Can we leave now?

From the Agitator :

In this sense, the very people who are supposed to be protecting us from terrorists are playing right into the terrorists' hands. Despite the absence of any specific information, and despite the fact that his saying as much would do little if anything to actually thwart a pending attack, Chertoff still feels he has to go public with his "gut feeling" that something awful might happen this summer. And so the newspapers and Drudge and the blogs run with it. And now we get to go about our summer business with the foreboding cloud of a possible terror attack looming on the horizon.

but other Democrats may not, courtesy of Redstate : he's willing to consider working with teachers to determine a reasonable form of merit pay.

look here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19727642/

it details which criteria were supposedly success.

let's take a gander, huh?

Satisfactory
— Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.
— Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semiautonomous regions.
— Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad Security Plan.
—Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq.
— Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations.
— Ensuring that the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for outlaws, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation, as Bush says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pledged to do.
— Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad.
— Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.
— Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.

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let's look at the very first one:

— Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.

so they succeeded, huh?

Constitutional review
Requirement: Form a Constitutional Review Committee and then complete the constitutional review. Political blocks need to reach agreement on Presidential powers, the powers of the regions vs. the central government, and the status of Kirkuk.

Completion: Satisfactory
Constitutional Review Committee has been formed. "Significant progress has been made on many substantive issues and technical details involved in the constitutional review process," the report states.

I see. So they had to form a committee and complete a review, they only formed the committee. So why is this a success?

Oh because the administration needs a life preserver.

The semi autonomous region law is passed but not implemented (which is admittedly closer to a real success).
The support committees were formed but then turned out useless.
Sectarian violence reduced? Don't make me laugh.

The report notes “the Government of Iraq -- with substantial Coalition assistance -- has made satisfactory progress toward reducing sectarian violence... Furthermore, though sectarian violence has been reduced, it is not yet reduced to a level the Coalition judges acceptable."

3 Iraqi brigades?

The report finds that “while manning levels for the deployed Iraqi units continue to be of concern, the Iraqi Government has provided the equivalent of three additional brigades to Baghdad and has made provisions to sustain this level of effort and to address manning issues.”

Safe haven? They might have gotten that one.

Joint security stations? Accomplished but we've already seen they are vulnerable to insurgent attacks. A pyrrhic success at best.

Equal rights? Sure.

$10 billion in reconstruction?

The report finds that “the Iraqi Government is making satisfactory progress in allocating funds to ministries and provinces, but even if the full $10 billion capital budget is allocated, spending units will not be able to spend all these funds by the end of 2007.”

So in other words of the nine "successes" two are blatantly false ($10 billion for reconstruction and constitutional review), two only passed by moving the goal posts (3 brigades, lowered sectarian violence), two were counter productive (support commitees, joint security stations, and three might genuinely have succeeded (regional law, no safe haven, and equal rights for minority parties).

Worst. Report card. Ever.

that she is not to use dKos as a base of operations for her 'campaign' as a third party candidate to unseat Ms. Pelosi.

Yea, he admitted to doing it on Sean Hannity's show last night . It was reported earlier by the LA Times.

By Fred's reasoning, just because he accepted money and lobbied to liberalize abortion laws under bush41, doesn't mean he supports abortion or anything.

I guess lobbyists and lawyers are just high priced prostitutes then, huh?