President Bush will have another shot at convincing the public to support his troop surge plan for Iraq during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But a new Washington Post-ABC pollindicates that it will be a tough sell. The poll found that 65 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq. What’s more, the public trusts congressional Democrats more than Bush to deal with Iraq by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
LIVE BLOGGING TUESDAY NIGHT: We’re hosting another live blogging during the State of the Union address, which begins at 8 p.m. Hope you will participate. No word yet on whether we’ll be invaded by Dave Barry bloggers, as happened during last year’s address.
41 Comments
And, as posted on open thread. the WSJ thinks he will propose a back-door tax increase targeted at the middle class.
Some of us activists are having a SOTU watch and heckle party at a local restaurant-bar Tuesday night.
E-mail me if you want to join us.
We like to take a drink everytime Bush utters meaningless phrases like “war on terror.”
Prediction–one name you will not hear this year: Osama bin Laden.
Last update – 08:37 22/01/2007
“Prominent lobbyist [Richard] Perle: U.S. will attack Iran if it obtains nukes
By Yossi Melman and Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondents
President George Bush will order an attack on Iran if it becomes clear to him that Iran is set to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities while he is still in office, Richard Perle told the Herzliya Conference on Sunday. Perle is close to the Bush administration, particularly to Vice President Richard Cheney.
The leading neoconservative and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute addressed the session on Iran’s nuclear program. He said that the present policy of attempting to impose sanctions on Iran will not cause it to abandon its nuclear aspirations, and unless stopped the country will become a nuclear power.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/816046.html
Ed: A nuclear war in the Mideast will crash the US economy, whereas a nuclear Iran will only bring unlawful Israel expansion under control. We Americans have been mislead by the Neocons driving the Bush administration. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and the Neocons are forcing a ‘wartime marriage’ between Iran and Pakistan. We are causing their survival to depend on that marriage.
Charges: This spoiled, whiny pinhead is, regrettably, responsible for the nauseating fiasco he’s made of America and the world. Employs an effective strategy of creating so many deplorable scandals that it’s impossible for anyone to keep up, guaranteeing that most will slip by with little notice. Has managed to staff the entire federal regulatory system with obedient corporate drones intent on destroying it from within. More concerned with the fate of discarded embryos than the actual humans being shot at from both sides in an idiot war he conned us into. Is clearly annoyed to be president at this point. Dumber than Paris Hilton and almost as popular.
Exhibit A: “The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany.”
Sentence: Trapped in a library with no picture books.
A ‘Bush Liberry’ only needs one book: ‘My Pet Goat’
ED! Hello fellow.Correction, GW spells it libary.
I have re-thought much of my war beliefs this past weekend and have come to the following conclusion for an exit strategy from Iraq and the Mid east in general: More bombs, less boots.
When you see Bush up there talking with his well-rehersed speech, just remember it is Hitler speaking from his bunker with Berlin crashing down all around him.
Stick a fork in him . . . he’s done.
Fitting moniker:
K illedI nA ction
Tracy,
The comment earlier is also “interesting”,http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=5005Bush: “I’ve come to realize that the nature of the German people are such that war is very abhorrent, that Germany is a country now that is — no matter where they sit on the political spectrum, Germans are — just don’t like war…. The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany [sic].”
And check out the photo, looking at Chancellor Merkel.
KIA–
Been there, done that.
That’s what we did in Vietnam too.
Worked too . . . for a while.
I won’t be able to watch the speech, I have a “No Weasel” policy at my house and it’s strictly enforced!
I can’t trust someone that doesn’t come through the front door, but rather comes in under it!
I watched his escalation speech; I anticipate watching this one as well. I’d prefer hearing directly from him rather than only from analysts.
It will also be interesting to see the Dem response.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=2811599&page=1
Bush’s approval at all time low. Barely above Nixon’s.
Down to 33 percent.
I didn’t know he had that many relatives!
Ben Huie,
Indeed. Senator Jim Webb should be stellar, methinks. A cold dose of reality for the Dauphin.
Anyone who thinks this ’splurge’ is going to make any difference ought to read this story from the WaPo, to see what we’re up against.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/21/AR2007012100227.html
Impersonating Americans and driving into secured areas of Karbala. Shooting Americans. And then being allowed to drive away by Kurdish security forces. Crazy. We are SO far in over our heads.
Part of the unravling in Nam came about when we decided we could not trust the ARVN. Sounds like the ARI is going the same way.
More on Bush’s tax hike for many in the middle class:
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/16520110.htm
“Stark, who oversees a key House Ways and Means subcommittee, said he would not consider holding hearings on the proposal, which includes a trade-off. Contributions from employers toward health insurance would begin to be treated as taxable income. At the same time, a standard deduction for taxpayers with health insurance would be set at $15,000 for families and $7,500 for individuals.”
So, for a taxpayer taking the standard deduction he sees an increase there of $3700 while his health benefit becomes fully taxable both for Social Security and income tax. For itemizers the hit is worse. Even if you try to deduct your health insurance on Schedule A it is subject to a 7.5% ‘haircut’ meaning that you get little or no deduction.
re: TaxesLeave it to GW to screw the little guy.
As far as the surge goes, we lost 25 troops yesterday, close to being the biggest one-day loss in this fiasco. BTW, we’ve already begun surging, in spite of the majority of people and those in Congress being against it.
Dubya does what he wants to do. Period.
Like gster, I won’t be watching the SOTU. My blood pressure goes up (listening to him is like fingernails on a blackboard for me), and I’m afraid the neighbors will call the police because they can hear me yelling at the b’stard.
Where are all the zombies today?
Pathetic little right-wing traitors that they are.
I was wondering that too, Ddub.
I think what’s left of the reich-wing around here is over on the open thread smearing Kerry’s war record.
Truly sad . . .
You know I find it odd that I do not miss any speech Bush makes, even though I knew better then to vote for his re-election. Yet those that often miss or simply flip through the channels till they find anything that is not Bush. Are those that voted for him! Ignorance may be bliss, but intentional ignorance is what leads to failure. LOL beside it will undoubtedly preempt “The Unit” one of two TV. shows I do try not to miss….Damn Bush could screw up a wet dream! But even if it does not I will still watch it.
As to be joined by Dave’s group of bloggers, I think the main difference between us and them. We tend to take what happens in this country with a serious eye. They tend to see it as a excuse for another drink!Sorry, after this country is back to being out of danger from without and within. I too will feel like having a good drunk!
“We like to take a drink everytime Bush utters meaningless phrases like ‘war on terror.’”
You guys need to be careful driving home, because you’ll have plenty of opportunities to drink tomorrow night.
Every time I have posted today, I have been hit with the robo-bot error message. Is it me, or them, or none of the above.
Steve – they better either (a) stay where they are or (b) have a designated driver.
In fact, I would be concerned about fatal alcohol toxicity.
No doubt, Ben.
“We like to take a drink everytime Bush utters meaningless phrases like ‘war on terror.’”
That would be the only way I could watch one of his speeches. And believe me, I’ve tried.
Do you ever put your glasses down? Seems you might miss a drink, just to get a refill.
I think Dave’s folks found us to be a little uptight and boring.
Kansans? Say it isnt so……
Roxie,So, you’re saying the war on terror isn’t real?
It’s just as real as the other wars we’ve abandoned.War on drugsWar on povertyetc
I think the wars on the middle class and science we aren’t supposed to talk about.
How can you make a war on terror if war itself is terrorism?
~Howard Zinn
I intend to watch the address live and in its entirety. CARS on DVD downstairs for the kids and me upstairs …
I’m going to listen to it in its entirety. For me to BOTH watch and listen is asking too much. It takes fortitude just to listen, but that way I heard the actual words and don’t need someone to tell me what was said.
Dont forget the war on our freedoms Tracy. It isnt the iraqis who hate us for our freedoms, it is bushco, or the BFEE.
The war on drugs was really the first war on liberty. When that didnt work and the cons couldnt steal enough of our rights under that banner, they moved on.
To bush’s “war on terra”. The entire earth. Under THAT guise, they managed to shred the constitution, kill habeas corpus, do illegal wiretaps, open our mail, use signing statements to write law, monitor the internet, detain Americans without counsel, etc.
And the “war” on drugs?
That is so 1980’s. War on terra has been much more successful in setting the clock back 300 years.
The war on poverty? Hell, they CREATE poverty and make sure the lid on upward mobility is screwed down tight.
It’s kind of just pissing gratuitiously in the direction of poverty now.
Tracy,So how do we stop these fine upstanding middle-eastern citizens from blowing us up?
Offer ‘em a hug and 3-4 choruses of Kum-by-yah?
Stay out of their civil war sounds good to me!!
Balls,First thing we do is get the hell away from them.They never wanted us there,they still don’t.They never intended to carry out OUR agenda,they are not us.They have their own agenda.
If you just wanna kill jihadists,there’s more than enough to go around in Afghanistan.Remember that place?That’s where we starteda JUSTIFIED war!
Patriotism means to stand by the country.It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official…~Theodore RooseveltThe worst crimes were dared by a few,willed by more and tolerated by all.~Tacitus—–
So…… writer dude, you don’t want the Dave Barry bloggers to show up tonight?
And we had some really neat drinking games planned for y’all!!
Who is Dave Barry?
Dave Barry – a humorous writer in a FL newspaper if I am correct.