I think bush & his pals are DARING us to stop them.

[Philosoraptor]

When a whole nation votes against a war, and the president disregards that nation's votes, then escalates the war, that president is daring his own people to stop him. He in his own little brain thinks that we'll swallow any bullshit he throws at us and like it. And why not, no one has even made the slightest attempt to stop him.

These men are brinksmen. They will take this all the way to the brink, and beyond, if allowed to, and that's exactly what's occurring here, they are being allowed to.

This kind of defiance is psychotic, dictatorial, baronial, royal in it's scope. This isn't a president, this is a king, spitting on his serfs beyond the moat.

I really do think that these men will incite a revolution with their current mindset that totally ignores the will of the people.

They obviously don't think we have revolution in us, they obviously think we are all pushovers and blowhards. They may just find out the hard way that we outnumber them a million to one.

[Az]

1. The mindset that got him there would seem to require it

I call it the Horton Hears a Who scenario. Bush rode into town on the idea of integrity (stop laughing that was their sales pitch) and standing behind what you say. They beat Kerry down accusing him of flip flopping and other things that indicate actual thought patterns. So the idea of backing down from something he swore he was going to do would seem to be beyond his ability.

In this case it would seem that the only way out for him is at the actions of others. This works out politically for him in some ways. If the Dems cut him off they take on the burden of responsibility. He can always maintain that he had a plan and it would work. As soon as we rein him in the NeoCons can howl for another decade about how liberals and progressives are the enemies of freedom.

[WritersBlock]

2. Yup. Agreed.

I was thinking of the phrase "thumbing his nose" at the voters, but I like the way you put it - this is a king, spitting on his serfs.

I have no doubt that they won't go quietly, and they don't care what damage they do to the country and the world in the process. They've proven that enough times already.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. "they do to the country and the world in the process"

JUST LIKE NAZIS!

[radfringe]

4. had similar thought

which prompted some further thinking ---

assume that bush sends in the additional troops (news reports put it at 20,000, but I've seen a couple of articles saying it may be 40,000)...

two possible FLASH POINTS for nationwide call for IMPEACHMENT:

--the announcement of sending in the additional troops (with no plan)

--a couple months after the "surge" / "escalation" (or as I like to call it VIAGRA-ification) and conditions in Iraq either stay the same or get worse

While I don't think we will support the VIAGRA-ification, I don't think it will be enough of a flash point for a nation-wide surge in calls for impeachment. I think that will happen when conditions do not change or grow worse.

Also, consider the frequency of bush's "special announcements" and press conferences since Nov. 7, toss in his Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. He knows he's on his last legs.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Yes that has been their game plan since 11/5.

Force the congress to support More War and then use that against them in 08. Do we have the spine to say no? Stay tuned.

[salin]

6. it worked for them, before it stopped working for them

they just haven't chosen to 'get' that it doesn't work. Remember last September - glorify and hype the anniversary of 911 - push two (unpopular) bushco pieces of legislation framed as "national security" from the "national security party" (the torture bill to let the CIA do as they please; and the legitimize the NSA domestic spying efforts). They were ready to roll out the whole storyline for the elections. And more and more problems in IRaq kept popping into the news, more scandals from Congress emerged, and a predator-congressman came into the public view. Pfffft.

Will they get "it" in time to save themselves and their party? That game plan is now viewed quite cynically by growing (already majority proportion) portions of the population.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Well the real question is will the congress have the courage

to cut funding and force the issue. I say that unfortunately they won't.

[salin]

11. The problem with a quagmire

is that it is very hard from which to extricate - esp if those at the top (admin) has no intention of even trying to 'drawdown'. On this front, I honestly do not envy the dems in Congress - hard to defund without feeling that one might be jeopardizing the safety of those, at no choice of their own, who have been sent to fight on the ground. While it (defunding) may be the right thing to do, it is also a very, legitimately imo, *hard* thing to do.

[bigtree]

8. Bush said as much

it's just basic govt. 101. In our system, Bush is accountable to the people through Congress. If we continue to vote him and his kind in, it's an invitation to them to muckrake whatever f----edup way they will. If Congress leaves him in place and comfortable, they give him their tacit approval for whatever he does thereafter.

[KharmaTrain]

9. The "Clinton" Strategy

Ya wonder where Rove's been lately? He's been charged with fixing asshat's "legacy". My bets are these goons think they can bolster numbnutz's flat-lined popularity ratings by taking a page from Clinton's book. boosh will become the "hero" standing up to that evil "big spending Congress"...loaded with all those traitors, commies, homo-sexuals and other degenerates.

Damn right they want confrontation. Whatever boooosh really wants, he'll issue a signing statement and bypass Congress. What he doesn't want he'll either veto or play footsie with. The game is to make Democrats look either inept or stubborn or both and his assholiness as some martyr to an electoral freak of nature last November.

These asshats still don't believe the results of last November. It's gonna take another ass-kicking in '08 to deliver the message...and I'll gladly help when that time comes. Fortunately booooosh is doing all he can to take his corrupt party down with him.

[global1]

10. If He Is Stopped - He Can Blame Whatever Bad That Happens Afterwards.....

on those that stop him (he wins). If he is not stopped and the situation gets better - he says he was right-(he wins). If he is not stopped and the situtation gets worse - he can say that the Dems backed his plan and put them in the same place they were when this whole thing started (i.e., for the war or against the war issues)- (he wins again).

This is a Rove move to help him spin this debacle.

Hey - notice we haven't heard nor seen much of Rove lately? He's still working for * isn't he?

Is Negroponte becoming Dep SOS because Condi is going to throw her hat into the Rep race for '08? A nice way to get her out of the picture.

[Az]

12. Once the Dems won the house and senate Bush was freed

There was talk amongst the repugs that 08 would be easier if they were coming from a position of minority. The situation we are in right now is called a poison pill. All Bush has to do is stay the course and he can lay the blame for all the problems of the next two years on the Dems backs. He only loses if he bends. Even impeachment places everything on our backs as we will then not even have George to point to for the troubles of the next two years.

The spin that is going to come is that everything that goes wrong is the Dems fault. And that includes the stuff that happened on the repukes watch. Such is the stuff of spin and marketting.

[salin]

14. the extreme levels of spin... sorta like the boy calling wolf...

I think much of the public is growing weary of the GOP spin/lies and are cynical. For at least a short period of time (our collective memories are short, afterall) I think the public will be somewhat immune to the bs the right might try to spin as "Dems Fault."

[Virginia Dare]

13. They are trying very hard to provoke a showdown with Iran...

that is the bottom line. They are twisted and delusional, and no amount of rational thought could penetrate their warped world right now.

[Ioo]

15. I agree, they are going to force us to stand up to them

They are going to tell the Dems to go stick it, and are going to force us to impeach or fold.

[tiptoe]

16. This is why investigations into 9/11 and the basis for "war" are necessary, first:

Not only to educate the American people about the basis for war in premeditated lies (e.g. DSM: "intelligence to fit the policy") and the establishment of the illegality of the intervention in Iraq as one of aggression, but also to provide Supreme Court justices with "added considerations" should *Co eventually try to use the "Unitary Executive" card (Alito) as precedent-setting underpinning for some legal defense that the POTUS can do anything he wants (..."in times of war"...or some other gross application of the gross concept...given my gross understanding of the concept).

The more facts and "truth" out in the open, the more pressure from the public (* currently at 30% approval, Cheney 18%) and expert opinion, the possibilities increase for either impeachment-and-conviction (some Repub Senators might be swayed...have to test the waters via investigation to find out) or resignation of *Co cabal members (including Cheney, perhaps with "encouragement" from Fitzgerald proceedings).

...
On the fifth anniversary of [the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States], President Bush said he is often asked why America invaded Iraq if ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was not responsible for them.

"The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat," he said. "My administration, the Congress, and the United Nations saw the threat - and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

President Bush acknowledges Saddam had no connection to the September 11th terror attacks. But a Zogby public opinion poll taken five years later shows 46 percent of surveyed American voters continue to believe that he did. More than a third believe the Iraq war was justified retribution for Saddam's purported involvement.
...
Iraqi casualties in the war are estimated between 50,000-650,000 dead. President Bush disputes the higher figure as unbelievable. It was reached by statistical sampling conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
...
Number of US Deaths in Iraq Surpass 9/11 Fatalities

[annabanana]

17. I fear you are right.

There is nothing of comity in them. The concepts of consensus and compromise are anathemas to them. They are imperialists to the bone. Reason is weakness, facts are irrelevant. This is why attempts at working with them will fail. Their very working definition of "bipartisanship" is the polar opposite of the meaning that rational, reasonable people give to it.

They have to be repudiated clearly, completely, and loudly or they will continue to steamroller over the Will of the People, and our Country will never be "ours" again.

edit: nominated