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I'MMA LET YOU FINISH

Falafel!
Bill "SHUT UP" O'Reilly | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 8:52 pm | #

Damn...my big chance to be Frist.

Oh...santorum!!!!
Rujax | 10.16.04 - 8:55 pm | #

Bill, you're a PITA.
NTodd | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 8:55 pm | #

This is truly bizarre, like that scene in the Simpsons of Duff Gardens, where people take a roller coaster up to the top of the first rise and then the announcer says "Scheduled for completion in...."
NYMary | 10.16.04 - 8:56 pm | #

I keep going back and forth between thinking the Frist/Falafel stuff is cute and Atrios-ish, and wanting to stave in the head of the guy with a polo mallet. What should I do?
filkertom | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 8:56 pm | #

Bush thought and probably still thinks that God will clean up his mess. He better lose in Novemver or we're all fucked.
Jen | 10.16.04 - 8:57 pm | #

Well, I find the fristing annoying and the falafeling a bit more amusing. I assume falafel guy is running a script,and hope that it eventually manages to kill the fristing, but I have nothing to do with it...
Atrios | 10.16.04 - 8:57 pm | #

Ok, I'm officially relieved that at least in this regard the Bush administration is unlike Nazi Germany (forget that Stalingrad disaster for a moment).
Felix Deutsch | 10.16.04 - 8:57 pm | #

And the slide right after that said "PROFITS!"
QrazyQat | 10.16.04 - 8:58 pm | #

I wish I could live life like Bush.

Late for a utility bill?

Money "to be provided."

Low on gas?

Unleaded "to be provided."

Late to work?

Presence "to be provided."
Old Hat | 10.16.04 - 8:58 pm | #

I'm told its really hot over there. i know about hot. it is hot in texas ... but we have airconditioning ...
George | 10.16.04 - 8:58 pm | #

Plans?

Arrest that man for questioning the supreme wisdom and authority of our Dear Leader!
genosail | 10.16.04 - 8:59 pm | #

Atrios,

the only sensible thing to do is VOTE!
stone cold voter | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 8:59 pm | #

Their contempt for plans and planners reminds me of Bush's remarks about the NIE forecast for Iraq that they were "just guessing" about what might happen.
kathyp | 10.16.04 - 9:00 pm | #

I'm told its really hot over there. i know about hot. it is hot in texas ... but we have airconditioning ...

"Especially in multi-million dollar 'ranches' like mine." -- GW Bush
QrazyQat | 10.16.04 - 9:00 pm | #

They could have at least inclued a slide saying

No. 1

The Larch

That would have been funny, at least.
NYMary | 10.16.04 - 9:00 pm | #

I'm told its really hot over there. i know about hot. it is hot in texas ... but we have airconditioning...

God, I wanted to knuckle that smirking little fucker when he cracked that funny haha.
Old Hat | 10.16.04 - 9:00 pm | #

It's no fun if you've got a plan.
yankeedoodle | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:01 pm | #

Well maybe we should have a poll on the "Frist" thingie. Those in favor of ignoring it say "Aye" those in favor of going on and on about how annoying it is (and to tip my hand a little bit, I'm with filkertom, it depends, somedays yes, somedays no.) in hopes the peer pressure will encourage whoever it is that keeps doing it will ease up for a bit maybe? Say 'No".

"No"
catalexis | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:03 pm | #

Yes, Americans Should be greeted most places, almost every place with rose petals.
..........
Iraqis wanted to greet us, they knew we were coming to liberate them, they couldn’t come out with rose petals but they knew we were for them. Afghans also greeted us, they knew we were there for them.
...........
Nobody expected the massive bungling and incompetence and cancelling elections and brushing aside of community leaders by Bremer and Bunglefeld and Bush.
...........
When they all go (soon), everything will get better.
...........
Kerry next President MinnieB9 | 10.16.04 - 9:04 pm | #

No. 1
The Larch
The Larch
next
No. 1
The Larch

Monty (Kafka) Python rules.
catalexis | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:05 pm | #

Hitchens was on Russert tonight and intoned that the flowers were certainly real, he saw them for himself.

Along with the pink elephants, no doubt.
Susie from Philly | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:06 pm | #

The first place I actually ever saw the "first" thing was a couple of years ago, on Ain't It Cool News. It seems to have mostly died down over there, although I don't hit it near as often as I used to (it's gone waaaay downhill, and it wasn't very high up to start...).
filkertom | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:06 pm | #

Yankeedoodle, i'm so terribly sorry about the loss of your younger sister. You and your family must miss her terribly. Hang in there, friend.
Phredd | 10.16.04 - 9:09 pm | #

To be, or not to be provided:
that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
Anonymous | 10.16.04 - 9:11 pm | #

The world is fed up with America. The bully will be humbled.

If Bush wins, there'll be basically two camps:

(1) those who actively will want to hurt us; and

(2) those who will be too cowardly to cheer (1).

Get ready for massive retaliation and/or indifference/non-cooperation.

I'm going to pick up my new shiny euro passport on Monday.
Lupin | 10.16.04 - 9:15 pm | #

Grokk truth...Mars or bust!
michael valentine smith | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:15 pm | #

Hummmm...I tink I'll have everything from Column A and most everything from Column B. Burp!
picky Ahmed | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:18 pm | #

The explanation for the mystery of why K-R has been doing some of the best reporting even though overall its papers are declining in quality is simple. All the other media is declining in quality much, much faster.
sparcs | 10.16.04 - 9:18 pm | #

How many times must it be said:

The peaceniks were RIGHT - the chickenhawks were WRONG!
dave | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:20 pm | #

We so got played by Iran. I think we're being set up as a country. When the tin foil is newer I sometimes think that Bush was led into a trap.Hopefully Kerry will get this farce of a foreign policy back on track and possibly avoid a serious military catastrophe. Or not.
plato_451 | 10.16.04 - 9:20 pm | #

Approximately half of the Pentagon budget now goes to private corporations. There are tens of thousands of private corporations that get money from the military budget, but the top 50 of these corporate contractors get over half of the money. These top 50 corporate contractors are also the most likely to get military contracts without having to bother submitting bids against any competitors.

Now, guess which politician is the top recipient of donations from these top military contractors. That's right - it's George W. Bush.

If this corrupt system continues under George W. Bush, the American democracy may not survive.

Posted by J. Clifford Cook
Dawna | 10.16.04 - 9:21 pm | #

Yes, but can we get Wolf Blitzer to talk about it?

Or Begala and Tucker to scream about it?

I'd like to scream, about now.....
Robert M. Jeffers | 10.16.04 - 9:23 pm | #

Want to read an interesting story on the Bush Administrations post war plans for Iraq go to

http://www.harpers.org/ BaghdadYe...adYearZero.html
Tom Leavitt | 10.16.04 - 9:25 pm | #

...what's a disillusioned evangelical going to do?
Darryl Pearce | 10.16.04 - 9:30 pm | #

"We didn't go in with a plan. We went in with a theory," said a veteran State Department officer who was directly involved in Iraq policy.

Wonder if Bush appointed this guy? This might be another time when Bush thought he was wrong, but he was mistaken.

BTW--I wanna see this quote in a Kerry ad. Right now. Followed by that famous military dictum: "Hope is not a plan."

Oh, and this bit, too:

"The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace in Iraq is real and serious," warned an Army War College report that was completed in February 2003, a month before the invasion. Without an "overwhelming" effort to prepare for the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the report warned: "The United States may find itself in a radically different world over the next few years, a world in which the threat of Saddam Hussein seems like a pale shadow of new problems of America's own making."

A half-dozen intelligence reports also warned that American troops could face significant postwar resistance. This foot-high stack of material was distributed at White House meetings of Bush's top foreign policy advisers, but there's no evidence that anyone ever acted on it.

"It was disseminated. And ignored," said a former senior intelligence official.

You could just run some of this as a script, over pictures of Bush. Maybe quote him from the debates.

And let's just be honest now, and call him a liar, and an incompetent. No reason to by shy this late, is there?
Robert M. Jeffers | 10.16.04 - 9:30 pm | #

Frist!! Errr..... Frist? (Did I make it? Am I Frist?)
Thurber Hamm | 10.16.04 - 9:31 pm | #

Have I mentioned that I'm starting to really, really, really dislike these people?
Robert M. Jeffers | 10.16.04 - 9:31 pm | #

Hell, can we just get the whole damned article onto a TV screen? Somebody call Soros, get him to pony up for some major time on the networks or something. This is absolutely radioactive:

Four senior officers who were directly involved said Rumsfeld and Franks micromanaged the complex process of deciding when and how the troops and their equipment would be sent to Iraq, called the Time-Phased Force and Deployment Data, canceling some units, rescheduling others and even moving equipment from one ship to another.

As a result, two Army divisions that Centcom wanted to help secure the country weren't on hand when Baghdad fell and the country lapsed into anarchy, and a third, the 1st Cavalry from Fort Hood, Texas, fell so far behind schedule that on April 21 Franks and Rumsfeld dropped it from the plan.
Robert M. Jeffers | 10.16.04 - 9:34 pm | #

"Ah, that little slide was a gift to these courageous Knight-Ridder journalists. Odd that K-R has been doing some of the best work in recent years, even as their papers, overall, "

I've heard it suggested this is because since they don't have much "access" to administration officials, they aren't afraid of losing it.

--Rick Taylor
Rick Taylor | 10.16.04 - 9:39 pm | #

But, that's an excuse for crappy planning. It isn't an excuse for no planning. Even if they believed in rosy scenarios they should have had backup plans.

I heard from a colleague who has a friend in the state department that the operational idea is still that the only problem with the original plan was that the military succeeded too quickly. The U.S. was expecting a more protracted war and was concerned about setting up safe zones for refugees; that's what they thought their interaction with the Iraqi public was going to be.

Still, they do not consider their failure to plan for all -- or even ANY other -- possible contingencies a mortal wound to their overall Iraqi misadventure.
monica_nyc | 10.16.04 - 9:40 pm | #

Reality based people can’t comprehend cultists. The Kool-Aid Drinker’s thinking and world view just make no sense. The Knight Ridder reporters appear not understand why post war planning was deep-sixed. Just read Atrois’ earlier Anti-Reality President Post and the articles.

President Bush is a mediocre man way over his head in a job he cannot handle. In self defense, his mind has developed a messiah complex that he has been chosen by God. No wonder he was petulant during the first debate. His superiority was challenged. Decisions are made by gut instincts not facts. The consequences are unknowable. “Taking out Saddam was the right thing to do”. The President and his enablers cherry picked intelligence that supported invasion and ignored or rejected any information or advice that would hold it up; including post war planning. Understandable and frightening as hell.

Four more years of faith based President Bush will be catastrophic to the nation and for secular democracy. 1969 the year I was drafted and went to Vietnam was the worst year of my life. 2005 will surpass 1969 if President Bush is re-elected.
Jim S | 10.16.04 - 9:40 pm | #

Re the looting--I remember when the looting first started, a British officer was interviewed on the BBC (I didn't write his name down). He said, very matter-of-factly and without alarm, that the US was encouraging the looting as a way to convince the Iraqis that Saddam was out of power and his gov't kaput. Guess it worked, though I've never heard any US news outlet report it. Those are our military geniuses at work, friends.
Draco | 10.16.04 - 9:44 pm | #

Candy and flower delivery was Feith's domain.

See, I was in charge of following thru on my Energy Task Forces plans, and as you can see, our troops successfully protected the Oil Ministry. What we did was come up with a plan shortly after I entered the White House and we carried that plan thru.

So you got a problem with the candy and flowers delivery being botched, you'll need to talk to Feith.
Dick Cheney | 10.16.04 - 9:47 pm | #

Don't forget the suspected WMD sites that got looted, because Rumsfeld didn't allocate any troops to secure them.

Whatever naughty stuff might have been there is undoubtedly somewhere far worse now.
Seraphiel | 10.16.04 - 9:48 pm | #

the new york times has endorsed john kerry:

October 17, 2004
John Kerry for President

Senator John Kerry goes toward the election with a base that is built more on opposition to George W. Bush than loyalty to his own candidacy. But over the last year we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we've seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent.

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking - something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light. He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.

•

There is no denying that this race is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure. Nearly four years ago, after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency, Mr. Bush came into office amid popular expectation that he would acknowledge his lack of a mandate by sticking close to the center. Instead, he turned the government over to the radical right.
[...]

We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.

Voting for president is a leap of faith. A candidate can explain his positions in minute detail and wind up governing with a hostile Congress that refuses to let him deliver. A disaster can upend the best-laid plans. All citizens can do is mix guesswork and hope, examining what the candidates have done in the past, their apparent priorities and their general character. It's on those three grounds that we enthusiastically endorse John Kerry for president.
bkny | 10.16.04 - 9:48 pm | #

Phase 4-C from Outer Space.

Even freaking Ed Wood had a plan...
Thersites | 10.16.04 - 9:50 pm | #

I think this jibes very well with the Faith-Based Presidency article.

Remember the famou "and then a miracle happens" cartoon?
jeebs | 10.16.04 - 9:50 pm | #

look: the debacle shows more than the incompetence of some military planners.

consider the whole fiasco a test, people.

the administration sees now that it can rush into pre-emptively war against an army-less state, partly conquer it, and MISERABLY FAIL to actually secure it

with no real public consequences. people still love bush. the public support comes from the projections of the media about bush and the war (and saddam, etc).

the administration doesn't need a plan. they don't even need an effective military campaign.

they can achieve many of their goals regardless of ultimate "failure", thousands of casualties, and so on.

someday we will all be brothers in arms, or be crushed.
I Hate Dali | 10.16.04 - 9:53 pm | #

I think there was no planning on purpose. I think they wanted mayhem and riots all along to make stealing the oil barely noticable and provide a reason for "maintaining law and order" so they could build theses miltary bases (with no bid contracts).
I think no-plan was their plan.
mark | 10.16.04 - 9:54 pm | #

Atrios: True Believerism is an excuse for anything. ANYTHING. The rosy scenario these bastards had in their heads meant no backup plan was necessary. If needed, it would "be provided" by God.
G Goober Goober, EFB, HSG | 10.16.04 - 9:55 pm | #

Still, they do not consider their failure to plan for all -- or even ANY other -- possible contingencies a mortal wound to their overall Iraqi misadventure.

So, it isn't just Bush, huh?

Great.........
Robert M. Jeffers | 10.16.04 - 9:56 pm | #

"But, I'm sure Bush believes that American soldiers are greeted with rose petals everywhere they go..."

Our Caligula who would believe he was Cincinnatus if only he knew who Cincinnatus was. Though not the plowing part, not a field anyway. Maybe he should get what's his name, that neo-Spartan nutter who grows grapes and writes books about the glories of war, to tell him some stories. Or maybe he already has.
EPT | 10.16.04 - 9:58 pm | #

Phase 4-C from Outer Space.

Even freaking Ed Wood had a plan...
Thersites

*rimshot!*
G Goober Goober, EFB, HSG | 10.16.04 - 9:59 pm | #

OT: but right now on CSPAN-2's BookTV is a NY Literary Panel from 10/3 with Jimmy Breslin, Frank McCourt, and Pete Hamill. They're still being introduced.

I think Breslin is speaking on his book The Church That Forgot Christ but who knows- he'll be great no matter what he says.
JeffCO | 10.16.04 - 10:00 pm | #

Still, they do not consider their failure to plan for all

Again, when you're a god you don't have to plan for failure.

Just like when you have read the mind of God, market economics, you don't have to face the realities of what those policies do to real people.

God complexes, one of the drawbacks of teaching phony history. Or of letting pop entertainment teach most of the "history" people believe.

Who was it again? The director of the Reagan library who said that he was an intellectual giant?

Yeah, and I'm a champion speller.
EPT | 10.16.04 - 10:02 pm | #

So what's the score now? How many papers have endoesed Kerry or Bush? And is there a website that's keeping track?
G Goober Goober, EFB, HSG | 10.16.04 - 10:04 pm | #

Miami Herald, a K-R newspaper --

Key Executives:
Alberto Ibargüen
Chairman
Tom Fiedler
Vice president and Executive Editor
Jesús Díaz
General Manager, The Miami Herald
Raul Lopez
General Manager, Herald.com

Tom was one of the reporters who waited in the alley to "get" Gary Hart. Likely his stock options impede any such inclination to do the same to W. et al.

Any other questions?

I've taken to reading the Herald in an Hebraic fashion, from "back" to "front". One gets to the real news much faster this way. Usually that news is a K-R Washington featurette.

We're only subscribing for two reasons now; 1) the comics, and 2) the Herald makes a great liner for the cats' litter pans.

Best regards to all.
soflbagman | 10.16.04 - 10:05 pm | #

A thought ...

One official who was deeply involved in the pre-war planning effort - and was critical of it - initially agreed but then declined to cooperate after expressing concern that the Justice Department might pursue a reporter's telephone records in an effort to hunt down critics of the administration's policies.

Lots of interesting stories will come bubbling to the surface if the oily layer of sewage at the top of this administration can be scraped aside.
Jassalasca Jape | 10.16.04 - 10:21 pm | #

oh yer just one of those reality-based people.
n69n | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 10:26 pm | #

what? faith base invasion, haven't you heard this is a xian nation. "kill 'em all let god sort 'em out."

Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it's good for us. Because you know what those folks don't like? They don't like you!'' In this instance, the final ''you,'' of course, meant the entire reality-based community.
The president talked at length about giving the initiative the full measure of his devotion and said that questions about separation of church and state were not an issue.
Talk of the faith-based initiative, Gildenhorn said, makes him ''a little uneasy.'' Many conservative evangelicals ''feel they have a direct line from God,'' he said, and feel Bush is divinely chosen.
from NYT suskind article

i remember being a born again. certainty is a beautiful thing. ah, peace of mind, reality bites. god, i hope this asshole loses, if not we all lose, big time.
charley | 10.16.04 - 10:30 pm | #

Tom Leavitt-

I've been waiting for a story like this to explain everything. Thank you. I'm still reading it.
kentuckydem | 10.16.04 - 10:34 pm | #

"I'm not going to put my thumb on the scale," Bush said at a White House meeting where Chalabi's bona fides were hotly debated, according to an official who was present.

now THATS takin responsibility!!!
n69n | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 10:34 pm | #

1) Invade Iraq
2) ?????
3) Profit!

It worked so well for the dot-coms, it's hard to believe it's not working in this case.
jeffro | 10.16.04 - 10:44 pm | #

not 1 fucking boyscout.
pansypoo | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 10:49 pm | #

According to reporter Naomi Klein in a recent issue of Harper's there was a post-invasion plan. The plan was shock and awe to the economic system--allow everything to be destroyed so that Adam Smith's invisible hand could work its magic on a clean slate. This involved in part a non-challant (sp?) attitude towards the looting--in the movie Control Room (I think that's where I saw it) someone said there were orders from the top to do nothing with respect to the looting. It's always been puzzling why while there weren't enough troops to stop it all there were enough to stop some, and nothing was done. Also recall that some of the destruction was described as carefully planned and highly sophisticated. She also reported efforts to take-over cement factories, soap factories, etc., all so that we could come in and have a big commercial conference in the middle of Baghdad a year later and divide the spoils (as shown in the movie Farenheit 911). She explained all this as motivated by the ideology that greed is good, for us, for them, for everyone. I thought it was fascinating.
Amelia | 10.16.04 - 10:51 pm | #

Oh, we mewl and whinny over the incompetentcies, the lack of planning. What is the plan for November 4th should the powers that be act as we know they are capable of acting? I've heard much sonorous noise about what should be done to win the election. What is to be done if the election is unwinnable? George Bush had no plan because he had faith. Do we even have that?

Perhaps some streetlights will be broken in some college towns. Perhaps some celebrities will drape themselves in black muslin and go on talk shows to sit in silent protest. But what is the plan? What about a good old-fashioned tax revolt? A general strike? Who will take the steps necessary to shut down banking so the market stops? If we merely accept to oppose the further degradation of democracy it will cease to mean anything worthwhile. A failure to plan is a plan to fail.
obelus | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 10:54 pm | #

someday we will all be brothers in arms, or be crushed.
I Hate Dali | Email | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 9:53 pm | #

========

You say someday we will all stand as brothers

Till then I guess we'll all just stand around..."

The Flatlanders, Bhagavan Decreed
(E Vizard)
jeebs | 10.16.04 - 11:00 pm | #

Approximately half of the Pentagon budget now goes to private corporations.

so i see, eisenhower was right.

12 years old, reading a little paper back, called 'who runs congress' first time i ever heard the phrase "military industrial complex"

when i was 20 i remember one of reagans first moves was to sell awacs (?) to the saudis. i thought, WTF. and let's not even contemplate Iran/Contra. who exactly suffered any fallout from that? but Clinton, that sleazy pig, a blow job in the oval office, i tell you, that's a freak'n outrage for all time.

iv'e said it before i'll say it again, i'm not a big fan of politicians,left or right, but i fuck'n hate republicans.
charley | 10.16.04 - 11:04 pm | #

editorandpublisher.com keeps a running tally of the endorsements...it's 15(k) 13(b) but the circulation lead is about 5-1 for kerry.
left wing conspirator | 10.16.04 - 11:08 pm | #

here go the smoking gun :
http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/ ...ex_040204.html#
vn | 10.16.04 - 11:10 pm | #

OT the millionthmonkey haloscan hack can be applied to haloscan with a simple edit of the Haloscan template css file.

Modifications of the table.Maintable line adding the table-layout and width
attributes from MM's client side solution, work like a champ in foiling
the long url and HH attacks. the following is the original code.

.MainTable { background-color:#FFF; font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; border:1px solid #999;}

next with the modifications added.

.MainTable { background-color:#FFF; font-family:Verdana; font-size:11px; border:1px solid #999;table-layout: fixed !important;
width : 400px !important; }

these additions would occur on the server side and would require no
modifications to personal computers.
I have tested the modification and it
works. Anyone using haloscan on their
Blogs can implement the protection.
In any event, if a couple more people
email atrios with this he might be more likely to pull it out of his
distended email inbox.

Kerry/Edwards In A LANDSLIDE!!
kent | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 11:10 pm | #

Amelia -- You beat me to it. Naomi Klein's article exposed the "plan" completely. The neocons wanted to build a supply-side utopia, so they needed to destroy as much of the existing Iraqi economy as possible.
Swoosh | 10.16.04 - 11:32 pm | #

A plan does not survive 1st contact with the enemy.

Flexability is the key. If you want to have a clue about the difficulties of post war Iraq read the last chapter of America's Secret War. We are not dealing with a foe that is stupid or unaware of strategy and tatics. They will act immediately to counter any plan - and they are very good at it.

American intelligence was not just poor on WMD but on many aspects of what had happened in Iraq since 1991. Any preconceived plan would have been toast in a day.
Steve | 10.16.04 - 11:47 pm | #

Klein's article is online, btw.
Bill | Homepage | 10.16.04 - 11:55 pm | #

just proof that they looked at this war as a looting spree and nothing more, which maans they paid zero attention to the fact that real actual people lived there..
It was just pne big caper
bayard | 10.16.04 - 11:56 pm | #

I thnk it was in Clancy's book about Zinni, that Zinni tried to war game the post invasion occupation, actually did, but got no one to pay attention. When Franks took over Zinni's command, the occupation scenarios were ignored.

Zinni knew that post war Iraq would collapse into chaos and tried to warn the invasion planners.
PJB | 10.17.04 - 12:39 am | #

Sadly I think the story is simple. Con-men are by name and definition are convincing. Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfield and Cheney simply bit the con offered by Chalabi. A con that was actually financed by US dollars starting years before.

Their post-Iraq plan started and ended with two words "Ahmed Chalabi". You can hear him now "I got that covered, you guys worry about Syria and Iran". There was reporting last week that Bremer replaced Garner with orders to turn Iraq over to Chalabi within six months.

It is rather odd. People here and at dKos started screaming 'Chalabi!!' even before the war started. To the point we sounded like paranoid nutters. But as the saying goes "Even paranoids have real enemies" and America's is Ahmed Chalabi.

1090 and counting soldiers and marines are dead because the powers that be in BushCo put their full faith and credibility behind a convicted embezzler. And fully expected to make a profit on the deal. Like every victim of a con-man. (Which is no excuse for falling for the con.)
Bruce Webb | 10.17.04 - 5:34 am | #

I admire the Kight Ridder organization. Though they are located in heartland or red areas, like Macon , they have kept their journalistic integrity intact. Not many can say that. Good on them.
peteypuck | 10.17.04 - 6:56 am | #

"One official who was deeply involved in the pre-war planning effort - and was critical of it - initially agreed but then declined to cooperate after expressing concern that the Justice Department might pursue a reporter's telephone records in an effort to hunt down critics of the administration's policies."

That paragraph is really scary. Fear of Ashcroft may help keep Bush in power. The NKVD is in charge of the justice dept.
Bluto W Bush | 10.17.04 - 8:19 am | #

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