Withdrawal? How about more troops?

Remember last week when Bush was acting all conciliatory in his press conference. Remember how happy everyone was when he fired Rumsfeld. The feeling was that maybe we’d begin to see a new course take place in Iraq. Well it looks like Bush is going to take a new course, one that could be worse than the one we are in now. The Guardian’s lead article today is US Plan Last Big Push in Iraq. Using some recommendations from the Iraq Study group, the four main points are:

1. Increase U S troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq.
2. Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
3. Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others.
4. Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces.

So instead of a troop reduction, Bush wants to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq. Who knows where he’ll find these extra troops, maybe they are between his couch cusions or in his pants pockets that are at the cleaners. If he gets these troops from the National Guard let’s hope there aren’t any natural disasters in the US anytime soon. Maybe Bush can get the troops out of Korea, there’s not like there’s anything happening over there.

They want to get Kuwait and Saudi Arabia more involved in Iraq, meaning they want these countries to contribute some money to the cause. What they really don’t want to do is get Iran and Syria involved. This Washington Post article, As Pressure for Talks Grows, Iran and Syria Gain Leverage; shows that after years of ignoring them or being actively hostile to them, if we go to them now, both countries will see it as a victory for them and will want something from the US, something the administration doesn’t want to give. The situation is so bad in Iraq that the administration might have to talk to them anyway. It would seem at least to us that it is in Iran and Syria’s interest to help stabilize Iraq but they might see that appearing to assist the US might be more dangerous to them. With all the great work we’re doing in Iraq, who can blame them.

The administration has to create a political framework so that the Shia, Sunni and other religious and political groups can work together in Iraq. The administration hopes this will persuade foreign countries to get involved in Iraq and will persuade the Iraqi people that this is all worthwhile. One of the things Bush is willing to sacrifice is establishing a western style democracy in Iraq, one of his excuses for invading and occupying Iraq.

To do all this Congress will have to allocate more money to this enterprise. Bush has been listening to Henry Kissinger and believes that this is a matter of political will. He still believes he can win in Iraq and he’s not letting little things like "facts" change his mind. He thinks he has about a year to make it work. So basically we’ll be sinking more money and sending more troops to Iraq to be killed so Bush can enforce his "will". He’s going to use the Iraq study group to buy him and the Republicans more time to regroup before the 2008 elections. I await to see how the new House and Senate leadership will respond to this.

Daddy's Boy

From The Times of London is an article on Bush and his father. The article is about the intense rivalry between the two Bush’s. The article covers a lot of ground most of us probably know; how Bush would mess up and his father would come to his rescue. This made Bush resent his father even more. How competitive Bush is with his father, and after this election, how he has to have his father rescue him once again. If I were in the White House, I’d make sure that all liquor cabinets were locked, all firearms locked up and all sharp objects put away safely, because you know Bush must feel like joining his heavenly father as soon as possible. Knowing Bush, his way of doing that would be to attempt to start Armageddon; so include hiding the red button from him too.

I’ve been wondering about Bush’s other dad, Dick Cheney, and what’s he’s up too. I’m sure it’s something dark and sinister, but what is he publicly doing. A story from The Australian suggests that the dark overlord might quit, allowing Bush to appoint one of the contenders for the 2008 presidential elections as his vice-president. When you think about it, Cheney doesn’t have much to hang on for these next two years. He isn’t running in 2008, his power in the White House appears to be in serious decline. He couldn’t help keep his life partner, Rummy, from getting fired. When the Democratic House leadership, Representative Pelosi and Hoyer met with Bush and Cheney, Bush forgot to mention Cheney in the talks they had just had. Bush said: “All three of us recognize the importance of working together to get things done.” Cheney is such a hateful character that I’m sure no one in the White House thinks he would try to work with the new House and Senate leadership. He’s pretty much already said it. So why not ride off into the sunset before the subpoenas start flying in his direction. Of course I’m not taking into account what evil scheme he has cooking in his lair, so I expect it’ll take another heart attack to get him to resign, and we all know he doesn’t have one of those.

Liar, Liar, Big Fat Pants On Fire

I meant to write about this yesterday but I didn’t have time to get back to it. On his November 8 broadcast, Rush Limbaugh admitted that he’s a lying bag of s**t. In his transcript from that day, Rush says: The way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I’m going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don’t think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, “Well, why have you been doing it?” Because the stakes are high. Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country’s than the Democrat Party and liberalism does.

He goes on to say: I believe my side is worthy of victory, and I believe it’s much easier to reform things that are going wrong on my side from a position of strength. Now, I’m liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don’t deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don’t deserve it. He goes on to explain why the Republicans didn’t deserve his help: There have been a bunch of thins going on in Congress, some of this legislation coming out of there that I have just cringed at, and it has been difficult coming in here, trying to make the case for it when the people who are supposedly in favor of it can’t even make the case themselves – and to have to come in here and try to do their jobs. I’m a radio guy. I understand what this program has become in America and I understand the leadership position it has. I was doing what I thought best, but at this point, people who don’t deserve to have their water carried, or have themselves explained as they would like to say things but somehow don’t be – aren’t able to, I’m not under that kind of pressure.

So basically Rush didn’t like a lot of what his party was doing but instead of trying to steer them to the right course, he just went along with the program and continued to lie to his audience and convince them what the Republicans were doing was right. Rush understood the power he possesses but choice not to use it to stand on principles he believes in, but to help those in power maintain their power. Here’s the thing, I don’t believe Rush stands on any principles at all, unless you consider greed a principle. Rush is getting paid, and Rush didn’t want to do anything to disturb that. Now that the Republicans are losing power he’s trying to separate himself from them and blame their defeat for not having the "courage to be conservatives". Not that he bothered to try to give them that courage by being honest with them. So basically he’s outed himself as an unprincipled liar. If you are one of his listeners and continue to let him guide you, then you are a complete idiot and deserve what you get.

One Gone, Hope More To Come

The bloodletting at the White House has begun. Bush announced in his press conference yesterday that Donald Rumsfeld has resigned as Defense Secretary to be replaced by William Gates, former CIA director under Bush’s father and currently president of Texas A&M. This appointment from Bush will relieve Mr. Gates of having to watch his Aggies get their asses handed to them by the Texas Longhorns on November 24 here in Austin. Hook ‘em Horns. Now I’m glad that Rumsfeld has been shown the door, but that door should be left open for some more of the war criminals inhabiting this administration. The First Mistress of the United States, Condoleezza Rice should be given the boot too. Not only for her inaction prior to 9/11, not only for making the State Department a subsidiary of the Defense Department, but for mostly being Bush’s enabler. It’s strange that we haven’t heard from Dick Cheney. Maybe the news of this massive Republican defeat hasn’t reached his secret lair yet. You can be sure though that he’ll launch a counter offensive against the American people to teach them that they don’t have permission to question him or elect representatives who won’t roll over and play dead in front of him. If Bush sends Cheney his walking papers we might actually have something here. Of course if Bush attempts to fire Cheney, Cheney will be forced to unleash the power of the dark side against Bush, Barbara Bush.

Bush senior must be at home in Houston muttering to himself that “W has really screwed everything up now. If only he had listened to me, but what’s new about that, that knucklehead never listened anyway. He was always to busy getting drunk and high to listen. When he became President he took Rummy and Dick’s advice over mine. He became insufferable after he was re-elected reminding me that he’s a two term President while I was only a one term one. Well how the mighty have fallen. If Barbara hadn’t coddled him and made me bail him out of trouble all those years he might have made something out of himself. Oh well it’s time for me to get more money out of the Saudi’s.” Can we just throw out the whole Bush crime family.

The House Is Now Our Home

Welcome to The Provocateur’s Report: ATX, a new blog that will primarily deal with politics. I couldn’t think of a better day to start my blog with progressive forces taking over the House of Representatives and hopefully taking over the Senate as well. If you had told me after the 2004 elections we would see such a big turnaround in the Democratic Party’s fortunes I would have bitterly laughed. I was hoping this day would come, but I didn’t see it happening so soon. I guess Karl Rove’s dream of a Republican majority that would last for decades went out the same door that other overly ambitious hack’s dreams have gone. The person we can all thank for this is President George Bush. Only he could have squandered all the power his party had accumulated. He made sure that things were so bad for the Republican’s that they couldn’t even try to steal this election. Better luck next times boys. There are of course a lot more Republicans we can thank, but I don’t know if I can fit all their names in this blog. I’m sure I’ll be mentioning a lot of them as they look for jobs outside of government or as they try to plea bargain with prosecutors. There is a lot of work to be done by the Democrats and progressives throughout this country. So I’ll do my part by keeping the Democrats honest and making fun of the Republicans.