President Bush’s latest approval ratings confirm the conventional wisdom that Americans think highest of him when he’s the post-Sept. 11 defender of freedom on a mission to safeguard the homeland by taking out terrorists “over there.” Several polls have found Bush back above 40 percent approval ratings since the Sept. 11 anniversary, and the public’s perception of terrorism as a crucial issue has risen, too. There is still concern about the GOP’s prospects for the midterm congressional elections — Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, told the Boston Globe that “it’s the sixth year of the president’s term, the public is in a sour mood, we’re in the middle of a tough war” — but this uptick has to be heartening for Republicans. So do numbers suggesting voters still trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle terrorism.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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66 Comments
Ken Mehlman can’t even admit he’s homosexual. Why should we believe anything else he says?
As for Bush, check what right-winger Joe Scarborough has to say about the Republicans: “How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?”
Good question. Republicans?
Remember how Bush boy keeps saying that “America hasn’t had a terrorist attack since 9-11?”
Except for the anthrax attacks, of course.
Well, how about this?
Last week, David Robert McMenemy of Sterling Heights, Michigan, was charged with second-degree arson after crashing his car into an Iowa women’s health clinic and then setting it on fire. According to Davenport police Detective Mike Bowers, “He drove into the clinic and set his car on fire using an accelerant. He knew what he was doing. He planned it. It wasn’t an accident. … He has admitted looking them (abortion clinics) up in phone books and online. I have no idea why Iowa.”
Turns out the women’s clinic doesn’t even offer or refer for abortion.
If these guys weren’t idiots, they’d be dangerous . . .
Yes he had a bounce but you would not guess it from the manipulation of AP. Check out the difference in their 2 headlines within a 4 hr time frame. They even chaged their headline to be the exact opposite of their own statements in the first paragraph.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/blog/2006/09/the_aps_switcheroo.html
You can see the small minds at work in both AP and Al-Reuters and their fauxtographs.
You can see the small minds at work in both AP and Al-Reuters and their fauxtographs.
Posted by: mrbill | September 18, 2006 at 01:04 PM
and I can see small minds at work here in Kansas look out mr.bill terrorists and sluggo are out to get you.silly girly boy…
As I told XXX during Bush’s speech, the speech was nothing more than a political hit piece, and was geared to pull up the bush numbers. The numbers would stay up for a couple of weeks, then migrate down to where they should be: <25% approval.
Republicans are sure to stay in power this fall as long as the Democrat party with Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean are the only alternative. What will their excuse be after their next defeat? It can’t be George Bush he’s not even on the ballot. Do you think Democrats will ever look at themselves for what they are post 911? A group of sniveling spoiled brats with no new ideas only tired old retreads that don’t apply post 911.
I am starting to lose my faith in the American sheeple. shrub’s approval rating should be under 10%! Pat Buchanan has called for the clown’s impeachment and I concur!
Also, the house demorats sealed their fate recently when 60% of them voted like filthy traitors on the border security bill. The dems have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory once again.
Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!
Who do you support in the next election Ian?
Dead Cat Bounce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_bounce
With gasoline prices falling, people have less of an irritating reminder of the state of the economy for most middle class consumers. People have short memories.
jw,”What will their excuse be after their next defeat?”
How about rigged voting machines?
The GOP has more money.The GOP is a lot better at turning out their supporters.Your average Democrat can be pretty lazy about going to the polls.
“The dems have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory once again.”I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Republicans maintain control.
JW,
Do the Repukes pay you to write stupid sh*t or are you an idiot for free?
“People have short memories.”
I’d say that’s pretty much what they’re counting on. ;)
But remember, if they can manipulate the prices to drop, they manipulated them to rise.
BTW, JW, a 40 percent approval rating still means that 60 don’t approve.
Clinton had a 67 percent approval even after the Repukes impeached him.
The GOP has more money.-This depends on where you live. In the northeast & California where the Dems are the majority, they have the support.
-The GOP is a lot better at turning out their supporters.Your average Democrat can be pretty lazy about going to the polls.Maybe it’s because the Dems don’t offer any solutions. Just point blame.I watched a re-run of Larry King’s interview with Sean Penn last night and was shocked to actually agree with him on something.”If a Democratic candidate does not have a plan for getting out of Iraq, no one should vote for him..and this is my concern, having a viable candidate.”- Sean Penn
Killed In Action–
Why should a Democratic candidate have to have a “plan” to get out of Iraq?
It wasn’t their idea to invade in the first place.
Why hold the Democrats responsible for a plan, when the Republicans HAD no plan to begin with?
CA,”Why should a Democratic candidate have to have a “plan” to get out of Iraq?”
Because nobody else has one. The status quo is preserved as long as no one has a plan. The republicans are happy; the democrats are not. Who do you want coming up with a plan? Meanwhile, people are still dying.
Ask Sean Penn. He seems to be one of the leading spokespersons these days for the Democratic party.
I didn’t realize you were on the Joints Chiefs of Staff.
Haven’t you ever been part of a plan that didn’t go 100% as anticipated? Anyone who tells you Iraq is doing that is an idiot imho, Rep or Dem.But the only plan I’ve heard from anyone is stay the course. Or put in more troops, which we’d be on the verge of civil war in this country if that happened I think unfortunately.Lead, follow or get out of the way as far as I’m concerned.
So what, Bush’s approval rating is 40% after he, again, shamelessly uses the 9/11 to drum up support.
Compare his current 40% to the 70% approval rating and the entire global leaders were with us on 9/11/2001.
That is the shame of this president and his cronies. They have squandered all the goodwill and our allies have left us in the dust because George W. is going to run over anyone that doesn’t agree with him.
This is a great leader?
The world has changed and everyone else (or at least 30+%) since 9/11.Bush’s stance is the same. He has not changed his position to fit the latest gallop poll.
So, to answer your question -Yes that is a great leader. At least in my opinion.
Then you have very low expectations for great leadership.
Usually people who will not change their minds are called stubborn. That is not a good trait.
Bushies will never admit that George W. is a failed president. These people voted for him, none once but twice. What does that say about their intelligence?
Well that’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it.You want a new direction, do what you can to get the leader you want in office. I vote for someone based on the ideas for direction of the country or the office in which they hold and don’t expect them to change that direction, especially when the 49% of the country that didn’t even vote for them wants it.Really, what if the situation was reversed?Kerry is President. I sure as hell didn’t vote for him. Would you want him to change his stance because I and everyone else who voted Bush wanted him to?
I don’t expect a leader to stay the course if that course is not working!
Use some common sense. I never said to cut and run from the war. I want a different approach to get out of this war with some dignity. Obviously our guns and tanks are not working.
Democracy is a beautiful thing. My vote will wipe out your vote come election time.
Which gets us back to the quote I posted from Penn earlier;If they don’t have a plan don’t vote of them.Otherwise isn’t it just more of the same?
Democracy is a beautiful thing. My vote will wipe out your vote come election time.
Exactly :-)But come election day with 100 of us in a room, I’m still betting on 51 standing on my side.
Are you really so sure? 40% approval rating is pretty low for a war time president.
Isn’t stay the course just more of the same?
Kia?
If Republicans retain control again after the damage they have done, I will lose the last shred of hope I have for this nation.
Stay the course is more of the same, but that was what was elected and there currently aren’t any viable options on the House floor last time I checked.
Bush won his last election so it doesn’t really matter what his approval is.
FYI I am not in Kansas ya’ll or in a market with a Senate race this year nor a viable Democrat for Congress (I could google her because I honestly don’t know her name and guarantee none of you had ever heard of her).
So anyways, my point there is that I think the individual races really stand on there own (red areas will stay red; blue will stay blue) and by the chance they don’t the support from the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Howard Dean and friends could only hurt a candidate in a close race imho.
I guess we’ll see in 51 days JR.
If the Republicans do lose the house, and a Dem ends up our next President, I’d guarantee a turn in the next mid term just as was with Clinton in 1994 was it or 95?
“Kerry is President. I sure as hell didn’t vote for him. Would you want him to change his stance because I and everyone else who voted Bush wanted him to?”
I would expect and demand that he would change his stance. The world is a dynamic place and there is a constant flow of information. An intelligent person takes in the information and makes changes as necessary. Being unwilling or unable to change is a sign of weakness, a sign of a weak mind. Only ignorant repukes consider it a strength.
I get pretty sick of the people who insist on playing partisan politics and never get the message that politics is not like football. There is not a “winning team” or a “losing team.” There are differing ideologies as to how the country should operate. They are not diametric opposites, they are far from it. It is not a zero-sum. It’s not “God vs. the Antichrist” like everyone makes it out to be. Unfortunately, just as the Royals still have a fan base, so does Bush, because people like to feel like they’re rooting for the home team. For an encore, Bush fans, your president will now strip you of your rights, spend all of your money on a bogus war, and beat you with the memories of a statistically small yet culturally out-of-proportion loss of life, and demand that your children give theirs in greater numbers for this BS.
All that, and all you had to do was vote for the “home team.”
Well Done.
And, Mr. KIA, I prefer the reference to the car: A cheaply manufactured product for an undiscriminating market. Much like your president.
I see that a Syrian-Canadian who whom the RCMP mis-categorized and was handed to the Bush administration, then sent to Syria by the Bush administration for interrogation including torture, has proven to a Canadian court his innocence. Now he’s going to sue the Canadian government. If he sues the U.S. government, it will be interesting to see if the Bush administration quietly pays him off without going to trial.
Some commentators are saying that the Bush administration’s frenetic demand to “interpret” the Geneva Conventions is an attempt to escape war-crimes punishment for several administration officials. According to criminal law, if the law is changed after somebody commits a criminal act, but before he is prosecuted, he’s free, because the new law renders prior crimes moot.
Are Kansas voters going to wake up to the facts, or just say, “This is what we want, a president who breaks the law, but then has the power to erase his lawbreaking acts”?
K -I would take this to mean you do not believe there are no moral absolutes?
My side believes this to be a battle of good versus evil in the world.
That is a view should not change and I personally don’t want to live in a country that doesn’t see that world that way.
Am I ignorant for believing that Militant Islam is evil? Fine.Am I ignorant for believing Militant Islam will not stop until it anilates the Israel and the US? Fine.Am I ignorant for believing for the first time in a war with the US that has been over 20 years we are finally taking the war to them? Fine.My opnion of you (and you in a general term) is that if you believe the war with Iraq is just that, a war in Iraq, you are the ignorant, weak minded, brainwashed and whatever else I have been called on this blog.
PS. the Syrian-Canadian story can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/news-security-canada-arar.html
Kia
I am disappointed. I had high hopes for you.
You came to us in moderation….the energy conscious conservative.
But I see you more and more slipping. Now I see that you’re sipping. What flavor is the bush koolaid?
Please tell me your number one issue is not the “war on terror”. It is so sad that overblown threat has robbed so many of their rationality. Fear does that.
Please do not ask me to take seriously your Presidents protestations that he is “protecting” us. He could better do that by increasing inspections on containers coming into America or closing our southern border. But he does not do those things.Instead he launched a war on a nation that was not part of the “problem”. Doing so made more terrorists not less.
Instead he tells us we must be afraid. But he gets to define the threat. People are whisked away on no charges. They are held in secret prisons bush earlier denied existed.
Instead, we are told we must sacrifice our liberties. We are not to question big brother for defending us! The world at large has no right to hold him to any standard or….CONVENTION either.
I said earlier that the trend we are on gave me very little hope for America. Can you give me any Kia?
Will you so defend this mans quest to defend you that you will lose the country in the process?
I like you JR because you don’t make your attacks personal.However we’ll have to disagree on what this war really is about and whether or not militant islam is a threat to our country.I’ll give you the border (as far as the labor 99.9% of those crossing provide we’ll have to discuss in another thread) and the containers. However the leftists in the country have so brainwashed the fence sitters that partisan politics is possibly at its alltime worst. The President couldn’t get a consensus solution on these issues right now if he tried.How many more attacks on our soil do people need to believe terrorism is a real threat to our national security?Obviously at least one more for most of you here.And you will never convince me that whole damn sandbox of the middle east isn’t involved, even our so called allies (pakistan, saudi’s)
I’m glad you like me Kia.
Before someone else corrects you?
“you don’t make your attacks persona.”
Uh Yeah Kia I do. I admit that. You just haven’t seen it yet.
I’ve been on this forum from the beginning. The right doesn’t play nice anymore here than they do in national politics. I’ve given as good and bad as I’ve got from them.
I’ll say this for you. You are no shill.
But I mentioned some issues and you waved them off.
Ok, fair enough. I will wait your take on future threads.
Partisan politics?? Didn’t bush say he was gonna be a uniter. He was handed the most uniting event since Pearl Harbor. The left did not steal that from him. He threw it away. And not just here in the US.
“How many attacks on our soil,…….?”
Uh I brought up protecting our soil and domestic protection from foreign threat. You tabled it for future discussion.
And GOOD ON YOU for seeing the dishonesty of “our allies” Pakistan and Saudi Arabia!
See folks there is hope for Kia.
I wish bush could see that. I wish he had not lifted sanctions on nuclear armed Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is currently being sheltered.
YOU do ask questions Kia. And there are those on your side who will not even try to answer or address those questions.
Keep asking those questions. Keep demanding answers and do NOT be afraid to know those answers.
If Bush was a broker for his conservative followers, and he had a long history of making the wrong calls, they would drop him in a minute. But since it’s only other peoples lives, and the reputation of the U.S., they will continue to admire his ‘grit’.
“I would take this to mean you do not believe there are no moral absolutes?”I don’t believe in absolutes. I have yet to see an absolute that is correct. Absolutes tend to simplify things that cannot be simplified for the purpose of being lazy or easy.
“My side believes this to be a battle of good versus evil in the world.”
So does the other side. Which one of you is right? Your side believes they are evil and attacked us on 9/11. Their side believes the US attacked without provocation in order to take the oil. They believe we have destabilized the region and this is just another Christian attack on Islam.
“Am I ignorant for believing that Militant Islam is evil? Fine.”
No, but keep in mind that not all Muslims are militant. There are many more militants now BECAUSE of bush’s failed policies. To judge all Muslims as being militant is like saying all Christians are like Phelps.
“Am I ignorant for believing Militant Islam will not stop until it anilates the Israel and the US? Fine.”
We had broken Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but bush and company wanted to invade Iraq. Al Qaeda was able to resurrect itself and strong enough so it was able to hold out against the US military for over 3 years.
“Am I ignorant for believing for the first time in a war with the US that has been over 20 years we are finally taking the war to them? Fine.”
Didn’t we take the war to Iraq in ‘90? I’m not quit sure what you are trying to say here.
“My opnion of you (and you in a general term) is that if you believe the war with Iraq is just that, a war in Iraq, you are the ignorant, weak minded, brainwashed and whatever else I have been called on this blog.”
Could you explain your reasoning, or is this just a retaliatory comment? I’m weak minded, ignorant, and brainwashed because poking holes in your arguments is so easy?
OK well as far as the issues I missed let’s start with the border. I mentioned I am not a Kansan. I am a Californian, in the San Joaquin Valley (bread basket of the world ya’ll).I live in a DMA that has roughly 500,000. 45% of which are Hispanic. So this will give you a little background on at least where my views are coming from.I do not believe in a blanket amnesty. However, the labor these imigrants, most all illegal is imperative to what is the WORLDS (not the nations) 5th largest economy. Unlike the farming you do in the midwest, the majority of our harvesting still needs to be done by hand. Most of it in 100+ degree heat.Unless we either get prisoners or welfare cheats (basically the people who go on welfare with no intention of leaving it) working the fields, well I can’t think of any other option than immigrant labor.So, on the border, I am in favor of whatever. An electric fence for all I care. But we need a guest worker program then. Something that will allow these workers to come to this country for short periods, serve there purpose, make a good living (as compared to there homeland) and return home after harvests. Those that desire after a certain number of years could be put on some kind of a fast track to citizenship. Not a green card, resident alien. Citizenship.
I don’t know how much of a solution that is, but from where I sit I can tell you the labor currrently provided by those crossing our boards illegally is imperative to my states economic survival.
Interesting, Mr. Kia,We backward Kansans have decided to give children of illegal aliens, under certain conditions, the right to attend our state colleges as if they were native Kansans. IYHO, are we el stupido, or not? Asked sincerely.
Kia?
All the way from California? How did you come to find us here? Sheesh we are getting readers!
Kia?
John McCain (likely NOT one of your favorite people) said that he will guarantee a job at $40 an hour to anyone willing to pick lettuce in Arizona. He says Americans won’t do it.
Kia? If there are jobs paying $40 an hour in your area please advise! In this “roaring” bush economy, I find myself available for work that approaches the pay of my former job in aviation manufacture. California is lots nicer than Kansas. I will gladly relocate!
Of course, all of that is hyperbole. Just as Mc Cains remark was hyperbole.
I don’t wish to re direct this thread. I’ll save more for an immigration thread.
Point here is that an open southern border is open to ANYONE who can make it to Mexico. A terrorist can wade the Rio Grande a lot easier than he can swim from the mideast.
There are many evil people in the world and we have not invaded their countries. Why?
The real terrorist threat is Bin Laden and now Bush doesn’t even think about him anymore.
So the argument that we are fighting the evil Islamofascists is not really believable.
There should be truckloads of people showing up at McCain’s lettuce fields for those $40 an hour jobs.
Bet he would pull one of those I don’t remember saying that routines.
I’m not familiar with the situation there and the schools Stephen. My opinion would be they should be subject to the same requirements as my kids if they wanted to go to college at ku or kstate coming from out of state. Unless I guess if they are grads from a KS high school which I’d say would give the opportunity to in state tuition rates. Is that the issue?
Our farmworkers out here make minimum wage which is $6.75 and going to $8.00 by 2008.
I agree on what you are saying JR on the border. It needs to be addressed on both ends (north and south). I’m sure Mexico is easier (or at least I’d guess) to get into than Canada. The south just has a lot more people coming over serving a purpose in my opinion that we need to address how we get the labor they do done without them.
My wife is a Kansan so thats how I found ya’ll. And believe me, even though I am in California this particular area is far more right wing than anything you have in Kansas.
Mr. Kia,Thanks for your input on the WE Blog. I know some right-thinkers who have moved here from Cali and they’re some of the best people I know.
It’s refreshing to read your perspective.
People who disagree with Our Fearful Leader “are supporting the terrorists.”
I wonder how long America is going to buy that steaming pile of horsesh*t.
Bounce this: here’s The Little Emperor’s approvals ratings from Rasmussen Poll, before and after last week’s paroxysm of chest-thumping and flabby cock waving.
Sept 18: Approve 41% Disapprove 58%Sept 17: Approve 41% Disapprove 57%Sept 16: Approve 44% Disapprove 54%Sept 15: Approve 45% Disapprove 53%Sept 14: Approve 47% Disapprove 50%Sept 13: Approve 45% Disapprove 52%Sept 12: Approve 44% Disapprove 54%Sept 11: Approve 41% Disapprove 57%Sept 10: Approve 42% Disapprove 56%Sept 9: Approve 42% Disapprove 56%
The moral? The Miscreant-In-Chief actually ends worse than he starts off.
NOW can we impeach the lying-ass, torturing, incompetent, barbaric motherfucker?
Getting a “bounce” from a National tradgedy?
Now that’s some sorry assed shit to be proud of.
Maybe him and his administration should be asleep during their watch again, another mass murder by terrorists and Bush could, well….he could really gain in the poles!Does any of this make sense?No.Bush asleep on the job-we get attacked—shazam!! The hero war president emerges from the ashes.
TRACY,
Pretty amazing, isn’t? Motherfucker’s asleep at the wheel, his Adminstration ignores all the actionable intelligence, BAM! we get hit, and next thing, motherfucker’s standing on top of a pile of rubble and we’re invading Iraq. Motherfucker belongs in Spandau Prison for the rest of his life for the shit he’s allowed to happen and the disasters he’s perpetrated.
OsamaKatrinaIraq
George Bush: the AWOL President. The Deserter-In-Chief.
CF, YEP.AMAZING.I wish I got promoted every time I fuck up!!I’d be king by now.
Good numbers CF. Like I said, Dead Cat Bounce.
58% want to give George a different kind of bounce.
Images:
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/09/18/12-warning-signs-of-fascism-from-the-majority-visibility-project/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmvp-seattle.com%2Fpages%2FpageFascism.htm&frame=true
Ben Huie,
Nice post, nice pics. As you probably know, I’ve been beating the fascism drum for some time with regard to Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.
In response, dimwits like Joe Williams! counter by calling me a left-wing ‘facist’–as if such a thing were possible to anyone in possession of more than two brain cells.
I’m assuming that your typo was in imitation of Joe’s many misspellings, but it gives me an idea:
the way to fight “fascism” is with “fact-ism.”
How anyone can still support Bush and the Republicans after all of the shit they have presided over and caused is beyond me. I mean, if what has happened in the last five years is not enough to get people to question their loyalty to the GOP, what’s it going to take?
(To answer my own question: there is NOTHING the Republican Party could do that would cause their ‘base’ (a fitting word) to abandon them. Bush could say that he was a gay abortionist who regularly defiles crosses and these people would STILL vote for him and the GOP. Basically, its really sad, and a tragedy for our democracy, that many people are more loyal to the Republican Party, their ‘team,’ than they are to their nation, and even reality. 86% Republican approval of Bush should serve as confirmation that conservatism is truly a mental illness.)
Good point, ddub.
W takes credit for “stopping another terror attack” yet if another attack were to happen, you know damn well everybody would rally round the White House once again.
Thus, they “win” either way . . .
BushDaBum better hope THIS bounces right for him!
http://my.netscape.com/corewidgets/news/story.psp?cat=50700&id=2006091914260001386643
Group Says Iraq Needs to Prove ItselfWASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. experts studying what to do next in Iraqsaid Tuesday that the next three months are critical and Baghdad’sgovernment must make more progress toward controlling the violenceand rebuilding the nation.“The Iraqi government must act,” said Lee H. Hamilton,co-chair of the independent, bipartisan Iraq Study Group. “Thegovernment of Iraq needs to show its own citizens soon – and thecitizens of the United States – that it is deserving of continuedsupport.”Hamilton and his co-chair, former Secretary of State James A.Baker III, said Baghdad’s government needs to secure a capitalreeling in sectarian violence, make progress on nationalreconciliation, and provide electricity, water, and other servicesthat Iraqis need.—–
A bounce in the number of troops in Iraq?
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/15555771.htm
Gen. says U.S. may boost forces in IraqLOLITA C. BALDORAssociated PressWASHINGTON – The U.S. military will likely maintain or possibly even increase the current force levels of more than 140,000 troops in Iraq through next spring, the top US. commander in the Middle East said Tuesday in one of the gloomiest assessments yet of how quickly American forces can be brought home.
Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said military leaders would consider adding troops or extending the Iraq deployments of other units if needed.
“If it’s necessary to do that because the military situation on the ground requires that, we’ll do it,” he said. “If we have to call in more forces because it’s our military judgment that we need more forces, we’ll do it.”
Abizaid said that right now the current number of troops “are prudent force levels” that are achieving the needed military effect.
His comments came as U.S. political leaders continue to face declining public support for the war in Iraq, as they head into the coming congressional elections. Abizaid, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace are expected to meet with members of Congress later this week.
Late last year, military leaders had said they hoped to reduce troop levels to about 100,000 by the end of this year. But Abizaid said Tuesday that the rising sectarian violence and slow progress of the Iraqi government made that impossible.
“I think that this level probably will have to be sustained through the spring,” he told military reporters. “I think that we’ll do whatever we have to do to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and use the military power of the U.S. to do that.”
Abizaid cautioned that the solution to much of Iraq’s violence – both sectarian and insurgents – is not necessarily “throwing more American units at the problem.”
Instead, he said it is vital that the Iraqi government improve the political and economic conditions in the embattled country, as part of an effort to get the “angry young men” off the streets. And he said there will be more emphasis on the U.S. military teams that are training the Iraqi army and police forces.
There are currently 147,000 U.S. forces in Iraq – up more than 20,000 from the troop levels in late June. Rumsfeld extended the one-year deployment of an Alaska-based brigade in July, as part of the effort to stem the escalating violence in Baghdad.
Abizaid said Tuesday that there are no plans to further extend the deployment of the Alaska Stryker brigade.
Bush could say that he was a gay abortionist who regularly defiles crosses and these people would STILL vote for him
I wouldn’t if he was that.
If another terrorist attack happened the right wing would still find a way to blame Clinton.
Sorry I should have finished the thought here.I didn’t Vote for Arnold in the recall election 3 years back.I voted Tom McClintock out here because I felt he was the more true conservative. And still do.I didn’t vote Arnold because he was the most viable GOP candidate like most GOP’ers and then the rest of the starstruck crowd of Dems and Indys and whatever else got him in office.I don’t cast my vote for the lesser of what is the lesser of two evils (which is how Bush probably one his second term) or the candidate who has Republican by there name just because I think they can win.In my state we have a whole bunch of moderates on the ticket (the one for Congress is a cinch to win) but I’m not sure what I’m going to vote and how best to send the message that I think they are donkeypoop GOPers.