500. Mostly arbitrary, but I figured it was a round milestone number, and clearly indicated that we'd been a) in Iraq for a significant time, thus the conflict would not be a Six Week Wonder like GWI, and b) incurring low-level casualties on a continuing basis, indicating that we aren't making any progress in terms of security and stability. Given that Vietnam also started slowly, and when we hit 500 in Iraq we were beginning to trend upward, this sounded like a reasonable marker of quagmireness.
But more importantly, how many is too many? Is 11,552 acceptable? How about 18,937? Or 29,853? Roughly 30k is apparently how many the "mass public" would accept in Iraq, according to a 1999 survey. However, what's important to note is the study asked specifically how tolerant would Americans be of casualties in a conflict to rid Saddam of WMD. Further, it seems that "what is crucial for maintaining public support is not [the incursion of] casualties per se, but casualties in an inconclusive war, casualties that the public sees as being suffered indefinitely, for no clear, good, or achievable purpose." That is why support for the war has slid.3
Let's leave Vietnam for the moment. All the talk about Abu Ghraib has made me wonder about some other comparisons. Wingers are gnashing their teeth, wailing, "where were the liberals when Saddam was doing bad things?" Is that really the bar we've set for ourselves: that we do bad things, but not as much as Saddam did?
I think of the Iraqis we've killed in combat since March, 2003, and the new revelations of abuse, torture and murder at our hands and again wonder, how much is too much? Is 11,000 Iraqi civilians we killed in just over 1 year (not counting the 1300+ we killed in April alone) really that much better than the 300,000 Saddam killed in 25? Is our abuse better than Saddam's because we mean well?
Not only have we gone in and destabilized a region and pissed off the Arab world more than they already were, but we've done the very things the bad guys have done. Keeping score and saying we're an order of magnitude less evil is cold comfort. This time it's my fucking government that is to blame. Morally and pragmatically, if not strategically, this war is a disaster.
Why did we lose Vietnam? Wingers like to say hippies and politicians are to blame. I'd say it was our inability to match our words with our deeds: saying we are defending freedom sounds great, but the reality of abuse, death and destruction trumps any assertions we make. Why did we lose Iraq? The numbers aren't exactly the same as Vietnam, but as Twain said, "History doesn't repeat itself, at best it rhymes." We're singing the same sad song today that we did 40 years ago.
ntodd
1 - I'm dating Vietnam as having started in March, 1965, when the first combat troops arrived (3,500 Marines, augmenting 25,000 advisors already in country). I think starting as early as 1961 is warranted, but I see most people put it somewhere between '64 and '66. Data sources: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, US National Archives & Records Administration, and Lunaville.
2 - This is assuming that Col. Hackworth is not correct when he says we're approaching 22,000 casualties. I've seen such high figures reported elsewhere, usually based on evacs or how many people have been treated at hospitals like Walter Reed, but I'm going to stick with the officially reported figures.
3 - That's interesting because support for Vietnam didn't start to really tank until late 1967.
[Update: made some minor edits.]
Unhappy Campers
Wow, the latest Gallup poll is telling:
- The poll finds 36% of Americans satisfied with the way things are going in the United States...19 points lower than an early January reading.
- The poll shows that 49% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president...The current reading ties with the lowest approval readings Gallup has measured in Bush's presidency.
- Overall, 41% of Americans approve...of the way Bush is handling the economy -- the worst reading Gallup has measured in this Bush administration.
- At 42%, Bush's job approval on foreign affairs is another record low for the president.
- Bush's rating on his handling of the situation in Iraq -- now at 42% -- has fallen 19 points since January and is three points below the previous low rating (last November).
- Barely a majority of Americans, 52%, approve of the way he is dealing with the terrorist threat...
- Bush is now in a dead heat with Kerry in Gallup's trial heat ballot. In the two-way ballot, Kerry receives 49% support among likely voters, Bush 48%.
- When independent Ralph Nader is included in the ballot, Bush and Kerry each receive 47%, while Nader receives 3%.
- [I]n the "purple" or battleground states, where Gore or Bush won in 2000 by five percentage points or less, Kerry leads Bush among likely voters by 48% to 44%.
Oh my.
ntodd
Morning Zen
I love mornings, especially the calm before-the-day-starts feeling as the birds start to wake up. As Cairo and I were taking out the trash/recycling, we paused to listen to the sounds of the red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, and other members of the avian chorus. We also took in the sights of the foggy world in the early morning light...
One of the many webs out in our meadow this morning. Alas, at this resolution, you can't really see the teeny droplets of moisture collected on the strands.
ntodd
Starry Eyed Friedman
Tommy is so cute when he gets all optimistic. He's right, Rummy should resign, but I don't hold out hope that this or anything else BushCo does will do all that much to restore our moral authority in the community of nations. We lost that long ago, and it's going to take a long time to get it back.
ntodd
