It is not Washington politics (very, very bad kind of politics, we cannot touch it), but Bilderberg politics.

...the more they stay the same. Meanwhile the little folks continue to get trampled.

Of course Ross was also the special Middle East coordinator for one Bill Clinton. Clinton also gave him a presidential medal.

Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?^©

"Dennis Ross served under HW Bush, Reagan, and Clinton"

He did his one stint with a Democrat to earn those ever valuable "bipartisanship" street creds. Perfect for the O! man!! :) Reaching across that aisle. To get slapped in the face one more time. We love those 'transformative' republicans. Oh yeah. Time for some Uniting.

Someone I work with is related to Ross.... :X

Here is the list of all the Clinton Presidential Medals of Freedom awarded (a very interesting list) but there is no Dennis Ross on there.

http://www.medaloffreedom.com/PresidentClinton.htm

I hadn't recalled him being honored with one so I looked it up.

The site btw is really fun -- you can read everyone's text of their award citation... got to read Wes's and teared up! sniff

So maybe he got some other kind of lesser "medal"? Pfft. :)

That link is for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Ross got just a plain old Presidential Medal. Got to read the fine print you know. :)

Searching around a little I've found at least hints that he first dipped his toe into politics in the Carter Administration. And some point to connections between him and AIPAC. I'm beginning to think that maybe this guy's priority is looking out for himself and goes whatever way the wind is blowing.

Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?^©

put themselves on a select committee to defend I Scooter Libby from prosecution ... well, it says something about their priorities and loyalties.

That one, for me, wipes out the effect of any "medals" he may have had pinned upon him.

Barry_NJ says,
'Of course Ross was also the special Middle East coordinator for one Bill Clinton. Clinton also gave him a presidential medal.'

Of course, Bill Clinton also attended a Bilderberg conference in the early '90s, before he became President. It sounds like the fix was in for Ross to get a position in the Clinton administration, so he get his bipartisan, experienced credentials.

Also, if Edwards was at a Bilderberg conference, maybe that is why Kerry selected him as a running mate.
Or am I just getting too conspiracy-minded?

conspiracy mindedness is about the only way to approach Bilderberg! This year they plugged all the leak holes and we know nothing. Yet. Hopefully someone will learn something about it. All the major media attend and have for the past 50+ years but they are sworn to secrecy as well. WaPo, War St Journal, Time, Euro papers...their publishers all attend. So odd to have the press at a press black out event. They need to be on board the agenda... :)

Yes, Edwards went just prior to being named the VP nominee. They said he was a hit, but he did not get reinvited that I know of, which is odd. Bill Clinton also attended just before becoming the Dem Pres nominee. Hillary went only once but I believe it was in early 2000's... like 2002? Can't recall.

The reason I wanted to see the 08 list was to see who our VP candidates would be. Gov Rick Perry of TX went to the 07 conference, he will likely play a big role in the McCain campaign if not as a VP as an advisor. And Ross's presence indicates he will play some key role as an Obama advisor specializing in Israeli relations.

Like musing about the Cheney secret energy meetings, I enjoy the conspiracy angle of Bilderberg. Until they come out in the open and tell us what the heck they are doing... we continue to speculate and piece together the dots as they leak out year to year.

The Euro was purportedly a BBerg concept as was the North American Union that was supposed to have happened by now. (US Can MX) but is running late!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

The Rep and Dem party merger was also birthed by the Bergs nearly a decade ago. That one seems to be right on track.

They called for $200/barrel oil by 2009 so we may hit that goal as well. And an Iran squabble to coincide with the 200 mark.

It's all pretty interesting to study in any case. Seeing as the attendees are a handful (just over 100/yr) of the most powerful, wealthy people on the planet getting together once per year in a total media blackout to discuss.... the world.

 get them out of political power using same old pressure tactics we don't like you we will protest, we will withhold votes we will all the same old stuff that works one on one on a politican who is defending incumbency;

the citizens of US and world have to step away from the international banks that do business by making COEHM deals and there have been some nations that refused the bank loans because of the NWO terms;

things like that and debt forgiveness movement lead by English musicians; and knowledge spreading information to people who don't know how the big picture works; these and other constructive things I haven't listed or yet know about will be what makes things better;

America is addicted to war economy under any policy they can hang their hat; when US find reason to work for prosperity and economic growth through peace then things will change;

The NYT link at the bottom of this piece is also RICH. 7 pages. Very interesting...

Pinb says,
'Found this link over at Taylor Marsh's. Definitely recommend it be checked out.

http://tinyurl.com/3r5gyk'

This is a refreshing change of 'spin', compared to what I have been seeing about Obama vs. Clinton.

.

:)

Hmm-  will Howard Dean's old outfit be showing up on the national mall on May 31st to agitate for vote counts & actually honoring the entire 50 State Strategy? 

Oh, I am becoming rabidly & rapidly anti-partisan.  

I'm looking ahead to a post-partisan, post-consumer world. Even if it's within the confines of my own home. I've had it with the insanity.

Someone suggested to me that all of us vote with our feet & have a mutual write-in candidate "Viable Third Party Candidate" but this would get those votes thrown out. And of course, if naming a person, we'd be branded with the dread "spoiler" tag. It is sad though- I feel filled with dread & trepidation when I've spent 7 years longing for this stretch of time to manifest. 

I'm mightily POd at what I've seen go on- possibly "the media" has been the worst, but essentially, that is corporate power in a corporate party- (parties) -  and, overall, I gotta say, that hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned feels about where I am. I really do have an affection for a handful of Dems- otoh, I was always always an Indie & so I look forward to resetting my personal political compass to erm, "I."

I actually don't give up on HRC- the O! is too propped up, too phony, too flawed, too everything- perhaps some kind of serendipity will step in. Unfortunately America has racked up some pretty crappy karma so I'm not sure I'm surprised by any of it. 

I also think the environment we are in is not quite as it appears. Are we really still supposed to believe the country is divided 50/50, the districts have been so exquisitely gerrymandered so as to maintain this convenient fiction- the party itself is split in half- the polls, the exit polls, the so-called press- all of it feels as fake & contrived as the set of a spaghetti western- which after all, is precisely what it is. Or the Truman Show. 

Just as a self-defense mechanism I'm trying to play the zen card here as much as I can. 

And there is a lot of stuff I'm prepared to assert, particularly about the nature of the previous Democratic nominee & certain networks attached to said person, but I feel it is unfair to do so on an officially dem-leaning blog, even this one. 

I may try to get down to the DC vote count rally on the 31st- timing may not be the greatest since that is the week we are making final moving preparations- I wonder how it will feel to stand there on the national mall in 2008, pleading for votes to be counted, once again.

imo, the (economic) shock doctrine is coming home

I nervously laughed to the grocery store checkout girls - You guys should have paramedics standing by when you say the total to people anymore, huh?! and actually, they just nodded sadly.

I want to leave the partisan politics behind, but not because one wing of the Democrats weren't precisely right about everything all along- but the people most likely now to come to power are not those people, for one, nor do I have faith that this other sorry lot is sincere, or competent, even- it's just that in so many ways- the rightwing victory has already long been sealed.

Now, we have to look after our own.  

What a great post. I just read it with my coffee - head bobbing up and down nodding along. You said it girl. Yessirree. I hear you and I'm standing in your same "I" shoes with you. I too was a longtime Indie... switched to vote for a certain General.

I so wish we really had a viable third party now. Or even a viable Dem party.

I don't mind Vichyssois. It's flavorful and good for you. But I cannot stomach Vichy Dems. Bad for you... definitely bad for you.

in this case it sure doesn't stand for Victory

It must really be a sight to see.

Michael Jackson, until you mention he was wearing dockers. I wonder if he has his own power source to run his toys?

You just made me laugh out loud! Just the image of MJ in dockers!!! ROFLMAO!!! :D

I do not see any windmills powering the ferris wheel so it must be electrical. Energy hog. I'll probably be bicycling to the market next year while Mr. Mini Mall does orbits in his little home ferris wheel. Too funny.

Yeah. If I had a gazillion dollars, I can't think of anything I'd rather spend it on than my very own ferris wheel... Well. Who knows. Maybe there's some rational explanation. Maybe his friend who coordinates county fairs found himself with an extra ferris wheel and just had no where else to put it?

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

--he's planning on inviting underprivileged kids up to ride on his ferris wheel?

This house has armed guards stationed at the bottom of the drive so that you can't even approach it if you don't have a 'pass'. He paid $35 million. In cash. No loans. All that and you have to put in your OWN Ferris Wheel! Ha! He shoulda negotiated down to 33 million to save some bucks for the amusement park.

I am just waiting for when the Roller Coaster gets installed next. Heh. :-)

Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in somebody else's dream.

You can watch it.

I don't watch teevee at all. And with what's been going on during this race, I'm glad I don't.

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

( yes, just a rare moment! )

about all of those good ole dem organizations that so many Clinton supporters will no longer be supporting. Like Move On Dot Org. Like the DFA. The DSCC, anything "D"... etc etc.

Out of anger. Out of being rudely dismissed and dissed.

And how that is half the Democratic base.

And how much $$$$ that represents.

And what a STUPID business move it was for the party to jump on that .... ship that is not seaworthy so soon.

I was just thinkin'....

They are going to really miss all that $$$$ coming in from the OTHER HALF of the Democrats.

They'll miss both. I think that everyone has seriously underestimated the fury of the voters, especially the women voters. I attended my district convention today and met new Hillary supporters for the first time. Most of them didn't know each other yet were huddled together pulling out recent articles about the misogyny in the media and the disrespect of women and Hillary in this election. They are PO'd in a major way. Most had never been politically active, yet signed up to be delegates to show Hillary support, got up at 5 am to make arrangements for family and pets, then drove for two hours to participate in something they had no idea what to expect. I sense something really building against the Party, the media, and the Self-Annointed One. Our numbers were small compared to the O masses and we suffered not a few snickers because of it. That only turns up the flame on the simmering stew that is going to boil over soon. The DNC might be afraid to lift the lid on that pot to see what might come bubbling out. Something tells me that this time, those women aren't going to be around to clean up the mess.

Of course these organizations still do a lot of good. That's not the point.

Nor is this about whether a handful of CCN members continue to support them or not.

The fact is that these organizations are shooting themselves in the foot by alienating a large percentage of the people who have up until recently played a MAJOR role in keeping them going.

We will ALL suffer for what they're doing to themselves.

(edited)

 before you bring out the knives on me: but HRC is losing so badly you all hate everybody

it seems that is carrying on without her; I think the Senate has a shot at making majority this fall and

that will help solve a lot of those pesky domestic problems like OIL prices; health care and THE IRAQ war;

so I wish them well its good for me long and short term if they succeed; I can't address this obsession any other way;

you guys are pissed off and are having a hard time I hope you get over it;

HRC will win KY then after May 20th the remaining primaries will be less than 100 delegates; the FL & MI situations are getting worked out and even if the Rules committee went in favor of Clinton's plan which is give it all to her she still can't

reach Obama's count; the popular vote will not count in the in the electorial body that is sitting including the Rules committee at the DNC to bring the nomination to a close; if you all want to see the end of the electorial college or first step less super delegates like so many people do then all of that will happen after the election;

if you are gunning for McCain well I don't know what to say about that in one pissed off moment I declared I would vote for him if if if then I got over it immersing myself in McCain articles;

We're pissed off? And that's a bad thing? Should we so easily be led like lambs to slaughter?

Pissed off... about Hillary? hahahhaaaa - Uh huh. That's the least of it. 

Please understand, and I like her more than most, have all along- that in this scenario, she's a minor constellation in an infinite universe of reasons we have to be "pissed off," thanks.

Hopefully the ranks of the new progressives & orgs will swell with new choir members to make up for the exodus of those who can no longer afford to pretend these parties aren't hogs at the same trough, two wings of the same dirty bird, etc. 

Seriously. This is way beyond crybaby take my ball go home territory- we're about to see the attempted annointing of an unqualified two bit incredibly divisive junior senator with rhetorical chops who is a mystery wrapped inside an enigma tucked inside a conundrum-  possibly be handed the job of CIC in a country fighting two wars, a crumbling economy, a media apparatus that is nothing more than a corporate propaganda arm, more international & domestic crisis than can be imagined-

Sorry- who is crazy here? Pissed? That's the least of it. 

"Get over it. That's so 2008."

 I am not crazy about many details of the Democratic party and the people who are power in it and because of that I switched from life long Dem to Indy last year; but I do know how to do simple math and count;

check the maps again

you are going to see unprecedented low turnout - they may not vote against him (and many will), but they aren't going to vote FOR him either- and no matter how much shock therapy the powers that like to pretend they be try to apply, this donkey is sitting down in the middle of the road, planting it's rear end in the dirt & she ain't gonna move.

Uniter- I've heard it all before. That, George McGovern & $2.50 may still get you a frappuccino

"my kingdom for real democrat"

"for lack of a nail..."

Even if it does work, we basically get nothing the ground has been moved so far to the right.

 but by every historic measure that you aren't referring to the turnout will be huge;

 I hope it makes such a shocking difference to you to see 'your' side in the big picture advance forward this year and by that I mean 'progressives'

meantime I'll be over there with Naomi Klein.

"Kerry on!" etc. 

Truly, I have realized I'm terribly unsuited for partisan politics. It would have come to this for me at some point anyway.

Sincerely, best of luck to all the good guys (and gals) out there. I'm quite familiar with the road of good intentions as well as knowing what the road to hell is paved with.   

I am not in the mood for half-measures, compromises, playing dress up or another whitewashing.

 really began in 1999 ( 1998 ) and it has been a mixed bag of sweet and sour; I too am looking for something local that I can immerse in that has big progressive constructive impact;

You are on a literary roll today!

I say you take part of the weekend to pen a short article. Your mercury must be favored right now by the luminaries!

Like a slow and low boiling stew.... the Dem base anger has had gobs of time and ingredients to help foster it's brewing and bubbling these past 8 yrs, hasn't it?

And yep, Hillary Clinton's pinata fest bashing brigade is in the mix - right there next to the carrots of Iraq and the potatoes of General Electric's obscene profits from it. MSNBC anchors are floating alongside those carrots indeedy, riding them.

I'm still getting over being told to get over the stolen election of 2004 and the Dem candidates complicity. The erasure of Ohio and the scrubbing of all images of disenfranchised black voters standing in endless lines in the rain. I'm still getting over getting over that. Slow at the 'get over it' I am.

http://www.whoscounting.net/Whos%20Counting%20Three%20Stages%20of%20Truth.htm

I figure by 2020 - nice round number- I'll be over that one.

not towards violence or anthing- but towards a disavowal of parties & hopefully towards articulating something else. I haven't figured it all out yet. I'm sure it will be crystal clear by summer's end. 

Right now I don't know what to hope for- hoping against hope is an unpleasant place to be. Like when I watch Battlestar Galactica & sympathize more with the command instead of the hippies. heh. Strange feeling- trying to sort out my own internalized abusive mindset - the one that says:

you can't walk away

Watch me.  

 there are many positive creatively progressives groups/businesses working to make things better;

unity and democratic hope ferris wheel. Yeeehaaah!

 in MS it doesn't look like 26 what is holding you back from going GRANDER;

And know so little?

That's a .jpg file. Probably created by someone at lavenderliberal.com, not by Carol.

But hey, any excuse to be snarky will do, right?

 make it grander; it would make a nice sandwich type street sign the kind your drape over your shoulder and walk the pavement with;

wonder what it would cost to post in NYC times square big sign or on baseball live screen in the parks probably a lot more than copy paste jpg file one web page to another; so you think I know less than your four ( five whatever ) year career in CIA was it or some such intelligence branch;

they are very ideological those intelligence surveillance outfits I would even venture to say even with all the good they have done for this country the rogue ideological elements of intelligence surveillance for many many decades or the whole pf 20th century have nearly or yet still may destroy the American 'empire'

the fresh hope that accompanied the begin 21rst still waiting to see the seeds of things can be better if we really work for it - sprout ---- next chapter in collective culture --- will things get better in our lifetimes; it is a long haul to move away from using advance technology for the dark side of counter intelligence instead of helpng humanity;

I read about something called spray on antenna developed by Darpa -- info about it emerged in 2001 and with nanotech it is going to be tough to avoid being influenced by corrupt political monopoly;

success rates with essential demographic groups and victories in swing states show a steady path towards the nomination.

I was wondering where he was....

Not in Greece I guess. :) Although he is sporting a little tan! LOL Looks good!

Wish Wes would come back and do another UCLA event. Soon.

I've tried to "unsubscribe' before, to no avail. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that it's their way of confirming that it's really me who wants to get off the list, probably because they are getting a rash of requests. I know that to sign ON to many sites, you have to get an e-mail with at verification code. This is probably the same thing in reverse.

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/unsubscribe
 

...just a few posts up?

You probably tried to unsubscribe too early and under Howard Dean's rules that made it invalid. :)

Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?^©

I had to put the code in also. they said it would take few weeks for me not to get letters. I see it has helped as I get very few!!! I believe they are getting tons of people cancelling their memebership. I have been all over the blogs and MANY have quit out of discust!! REVOLT!!! The treatment of Hillary is unbearable, from men and women.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/02/politics/politico/main4064089.shtml

EXCERPT
 
“We deserve a lot of credit that we are trying to do what we can with what we got,” said Karen Finney, the DNC’s communications director, who noted that Democratic donors tend to be candidate-driven, as opposed to the more institutional-oriented donors who give year-round, even in the off-cycle years, to the RNC.

But, Finney acknowledged, “We need donors to give to the DNC.”

In the past week, the DNC began its first efforts to define McCain-a three-week, half-million-dollar ad buy on the cable networks. But few party strategists expect the relatively meager offensive to make a dent in the consciousness of the voting public.

“If you want to do something meaningful with voters to affect more than elite opinion, you have to open up a large-scale media campaign in battleground states,” said Tad Devine, the chief strategist for 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry.

At the moment though, the DNC lacks the resources to do so. It has focused its efforts on building a massive voter file and national ground team, rather than advertising.

“If we had more money, would we do more?” said one DNC official. “Absolutely.”

The DNC views its first advertising expenditure as “seed money” meant to elicit more donations. After the ad buy, Chairman Howard Dean e-mailed supporters with a link to what he called a “devastating” DNC ad on Iraq-and then asked for contributions.

“All of it-from the new Iraq ad to the organizers in places like Ohio, Colorado, and Oregon-costs money, and we need your help,” the e-mail solicitation read.

Among other things, the fundraising gap has left the Democrats’ “coordinated fund” on empty. While FEC regulations allow for $19.2 million in coordinated campaign operations between the party and the presidential campaign, the party has yet to direct any money into that pot. The RNC’s is already fully funded.

That leaves the RNC poised to unload on the Democratic nominee the moment he or she is selected.

“The thinking is that both Obama and Clinton are doing a good job of defining each other and we would like that process to continue,” said Frank Dnatelli, the RNC’s deputy chairman. “The decision right now is to just let the Democrats continue their primary process and when the time comes we will be ready with a full plate of issues and plenty of money.”

“Who knows,” worried a senior DNC official, “Republicans could be preparing a Swift boat attack.”

Without a fully-stocked coordinated fund or the funds to level a heavy and sustained attack on McCain, the DNC is reliant on state parties and independent groups to soften up the presumptive GOP nominee.

One such group, MoveOn.org, today launched a month-long, $1 million ad campaign targeting McCain on Iraq, timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Bush’s ill-fated “mission accomplished” speech.

The senior DNC official stressed that the fundraising squeeze has not yet hit a crisis point. And many Democrats believe that wealthy donors are waiting out the primary before giving to the national party.

More important, the two Democratic candidates have raised so much money to date-in February and March alone, Obama raised some $95 million-that there is no reason to believe the eventual nominee will lack resources, at least in the general election.

Due to their fundraising prowess, neither Obama nor Clinton seem likely to accept the $84.1 million available in public financing for the general election. McCain, on the other hand, is far more reliant on the national party because he is likely to accept the $84.1 million public check-meaning he’ll have far greater dependence on the RNC and state parties for advertising, canvassing voters and galvanizing turnout.

But in a worst case scenario, the DNC official explained, the eventual Democratic nominee could burn through much of his or her primary election cash before the convention and donors might be less responsive to pleas for more money once the nomination battle is settled-leaving the campaign cash-strapped for a prolonged period before the convention, after which the separate general election funds can be tapped.

“I don’t know if the Obama campaign will have so much money by the time that he wins, if he wins,” the DNC official said. “Meantime, voter file, opposition research, voter outreach, we should be doing all the things that the Republicans are doing.”

The sluggish fundraising might also inhibit so-called “hybrid advertising,” which numbered in the tens of millions in 2004. Hybrid advertising is based on a loophole in FEC regulations, discovered and first exploited by the Bush campaign four years ago, in which the party and campaign can split advertising budgets.

Though admittedly concerned about the state of affairs, the record-breaking fundraising pace kept by both candidates this year has left DNC officials hopeful that ultimately the nominee will encourage maxed-out campaign donors to turn their attention to the national party.

“The real answer is sure, [the fundraising is a problem],” the senior DNC official said. “But the question is how much? Disastrously? No. But somewhat, yes.”
<!-- sphereit end -->

lol-

this is funny too, from the Keystone Kops:

“Who knows,” worried a senior DNC official, “Republicans could be preparing a Swift boat attack.”

Yeah, maybe they are. Doh! Sure would help if Dems didn't hand them the most vulnerable to attack candidate since... John Kerry. 

-----

The General: Tom Junod
Aug. 1, 2003

This is what the general does. He internalizes his opponents--those on the other side of an issue or a battle--so that he may prevail over them. As an unintended consequence, he is a gifted mimic, whether of O'Reilly, Slobodan Milosevic ("General Clark, he obeys orders; he is like dog"), or, on one afternoon at WaveCrest, George W. Bush. His mimicry does not amount, in the case of our president, to mockery. It is simply his way of judging what Bush may have on the Democratic field so that he may judge what the Democratic field might possibly have on Bush. He is sitting in his office, eating lunch, talking about what might convince him to join the field or stay away. He is talking about running for president and saying that the mistake he does not want to make is the one that's most common: the mistake of finding the reason to run not in oneself but rather in one's opinion of the guy already holding office. "They look at him and say, 'Hey, I'm smarter than that guy. If that guy can do it, it must not be that hard.' Well, they're wrong. It's hard. It's the hardest thing in the world. So you better have another reason." It's not the lure of power. He's had power. He was arguably the most powerful man in Europe and definitely one of the most powerful men in the world, and so he is not lusting for power so much as he is weighing his desire to "make a contribution" against what he believes is the ultimate consideration for anyone running for president against George Bush: "how much pain you can bear."

And there will be pain. You get the sense, talking to the general, that he has thought it through and decided that the only way to beat Bush is to go to war against him.

snip

We like our presidents to have been soldiers because we like them to have shown courage under fire, which is to say that we do not like them to be cowards. We do not like our presidents to have been generals because we do not like our presidents to have had military ambitions, which is to say that we do not like them to be warmongers. The general, however, takes care to distinguish between the courage required for soldiering and the courage required for being a general, between physical courage and the courage required to make difficult decisions, even at personal expense. It was not so long ago that he had to show both kinds.

In August 1995, the general--three stars, working as J-5 for the Joint Chiefs--went to Bosnia as part of the negotiating team Ambassador-Richard Holbrooke had put together to end the civil war that had resulted in the massacre of as many as eight thousand Muslim men and boys at the town of Srebrenica the month before. In Belgrade, Clark had met for the first time Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who was sponsoring the Bosnian Serbs. Now the team had to travel to Sarajevo. Told that the airport in Sarajevo was too dangerous to fly into, the team decided to drive and asked Milosevic to guarantee its safety on a road held by Bosnian Serbs. Milosevic did not, and so the team wound up taking a fortified Humvee and an armored personnel carrier on a pitched, narrow, winding mountain road notoriously vulnerable to Serb machine-gun fire. Clark and Holbrooke went in the Humvee, the rest in the APC. In his book, the general describes what happened this way: "At the end of the first week we had a tragic accident on Mount Igman, near Sarajevo. [Three members of the team] were killed when the French armored personnel carrier in which they were riding broke through the shoulder of the road and tumbled several hundred meters down a steep hillside."

It is not until one reads Holbrooke's book, To End a War, that one finds out that after the APC went off the road, Clark grabbed a rope, anchored it to a tree stump, and rappelled down the mountainside after it, despite the gunfire that the explosion of the APC set off, despite the warnings that the mountainside was heavily mined, despite the rain and the mud, and despite Holbrooke yelling that he couldn't go. It is not until one brings the incident up to the general that one finds out that the burning APC had turned into a kiln, and that Clark stayed with it and aided in the extraction of the bodies; it is not until one meets Wesley Clark that one understands the degree to which he held Milosevic accountable.

Four years later, the general went to war against him after the failure of diplomacy to drive the Serbs out of Kosovo. By this time, he had spent "dozens and dozens and dozens" of hours with Milosevic during the negotiations in Dayton of the accord that ended the war in Bosnia, and then in all the fruitless negotiations thereafter.-He knew him; in fact, as he says, "I'm probably unique among twentieth-century commanders, in that I really knew the person I was fighting. So I knew what it would take to beat him, personally. And I knew he was watching me. I knew he watched every briefing. He looked at me to see if I was tired. He looked at me to see if I was discouraged. We were engaged in a war of the mind. Once the fighting started, though, it was a simple straight-line equation. The plan was to gain escalation dominance. Avoid anything that might suggest to Milosevic that the campaign was about to be ended and ratchet up the intensity step-by-step until you broke his will.-He wasn't a tough guy.-You know what kind of guy he was? He was the kind of guy who said he didn't play sports because his mother wouldn't let him. He was a wuss! He had these . . . soft, puffy white hands."

 part of the solution or part of the problem

We both tripped over the same line!

Is that precious or what?

Would make a great cartoon if it weren't so pathetic. Maybe Tricia can draw it up.

WHO KNOWS? Maybe the Repbulicans are planning a Swift Boat attack!

And this... from a "Senior DNC Official" mind you. Wonder what the Juniors are saying?

And he's probably a Super Duper Delegate at that!

OMG
We are so f'ed it aint even funny.

hahahahahahaahh...I have so much money thanks to the Bush Regime' I supply the DNC with all their cash, to promote our party for the last 8 years. To elect the losers we put in office with the DNC's help, and pay the wonderful leaders of MY party for ignoring the peoples votes!! OH YEAH and the people at the DNC, want it to happen again!
Its such a shame the well has run dry, cuz I have to fight that war in Iraq!!! I am down to my last $4.00 a gal for gas, so good luck DNC. You reap what you Sow!!!

poor lil DNC. :(

and it's our fault, yet. More money than ever before, given. Wasted, it would seem. 

shaking my head here.

tent cities in Los Angeles

feels like a new Dark Age, or at least a Dim Age where memories are wiped 

"Bring Out Your Dead" - Monty Python

 just that the rivalry primary is nearly over and assessing the damage we did to ourselves and the potential for taking the House, Senate, WH

Supreme Court, so on so forth time to weigh it up time is drawing near at least;

got to take stock and re-group get going the rivals are the GOP;

I forgot to write the script for the swiftboats thats a commin'! They are real quick...first one..May 22, after the selected candidate makes his speech! IF he does, he will make an idiot out of himself.

 pete's sake money is power in the election;

as well as an an excellent reason not to disenfranchise voters/citizens in a cycle where more money was given in an economy that is more difficult than ever. I have zero sympathy for them, sorry. And no, I don't think it is funny at all. Open your mind to the concept of good intentions meeting inernal sabotage & incompetence plus a little human failing. The other night on TDS Dean laughingly said of his 2004 loss that "it had something to do with screaming, right?" - Despite his personal brilliance, I'm not sure he does really get it. If they have brokered control of the voting technology, that is the only sure way this terribly terribly risky strategy can work.

never thought any politicians the smartest bulbs in the pack plus corruption - we all know smarter people than the present political class ; we need as much power as we can get;

my immediate family won't be effected if we go to war with Iran ( already got military behind them or other such details ) but if they hit US with pandemic biologicals because we nuke somebody in the world preemptively then we are all in trouble;

I don't want to spend last years of my life hoping that at least some of my family might see US going in the right direction; I want to see it happen in 2009 and outward; well I have DVD to watch going to sleep the rest of afternoon see yazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 

--when you give somebody your money, and then they turn around and screw you... it was illegal.

Except in Vegas.

With John Kerry's merry band of 35,000 vote counting attorneys... I didn't even get a kiss.

Huh.

Kick in the butt is more like it. AND they are still doing it. What a racket.

Obama used sexism with that comment and mocked her with a sarcastic laugh. He can't hide his arrogance.

To note: he never answered her question. It was a photo op - plain and simple. He doesn't care what happens to those workers. Those workers should have asked Obama why he and his surrogates fought to have their votes thrown out.

That is some horse! I am in awe. Let's see how he makes out at the Belmont. It's about time we got another Triple Crown winner....

"The mark of leadership is not to standup when everybody is standing, but rather to actually stand up when no one else is standing" - Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power, introducing Gen Clark