I'm a woman - I'm a veteran but I've never served in combat. I never supported this war because I thought it was unnecessary and knew too many people would suffer needlessly. To claim that I want us to lose just to prove Bush is wrong is typical of your ilk. Bush doesn't need help to be proven wrong. Everything he undertakes does that. You're the party of torture, death and destruction.

Winning is defined as leaving a stable democracy in place that is not a threat to the region or to us. Nothing this important is possible, unfortunately. If it was possible, Clinton would have done it. Since it's impossible and a catastrophically stupid waste of resources and human life, Bush has attempted to do it. Vietnam = lesson unlearned.

Nothing wrong with dissenting about how the war should be fought, Will makes a case that requires reflection, but you KAS want us to actually lose just to say you were right. You call me a coward if you like KAS, but I bet you my house I have served in more combat zones than you. I bet the closest you ever came to combat or to serving in the military was playing video games.

Of course, any dissent is unpatriotic. That's what will destroy this country. The further erosion of the Constitution by those of you who refuse the oath to "preserve, protect and defend it." 100 years!! Please, when cowards like Bush, Cheney, and you, et al, have to sacrifice your children and grandchildren, you'd cut and run so fast, our heads would spin. The sad fact is, there isn't going to be a stable government when we leave Iraq no matter how many people we kill or how many hundreds of billions we waste. Just another denial of reality from the zombie cultists right.

100 years does not bother them, they've been doing it for 700 already. We need to be out of Iraq and redeploying in Afghanistan, so we stop creating terrorists in Iraq and kill them in Afghanistan. Iraq is 3 countries and will NEVER have democracy. Like 7UP: never had it, never will. Afghanistan, however, is trying and could use our help. This is not 'cut and run'. Ignoring th3e real threat and willingly disregarding your generals to fight a battle that is half about a personal vendetta, that is the definition of cutting and running on personal responsibility.

Who would Jesus torture?

Bush is cutting and running for Afghanistan.

Bhoomes - I actually agree with you about Mollohan, I don't think he should run again, or Jefferson in LA. I disagree with you about a lot of other things, but I have integrity and I want my party to have it too, anybody who violates the election laws (or even bends it) doesn't deserve to hold elected office.

Winning is defined as leaving a stable democracy in place that is not a threat to the region or to us. Nothing this important is ever easy. If it was easy, Clinton would have done it. Winning is about WILL, the terrorists need to know we will stay for the next 100 years if that is what it takes. Of course when we show that type of will, they will buckle and it will be over a lot quicker. Problem is, they are not stupid, they see americans like you who do not have the will, so they stage horrific crimes to further weaken the will of the weak of heart. Of course I suspect because you said this is Bush's war, you would like us to lose just to score political points. That frankly is not only unpatriotic but treasonous.

SQUAWK! CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RUN!

POLLY WANT A CRACKER!

Bhoomes,

Neither you nor anyone else who supports this fiasco can define what "win" or "victory" will look like in Iraq. You will be content to just continue the slaughter while mouthing platitudes and slogans as meaningless as "stay the course." All the while, your heroes in the GOP will continue to profit off the deaths of tens of thousands. How many American deaths will it take - 56,000? Isn't that the magic number that finally hit "tilt" in Vietnam? Remember this is Bush's war and when we do leave, it will be his legacy that we lost, and it will be a loss, because no matter how long we stay, we will never change the culture of the people there. Their loyalty will always be tribe, religion, and ethnic group first and country last.

Looks like our kids will be STAYING AND DYING for many years to come... becuase some aging, impotent viagra-addicted chickenhawk armchair generals have to get it up some way.

"Henry Kissinger has been advising President Bush and Vice President Cheney about Iraq, telling them that ''victory is the only meaningful exit strategy,'' author and journalist Bob Woodward said."

Oh goody. The draft will be reinstated on November 15th. Look for the sons and daughters of GOPers to suddenly become conscientious objectors by the thousands. Or do the 'Cheney,' the dance that allows you to dodge it another way.

Definitions of 'win:'

"noun: a victory (as in a race or other competition) (Example: "He was happy to get the win")
noun: something won (especially money)
verb: be the winner in a contest or competition; be victorious (Example: "Win the game")
verb: win something through one's efforts
verb: attain success or reach a desired goal"

Don't see any of that happening in Iraq now or ever with the current strategy of "stay the course" without enough troops to do that or much else. Please cite reports of consistent victories, successes or reaching any goals whatsoever.

It's a small consolation, Judge. It makes me sick to see innocent children brainwashed by a violent cult...

'Iraq's most important moneymaker, its oil industry, lost $16 billion in potential foreign sales over two years to insurgent attacks, criminals and bad equipment, a secret U.S. audit said.

The Baghdad government "must take bold action" to protect its oil and electrical facilities, concludes an unclassified summary of the classified audit on Iraq's energy sector.

"Iraq cannot prosper without uninterrupted export of oil and the reliable delivery of electricity," Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in the summary, released Thursday.

In addition to the estimated $16 billion loss of potential oil export revenue between January 2004 and March 2006, Bowen said Iraq also is paying billions of dollars to import refined petroleum products it needs.

The Bush administration predicted three years ago that Iraq would finance its own reconstruction using oil revenue. But oil production slipped after the U.S.-led invasion, and the country has struggled to resume production to prewar levels of about 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day. As of last May, production stood at about 1.9 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In another report, Bowen said sewage drips through the ceilings of a new $75 million building at the Baghdad Police College because of poor construction and the use of inferior plumbing materials by its American contractor.

That contractor, Parsons Corp., had about $1 billion in reconstruction work and has produced shoddy work on 13 out of 14 projects in Iraq reviewed by federal auditors, Bowen told the House Government Reform Committee on Thursday.

The one project that auditors saw as being constructed correctly, a prison, was taken away from Parsons before completion because of escalating costs.

Drindl: since they are obviously going to 'overlook' the rather obvious - "thou shalt not kill" - you can take some satisfaction in knowing that they are about as Christian as Satan and are guaranteed to join him in the future.

' On July 10, 2001, Woodward says, CIA Director George Tenet and his counterterrorism chief met with Condoleezza Rice to try to "impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack," the Times says. They left the meeting with the feeling that Rice didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation, Woodward says. As 9/11 drew nearer, he says, Tenet came to believe that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was impeding plans to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. '

Drindl we are the STAY AND WIN PARTY. You are the SURRENDER PARTY. Easy to understand even for an idiot such as yourself.

I think he already did, judge. Or actually something much worse -- some hallucinogen that destroys your IQ.

There's no other way to account for people like bhoomes and zouk and the rest of the shrieking harpies of the right.

Look the Christian jihadists for the upcoming New Crusades are already in training... unfortunately, their worst 'enemy' it seems, is democracy....

"Jesus Camp" opens with an unsettling sequence, during which young Christians -- dressed in camouflage and with their faces painted brown and green -- enact a warlike ritual dedicating themselves to fighting for God.

"Jesus Camp" is composed of images of kids being radicalized spiritually and politically that will be heartening or chilling depending on the viewer. There are moments sure to set secular humanists' teeth on edge: when Tory's mother, who educates her kids at home, dismisses global warming and declares once and for all that creationism provides "the only possible answer to all the questions"; or when Becky excoriates Harry Potter to nervous-looking youngsters ("Warlocks are enemies of God!"). And it's hard not to feel a little frightened watching Becky and her fellow leaders goad their young charges into speaking in tongues, or joining in chants like "This means war!" and smashing coffee cups that symbolize secularized government."

Drindl: here's why: "Jabbir's corpse turned up in the morgue, Khalaf said. It had 24 holes from an electric drill." We are in Iraq so that thousands of Americans can die to turn it into a bloodbath murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's from Syria to Iran. Following that, it will turn into Afghanistan. There; let's all agree to just accept this and stop being so angry, shall we? Maybe Bush will put Valium into the drinking water to help us out.

The Party of STAY AND DIE has now given us the most unconstitutional law ever conceived:

'Of all the stupid, lazy, short-sighted, hasty, ill-conceived, partisan-inspired, damage-inflicting, dangerous and offensive things this Congress has done (or not done) in its past few recent miserable terms, the looming passage of the terror detainee bill takes the cake. At least when Congress voted to authorize the Iraq War legislators can point to the fact that they were deceived by Administration officials. But what's Congress' excuse now for agreeing to sign off on a law that would give the executive branch even more unfettered power over the rest of us than it already has?

It just keeps getting worse. This morning, esteemed Yale Law professor Bruce Ackerman published this fine essay in the Los Angeles Times. His lead? "Buried in the complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

"This dangerous compromise," Professor Ackerman continued, "not only authorizes the president to seize and hold combatants who have fought against our troops 'during an armed conflict,' it also allows him to seize anybody who has 'purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.' This grants the president enormous power over citizens and legal residents. They can be designated as enemy combatants if they have, say, contributed money to a charity, and they can be held indefinitely in a military prison."

In other words, this destroys the Constitution --breaking every principle that our founders put into the document to protect us from tyranny, and handing all the powers of a tyrant and dictator to bush. Do you really think such a small, simple, impotent man as he won't use them?

You people like bhoomes and zouk who have been praying for a new Hitler to tell you what to do must be thrilled.

"WOULD SOMEONE REMIND ME WHY WE ARE IN IRAQ?"

The only reason left is the Antique Store Argument--you broke it, you bought it.

I am very disappointed that NOTHING has been said by the Post about the DeLay effect on this race. Mollohan was the ranking Dem on Ethics who stood up to DeLay and would not agree to rule changes that would have favored DeLay. It is NO mistake that DeLay's Texas buddy is now spending millions to try and unseat Mollohan. Cillizza, where is the scrutiny of the shadowy Texas millionaire with a sudden interest in West Virginia politics, and who also happens to live in DeLay's district? Where is the scrutiny of the GOP's two-faced support of a candidate who makes money from illegal gambling? Why no questions of RNC/RNCC types on the double standard? Mollohan made money in real estate -- over time his holdings increased in value. Good for him. Unless he got an untoward benefit as a result of a legislative favor, he hasn't done anything wrong. But this race isn't about that, it is about Tom DeLay and his revenge. Analysis that doesn't address that angle is shallow at best.

WOULD SOMEONE REMIND ME WHY WE ARE IN IRAQ?

Just one good reason, please. Try to make it coherent, rational, and if not too much to ask, literate.

... which makes anyone who "publicly insults" the government or public officials subject to up to seven years in prison."

Look out.

Who's next?

Will they have a special cell-block for us bloggers?

Pamphleteers on the lower level?

But of course, we never really insult Bush, we just speak the truth about him.

Maybe they take it as an insult, but when the truth sounds like an insult, something's wrong with the offended ones.

If the Dems win the House, they have already (Rangel) promised to cut off funding for Iraq. Impeach Bush and create a terrorist bill of rights for those poor unfortunate souls who get captured by our military. We are taking the gloves off and when this is all over Nov 8, You will wish you never brought up Iraq. You are simply delusional if you think you can win this argument with the american people. Your much better off talking about Health Care and Social Security. We are fortunate to have such morons as the dems.

Some of you intensified advocates don't get the fact that if one disagrees with the president on how he characterizes the "war", then it automatically pushes the opinion (and the opiner)into the "wimp" column of "cut and run". We are not in the classic sense, at "war". Very little of our culture and country have been mobilized against the so-called "enemy". When we truly are at war, you will know it, believe me. Our antecedents killed and died for the right of dissent under the Constitution. During our most critical conflict, a commanding general challenged his commander in chief for his second term of his presidential office. (1864). Dissent and civil confrontation in civil discourse is not a crime, nor does it relegate the proponent to the "cut and run" class. Nor does savaging the bumbling office holders add much to the discourse. Not that it isn't somewhat entertaining, but I would like to see a LITTLE fact based debate on these issues, and less s*** slinging.

help---undergoing----Friday---Line---withdrawal.

very---painful.

I----need---my----Fix...

"About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, a poll finds.

"--Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in
Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.

"--About 61 percent approved of the attacks -- up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis . . .

"The State Department poll found two-thirds of Iraqis in Baghdad favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces, according to The Washington Post."

"Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq -- a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon -- and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. The American commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, is reported to have told visitors to his headquarters in Qatar in the fall of 2005 that 'Rumsfeld doesn't have any credibility anymore' to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq."

what a queen rummy is...

The Staggering Stupidity of Trent
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush barely mentioned the war in Iraq when he met with Republican senators behind closed doors in the Capitol Thursday morning and was not asked about the course of the war, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, said.

"No, none of that," Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. "You're the only ones who obsess on that. We don't and the real people out in the real world don't for the most part."

'Lott went on to say he has difficulty understanding the motivations behind the violence in Iraq.

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people," he said. "Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israeli's and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."

Tha's because you have shame, Judge. You can't expect that from the drooling creatures that voted for bush.

Just smell that Iraqi freedom!

BAGHDAD -- Ahmed al-Karbouli, a reporter for Baghdadiya TV in the violent city of Ramadi, did his best to ignore the death threats, right up until six armed men drilled him with bullets after midday prayers.

He was the fourth journalist killed in Iraq in September alone, out of a total of more than 130 since the 2003 invasion, the vast majority of them Iraqis. But these days, men with guns are not Iraqi reporters' only threat. Men with gavels are, too.

Under a broad new set of laws criminalizing speech that ridicules the government or its officials, some resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein's penal code, roughly a dozen Iraqi journalists have been charged with offending public officials in the past year.

Currently, three journalists for a small newspaper in southeastern Iraq are being tried here for articles last year that accused a provincial governor, local judges and police officials of corruption. The journalists are accused of violating Paragraph 226 of the penal code, which makes anyone who "publicly insults" the government or public officials subject to up to seven years in prison.'

Since this commentary has already thoroughly diverged from the topic I'm posting this absolutely excellent bit from Kinsley's column:

"A commander in chief who must face life-or-death questions such as these deserves a bit of sympathy. I would sympathize more with Bush if his answers weren't so preening and struggle-free. It is wonderful to be so morally pure that you won't allow a single embryo to be destroyed in the quest for medical cures that could save lives by the thousands. You are way beyond Gandhi, sweeping the path ahead to avoid stepping on an insect: Insects have more human characteristics than a six-cell embryo.

And regarding Iraq you are quite the man, aren't you, "making the tough decisions." A regular Harry Truman, consigning thousands to death in order to bring democracy and freedom and peace to millions. But Truman actually produced democracy and freedom and peace, whereas you want credit for your hopes. That's not how it works. If you want to be the hard-ass, you get judged by results. And you can't be Gandhi and Truman at the same time."

Ouch. I'd hate to have someone write that about a President I voted for.

The first nonpartisan poll conducted in the 7th Congressional District shows U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon and Democrat Joseph Sestak locked in a statistical dead heat, with less than 40 percent of registered voters believing the Republican incumbent deserves re-election, according to political sources.

Sestak is leading Weldon 44-43 in a Franklin & Marshall College Keystone Poll that will be released today, falling well within the 4.7-percent margin of error.

'WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 -- The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

The warning is described in "State of Denial," scheduled for publication on Monday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush's top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.

As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: "I don't want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don't think we are there yet."

...

Robert D. Blackwill, then the top Iraq adviser on the National Security Council, is said to have issued his warning about the need for more troops in a lengthy memorandum sent to Ms. Rice. The book says Mr. Blackwill's memorandum concluded that more ground troops, perhaps as many as 40,000, were desperately needed.

It says that Mr. Blackwill and L. Paul Bremer III, then the top American official in Iraq, later briefed Ms. Rice and Stephen J. Hadley, her deputy, about the pressing need for more troops during a secure teleconference from Iraq. It says the White House did nothing in response. '

THE PARTY OF STAY AND DIE is guilty of murdering our troops -- negligent homicide.

Republicans -= the part of STAY AND DIE.

'Cut and run' -- you people are incapable of anything but babytalk and drooling and puking. You have about as much viable brain activity as terri schiavo.

I'm glad to see President Bush make it official yesterday "The democrats are the party of CUT & RUN." If FDR or HST were alive today, they would be strong republicans, because they believed in National Security and Defense. The dems of today would offer the Terrorists a sweetheart deal in the hopes they would leave us alone. The democratic party of today is a sad joke not worthy of anybody's vote.

Can't Win for Losing

Sen. George Allen can't seem to win: first, he apologizes for addressing an Indian American with a racial slur and acknowledges that many view the Confederate flag as a hate symbol. Now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans want him to apologize, too.

He has vehemently denied ever using the "N-word." He has apologized profusely for saying "macaca." And he has insisted that he has moved far beyond his youthful admiration of controversial symbols like the battle flag.

"What I was slow to appreciate and wish I had understood much sooner," Allen told a black audience last month, "is that this symbol . . . is, for black Americans, an emblem of hate and terror, an emblem of intolerance and intimidation."

Now, even that statement is getting him into trouble.

"He's apologizing to others, certainly he should apologize to us as well," said B. Frank Earnest Sr., the Virginia commander of the confederate group at a news conference. "We're all aware, ourselves included, of the statements that got him into this. The infamous macaca statement. He's using our flag to wipe the muck from his shoes that he's now stepped in."

Over the years, Allen has been a darling of the confederate group. As governor, he designated April as Confederate History Month. He has displayed the battle flag in his home as part of what he said is a flag collection. And his high school yearbook picture shows him wearing a Confederate flag pin.

But the senator has been distancing himself from those symbols as he pursues reelection and considers a bid for the presidency in 2008.

'Shame on Democrats who put party ahead of honest public servants"

LOL becuase R's would NEVER do such a thing... what a clown you are. Don't ever tell a democrat to hang their head in shame when your clown of a president is the most shameful creature ever to soil the Oval Office with his stupidity and greed.

George Bush didn't carry Morgantown, but he carried a lot of the surrounding area in the WV-01 district. The district is changing, to just call it working class and populist... that's a bit of a stretch.

Lots of the district is rural and socially conservative. A Shelly Moore Capito could probably carry the district.

And if the group that accused Mollohan of improprities had actually released the report instead of providing selective quotes to friendly newspapers, it might have gone further.

Jeez, the guy gets rich after getting elected to Congress, this guy his just as corrupt as Ney and Jefferson. Shame on Democrats who put party ahead of honest public servants. If he wins reelection, "HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME'

I would tend to agree, except I didn't see Shelley Moore Capito or George Bush winning there for the same reasons.

I don't see Mollohan losing. The district is just too populist and working class to elect a Republican.

Speaking of big House districts east of the Mississippi, an interesting piece of trivia: the biggest House district east of the Mississippi River is Maine-2. http://www.nationalatlas.gov/asp/cd_popups.asp?imgFile=../printable/images/preview/congdist/ME02_109.gif&imgw=750&imgh=452

There's a lot at play here in the district. I think you guys pretty accurately caught what Mollohan and Wakim are saying. Mollohan has what I'd consider some pretty effective ads out against Wakim - worst attendance in the legislature (2nd worst, sorry), voting against the PROMISE scholarship program, and I believe Mollohan's saying that Wakim had illegal gambling machines in his establishment. Wakim's got the EFF people in his corner.

Interesting thing that you didn't mention is that Don Blankenship, who runs Massey Energy is trying to make a big splash spending tons of $$ to influence the local legislative races.

That may do more than any ads on TV - it's cheap to advertise here, but the district is so big (one of the biggest east of the Mississippi, I think) that you have to be in at least 3 markets to cover the district.

If the eastern panhandle were in this district, I'd give better odds to Wakim.

EARMARK ENVY?

Touche'

Jim, that's very efficient imagery.

Covers a lot of political territory in two simple words.

...sure beats "pork envy."

You get a Chris Matthews "HA!" on that one.

Gosh, I never heard someone so mad about a scenic drive!

If that's true then I hope that the Dem loses.

I-68 is a great scenic drive from Morgantown to DC.

"Democratic incumbent has used his position for personal gain or to bring home much-appreciated pork."

There are only two places where this would appear to be a distinct contrast: in the Congressman's district and inside the Beltway. Everywhere else it's two evils one being less than the other.

The complexity of this benefits Mollohan. You can't actively court simple-minded voters and then expect to motivate them with a complex issue. Of course, there's always a distorting ad that connects with the unthinking partisan.

Boy, Chris, you guys thank half of DC. Save it for the Peabody Award (ha!).