Real Kato Blog: Bush: No Early Pullout

Okay, I was just looking for an excuse to use that headline.

Ah, let's see, what's going on in the world of politics these days...

After 21 Marines were killed in three days, Bush went bravely to show his support for the troops, by giving a speech in a veritable hotbed of insurgent activity: Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Wow! That's almost as good as parachuting onto an aircraft carrier!

Bush steadfastly refused to set a timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq, insisting that "the enemy would adjust their tactics". But he also said he has a "strategy for success" in Iraq, where we would pull our troops out once Iraqi forces were properly trained and able to fight on their own.

At this point I started to think: is the training of Iraqi troops dependent on enemy tactics?

See, if it were just necessary to train the Iraqi troops, couldn't we do that on a fixed timetable, regardless of how many roadside bombs the insurgents used?

If I had the chance to pose this question to Bush in person, I would, because I would want to see smoke start coming out of his ears.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law today, over the objections of many Republicans as well as most Democrats.

I'm not sure anyone has a crystal ball that will show what exactly will come of CAFTA, but my guess is: lost manufacturing jobs in the United States; damage to the U.S. textile and agricultural industries; higher profits for American manufacturing companies; exploitation of foreign workers; and spoilage of the environment in other countries (from increased industrialization). But hey, one out of five is pretty good, right?

It's likely that the White House will turn over some documents about SCOTUS nominee John G. Roberts, from his years in the office of the solicitor general. At first they tried to claim attorney-client privilege, but it wasn't that long ago that a certain person crushed any claims of privilege for government attorneys... and that person was none other than Ken Starr, the Clinton-toppling hero to all Republicans.

What goes around, comes around.

There was an interesting article over on CNN about this today, where John Dean (a FindLaw columnist and former counsel to President Nixon) deconstructed all the White House claims.

Finally, you know just how desperate Democrats are when they start celebrating the fact that they've lost by less than a freakin' landslide. Paul Hackett lost a special congressional election in Ohio by just three percentage points, in an area where no Democrat in decades has won more than 40% of the vote. So yeah, that's something, but COME ON, is there no pride left in the Democratic party? We're celebrating a loss? Sheesh.

Permalink