Colin Powell, former Sec. of State for George W. Bush, is scheduled to be the guest on Meet the Press this Sunday, and buzz is that he will announce his endorsement of Obama for president.

While this prospect is supposedly a good thing for us Obama supporters, in that it will sway a few people who still hold out some reservations about Obama in terms of the much over-hyped “foreign policy experience” thing, because they view Powell as an fine American warrior, and really, isn’t foreign policy all about war after all?

But for me, it just brings up a lot of anger and bad memories, and I was going to blog about how disappointing I find the idea that the media pundits and other lobotomized groups in American society will give Powell’s imprimatur any kind of validity.

But David Sirota has already made the case at Open Left:

Let’s just remember: Colin Powell is one of the major reasons we went to war in Iraq. In his 2003 United Nations speech, he perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in the history of international diplomacy - a fraud that, in terms of its blood-and-guts ramifications, dwarfs major scandals like Watergate.

The idea that being endorsed by someone like that is a good thing - well, that logic may fly in the television studios of New York and D.C., but it shouldn’t fly anywhere else. A person whose most important legacy is destroying America’s international credibility shouldn’t be seen as a Serious or Respectable person, nor an asset to any campaign, no matter how many apologists - liberal or conservative - claim that “behind the scenes” Powell was really a good guy. He wasn’t a good guy - he was one of the handful of people who quite literally lied us into a war. That the elite media imparts even an ounce of credibility to this dishonest yes-man is not a commentary on Powell’s alleged positive attributes. It is a reflection of the elite media’s deep disdain for the facts and truth it purports to respect.

Of course, Tom Brokow, or whoever the MTP host is this weekend, will treat Powell and his (expected) pronouncement with great reverence and respect. A member of a true oppositional press would instead ask: “Well you squandered your reputation being a good soldier for George Bush; why should anyone follow your advice now?”

So, welcome to the reality-based community, Gen. Powell, and if an 11th hour nod to Obama gets him closer to landslide territory, and Sarah Palin sent to permanent exile in Wasilla, thanks a lot. But please don’t think this in any way cleanses your soul. You’re still a war criminal.

Among the seven killed in the helicopter crash in Iraq the other day were three Oklahoma National Guardsmen from the Lexington unit (initial reports listed five deaths).

Family members of 36-year-old Brady Rudolf confirm he was killed in the chopper accident. Rudolf was a graduate of Durant High School. His brother is a member of the Durant Fire Department.

Twenty-three-year-old Corporal Michael Thompson, from Kingston was also aboard the helicopter that went down near Baghdad. His parents tell us he was a machine gunner aboard the Chinook helicopter.

The third man is Dan Eshbaugh of Norman, who leaves  behind a wife and four children.

According to the Army statement, the Chinook was not under attack at the time of the crash, and was performing a “routine post-maintenance check flight”. An investigation has been launched.

According to iCasualties.org, there have been 510 68 Oklahomans lost in the Iraq war to date (correction: the 510 figure refers to wounded, see comments below this post).

Sympathies to the families, friends and communities of these men, as well as the four Texans also killed.

by Steven D, originally published at Booman Tribune and reprinted here with permission. It's a sad fact, but Senator Dodd was unable to stop a very bad FISA bill, that even Bruce Fein, a former Reagan official at the Department of Justice claims is a gross violation of our civil liberties.  Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid wouldn't let him.  Yet one man, one Senator, has been able to stop dozens of bills simply by saying "no" to Harry Reid.  Who is this all powerful Senator?  Why a Republican, of course:

. . . Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has a large framed picture next to his desk that serves as a constant reminder of his political ideology. Inside the black frame and matting is a single word, in large white letters: "No."Coburn has become best known as the lawmaker who says no -- no to increased funding for unsolved civil rights crimes, no to creation of a national registry for victims of the disease ALS, no to more money for child pornography prosecutions. [...] Most of the bills, including a child pornography law that passed the House 409 to 0 in November, are so noncontroversial that they would normally sail through on voice votes, with no roll call taken. [...] Since January 2007, Coburn has used his senatorial "hold" to block more than 80 pieces of legislation, which means Reid knows that Coburn will object to unanimous consent on those bills.

Coburn is also the Senator who put a hold on extending additional protections to government whistleblowers, a bill that had already passed the House 331 to 84.  The same bill that would likely pass the Senate with a veto proof majority if it were allowed to come to a vote. Does anyone wonder anymore why Congress has such a poor approval rating?  When Republicans held the majority they passed whatever the hell they wanted (or whatever Bush told them to pass) and Democrats were powerless, or at least they claimed they were.  Remember the Terry Schiavo legislation?  That passed even though a majority in the country opposed it because the Democrats in the Senate caved. Yet, now, when Republican Senators up for re-election are running scared and willing to back many Democratic proposals, Reid lets one yahoo nutcase like Tom Coburn put the kabosh on any and all legislation regardless of how beneficial it might be.  Need you be reminded of just how loonie Coburn is, take a peek at this: (cont.)

At a Republican meeting this spring, Coburn warned: "The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda." [...]"I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life," he told the Associated Press in July. Last week, he told the Hugo [Okla.] Daily News: "We need someone who will speak morally on the issues and not run from the criticism of the national press ... We need to have moral clarity about our leaders. I have a 100 percent pro-life record. I don't apologize for saying we need to protect the unborn. Do you realize that if all those children had not been aborted, we wouldn't have any trouble with Medicare and Social Security today? That's another 41 million people." [...] In 1999, after the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, Coburn opposed President Clinton's proposal for making adults liable if they allow their children to buy guns and harm others. "If I wanted to buy a bazooka to use in a very restricted way, to do something, I ought to be able to do that," said Coburn.

Yet this moron is allowed the privilege by Harry Reid to hold up any damn thing he wants, no matter how popular it is with his own Republican colleagues.  This ideologue and criminal, who illegally sterilized one of his Native American female patients without her consent and filed a fraudulent Medicaid insurance claim, is more powerful than Harry Reid.  You have to ask yourself -- why?  Why does Reid allow this buffoon to run rings around him, and delay and deter desperately needed legislation? Whatever happens in the Presidential election this Fall, Democrats are likely to retain their control over the House and Senate. And if there is one thing we've learned it is that our current Democratic Leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have been a disaster for the Democratic Party.  They were not only dead wrong on FISA, but they have been ineffective across the board in promoting the Democratic Party's stated agenda, from ending the Iraq occupation to increasing funding for the SCHIP program, which provides health insurance to uninsured children.  Reid allowed the Senate to pass the Lieberman-Kyl amendment which all but grants the Bush administration permission to attack Iran at its discretion. Time after time Harry Reid has proven himself to be a gutless coward when it comes to standing up for  progressive policies which have the support of the majority of Americans.  When push comes to shove, he's permitted President Bush to get whatever he wanted on the important issues of the day.  And now he has allowed one idiot Senator from Oklahoma to run rings around him in blocking the passage of needed bipartisan legislation.  It's time for Democrats to just say no to Harry Reid's continued tenure as Senate Majority Leader.  If he can't out think and outfight Tom Coburn, he doesn't deserve to lead the Senate.

Sometime next week, the Pentagon will announce that 13,000 more Guard troops will deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan next year (7 of 8 units going to Iraq).

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is preparing to alert eight National Guard units that they should be ready to go to Iraq or Afghanistan beginning late next summer, The Associated Press learned Wednesday.

The U.S. military is reaching out to more Guard units in an effort to maintain needed troop levels, ease some of the strain on the active duty Army and provide security for ports, convoys and other installations.

The article provides some context:

There are now 171,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, largely because several units are overlapping as some move in and others move out of the country. Once those transitions are complete and the drawdown begins, the level of troops in Iraq could drop to as low as 135,000.
[...]

All together, the Guard announcement would involve about 13,000 soldiers.

Here’s the kicker:

Specific brigades were not identified, but they will include units from North Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois and Hawaii, according to officials. Some of those being alerted this week have done tours in the war zone already, and others would be going for the first time.

Emphasis added.

This is especially heart wrenching because tomorrow, 2,400 soldiers of Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade will be feted at a gala ceremony at the Lloyd Noble Center as they leave for Ft. Bliss in preparation for going to Iraq. This is the OK National Guard’s “largest deployment since the Korean War.”

This recent development will keep the phones at the Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline busy well into next year, no doubt.

Volunteers are needed for the next training, so if you can help, please call (405)231-1138.

Tristero at Digby’s place looks today at “the problem of modern rhetoric” within the Right/Left political debate, prompted by the supposedly right-wing answer to MoveOn.org. MoveOn’s Eli Parisher makes the same mistake the left (including me) usually does in phrasing things to make other lefties nod their heads, and everyone else’s eyes glaze over.

The wingers’ language is simple and direct, filled with monosyllabic feelgoods, and a nasty one-word putdown. The response was hedged (”So far”), polysyllabic, included words with complex structure and meaning (”palpable,” but “palatable” is meant), and unjustifiably restrained. Certainly both Fleischer and Sembler can easily be characterized as “obnoxious,” and that’s the least of it.

When the MoveOn.org ad first appeared, I did not care for the play on General Petraus’ name — I thought it sophomoric. I completely agreed with the ad’s premise and tone, and certainly thought it fair and accurate otherwise, just quibbled with the copy choices.

But now, I think something that has caused this much ruckus, has a lot going for it. Clearly, the language got through, made a clear point and struck a nerve, unlike most our our rhetoric.

Anyway, like the Dixie Chicks, this whole episode will be viewed very differently in a year or so, if not less, as things nosedive in Iraq, Iran gets bombed and unleashes 10 times the chaos in the Middle East, the economy here crashes and 50% of the population can’t afford to buy gas. MoveOn will look like prophets, if any Republican even gives a shit about Petraus’ wittle hurt feelings at that point which they won’t one bit, because they really don’t even now.

BTW, the staged backlash to the ad is the attempted swiftboating of the netroots, and we are not going to go limp like Kerry did. Any “liberal” who isn’t supporting MoveOn 100% on this: get off the fucking bus right now.

From USA Today

As of Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007, at least 3,803 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,099 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is five higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 170 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 28,009 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally.

The latest deaths reported by the military:

Including:

(Harrah, OK) Brown, Kevin R. Staff Sergeant 25-Sep-2007
and
(Wayne, OK) Scripsick, Bryan J. Corporal 06-Sep-2007

(from Iraq Casualties)

My heart goes out to their families and friends.

It’s disgusting what these chickenhawks will do just to be able to say they are “winning”. Winning what the fuck, you are not supposed to ask (and so the corporate media doesn’t). Certainly “hearts and minds” are no longer on the table.

This article courtesy our neighbor to the north, where apparently truth can still be spoken occasionally within the mainstream public discourse without three-quarters of the political establishment/punditry going into spastic fits of mock outrage.

This “Anbar Awakening” has been a slow process, beginning long before the recent U.S. “surge” that increased the number of American troops in Iraq by 30,000, to 180,000. But it is still a shaky union, a desperate marriage of convenience based on shared enemies: Iran, and the Sunnis’ former-friend-turned-foe al-Qaeda. Many of America’s new allies are former insurgents and Saddam Hussein loyalists (Saddam was a Sunni) who only a short while ago were routinely called terrorists, “anti-Iraqi fighters,” and “Baathist dead-enders.”

Last week, Atrios watched the Charlie Rose interview with the “very serious” “foreign policy expert” Thomas Friedman, and isn’t over it yet — apparently may not be over it for a long, long time. He’s really laying into him, I mean much more than usual. And deservedly so.

I myself don’t have the stomach to watch Tom for an hour (or Rose either, for that matter), but the Atrios reaction posts are here and here, and pretty much tell you all you need to know: Thomas Friedman is a bad person, and really not very smart.

Our media, unfortunately is overrun with such evil, stupid people, who make a lot of money and get to spout their delusional, self-centered nonsense on TV every day, while the people who were actually spot on about foreign policy decisions like Iraq, and can cite actual facts to back up their opinions, and can talk about world problems without resorting to embarrassing displays of Freudian issues, are still considered unworthy for public discourse.

It appalls me when I hear smart people, well-educated liberals, talk about Tom Friedman as if he’s an unending font of wisdom and rationality, particularly on the Middle East. Do they actually read his work?

This guy [warning: this article could seriously damage your left frontal lobe] gets paid to think, and advise. And write!

Aaarrrgggghhh!!! Just shoot me now!

Cliff Notes version (in which the author’s true meaning is devined):
David Rees: Cormac Ignatieff’s “The Road”