Meep Meep!

(AP) Bush strikes back at Dems on security “Maneuvering for election-year advantage, President Bush is striking back at Democrats who have trumpeted government findings that the Iraq war has helped recruit more terrorists, saying the opposition party is one of ‘obstruction and endless second-guessing.'”

(Reuters) Democrats want to “cut and run” from Iraq, Bush says

(AP) White House refuses to release full NIE “The White House refused Wednesday to release the rest of a secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat, as the Bush administration tried to quell election-season criticism that its anti-terror policies are seriously off track.”

Yup, it’s true, if Wile E. Coyote cuts and runs, he’ll never catch Road Runner. But… he’ll never catch Road Runner if he “stays the course.” All he’ll get for trying is falls off cliffs and self-immolations and explosions. Complex situations like Iraq very RARELY have an either-or solution and if it is naive of anyone to believe anything about Iraq (President Bush on Tuesday said it is naive and a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism), it is naive to believe that staying the course or cutting and running are the only two options. WE BROKE IRAQ. We have the obligation to get it back on its feet. But instead of doing anything real, like getting the electricity working, we frittered away our honeymoon period trying to create a stock market and other secondary items. Hell, even the police academy we built for them is dookie–literally “It was intended to showcase U.S. rebuilding efforts in Iraq, but instead Baghdad’s new police academy was declared a health hazard by U.S. inspectors who found human waste dripping from the ceilings.” Our continued presence there does little but increase the terrorist threat because we are doing nothing right. Right now, the best thing we could probably do is remove our troops instantly and dump the money we’d spend on them on the Iraqi government and let them figure out how to spend it. Even if they took half of it home with them, they couldn’t waste it worse than we are right now.

We’re Safer, But We’re Not Safe…We’re Outer, But We’re Not Out…

(NEWSWEEK) Patriotism or Politics? President Bush called for unity in his latest speech, but in reality, he was gearing up for a bruising fall campaign.

(CNN) Transcript of Bush Speech

(Keith Olbermann Blog) This hole in the ground

How is it that Olberman is the only commentator in network or cable news who dares to tell the truth these days? I guess it’s not surprising when the events of 9/11 meant nothing to the man leading our country but a political opportunity and continue to mean only that. You read headline after headline about Democrats being upset at the Bush. Well, I’m NOT a Democrat and I’m DAMN upset about where he has led our nation, about his lies, about his sabotage of the constitution, about his war for his oil cronies. Get it right, news media, this isn’t about Democrats and Republicans, this is about democracy and demagoguery. Do we have to prove Plato right?

In the meantime, investigative reporter Greg Palast has been slapped with criminal charges Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree for “unauthorized filming of a ‘critical national security structure’ in Louisiana,” i.e., an oil refinery right next to a Katrina evacuee encampment still filled with 73,000 people made homeless for the last year…maybe they’re still homeless as punishment for looking at the refinery every day? Welcome to the police state.