Obviously, like almost everyone else, I've not yet read Woodward's new book, but it looks more promising and considerably more critical than his last one. Perhaps the lashing he received in the wake of his last book pricked his conscience--or at least his pride--sufficiently that we will get a much more honest and full picture of the Bush administration this time around. I just hope the media gives the book wall-to-wall coverage and that swing voters are listening.

Sorry stevio, but I can't resist commenting on your Firesign reference. They were right, at least in reference to your comment, since the character you're referring to said, "I think we're all bozos on this bus."

Ah,clem, over and out. Gotta clone. Oh, and yes, joe is a bit like having bees in your head.

who the right has been complaining about being clueless and generally lacking a strategy? And now the right wants its followers to believe the Dems sat on the information about Foley for three years (!) in anticipation of this election? Even the timeline doesn't make any sense, since it would have been better to use this as ammunition during the 2004 election when it might have affected the presidential election too.

When I try to take a purely analytical view of the statements by Rice since Woodward's book came out and the information that the meeting did in fact take place, I can't see any interpretation of the events that works in her or the Bush administration's favor.

If Woodward's depiction of the meeting is correct, then Rice is out and out lying and should be fired. The folks responsible for the coverup should also be fired, and everyone involved should be in legal jeopardy to the greatest extent possible. Nothing could be worse than knowing of a potential attack on the US (foreign or domestic) and not taking all reasonable steps to thwart it. (If I were a conspiracy theorist--which I am not--I'd see shades of PNAC's need for a Pearl Harbor incident to rally the country behind their plans for American hegemony.)

If Rice's most recent version of the meeting is correct, she has damned herself in essentially the same way she did with the August 6, 2001 PDB. She characterized that document as primarily "historical" and therefore not relevant to the possibility of an immenient attack. With respect to the July 10 meeting, she claims it was just one of many warnings that something was going on. So she's saying it was unimportant like the PDB. Too non-specific to bother doing anything about.

If she's seriously proposing this as a defense of her inaction she's damning herself as incompetent. What person in her position would be getting consistent and repeated warnings of an immenient attack on the US without taking action! Instead the repetition of the warnings seems to have habituated Rice to them, leaving them as a kind of background noise that she just tuned out.

Covering the Foley scandal is fine, but over the last two days the War Room has reached saturation on the matter. As others have pointed out, there are still important issues that are ongoing and emerging. Please make an effort to be balanced in keeping up with ongoing stories and helping us the learn more about the new ones.

At this point Salon is committing the same sin as Fox when they focus on only one item to the exclusion of others (although their exclusivity is usually to divert attention from less flattering topics for their viewership).

Al Franken had his finger on the pulse of this story years ago when he wrote "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." He has a nice evidence-based chapter (in other words based on empirical reality rather than blind faith) where he lays out his argument that Bush and most of the neocons he surrounds himself with are just poseurs. Amazing what one can deduce from facts and a bit of basic logic. Even more amazing is the fact that faith-based folks can be so easily duped (repeatedly) because they let their belief trump what their eyes and ears are telling them.

All the polling in the world means nothing if we don't get folks to the polls (leaving aside, for the moment, issues with paper-trailess electronic machines).

I urge all Democrats and progressives to be part of the get-out-the-vote effort. Work with the DNC, MoveOn.org or whatever effort you think has the greatest impact on getting folks to show up in November. As dissapointed as I'll be if we lose in a few weeks, I'll be livid if it's because folks were too apathetic to go to the polls.

Now this sorry bastard just phones it in, week after week.

--deal

Well, maybe, but I'll bet he has a high-speed connection for submitting his work for publication.

Get out the vote!

Don't rest until the last poll closes and then get ready to do it again until sanity prevails.

This just proved what I feared and expected after Bush made a big show of meeting with Pelosi and Reid and declaring his willingness to work with the democratic congress on a bipartisan basis. It was just another front, a smokescreen, to give the impression of being willing to cooperate when, in fact, he was just going to do the same things he's done before: game the system while lying about his intentions.

The democrats need to call him on this garbage loudly and often in the media so Americans are not deceived.