It’s not a secret that General David Petraeus has his job because he was hand picked for it by the President.

When he was introduced to America, the critics praised him for his past service and expertise. Many described him as the person to call when things got bad in Iraq, a man who “wrote the book” on unconventional warfare.

During his first tour of Congress and later, it became clear to anyone keeping up with the news that the General knew – reallllly knew – who his boss was, who signed the checks as it were. He managed to keep his job even when a less cooperative – and likely more objective – superior got hired, and then retired in short order.

So, while watching the most recent testimony today of both the General and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the only real question was how anyone could listen to what was said and not hear the real message loud and clear.

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia pretty much had it nailed while appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

Webb said that he at least wasn’t surprised that members of Congress couldn’t get any definite answers out of either men, and went on to draw the conclusion that the next president would inherit some 140,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq.

He handled the matter diplomatically.

The truth is that it appears both men continued to serve a White House directive that has become clear over the past couple of years – George W. Bush won’t pull troops out of Iraq, ever. I appears regardless of the advice of the military, regardless of an endless series of polls and reams of research, Mr. Bush just won’t budge.

Hasn’t he said as much? It won’t matter just how unpopular the war has become, he won’t leave the oval office as the man who “lost Iraq.” And yes, one might wonder if the President the same day thought about any of that as he presented the medal of honor to the family of a Navy Seal killed in combat. It doesn’t seem that any number of American lives will sway him, and it doesn’t seem that any amount of money paid for the continually foundering effort will dissuade him.

Even Senator John McCain seemed to go on the offensive today, however with less gusto than Senators Obama and Clinton. It took Senator Joe Biden of Delaware to really lay down the hammer on Ambassador Crocker, asking Crocker where he thought U.S. resources should really go – Iraq or Pakistan and Afghanistan?

After waffling, the ambassador finally responded that the bigger threat lies in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, he’d only say that after Biden asked where Crocker would put troops if God sat on the witness table and asked where the troops were more needed. At least someone got a straight answer out of the administration, but only after a lot of frustration.

Regardless, the overall message was simple and clear – President Bush won’t cooperate with plans to withdraw troops, and will make damn sure when it does happen, he isn’t around to sign the paperwork bringing home American servicemembers.

I just wanted to send greetings to everyone back home in the Ozarks from here out on the shore of the Atlantic. I've been keeping up with the local papers, and even get a chance to listen to Pat Lynch from time-to-time online.

Things out here near the nation's capital are interesting, and the strange thing is that you might not even know you were that far from home. Once again I live in a state filled with Democratic members of congress, execpt in my district, which is represented by a Republican. Go figure. Also, one of the biggest businesses here is Perdue Chicken. I just talked to the PR exec from Perdue today during an awards ceremony, and she sends a "shout out" to Ed and Gary at Tyson Foods, with whom she occasionally works. Yep, you got it -- it smells like chicken crap here too, and you can't get away from Wal-Mart even in these remote parts of America, but I guess you know that already. Oh yes - we also have our mega-church here.

Truly my strangest experience out here has been driving my old Toyota over the bridge and into Washington, D.C. It's just up the street, really. I've also spun around Baltimore and Philadelphia a couple of times in my constantly breaking-down car.

It's been an interesting year or so for me. I returned to the world of local television, and even do a little local radio, so it's not like I've sworn off my media activities - I'm just a lot closer to the source of trouble in DC now.

After working with Cris and others to keep this thing alive in my absence, I've decided to return to it on a semi-regular basis, and yes, we've even spoken about bringing the old radio show back to life, which I believe we'll likely do on something called "blog-talk radio" where it'll only be an hour and you'll be limited to listening to it online here. We'll still focus on Arkansas and national politics, as we did for a number of years, so it won't be much different.

Who knows, if someone is crazy enough to pick it up, perhaps you'll hear it on a local station in the very near future.

In the meantime, I've got to work on writing something again for this blog, and as you already read here, we're deep into a wordpress transmigration and design project to make this more of a magazine than a straight "blog." We want to provide you with more content and make it so you have an easier time loading the damn thing and spending more time inside.

It's good to be back.

Our continuing apologies for the slow pace here. Some of you know that our publisher moved out of state about a year ago, and the remaining staffers actually have lives to lead, and real jobs, so we've been pretty sporadic with the posting.

OK, so our absentee landlord has agreed to take more of a hand in this project again, and do some re-hab.

The slowness will continue, or get worse, because we are migrating from blogger to wordpress, and from a "blog" to a "magazine" or "newspaper" format.

It'll load faster, contain a lot more content and be updated daily upon the unveiling of the new product. However, it does take time to pound the new format into shape. We're laying the entire thing out brand-spanking-new. We've tried to re-build for a couple of years now, but we've finally decided to make the big switch in platforms. There's a bit of a learning curve to overcome with that, but we're well on our way with a demopage up in an undisclosed location.

We'll keep you updated.

Wal-Mart is the shame of Arkansas. At this point, we wouldn't hesitate to to say it's the shame of the nation and maybe the world. And yes, we don't think that's taking things too far. And what's worse, it's because of a bone-headed move the company made that knocks out a few years of cautious, expensive community outreach and PR.



This picture is of Debbie Shanks, a former Wally employee. Right now, and probably for the rest of her life, she won't be working for anyone. Here, from CNN, is the rest of the story...

Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident nearly eight years ago that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.

It was the beginning of a series of battles -- both personal and legal -- that loomed for Shank and her family. One of their biggest was with Wal-Mart's health plan.

Eight years ago, Shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for Wal-Mart's health and benefits plan.

Two years after the accident, Shank and her husband, Jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. After legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie Shank's long-term care.

Wal-Mart had paid out about $470,000 for Shank's medical expenses and later sued for the same amount. However, the court ruled it can only recoup what is left in the family's trust.

Her husband has cancer, she can't care for herself, can't remember anything, and her son was killed in Iraq. She can't even remember that he's died, so she gets to live that little piece of news over and over.

Wal-Mart, how could you? Is anyone at the wheel up there in Bentonville? Can Rev. Floyd pull something out of his bible and pick up the phone to tell them to knock it off? Wow, one boneheaded action spectacularly destroys several years worth of investment in good PR and community outreach.

That's it -- our Wal-Mart boycott is on, for the workers -- and for the veterans.

Wal-Mart, you're scum - do the right thing, give this money back to this woman, show the other employees you have that you care, that Sam Walton isn't rolling over in his grave because of this.

To add insult to injury, and to swerve wildly off-track, Joe Palermo at The Huffington Post recalled Hiilary Clinton's days on the company's board of directors, and uses it against her AND Wally-World...

Maybe Hillary Clinton should visit Debbie and Jim Shank in Missouri and tell them how sorry she is for what her lovely Arkansas corporate campaign donor has done to them. Maybe she can bring along a Fox News camera crew.

Finally, the Walmartians got trashed in court. Seems a Georgia man won his case and a judge allowed him to print T-shirts bearing the Nazi eagle you see at the top of this post.

A Conyers, Georgia man has won a legal battle with retail giant Wal-Mart who accused the man of violating its trademark for selling T-shirts and other items that featured the phrases "Wal-ocaust" and "Wal-Qaeda."

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten in Atlanta ruled that Charles Smith may continue to run his Web sites, www.walocasut.com and www.walqaeda.com. Smith also can continue to sell his parody merchandise that criticizes Wal-Mart the judge said.

We'll take two, thank you.

We have to say that this was one of Mr. O's better "special comments" about Ferraro and Hillary.

Keith, from your lips to God's ears...we couldn't agree more about what you've said. This is a "must watch" and if you listen closely, you'll notice the quickly dwindling hope Hillary could pull it out.

(video - Rep. Ferraro makes and ass out of herself on FAUX News...more down the page)

WTF? We've just made the rounds of the cable news outlets, the newspapers and the blogs tonight.

We're still wondering what happened. Earlier, we pontificated about why we couldn't support this state's favorite daughter in this election cycle.

OK, a disclaimer. We're bitter about this. We admired Hillary, and despite a blow-job in the Oval Office, we still admire Bill Clinton. However, Hillary wants this so bad, and has such bad vibes around her campaign that it's turned us off. This isn't the woman who wrote "It Takes a Village" or her memoirs. We don't know who this is now -- we'd still like to think it's Mark Penn and jerks on her campaign doing this. At this stage, someone accurately described her campaign as that of the "Democratic Huckabee."

We just didn't know how nasty she'd get. In days gone by, we'd have applauded her hardball tactics, but some of them smell to high heaven, and we just can't swallow much more of it. We know most of you out there who dream of a Democrat retaking the White House remember the clover days of the Clinton Administration. However, Hillary has gone beyond anything we would ever have wanted to see her do against another Democrat. This is stuff she should have saved up for the Republicans stuff she should never have unleashed within the party.

We can't figure out some of the things we've read today.

Let's start with President Clinton paying a visit to the Rush Limbaugh show to talk about his wife's candidacy during the Texas primary/caucus. Why? Why would he do that? Was he outsmarting Rush's stand-in that day or was he just willing to do about anything with anyone to win? This is breathtaking, and we can hardly imagine it even happening. You can actually LISTEN to Bill on-air on the Limbaugh show. He sounds very cordial.

Actually, from what we've read there isn't too much bad blood between the two -- a bit of professional courtesy.

Still, it boggles the mind.

That's not the worst thing. Geraldine Freaking Ferraro has a big mouth, and we just lost an enormous amount of respect for her. Jesus, what are they trying to do, force us to vote Nader and joint the Green party? And what bites even more than her insane babble is that she went on Fox to defend herself.

Here are some of the remarks that got the ball rolling.

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

"Every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist," she said. "I will not be discriminated against because I'm white. If they think they're going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don't know me."

With all due respect, Representative, Shut yer big old garbage spewing yap. And to think...we voted for you.

What a kick in the shorts.

Maybe the boneheads in the anti-immigrant and Klan groups will be happy to welcome you with open arms. Your little stint on Fox was fun too -- yeeeessssss, of course you've fought for civil rights for years...and we can just hear it now, we'd bet Gerry would just love to remind us that some of her best friends are black, too.

Last but not least, the exit polls from today's win in Mississippi are disheartening. Are we really a bunch of racists in the South? Guess we still haven't gotten over that whole civil war thing with people still celebrating Lee's birthday on MLK Day and the DemGaz doing it's annual ode to the defeated rebel general who killed thousands of Americans fighting for the union and the constitution, not to mention emancipation. Perhaps this is an unpleasant turn of the mirror back at us. We're pretty sure the numbers in Arkansas looked a lot like these, and if they didn't, we know the sentiment is the same.

As has been the case in many primary states, Obama won overwhelming support from African-American voters. They went for him over Clinton 91-9 percent.

But Mississippi white voters overwhelmingly backed the New York senator, supporting her over Obama 72 percent to 21 percent.

Do you think race played a part here? We think it did in Ohio, and we think it will in Pennsylvania, mostly because we've lived in those places, and know what many of the white, ethnic blue collar folks might think of Senator Obama.

It's a crying shame. We dinged Bill Clinton for his Limbaugh stint, but he even writes about the "say one thing, vote another" factor he encountered early in his career in his memoirs.

What side are these people on?

Oh yes, it also appears that Obama has won Texas...he now has more delegates than Clinton has. It seems to us President Clinton said Hillary had to get out of the race if she lost Texas or Ohio.

When can we expect her to leave? We hope it's before she damages her own reputation any more and before she harms the party's chances in November more than she already has.

Oh, yes, and Senator, please ask Gerry Ferraro to get out of your campaign, just like you asked Obama to kick Sarah Power to the curb after she called you a "monster" - because it's starting to look like she was right.

Labels: Election, Ferraro, Hillary, Obama, Race

Here's proof the braintrust at the Republican party will a) lose and b) lose big....they think they're fighting the 2006 election all over again.

This comes from CNS news...

Master political strategist Karl Rove spoke to the American Jewish University this week. He stated that the key to attacking opponents isn't to attack their strengths -- it's to attack weaknesses they perceive as strengths. In 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry staked his campaign on his perceived strength: his military experience. But, as Rove explained, that wasn't his strength -- he was vulnerable on foreign policy, a candidate with a record of attacking the military. By pointing out Kerry's weakness on the military, the Bush campaign was able to completely undercut Kerry.

Obama perceives his greatest strength to be his "change" message. He never shuts up about "change." His website touts his candidacy as "Change We Can Believe In." "We will change this country, and change the world," he states. His speeches are studded with the word "change." In his January 26 speech after the South Carolina primary, he used the word "change" 12 times. In his February 9 speech to Virginia's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, he used it eight times. In his February 12 speech following the Potomac primaries, he used it 11 times. In his Wisconsin primary victory speech on February 19, he used it 33 times. For the love of God, somebody buy this man a thesaurus.

While Obama believes he can win the presidency simply by uttering the word "change" like a magical incantation, his "change" message has a soft underbelly. His focus on change means he despises this country the way it is. His wife, Michelle, is crystal clear on this. "Our souls are broken in this nation," she said this month at UCLA. "That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls." She went further in a February 18 speech in Wisconsin: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."

Despite all of its problems, America is not a deeply flawed place. It is the greatest nation in the history of mankind. It allows Barack Obama to run for president; it allows his wife to attend Princeton University and Harvard Law School. The Obamas' constant emphasis on change carries the disturbing undertone that the country is a disaster requiring radical reform. This isn't a message of optimism -- it's a message of profound pessimism.

This is the writer's bio -- oh, and yes, it comes from the "Christian News Service"

Ben Shapiro, 23, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is the author of the recently published "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future," as well as the national bestseller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth."

Let's point out the obvious logical flaws in this argument, which has a headline (How to beat Barack Obama) written like it's meant to sell soap to people desperate to get clean.

Mr. Shapiro seems to think that America is not a "deeply flawed place" when at last 67 percent of Americans polled think it'll be that way in another four years if the current administration's policies continue. This comes to us from someone apparently well entrenched in the first half of the first decade of the century -- when evangelical christianity was ascendent in government. If you haven't noticed, a new poll shows "unaffiliated, non-evangelical" americans as the largest growing religious segment of the population, perhaps the reason Mr. McCain has managed to get so close the nomination of his party, even while running against someone like Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney. The evangelicals have lost their cohesion, again, as they did after Carter and Reagan made promises to them and failed to deliver. Hey, if GW Bush didn't give them what they craved, why would they ever have a chance of turning America into a theocracy? The majority of them (and they themselves aren't a majority, as the aforementioned poll pointed out) have lost that burning feeling in the gut requisite to successful organizing and GOTV action.

This piece simply harkens back to the past politics of the Rove machine, something that has turned voters toward Obama...witness the failed recent attacks on him by Hillary ("muslim" picture, "empty suit" argument, etc) - if the Republicans think Mr. Shapiro's approach is the way to salvation, then they should probably stay home. I wouldn't imagine Mr. Rove himself would buy into this one from a 23 year old graduate with some impressive sheep skins. It's the same basic misunderstanding all the Republicans made during their primary debates. The way they talked let everyone realize that the nation has moved on, but they remain stuck in the 1990s and the Bush Administration. Our bet is this plan wouldn't work very well, because it's an example of smart people playing the game based on older rules, many of which appear to have changed with the years, the poll numbers, and the nature of the candidates themselves.

If you'd like a real world example of this, just look at Iraq. It's failed precisely because it has been fought just like we found an older war - Vietnam. There wasn't any victory there, either.

Obama's message IS one of profound optimism -- a response to the obvious extreme pessimism of the American voter after more than 7 years of a bush-Republican controlled washington. They may not have any real hope of changing things that much, but they're sick to death of what they have, don't want more of the same and are willing to do just about anything to "kick the bums out" of DC.

Keep planning, Republicans, you may eventually come up with a plan that addresses a changed electoral environment, but this ain't it.

...VIA

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Labels: CHRISTIAN, Elections, MCCAIN, Obama

(or, we continue to piss off our friends as we rant against the hometown favorite in tonight's Democratic debate, and wonder why magic doesn't necessarily rub off when one most needs it to)

What a shame tonight in Ohio.

We could very well be wrong, but what we saw sure looked like the end of the Clinton-Bush presidencies unfolding.

Again, we're not Hillary loyalists here. We respect her, and think she'd make a fantastic president of the United States. She's served as a role model, fought for civil rights for years,is truly among the most gifted and right-thinking citizens in this nation. And, yes, our wives all love her.

However, we simply don't think she can win this, and agree with Newsweek that she should do herself and everyone else in the party a favor, and join the fight against McCain ('cause is sure ain't gonna be Mike Huckabee on the other side.)

She was shrill, she looked out-of-control, she acted and argued far from the woman we'd love to see as President. This person, we're not sure should be in the Senate.

The SNL comment?

C'mon! Very petty.

Where was her passion, her composure, her grace?

She played right into Senator Obama's hands in this one. He wore the mantle of composure tonight, and that's what televised debates are all about - Just ask Nixon or Kennedy (oh, wait a second, you can't...)

What really happened when we watched both of these candidates is something that we assume has happened to many of you over the past 8 years. We asked ourselves how Bill would be handling this if he was sitting up there this evening. We can't imagine he'd behave like Hillary did. He'd have handled this with a lot more grace and composure...Hell, he'd be making his opponent look bad with his smiles and his gentle joking.

That's the visible role Obama took tonight. Hillary instead spent a lot of time gasping and looking just plain frustrated.

That's understandable. Nothing she's done this past week has worked. Each time she tried to slap a below-the-belt jab on her opponent, she got called for it and it's made her look worse. "Xerox" comment? Booed. SNL comment? Drew actual hisses from the crowd. She can't win with the media because now she has the "liberal" and "conservative" msm out against her.

Our tip of the hat tonight to Russert, who made the CNN gang look like rank amateurs by comparison.

That Austin debate? Pretty lame outing by the reporters and Campbell Brown. Tonight? This is more like what political journalism should be. Tim hit it out of the park, and beat up on both candidates. You might notice that he eventually got them to shut up with rapid-fire questions to which neither candidate had good answers and then cut them off when they failed to answer the questions directly. Neither candidate looked like they were ready for the hardball treatment tonight.

And, yes, one of us IS partial to NBC.

However, Hillary loses this one. Online votes in several places say so, commentary rightly says so early this morning. As the Huffington Post writes, "Hillary's Ignominious End" - OK, that's close to a quote, but more likely a paraphrase.

We're actually sad, because we agree with that assessment. However, we're also excited because we've been listening to Obama, and reading his books, and we don't understand where people don't think he has any substance - we've seen quite a lot, and it's a substance that would seem to yield a formula that could actually unite the country. I know, sounds like we've taking a few sips of the "Koolaid" - but it's true. He has some fantastic ideas.

And remember, he's been selling hope when no one else has, and everyone wants to have hope. McCain has been selling more time in Iraq, more screwed up tax cuts for the rich, and Hillary has been too busy calling anyone who supports Obama a fool and other unkind things.

A couple of observations.

So far, he's still the only one selling hope. We again bring up Reagan, whom we detest. But it was hard to resist his promise of "morning in america" during the early 80s. We think the nation needs that from time-to-time to stay young.

Also, we've noticed that most recent winning campaigns have picked a winning storyline and stuck to it -- Clinton, "It's the economy, STUPID!" - Bush, "He's dumb, but getting better, and you'd rather have a beer with him than with Al" - etc and so on and so forth, if you're old enough to remember back to World War II, nearly every winning election came up with a storyline that the nation wanted and needed to hear, something worth watching. Obama truly has that now, and nothing Hillary has done has managed to dent that, whether you like her or not.

Tonight wasn't a good night for her. We sincerely hope she has better ones in the future.

...VIA

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Labels: Debate, Elections, Hillary, Obama