"A foiled and frustrated McCain — trying to get covered when the entire media world has gone fishin’ for Obama stories — took the Hillary tack of mocking the press for having a “love affair,” as his campaign said, with the senator. McCain is hopping mad that the surge that he backed, and Obama resisted, has now set the stage for the Bush puppet Maliki to agree with Obama’s exit strategy. But Obama has a better batting average with his judgment on how we shouldn’t have gotten into Iraq, we should have gone after Osama and we should talk to Iran and other foes, if only to better assess their psychology. Then we might have deduced that Saddam had the “Beware of Dog” sign up without the dog.
It doesn’t work for McCain — and his foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger — to keep insisting that timetables will lead to defeat.
The Angry One can try to paint The One as having bad judgment. But who is being advised by Kissinger, the man who helped keep us in Vietnam and get us into Iraq?"
-Maureen Dowd
Showing posts with label maureen dowd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maureen dowd. Show all posts
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Dowd: Ideal Husband?
Dowd has a funny piece regarding matters of the heart. The title could be changed to ideal wife.
Love consistently trips most of us up at one point in our lives. Those who say otherwise are lying.
Let me back up, love isn't the issue. Love is easy. Relationships are the struggle. How often are expectations are communicated in way the other person hears it?
How often do you hear? I should haven't to say blah, blah blah....He/She know.. How??? Unless you say it out loud?
Rarely, are the tough questions asked and answered honestly until the relationship is in tatters.
If you are lucky, you will connect with someone who figures it out when you do....
Love consistently trips most of us up at one point in our lives. Those who say otherwise are lying.
Let me back up, love isn't the issue. Love is easy. Relationships are the struggle. How often are expectations are communicated in way the other person hears it?
How often do you hear? I should haven't to say blah, blah blah....He/She know.. How??? Unless you say it out loud?
Rarely, are the tough questions asked and answered honestly until the relationship is in tatters.
If you are lucky, you will connect with someone who figures it out when you do....
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Dowd: Black like, oh Whatever...
Whenever my daughter and her peers would get frustrated with a conversation, it would be abruptly terminated with "OH, WHATEVER!"
When I hear this endless blather about sticking Obama in a clearly misguided box, I want to scream "Oh, whatever." This nonsense by Maureen Dowd falls into that category. Why is it necessary for a black man to be comfortable swigging a Bud. According to my well informed baseball team, Bud is just awful. Or, maybe he doesn't like beer. Does that make him effete?
We know what a President who the voting electorate feels comfortable "having a beer with" looks like. I'll take someone who is SMARTER THAN ME and doesn't need to swig anything to get through the day.
What do you want Madame Dowd? He is not angry enough. He is too angry. He is not black enough. He is not white enough. He is not wrapped in a flag. Is he posturing? He is not showing the traveling media enough love.
Her boredom with actually working on this long than expected campaign is starting to show.
My head hurts.......................
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Edwards for President 2012
I wonder if the long suffering bitter Dowd read this column? Nah, I doubt it.
Who wouldn't vote for this lady?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Petraeus Hearings, Talking Loud and Sayin' Nothin'
"John McCain was standing behind Mr. Biden, waiting to sit down for the next hearing — the Armed Services Committee — with the witnesses.
First, the Republican presidential candidate smiled archly at having to cool his heels as the Democratic presidential candidate yakked — sniffing at the Surge that Mr. McCain supports. Then Mr. McCain turned to his G.O.P. colleague Susan Collins and flapped his fingers in the universal hand sign for yakking.
It pretty much said it all.
For months, everyone here has been waiting with great expectations to hear whether the Surge is working from the top commander and top diplomat in Iraq.
But the whole thing was sort of a fizzle. It’s obvious that the Surge is like those girdles the secretaries wear on the vintage advertising show, “Mad Men.” It just pushes the fat around, giving a momentary illusion of flatness. But once Peaches Petraeus, as he was known growing up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, takes the girdle off, the center will not hold.
And it was clear from their marathon testimony that the Iraqi politicians are useless, that we’re going to have a huge number of troops in Iraq for a long time, that there’s no post-Surge strategy, that they’re just playing for time, hoping that somehow, some way, things will look up in the desert maze of demons that General Petraeus referred to as “home.”
The strategy is no more than a soap bubble of hope, just as W.’s invasion of Iraq was based on a fantasy about W.M.D.’s and an illusory view of Iraq.
Even though it was 9/11, Osama was barely mentioned all day.
Republican Senator John Warner, freer than ever now that he’s announced his retirement, turned the screw on the two witnesses.
Do you feel, he asked the general, that the Surge “is making America safer?”
“Sir, I don’t know actually,” Peaches replied. “I have not sat down and sorted out in my own mind.”
The Surge Twins seemed competent and more realistic than some of their misbegotten predecessors, but just too late to do any good. They’re like two veteran pilots trying to crash land the plane.
Ambassador Crocker has expressed a darker, more rueful vision in background briefings with reporters, and he emanated a bit of Graham Greene yesterday.
He noted that the Iraqis know that “they’re going to be there forever,” while we will not.
Pulling troops out too soon, he fears, could “push the Iraqis in the wrong direction. It would make them, I would fear, more focused on, you know, building the walls, stocking the ammunition and getting ready for a big, nasty street fight without us around.”
Asked by Senator McCain if he was confident that the Maliki government will get the job done, the ambassador said dryly: “My level of confidence is under control.”
The star witnesses gave shell game answers, trying to make the best of a hideous hand.
“It’s a hand that’s unlikely to improve in my view,” Hillary Clinton — one of five senators running for president on the two panels — told the Surge Twins. “I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”
Hillary’s plan is to posture and criticize W.’s war all the way to the White House. But then President Clinton will be stuck with figuring out how to pull out the more than 100,000 troops still there policing a lot of crazy sectarian street fighting.
The Republicans seemed happy that the witnesses’ calm presentation bolstered the president’s case for continued war funding. In his speech tomorrow night, W. will be able to accept the recommendations of the Surge Twins, who are only recommending what he wants to hear.
Republicans seemed oblivious to the fact that they may have scored points short term while laying the groundwork for disaster long term. W. won’t care because he’s not running, but it will be political suicide for Republicans entering the campaign with 130,000 troops still in Iraq.
As Lindsey Graham joked to the witnesses about Congress, referring to the talk of the dysfunctional Iraqi government, “You could say we’re dysfunctional and you wouldn’t be wrong.”
First, the Republican presidential candidate smiled archly at having to cool his heels as the Democratic presidential candidate yakked — sniffing at the Surge that Mr. McCain supports. Then Mr. McCain turned to his G.O.P. colleague Susan Collins and flapped his fingers in the universal hand sign for yakking.
It pretty much said it all.
For months, everyone here has been waiting with great expectations to hear whether the Surge is working from the top commander and top diplomat in Iraq.
But the whole thing was sort of a fizzle. It’s obvious that the Surge is like those girdles the secretaries wear on the vintage advertising show, “Mad Men.” It just pushes the fat around, giving a momentary illusion of flatness. But once Peaches Petraeus, as he was known growing up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, takes the girdle off, the center will not hold.
And it was clear from their marathon testimony that the Iraqi politicians are useless, that we’re going to have a huge number of troops in Iraq for a long time, that there’s no post-Surge strategy, that they’re just playing for time, hoping that somehow, some way, things will look up in the desert maze of demons that General Petraeus referred to as “home.”
The strategy is no more than a soap bubble of hope, just as W.’s invasion of Iraq was based on a fantasy about W.M.D.’s and an illusory view of Iraq.
Even though it was 9/11, Osama was barely mentioned all day.
Republican Senator John Warner, freer than ever now that he’s announced his retirement, turned the screw on the two witnesses.
Do you feel, he asked the general, that the Surge “is making America safer?”
“Sir, I don’t know actually,” Peaches replied. “I have not sat down and sorted out in my own mind.”
The Surge Twins seemed competent and more realistic than some of their misbegotten predecessors, but just too late to do any good. They’re like two veteran pilots trying to crash land the plane.
Ambassador Crocker has expressed a darker, more rueful vision in background briefings with reporters, and he emanated a bit of Graham Greene yesterday.
He noted that the Iraqis know that “they’re going to be there forever,” while we will not.
Pulling troops out too soon, he fears, could “push the Iraqis in the wrong direction. It would make them, I would fear, more focused on, you know, building the walls, stocking the ammunition and getting ready for a big, nasty street fight without us around.”
Asked by Senator McCain if he was confident that the Maliki government will get the job done, the ambassador said dryly: “My level of confidence is under control.”
The star witnesses gave shell game answers, trying to make the best of a hideous hand.
“It’s a hand that’s unlikely to improve in my view,” Hillary Clinton — one of five senators running for president on the two panels — told the Surge Twins. “I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.”
Hillary’s plan is to posture and criticize W.’s war all the way to the White House. But then President Clinton will be stuck with figuring out how to pull out the more than 100,000 troops still there policing a lot of crazy sectarian street fighting.
The Republicans seemed happy that the witnesses’ calm presentation bolstered the president’s case for continued war funding. In his speech tomorrow night, W. will be able to accept the recommendations of the Surge Twins, who are only recommending what he wants to hear.
Republicans seemed oblivious to the fact that they may have scored points short term while laying the groundwork for disaster long term. W. won’t care because he’s not running, but it will be political suicide for Republicans entering the campaign with 130,000 troops still in Iraq.
As Lindsey Graham joked to the witnesses about Congress, referring to the talk of the dysfunctional Iraqi government, “You could say we’re dysfunctional and you wouldn’t be wrong.”
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Obama not so pure
"It’s not his experience that excites people, but his brainy élan. We don’t know about his judgment: good on Iraq, bad on Rezko.
The joke on Obama is that the only experience that has served Hillary well has been the experience of raw, retail politics — the kind he turns up his nose at — which has allowed her to seem authoritative and professional and singularly unwhiny in speeches and debates.
She first tripped up Obama by making him think that every time he fought back he was falling off his pedestal. As one of the Washington pundits Obama has scorned put it, with a grin: “That’s why you have two hands, one to graciously greet your opponents and one to stick the shiv in.”
By conjuring a scenario where Hillary is the deft insider and he’s the dewy outsider, Obama only plays into her playbook again."
The joke on Obama is that the only experience that has served Hillary well has been the experience of raw, retail politics — the kind he turns up his nose at — which has allowed her to seem authoritative and professional and singularly unwhiny in speeches and debates.
She first tripped up Obama by making him think that every time he fought back he was falling off his pedestal. As one of the Washington pundits Obama has scorned put it, with a grin: “That’s why you have two hands, one to graciously greet your opponents and one to stick the shiv in.”
By conjuring a scenario where Hillary is the deft insider and he’s the dewy outsider, Obama only plays into her playbook again."
Sunday, July 22, 2007
How about a man who is woman enough?
"Even in an era when male politicians can mist up with impunity, it was startling to see the defense chief melt down at a Marine Corps dinner Wednesday night as he talked about writing notes every evening to the families of dead soldiers like Douglas Zembiec, a heroic Marine commander known as “the Lion of Falluja,” who died in Baghdad in May after giving up a Pentagon job to go on a fourth tour of Iraq. “They are not names on a press release or numbers updated on a Web page,” he said. “They are our country’s sons and daughters.”
The dramatic moment was disconcerting, because Mr. Gates, known as a decent guy who was leery of the Bushies’ black-and-white, bullying worldview, has clearly been worn down by his effort to sort out the Iraq debacle. He and Condi, who worked together under Bush I, have been trying to circumvent the vice president to close Gitmo without much success, while the president finds ingenious new ways to allow torture.
Mostly, though, it was moving — a relief to see a top official acknowledge the awful cost of this war. The arrogant Rummy was dismissive. The obtuse W. seems incapable of understanding how inappropriate his sunny spirits are. And the callous Cheney’s robo-aggression continues unabated. (What could be more nerve-racking than the thought of President Cheney, slated to happen for a couple of hours yesterday while Mr. Bush had a colonoscopy? Could it be — a Medal of Freedom for Scooter?)
Mr. Gates captured the sadness we feel about American kids trapped in a desert waiting to be blown up, sent there by men who once refused to go to a warped war themselves."
The dramatic moment was disconcerting, because Mr. Gates, known as a decent guy who was leery of the Bushies’ black-and-white, bullying worldview, has clearly been worn down by his effort to sort out the Iraq debacle. He and Condi, who worked together under Bush I, have been trying to circumvent the vice president to close Gitmo without much success, while the president finds ingenious new ways to allow torture.
Mostly, though, it was moving — a relief to see a top official acknowledge the awful cost of this war. The arrogant Rummy was dismissive. The obtuse W. seems incapable of understanding how inappropriate his sunny spirits are. And the callous Cheney’s robo-aggression continues unabated. (What could be more nerve-racking than the thought of President Cheney, slated to happen for a couple of hours yesterday while Mr. Bush had a colonoscopy? Could it be — a Medal of Freedom for Scooter?)
Mr. Gates captured the sadness we feel about American kids trapped in a desert waiting to be blown up, sent there by men who once refused to go to a warped war themselves."
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
American Impotence
The mere mention of the "I" word in a room of testosterone raging boys, they suddenly feel compelled to show off their manhood.
The result is always disastrous. Not only do the fail when they are naked, their dressed performance is generally inadequate.
The result is always disastrous. Not only do the fail when they are naked, their dressed performance is generally inadequate.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Holiday Inn, Tar Heels, Hair
"After Mr. Edwards told George Stephanopoulos that “The Trial of Socrates” by I. F. Stone was “a wonderful book,” Bob Novak jumped on him, claiming that he had chosen a book by a “radical” journalist “identified as a covert Soviet agent.”
I tell the Democrat that Poppy Bush drolly told the story about his ’64 Texas Senate race, when a John Birch Society pamphlet suggested that Barbara Bush’s father, the president of McCall Publishing, put out a Communist manifesto called Redbook.
He laughs and says of Bob Novak, “Wait till he finds out I also like Langston Hughes.”
I tell the Democrat that Poppy Bush drolly told the story about his ’64 Texas Senate race, when a John Birch Society pamphlet suggested that Barbara Bush’s father, the president of McCall Publishing, put out a Communist manifesto called Redbook.
He laughs and says of Bob Novak, “Wait till he finds out I also like Langston Hughes.”
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
What's a 7 letter word for ball and chain?
Hillary
How I wish Bill would have kept his pants up. By doing so, we would not be subjected to this very public karmic resolution.
Ugh
How I wish Bill would have kept his pants up. By doing so, we would not be subjected to this very public karmic resolution.
Ugh
Sunday, July 01, 2007
I bet Bush can't find Albania on a Map
“I miss Albania!” W. wails. “They know how to treat a president there. Women were kissing me and men rubbed my hair. The crowd kept yelling, ‘Bushie!,’ and they almost grabbed the watch right off my wrist trying to get at me.”
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Dowd: Letters to the President
“We asked him to remove the signing statement attached to the anti-torture bill, which would have allowed presidential power to make exemptions to the ban on torture,” she said. “I really feel strongly about this issue and also about the treatment of some Arab- and Muslim-Americans after September 11th.”
The president was trying to talk to the students about No Child Left Behind. Maybe that program’s working better than we thought if these kids are able to pull off such a knowing note left behind.
The White House got another unpleasant surprise Monday when the ordinarily compliant Dick Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee who has gone along with the Bush administration on every Iraq vote, came to the Senate floor to upbraid the president on his Iraq policy in a 50-minute speech.
“Those who offer constructive criticism of the surge strategy are not defeatists, any more than those who warn against a precipitous withdrawal are militarists,” the 75-year-old senator told the deserted chamber.
Another Republican on the committee, George Voinovich, sent a letter to the president yesterday, suggesting it’s time to start pulling troops out. “My heart has been heavy for a long time,” he told Jeff Zeleny of The Times. “We’re talking $620 billion. We’re talking over 3,500 people killed.” He said he keeps a photo of an Ohio Marine killed in Iraq on his desk “so I don’t forget, O.K.?” Mr. Lugar said the ’08 race is on, so time is scarce for a bipartisan solution."
Letters from three unexpected sources. Maybe the citizens have truly had enough.
The president was trying to talk to the students about No Child Left Behind. Maybe that program’s working better than we thought if these kids are able to pull off such a knowing note left behind.
The White House got another unpleasant surprise Monday when the ordinarily compliant Dick Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee who has gone along with the Bush administration on every Iraq vote, came to the Senate floor to upbraid the president on his Iraq policy in a 50-minute speech.
“Those who offer constructive criticism of the surge strategy are not defeatists, any more than those who warn against a precipitous withdrawal are militarists,” the 75-year-old senator told the deserted chamber.
Another Republican on the committee, George Voinovich, sent a letter to the president yesterday, suggesting it’s time to start pulling troops out. “My heart has been heavy for a long time,” he told Jeff Zeleny of The Times. “We’re talking $620 billion. We’re talking over 3,500 people killed.” He said he keeps a photo of an Ohio Marine killed in Iraq on his desk “so I don’t forget, O.K.?” Mr. Lugar said the ’08 race is on, so time is scarce for a bipartisan solution."
Letters from three unexpected sources. Maybe the citizens have truly had enough.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Archivists the new Acccountants?
Dowd:
"I love that Cheney was able to bully Colin Powell, Pentagon generals and George Tenet when drumming up his fake case for war, but when he tried to push around the little guys, the National Archive data collectors — I’m visualizing dedicated “We the People” wonky types with glasses and pocket protectors — they pushed back.
Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington."
It took accountants and a dose of syphilis to end Capone's reign of terror. Will Cheney be finally be stopped by a group of archivists?
"I love that Cheney was able to bully Colin Powell, Pentagon generals and George Tenet when drumming up his fake case for war, but when he tried to push around the little guys, the National Archive data collectors — I’m visualizing dedicated “We the People” wonky types with glasses and pocket protectors — they pushed back.
Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington."
It took accountants and a dose of syphilis to end Capone's reign of terror. Will Cheney be finally be stopped by a group of archivists?
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Dowd: Tale of Two Tonys, unsatisfying endings
I am one of few people on the planet who didn't get catch Soprano fever. The violence was simply too much for me. While the world was watching the finale, I was in a local pub with a few of my former ball players plotting my return to the team.
Dowd like many fans was not happy how the show left you "hangin." Many contacted their local cable company believing there was a blackout.
Oh how I wish, the voting public would contact their elected leaders with the same zeal when meaningless bills are passed and we are left "hangin."
Dowd like many fans was not happy how the show left you "hangin." Many contacted their local cable company believing there was a blackout.
Oh how I wish, the voting public would contact their elected leaders with the same zeal when meaningless bills are passed and we are left "hangin."
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Dowd: The Repugs who can't shoot straight
I think all of the presidential candidates should focus on kitchen table issues not bedroom issues. Clearly, pulling out of Iraq, balancing the budget, health care crisis, educational system and the environment are not the concerns of the voters.
It is just dumb that an openly gay person can not serve in the military.
It is just dumb that an openly gay person can not serve in the military.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Dowd: The force is with you, Obama
Dowd makes a great point. Obama has been afraid to "punch" the lady. In the meantime, she is beating the crap out of him.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Gore inhales......clam dip
Dowd:
Mr. Traub said that, as he followed the ex-vice president around, the Goracle was “eating like a maniac: I watched him inhale the clam dip at a reception like a man who doesn’t know when his next meal will be coming.”
Mr. Traub said that, as he followed the ex-vice president around, the Goracle was “eating like a maniac: I watched him inhale the clam dip at a reception like a man who doesn’t know when his next meal will be coming.”
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Powell & Tenat: A Pair of Pussies, Punks, Pricks
I generally try to stay away from "dugout" language. No other language is appropriate to describe this dynamic duo.
Tenant and Powell are worst than Shrub, because they knew better. Remember when you were a kid and you were held accountable for your younger sibling's behavior. Why? "Because you knew better." In sane families, this is a means of teaching a teenager responsibility.
it takes real men to take a stand when there is something at risk. HMMM soldiers lives pops into mind. Resignations from Powell and Tenant may have stopped this farce.
For him to save his story for a publisher is treason. His blood money should be donated to the outpatient unit of the Walter Reed Hospital.
Tenant and Powell are worst than Shrub, because they knew better. Remember when you were a kid and you were held accountable for your younger sibling's behavior. Why? "Because you knew better." In sane families, this is a means of teaching a teenager responsibility.
it takes real men to take a stand when there is something at risk. HMMM soldiers lives pops into mind. Resignations from Powell and Tenant may have stopped this farce.
For him to save his story for a publisher is treason. His blood money should be donated to the outpatient unit of the Walter Reed Hospital.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
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