Happy Hour Roundup
* White House budget director Peter Orszag: Sending 40,000 troops to Afghanistan could cost $40 billion. Appears to be the White House’s first public forcast of cost.
* A decision on Afghanistan is still at least two weeks away, and White House aides are making no apologies.
* MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, on the differences over Afghanistan between U.S. Ambassador Eikenberry and General Stanley McChrystal:
In other words, the President’s handpicked top military man in the war zone is now being contradicted by the president’s top diplomat in the country. The two men, in fact, have disagreed in the past when McChrystal reported to Eikenberry. Clearly, say most experts, this is not a sustainable situation.
* David Petraeus mum on whether he agrees with the pacing of Obama’s Afghan decisionmaking, Sam Stein reports.
* Reporter looks into Obama’s eyes amid the tombstones, comes away convinced that Obama “now carries the heavy burden of command.”
* Obama calls for thorough review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooter. Worth a quick read.
* Interesting point from Dave Weigel on how we’ve casually accepted and internalized the idea that Senate filibuster abuse is normal and unavoidable.
* Chris Dodd, be very afraid. Uber-spoiler Ralph Nader has you in his sights.
* Markos Moulitsas keeps banging the drum: The problem is not Republican obstructionism. It’s Democratic obstructionism.
* Democratic party I.D. edges up again.
* The Cook Political Report (sub. only) says that a surprising 38 Dems in Republican-leaning seats voted for the health care bill, suggesting real Dem vulnerability. However, Cook Report adds an interesting point I haven’t seen discussed much elsewhere: Health care simply may not dominate the national debate next fall.
* Think you know something about politics? Take our WhoRunsGov quizzes. I will not be sharing my results with you.
* And here’s today’s amusing installment in the Marsha Blackburn chronicles.
Got anything else?
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
“and White House aides are making no apologies.”
Good. The White House doesn’t owe any.
“”"In other words, the President’s handpicked top military man in the war zone is now being contradicted by the president’s top diplomat in the country. The two men, in fact, have disagreed in the past when McChrystal reported to Eikenberry. Clearly, say most experts, this is not a sustainable situation.”"”
This NEEDS TO BE EXPLORED FURTHER.
After the news broke last night I can’t remember if it was still on Rachel’s show (I think it was) but they had a discussion that revealed some interesting info that I hadn’t known.
The gist of which is:
There is a “cadre” (that was the term they used) of West Point grads who believe in the COIN operation. Among them includes: Petraus, Odierno, McChrystal. And
Eikenberry has frequently disagreed with that COIN CADRE over the years.
In other words, this is NOT a new battle. This is more fall-out from a group of West Point grad from the mid-70s who have conflicting ideologies on military strategy.
Something like that. Forgive me if the facts are wrong.
But this is a story that needs to be told.
fascinating, Ethan, thanks. Not sure how one would report that out but if it’s a deeper-running schism it’s worth looking into.
Ya-ya, definitely, nice. That was one of I guess 3 tidbits that emerged right around 9pm last night (rejecting the 4 options, Eikenberry’s cable, and I guess that little bit of backstory on Eikenberry/COIN).
I watched Rachel last night as well Ethan and there’s been quite a bit of follow up in various places today. I wasn’t aware of the rift between McChrystal and Eikenberry until now. I guess Andrea Mitchell was also discussing it somewhere today. I’ll go search for the link.
On a less substantial front,Odom, one of the original Tea Party organizers, is rejoining the Republican Party. It’s at least a little bit interesting.
“Nevertheless, Odom wrote in his blog Tuesday, “I know many of my fellow Tea Party activists are going to hate me for this, but it’s time to face reality. The Republican Party must be our vessel in 2010,” adding later, “As a libertarian who voted for Bob Barr in 2008, I find it very difficult to state this in a public manner, but I will now be joining the Republican Party.”
“Though Odom has no intention of supporting the current crop of Republicans (and proudly asserts that he will work to defeat many of them), he is making his 2010 stand from within the Republican Party, “Love or hate the Republican Party, it’s our only vessel in the short term. We either unify through it and make a stand strong enough to stop this madness in government, or we fracture over third party efforts and meet uncertain political demise.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/tempest-in-a-teabag-tea-p_b_354649.html
Greg,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#33872027
Sy Hersh
2:19 in: “West Point Mafia”
Yowza!
Sy Hersh was my childhood baseball coach. More on that some other time
Haha. Random. I guess he’s a better reporter than coach!
Greg,
I know congressional republicans don’t like HCR (except CAO) but why does everyone assume that translates out to every republican in the country? I don’t believe insurance companies deny coverage only to democrats, or raise premiums only on democrats or bankrupt only democrats when they get a serious illness.
Charlie Cook may believe HCR won’t dominate the fall elections but it might be because it turns out HCR is not the anti-christ.
Les Leopold does a pretty scathing commentary on a NYTimes article this morning titled “American Wages out of Balance”.
“But blaming workers for their own unemployment is only possible if you adopt the deep logic of the Billionaire Bailout Society. In that world, financiers can do no wrong. In that world they deserve what they earn, because they earn it. In that world, wealth equals value, value equal wealth. By definition the super-rich are the most valuable among us. If their fantasy finance games eventually crash the entire system, we bail them out. Sure, they may have sent tens of millions to the unemployment lines, but that can’t be helped. Wall Street must be free to innovate and to earn their rapacious profits and bonuses. So under this logic, when unemployment skyrockets, like now, you blame workers for being overpaid. You see, the markets will resume job creation if they are free to adjust. We don’t want downwardly sticky wages caused by worker resistance to wage cuts. After all, wage cuts are for their own good and for the good of the unemployed. They must sacrifice for the good of their country.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/new-york-times-blames-wor_b_355117.html
Gates and James Jones are a couple of other interesting pieces to the puzzle.
POLITICO Breaking News:
—————————————————–
President Barack Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan will include a plan for “how we’re going to get folks out” after a secure environment can be passed to the Afghan government, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday: “We have been there for eight years. And we’re not going to be there forever.”
I think someone in the media forgot to inform Peter Orzag that wars are free. The Washington Post better explain to him that magic fairies pay for them.
And wow, that $40 billion maps out to a million dollars per troop. And I’m supposed to believe we can’t afford healthcare? We can spend a MILLION DOLLARS PER TROOP in Afghanistan.
Not to mention, that maps out to $1,000 per Afghani person. In a country that has a GDP per capita of $700. We are doing something very, very wrong here.
OMFG!!! Hahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RNC insurance plan covers abortion
The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion – a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.”
Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
“The current policy has been in effect since 1991….
FULL-BORE HYPOCRISY SINCE 1991….. wow.
anonymous…Yes very, very wrong indeed.
I’m also curious as to how Orzag arrived at the 40 billion. Is he just factoring in the actual cost of transportation…pay/benefits..housing..food..the normal costs…or does he also calculate the long term cost in terms of the GI bill…the number of poor men and women who will return with post tramautic stress or some severely debilitating injury…of course when the Repubs are in power you don’t have to worry about such nonsense because they support the troops only while they are in the field…screw them when they return to civilian life…and the story that hasn’t been discussed much today…
That of the absolute scumbag Oklahoma Senator Tom Cogburn..who single handedly is holding up legislation for additional Veterans benefits…that would among other things enable caregivers to take care of wounded Vets. His excuse..it must be paid for up front…something he didn’t insist on when HE VOTED TO SEND THE POOR GUYS INTO THE BATTLEFIELD. This man is a physician and one of the lowest forms of life in our nation right now.
If we send thousands more Troops to Afghanistan, we are going to be stuck there for years to come, until the public gets sick of the whole thing, and kicks out the President who escalated the whole thing, and got us into a hopeless quagmire.
As for the cost estimates; that forty billion is a joke. Once we have more than a hundred thousand troops there, we will have at least that many Mercenary Contractors there as well, just like we have in Iraq.
Never forget the small price tag that the Pentagon put on what Bush’s Iraq Lunacy would cost, and how much it ended up costing.
If we escalate, then we will not withdraw, after having failed to solve anything, with at least a trillion dollars having been spent.
We need only twenty thousand troops there, in the Kabul region, so that we can train up some Afghans, and have a base from which to launch strikes against the leadership in Pakistan, and in Taliban strongholds.
How come we have to have at least 100,000 Troops in Afghanistan, when the bad guys we want to take out are in Pakistan? Can we get real here for a moment. We are talking about nation building in a place that is not even at fourteenth century standards, and has a Annual GDP of less than one billion dollars. We already have spent 300 billion there, and it is in worse shape now, than before we spent all that money.
I know you guys are discussing heady issues and we should because it’s so important, and I am glad Obama is taking his time to reconsider everything with an exit strategy. But, I couldn’t resist this Chuck Norris interview over at Fox. “Black Helicopters” anyone?
What had him all worked up was Obama’s pending trip to Copenhagen to help negotiate a global-warming treaty:
Norris: I really think he’s going over there to try to create a one world order. And I think –
Cavuto: Well, what’s your big worry?
Norris: My big worry is the fact is that we, as a nation, if we start having to be, ah, obligated to other countries. Like — in this conference, they’re going to try to take our money and send it to third-world countries, because we spend so much oil, and so other countries have suffered, and they want to give our money to these, uh, third world countries.
Neil, we have people here who are starving in our own country. I — you know, my foundation, I have families who are making nine thousand dollars a year — the kids that I’m teaching. Why aren’t we trying to help the poverty in our own country?
Nevermind, of course, that we have this thing called to Aid to Families With Dependent Children and a host of other poverty-fighting programs — aka “welfare” — that work reasonably well in attacking poverty in the USA. Except that funding for these programs keeps getting cut by right-wing anti-tax nutcases who think like Chuck Norris.
No, what really is bothering Chuck is that looming New World Order. This is also why he doesn’t believe in global warming: “I don’t believe it for a second. I think it’s a big con game that they’re doing.”
And if Obama indeed hands over our “sovereignty”?
Who knows what’s going to happen. God forbid this happens in our country. Our country as we know it now will no longer exist, Neil, that’s the whole thing right there.
A little later, he brought up health-care reform as a signal event in the New World Order takeover:
Norris: I’ll tell you what, the thing that worries me the most is this health-care bill. And why I’m scared about it — it’s not about the health care. It’s about the provisions that are in that bill.
One, is that if this thing passes, the government will have the right to come into our home and regulate how we raise our children. I found that in the bill.
Cavuto, to his credit, wasn’t buying: “I don’t believe that.”
Hate to sound shrill, but if Andrea Mitchell scooped everyone on the McChrystal-Eikenberry feud, then someone hasn’t been paying very close attention. Outside the blogs all of us here probably read, and maybe 10 or 15 minutes on Rachel’s show, it’s just crickets out there. Without Sy Hersh (baseball coach and crack reporter) we wouldn’t know what the hell was going on. For God’s sake give Sy Dobbs’s seat!
“I found that in the bill.”
Oy gevalt, Imsinca.
That’s a mental image I never thought I’d have:
CHUCK NORRIS spending hour after hour pouring over health care legislation looking for a one world order. Can just see him in his study, patchwork jacket, smoking a pipe, worried about poor people going hungry…
Just never occurred to me ’s all.
Re: Nader & Dodd.
CT is one of the few states w/fusion voting, which is typically a buffer against spoiler (i.e. 3rd parties can cross-endorse). But 3rd parties are a little more vibrant in these states, and CT voters are used to seeing them. Any indication of a challenger running on a far-right party that could split the vote 4 ways?
When Neil Cavuto isn’t buying I’d say Norris has finally gone way way off the deep end, after teetering on the edge for years.
An excerpt from “Getting off the Bandwagon”, a recovering Conservative.
“One by one I saw the flaws in conservative orthodoxy: attempting to fight terrorism with torture, which only aided our enemies’ propaganda efforts and thus created more terrorists; seeking to liberalize the Muslim world while curtailing rights for gay people at home; criticizing public schools for lackluster results and therefore cutting funds further; disdaining the weak while never analyzing why they are weak; always seeing the effect but never the cause, which on a mass scale perpetuates the effect.
The 2008 financial crash further proved to me the necessity of an economic safety net within the market system; tying health insurance to employment suddenly made no sense, for example, when millions of people lost their jobs due to conditions beyond their control. Capitalism with a few safety pads — or a condom, I suppose, since the recession has fvcked us all — is a far cry from a Marxian worker’s paradise.”
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/getting-off-the-bandwagon-ii.html#more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_re_us/us_mosque_forfeiture/print
“NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors took steps Thursday to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.
In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court against the Alavi Foundation, seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets.
The assets include bank accounts; Islamic centers consisting of schools and mosques in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston; more than 100 acres in Virginia; and a 36-story glass office tower in New York.
Confiscating the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and trying to build a nuclear bomb.”
KEEP AN EYE ON THIS ONE.
ALBANY, N.Y. – The special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_re_us/us_ny_special_election
“he routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. The final outcome rests on uncounted absentee ballots, and more than 10,000 were sent out.
The county Boards of Election are still recanvassing votes and it could be the end of November before a final count is certified. If the count overturns the election, Owens could be removed from office.
The Hoffman campaign conceded when it learned it had a narrow edge in Oswego County — considered the Conservative candidate’s base — and after campaign workers learned Owens led by 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the returns in.”
“”On election night we were kind of stunned — and that’s kind of why we conceded — how poorly we did in Oswego,” Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan said. “Then we found out a few days later that the numbers were narrowing because of reporting problems.”
Initially Hoffman was reported to have a 500-vote lead in Oswego County, but recanvassing indicates he actually won there by 1,748 votes: 12,748 to 11,000.
“Who knows? We may have a shot,” Ryan said.”
Oh man Liam, I could have gone all night without hearing the NY23 news, horrible. Talk about getting re-energized. It’s wierd too because there were a couple of stories today about the Tea Party. One was a lawsuit between the Tea Party Express and the Tea Party Patriots and the other about the guy who sort of started the whole thing jumping off the train and going back to the Republican Party.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Owens.
Trusting military briefings is probably imprudent… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/massive-media-fail-female_b_355600.html
Here’s a guy that bears watching, I may have to throw a tiny bit of money to his campaign.
“Democrats who may be worried about the 2010 congressional races have a long shot hero this Veterans’ Day in a most unlikely place: Rush Limbaugh’s home congressional district, the 8th District of Missouri.
Sowers has deep roots in the area. He was born and raised in Rolla, the town that gave us the Carnahan family, the Kennedys of Missouri. Sowers’ grandfather founded the town’s local newspaper during World War Two. Sowers led the Army ROTC at Duke, earned a Master’s at the London School of Economics and taught at West Point. I first met him there, and have followed him with interest since. Now that he’s left the Army he’s been recruited once more. This time to run for Congress.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/a-warrior-on-a-mission-in_b_353240.html
Military briefings or media Bernie, take your pick. Remember Bubble Boy?
” A decision on Afghanistan is still at least two weeks away, and White House aides are making no apologies.”
Why would they make apologies? After all, there is nothing wrong with looking weak, ignoring the advice of your top generals, not giving the troops the support they need in Afghanistan and fiddling while Kabul burns. I expect the “president” will soon start wearing cardigans, whilst he tells stories about scary rabbits and uses the word “malaise” when describing the domestic situation here in the United States.
PS Anyone here who thinks Andrew Sullivan is or was ever a conservative is as idiotic as those who think I am not going to filibuster the health care bill.
“I watched Rachel last night as well Ethan…”
I didn’t know half of her audience frequented this blog.
Joe, you need to read the links before commenting, the author of “Getting off the Bandwagon” is Marty Beckerman, Sully was just commenting on it.
Bob Cesca really knows how to cut right to the heart of the matter. Here he is discussing the “real” Joe Lieberman.
“He’s admired by neither the left nor the right. He’s that weasely kid from recess who would constantly pit one clique of friends against the other — making friends with neither.
Meanwhile, every second that Lieberman performs this infuriating filibuster routine is another second without reform. Every second spent ameliorating the Lieberman filibuster — massaging his ego with kid gloves and determining exactly what it is he wants — is another second without reform. Instead of a comprehensive health care bill, we’re getting a lot of unnecessary drama circulating around Joe Lieberman’s masturbatory ego trip. He wins some press attention and lots of urgent calls from the White House and Harry Reid’s office, while the rest of us are jammed with the medical bills.
All in all, there’s no other way to peg Lieberman other than as a desperate hack who will thoughtlessly hurl thousands of Americans overboard for the sake of his unquenchable lust for attention, and his childish, vengeful hobby of tweaking the left.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/joe-lieberman-filibusters_b_355870.html
Love that “recovering Republican”/”recovering Conservative” piece from Sully.
Everyone should go read it — rather than taking it at face value. This Marty Beckerman “fellow” — as your idol Bernie would say — says he entered college in 2001 as a “passionate liberal.” Then bowed to peer pressure at drunken parties to become Republican and conservative.
Now, surprise, he sees the light of what a narrow-minded, hateful jerk he was as a conservative Republican. Yeah, he was some “conservative” alright. A kid in his mid-20s who has undergone two radical ideological reversals, largely while alcohol soaked. I’m sure he studied a lot of Burke and Kirk and had a deeply rooted, philosophically grounded conservative world view during those fleeting, drunken years.
There were several things interesting in the Democratic I.D. graph, but one thing that really stuck out is that as you went down the list week by week, there was always one number in the Republican column that was quite a bit higher than any of the others. Tracing it back it was invariably from the Rasmussen survey. What is with those people? If they don’t give accurate numbers, then the people who depend on them are going to foul up. Are they claiming that everyone else is wrong?
via dkos
“Flexing newfound muscle as consumer protector, the Federal Reserve on Thursday banned ATM and debit card overdraft fees unless customers have opted to pay to ensure that balance-busting transactions go through.
The new rules, which take effect July 1, mean that if you don’t have overdraft protection, any debit card purchase or ATM cash withdrawal will be rejected if it exceeds the amount of money in your account.
And if you do want overdraft protection, your bank will have to give you a notice explaining the service and its fees before you can accept it.
…
Such fees and other service charges on bank-deposit accounts have been an increasing profit center for banks in recent years, totaling $21.5 billion (holy cow)in the first six months of this year, nearly as much as the total for all of 1999, the FDIC said.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bank-fees13-2009nov13,0,290841.story
Interesting point from Dave Weigel on how we’ve casually accepted and internalized the idea that Senate filibuster abuse is normal and unavoidable.
I’m delighted that I’m not the only one who hates the abuse!
Right winger “quarterback” mocks a former right winger that found their conscience: “Now, surprise, he sees the light of what a narrow-minded, hateful jerk he was as a conservative Republican.”
Despite some of the harsh things that have been said in response to “quarterback’s” callous mendaciousness, I expect that many of the people that have interacted with right winger “quarterback” have prayed that he, and all the other right wingers, would see the light of what narrow-minded, hateful jerks he and they are as conservative Republicans.
Right wingers with compassion vote Democratic.
Imsinca said: “Military briefings or media Bernie, take your pick. Remember Bubble Boy?”
Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman and now this one. The strategy seems to be to pump out an immediate story that paints a narrative of heroism, bravery and sacrifice. The story can be total bullshitt top to bottom but that’s not important. What is important is that citizens don’t again get the idea that the US military machine (and its enormous footprint in the world) is anything other than glorious, good and necessary. A lesson the Pentagon took from the sixties and Viet Nam is that they must master the media game to control their image.
Roundup posted, all, great nugget on Obama’s skepticism of troop increase:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/the-morning-plum-11/
Bernie
I see your point. When the military does it, it’s PR, when the media does it, it’s sensationalism. Lesson: Take it all with a grain of salt.
News Ref
On the contrary, I’m the one who has seen the light, I’m done trying.
Speaking of lying to the media, and the people.
Remember when the Kuwait Ambassador’s young Niece gave testimony to congress, that she saw Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators, so that they could loot the equipment. She was presented as a teenager who had just escaped from Kuwait after having witnessed the horror, while she worked at the hospital.
Congress was not told that she was the Niece of Kuwait’s Ambassador to the US , and that she was not even in Kuwait when the invasion happened.
We just couldnt leave your website before saying that we really enjoyed the quality information you offer to your visitors… Will be back often to check up on new stuff you post!
Did you hear about the latest in mw cheats? There is some new book going around that is that promises free cheats working or some kind fo thing. I’m not sure it even works, but just in case it does… It’s here: http://ultimatemafiawarscheats.blogspot.com :/ Tell me if it does work though.
Wonderfull job! Great effort.