Code Red = Code Blue: Tea party rally falls flat

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Big surprise, huh? Tens of... tens show up at the big Code Red "Surge" Rally:

It looked like a mini-rally; a particularly well-organized group pushing some obscure, but popular, cause -- say, a limited ban on slaughtering ugly puppies -- might have been pleased with the turnout. There couldn't have been more than 1,000 people there at the beginning of the event.

Or as ClusterFox would say, millions.

But I like what the DNC has to say more:

The Democratic National Committee decided, based on their own informal headcount, that there were only 300 people at the rally. Spokesman Hari Sevugan sent out a list of "12 things that have had more than 300 people attend/participate in," including "any flight to Las Vegas," "a New Jersey Nets home game," and "screenings of 'Gigli'."

Oh, suh-nap!

Code Red Tea Tantrum: The Gigli of political rallies.

Be afraid... It's a FreedomWorks SURGE!

By GottaLaff

Will the "surge" work? None of the others did:

(click on image to enlarge)

There message is "simple", because, well, so are they:

We will be storming the three House Office Buildings: Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn. Our message is simple: VOTE NO on Obamacare 2.0. [...]

... pick up an area map, office locations, talking points and lobbying tips [...]

Buses can drop off passengers...

How adorable... they're training their TeaPeas to be lobbyists. That's about as folksy as you can get.

Don'tcha just love how grassrootsy that gigantic hugely enormous, wealthy, powerful, Dickle Me Armey-run FreedomWorks is?

The Tea Tantrumers must have oodles of gratitude for those grassy-rooty buses, huh?

What would they ever do without their rich ol' corporate lobbyist sugar daddies....

Remember Iraq?

By GottaLaff

Iraq's largest Sunni party said Saturday that it has suspended official contacts with American military personnel and civilians after the killing of a man near Fallujah. [...]

The party said it "has decided to suspend all official contacts with the Americans, both military and civilians, until the party receives a reasonable explanation about what happened, along with an official apology."

It also demanded assurance those responsible would be punished, compensation for the victims and the release of the five detainees.

Supporters of the Iraqi Islamic Party rallied Saturday in Fallujah to protest the raid.

The IIP has been locked in a bitter rivalry with Sunni tribal leaders who joined forces with the United States against al-Qaida in Iraq in so-called Awakening Councils that started in Anbar and spread to other Sunni areas.

That has raised concerns that the political tensions could lead to new violence by disrupting the Sunni revolt, which is considered a key factor in recent security gains. [...]

Iraq's Cabinet decided Tuesday to ask the U.S. for changes to the draft agreement as key Shiite lawmakers warned the deal stands little chance of approval as it stands.

The decision also raised doubts that the agreement can be ratified before a new American president is elected next month.

How's that Surge working out for you, Gramm-pa McCain?

So much for the "surge": Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq

By GottaLaff

Dear Barack,

Please drive this point home repeatedly.

Love,
Laffy

Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed. [...]

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. [...]

The study, published in the journal Environment and Planning A, provides more evidence of ethnic conflict in Iraq, which peaked just before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of about 30,000 extra U.S. troops. [...]

"Our findings suggest that the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved," Agnew's team wrote in their report.

Gramm-pa McCain consistently takes credit for something that has had no discernible effect on the decline in the Iraq occupation violence. Not only is he economy-challenged, but his so-called foreign policy calling card just dissolved faster than his Efferdent tablets.

H/t: Chris

Video: Obama smacks down "surge" questioner

By GottaLaff

Here is another video snippet, this time from the Unity '08 interview that I posted about here. The discussion was with Suzanne Malveaux and Time magazine's Romesh Ratnesar.

At the Unity Conference in Chicago this morning, Barack Obama, for the 365,292nd time, was asked if he felt he needed to admit that the "Surge" worked, and by extension, that McCain is awesome and the Bush administration brilliant. Because the "Surge," a thin sliver of military tactic that lasted a few months and is now over, is the ONE THING about the ENTIRE IRAQ WAR that the press is trying to get their head around. (Exhibit A: Katie Couric) [...]

The funny thing about those commanders on the ground -- the Bush administration sure had to fire or otherwise hound out of their jobs a WHOLE LOT OF COMMANDERS before we were left with the ones who deploy nothing more than SURGE LOGIC (TM) and knee-jerk reactions whenever they are asked to summarize the strategic situation in Iraq.

Obama gave it right back to them, but that's not what we'll hear about, now is it?

Shallow Thoughts: Surge edition

By GottaLaff

In case you hadn't heard, today "the surge" is officially over. Bush's silence is deafening.

Headlines From The Foreign Affairs Hearing On Iraq

Guess the presidential campaign is sucking all the cable time up, no room for serious s**t like this.

Iraqi Parliamentarians Denounce The Bush-Maliki Permanent-Occupation Deal

At Rep. Bill Delahunt's (D-MA) foreign affairs subcommittee this afternoon, the U.S. Congress heard for the first time from Iraqi parliamentarians. The two legislators --Sheikh Khalaf al-Ulayyan from Sunni Anbar Province and Prof. Nadeem al-Jaberi from Shiite Baghdad -- vigorously denounced the forthcoming U.S.-Iraq long-term-security deal negotiated between the Bush administration and the Nouri al-Maliki government.

Wearing a dark suit, a red tie and wire-rimmed glasses, al-Jaberi couched his arguments against the deal in Iraqi sovereignty. "The Iraqi government right now does not have the full reign of its sovereignty, because of the thousands of foreign troops that are on its land," he said through a translator. "And perhaps the Iraqi government does not have as of yet sufficient tools to run its own internal affairs. Therefore, I ask the American government not to embarrass the Iraqi government by putting it in a difficult situation with this agreement."

and

Iraqi Parliamentarian: The U.S. Invasion Led To 'The Destruction Of The Country.'

and

'Rest Assured There Are No Threats On Iraq'

Finally-

Iraqi Parliamentarian: The Surge Didn't Work