6 years ago Today: Rumsfeld said "stuff happens" in Iraq

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Saturday April 11, 2009 · 7:14 AM PDT

2009/04/11 · 07:14

On a terrible week for the U.S. in Iraq -- with 5 U.S. soldiers blown up and killed yesterday and another deadly bombing today -- it may be apt to recall and reprint the now infamous remarks of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld exactly six years ago after the liberation of Baghdad.

Besides celebrations, rioting and robbery broke out six years ago today. Rumsfeld, the next day, referred to the "catastrophic success" of the invasion, noted that "freedom's untidy" and most famously, declared, "Stuff happens!"

GregMitch

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Thursday April 09, 2009 · 8:04 AM PDT

2009/04/09 · 08:04

Six years ago today the U.S. media and administration officials who plotted the invasion of Iraq celebrated the fall of Baghdad while expressing few fears about the future. "We're all neo-cons now!" crowed Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough, also on MSNBC, declared, "I'm waiting to hear the words, 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."

Vice President Cheney dismissed critics of the war as ''retired military officers embedded in T.V. studios'' (consider the irony of that given later revelations). Donald Rumsfeld compared the end of Saddam Hussein's government to the fall of the Berlin Wall - a tragically premature judgment, as we would soon learn.

GregMitch

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Saturday April 04, 2009 · 8:00 AM PDT

2009/04/04 · 08:00

A fuller picture of the mass murderer in Binghamton started to emerge this morning. Late reports picture him as a gun nut who, after 28 years in the U.S., came to hate this country, was laid off last November -- and threatened to "kill the president."

Though which president is unclear.

GregMitch

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Friday April 03, 2009 · 5:58 PM PDT

2009/04/03 · 17:58

You, and others, may have thought he was only joking three weeks ago when the Comedy Central hero hinted on his show that he would soon be going to, and taping, in or near Iraq, but it is definitely happening.

My friend Paul Rieckhoff, the great vets leader, tweeted late today that he had briefed Colbert in advance of the trip.

GregMitch

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Wednesday April 01, 2009 · 7:43 AM PDT

2009/04/01 · 07:43

Was it another Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer takedown? Another case of a faux newsman going where the mainstream media dared not go?

It was shocking last night to watch the usually pro-rightwing Colbert persona lay into Beck without an ounce of sympathy. Others have noted this but let me add: It came just one day after The New York Times' frontpage profile of Beck that failed to fully air his dirty laundry and mainly treated him as just another popular entertainer full of "moral lessons" and "passion" and "outrage."

GregMitch

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Tuesday March 31, 2009 · 7:47 PM PDT

2009/03/31 · 19:47

Yes, it was exciting to watch Murphy close the 1500 then 1100 vote gap in the final half hour, to take lead of 81 and hold on at 65 with 100% in.

But Times-Union, the big Albany paper, reports 6000 absentee ballots and foreign and military to come in.

Not to mention re-canvass, recount.

GregMitch

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Sunday March 29, 2009 · 7:38 AM PDT

2009/03/29 · 07:38

I realize there are tons of young/younger/youngish or even oldish people out there who are still a bit mystified by the reverence so many of us boomer types have for Bob Dylan, even as some of us find his recordings of the past 40 years rather mixed, at times baffling.

It's understandable, if you have mainly been exposed to Geezer Bob, who is hard to get a handle on musically and politically. You may not "get" Dylan but I do "get" your confusion about him. And there's always "the voice" -- certainly a bit hard for many to get past these past decades, if not before.

Anyway, just spend 7 minutes checking out the video I have linked to below -- when Bob was very young himself -- and the lyric excerpts. Perhaps you might "get" him, or at least the special place he held/holds, a little better.

GregMitch

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Saturday March 28, 2009 · 8:28 AM PDT

2009/03/28 · 08:28

After four decades of writing in at least paragraph form, I finally joined Twitter last Sunday Presto: I already have over 300 "followers," which makes Jesus, with 12, look like a piker. As Marvin Gaye sang, "How tweet it is to be loved by you." But it's the news scoop/instant political connection aspect that impresses me so far.

It was about time I signed on. I came across an online article just yesterday that stated, "Twitter has jumped the shark." It was dated March 25, 2007. Perhaps it is still in mid-air two years later.

So what happened this week? Believe me, it had nothing to do with finding out what everyone had for breakfast or what they think of "Walkmen."

GregMitch

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Friday March 27, 2009 · 10:05 AM PDT

2009/03/27 · 10:05

Somehow Jon Stewart missed perhaps the most damning Jim Cramer clip of all from the CNBC archives.

A truly embarrassing, and revealing, video has been posted on YouTube for well over a year, showing Cramer railing against New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for his early mortgage crackdowns, including going after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, he calls "this guy" Cuomo a "genuine Communist."

GregMitch

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Thursday March 26, 2009 · 7:20 PM PDT

2009/03/26 · 19:20

I've written often here on the tragedy and scandal of the electrocution of U.S. troops in Iraq -- following the death there of a friend's son -- but there is a major new revelation tonight.

Military inspectors "are racing to examine 90,000 U.S.-run facilities in Iraq with the goal of repairing electrical problems before more troops are electrocuted or shocked while showering or using appliances," the AP reports.

Here's the thing: fully one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and internal military document obtained by AP. That translates to possibly 30,000 in all if the trend holds.

GregMitch

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Wednesday March 25, 2009 · 8:12 AM PDT

2009/03/25 · 08:12

A new poll from Rasmussen confirms what perhaps you may have suspected: About 1 in 4 (24%) of all Americans say (as Rasmussen puts it) "satirical news-oriented television programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are taking the place of traditional news outlets."

It's surprising that it cuts across nearly all ages. Yes, it's just under 1 in 3 for those 21 to 39% but many of their elders are also coming to this view.

GregMitch

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Saturday March 21, 2009 · 7:56 AM PDT

2009/03/21 · 07:56

Some of you may only read (if you do) Paul Krugman's regular NYT print/Web columns. If you are not checking his blog at the paper's site every day, in these scary times (for the economy and the president) you really need to.

Case in point today, when we get a quick, and very negative, reaction to the belated news today on the Geithner/Obama plan for aiding banks. He calls it a disaster which will surely fail and imperil Obama's full economic plans. He even suggests he is "despair." I've linked and excerpted below, but first an aside.

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Younger folks: If you've never "gotten" Dylan, try this

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