September 2007

Gingrich won't run for President:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday decided against running for president in 2008 after determining he could not legally explore a bid and remain head of his tax-exempt political organization.

Gingrich, 64, said the change of heart, which came as aides readied the NewtNow.org Web site and prepared to file campaign papers, was the result of legal advice that running for president would require stepping down as chairman of his organization, American Solutions (for Winning the Future).

That group is the latest vehicle for the Georgia Republican's musings about politics and policy, and opened its first "ideas summit" Saturday at a Georgia college an hour west of Atlanta.

Looks like the Republicans last hope has now been extinguished. They might as well stay home next November.

That's exactly what this is:

A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but wait until President Bush is out of office.

The legislation was deemed essentially a nonstarter by Democrats Friday and underscored the difficulty Congress has in striking a bipartisan compromise on the war. What attracts Democrats has repelled Republicans and vice versa, making it impossible so far to find a middle ground.

"To try to put this off until after the election, rather than a reasonable period of completion, I believe would be to unnecessarily introduce a political element to what is a bipartisan effort," said Sen. Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

The proposal, by Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, would require that Bush change the mission of U.S. troops from combat to primarily support roles, such as training Iraqi security forces and protecting U.S. infrastructure in Iraq. His legislation would set a goal of completing such a mission transition within 15 months.

Yup and then if these Senators get re-elected (most likely not) and we have a Democrat in the White House (very possible), watch for them to become the sudden "anti-war" party. This is just another episode of how Republicans don't give a shit about our troops. Instead they want to rally behind the worse President in the history of this country and play politics with our soldiers.

So says Rush Limbaugh:

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq “phony soldiers.” He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, “Mike from Chicago,” who said he “used to be military,” and “believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq.” Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as “Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington,” that “[t]here’s a lot” that people who favor U.S. withdrawal “don’t understand” and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, ” ‘Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.’ … ‘Save the — keeps the troops safe’ or whatever,” adding, “[I]t’s not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.” “Mike” from Olympia replied, “No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.” Limbaugh interjected, “The phony soldiers.” The caller, who had earlier said, “I am a serving American military, in the Army,” agreed, replying, “The phony soldiers.”

Instead of debating Iraq, they choose to go after a political ad. A political ad has never killed anyone. Iraq has killed thousands. Now there is even more evidence that they should have done their job on debating Iraq. Today's Washington Post has a front page article on how Petraeus did cook the books. He did go before Congress and lie about the numbers. He did betray us.

On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.

Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.

Now this is something that we have known about. The media has been reporting this variation in numbers for the past couple months. Now here is where it gets interesting: