The Hollywood Liberal

U.S. endures deadliest month of ’06 in Iraq

Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram
Excerpt
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two U.S. troops were killed in fighting Saturday, a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and a soldier of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, the military said Sunday.
That brought the U.S. death toll in October to 80, the highest of any month this year. The previous worst month was April with 76.
With more than a week left in the month, October is on course to be the deadliest month for American service members in two years.
The carnage in three different attacks on holiday shoppers in Baghdad came at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, over which an average of about 43 Iraqis have been killed each day, according to an Associated Press count. That compares to an average daily death toll of about 27 since April 2005. The AP count includes civilians, government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting.
The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported. The United Nations estimates about 100 Iraqi civilians are killed each day.

H.L.s Take
I read a Bush quote where he said that we will stay in Iraq even if the only people that still agree with him are his wife and dog. Well forget about Laura, she’ll never tell Georgie he is wrong even though she knows he is. Maybe we can talk to the dog, and get him to straighten Bush out, it’s our best chance. Here is a conversation Bush had with his dog on April 17, 2005

More Republican desperation, Tan Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee, who is running for Congress in the Garden Grove, Sends out a letter to the hispanics in his district telling them that if they vote in the election they will be arrested. (Even the ones who are U.S. Citizens) Now why would he do that? Because contrary to the Republicans lie, most hispanics vote democrat. He gets caught and he is lashing out at Who???? You already know the answer, his Democratic opponent who also happens to be the imcumbent.

Calif. candidate brushes uproar aside

AP
Excerpt
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – A Republican congressional candidate whose campaign is being investigated for sending intimidating letters to Hispanic voters lashed out at his Democratic rival, saying she was fueling the uproar over the mailings.
Tan Nguyen on Sunday rejected calls to drop out of the race to unseat longtime Rep. Loretta Sanchez (news, bio, voting record), and implied the popular congresswoman was behind the probes into the letters warning immigrants they could be deported or jailed for voting in next month’s election.
“There has been no crime committed so why is there a criminal investigation three weeks prior to a very important election?”

H.L.s Take:
Of Course Nguyen refuses to drop out of the race, because then he wouldn’t be famous any more. Chalk another house seat up for the Democrats

Democrats Strengthen Chances For Senate

Washington Post
Excerpt
Democrats in the past two weeks have significantly improved their chances of taking control of the Senate, according to polls and independent analysts, with the battle now focused intensely on three states in the Midwest and upper South: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.

Democratic challengers are in strong positions against GOP incumbents in four states — Pennsylvania, Montana, Ohio and Rhode Island — a trend that leaves the party looking for just two more seats to reclaim the majority. The main targets are states where Republicans in recent years have dominated but this year find themselves in hotly competitive races.

H.L.s Take
The only thing that can stop the Democrats now is Diebold, so if they lose it will be their own fault because they have known about this for 6 years now, and refused to even mention it. I’m looking at you John Kerry.

It has nothing to do with their values, or beliefs. It has to do with winning over their idiot constitutents and Money, Money, Money

Running for office? Better run from Colbert

Washington Post
Excerpt
With polls showing that the balance of power in Congress could shift from Republican to Democrat in next month’s elections, few incumbents are in the mood to take chances. Indeed, it’s been two months since a current member has appeared.
One who did appear, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), discovered the pitfalls when Colbert asked him about a bill he co-sponsored requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in the U.S. Capitol.
“What are the Ten Commandments?” Colbert asked matter-of-factly.
“What are all of them?” Westmoreland said, taken aback. “You want me to name them all?”
The June segment showed Westmoreland struggling to name just three. Westmoreland actually named seven, said his press secretary, Brian Robinson. And the remaining ones, he added, were somewhat obscure.
A Bible Belt conservative, the embarrassed Westmoreland has been trying to live down his Commandments performance. No Republican has appeared since.

H.L.s Takes
I was listening to a segment on some show, Elizabeth Dole was on and said that people should vote for Republicans becuase of their shared values. What are those?: hypocrisy, war profiteering, homosexual pedophilia, and thieivery. Most of these are against the 10 Commandents of course. By the way Here’s the video of Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) naming them. (This is the entrie Colbert Segment, the 10 Commandment part is at the end.)

Here is more proof that the Republicans are a one issue party when it comes to campaigning. This is the latest fear mongering Republican ad for the upcoming election. It stars none other then the boogeyman to end all boogeymen, Osama Bin Laden. Hard to believe they can be so afraid of a buy who has been dead for the past 4 years, but then again Republicans are afraid of everything except young boys.

Think Progress.org
Senior Bush administration officials wanted North Korea to test a nuclear weapon because it would prove their point that the regime must be overthrown.
This astonishing revelation was buried in the middle of a Washington Post story published yesterday. Glenn Kessler reports from Moscow as he accompanies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Before North Korea announced it had detonated a nuclear device, some senior officials even said they were quietly rooting for a test, believing that would finally clarify the debate within the administration.
Until now, no U.S. official in any administration has ever advocated the testing of nuclear weapons by another country, even by allies such as the United Kingdom and France.
One of these officials may have been Rice herself, Kessler hints. Rice, he reports, “has come close to saying the test was a net plus for the United States.” Rice has been trying to counter the prevailing view that the test was a failure of the Bush administration’s policy.
A factual timeline of the North Korean program traces how policies of containment and engagement slowed and stopped the program, while threats of regime change increased the dangers. The two key failures were the choice to focus on overthrowing the government in Pyongyang rather than stopping the nuclear program, and the invasion of Iraq which distracted U.S. attention from the real nuclear dangers and propelled both North Korea and Iran to accelerate their programs.
The revelation that some officials secretly wanted North Korea to test their nuclear weapons is evidence of how the administration’s national security policy has become completely divorced from reality.
– Joe Cirincione

Diplomat Cites U.S. ‘Stupidity’ in Iraq

ABC News
Excerpt
BAGHDAD, Iraq Oct 22, 2006 (AP)— A senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown “arrogance” and “stupidity” in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television aired late Saturday, Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department offered an unusually candid assessment of America’s war in Iraq.

“We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq,” he said.

H.L.s Take
Everyone knows what a quagmire it is, even Bush, but he can’t leave, because how would they keep stealing everything over there that isn’t bolted down??

Bush predicts the Republicans will hold both houses of congress, how can he know that when all the polls and pundits say otherwise? The same way he knew that he was going to win in 2000 even after one of the big networks gave the election to Gore. Remeber that. He sat there with Poppy saying, “I know I am going to win” a few minutes later Fox Gave Florida to Bush forcing NBC, and ABC to change Florida from blue to red. Of course if you saw Fahreinheit 9/11, you know that the guy who told Fox to call Florida for Bush was none other then his cousin…

Bush Says Troops Stay in Iraq, Predicts Midterm Wins

ABC News
Excerpt
Oct. 22, 2006 — Current fighting in Iraq compares to the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam, which was widely seen as the turning point in that war, President Bush said in a one-on-one interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

H.L.s Take:
So basically what Bush saying is that the turning point in the Iraq war is happening right now. Too bad he was saying the same thing 5 months and thousands of lives ago

Turning Point