After the devastating California fires, and the heroic efforts of hundreds, if not thousands, of firefighters, it's time to ask a question that I heard from Michael Moore while being interviewed a while back?

Do firefighters ask homeowners if they have insurance before saving their homes from a fire?  

So far we've learned that Hillary's main advisor, pollster and PR-firm owner Mark Penn, is not only a union buster whose PR firm represents the likes of Blackwater, it turns out he has also been involved with the C.I.A. in overthrowing various governments around the world:

In his article, "Coup D'etat in Disguise," Jonathan Mowat described how these "polls" work:  "Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups.  Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. "

Gee, if that doesn't strike a nerve.

They've done it in Serbia, they've done it in Belarus, and in Georgia and the Ukraine.  Mark Penn.  And now he's doing it for Hillary in the good old U.S. of A.  

This will be short, seeing as how it's one of those "passing along info I can't believe hasn't been diaried yet."  

The male escort responsible for the downfall of Christian evangelist leader Ted Haggard is now alleging that embattled Senator Larry Craig also came to see him.

More over the fold ...

Well, gosh, what do you think we could glean from this?

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.

Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

I'm very upset that people seem to think that George Bush doesn't give a darn  about health care for children.  There is a great deal of photographic evidence that he does, indeed, have a comprehensive health care plan for children.  

You'll see it over the fold ... This photographic evidence of his compassion for children is so overwhelming it might make your stomach hurt.  If you have a weak stomach you might want to avoid it, so ... heartwarming is this evidence ...

Well this is interesting.  According to this news source, Aswat Aliraq, which seems to translate to "Voices of Iraq", Al-Maliki is saying that a strike against Iran is "in the cards":

"The mass media has overplayed the Iranian crisis. A military strike against Iran is in the cards, which we do not want because it will not only be a catastrophe for Iraq, but for the Middle East as well," al-Maliki told reporters in a Baghdad-based press conference today.

So I just read the diary about the vote in the House on the bullsh*t moveon.org "condemnsation legislation."

I had a favorite Congressman -- Jerry McNerney.  Notice the use of the word "had".  He ran against the dangerous ignoramous incumbent Pombo, and won, thanks to people, many of us here, who supported his campaign with donations and hard work.  

My eyes ran down the list of the "yeas", expecting to happily see that he had been one of the "nays".  

He wasn't.  He was one of the "yeas".  

So I just got up and the coffee's just kicking in (I'm on the West Coast) and I'm rather surprised to see this headline over at Google News:

N.Y. Times admits it erred on MoveOn ad

I'm thinking Wow, the New York Times just capitulated to the Right Wing Noise/Garbage Machine.   I come over here to Dailykos to see if it's headlined anywhere here .... and I don't see anything.

I figure this is something that Dailykos readers will want to know about, so I go back and actually click on the story.  And guess what the story is actually about?

Well, isn't this special.  You may remember a month or so ago, when our those Democrats who supposedly represent us capitulated once again, and helped pass the expansion of the FISA law, so that strange men in dark rooms might continue to spy on us, illegally and without a warrant?

Well, anyone remember how the Dems acted all shook-up and saying "gosh, this is really important for national security?"

Well it turns out that the "threat" of an attack that was being used to pass this bill was ... (drumroll please) .... bogus.

What's that old sayingn "fool me once, shame on ...." hell, I don't know how it goes, and why should I?  The Pretzeldent can't even get it right.  At any rate, the Republicans said "Boo" and the Democrats screamed like little girls.  

More over the fold ...

So what's up with the short memories?  Oh, right, we didn't like what was said before, so we shot it right down The Memory Hole:

No military solution to Iraq, warns new US commander

The new US commander in Iraq has admitted that insurgents have intensified their attacks during the security crackdown in Baghdad, as he warned that there was no military solution to the nation’s bloody conflict.

Who was that commander?  Why that was David Petraeus, back in March.

"The war" in Iraq is not a "failure".  The "surge" is not a "failure".  Calling it such is a mistake.  How can that be?

After all, the way the media describes what's going on in Iraq uses the scale which runs from "failure" to "success", "progress" to "not meeting the benchmarks".

This is completely and utterly wrong.  With this framing, the Bushies will always win.  

Why?  Because think about what "success" in Iraq would mean.  It would mean that the illegal rape of another nation, a war of aggression -- a war crime -- was a "success".  

How do you succeed at rape?  How do you succeed at a war crime?  

See, as long as we say "we're failing" in Iraq, we are justifying the invasion and occupation.  By that definition, it's something that we need to "succeed" at.  We're Americans, and Americans don't fail.  We figure out a way to succeed.  And we're failures if we DON'T come up with a plan to "succeed".  

That's the trap.  The truth is simple:  There is no way to succeed in Iraq.  The very notion of "success" is an abomination.  

I am quietly astounded by something that was in the news two days ago.  Something about which nobody has seemed to realize the implications.  And that is this:

The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on September 14 to allow for a review of procedures.

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

The headline you read above is an actual headline from a news story from January 5, 2005.

You may dimly remember when this story came out, but if you're like most of us you do not.  The United States media probably never reported on it.  

But yes, in case you're wondering why, after all this time, a 6-foot 7-inch Saudi arab on the run in Pakistan, in constant need of a dialysis machine, has never been apprehended by, well, anyone, perhaps you need to look no farther than this.  

Because the third in command of the CIA said:  "You can make the argument that we’re better off with him (at large),"

Do you feel better off with Osama Bin Laden at large?

I'm surprised nobody here is all over the Mexican Truck story -- that is, the fact that some Judge has decided, over the objections of Labor, Environmental, and Safety organizations, that it's just A-OK to start letting dangerous, overloaded, non-union Mexican trucks rumble across our highways.

This is a serious, serious problem and is one of the nails in the coffin for one of the last vestiges of American Union's clout in this country -- that of dockworkers and truckdrivers.  

More over the fold ....

It's about to get really ugly.  Will the U.S. media even report this, when it happens?  Will Americans know?  

"I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history," Biddle was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The insurgents "in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of town."

More ...

Well this is just weird.  Karl Rove has barely announced his "retirement" and already the rats are singing:

This from David Walker, comptroller general of the US, via the Financial Times:

The US government is on a "burning platform" of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

More ...

From Editor and Publisher:

NEW YORK It's not the first time that citizen "investigative journalists" have uncovered some embarrassing, or telling, nugget from the past that apparently remained buried for years. But it has happened again with the posting of a now wildly popular video on YouTube that shows Dick Cheney explaining in 1994 that trying to take over Iraq would be a "bad idea" and lead to a "quagmire."

More over the fold ...

If you are a California resident, or follow California politics, you'll remember Deborah Bowen as someone we simply HAD to get elected to office last year.  

Fortunately, we succeeded.  Bowen ran on a promise to restore integrity to the election process here in California.  She's already doing a great job:

A team of hackers commissioned by California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen managed to hack into electronic voting machines made by three of the four largest suppliers in the industry, Diebold, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems.

The results were shocking to many, and should result in the decertification of these machines in the state of California.  

More ...