I love the concept of pols ordering a military officer to produce a victory on time. This incident just shows how far out of touch the Republicans are with reality.

And, while I'm at it, if the Republicans want "victory by Labor Day," then what's their beef with the Democrats' plan to pull out about six months later?

We have Gen. Petraeus meetingwith the Republican caucus on Iraq AND today Barack Obama drops this gem:

-If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday.-

So Sen. Obama is tossing aside the House and Senate's fubding bill as an empty gesture. How on earth can the Democrats in congess expect to battle the President on this when on of their most public (and ambitious) members has already folded? Incredible. Sen. Obamam you WON'T be president.

Meanwhile the Republican are doing what they do best. And in the end they'll own this issue. They'll look like the party of strength and the Democrats will look weak and spineless.

Thank you Sen. Obama.

Andrea Mitchell has told lies about Joe Wilson, lies about Valerie Plame, lies about Scooter Libby and the American people wanting him pardoned.

She's basically lied her way through every important story since I started paying attention.

At this point, if Andrea Mitchell says something, I'm assuming the opposite is true.

Joan raises some interesting questions; but considering the source, why get all excited?

Andrea Mitchell, after serving as a loyal stenographer for so long, may be displaying a long-suppressed urge to start behaving like a real journalist who does real investigations to uncover real scoops. We'll see. If this report on Gen. Petraeus' briefing only the Republican caucus is true, it represents a new nadir of politicization of institutions by this Republican regime.

On a somewhat related note, today the Rabid Right started going after CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware big time. Ware's thorough public undressing of Senator McCain last week seems to have provoked Karl Rove's stormtroopers, or perhaps McCain's campaign staff, to react with fury. They seem to be trying to mount pressure on CNN to fire Ware, no doubt to eliminate his reporting of inconvenient truths from Baghdad. Here is the link to the Right's Master-Blaster, Drudge:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

It is really insulting and disrespectful that the Bush administration believes that the only Americans that they represent are Republican Americans. Never mind that the Democrats won in the last election.

This is just another example that this is a government by the Republicans, for the Republicans and with the Republicans.

But they will gladly let the poor and middle class democrats pay increased taxes for lower levels of benefits.

Yuk Yuk ...

I haven't decided which Democratic candidate for president that I am going to support yet. Barack Obama writes well and I like some of his ideas but more and more he is sounding like Republican-lite democrats. What are his accomplishments in the Senate? In short, I would like to see him have a resume of experience in terms of legislative accomplishments. So far, I can't see that he has any political or management skills but he definitely is charming and a new face. For now that is all he is.

But he really goofed big-time, when he said that said that the Democratic efforts in the House and the Senate on the Iraq War was much ado about nothing. That was really dumb. Even someone inexperienced should have known better than that.

Joan, I'm thinking of investing in a whole bank of digital video recorders and buying or renting data storage by the terrabyte just so I can watch how the cable and broadcast networks keep shifting to meet the popular consensus.

Keith Olbermann said it best a while ago with something like this, "MSNBC doesn't care what I say on the air as long as it's making them money."

I believe that's the way it is at CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC and the rest. I don't believe General Electric, News Corp and Viacom are in some vast conspiracy to promote the Republican agenda, I believe that they simply want to make money. The producers craft shows that lag American public opinion by a safe enough margin that they pick up the Early Adopters without offending the Late Majority.

Matthews and Joe Scarborough are two prominent examples of my theory. In the run-up to the war they were selling war. It's what the majority American people wanted to hear.

Now the majority of the American people are clearly against continuing this mess without end, and the broadcast producers are beginning to go with the vox populi.

I came of age in the days of Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley and before them, Edward R. Murrow. They didn't shift positions because the marketing department came to them and told them which way to go.

But I guess I'm officially a geezer now because I still think that's what news is. It's not infotainment.

It's not a government conspiracy to control what Americans are allowed to see. It's just a bunch of corporate suits who focus-group the product, which is "news" and try to maximize the advertising dollar.

In some ways, that's even worse than a conspiracy.

Anyway, I would like to see you on the Sunday morning gab fests. I think you would be a formidable guest. As long as America is being marketed a progressive product now, Salon should be front and center.

I stopped reading the article at the third paragraph when I saw the words: "Equally interesting, if true, is the news..."

I'm much more interested in who, what, when, where and why ; with sources and not the "if true" and "people say" and "rumors are" types of articles.

Salon usually does much better than this.

I expect nothing of these people. They are so insulated from the real world that they don't even see the obvious dilemma with the meeting or the "dead line" the Republican caucus has set.

The DC Press marries these people. They date these people. They hang out and go on vacation with these people.

Maybe the worse thing that ever happened is Woodward and Carl Bernstein becoming rock stars after Watergate. It changed, oddly, how reporters and the people they cover interact. Then throw television journalism's lack of standards and the massive consolidation of the media and you are left with a corporate media with no spine or bite.

I watched the film Network on Friday night, and it is astounding how prophetic that movie was.