I can’t wait to see this interview when it airs tomorrow morning on Fox News Sunday. It’s obvious from reading the transcript that it’s going to be President Clinton at his best and possibly angriest.

I guess that’s what happens when you take the risk and go on Faux News.

Check out the full transcript here courtesy of Think Progress.

“It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work – on a mission that has not weakened terrorism but worsened it.”

-John Forbes Kerry, September 9, 2006 in a speech delivered at Boston’s Faneuil Hall on keeping America safe

Things in Iraq are bad. Rumsfeld is not helping. Resign Rumsfeld!

From DoubleSpeak reader JL:

“Wow, right now the heat index is higher than Bagdad. Maybe we should have Congress march around the streets in full gear and see what it’s like there.”

Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, a supporter of the President or a foe, please take a minute to remember the sadness taking place in Iraq. Much of the Iraq news is being pushed to the back burner because of the war in Lebanon, but the human toll continues to climb and things are getting much worse. Now, even members of Congress are suffering the consequences of this intractable war.

Max Baucus’ nephew killed in Iraq
By the Helena Independent Record

Cpl. Phillip E. Baucus, 28, of Wolf Creek, was killed Saturday during combat operations in Iraq.

He was the son of John and Nina Baucus and the nephew of Montana Sen. Max Baucus.

While a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marine Corps declined to provide details of the circumstances surrounding Baucus’ death, Cpl. Heidi Loredo did say he was killed in Al Anbar province while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Read the rest of this story.

The foreign policy of the most powerful nation this planet has ever seen is being managed by a man who is making it up as he goes along. Witness President Bush’s interaction with NBC’s David Gregory this morning. Gregory asked the President why the new era of “Arab-Israeli peace” that the invasion of Iraq was supposed to usher in doesn’t seem to be happening.

Our President’s response:

For a while, American foreign policy was just, Let’s hope everything is calm — manage calm. But beneath the surface brewed a lot of resentment and anger that was manifested on September the 11th.

And so we’ve taken a foreign policy that says: On the one hand, we will protect ourselves from further attack in the short run by being aggressive in chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice.

And make no mistake: They’re still out there, and they would like to harm our respective peoples because of what we stand for. In the long term, to defeat this ideology — and they’re bound by an ideology — you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom.

Ignoring for the moment that he never got to the “on the other hand” portion of his statement, it’s become truly terrifying the degree to which this administration seems to have no plan, no direction, and really no concern with the rapidly decaying situation across the entire Middle East. Condi plays her piano, Rummy debates vocabulary, and George just parties with the winners of a game show.

Nearly 500 are dead in Israel and Lebanon. More than 6,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in the past 2 months. And 2,571 American soldiers have died in Iraq since we invaded. We need leadership and we need a change.

UPDATE: TPMmuckraker has the full transcript. What the hell is he smoking?

Secretary of State Condi Rice is over there in the Middle East trying to help curb fighting between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists. The jury is still out on her performance thus far, but nonetheless, she’s stressed. You would be too.

So, to reflect her somber mood and blow off some steam, she will play a piano recital in Malaysia this week.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - In keeping with her mood and to reflect the world crises she tackles daily, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to play a somber piece of music to her Asian colleagues in Malaysia this week.

The Association of South East Asian Nations has a tradition of ministers performing usually silly skits at a gala dinner, but Rice, an accomplished pianist, said she was more at ease playing a serious, reflective piece, possibly by the composer Brahms.

“It is not a time that is frivolous. It is a serious time. I will play something that is in accordance with my serious mood,” said Rice, who had just attended a conference in Rome aimed at helping resolve the Lebanon crisis.

SHOW OFF! At least she’s not shoe shopping.

Rep. John Murtha, the conservative Democrat, former Marine, and close ally of the military from Western Pennsylvania who has been calling for many months for a strategic redeployment of troops from Iraq, sent a letter to his fellow House Dems, outlining the true cost of this horrible war:

Dear Democratic Colleague,

We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. That equates to 2 billion dollars a week, or 267 million dollars a day, or 11 million dollars AN HOUR.

Attached are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we “stay the course” indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead.

Some highlights:

• $1.5 billion/year = 5 days in Iraq
  Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost)
• $700 million/year = 2 days in Iraq
  100% screening of all air cargo - rejected because of cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes)
• $5 billion/5 years = 2-1/2 weeks in Iraq
  Cut in Medicaid in President’s FY 2007 budget
• $15 billion/yr = 1-1/2 weeks in Iraq
  Provide health insurance to 9 million children with no health insurance
• $3.4 billion/yr = 13 days in Iraq
  Cut in education budget in President’s FY 07 budget from FY 06 funding level (over 40 programs including drug-free schools, federal support for the arts, technology and parent-resource centers
• $300 million = 1 day, 3 hours in Iraq
  President’s cut to EPA budget in FY 2007

Full letter after the jump…

(more…)

A U.S. Marine who was featured in Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9-11” has been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq the AP is reporting.

Plouhar, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., had taken four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Flint after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle. He is seen in the 2004 film approaching prospective recruits in a mall parking lot.

Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar