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Matthews: Bush’s claim of ‘36 countries’ in Iraq is ‘ludicrous.’
In his address to the nation tonight, President Bush said, “To the international community: The success of a free Iraq matters to every civilized nation. We thank the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq and the many others who are helping that young democracy.” In the MSNBC post-debate analysis with Keith [...]

New WH Report Contradicts Bush’s Claim That Troop Drawdown Is Result Of ‘Success’ In Iraq
Tonight in his prime time address, President Bush announced that he plans to withdraw approximately 23,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by mid-July, returning the force to pre-surge levels and “leaving about 137,000 U.S. troops in place.” He claimed that because of his escalation’s “success” on the ground, troops can now be drawn down: Iraqi forces [...]

Boehner misleadingly responds to ’small price’ criticism.
Last night, TPM caught House Minority Leader John Boehner saying that the sacrifice of soldiers who have died or been wounded in Iraq “will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda.” After Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), DNC Chairman Howard Dean and DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen condemned the remarks, Boehner’s office [...]

15 percent:
Number of Americans who can name the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, compared with 66 percent of Americans who can name “at least one of the judges on the Fox television show American Idol.” The new study also reveals that 70 percent of those surveyed did not know that Supreme Court [...]

In Speech Tonight, Bush Will Lay Out Long-Term Plan To Stay In Iraq
In his “eighth” major Iraq speech, President Bush will tonight endorse the Gen. David Petraeus’s plan to stay 9-10 years in Iraq, prolonging the escalation until next summer. Bush will falsely allege that he supports “redeployment” from Iraq, heralding the strategy as “a way to bring a divided America together.” From excerpts of tonight’s speech: [...]

Bush To Adopt Warner Drawdown Proposal — Is He ‘Hurting The Cause Of Freedom?’
Tonight in his prime time address, President Bush will announce that a “total of 5,700 of the 21,500 combat troops added this year will return by Christmas.” This plan mirrors an August proposal put forth by Sen. John Warner (R-VA), who called on Bush to announce on Sept. 15 the that he will “initiate the [...]

Bush climate change program ’saddled with delays.’
A Bush administration program for improving climate research “is saddled with delays and threatened by cuts,” a panel said in a report today. It added that “insufficient effort has gone into translating advances in climate science into information useful to local elected officials” and others potentially affected by climate change.

Boehner is Bush’s new BFF.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “has quietly become President Bush’s indispensable confidant on Capitol Hill. He chats almost daily about the war in Iraq with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or other top administration officials.” Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) said that Boehner is useful for the administration to reach Congress because the “White [...]

O’Reilly: Middle Easterners want to ’sit around,’ ’smoke.’
On the Monday edition of his radio show, Bill O’Reilly opined that citizens of Middle Eastern countries don’t “want democracy.” O’Reilly then claimed that it was because they are lazy and just want to “smoke,” “sit around,” and “go to the mosques“:In my opinion, they just don’t. They want their meals. They want to smoke. [...]

O’Hanlon: ‘I Could Easily See Myself Changing Camps’ On Iraq ‘In The Next Six To Nine Months’
At a Brookings Institution event today, Iraq war proponent Michael O’Hanlon expressed his support for President Bush’s call to extend the escalation, but he claimed he could only support the strategy “for another six to nine months”:If you think there’s hope [in Iraq], there’s a very powerful argument in favor of trying to see what [...]

Petraeus Has ‘Expressed Long-Term Interest’ In Running For President
According to a senior Iraqi officer who knew Gen. David Petraeus when he was stationed in Baghdad from 2004-2005, Petraeus is interested in running for President. From The Independent today: The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according [...]

ThinkFast: September 13, 2007
At a White House meeting this week, President Bush told Democratic leaders said he planned to “start doing some redeployment.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) immediately interjected: “No you’re not, Mr. President. … You’re just going back to the presurge level.”Citing remarks about troop withdrawals by Gen. David Petraeus, “Democrats began a fresh campaign Wednesday [...]

Senate panel demands withdrawal of CIA nominee.
On Tuesday, Think Progress noted that a coalition of human rights and advocacy groups were urging the Senate Intelligence Committee to reject President Bush’s nominee for General Counsel of the CIA, John Rizzo. The groups said that Rizzo’s refusal at a June confirmation hearing to disavow his approval of a 2002 memo stretching the [...]

Katie Couric is the right wing’s new ’sweetheart.’
Last week, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reported from Iraq, but her stories largely repeated the Bush administration’s talking points. She even admitted that her stories were largely based on “what the U.S. military want[ed]” her to see. The right wing is now embracing her. Roll Call reports that conservative aides on Capitol Hill [...]

Sattar Abu Risha
– the head of the Anbar Salvation Council who President Bush had credited for ushering in “bottom-up reconciliation” in Anbar — has been killed in an IED attack. Just 10 days ago, Bush visited Risha in Iraq and hailed his efforts in “cooperating with the United States against al Qaeda in Iraq.” Today, he [...]

Wash. Times Claims Increased GOP Unity On Iraq, Ignores New Anti-War Conservative
In an article this morning, the Washington Times is claiming that the recent testimony by Gen. David Petraeus has “bolstered” Republican unity in support of President Bush’s Iraq policy. The piece, written by S.A. Miller, quotes House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) as saying “his caucus is considerably more unified” on Iraq following Petraeus’ report:House [...]

Former DoD, State Dept officials: Rumsfeld is wrong.
In a recent interview with GQ, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that Afghanistan was a “big success!” Today, a former CIA officer and a former State Department official write in the Los Angeles Times that Rumsfeld is wrong: Former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld says in the current edition of GQ magazine that [...]

The troops were coming out anyways.
Tonight, President Bush will spin the drawdown of surge troops to the status quo ante as “progress.” In fact, the pullout is simply a natural result of the fact the military is overstretched. Gen. David Petraeus acknowledged this week that the 30,000 troops were coming home anyways. “Yes, the surge forces were scheduled to [...]