A Newsie Pastiche

Dems In Sync With Pentagon's Iraq Plans, GOP Only Interested In Smear Campaign Michael Abramowitz and Thomas Ricks for WaPo report "Democrats Cite Report On Troop Cuts in Iraq; Pentagon Plan Like Theirs, Senators Say." Senate Democrats reacted angrily yesterday to a report that the U.S. commander in Iraq had privately presented a plan for significant troop reductions in the same week they came under attack by Republicans for trying to set a timetable for withdrawal. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that the plan attributed to Gen. George W. Casey resembles the thinking of many Democrats who voted for a nonbinding resolution to begin a troop drawdown in December. That resolution was defeated Thursday on a largely party-line vote in the Senate. "That means the only people who have fought us and fought us against the timetable, the only ones still saying there shouldn't be a timetable really are the Republicans in the United States Senate and in the Congress," Boxer said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "Now it turns out we're in sync with General Casey." … Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), one of the two sponsors of the nonbinding resolution, which offered no pace or completion date for a withdrawal, said the report is another sign of what he termed one of the "worst-kept secrets in town" -- that the administration intends to pull out troops before the midterm elections in November. … Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored an unsuccessful resolution setting a July 1, 2007, deadline for the removal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, issued a statement saying the Casey plan looks "an awful lot like what the Republicans spent the last week attacking. Will the partisan attack dogs now turn their venom and disinformation campaign on General Casey?" --- Joe Biden, Master of Understatement AP reports prominent Senators urging the Bush administration to have direct talks with North Korea (which Bush has so far refused to do because he actually thinks it makes him look "tough"). "We need to talk directly with North Korea," Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the No. 2 Republican on the committee, said on the CNN program "Late Edition." … "It would be advisable to bring about a much greater intensification of diplomacy, and this may involve direct talks between the United States and North Korea," said Senator Lugar, who appeared on the CBS News program "Face the Nation." … "If we were to strike a missile and that resulted in an artillery retaliation, killing thousands of people in South Korea, it would be a very big deal," said Senator Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. --- "Seriously, the House of Representatives is filled with insane jackasses." Jon Stewart addresses the Congressional hearings on video games held last week. Norm at onegoodmove has the video. In 1954 it was comic books. In 1985 it was music lyrics. In 1995 it was "television violence." Also in 1954 the CIA planned, organized and executed a coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz. Emmet Till wasn't murdered until 1955. In 1985 Ronald Reagan began illegal arms sales to Iran, monies from which were illegally redirected to the Nicaraguan contras, in what became known as the Iran/contra affair. In 1995 Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of Representatives, and with Tom DeLay launched the GOP's K-Street Project, which since then directly resulted in the GOP criminal enterprise lead by Jack Abramoff. But it's the video games that cause criminal behavior. Not conservative political ideology. --- War Is Peace, Ignorance Is Strength, and Free Speech Is Treason GOP Congressman Peter King has called for criminal charges to be brought against the NY Times, labelling the newspaper "treasonous" for its report on the Bush administration's secret financial-monitoring of bank records. In May 1792, Tom Paine was indicted for treason in England, for his anti-monarchy views.