On Sunday, September 9 Senator Barbara Boxer, speaking on CNN, said, "70 percent of the Iraqis want the U.S. troops out of Iraq."

President Bush claims we are in Iraq to bring democracy and freedom.  However, the glaring hypocrisy of this claim is self-evident.  With the majority of Iraq's citizens wanting the U.S. occupying troops to leave, Bush chases around the world insisting that the U.S. is winning the war against the so-called enemy and the troops must stay to keep Iraq stable.  This would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Remember Bush's finger pointing propaganda before the Iraq War about the axis of evil?  Evil is in the eye of the beholder.

In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on September 9, in a sidebar adjoining her regular column, D. Parvaz speaks of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the 355 prisoners being held there.  Recently there have been 385 flights or disturbances there.

Lisa Vorderbrueggen has an article in today's Contra Costa Times, titled, Bloggers take Tauscher to task. The article has a number of huge problems, let me list some of mine and I'm sure other bloggers will have their own complaints.

First off, I don't see how this story could be written without mentioning that the exact same thing happened to Congressman Jeffery Cohelan in the next district over. OK, maybe not the exact same thing because Cohelan went into his unsuccessful 1970 primary with strong labor support. But the complete lack of historical perspective does damage to the analysis.

But not as much damage as this:

Yes, Tauscher voted to allow President Bush to start the Iraq war. But so did every other Democrat in the nation except one.

That is a lie. A lie in the pages of the Contra Costa Times. In reality, Tauscher was one of only two Bay Area Democrats to support the unnecessary, unilateral, invasion of Iraq with the vast majority opposed. In all, only 81 Democrats voted the wrong way on the biggest issue of our time with 126 voting no, meaning 60% of house Democrats were opposed.

This failure to understand even the most basic dynamics and history means this isn't the type of article I would recommend people reading.

If last week was defined by Katie Merrill catapulting a primary campaign against Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, this was the week that Tauscher tried in vain to distance herself from Joe Lieberman.

The following is how the week developed, you can sign up to get this delivered by email at the Ellen Tauscher Weekly.

Some say the feud between Nancy Pelosi and Ellen Tauscher has always existed. Some say that it that it is a Hatfield-McCoy stories that goes back generations in east coast politics. But one thing is clear, it erupted in the press during the summer of 2001:

What a week. Actually, what a past few months.

There's been a bit of a backstory going on with the fight for the mental healthcare of our troops. I'm not just talking now about the mental care they receive as vets after they return home -- we're talking now about the actual healthcare decisions the DOD is making for our troops on the battlefield.

This week's first strike was the GAO Report [pdf] stating that only 22% (1 out of 5) troops who are at risk for developing combat PTSD -- as determined via a mental health screening form, the PDHA [pdf], administered by the DOD -- are referred for further mental health evaluations. The DOD then released its response following the less-than-flattering media's coverage of the report stating:

"The level of our effort and our outreach is unprecedented," he said. "We have broken new ground."

New ground, indeed. Stunning, unbelievable new ground. Get your steel toe shoes on, folks, and follow me for the full story on what the DOD dustup is all about...

Exciting news!  In addition to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Governor Mark Warner, Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Mr. Valerie Plame), and countless others, two additional longtime Kossack favorites will be speaking at YearlyKos, the totally off the hook convention and festival scheduled for June 8 - 11, 2006 at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ladies and Gentlemen, below the fold, I am pleased to reveal that the following TWO blogosphere and political superstars will be featured speakers and honored guests at YearlyKos.