The Hollywood Liberal

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

More desperate lies from a desperate lying party to try to get a few votes.

Bush to consult on changing Iraq tactics

AP
Excerpt
One of the reasons you’re seeing more casualties is the enemy is active and so are our troops, along with Iraqis,” Bush said in a brief interview with The Associated Press.

The White House said that while Bush might change tactics in Iraq, he would not change his overall strategy despite growing opposition and Republican anxiety that his policy could cost the GOP control of the House or the Senate — or both.

H.L.s Take
This is a non story if I ever heard one. “We are changing tactics, but not our strategy, which is constant warfare for evermore.

They are still stealing the vote in Ohio.

Ohio Lawsuit to Reinstate hundreds of thousands of Purged Democratic Voters to be Filed Fri or Monday

Op-Ed News
Excerpt
Ohio voting rights activist and attorney, Bob Fitrakis, says the Ohio elections may have already been won, responding to reports of massive voter purges in Democratic precincts.

Dr. Fitrakis, told OpEdNews, “Essentially, by purging these rolls, the Republicans, by shrinking the electorate, have already won in Ohio. If they can’t win, which is what the polls show among registered voters, the way to win is to use their nuclear option– to target black voters, young voters and the working poor– by purging them so they can’t vote.

Reports indicate that starting as early as shortly after the 2004 presidential elections, but particularly recently, hundreds of thousands of voters– mostly urban apartment dwellers (likely black) and students– who are primarily Democratic– were sent notifications that they would be purged from the eligible voter lists if they did not respond the letter. But, reportedly, the letter was designed to be easily overlooked, perhaps treated as junk mail. Failure to send in a response caused the voter to be removed from the voting roll.

H.L.s Take:
Too bad the democrats don’t want to be bothered with somehting as trivial and meaningless as having elections stolen from them (again)

Here is Keith Olbermann, with a special message about the loss of Habeus Corpus, in The United States of America.

More Homeowners Going Into Default

L.A. Times
Excerpt
The number of Californians who are significantly behind on their mortgage payments and at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure more than doubled in the three months ended Sept. 30, providing the latest evidence of trouble in the housing market, figures released Wednesday show.

Lenders sent out 26,705 default notices — the first step toward a foreclosure — during the July-to-September period, up from 12,606 during the same quarter in 2005, according to DataQuick Information Systems

H.L.s Take:
For years I wondered how the jobs market and economy went one way, (down) while the housing market went the other way (Up.) When the stock market goes down housing prices go up, and vice verca. Well the stock market is at an all time high. Of course it’s mostly millionaires that are making that money. For the people that are just trying to afford a home. Look out below.

More from the party that just looooooves black people. They are not racists, oh no, I am for calling them a bunch of red neck crackers.

Republican Group Chides Democrats With Abortion Ads

NY Sun
Excerpt
“Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies,” a female announcer in one of the ads says, as rain, thunder, and a crying infant are heard in the background. ….
“If you make a little mistake with one of your ‘hos,’ you’ll want to dispose of that problem tout suite, no questions asked,” one of the men says.
“That’s too cold. I don’t snuff my own seed,” the other replies.
“Maybe you do have a reason to vote Republican,” the first man says.

H.L.s Take:
They know they have no chance to get the vote of any person of color, so they make this ad to go after the white racist group, of which there are plenty of especially in the red states.

After Pat’s Birthday

Truthdig
Excerpt
By Kevin Tillman

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

H.L.s Take
This Pat Tillman story just refuses to go away. It is symbolic of everything the Bush administration has done wrong since it took office.

Lewis Falsely Implies Mass Suspension Of Committee Investigators Was ‘Bipartisan’

Think Progress.org
Excerpt

Powerful House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has abruptly suspended the contracts of “60 investigators who had worked for his committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, effective immediately.” The investigators were “brought on to handle the extraordinary level of fraud investigations facing the panel.”

Lewis is currently under federal investigation over corruption charges reportedly uncovered during the Duke Cunningham investigation. He has spent nearly $800,000 in legal fees since May.

Lewis’ spokesman yesterday tried to portray the suspensions as part of a bipartisan review that occured with the support of the committee’s ranking member Rep. David Obey (D-WI):

H.L.s Take
They know they are going down, they are now just trying to control how low.