From Baghdad, with love (and Al Sharpton)

From Baghdad, with love (An ode in 3.5 parts)

1) Freshman congresswoman, Bush-groper, and all-around swell gal Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) has once again amazed us with her insight into national defense policy. It turns out she has discovered a new plan for Iraq that not even the pentagon has known about. According to Bachmann, Shiite, Persian Iran will rule over the most Sunni and Arab province in Iraq, Anbar, in order to turn it into a terrorist safe haven and breeding ground. For those of you confused by the language, let's put it like this:
Western Iraq - Sunni Arab majority
Iran, the purported controllers of Western Iraq - Shiite Persian majority
Michele Bachmann - Idiot.
And if you thought this was enough, let's not forget about this video of Bachmann sexually assaulting the president during the SOTU.

2) This post by a father of a univerisity student in Baghdad is shocking.

3) If you are looking for a sneak preview of what's up next in the Bush Administration foreign policy show, check out this article from the New Yorker. Despite the misgivings many Iranians may have about Ahmadinejad as a leader, we've come up with the brilliant strategy of turning an entire other nation against us with the drop of a bomb.

According to Hersh, the Bush Administration is taking a cue from the Reagan strategy of funding Sunni fundamentalists (back when bin Laden was a "freedom fighter") to fend off the communists, and to oppose Shiite governments and movements in the Middle East has begun the "bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda."

3.5) It turns out Al Sharpton's ancestors have a pretty intimiate connection to segregationist and racist late-senator Strom Thurmond.... they were his family's slaves. Oh, the irony.

Joe May Not Have His Way Yet

From Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Lieberman Switch Wouldn't Flip Senate

With Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) publicly stating he'd consider becoming a Republican if Democrats block new funding for the Iraq War, many Democrats worry that control of the Senate hangs in the balance. However, their fears are unfounded. Many think back to 2001 when former Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT) began caucusing with Democrats instead of Republicans, taking control of the Senate out of GOP hands. However, the two situations - though outwardly similar - contain one important difference.

If Lieberman were to caucus with the Republicans, they would still not take full control of the Senate, despite Vice President Dick Cheney's ability to break 50-50 ties. This is because of a little-known Senate organizing resolution, passed in January, which gives Democrats control of the Senate and committee chairmanships until the beginning of the 111th Congress.

What's the difference between now and 2001? A small but important distinction. When the 107th Congress was convened on January 3, 2001, Al Gore was still the Vice President and would be for another two-and-a-half weeks. Therefore, because of the Senate's 50-50 tie, Democrats had nominal control of the chamber when the organizing resolution came to a vote. With Dick Cheney soon to come in, however, Democrats allowed Republicans to control the Senate in return for a provision on the organizing resolution that allowed for a reorganization of the chamber if any member should switch parties, which Jeffords did five months later. There was no such clause in the current Senate's organizing resolution.

In a different vain, the New York Times ran an interesting article about Hillary's decision not to renounce her vote on the Iraq war, like basically every other Democrat running has. Hillary has always been calculating in her decision, and this may be her most important decision of all. I simply don't see how she plans to win primary votes by not backing down on her vote. In the general, if she wins the nomination, this stance will help her appeal to voters who view dems as Defeatocrats, and it will make her able to avoid to some extent the flip-flopper title Kerry had. But I'd be interested in hearing what people think about this. Check back later when HaverDonkey's alterego returns for more news on Haverford's liberal menace.
-Will
The article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/us/politics/18clinton.html

Is our new president a Defeatocrat?

Has our administration made a grave mistake?
Is our new President playing for the"Blame America First" team?

According to the non-partisan Opensecrets.org, our new President Stephen Emerson made, in the 2004 election cycle, a donation to no other than head-Defeatocrat and Anti-troops Congressman John Murtha.

This is the same John Murtha who has called the Iraq War "unwinnable," who has said he has no doubts that the Marines "kill innocent people," and who has called the recently passed ethics reform bill "total crap."

Is this the kind of man we want representing Haverford?

We Report, You Decide.

Contributor	Date	Amount	Recipient
EMERSON, STEPHEN BRYN MAWR, PA 19010	3/17/2004	$250	Murtha, John P

We're back.

.....So the blog has been down for a while.
College Democrats have been down for a while too, for that matter.

But under the new leadership of William Henry Harrison IV (up), we're back.

Look forward to lots of posts that you could easily find on mainstream blogs for yourself but which we will copy on paste on this blog for your convenience. Also look forward to motifs such as "Haverford Democrat of the Week" and "Bi-daily defeatocrat/Virgil Goode Quote."

For now, David Sanchez and Brian Tashman will be the primary writers, but if you'd like to get involved with blogging, please contact dsanchez@haverford.edu.

Weapons of Mass Corruption

Since all of the hubbub surrounding the release of the "Downing Street Memo" this summer, it has become clear to many that the case for Operation Iraqi Freedom was a forged one--based on both faulty and manipulated intelligence. This week, developments in the Valerie Plame leak investigation reveal that the case against the President and his administration has become all the more damning. Read the Washington Post story here.


These days, one cannot help but long for those White House lies that caused mere embarassment--and not the deaths of over 6,900 .

--Rebecca

Fare Thee Well

Bush is finally starting to cave to months of GOP pressures to shake up his inner circle. Today, he accepted Andrew Card's resignation as Chief of Staff. Talk about a storm-worn ship limping back to port. Mr. Card is "returning to private life" after taking it heavily on Dubai Ports World and Hurricane Katrina, not to mention the four-letter-word problem in the Persian Gulf.

We raise our dry martini to you, Mr. Card. Welcome back to the sporting life. And yes, that tastefully arranged fruit basket is from the Democrats.

The Haverford College Democrats have placed a series of flyers around campus, overtly critiquing Pat Buchanan’s coming appearance. We do not, as an organization, reject his right to speak. The First Amendment is smart; people draw strength and grow analytically when faced with oppositional viewpoints. Even silly things have the right to be uttered and countered. The ideological position of the College supports this, as it seeks to foster an environment of “trust, concern and respect” where a pluralism of ideas can engage in dialogue.

For dialogue to take place at all, we recognize that there must be basic rules. Free speech is not constituted either by yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theatre, nor by the use of language for violent ends. We recognize that dialogue no longer takes place when one party is silenced, dehumanized and denied agency. For the women, Jews, Blacks, homosexuals, immigrants and poor denied rights, enfranishment or agency under Buchanan’s politics, this is not a parlor debate. The ability to freely exchange speech requires that there is a basic equality amongst participants. We don’t believe that Buchanan respects or allows this equality.

There will be students who disagree with this critique, and it is their right to seek out Buchanan’s views and speak in their own voices, as long as they don’t violate the rights of others. We believe that the College, which institutionalizes equality and plurality, has an equal right not to pay someone to come to Haverford who is racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and anti-semitic. In politics, money speaks with the loudest voice of endorsement. We might tolerate the opponent, but that toleration does not require that we write her a check.

Pat Buchanan is not an opponent of this College because of his position as a conservative pundit in opposition to Haverford’s liberal majority. His historical use of hate speech, his bigoted remarks on a variety of subjects, and his violent revision of history—including the Holocaust—oppose him to all respectful dialogue. Haverford’s respect for freedom of speech means he ought to be allowed to speak; Haverford’s supposed respect for dignity and empowerment makes cutting him a check hypocritical and cowardly.

Pat Buchanan is coming to speak at 7:30 pm on Sunday, March 26th—anyone with an interest should attend. Haverford College has paid $20,000 to have him come, and we ought not waste such money through poor attendance.

-Emma Rodman

Newsflash:

Recent polls indicate that Adrian Bleifuss Prados is widely perceived as the most youthful and virile member of the Haverford College Democrats. He also dances well and dresses with a certain panache.

-Emma Rodman

Yesterday, Tom DeLay, the capo di tutti capi of the GOP mafia, won the congressional primary in his Texas district. It seems that a little money laundering won’t faze the Republicans of the Texas 22nd.

Mr. DeLay began his career as a pest exterminator in Sugar Land, TX. By all accounts, the residue of noxious fumes has followed him into his new vocation.

In other Texas news, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the mother of Scott McClellan, is running for governor as an independent. Members of the White House press corps were surprised to learn that McClellan suckled at a human teat. According to the ancient Greeks, the President’s press secretary was born to the Gorgon Medusa.

-Adrian Bleifuss Prados

Crush on Buckley

William F. Buckley Jr., the grand old man of the Grand Old Party, is hardly a chearleader for Bush's policies in Iraq. In a recent piece for National Review, Buckley offered some sober thoughts on the situation in that unhappy country:

... One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed...

Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. No doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols...

The Iraqis we hear about are first indignant, and then infuriated, that
Americans aren't on the scene to protect them and to punish the aggressors. And so they join the clothing merchant who says that everything is the fault of the
Americans....

Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy....

Why do I love Bill Buckley? The man is an unapologetic conservative - some of his editorials from the 1960s are rather embarrassing today. But Buckley has never been an apologist for any president or policy. He is committed to conservative political principles and not to the conservative political establishment. Personally, I always prefer an ideologue to a hack. Although he is no longer at the helm at National Review, his spirit still infuses the magazine, which is probably why NR is still so fun to read.

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

The Birth of Beelzeblog

Newsflash: The Johnny-come-latelies at the Haverford College Republicans have launched a blog. Our Tory pals are committed to “combating the left on a hippy campus.” Local hippies, beatniks and bohemians of all stripes are reportedly heading for the hills.

As the Gipper would put it, it’s morning in Haverford. Old Glory flies a little brighter over Leeds Hall. There’s a wholesome smell in the air and a spring in the step of every young lass.

Marriage seems better defended, tough love has replaced the soft bigotry of low expectations and fetuses float happily in their embryonic fluids.

In short, the war is on.

- Adrian