Rice Bars US Embassies From Helping Candidates--AFTER McCain Got Help From US Embassy in Colombia

Someone on Capitol Hill needs to bring the Secretary of State before their committee and start asking some very pointed questions--as in, "are you going to use the State Department to influence the Presidential election?"

The night before presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) left for Afghanistan, Iraq and Western Europe for a tour of US bases overseas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a cable to US missions forbidding them from holding events for presidential candidates or arrange meetings for them.

Rice issued no such cable prior to foreign excursions by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

In a cable sent late Thursday, according to a copy leaked to the Washington Times, Rice enjoined American diplomats to treat the candidates as "members of Congress visiting in personal or semi-personal capacities," but "with additional restrictions based on rules related to political activity."

That's right--she didn't instruct officials at the US Embassy in Colombia to treat John McCain like this. In fact, US Embassy officials went with him on his ridiculous boat ride junket:

McCain and his wife, Cindy, were briefed on interdiction efforts then toured the bay in a fast boat, named “Midnight Express 39,” with U.S. Embassy officials, Colombian military and government officials and the Secret Service. The boat is part of a 12-boat drug interdiction fleet that the Colombian navy bought from the United States with funds from Plan Colombia – the 10-year, $5-billion-dollar U.S. program.

McCain, dressed in khakis, a blue-and-white button-down shirt and a Navy baseball cap, arrived with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Coincidentally, Obama has Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed with him--one Republican and one Democrat. McCain couldn't even be bothered to take a Democrat with him.

This is an outrageous abuse of power. The Hatch Act has never meant anything to these people, nor has restraint or common decency. Every time someone criticizes the left wing blogosphere for using obscenities or expressing outrage needs to understand something--the Republicans in this country abuse their power on a daily basis in ways no one ever thought possible without regret or remorse.

If the full weight of the Executive Branch is now going to align itself with the McCain campaign, then the US Congress better step in and stop it by any means necessary.

--WS

McCain Unhinged

In one fascinating display, you get McCain's temper, McCain's incompetent surrogates rushing to his defense, McCain's mock humility about "not wanting to talk about his time as a POW" and then McCain talking about his time as a POW.

McCain bristled at the comments on "Face the Nation" last weekend by an Obama supporter, retired general Wesley Clark, who belittled the relevance of McCain’s wartime experience as a qualification for the Presidency.

"I think it’s up to Sen. Obama now not only to repudiate him but to cut him loose," McCain said.

McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.

"Please," he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.

McCain allies Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped in to rescue him. Graham expressed admiration for McCain’s stance on the treatment of detainees in US custody.

"That to me is a classic example of how his military experience helped him shape public policy in a way no other senator could have done,’’ Graham said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, also traveling on the trip, expressed admiration for McCain’s wartime service as well.

McCain then collected himself and apologized for his initial reaction.

"I kind of reacted the way I did because I have a reluctance to talk about my experiences," he said, noting that he has huge admiration for the "heroes" who served with him in the POW camp and said the experience taught him to love the U.S. because he missed it so much.

"I am always reluctant to talk about these things," McCain said.

Asked about one of his former jailors from the notorious Hanoi Hilton who has now endorsed his candidacy for President, McCain chuckled.

"Yeah, I saw that," he said. "He also said that he and I used to have these nice, long philosophical chats. The ones that I recall is, confess or else."

It's a wonder he didn't grab the reporter and have Huckleberry and Holy Joe sit on him.

But Cochran said he observed McCain engage in a physical confrontation with a Sandinista while participating in a diplomatic mission led by Sen. Bob Dole and others in the fall of 1987. Cochran, McCain - who had won election to the Senate that year - and other members of a bipartisan committee of lawmakers called the Central American Negotiations Observer Group - met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, head of the left-wing political party known as Sandinistas, about tensions in the region..."McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever. I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John but he obviously got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."

And for Graham to bring up McCain's stance on the treatment of detainees is to invite ridicule--McCain was for giving the detainees a trial before he was against it, he was against waterboarding before he decided he needed to sell out his principles and run to the right so he could appeal to the craven wingnuts in order to win the nomination. I wish Graham could speak for McCain all day and every day--it's like a gift to the Democratic Party.

--WS

Senator Graham's Stock Sinks Into Nothing

If this video has an annoying ad in it, blame MSNBC.Com. I thought I would try embedding one of their videos, and if it works, maybe we can use more of them. The quality seems better than the standard fare from YouTube.

Basically, Senator Lindsey Graham gets schooled by Joe Biden. If Graham isn't getting beaten senseless by James Webb, he's getting it from Biden. Is there a Senator that hasn't humiliated Huckleberry Graham on national teevee?

Biden debunks some of the debate about offshore drilling, at Graham's expense. Graham seems like a liability to McCain at this point, not an asset.

--WS

Yes, the Blogosphere DOES Make Things Happen

Due to the blatantly partisan nature of "Vets for Freedom," two sitting U.S. Senators have walked away from the group after appearing at one of their rallies in April and serving as policy advisors:

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq.

Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama.

The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to place them in contravention of new conflict-of-interest rules released by Mr. McCain’s campaign that specifically prohibit anyone “with a McCain campaign title or position” from participating in a “527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

Vets for Freedom has tried to start a phony issue out of the fact that Senator Barack Obama has not been to Iraq in recent years for the Petraeus Promenade, otherwise known as the "dog and pony show." Instead of condemning Obama, real veterans would appreciate the fact that Senator Obama has not gone into a hot combat zone and forced troops to go without overhead protection, heavy vehicle support, and force protection for their operations so that VIPs can buy rugs in a closed marketplace for five bucks.

One of the blogs that noticed what was going on was Crooks & Liars, who picked it up from The Huffington Post:

Will the corporate media hold McCain to task for this violation? [Having Lieberman and Graham serve on the advisory board of Vets for Freedom] Will McCain be forced to disavow their support as he did with Parsley and Hagee? Or will the media be too busy talking about other things and give McCain a pass yet again?

On April 8, 2008, Senators Lieberman, Graham and McCain appeared at a Vets for Freedom rally:

John McCain, (R-Ariz.) the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not disappoint. At a pit stop at the Vets for Freedom rally outside the Capitol before appearing on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain, called Army Gen. David Petraeus "one of [America's] greatest generals."

He also thanked the veterans.

“I just wanna say what you know so well,” McCain said. “No one detests war more than a veteran. But the veteran also knows the consequences of defeat means greater sacrifice and greater numbers who are wounded and killed. You know better than any the consequences of defeat.”

“My friends, we will never surrender to the extremists,” McCain added.

“HOOAH!” dozens of vets yelled in response.

Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman, (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), who have both endorsed McCain's candidacy and joined him on stage, echoed his sentiments.

“Do not underestimate the contribution you have made on the political battlefield at home,” Lieberman said. “Do we want al Qaeda and Iran to win a victory in Iraq?”

“No!” the vets screamed.

Graham added, "More than anything else, we need you to win."

“You want to know who wants you to come home more than anybody?” Graham continued. “Al Qaeda because you’re kicking their ass.”

Graham is the Smithers to McCain's Montgomery Burns

Not really a McCain Media Mashup of Existing Mancrushes, but close.

I would not consider myself a reader of the Politico. It seems to be inside baseball for people who are a little too into baseball. But this story is as good as any to look at when it comes to the McCain Media Mancrush. The Politico is an outfit that tries to do politics better than everyone else, but who's buying? Who's really this far into politics?

If anyone else called him “little jerk,” Sen. Lindsey Graham might be offended.

But the jab comes from Sen. John McCain, so he wears it like a badge of honor.

“If John’s not belittling you, you’re in trouble,” Graham said. “He calls me lots of other names, too, but they’re not appropriate for the newspaper.”

Obligatory cheap shot: He calls you names? Like he does his wife? Does he call you a trollop and a cunt?

McCain and Graham aren’t just friends. They’re inseparable, so much so that colleagues, staffers and journalists have begun making cracks about the relationship between the freshman senator from South Carolina and the man who would be president.

Some call Graham a lapdog. Others say he acts as though he’s one of McCain’s legislative aides. One Senate aide, who called Graham and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) “Pips” to McCain’s Gladys Knight, said that Graham “fawns over McCain like there’s no tomorrow.” In the run-up to this week’s hearings for Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, The Washington Post’s Tom Ricks said Graham “sometimes seems like McCain’s ‘Mini-Me.’”

“I think it’s almost a father-son relationship,” said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a friend of both senators and another member of their Senate clique. “I think Lindsey looks to [McCain] and relies on him. But I think John draws on Lindsey’s energy and relies on him for a laugh.”

McCain spokeswoman Melissa Shuffield said the two senators “have the kind of friendship that will outlast their political careers.”
The two have grown so close that a Fox News anchor felt compelled to ask Graham last week if he might be McCain’s running mate — a suggestion Graham laughed off by saying that McCain “doesn’t have anything I want or need.”

That’s not exactly true. As Graham himself admits, his close relationship with McCain affords him opportunities and access that most neophyte senators don’t usually enjoy — as long as he’s willing to put up with the abuse that goes along with it all.

I want you all to understand something--Graham is the senior senator from South Carolina. Do you think that a form of "buyers remorse" has set in for the people of South Carolina, as it has for the people of Connecticut?

Tuesday morning was typical. As a curtain raiser for Petraeus’ appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain, Graham and Lieberman appeared together outside the Capitol at an event organized by Veterans for Freedom.

The TV cameras turned out to catch the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, but Graham got some of the attention and a bit of the ribbing. “Lindsey Graham was a colonel — that’s the good news,” McCain told the crowd. “He’s also a lawyer — that’s the bad news.”)

Tuesday was McCain’s first day back at the Capitol in a few weeks. The last time he was there — for votes on the massive budget bill — he and Graham could be seen walking side by side in the Russell building and riding together on the Senate subway. During the late-night vote-o-rama, the two men cracked jokes in the back of the chamber like two grade school pranksters.

“Lindsey! Lindsey! Get over here!” McCain said, his raspy voice wafting up to the gallery, when Graham strayed momentarily and walked in the other direction.

Now, explain to me why the Burns-Smithers comparison doesn't work. (I am not suggesting, nor will I acknowledge anything relating to sexual orientation.) Yeah, I'm being lazy--the quickest way to construct a blog post is to wrap it around "The Simpsons" and steal some of their intellectual property. But I believe that I have done so in a way that honors this country. So, it's all good...right?

Petraeus Scolded in Person by Cheney?

[VP Cheney arrives in Iraq this morning]

Wow. Not only did McCain, Lieberman and Graham make the trip to set Petraeus straight, but now we see that Shooter made the trip himself to ensure that the 100 year occupation of Iraq comes to fruition without damaging neoconservative interests:

Vice President Cheney made an unannounced visit to Baghdad this morning, just two days before the five-year anniversary of the start of the war, to push Iraqi leaders to do more to resolve the political disputes still driving the conflict.

In his first trip to Iraq since the deployment of additional U.S. forces last summer began to turn the security situation around, Cheney arrived aboard a C-17 military transport about 12:45 a.m. Monday Washington time and headed immediately to a series of meetings with U.S. commanders and Iraqi leaders.

A senior official traveling with Cheney told reporters aboard his plane that the vice president was going to meet with Iraqi leaders to "thank them for the hard work they've done" and urge them to move ahead with "the rest of the hard work necessary to consolidate Iraq's democracy," according to a pool report filed once they arrived in Baghdad. Cheney also will discuss a long-term security agreement intended to outlive the Bush presidency, the official said.

No, he went there to chew out Petraeus for wandering off script. Nothing like a panicked visit by half the damned neocons still serving in government to drive that point home. They've worked hard to pretend that the surge worked and they've gotten themselves a respite from the media attention. They've lulled the general populace into thinking the war is contained and shrinking. Anything that puts Iraq back on the front pages terrifies them. Because it blows any chance McCain has of only losing by four points in the fall. If McCain loses in a landslide, the neocons will be blown out of Washington.

Look, it's clear to anyone with a brain--Petraeus is now going to be a "realist" when it comes to Iraq and he's not going to repeat whatever he's told to repeat. He sees January 20, 2009 as his retirement date if he doesn't abandon the neocons and start to be more independent in his public statements and deeds.

It's that simple. He has to abandon the losers if he wants to move up.

Juan Cole has more details:

Gen. Petraeus isn't specific, but I can give some examples. The Sunni Arab Iraqi Accord Front withdrew from the al-Maliki 'national unity' government last summer. The IAF is a coalition of three parties. Two of them say they are uninterested in coming back into the government. The third, the Iraqi Islamic Party, led by vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, is said to be seriously considering returning. Nothing has happened so far. In other words, it is still the case that al-Maliki's government is less successful at reconciliation with the Sunnis now than it had been last year this time before the surge had made much of an impact.

Sunni Arab provinces such as Diyala, Salahuddin and Mosul are still violent, and even al-Anbar, which has settled down, is not paradise. The Awakening Council model does not seem to have been successful outside al-Anbar and some Baghdad neighborhoods, and there is always the danger that the US is creating a powerful Sunni militia that despises Prime Minister al-Maliki as Iran's cat's paw.

The Kurdish-Arab struggles in the north, the issue of Kirkuk, the terror activities of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)-- based in Iraq but hitting NATO Turkish troops in eastern Turkey-- and the Turkish incursions into and bombings of Iraqi Kurdistan, signal that the north is a powder keg. The unresolved issue of oil-rich Kirkuk and whether it will accede to the Kurdistan Regional Government is the other shoe in the Iraq crisis, which has not yet dropped but could at any moment. I have been told that Gen. Petraeus deeply disagreed with Bush's decision to share real time intelligence on the PKK with the Turkish government and to allow a major Turkish incursion into and bombing of northern Iraq.

Likewise, the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadhila) withdrew from the al-Maliki government last year. It controls the provincial administration of Basra. Its rival, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, staged a 5000-strong demonstration against the provincial government last week. Having bad relations between the federal center and the province of Basra is not good for Iraq, because Basra is the country's biggest export route, including for petroleum, which generates 90% of government revenues.

So you could understand how Gen. Petraeus, having sacrificed so much to get some sort of social peace in Baghdad that would allow some major steps toward political reconciliation, is frustrated that no such major initiatives have been launched and that Iraqi politics just seems to be stuck.

It is worthwhile mentioning that what Gen. Petraeus said about the lack of political progress is the opposite of what John McCain has been saying. I am not saying that the contradiction is intended to be a political statement. But I am saying that Petraeus has just revealed himself again to be a straight shooter of a sort that has been all too rare in the Iraq misadventure.

Perpetual War would be McCain's legacy

By now we all know that the Petraeus interview in the Washington Post last week apparently didn't set too well with John "Four More Years! Four More Wars!" McCain. No indeed, it did not set well at all. In fact, he dropped everything and got the band back together (Lieberman and Graham) and they jetted off to Iraq just as fast as a congressional junket could get them there on our dime so they can get the spin machine cranking and the damage control underway.

BAGHDAD - Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in Baghdad on Sunday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials, a U.S. government official said.

Details of McCain's visit were not being released for security reasons, the U.S. Embassy said.

McCain's visit was not announced and he was believed to have been in the country for several hours before reporters were able to confirm his arrival. It was unclear who he met with; no media opportunities or news conferences were planned.

McCain, a strong supporter of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, is believed to be staying in the country for about 24 hours.

"Senator McCain is in Iraq and will be meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials," said Mirembe Nantongo, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

This is the senator's eighth visit to Iraq. He's accompanied by Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Before leaving, McCain said the trip to the Middle East and Europe was a fact-finding venture, not a campaign photo opportunity.

Touching, isn't it? If they put just half the effort into ending this clusterfuck that they put into propping it up, we could maybe find our way out of the quagmire that is breaking our military and destroying our standing in the world.

No, You DON'T Get to Move the Goalposts...

Unbelievable...

Do they really think they're going to get away with denying that they're just moving the goalposts each and every time it looks like they're failing to make any significant progress in Iraq?

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 — With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.

Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote.

NO MORE MONEY! Make them accept a timetable for withdrawing US Troops and the Webb Amendment, giving service members equal time at home station for time spent deployed in Iraq.

This should go out as a wake-up call to Democrats who want to waffle and flip-flop--we're not only going to demand "better Democrats" but we're going to go after Democrats who cave in and support the administration over the needs of our troops and the overwhelming desire of the American People to end this war.

The US Ambassador had this to say:

Ambassador Crocker drew a distinction between the effectiveness of the American military buildup in quelling violence and the influence the United States could bring to bear at a political level.

“The political stuff does not lend itself to sending out a couple of battalions to help the Iraqi’s pass legislation,” he said.

Still, he said, there were some positive signs that Iraqis were interested in making headway on some thorny issues. Provincial governors, he said, were pressing for a law to define their powers. “We are past the point where it is an American agenda,” the ambassador said. “It is what needs to be done in Iraqi terms.”

I want to see Democrats out there, NOW, calling out the Administration for moving the goalposts. I want to see outrage and indignation. And I want it backed up with votes and with deeds.

Hear that, Presidential candidates?

Meanwhile, Huckleberry Graham sets the stage for the coup that was planned when the surge strategy was announced:

BLITZER: But what happens if they fail to divide up the oil, if they fail to get those elections, they don’t disband all the various militias by the end of the year? Then what does the United States do?

GRAHAM: So I am hopeful that some of these people at the local level will have a stronger voice. And I’m hopeful that Talabani, Maliki, and Hashemi and all the major players can have a breakthrough.

I’m asking them to do things they say are important for their country. The conditions are right now and, quite honestly, if they can’t do it by the end of the year, I have real doubts that this group will ever do it so we need a new political strategy to find a group that can.

WHAT???

"We'll find a group that can?"

I thought we had a law against overthrowing foreign governments. You'd think a sitting US Senator who pretends to know something about the law would know that.

Pardon me while I reset my indignation and outrage meters...

ABC goes 'Inside the Surge.'

From Think Progress: ABC goes 'Inside the Surge.':

Last night, ABC’s Nightline aired a segment capturing a rare view from the ground of the fighting that mires U.S. troops in Baghdad. Through the lens of an embedded reporter, ABC followed several U.S. soldiers for two weeks in May, watching them encounter roadside explosions that kill their fellow soldiers and embark on often futile hunts to root out “insurgents.” Watch the segment:

Approaching his fifteenth month in Iraq, one soldier made a personal challenge to President Bush: "I challenge the President or whoever has us here for 15 months to ride alongside me. I’ll do another 15 months if he comes out here and rides along with me every day for 15 months. I’ll do 15 more months. They don’t even have to pay me extra."

Lindsey "I bought Five Rugs for Five Dollars" Graham? You out there, Son?

I think that Soldier was talking to you, and the deluded few (26% now, I believe) who still support this clusterfuck.


How the hell can any of them - most of whom have never sacrificed anything - keep demanding that so few keep giving, more and more and more, and it is never enough and it is never going to be enough.

How dare they. They truly have no shame. They have to be utterly devoid of a moral core. Do they even have reflections when they look into a mirror?

You know how I am always saying I love the smell of roast wingnut in the morning?

Well! Feast on Jim Webb putting Lindsey “I bought five rugs for five dollars” Graham in his place.

Graham kept repeating that he has been to Iraq seven times (on taxpayer-funded junkets that serve no purpose and only accomplish disrupting operations to accommodate the potentates) – and Webb – whose son served as a combat Marine in Iraq – did not mention the fact of his son's service.

He didn't have to. We all knew he was the one with moral authority without him having to turn over that card.

Webb took the high road and everyone watching knows it. “You go and see the dog-and-pony shows.” Webb scolded Graham, “Don’t put political words into [the soldier’s] mouth.”

Graham came off looking like nothing so much as a petulant, obstreperous, delusional, kool-aid swilling jackass. He kept pounding his finger on the desk and saying “let them win.”

Which is total horseshit. The only way for an occupying invader to *win* is to commit random slaughter and war crimes. We know this. Is Lindsey Graham advocating that U.S. G.I.'s commit war crimes?

And by the way Lindsey, just let me air a grievance, and I say this as someone with long and strong Air Force association - I bleed Strata Blue - I just can’t equate your time as a JAG lawyer in the Air Force during peace time with Senator Webb leading a Marine rifle company in Viet Nam; Senator Webb received multiple service commendations, not the least of which was the distinguished Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts.

They don't give those out for paper cuts, or hangovers caused by too much German beer, unfortunately for Lindsey.

I’ve been to Rhein Mein – it was decidedly not a hardship tour. In fact, it was a very popular billet back then.

Oh, hell – just watch Webb eviscerate the little weasel:

Some free advice to Lindsey Graham, et al - saying it doesn't make it so

Three Blind Lice

There seems to be a tremendous disconnect between the die-hard war supporters and reality.

On the one hand, you have Lindsey Graham drinking deep from the Raspberry Red and stepping up to the mike to declare that things in Iraq are definitely looking up. “The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al-Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al-Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”

It’s hard to tell, the way objectives shift and goalposts get moved, but I seem to recall that the purpose of the escalation was to secure Baghdad, and on that point the numbers do not lie. Violence in Baghdad is not appreciably down. In fact, 2% is a mere blip, and certainly not statistically significant. Between 20 June and 5 July, 472 civilians died in attacks in Baghdad. This represents a whopping 2 percent drop in civilian casualties from the previous 16-day period, according to a tally collected by the Associated Press from daily reports by Iraqi security and hospital officials.”

Just a brief perusal of the major news outlets would indicate that Graham is either delusional at best, or flat-out lying at worst. I’m going with the lying until proof is submitted to the contrary.

From Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs and mortar attacks killed 50 people in Iraq, police and local officials said on Saturday, while the U.S. military said six of its soldiers had been killed in the past two days.

One British soldier was also killed in the south.

The fresh violence follows a lull in Iraq, where tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents in a bid to halt a slide into sectarian civil war.

And the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, July 7 -- Suicide bombings across Iraq killed nearly 150 and injured scores, including a massive truck assault in a northern Shiite village that ripped through a crowded market, officials said Saturday.

The violence came as the U.S. military on Saturday reported the deaths of eight American soldiers over the past two days, all killed in combat or by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar. A British soldier was reported killed in fighting in southern Iraq.

The worst carnage unfolded in the Shiite Turkoman village of Amarly, 50 miles south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber rammed a truck laden with explosives into the central market, which is near a police station, officials said. The attack killed at least 115 people and wounded at least 210, according to district and hospital officials, adding that they expected the death toll to rise.

And finally, from the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, July 7 — Suicide bombers killed at least 122 people in two attacks north of Baghdad, officials said Saturday, and the strikes raised questions about whether insurgents who had fled intense military operations in Baghdad and Diyala are turning to more vulnerable targets nearby.

In the worst blast, a truck loaded with explosives demolished dozens of fragile clay-built houses and shops on Saturday in Amerli, a village of poor Shiite Turkmen about 15 miles south of Tuz Khurmato. The Iraqi police said the blast killed 1o5 people and wounded 210 more.

The American military also reported Saturday the deaths of nine soldiers and marines on Thursday and Friday, eight of them during combat or from roadside bomb attacks.

Witnesses in Amerli described a horrific scene of people running while on fire, and others shrieking for rescuers to pull them free from beneath scores of buildings that were turned into rubble by the blast.

Perhaps Lindsey will do us all a favor and next time he visits Iraq and conduct one of his patented pep-rallies outside the Green Zone, in the middle of Baghdad – without two Apache gunships, three Blackhawks, an entire company of U.S. soldiers surrounding him – and enough body armor to pass himself off as a body double for RoboCop.

If he did that, I might, for a couple of minutes, stop bitching about the stupidity of these dog-and-pony-shows when potentates visit the “troops in the field” to “get the real story” – oh please! You can take my first-hand account on this – any “troop in the field” who might be inclined to say something the potentates don’t want to hear, doesn’t get anywhere near the potentates. These trips are a waste of taxpayer money, and for what just one of these junkets costs, at least ten teachers could be trained for placement in inner city schools, and a couple of doctors for inner-city hospitals, too.

And I can tell you something else first-hand…when the word comes down from on high that a dignitary is coming, the cursing is voluble and eye-rolling is blatant...even from the commanders making the announcement, in a lot of cases. I can only imagine the reaction of troops in a war zone.

Did someone spike Senator Boxer's Wheaties this morning?

Barbara Boxer confiscated the testicles of Lindsay Graham on national teevee, and I don't think she intends to give them back.

Appearing on CNN this morning, Graham said that those of us who have the audacity to oppose the escalation/troop build-up/splurge and criticise the Useless Tool™ are calling the troops 'losers' Senator Boxer set the fuckin' record straight, with not a moment of hesitation.

“I don’t know anyone who opposes this war that ever said our troops are losers. Our troops are winners.” But she wasn't done - she was just gettin started, in fact - “Lindsey, just be careful what you say. The bottom line here is that the losers are the ones who have engineered this war, made a huge mistake — Dick Cheney we’re in the last throes, the war will last six months — and all of you who have supported this escalation and have turned us away from fighting al Qaeda into putting us in the middle of a civil war. The loser is the Commander-in-Chief who has not led our country well.” (emphasis added)

Watch it, but pop some corn first:

(Transcript here, h/t Think Progress.)

What’s not to get?

Americans. Hate. This. War.

Instead of bolstering support and getting things back on track, McCain and Graham’s stunt yesterday – and that is exactly what it was, it was a stunt - seems to be backfiring big-time. The six killed a mile away has not helped – and when Lindsey Graham talks about the killer deal he got on those rugs, I want to scream. How much, exactly, did that little juggernaut cost the American taxpayers? (I would think Lindsey is doing well enough as a Senator that he could have bought those rugs from a merchant at home and not cost the American taxpayers all that money, and potentially six troops their lives, but that’s just me, and I’m not a conservative, so I don’t understand...)

While I’m on the subject of visits by dignitaries, just let me toss something out there. I mean no disrespect (or maybe I do – it’s kinda hard to tell where that line is right now) but I gotta say this, as a former resident of multiple military bases throughout my lifetime –

We. Hate. Dignitaries.

We hate visits by potentates stateside, I guaran-damn-tee that none of those troops who swept the market and escorted the senators will ever vote for either one of them. If we could have harnessed the energy from the eye-rolling that most certainly took place…

I have never felt so hapless or helpless in my entire life as I do when I think about this clusterfuck of a war that these knuckleheads thought would be such a swell idea. Thanks a lot, Neocon assholes.

But there seems to be a faint glimmer of hope.

Today, Senate Majority Leader Reid joined Senator Feingold and co-sponsored legislation that will cut off funding in one year. From the Washington Post:

Reid had previously opposed setting a firm end date for the war, a stance he has backed away from in recent months as others in his party moved to increase pressure on Bush on the issue. He officially converted after visiting wounded soldiers last week at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"Talk about a way to be depressed," Reid said yesterday in a talk-radio interview with liberal host Ed Schultz. "The American people, I repeat, have to understand what is happening, it is not worth another drop of American blood in Iraq. It is not worth another damaged brain."

Senator, I totally agree. What can we realistically accomplish? The Surge would be better described as a Splurge. Violence is going up, rather than down, and all the insisting in the world can’t overcome the reality of the grand cock-up.

Even close advisers are abandoning the sinking ship. Matthew Dowd – may his son who is soon to deploy come home safe and sound…and soon - spoke out yesterday in the New York Times . Vic Gold has had a similar epiphany without a child headed to Iraq.

The game is over, and we didn’t win. If we keep tilting at windmills over there, and that is what the plan seems to be, it will take decades to retstore our military. Personnel and materiel are worn out. What isn't worn out is broken. That is reality.

What I want, I can’t have – I want this never to have happened. I want my country to have never gone collectively insane and I want 3250 American troops resurrected, thousands of limbs reattached, and all those traumatic brain injuries undone. I want to wake up and none of this ever happened.

I want to wake up and know bin Laden is in a prison cell.

But since I can’t have that, I will settle for bringing them home.

In fact, it is the least I am willing to settle for.