Recently this phrase has been appearing more and more frequently in the news. Without debating what is meant by a War on Terror, where exactly the Central Front lies really should not be in question. The Central Front for our current endeavor is and always has been Afghanistan. And this is a fact with which the McCain campaign is having more and more difficulty coming to grips. The McCain campaign spokespeople are very uncomfortable having to answer the question when asked whether Iraq or Afghanistan is the Central Front. Now they usually try to say both or the two are inseparable. Or my favorite response that the central front is Iraq, because Al Queda or Osama bin Laden says it is. This is a subject we need to hammer, because it not only displays McCains lack of understanding of the situation, it also undercuts the argument that the surge has been successful.

What do you say when someone you care about tells you they're voting for McCain?  What do you say to someone who wants to vote for the man who would continue Bush's destructive policies - or worse?

Copy this diary and show it to them.  If you can get them to read the whole thing, it might just give them pause.

More below the fold...

Now here's a story

Yes, I said a story.
Stories can be true, not true, not quite true, and completely false.
I think this one belongs somewhere in between.

Neocon godfather Irving Kristol once famously said that "a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality."  By that standard, the political right will need to coin an altogether new term to describe John McCain in the wake of the beating he has taken over the past several days.  In the span of just two weeks, McCain has seen Barack Obama's call for a strategic refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan validated by the Pentagon and in Baghdad.  And now, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has come out in favor of Obama's approach to drawing down U.S. forces in his country.

While I didnot see it, a couple of sources are syaing that Dan Rather mistakenly said "Osame Bin Laden" when he apparently menat Obama.

GOP often brag that they are national security experts... but excuse me

I subscribe to the school that believes satire is one of American democracy's last refuges.  I don't defend it reflexively, but think the burden is squarely on the shoulders of those who would attack it so as to silence it.  So when I first learned of the New Yorker cover of the Obamas, I grinned at the concept, and imagined the New Yorker would acquit the idea well.

But over 24 hours -- after studying the cover art as a critic rather than glancing at it as newsstand visitor (where many will see it) -- my position has evolved from approval to disapproval.  It took me a while to sort out why, but I think I have narrowed it down to two main complaints -- 1) the nature of the venue itself, and 2) the Osama characterization above the fireplace.

The news that President Bush will begin drawing down U.S. troops in Iraq below pre-surge levels this fall is being greeted as an October surprise for John McCain.  But even with the successes of the surge, events on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan are validating Barack Obama's call for a strategic refocus on Afghanistan.  The Pentagon's admission of the urgent need to shift troops to counter the rising Al Qaeda threat along the Pakistan frontier, combined with the Iraqi government's growing insistence on a timetable for American withdrawal, means it is John McCain, and not Barack Obama, who finds himself in a box over the future of Iraq.

Day 1
  George Bush announces that he will be seeking a third term in office.  He explains, "While I respect Senator McCain's service to this country, I feel that he has embraced too much of the Moveon.org, Radical Left's 'change for the sake of change' rhetoric.  And that could lead to him undoing the crucial work my Administration has done over the years to protect this country from the threat of terrorism."
  The McCain's camp has no comment, though sources claim they heard the words "But I was tortured!" coming out of Mr. McCain's house.

Just one month after airing an ad which declared "only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war," John McCain once again joked about creating carnage in Iran.  On the stump Tuesday, McCain added killing Iranians with cigarette addiction to last year's musing about "bomb bomb Iran."  Whether he's yukking it up over conflict with Tehran, following Osama Bin Laden to the "gates of hell" or just being the "worst nightmare" of Al Qaeda and Hamas, John McCain sounds more and more like the man he seeks to replace.

The Republicans, and most of the Democrats, are about to surrender some of our rights. Today they are set to give away the Fourth Amendment to Osama bin Laden.

Real patriots died to get us those rights. Real patriots have died throughout the years to protect those rights. Now a bunch of cowards are going to give them up because they're scared of a couple of ragtag terrorists hiding in a cavesomewhere in Pakistan.

And somehow Barack Obama thought it was a good idea to go along with these surrender monkeys. He thought it was a good idea to sign a bill written by Dick Cheneyright before the elections. What a terrible lack of judgment. What a sad display of weakness.

His parents are beside themselves. This is a bright, optimistic 18-year old who is kind to little animals. They are having no luck trying to talk him out of it so they've asked their friends and neighbors to try to get through to him. He even thinks the war in Iraq is a mistake, but some testosterone-charged lust for adventure or glory is pulling him to join. At eighteen, you think you're immortal. I'm putting my letter to him after the jump. Maybe others can lift some of the ideas in it (or contribute others) if you are going through similar efforts. I don't know what will work on him and we're all sick over it.

Congratulations to Bush for achieving one of America's most wanted strategic objective.  Truly, with friend like Bush who needs enemy?

If this story i read is true, (since media can't be trusted these days), I will just about have had it.

http://thinkprogress.org/...

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Rice said she was "proud" the administration decided to invade Iraq. Believe it or not that's not the only quote from the interview that's worthy of "last throws", "bring it on", or "Mission accomplished" status. She goes on to insult the entire Muslim world with an incredibly ignorant comment. Follow me over the jump for the details.

New York Times, 14 October 2001
''If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn off the tap,'' said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. ''He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel'' -- about six times what it sells for now.

As you may have heard, oil prices went above $144 this week.

Why Bush and McCain let Osama bin Laden Escape

The answer is clear. Read on.

Barack Obama said during a debate and a speech in August of 2007,  the following about Pakistan:

"Let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains, that murdered 3,000 Americans," said Obama during the counterterrorism address.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-valued terrorist targets and if President Musharraf will not act, we will."

Other candidates during the primaries, including  Hillary Clinton and John McCain, tried to make hay over those comments back then, remember?