Not to mention stuff like the resignation of Rumsfeld and the resulting media information vacuum on who would be named his successor is the most common tactic the white house has used in the past to get the country to stop looking in a direction they don't like.

I think they just fucked up big-time and failed to launch one of their usual "weapons of mass distraction".

This seems more like one of those situations where your mom tells you to take out the trash and you tell her you were already planning on it, even though the thought never crossed your mind.

so, who should be hanged first? joking.

nice title reaper. thats a pretty raunchy and subtle pun.

Goody! Rum-Dumb is out and Bush fucked it up as to the mishandling of it.
Who's next? ( waiting with baited breath).

Bush lies more often than he tells the truth. This does not surprise me.

I totally didn't get the claim that went like this:

"See? Bush stole the media cycle from the democrats by firing Rummy NOW! It's genius! Political genius!"

Seriously, people have actually been arguing that. On the intarwebs.

I just...

I have no words.

So? This is the kind of lie you expect from a politician. It's a strategic lie. A calculation.

The single dumbest thing Jimmy Carter ever did as President was to say, "I will never lie to you." Not being able to spin a story or get your version of the truth out there effectively keeps you from getting the job done.

Lies are lies, whether they are strategic or not. Not all politicians have to lie to get the job done.

I believe that the Iranians kept Jimmy Carter from doing his job.

That's pretty naive. All politicians lie sometimes. Some more than others, but they all do. It's part of the game.

considering how much pandering Bush and the GOP have done to the conservative and ultra-conservative fringe of their party, I find it really unlikely that Bush would have fired Rumsfeld prior to midterm elections, since he didnt see the Foley thing or the Evangeical meltdown thing or really the fallout of the Abramoff thing then.

If anything, the GOP is out because of massive unchecked spending that was giving Bush a carte blanche check on an unpopular war where the opposition was written off by Bush and the inner circle as a minority.

Even Gates knows Iraq is untenable as a democracy, his Iraq Study Report even says so, there is no exit strategy that will leave Iraq a democracy without the US propping it us. Given how Hussein's death will cause fighting and instability for years to come, there's a good argument that he shouldve left the Iraq powderkeg to the UN especially given how now N. Korea is in the nuclear club and Japan will likely follow since ICBMs from North Korea are a stones throw from there and China failed as a mediator, how not shocking.

Japan builing a nuclear weapon is highly un-likely

Obviously, Japan is anti-nuke. They do have the capability though. It's even against their constitution to build up their military for anything but defense. There was a push to admend it, but it didn't pass. Many Japanese aren't far removed from the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Even American warplanes in Japan removed the word 'Nuclear' from the Nuclear Consent panel.

I love tha pic...

The Nuclear Consent Panel is the small panel circled in the bottom left corner. Sorry for it not being clear, but this is the only picture I can find that shows it.

(I had to flip the picture so it would show up. It's actually on the right side.)