Fallon Calls Petraeus "Chickenshit"

Why Didn't Bush Defend Him?

With all the uproar regarding this past week the MoveOn.Org ad, where was Chimpy and the rest of his Republican thugs when CENTCOM Chief, Admiral William Fallon called General Petraeus an "ass-kissing little chickenshit"?

In January, President Bush replaced Abizaid and Casey, who were “surge” skeptics, with Adm. William Fallon and Gen. David Petraeus. This week, Petraeus — in the first public hearings since taking on his new role — delivered his Iraq assessment to great media fanfare. But where was his boss, Admiral Fallon? Inter-Press Service suggests animosity between the two might be one reason for Fallon’s absence:

Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

...Nice...

Republican "Scheduling Conflicts"

The Republican Party's group of presidential hopefuls are writing off 30-40% of the voting population. Why bother showing up to a debate hosted by black or latino constituents? Is it going to get you anywhere? An African-American or latino voting Republican would be like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders... and yet, some will still do it.

The leading contenders for the Republican nomination have indicated they will not attend the "All American Presidential Forum" organized by black talk show host Tavis Smiley, scheduled for Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore and airing on PBS. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) all cited scheduling conflicts in forgoing the debate. The top Democratic contenders attended a similar event in June at Howard University.

...Making matters worse, some Republicans believe, is that the decision to bypass the Morgan State forum comes after all top GOP candidates save McCain declined invitations this month to a debate on Univision, the most-watched Hispanic television network in the United States. The event was eventually postponed.

"What's the win?" said the adviser, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Why would [the candidates] go into a crowd where they're probably going to be booed?"

Even Newt Gingrich --NEWT GINGRICH!-- who basically made the Republican Party what it is today , got into the act when he said, "For Republicans to consistently refuse to engage in front of an African American or Latino audience is an enormous error. ...I see no excuse -- this thing has been planned for months, these candidates have known about it for months. It's just fundamentally wrong. Any of them who give you that scheduling-conflict answer are disingenuous. That's baloney."

Forum host Tavis Smiley: "When you reject every black invitation and every brown invitation you receive, is that a scheduling issue or is it a pattern? I don't believe anybody should be elected president of the United States if they think along the way they can ignore people of color. That's just not the America we live in."

Well Tavis, that may not be the American you or I live in, but it's definitely the America they've been living in for quite a while now.

Hey Republican candidates: I can't wait to support you! "The check's in the mail."


ALSO READ: Vernon Jordan - The Whites Only" Sign on the GOP's "Big Tent"

Hypocrite in Chief

As I sat mouth agape on my couch listening to Chimpy's latest press conference, a press gaggle riddled with so-called journalists who only agree with what the President has to say, my brain began to melt at the nonsense that was oozing out of his mouth.

Of course they saved the best question for last asking him his opinion of the MoveOn.Org "Petraeus/Betray Us" ad.

BUSH:

I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Move-On-Dot-Org — or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military. That was a sorry deal.

And there he is once again, with the usual "if you're anti-war then you are against the troops" bullshit. Bush insists that the Democrat-IC Party is making this a political issue, when all the while he's the one who set up General Petraeus as his front man. He's the one who crossed the line with using a military man as the latest mouthpiece for this administration.

I suppose it was alright and not "disgusting" when the Bush campaign slung mud at John McCain and Max Cleland. And where was the outrage after John Kerry was swiftboated?

If General Petraeus has betrayed anyone, it's himself. He wrote the book on battling counterinsurgency in which he quotes one soldier is needed for every 40 on the ground. That would equal approximately 650,000 US troops, the same number Generals Shinsecki and Abizaid said would be needed for success in Iraq before they were fired or resigned rather than deal with the know-nothings of the Bush administration.

Keith Olbermann's special comment was on point when it came to Bush's remarks yesterday:

OLBERMANN:

...you were the one who inappropriately interjected General Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place!
Deliberately, premeditatedly, and virtually without precedent, you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman — and now you’re complaining about the outcome, and then running away from the microphone?

... The Republican Hamstringing of Captain Max Cleeland and lying about Lieutenant John Kerry met with your approval? But a shot at General Petraeus — about whom you conveniently ignore it is you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack — that merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?

... Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General’s skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of ‘the planted last question’ at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond.

That, sir, is not only un-American — it is dictatorial.

The worst part of all of this is that 22 Democrats in the Senate bit hook, line and sinker into the Bush bait and voted on a non binding resolution to condemn the MoveOn ad.

Don't they have better things to do than waste time talking about an ad? By the way, they just denounced free speech. I suppose we can just scratch out the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.

Habeas Corpus Mortuus

This is shameful. 44 United States Senators have voted against restoring "The Great Writ" that spans back at least 700 years.

For a complete list of those who failed to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution, click here. But just to be clear, of the 44 Senators, 43 are Republican, and one claims to be an Independent.

Here's Chris Dodd making a statement before the vote:

Here's what Dodd said after the vote:

“America’s moral standing, and with it the security of the United States, suffered another setback today, atop a pile of setbacks that has accumulated over the past six years. The outcome of this vote is both symbolic and tragic. Each of us in the Senate faced a decision either to cast a vote in favor of helping to restore America’s reputation in the world, or to help dig deeper the hole of utter disrespect for the rule of law that the Bush Administration has created. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues chose the latter, and my disappointment runs deep. But I will not rest my case with this vote. Instead, this defeat will only deepen my resolve to restore the rule of law and with it American security, for far too much is at stake - for every American - to simply give up the fight.”

Start making those calls and writing those emails.