49% Say Bush Responsible for Provoking Iraq War
44% Say Hussein

via Rasmussen Reports

So, what does this poll mean winguts? Oh never mind, President Bush doesn't look at polls. Except when they help him. Now I know they like the Gitmo results, but they are mum on the most important poll of them all, The War poll. Without Iraq there would be no Gitmo. Without Iraq this country would not be so divided, without Iraq.........please fill in your answer.

Hawks Say What We've Been Saying All Along

They are not quick studies. We anti-war types have been arguing from day one that an American invasion of Iraq would be a disaster and would serve as the best recruitment campaign the Muslim fundies had ever seen:

A growing number of national security specialists who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein are moving to a position unthinkable even a few months ago: that the large US military presence is impeding stability as much as contributing to it and that the United States should begin major reductions in troops beginning early next year.

Their assessments, expressed in reports, think tank meetings, and interviews, run counter to the Bush administration's insistence that the troops will remain indefinitely to establish security. But some contend that the growing support for an earlier pullout could alter the administration's thinking.

Those arguing for immediate troop reductions include key Pentagon advisers, prominent neoconservatives, and some of the fiercest supporters of the Iraq invasion among Washington's policy elite.

The core of their arguments is that even as the US-led coalition goes on the offensive against the insurgency, the United States, by its very presence, is stimulating the resistance.

"Our large, direct presence has fueled the Iraqi insurgency as much as it has suppressed it," said Michael Vickers, a conservative-leaning Pentagon consultant and longtime senior CIA official who supported the war.

These people are specialists, for God's sake?

Anybody surprised by this?

ABC News:

The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.

Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."

Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."

ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday. Read the report's executive summary HERE.

The study, which was due to be released Wednesday, found no "smoking gun" or any evidence of a direct connection between Saddam's Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist organization.

The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.

Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.

UPDATE: According to ABC News, "[The report] won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online."

According to our great C&L commenters, it can be found here.

From Lessig

Remember his statement on Good Morning America (3-18-03) (at least according to Warren Zevon):

I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it’s clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.”

So any endorsement yet?

From MMFA

O'Reilly denied endorsing Bush -- after urging listeners to vote for Bush
On the October 26 broadcast of his radio show, FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly urged his audience: "[F]igure out who Osama bin Laden would vote for, you vote for the other guy." Seconds later, O'Reilly declared: "I'm gonna go out on a limb. I think they [Al Qaeda] fear [President George W.] Bush more than [Senator John] Kerry."

From the October 26 broadcast of the nationally syndicated Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

CALLER: I guess we know now that you're voting for Bush because you said, "vote for the guy that Osama [bin Laden] doesn't want." And then you just said Osama wants Kerry. So --

Rising Hegemon: Another endorsement...

Steve Audio: More Rethuglican 'broken government' negligence. People, it's not mere incompetence, it's their ideology.

the field negro: Toby, I think you have a hit on your hands

Sadly, No! You probably remember that fringe-dweller's favorite, The Clinton Body Count. And if you're on the wingnuttiest email lists, you've been warned about the Obama Death List. Now comes the McCain - Obama Death List, a partial list of deaths of persons connected to both John NMA McCain and Barack HUSSEIN Obama during their time as presidential hopefuls in the United States.

Susie Bright's Journal: Going Off The Rails

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: 2 Political Junkies, Rustbelt Intellectual, Cagle's Cartoon BLog, Guys From Area 51

Chalk this up as a win for Deborah Shank and decency... props to the blogoshere and Keith Olbermann, who hammered Wal-Mart all last week as his "Worst Person" for their shameful treatment of a former employee. We've been exposing this horrendous story for a while now.

CNN: (h/t Andy K & Dr. Hussein Matt)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is dropping a controversial effort to collect more than $400,000 in health-care reimbursement from a former employee who suffered brain damage in a traffic accident.

The world's largest retailer said in a letter to the family of
Deborah Shank it will not seek to collect money the Shanks won in an injury lawsuit against a trucking company for the accident.

Whatever explains Wal-Mart's change of heart, this is great news for Mrs. Shank.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, newly back from his Iraq trip with BFF John McCain, appeared on Face The Nation to reiterate that really, the surge is working. No, I'm serious. It really has.

But the big picture for me is I’m incredibly pleased with the performance of our troops and Gen. Petraeus. On the political front, we’ve had the de-Ba’athification law passed. What does that mean? That means members of the Ba’ath party, who ruled the country under Saddam Hussein are now allowed to get some of their jobs back. That means the Shi’a and Kurds are saying to the Sunnis, ‘come back in and help us run the country.’ They passed a $48 billion budget, where every group in Iraq gets to share the oil resources. There was an amnesty law telling the prisoners in Iraq that we’re going to let some of you go…go back home, stop fighting, help build the new Iraq and most important of all we’re going to have provincial elections in October. The Sunnis boycotted the election in 2005, and everywhere I went in Anbar Province the Sunnis are ready to vote and be part of democracy.

Yup, that looks really rosy, doesn't it? As long as you don't follow the links.

I have no idea where John Hussein Kennedy's lapel pin is or why there is no flag behind him, sorry.

Coming next Wednesday, March 26 to a theatre near you, a free simulcast featuring Michael J. Fox and Air America's Marc Maron, "Everything you always wanted to know about the separation of Church and State, but were afraid to ask." Cities are listed here.

On topic, Blog Against Theocracy is this weekend. Open thread below...

Pissedonpolitics.com: "The Militant Islamic Bush Cheney Administration" shows Pickles in her terr'ist outfit and Dubya's face worn reverently on the hindquarters of brown people. On topic, many of us bloggers are following Sully's lead in taking up the middle name of "Hussein" just for fun. (h/t Uncommon Sense). Signed, Blue Hussein Gal.

Open Thread below.