He who rejects change is the architect of decay

The Right loves to piss and moan about the media and at the end of the day that’s all it is. AP doesn’t lean left unless you take a closed mind and combine it with tunnel vision. As a matter of fact AP can hardly retrain itself even after three years of ineptitude in Iraq from giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, Bias And The Associated Press

Next week Bush will unveil a new Iraq strategy that entails political, military and economic steps to win the war. The military solution, which has attracted the most attention and skepticism from Congress, is expected to include an increase in U.S. troops, possibly 9,000 additional troops deployed to Baghdad alone.

As the AP tells it, Bush has a complete plan “to win the war,” but Congress is skeptical about one aspect of that strategy. Victory is only a 9,000 person surge away and Congress is fighting him! But perhaps recognizing that this near affirmation that victory is near is a stretch for everyone but Laura and Barney, the AP tones it down in the updated version:(emphasis mine)

Bush, who met on Saturday with his national security team, has tapped new military commanders to lead the war effort and will disclose a new war strategy as early as Wednesday that is expected to include political, military and economic components

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AP doesn’t skip a beat in going along with a narrative that Karl Rove could have written. They don’t take a half second mental pause to ask where this winning strategy was a year ago or two years ago, or for that matter the plan to succeed after the initial invasion. U.S. lacked plan for rebuilding Iraq, report says – and that story is from the Republican Moonie Times. How many American lives did Bush’s lack of planning costs and why do conservatives dismiss those lives as nothing but chump change or try to dismiss them in some delusional doublespeak about about spreading democracy. People that can’t get Iraq’s electricity up and running are definitely incapable of spreading democracy. It’s the Wuss Movement hiding behind grand words.

Get serious, Democrats

Did Democrats win a hard-fought campaign to take back Congress, only to govern like fiscally prudent Republicans — delivering balanced budgets but with shamefully low levels of social investment? If that turns out to be the case, there will be a chasm between the Democrats’ rhetoric and their program — a huge gap between what voters chose and what Democrats delivered. The risk is that, by embracing pay-as-you-go rules but flinching at the task of restoring tax equity, Democrats set themselves a trap.

The solution, of course, is to embrace a progressive tax code. A repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, coupled with more relief for working families, would allow both fiscal balance and some increased social spending.

For now, too few Democrats are embracing this path. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, says he could support some tax increases, but as part of a grand bargain that would also restrain social spending.

In normal times I would say that damn the new Democratic controlled Congress has had all of a few working days how about giving them a chance, but Kuttner is right to start the prodding NOW. If Democrats make too many promises and start getting lost in wrangling they can kiss anything but a few degrees off the status quo good by. The American people are anxious for a turn in a better direction and seem to like what they hear so far. While Republican shenanigans have turned us all into cynics we are also still a nation of hopes and dreams, it is misguided to think the electorate will settle for less then a smart budget that delivers on the things they need without the dump on the middle-class Bush Scheme.

The NYT had William Safire and then David Brooks. Some people might look at that succession and ask why can’t the press media find a good conservative pundit. Its because that is an oxymoron. You can choose to be a conservative or a good pundit, but not both, Why Oh Why Can’t We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another New York Times Edition) In which David Brooks gives Nancy Pelosi no credit at all for her financial achievements and equates M’s Pelosi’s modest start in life with George W. Bush who was born into what can be described as all the trappings of old European royal elite. Photos at the link.

Too bad Senator John McCain(R-AZ) thinks that the best path to the Whitehouse is over the bodies of more dead Americans, Hiatt’s profiles in courage

For now let’s just say that while term limits for committee chairs sounds like a good idea, its a little more complicated then that, Term Limits and Matthew

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay.  The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” – Harold Wilson

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