Gen. Petraeus stated today that he confirms that he indeed supports continuing the "strategy change" in the direction of focusing on "Securing the civilian population, (along with the training of the Iraqi troops)" from the prior strategy which was apparently focused on "counter-terrorism (and the training the Iraqi troops)".  Furthermore, when asked when we could leave Iraq, Gen. Petraeus replied that we can leave when we have "stablized" Iraq sufficently, and he further elaborated that when he said "stabilized" he meant stabilazation in the sense where communities and neighborhoods in Iraq are secured. Here for the first time, we are given a real goal besides "to win", or beat the bad guys.

Yesterday, John Kerry teetered on the same slippery slope that he had found himself during the 2004 campaign.  The thin line between not supporting the Bush administration's war in Iraq, while at the same time supporting the men and women in uniform serving our country and being sacrificed in Iraq.  

KERRY

"You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said.

Undoubtedly a conspicuous statement, considering that it appears to be saying that if you don't do your homework, or make an effort to be smart you will end up on the rudderless ship called the U.S. military captained by our clueless Commander and chief, and set adrift on the tumultuous open sea called Iraq.

For better or worse, John Kerry has again taken the center stage and now has the opportunity to invoke (in no uncertain terms) the notion of a referendum on George Bush and the "Rubberstamp Republicans", and thier "STAY THE COURSE" strategy in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. Another opportunity for Democrats to turn the Republican blame game against them has emerged.  

Bush turned to a familiar 2004 campaign theme Thursday: Democrats will raise taxes.  The response is that Democrats will do whatever it takes to turn this country in the right direction again.

In the last few weeks  Democratic Party Chair, Howard Dean, has been under attack from representatives of the gay community.  These attacks have made front page news from conservative outlets such as Drudge Report and Fox News.

Okay I don't really have recent poll numbers, but I did notice that Drudge was already trying a pro-active damage control campaign.  He is highlighting that all the weekly news magazines are still headlining the Cheney hunting incident (Of course these weekly magazines are always a week behind but that's not important).  He is attempting to demonstrate the absurditity of the left wing media. Drudge gives us:

Okay folks, just a late evening press round-up for you.

The most significant part for me is that the "The White House declined to provide copies of e-mail messages or other correspondence by senior advisers to the president"

Let's demand an independent commission.  Also I am looking for some clips of Bush saying in Arizona that he has everything taken care of or words to that effect.

Ahhh the ridiculousness of Bush's "democracy-in-the-middle-east" push comes full circle.  As a consequence of the Democratic process, Bush now says he will not support the people's choice.  

Wow this is completely unexpected (insert sarcastic expression)! Imagine, a muslim population voting for their favourite muslim cleric [and just how "radical" is a party that gets the majority of the vote]?! My gosh...Who...I say who...jajajajust who would have anticipated this?

And how...I mean, tell me how Mr. Bush, does this [see snippet below]promote democracy, when the very party that wins the people's vote, you have now refused to recognize?  Maybe just maybe your pipe dream of democracy in the middle east was just more the empty rhetoric