Liveblogging The President
I really, truly, and honestly hope that you people understand the level of pain I’m going through for you. I mean, really, I can’t even listen to this guy speak anymore; it causes physical pain. I typically wait for a transcript and read that.
But I’m dedicated, and when the going gets tough, the tough bite the bullet and find a bird in the bush, or something like that. More after the jump.
Alright, longtime Comments readers know the deal, but for newcomers, here’s the deal.
-The actual liveblogging will occur in the comments section.
-Because we no longer use haloscan you will need to hit the refresh button periodically.
-We do the liveblogging in the comments section to allow for reader participation. You are free to add comments, I just ask that you keep your comments relevent. Cursing and insults are allowed, but if you go overboard, I do reserve the right to edit, delete, or ban you. Though I have a pretty high tolerance, so you should be fine.
-Spam will be quickly deleted.
I hope yall join me, particularly for this one, it’s going to be rough.
27 Responses to “Liveblogging The President”
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Blog Stuff
I’m sitting here watching CNN’s webcast coverage, and we just looked at some soldiers, and you know, I want to start off this by recognizing those soldiers, and those who have fallen in Iraq. Earlier today I did a quick post on two soldiers who had recently died after helping pen an OpEd in the New York Times.
We had the father in law and a friend leave comments, and you know, that really kind of taken a terrible news story and made it much more personal. I went and dug deeper, and… I found a family picture, and it really tore at my heart. The soldier in question left behind a beautiful wife and daughter, and you know, it really takes something like that to give you perspective in this conflict we find ourselves stuck in.
It’s become old hat to say that these young men and women are more than just statistics, but looking at pictures of faces smiling back at you, and knowing that one of those faces will never smile again, and the rest will live the rest of their lives with this scar… That’s what makes the saying true.
So, as we await the words of President Bush, I want to express my most sincere hopes and best wishes for those soldiers on the ground, and their families, and for the families of those who have fallen… I can’t feel your pain, I don’t know what you’re going through, but you have my undying respect, my deepest sympathies, and know that you are in my thoughts throughout every day.
That’s why we speak out.
More pregame show, 30 drafts
17 minutes
and a change for a bottom up change in strategy
here we go:
“We are now at such a moment”
We’ve been at that moment for the past four years, mr. President.
Note how quick he has come to bring terrorist into the game, though keep in mind, AQI only accounts for 7 % of the violence. A majority of the violence is sectarian in nature, and not as a result of our terrorist enemies.
now he is pushing the idea that for reconciliation we must have security, what he fails to mention is that even under stabilized regionis, communities have been ethnically cleansed and homogenized. Meaning that even in peace, there is not reconciliation.
next he goes to Anbar again, and he’s using that as his lead example, but what he is neglecting to mention is that Anbar was not under the stresses of sectarian violence as a result of being a primarily Sunni region.
He will most likely not offer any detailed description of how to transport the Anbar Awakening elsewhere to Iraq.
Bullshit, Anbar hasn’t made headlines! It’s been everywhere and the administration has been damn sure to make sure of that.
Again, as we do this, I’m going to remind you that AQI was the major threat there, but still remains a sliver of a minority throughout Iraq.
But he does mentio the sheik that was assassinated today, probably because of the photo op with Bush during Bush’s surpise visit there.
note the lack of data and instead subjective trends. Sectarian deaths are down, but again, allow me to remind you, this is based off of a false calculus which does not take into account IEDs as well as weird head wound location differentiations.
Trust me weird.
Ah, the Iraqi government, the same that is failing on the already terrible Oil law, as well as saw the quitting of essentially all meaningful Sunni representation.
And there’s the Iraqi army which STILL supposedly won’t be ready for at least a year or two…
Didn’t bush say that the Iraq army would be ready in Nov?
5000 troop drawdown by Christmas. See my previous post, “Not a Drawdown”. that still leaves approximately 25000 troops from the surge which still puts about a 10% increase from the norm.
Not a drawdown.
March… the next report will be delivered in March… hmm… HEY! another six months.
Gee, didn’t I predict this? And he is using the small non drawdown to try and woo the anti war crowd.
He says Iraqi leaders want to build a continuing relationship. Read: I am setting up persistent war.
More banging the drums against iran, never mind president Ahmedinajad is term limited and moderates are coming back into power, also he brings in more al Qaeda….
SHIT!
WELCOME TO THE TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY SEGMENT! This guy is unconscionable! He is making more unfounded claims about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he again uses al Qaeda. He again uses 9/11. AGAIN, he is mischaracterizing the nature of the ongoing threat in Iraq by making sure that TERRORISTS are the biggest deal.
FINALLY, he has made it clear, if we pull out of Iraq, we will suffer another 9/11!
Holy crap, and now he’s employing TMT on Iraq’s neighbors!
He reads a letter of a fallen soldier’s parents.
I will reserve my words for Bush here.
God… at least that didn’t last long.
Dem response by senator Jack Reed
Failed to provide a plan to end the war, failed to provide a good excuse to continue. nicely done.
Calls out Bush on the point of the surge and its failures. Directly contradicting the president’s assertions of progress.
He’s doing a very good job on this actually?
Senator, I truly hope that you and the rest of the Democrats in congress have the balls to pull this one off because you’re making a whole lot of sense right about now.
And that about ends it.
Quick and dirty, but given my abhorence for Bush, that’s how I like it.
Personally, I think Reed did a great job, he didn’t bandy about, he got straight to the point and communicated the concerns of the dissent clearly and easily, while Bush sought to focus primarily on TMT tactics to scare folks into finding again their support for the war in Iraq.
I think Bush’s speech marks a sad day in America, one in which the lies and rhetoric of the highest office in our land have grown to laughably obvious proportions. I only lament the fact that the speech had gone by so quick and I was not able to type fast enough to pull every word apart.
And the shameless reading of the letter. I have lost the ability to believe he is sincere when he honors the troops, and this is why. He does not read the letter written to the NYT by seven soldiers, some of whom have already passed away a mere few weeks later. He does not read the letter of an anguished mother, confused about our roll in Iraq. No, he reads the exact letter that serves his purpose, the one that is little more than Bush’s talking points.
This is not to take away from the grieving parents, or their beliefs. I am more than sure that they were sincere in their words of grief, and their words of support. I find the President’s cynical usage of that letter, however, a ploy to tug at the heartstrings of Americans, sick and perverse.
This man is not a president. He is an abomination.
Sorry for my absence but I am just disgusted. What an insult to the collective intelligence of this country. Thirty six nations are fighting along side us? Anbar a success? I think I am going to be sick.
36 nations… the math is a bit fuzzy, but I think I’ve got it. All the ‘extra’ nations are represented through the private contracts. You know, how low-wage labor is shipped in from other impoverished countries to do the jobs Iraqis won’t do. I think Bangladesh + Pakistan + Afghanistan + etc = 36 . Do you follow me? Nevermind, this is such a mess. I felt like he was reading My Pet Goat again…
I’m glad you had the fortitude to sit through this and comment KyleE, thanks. I have to keep an eye on my BP when George is on the tube.
Thanks Laura. Actually, the constant typing helped. I think if I didn’t have my hands actively engaged in typing I would have hit something. Considering I was at work, and I’m pretty sure it would have been my computer I would have hit, it’s possible I would be risking a federal offense at that point.
Will have an analysis up either before I go to bed tonight or when I wake first thing in the morning.
Thanks for doing this, Kyle. Very helpful.
I appreciate it. Stay tuned I should have more analysis here very soon.
Hah! Toldja ol’ Jerome was right.
(Hi, skdadl
)
Looking forward to the followup. I can’t be assed to do more than escape into aural solace (rinse out!)
[...] that of General David Petraeus, he was going to make his final decision on what to do in Iraq. I liveblogged the speech here, and you can catch a transcript of the speech [...]
Yeah, this guy is ridiculous.
Want to start your private office arms race right now?
I just got my own USB rocket launcher
Awsome thing.
Plug into your computer and you got a remote controlled office missile launcher with 360 degrees horizontal and 45 degree vertival rotation with a range of more than 6 meters – which gives you a coverage of 113 square meters round your workplace.
You can get the gadget here: http://tinyurl.com/2qul3c
Check out the video they have on the page.
Cheers
Marko Fando