I've been meaning to write about this Unity '08 piece of shit political party. Spokeshead Sam Waterston whines that the two parties have become so polarized that they fail to address the concerns of the American people. So they sniff and decide they will step off a hundred paces from everybody else, which would be the middle woodnit? and hammer an impudent little stake in the ground, hoist a flag from it and declare a new Merika.
Whatta putz!
Yo' you twitchy dickhead over there with the geeky looking nukylar wedgie posing as a flag, move about a thousand miles to the left and you will find the cold and the tired and the huddled masses that used to be the middle class, and you will find that all you stoopid sumbitches exist only in the fantasyland of corporate America, where campaign donations keep corporate welfare flowing, the food, drug, earth, wind and fire monopolies well protected from the vermin of the voters. Except for the voters who support their cause, which is to protect us from homosexuals and secular humanists that hate all your corporate profits because you love Jesus.
The last twenty five years stands as a stark testament to the failure of conservatism. The very mention of its name is a boot in the face of any family interested in improving their station in life. It exists as an anchor of prevention.
A thick and stifling mud of racism and male dominance and blotting out of anything new and creative and vibrant. Only the old roots stand fast. New shoots and perspectives and channels and views are blotted out and smitten, removed from the calendar and the womb. The day is shut. A meaningless viewless sameness is all that exists with conservatism.
All problems shall be solved with enough police on the ground. Seen and unseen, the lidless eye of conservatism shall not blink and shall not rest until every hill is shoved into every valley. Nothing shall stick up and impugn the senses with deviance.
And now, as the desolation of conservatism creeps into view of the American psyche the people are aghast. Entrails of mother earth are vomited out into huge slag heaps in multinational corporations rape for profit. The skies dim and the wind is thickened in a massive hoax against Republicans like Inhofe and the oil corporations that fuel his campaign.
Democrats, for a generation, were lost in the woods being led by feckless sluts like Shrum saying to be elected you must pay fealty to the creeping and shapeless mud of conservatism that defines nothing.
And now, we reach the point of absolution, where the people of America wake up from their long nightmare of strangulating leadership, furious at their plight, ripping control of the Democratic party from the DC insider pundits, and demanding their government behave like a mechanism to benefit not just the privileged, but everyone.
Food, drug, earth, wind and fire.
And here comes Sam, with his happy, warm, furry puppy party, with posies in his hair, skipping and whistling "Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day...!"
Stuff it Sammy. Those of us on the left are not willing to gather at the river and sing kumbaya with a bunch of fucking warmongering neoconservatives that just spent the last thirty years labeling anything other than the dense mud of their sick, dark ideology traitorous America-haters.
Republicans have earned the right to lose in spectacular fashion. Do not deny them this right by attempting to split the 70% opposition vote.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Scooter Saves Shooter; Sentenced To 30 Months
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was sentenced today to 30 months in a Federal Pen, fined a quarter of a million dollars, 2 years of probation when he gets out of the hoosegow and 400 hours of community service, for being a liar and obstructing justice.
This whole sordid affair began with Ambassador Joe Wilson standing up to the Bush Administrations bogus claims in the run-up to the war with Iraq of Saddam seeking yellow cake uranium from Niger.
Ambassador Wilson has a history of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.
In the '90s, in the run-up to the first Iraq war, Wilson was stationed in Baghdad and received a note telling him all citizens under his care had to be registered and refusal to comply was a capitol offense. But to register, folks had to show up in person, which would just replenish Saddam's hostages.
Joe Wilson refused, being determined to protect those under his care, asked a Marine to fashion a hangman's noose. Mr. Wilson then proclaimed that if Saddam intended to kill him, he would "bring his own fucking rope."
Sounds like a bonafide hero to me.
And his wife was just as deeply involved in the protection of America. Valerie "Plame" Wilson was a spy for the CIA and worked in the area of nuclear proliferation of Iran.
Again, not something you would want to cast aside lightly, especially in light of her many years of service, training and experience, especially these days.
But Joe was dismayed the Administration kept slinging their Nukyalar crap about Iraq and the Niger connection, even after he had checked it out and found it was without merit. So he went public two days after the fourth of July in '03 with his op-ed piece published in the NYT titled, "What I Didn't Find In Niger."
The Administration was incensed and started behaving like third-grade sandbox bullies trying to figure out how to slam Joe Wilson. One of the exhibits in the trial was Joe Wilson's article, tore out of the NYT's with Dick Cheney's handwriting on it providing talking points to his minions.
One was something to the effect "Did his wife send him on this junket?"
Shortly thereafter, Valerie's name appeared in Bob Novacks column, ending her career and endangering the lives of anyone she had ever had contact in the Middle East. The message was clear; do not aide Americans in intelligence because they do not even protect their own.
The CIA requested an investigation, which Scooter Libby obstructed by lying repeatedly.
To aide Judge Reggie Walton in his decision for sentencing over 160 people wrote him letters. People like Henry Kissinger and Paul "horndog comblicker" Wolfowitz and Ronald Dumsfeld and John Bolton and l'il Dougie "stupidest man on the planet" Feith and Mary Matalin and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "I hate faggots" Peter Pace.
The defense whined and pleaded with the judge not to release the letters, because them dirty internet bloggers would mock them. The Judge disagreed and released the letters, so let the mocking begin!
As a general overview, most of these letters point out what a massively important person the letter writer is by using two or three paragraphs up by stating, "I..me...I...me...blah, blah, blah. and then they throw in something about Scoots being a real swell too.
They usually conclude with heartrending plea for leniency for the sake of Scooter's wife and children.
Ambassador Wilson and his wife have children, and the mother of these children's career has been ended.
And the neocons got their war which removed from all doubt that Republicans cannot do anything right whatsoever. Americans will pay dearly for a long time for the catastrophic reign of the Republican party.
Go over and peruse the letters at smoking gun. Every defender of Scooter Libby urges leniency for perjury, obstruction of justice and giving false statements. These are the same partisan hacks that demanded Bill Clinton's head for perjury during his impeachment hearing.
This whole sordid affair began with Ambassador Joe Wilson standing up to the Bush Administrations bogus claims in the run-up to the war with Iraq of Saddam seeking yellow cake uranium from Niger.
Ambassador Wilson has a history of bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.
In the '90s, in the run-up to the first Iraq war, Wilson was stationed in Baghdad and received a note telling him all citizens under his care had to be registered and refusal to comply was a capitol offense. But to register, folks had to show up in person, which would just replenish Saddam's hostages.
Joe Wilson refused, being determined to protect those under his care, asked a Marine to fashion a hangman's noose. Mr. Wilson then proclaimed that if Saddam intended to kill him, he would "bring his own fucking rope."
Sounds like a bonafide hero to me.
And his wife was just as deeply involved in the protection of America. Valerie "Plame" Wilson was a spy for the CIA and worked in the area of nuclear proliferation of Iran.
Again, not something you would want to cast aside lightly, especially in light of her many years of service, training and experience, especially these days.
But Joe was dismayed the Administration kept slinging their Nukyalar crap about Iraq and the Niger connection, even after he had checked it out and found it was without merit. So he went public two days after the fourth of July in '03 with his op-ed piece published in the NYT titled, "What I Didn't Find In Niger."
The Administration was incensed and started behaving like third-grade sandbox bullies trying to figure out how to slam Joe Wilson. One of the exhibits in the trial was Joe Wilson's article, tore out of the NYT's with Dick Cheney's handwriting on it providing talking points to his minions.
One was something to the effect "Did his wife send him on this junket?"
Shortly thereafter, Valerie's name appeared in Bob Novacks column, ending her career and endangering the lives of anyone she had ever had contact in the Middle East. The message was clear; do not aide Americans in intelligence because they do not even protect their own.
The CIA requested an investigation, which Scooter Libby obstructed by lying repeatedly.
To aide Judge Reggie Walton in his decision for sentencing over 160 people wrote him letters. People like Henry Kissinger and Paul "horndog comblicker" Wolfowitz and Ronald Dumsfeld and John Bolton and l'il Dougie "stupidest man on the planet" Feith and Mary Matalin and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "I hate faggots" Peter Pace.
The defense whined and pleaded with the judge not to release the letters, because them dirty internet bloggers would mock them. The Judge disagreed and released the letters, so let the mocking begin!
As a general overview, most of these letters point out what a massively important person the letter writer is by using two or three paragraphs up by stating, "I..me...I...me...blah, blah, blah. and then they throw in something about Scoots being a real swell too.
They usually conclude with heartrending plea for leniency for the sake of Scooter's wife and children.
Ambassador Wilson and his wife have children, and the mother of these children's career has been ended.
And the neocons got their war which removed from all doubt that Republicans cannot do anything right whatsoever. Americans will pay dearly for a long time for the catastrophic reign of the Republican party.
Go over and peruse the letters at smoking gun. Every defender of Scooter Libby urges leniency for perjury, obstruction of justice and giving false statements. These are the same partisan hacks that demanded Bill Clinton's head for perjury during his impeachment hearing.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
The Evolution Of The Crazy Church Lady
It seems Peggy Noonan is deeply offended by the titular head of her party; Republican/Conservative, doing exactly what they have always done--what they have been trained for--which is to promote the agenda of corporatists and monied interests by attacking the opposition as traitors who do not know what is good for them. Only this time, weary from carrying water for an incompetent and blatantly ideological administration, the crazy church lady gets her french pedicured toenail stepped on. She huffs:
Now, up until this point, the mighty right-wing wurlitzer has been silent on these very points. The tribal group-think of conservatism and Reagan's eleventh commandment, "thou shall not speak ill of another conservative," not only prevented them from pointing out the destruction of America, but directed them to label anyone who did so as far-left Michael Moore Bush-haters.
Let us continue to peek in at Ms. Noonan clutching her pearls and desperately fanning her face.
Well, gee golly gosh. The poor dear is a victim of Conservative S.O.P. which is demonization of your opponents so you can get your way. Peggy dear, to maintain your lifestyle you simply must be supplied with an endless supply of virtually powerless servants. Please do as you're told and do not question your betters, especially out loud. Remember the eleventh commandment.
Oh fer cryin' out loud. Peggy sprays this ink all over the Wall Street Journal as if she just now parachuted into the middle of the latest maladministration fecal fest. It's like Patrick Duffy just stepped out of the mutherfukkin shower on "Dallas" or sumthin.
It is open warfare within the Republican party, Wall Street who enjoys cheap labor and purchases the fuel for the Republican campaign machine, and the right-wing wurlitzer that generates profits from ad revenues based on low information, knuckle-dragging rascists, aka Republican voters.
Poilitics requires money and votes. This is the essence of the failure of conservatism. The interests of the corporatists are in direct conflict with the interest of the voters, violently, in the Republican party. In effect, they are hoist by their own petard as a result of their "southern strategy."
The biggest mouth-from-the-south, Bill O'Reilly hosts pro-comprehensive immigration plan Senator John McCain (R-AZ). via Atrios:
Completely aside from the fact that we have two guys whose names begin with O' and Mc, feel their "white cultural dominance" is threatened, indeed an existential threat as real as al qaeda, requiring some serious brown ass-kicking even closer to home, one wonders why O'Real McCoy doesn't have any Apaches or Navajo's involved in this little powow.
For a cherry on top of this little discussion I am including a brilliant collection of essays gleened from the comments of Firedoglake by a dear friend I have never met, Valley Girl. Hugh, very much tongue-in-cheek defends English as Our National Language. I begin here, with part three: Be careful, it may be a French invasion.
Or perhaps, Latin is a better defense.
Here, Hugh begs us to stay on the path and be wary of gorillas, or something:
For the sake of posterity here are parts one and two (follow the links) and Hugh even put up a yiddish version.
Hugh offers no version for Native Americans. Their language was not suitable to be integrated into American. And now, those who claim to hold a monopoly on the definition of American are fighting amongst themselves.
It is ironic that many in the Republican Party who do not believe in evolution are now throwing poo at each other.
Peggy Noonan wrote, "that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks."
Unfortunately, we did not hear such language coming from such learned and worthy scribes as Ms. Noonan until recently. One wonders at what point does such behavior cross the line from defensible to unacceptable.
I would presume to venture the O'Rielly defense (insufficiently racist) or the porch light defense (June bugs seek out the brightest porch lights) or both.
Conservatism cannot fail, people merely fail conservatism. A conservative can spend all the money s/he wants, quadruple the size of the federal government, but if they fall in the polls (porch light dims) by not being sufficiently racist they are failed conservatives.
[...]For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
[...]
Now, up until this point, the mighty right-wing wurlitzer has been silent on these very points. The tribal group-think of conservatism and Reagan's eleventh commandment, "thou shall not speak ill of another conservative," not only prevented them from pointing out the destruction of America, but directed them to label anyone who did so as far-left Michael Moore Bush-haters.
Let us continue to peek in at Ms. Noonan clutching her pearls and desperately fanning her face.
[...]But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."
[...]
Well, gee golly gosh. The poor dear is a victim of Conservative S.O.P. which is demonization of your opponents so you can get your way. Peggy dear, to maintain your lifestyle you simply must be supplied with an endless supply of virtually powerless servants. Please do as you're told and do not question your betters, especially out loud. Remember the eleventh commandment.
[...]
Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens? And often, though not exclusively, concerned conservatives? It is odd, but it is of a piece with, or a variation on, the "Too bad" governing style. And it is one that has, day by day for at least the past three years, been tearing apart the conservative movement.
[...]
Oh fer cryin' out loud. Peggy sprays this ink all over the Wall Street Journal as if she just now parachuted into the middle of the latest maladministration fecal fest. It's like Patrick Duffy just stepped out of the mutherfukkin shower on "Dallas" or sumthin.
It is open warfare within the Republican party, Wall Street who enjoys cheap labor and purchases the fuel for the Republican campaign machine, and the right-wing wurlitzer that generates profits from ad revenues based on low information, knuckle-dragging rascists, aka Republican voters.
Poilitics requires money and votes. This is the essence of the failure of conservatism. The interests of the corporatists are in direct conflict with the interest of the voters, violently, in the Republican party. In effect, they are hoist by their own petard as a result of their "southern strategy."
The biggest mouth-from-the-south, Bill O'Reilly hosts pro-comprehensive immigration plan Senator John McCain (R-AZ). via Atrios:
Bill O'Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right. So I say you've got to cap with a number.
John McCain: In America today we've got a very strong economy and low unemployment, so we need addition farm workers, including by the way agriculture, but there may come a time where we have an economic downturn, and we don't need so many.
[crosstalk]
O'Reilly: But in this bill, you guys have got to cap it. Because estimation is 12 million, there may be 20 [million]. You don't know, I don't know. We've got to cap it.
McCain: We do, we do. I agree with you.
Completely aside from the fact that we have two guys whose names begin with O' and Mc, feel their "white cultural dominance" is threatened, indeed an existential threat as real as al qaeda, requiring some serious brown ass-kicking even closer to home, one wonders why O'Real McCoy doesn't have any Apaches or Navajo's involved in this little powow.
For a cherry on top of this little discussion I am including a brilliant collection of essays gleened from the comments of Firedoglake by a dear friend I have never met, Valley Girl. Hugh, very much tongue-in-cheek defends English as Our National Language. I begin here, with part three: Be careful, it may be a French invasion.
OT in Defense of English as a national language Part III
This may seem like déjà vu for some of you since I have already written twice vis-à-vis the importance of English as our national language. But one of my bêtes noires is the laissez faire attitude and dégagé manner of our current President who makes one gaffe and faux pas after another in what is supposed to be his native tongue. Not everyone, I know, can write or speak with élan or panache but at least Bush should be able to find the mot juste from time to time (’suicider’ being only the most recent atrocity). To be frank, it offends my amour propre to see this daily sabotage of English camouflaged as Texan bonhomie and good old boy naïveté. Nor do you have to be a member of a soi-disant élite to feel this way but just a true blue linguistic patriot like me. The raison d’être of English as a national language movement, as I see it, is to use the force majeure of the federal government in the promotion of the proper use of English. This legislation would drag Bush from his semi literate cul-de-sac and require him to speak English for the first time in his life, comme il faut and sans détours. Gone would be the days of our acceptance of his manque of rhetorical savoir faire and toleration of his many linguistic défauts. The débâcle that is his language skills would have at last received its coup de grâce or, at the least, be rendered hors de combat. I say without a soupçon of malice and with a complete sang froid that that is a day I would dearly like to see.
Or perhaps, Latin is a better defense.
In defense of English as a national language Part V
We are one nation from the Rio Grande to Montana, from Florida to Los Angeles and San Francisco. As one who is an aficionado of English, I say it is this language that binds us and our nation together. English is too important to become a political piñata. It has helped make us Número Uno in the world. We should keep it and although there is little chance of us losing it, if we did lose it, we could lose the whole enchilada and that would be plain loco. However unlikely, we could be left pronto with zero, zip, nada and that would be muy malo for us all.
Understand those who support English as the national language are not waging a guerilla war on some but are making a sincere effort to create a unifying and unitary ambiente simpático for us all. Nor is it an act of machismo by the current jefe and his junta. Indeed Bush’s pregnant pauses are the very opposite of this. They bespeak a man embarazado and that is an embarrassing state of affairs indeed. No, amigos, compañeros, English as a national language is an act of faith, an auto de fe, as it were, of our rights. Let us not say hasta la vista, baby to an idea whose time has come. Let us embrace our inner pendejo and have the cojones to bid adiós to our doubts. To those who ask in the plaza of public opinion, ¿Qué pasa? here, let our answer and our language be clear: ¡Que será será!
I am not sure, but I think this is in English:
OT Something for Friday: in defense of English as a national language Part VII and last
Our language like our borders is in crisis. Its autochthonic ethos is threatened by the paradox of a heterodox dogma of inclusion. This embrace of linguistic schizophrenia must be anathema to all those who love the orthogonal logic of our native idiom. We must shed our dystopic entropic psychology of cataleptic catatonia with its apathetic anergy of cultural polymorphism. Polyglot iconoclasts under the aegis of heterogeneity and with a nostalgia for the exotic are making a hecatomb of our language. They accuse us of seeking our therapeutic in a sophistic xenophobia. Alas, this is not some paranoid phantasm. We stand at the edge of the abyss on the horns of a dilemma surrounded on all sides by catastrophe, cataclysm, holocaust, and a full tetrahippal apocalypse. In such a toxic atmosphere, we, the hoi polloi, must be the catalyst of a cathartic apologia leading to the agathic agape of a pragmatic paradigm of an English only hegemony.
Hugh offers no version for Native Americans. Their language was not suitable to be integrated into American. And now, those who claim to hold a monopoly on the definition of American are fighting amongst themselves.
It is ironic that many in the Republican Party who do not believe in evolution are now throwing poo at each other.
Peggy Noonan wrote, "that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks."
Unfortunately, we did not hear such language coming from such learned and worthy scribes as Ms. Noonan until recently. One wonders at what point does such behavior cross the line from defensible to unacceptable.
I would presume to venture the O'Rielly defense (insufficiently racist) or the porch light defense (June bugs seek out the brightest porch lights) or both.
Conservatism cannot fail, people merely fail conservatism. A conservative can spend all the money s/he wants, quadruple the size of the federal government, but if they fall in the polls (porch light dims) by not being sufficiently racist they are failed conservatives.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Support The Troops
For some reason this warm happy furry puppy slogan has been translated into meaning endless financing to keep our troops mired down in a civil war.
You can't support the troops unless you insist they remain hostage to a lunatic White House policy of Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL).
Town scold Jonathan Alter over at Newsweak cajoles the dirty fucking hippy far left of hurling epithets like "Dick Cheney Democrats" for voting in favor of the Iraq capitulation bill. He rightfully points out that the razor thin majority held by Democrats is insufficient to override a Presidential veto.
The unspoken claim about defunding the war is the default belief that President Bush would simply let them sit there until they ran out of ammo and fuel and food and were completely overrun and slaughtered by the enemy.
Is this why the Democrats signed a blank check to The Mad-Man-In-Chief? If they didn't "support the troops" no one else would? The President would leave them stranded?
That seems to be the view among the American people. Certainly the compassionate conservative-in-chief would bring troops out of theatre if no funding existed, wouldn't he?
Shedding a little light on this matter would be a mighty public service by our intrepid media. Perhaps someone should ask Dubya if the war were defunded, would he abandon the troops to slow starvation and certain death. For a follow-up it would be curious to know if Bush did decide to bring the troops home, due to congressional defunding, how many American troops lives would be saved as a result.
I have been truly stunned overall at the across the board defense of the Democrats votes on this issue last Thursday by the media. It is as if they sensed the white-hot anger of a thousand supernovas was about to be released, and they instinctively reached for the fire extinguishers.
They completely missed a golden opportunity to gleefully point out the spineless nature of Democrats. Perhaps they knew others would be using that term quite prodigiously and decided to use their time, like Jonathan Alter, to cast pearls of wisdom before the dirty fucking hippy crowd of ignorance.
As far as the claim "Democrats in Congress had no choice" is knee-slapping funny. The issue of Iraq was the ignition that sparked groundswell opposition across America that Democrats rode into power. For them to merely turn around, drop their laundry, bend over and grab their asscheeks as an invitation for an empty cod-piece-in-chief to have his way with them, is an affront to every political activist nationwide.
Popularity ratings of Dick Cheney and the Iraq war are in the same range as explosive diarrhea, and several social diseases, so please refrain from labeling those opposed to such things as dirty fucking hippies, who everyone knows is all that peoples the antiwar left.
We have every right, in fact a duty, to be extremely disappointed in the blank check the Democratic congress just sent to a degenerate chicken hawk war junkie. We categorically reject the notion that we are being big ol' babies for not welcoming with open arms the continuation of a catastrophe that will only result in more death and misery, with absolutely no benefit to American national security.
The rest of Mr. Alter's article explains why Thursdays vote could not have played out any other way, and grudgingly it makes sense, only because the Democrats have completely failed on messaging.
If the tables were turned we have no doubt their would have been an endless stream of Republican operatives given ample media time to screech about the obstructionists Democrats trying to slake their unquenchable thirst for power from the blood of our troops.
What I cannot abide by is this idea of the antiwar left (most Americans) labelled as juvenile for wanting their Representatives to represent the wishes of (most Americans) to end the war. Those Representatives like Rham Emmanuel who try to put lipstick on this pig and call it a "victory" will suffer the fate of any mealy-mouthed politician.
Let's make it real simple. This vote will be a death sentence for many in our military, who fight for Democracy in a country that wants it less than us.
You can't support the troops unless you insist they remain hostage to a lunatic White House policy of Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL).
Town scold Jonathan Alter over at Newsweak cajoles the dirty fucking hippy far left of hurling epithets like "Dick Cheney Democrats" for voting in favor of the Iraq capitulation bill. He rightfully points out that the razor thin majority held by Democrats is insufficient to override a Presidential veto.
The unspoken claim about defunding the war is the default belief that President Bush would simply let them sit there until they ran out of ammo and fuel and food and were completely overrun and slaughtered by the enemy.
Is this why the Democrats signed a blank check to The Mad-Man-In-Chief? If they didn't "support the troops" no one else would? The President would leave them stranded?
That seems to be the view among the American people. Certainly the compassionate conservative-in-chief would bring troops out of theatre if no funding existed, wouldn't he?
Shedding a little light on this matter would be a mighty public service by our intrepid media. Perhaps someone should ask Dubya if the war were defunded, would he abandon the troops to slow starvation and certain death. For a follow-up it would be curious to know if Bush did decide to bring the troops home, due to congressional defunding, how many American troops lives would be saved as a result.
I have been truly stunned overall at the across the board defense of the Democrats votes on this issue last Thursday by the media. It is as if they sensed the white-hot anger of a thousand supernovas was about to be released, and they instinctively reached for the fire extinguishers.
They completely missed a golden opportunity to gleefully point out the spineless nature of Democrats. Perhaps they knew others would be using that term quite prodigiously and decided to use their time, like Jonathan Alter, to cast pearls of wisdom before the dirty fucking hippy crowd of ignorance.
May 24, 2007 - It isn't easy to make the case for capitulation and gamesmanship when human lives are at stake, but I'm going to try. That's because many Americans—especially on the left—don't understand why Democrats in Congress had no choice but to proceed the way they have this week on the war in Iraq.Okay, let's unpack what Mr. Alter is saying here. First off, let's just eliminate the modifier "especially on the left", M'kay? Well over sixty percent of Merkins, you know, folks who like baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, are opposed to the war in Iraq. That isn't even "many Americans", that is actually "most Americans."
As far as the claim "Democrats in Congress had no choice" is knee-slapping funny. The issue of Iraq was the ignition that sparked groundswell opposition across America that Democrats rode into power. For them to merely turn around, drop their laundry, bend over and grab their asscheeks as an invitation for an empty cod-piece-in-chief to have his way with them, is an affront to every political activist nationwide.
[...]Well, Mr. Alter, in November the primary issue was Iraq; either you are for it or against it. In a completely stunning election, that even defied "the math" as established by Karl Rove, the pro-war assholes, aka Republicans, lost both the House and the Senate. The message was "End The Fucking War." Now, when you win on primarily a single issue, you better damn well deliver.
But it's one thing to be tough; it's another altogether to criticize any member of the party who doesn't vote with MoveOn.org and others on the antiwar left as “Dick Cheney Democrats” cruising for a primary challenge, or at least a flaming from the liberal blogosphere.
[...]
Popularity ratings of Dick Cheney and the Iraq war are in the same range as explosive diarrhea, and several social diseases, so please refrain from labeling those opposed to such things as dirty fucking hippies, who everyone knows is all that peoples the antiwar left.
[...]Aw, now the town scold is chiding us as wayward children, who won't eat our veggies and shit. Perhaps he has confused us with the bratty Motherfucker in the Oval Office who wants everything his way with no strings attached or he'll stomp his baby Gap boots. This is the whole point. We have an infantile dry-drunk frat-boy snot with his twitchy finger inches from the button. A rubber-stamped congress got us into this mess. There is no adult at the steering wheel of the mightiest country in the world and we are adrift, heading for an abyss of third-world status.
It's fine to urge opposition to the Iraq spending bill, but it's juvenile to toss around threats or make it seem as if voting wrong on this bill means you aren't sincerely against the war. In fact, what's going on inside the Democratic Party now is a family argument about tactics, not principle.
[...]
We have every right, in fact a duty, to be extremely disappointed in the blank check the Democratic congress just sent to a degenerate chicken hawk war junkie. We categorically reject the notion that we are being big ol' babies for not welcoming with open arms the continuation of a catastrophe that will only result in more death and misery, with absolutely no benefit to American national security.
The rest of Mr. Alter's article explains why Thursdays vote could not have played out any other way, and grudgingly it makes sense, only because the Democrats have completely failed on messaging.
If the tables were turned we have no doubt their would have been an endless stream of Republican operatives given ample media time to screech about the obstructionists Democrats trying to slake their unquenchable thirst for power from the blood of our troops.
What I cannot abide by is this idea of the antiwar left (most Americans) labelled as juvenile for wanting their Representatives to represent the wishes of (most Americans) to end the war. Those Representatives like Rham Emmanuel who try to put lipstick on this pig and call it a "victory" will suffer the fate of any mealy-mouthed politician.
Let's make it real simple. This vote will be a death sentence for many in our military, who fight for Democracy in a country that wants it less than us.
The Goodling Version Of Justice
A couple of things trouble me about the recent testimony of Monica Goodling before House investigators. The first was her reference to the allegations of Tim Griffin, protege of Karl Rove installed as the US Attorney for Arkansas without congressional approval, being involved in "caging" during the 2004 Presidential elections.
In 1981, Republican operatives engaged in this practice by targeting areas populated heavily with minorities. Those who fail to respond to certified mail are then challenged at the polls for proof of residency, having the option to return home to get a utility bill and come back to the polls and rejoin the process at the end of the line at the polls.
Or, they may be offered a provisional ballot that may not be counted unless the vote is close.
In Ohio, some 100,000 provisional ballots from 2004 remain uncounted today.
Since 1986, the Republican party has been under a restraining order from engaging in the practice of "caging" as the result is voter suppression and election fraud.
This law has been ignored, and one of its alleged practitioners is now the US Attorney in Senator Clinton's old backyard, one can only surmise, to root through her panty drawer for any buttscoot stank Mr. Griffin can dredge up.
The second disturbing revelation by Ms. Goodling was the discussion of testimony between her and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The Justice Department has not refuted Goodlings claim, but characterizes the meeting as an attempt to "help Goodling."
Numerous times during Gonzales' testimony he complained his inability to answer certain questions was due to his inability to talk with people within his DoJ. Clearly Mr. Gonzales is aware, by his own numerous admissions, that his discussions with Goodling about the matter were illegal.
An internal investigation is also ongoing, which further points out Gonzales' own admission that discussing testimony is a very serious matter.
The President has termed the investigation into his Justice Department and Alberto Gonzales as "political theater", and complaining that is "drawn out".
Constant stonewalling by the DoJ and White House has prevented congress from adequately discharging their oversight responsibilities, however, it is remaining less clear whether President Bush's obstinate support of Alberto Gonzales will be enough to protect to the Attorney General, much less hide the stain that blankets our entire Justice system.
On Feb. 15, Griffin suddenly announced that he had “made the decision not to let my name go forward to the Senate” for approval. Instead, he will serve indefinitely as an “interim” prosecutor. By avoiding Senate approval, Griffin will also avoid having to answer questions under oath about his role in a plan to suppress Florida votes — primarily those of African-American servicemembers — in the 2004 election.Caging is a direct-mail term that describes the practice of requiring a response from the receiver. Those who do not respond are eliminated from future mailing list.
In 1981, Republican operatives engaged in this practice by targeting areas populated heavily with minorities. Those who fail to respond to certified mail are then challenged at the polls for proof of residency, having the option to return home to get a utility bill and come back to the polls and rejoin the process at the end of the line at the polls.
Or, they may be offered a provisional ballot that may not be counted unless the vote is close.
In Ohio, some 100,000 provisional ballots from 2004 remain uncounted today.
Since 1986, the Republican party has been under a restraining order from engaging in the practice of "caging" as the result is voter suppression and election fraud.
This law has been ignored, and one of its alleged practitioners is now the US Attorney in Senator Clinton's old backyard, one can only surmise, to root through her panty drawer for any buttscoot stank Mr. Griffin can dredge up.
The second disturbing revelation by Ms. Goodling was the discussion of testimony between her and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
[...]
Goodling said for the first time Wednesday that Gonzales did review the story of the firings with her at an impromptu meeting she requested in his office a few days before she took a leave of absence."I was somewhat paralyzed. I was distraught, and I felt like I wanted to make a transfer," Goodling recalled during a packed hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
Gonzales, she said, indicated he would think about Goodling's request.
"He then proceeded to say, 'Let me tell you what I can remember,' and he laid out for me his general recollection ... of some of the process" of the firings, Goodling added. When Gonzales finished, "he asked me if I had any reaction to his iteration."
Goodling said the conversation made her uncomfortable because she was aware that she, Gonzales and others would be called by Congress to testify.
"Was the attorney general trying to shape your recollection?" asked Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala.
Goodling paused.
"I just did not know if it was a conversation we should be having and so I just didn't say anything," she replied. She added that she thought Gonzales was trying to be kind.
Democrats pounced.
"It certainly has the flavor of trying to get their stories straight," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the committee.
[...]
Alberto Gonzales peppered his own testimony before congress numerous times with "I can't recall," insisting that he was unable to discuss any facet of the matter of the forced resignations of the 8 US Attorneys with anyone in his department because he did not want to interfere with the investigations.
The Justice Department has not refuted Goodlings claim, but characterizes the meeting as an attempt to "help Goodling."
Numerous times during Gonzales' testimony he complained his inability to answer certain questions was due to his inability to talk with people within his DoJ. Clearly Mr. Gonzales is aware, by his own numerous admissions, that his discussions with Goodling about the matter were illegal.
An internal investigation is also ongoing, which further points out Gonzales' own admission that discussing testimony is a very serious matter.
The President has termed the investigation into his Justice Department and Alberto Gonzales as "political theater", and complaining that is "drawn out".
Constant stonewalling by the DoJ and White House has prevented congress from adequately discharging their oversight responsibilities, however, it is remaining less clear whether President Bush's obstinate support of Alberto Gonzales will be enough to protect to the Attorney General, much less hide the stain that blankets our entire Justice system.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
US Military Plans Surrender In Iraq
World-wide shock and awe resulted from the United States Military announcing it cannot defeat its enemies in Iraq and are prepared to negotiate for peace.
Chief architects of the American surrender and terrorist negotiator in Iraq is General David Petraeus and U. S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, according to CNN.
"The enemy" in Iraq has consistently been declared "terrorists" by the Bush administration for years. The American policy of not negotiating with terrorists has been in place for much longer.The officials cited an inability to maintain current troop levels into the summer as a reason for the changed course.
"We have been focused too long on defeating the enemy," one official said. "We need to bring them to the negotiating table."
Chief architects of the American surrender and terrorist negotiator in Iraq is General David Petraeus and U. S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, according to CNN.
Congress Issues Blank Check
Congress approved a blank-check funding for President Bush's continuing occupation of Iraq. In a pitiful fashion, they huffed and puffed about the "benchmarks" included, that amount to requiring a bludgeoned rape victim stand up straight and act right, or the rehab money will be revoked.
We appreciate all the hard work the Democrat majority has done since given the majority position to end the war in Iraq. But the five thousand pound obstinate elephant shitting in the living room removes the right to brag about all the dust bunnies cleaned out of the corner.
We understand Democrats do not have the votes to override a Presidential veto, and we do not, at this moment care. The only vote that matters is the vote an individual member casts. When it is demonstrated that Democrats cannot do what they were elected to do, end this war, it makes it difficult to vote for someone who refuses to represent the will of the people.
This vote takes place before Memorial Day, a time when America honors her Veterans and fallen soldiers. We have soldiers now, in harms way. Placed there by President Bush, in Iraq, a country that was not a threat to us, did not invade us, had no connection to 9/11 or Osama bin Laden.
What exactly will this funding accomplish? According to Bush:
We appreciate all the hard work the Democrat majority has done since given the majority position to end the war in Iraq. But the five thousand pound obstinate elephant shitting in the living room removes the right to brag about all the dust bunnies cleaned out of the corner.
We understand Democrats do not have the votes to override a Presidential veto, and we do not, at this moment care. The only vote that matters is the vote an individual member casts. When it is demonstrated that Democrats cannot do what they were elected to do, end this war, it makes it difficult to vote for someone who refuses to represent the will of the people.
This vote takes place before Memorial Day, a time when America honors her Veterans and fallen soldiers. We have soldiers now, in harms way. Placed there by President Bush, in Iraq, a country that was not a threat to us, did not invade us, had no connection to 9/11 or Osama bin Laden.
What exactly will this funding accomplish? According to Bush:
[...]Not to mention June and July. This is what your vote has bought on the eve of memorial day.
This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy. The last of five reinforcement brigades we are sending to Iraq is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad by mid-June. As these reinforcements carry out their missions the enemies of a free Iraq, including al Qaeda and illegal militias, will continue to bomb and murder in an attempt to stop us. We're going to expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months. We can expect more American and Iraqi casualties. We must provide our troops with the funds and resources they need to prevail.
...
And so, yes, it could be a bloody -- it could be a very difficult August, and I fully understand --
[...]
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Educating The Ignorant
Before any neocon or their apologists are allowed to abort American Principles, also known as the children of Democracy, they must undergo an intensive deprogramming regime.
(edited by an oil filter)
...
Conservatism, as a rule, is not in the best interest of the neocon; that neocons are often misled or ill-informed about its risks to their own physical or emotional health.
...
These are poor, wayward children that deserve all the sympathies our widdle pearl-clutching souls can muster. At least this is the latest and shiniest attempt to dress-up the pending coathanger laws surely set to come forth in light of last months Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Flush with pride with victory of seizing partial title to a woman's womb, the authoritarians will carry their message to state houses all across the country in their goal of subjugating women.
"Informed Consent" is the shiny new title for the pocket-knife used to whittle away at a woman's right for self-determination. Counseling will be mandatory because as every misogynist rightard knows, women are just silly and need to be told what's best for them.
If a girl is raped by her father, she simply must give birth to her brother.
Or, get permission from her father, get preached to by a state-appointed fundie, probably watch some heinous videos, all in order to terminate the pregnancy. "Informed Consent" is so patronizing it borders on the ridiculous.
Thank goodness we have Nancy Keenan, the head of NARAL, to derail this effort.
In light of Nancy Keenan's remarkable track record of unfettered mediocrity, why does she still have a job? The movement to defend against the onslaught against reproductive rights in today's climate demands strong and fearless leadership.
Nancy, you ain't it.
(edited by an oil filter)
...
Conservatism, as a rule, is not in the best interest of the neocon; that neocons are often misled or ill-informed about its risks to their own physical or emotional health.
...
These are poor, wayward children that deserve all the sympathies our widdle pearl-clutching souls can muster. At least this is the latest and shiniest attempt to dress-up the pending coathanger laws surely set to come forth in light of last months Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Flush with pride with victory of seizing partial title to a woman's womb, the authoritarians will carry their message to state houses all across the country in their goal of subjugating women.
"Informed Consent" is the shiny new title for the pocket-knife used to whittle away at a woman's right for self-determination. Counseling will be mandatory because as every misogynist rightard knows, women are just silly and need to be told what's best for them.
If a girl is raped by her father, she simply must give birth to her brother.
Or, get permission from her father, get preached to by a state-appointed fundie, probably watch some heinous videos, all in order to terminate the pregnancy. "Informed Consent" is so patronizing it borders on the ridiculous.
Thank goodness we have Nancy Keenan, the head of NARAL, to derail this effort.
In light of Nancy Keenan's remarkable track record of unfettered mediocrity, why does she still have a job? The movement to defend against the onslaught against reproductive rights in today's climate demands strong and fearless leadership.
Nancy, you ain't it.
Neverending War
Democrats grant the occupation an additional four months.
President Bush's occupation of Iraq is a terrorist multiplier. But it only gets worse.
So when the funding runs out in September, and General Petraeus delivers his assessment on Iraq to the Congress, can their be any doubt what he will ask for?
Funny thing is, this "second surge" (and at what point does it qualify as an escalation?) does not enjoy the fanfare and muscular approach used by the empty codpiece-in-chief.
Clearly, this occupation and escalation has done little more than mire down the sons and daughters of America in a country that was not a threat and did not attack us. It has been a disaster of epic proportions, radically weakening our military and completely draining our treasury.
And as far as the one responsible for attacking us on 9/11, what has been the effect on him and his organization?
Congress needs to end this war, because Bush never will. To paraphrase TRex, George Bush conducting a Global War On Terror, is like changing a dirty diaper with a molotov cocktail. He hasn't done anything about the shit, and now everything's on fire.
In grudging concessions to President Bush, congressional Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops -- and shorn of billions of dollars in pork-barrel spending on extraneous domestic programs, officials said Monday.Unable to override the President's veto and unable to respond to ludicrous claims from the rightard enablers--like our military will run out of bullets unless chimpy gets his way--the Democrats capitulate to financing the occupation and terrorist recruitment and donation vehicle known as Iraq.However, the legislation would include the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade, a top priority for the Democrats who took control of Congress in January, the officials added.
While details remain sketchy, the measure is designed to close the books by Friday on a bruising veto fight between the president and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the war. It would provide funds for military operations in Iraq through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
President Bush's occupation of Iraq is a terrorist multiplier. But it only gets worse.
This “second surge” of troops in Iraq, which is being executed by extending tours for brigades already there and by deploying more units, could boost the number of combat troops to as many as 98,000 (from 52,500) by the end of this year. When support troops are included, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 — the most ever — by the end of the year.
So when the funding runs out in September, and General Petraeus delivers his assessment on Iraq to the Congress, can their be any doubt what he will ask for?
Funny thing is, this "second surge" (and at what point does it qualify as an escalation?) does not enjoy the fanfare and muscular approach used by the empty codpiece-in-chief.
...
The little-noticed efforts to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq are being carried out without the fanfare that accompanied President Bush’s initial troop surge in January.
[...]
Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, the U.S. commander who led NATO troops into Bosnia in late 1995, asked to comment on the findings, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that they’re not talking about it. I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this.”
[...]
Clearly, this occupation and escalation has done little more than mire down the sons and daughters of America in a country that was not a threat and did not attack us. It has been a disaster of epic proportions, radically weakening our military and completely draining our treasury.
And as far as the one responsible for attacking us on 9/11, what has been the effect on him and his organization?
...
In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said that Al Qaeda's command base in Pakistan is increasingly being funded by cash coming out of Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the anti-American insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity.
The influx of money has bolstered Al Qaeda's leadership ranks at a time when the core command is regrouping and reasserting influence over its far-flung network. The trend also signals a reversal in the traditional flow of Al Qaeda funds, with the network's leadership surviving to a large extent on money coming in from its most profitable franchise, rather than distributing funds from headquarters to distant cells.
Al Qaeda's efforts were aided, intelligence officials said, by Pakistan's withdrawal in September of tens of thousands of troops from the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border where Bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, are believed to be hiding.
Little more than a year ago, Al Qaeda's core command was thought to be in a financial crunch. But U.S. officials said cash shipped from Iraq has eased those troubles.
"Iraq is a big moneymaker for them," said a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official.
[...]
emphasis added
Congress needs to end this war, because Bush never will. To paraphrase TRex, George Bush conducting a Global War On Terror, is like changing a dirty diaper with a molotov cocktail. He hasn't done anything about the shit, and now everything's on fire.
Bertie Walnuts Thuggery
Video Link Here.
You simply must watch that video. It captures the essence of James Comey's testimony about the late night visit by Bertie Walnuts and Andy Card to John Ashcroft's sick-bed.
The authorization was set to expire on one of the Bush Administrations highly dubious and sooper sekrit "Spy on America" programs, and to them, enemies included anyone who threatened their power.
Ashcroft and Comey had discussed the program, and had decided not to re-authorize it. Immediately after that, Ashcroft took ill and before he went in for surgery, filed the paperwork to deputize Comey to act in his stead.
Mrs. Ashcroft, being a good spouse, barred all contact from anyone to her husband while he recovered in ICU.
But the White House called to say they were sending over their two top thugs to badger Ashcroft, while he was in pain and heavily medicated, into signing a permission slip for the unlawful acts of the White House.
Comey was notified of the surreptitious meeting and he called FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, and the race was on to John Ashcroft's soon-to-be-crowded hospital room.
President Bush refuses to answer whether he ordered Bert and Ernie, er, I mean, Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to the bedside of a heavily sedated, recovering man to browbeat him into signing a document he had no authority to sign, or whether he thought this was okey dokey, lapsing into his usual dodge of not talking about a sooper sekrit program, designed to protekt wimmins and chilluns from Islamomunifascistic radicals.
Now this whole sordid spectacle took place a full 2 and a half years after the implementation of the program. The Gestalt theory of applied law is well and thriving in the Bush administration. Even after Comey refused to authorize a program that had been in existence for 2 1/2 years for having "no legal basis", Bush continued the program for another two and a half weeks before "modifying" it to prevent mass resignations from top officials.
Asked why Bert and Ernie tried to get a signature from one unauthorized to do so, they gave the "dog ate my homework" excuse.
From Newsweek:
Heckuva job there, Bertie. Now, he is our illustrious Attorney General. The Republican mantra is behave or be replaced. Sorta like the General before the war who claimed we need 400,000 troops in Iraq, or the post-occupation Generals who were opposed to an escalation.
You simply must watch that video. It captures the essence of James Comey's testimony about the late night visit by Bertie Walnuts and Andy Card to John Ashcroft's sick-bed.
The authorization was set to expire on one of the Bush Administrations highly dubious and sooper sekrit "Spy on America" programs, and to them, enemies included anyone who threatened their power.
Ashcroft and Comey had discussed the program, and had decided not to re-authorize it. Immediately after that, Ashcroft took ill and before he went in for surgery, filed the paperwork to deputize Comey to act in his stead.
Mrs. Ashcroft, being a good spouse, barred all contact from anyone to her husband while he recovered in ICU.
But the White House called to say they were sending over their two top thugs to badger Ashcroft, while he was in pain and heavily medicated, into signing a permission slip for the unlawful acts of the White House.
Comey was notified of the surreptitious meeting and he called FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, and the race was on to John Ashcroft's soon-to-be-crowded hospital room.
President Bush refuses to answer whether he ordered Bert and Ernie, er, I mean, Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to the bedside of a heavily sedated, recovering man to browbeat him into signing a document he had no authority to sign, or whether he thought this was okey dokey, lapsing into his usual dodge of not talking about a sooper sekrit program, designed to protekt wimmins and chilluns from Islamomunifascistic radicals.
Now this whole sordid spectacle took place a full 2 and a half years after the implementation of the program. The Gestalt theory of applied law is well and thriving in the Bush administration. Even after Comey refused to authorize a program that had been in existence for 2 1/2 years for having "no legal basis", Bush continued the program for another two and a half weeks before "modifying" it to prevent mass resignations from top officials.
Asked why Bert and Ernie tried to get a signature from one unauthorized to do so, they gave the "dog ate my homework" excuse.
From Newsweek:
Comey didn't tell the Senate panel that the bad feelings were stoked even more the next morning when White House officials explained the hospital visit by saying Gonzales and Card were unaware that Comey was acting A.G. (and therefore the only person authorized to sign off on the surveillance program), according to a former senior DOJ official who requested anonymity talking about internal matters. Top DOJ officials were furious, the source said. Just days earlier, Justice's chief spokesman had publicly said Comey would serve as "head of the Justice Department" while Ashcroft was ill.
Heckuva job there, Bertie. Now, he is our illustrious Attorney General. The Republican mantra is behave or be replaced. Sorta like the General before the war who claimed we need 400,000 troops in Iraq, or the post-occupation Generals who were opposed to an escalation.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Why We Fight Them Over There
I guess we just have to file this one under slack jawed amazement via USAToday:
Uh, I got nuthin'.PHOENIX (AP) — A military contractor is recruiting current and former agents with the U.S. Border Patrol to teach Iraqis how to secure their national borders.The U.S. State Department has asked Virginia-based DynCorp International to find 120 people with Customs and Border Enforcement experience to go to Iraq for the training.
The company already has 700 police trainers in Iraq. The department made the request for border security trainers in late March.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said she was worried that DynCorp's effort is distracting from security along the U.S.-Mexico border. She and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson wrote President Bush this week to say the deal "makes no sense."
"We should be focused on supporting our nation's security efforts along the Mexican and Canadian border instead of hampering (the Customs and Border Patrol) by sending our best agents to a war zone in Iraq," the governors wrote.
Support Attorneys By Donating To Republicans
Money donated to political campaigns can be spent to keep crooked legislators out of jail, according to Federal Election Commission rules, as long as the charges resulted from political activity. Tom Delay, indicted former House Majority Leader (R-Abramhoff) tops the list of the biggest spender on legal fees from his campaign chest, with over one million dollars. Keep in mind, all of this money comes from campaign contributions. In fact, the top ten biggest "keepin' they asses outta jail" politicians are all Republicans. Here is a list compiled by USAToday:| Former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas | $1,100,000 |
| Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif. | $905,800 |
| Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif. | $570,000 |
| Former Rep Bob Ney, R-Ohio | $518,000 |
| Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. | $285,000 |
| Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. | $253,800 |
| Former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. | $160,376 |
| Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif. | $149,200 |
| Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va. | $140,000 |
| Former Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. | $132,025 |
Not on this list is Ted Klaudt, a Republican state representative from South Dakota who faces the following charges:
A former South Dakota lawmaker is accused of molesting his own foster children and legislative pages.
Ted Klaudt, 49, a Republican rancher from Walker, faces a long list of charges: eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16, and stalking.
Court documents mention five possible victims. Three were foster children between the ages of 15 and 19 who lived with Klaudt's family. One is a cousin of one of those girls, and the fifth is a friend of Klaudt's daughter.
In the most disturbing accusation, the girls say Klaudt had them convinced they could earn up to $20,000 by donating their eggs to a fertility clinic. And even though he has no medical training, the girls say Klaudt did all the supposed "exams" and "procedures" himself.
Tristero, over at Digby's dug out a list of bills this perv has been working on. As one would suspect, it is total dominion of men and old white fundies over not men parts. Oh, and everybody gets guns.
Yeah, give these guys your money and your vote.
H/T to DownWithTyranny!
How Low Can Bush Go?
President Bush still commands a solid popularity among his die hard base, that unflagging thirty percent of authoritarian cultists who pledge their undying fealty, at least until resolute Commander Guy threw in the towel on his War On Brown People. Nowhere is the presence of Bush lovers more apparent than in the rightard half of the blogosphere, many of whom coagulate in the fetid swamp of the Free Republic. Freepers, as they are called, have thrown Bush under the bus. via Wonkette:
Yes, these are comments from the last bastion of the famed Bush base. See, when you build a party upon the foundation of law and order resulting in the protection of things and property values at the expense of people, especially the "other" people, you should expect such a reaction.
Bush clearly violated the law with his domestic warrant less wiretapping program, but the rightards defended it by calling anyone who called his actions criminal "terrorist sympathizers."
He promises to veto a bill that recognizes if some redneck catches some fairy mincing down his block and runs over him in a pickup truck, two crimes have occurred--murder and terrorizing a group of people. So who here is the terrorist sympathizer?
The Bush administration shredded the constitution by eliminating habeus corpus and his hard right thirty nary flinched.
I guess the only law rightards want applied by a Republican, is the law of white supremacy
- dEPORT tHE pRESIDENT aND cLOSE tHE bORDERS.
- We still have Tancredo, Hunter and Fred Thompson on our side. This bill wont go anywhere when our representatives start receiving our faxes
- The rule of law has just been thrown out the window. I agree that impeachment is in order.
- And the SELL OUT of the AMERICAN people begins!
- Bring my Step-Son home from Iraq now El Presedente. You don’t deserve his service.
- Bush blasphemy! Shameful leader!
- I’m done with him on this and many other issues. I’ll never vote for him again. Illegal invaders are going to kill us all.
- “BUSH SUCKS” And the leftists blogs are now PROUD of this fool! What a dichotomy.
- I just said the same thing to my husband - my nephew has been ordered back for the second time after being home for only 10 months. I want them home now, why fight and die for this country of Mexico. I just can’t believe I worked so hard to get this man elected not once but twice. NEVER AGAIN - no more money and no more volunteer hours for the grand ole GOP
- His brother Bill was the first black president, now we have the first Hispanic president.
- The conservative movement has now been set adrift….like so much jetsam. Our champion has become our betrayer, IMHO.
- My husband just recently retired and we where planning on going back to Texas but we are now seriously considering Australia. It looks better and better each minute. Our kids want to leave also !!! And you are right, we have been betrayed.
- An thus the united States of America is being sold out by those that claim to love her. May they rot before they die. I see the end of my great nation, the shining star in a morass of mediocre to outright scum countries.
- This is what happens when you kill 40 million unborn US citizens.
- I pray he gets IMPEACHED. This is a dark day in America.
- I have long thought that BJBilly was the worst president in history, now I am not so sure………..At least Clinton stuck to BJs instead of trying to f*ck the entire country, like Jorge.
- Look this is what it all boils down to, these people in Washington are no different than the celebrities in hollyweird,they do not respect the rule of law or the ten commandments. These people feel they are above the law and can do as they please. And that means they can turn the United States into a third world country.Right now these Washington jackasses are NOT paying attention to Iran because they are too busy making life easier for the RICH in MEXICO.
- The invasion of the United States by the criminal army of Aztlan is complete.
Yes, these are comments from the last bastion of the famed Bush base. See, when you build a party upon the foundation of law and order resulting in the protection of things and property values at the expense of people, especially the "other" people, you should expect such a reaction.
Bush clearly violated the law with his domestic warrant less wiretapping program, but the rightards defended it by calling anyone who called his actions criminal "terrorist sympathizers."
He promises to veto a bill that recognizes if some redneck catches some fairy mincing down his block and runs over him in a pickup truck, two crimes have occurred--murder and terrorizing a group of people. So who here is the terrorist sympathizer?
The Bush administration shredded the constitution by eliminating habeus corpus and his hard right thirty nary flinched.
I guess the only law rightards want applied by a Republican, is the law of white supremacy
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Deadlines For Thee, But None For Me
President Rexall Ranger just luuuvs him some deadlines. Remember this from March 17, 2003?
[...]
Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing. For their own safety, all foreign nationals -- including journalists and inspectors -- should leave Iraq immediately.
[...]
High noon, or midnight, or something. Definitely a deadline. When violence raged prior to the first Iraqi election, and a threatened Sunni boycott which would virtually guarantee a permanent and violent divide in Iraq, our Rexall Ranger stood firm on the deadline of January 30, 2005:
President Bush yesterday flatly ruled out any delay in Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30 despite the unrelenting insurgency, rejecting Sunni Muslim boycott threats and framing the vote as a critical step toward bringing U.S. troops home.
In his strongest reaffirmation of the election plan, Bush attempted to end any doubt about whether the vote would go forward after days of debate among Iraqi politicians. Organizations representing the once-powerful Sunni minority have demanded the elections be put off until security is restored, while leaders of the majority Shiites have insisted the balloting proceed.
"The elections should not be postponed," Bush said. "It's time for the Iraqi citizens to go to the polls. And that's why we are very firm on the January 30th date."
Sounds like a deadline to me. Then there was the Iraqi constitution. Our Tin Star Texan stuck to his guns:
[...]
Bush, who instinctively dismisses doubters and abhors changing course, again stuck to the plan. "We've got to keep the deadline there to force the parties to make the hard decisions to reach compromise," Bush told advisers, according to Hadley.
[...]
Dayamm. There's that word--deadline--coming right out of Dubya's own mouth--if you can believe Hadley. But we all know what happened on Iraq's constitution. They were a little late on the deadline, punted on the hard stuff, which are still the main points of contention today, primarily sharing of the revenue. Seems some sillies are having a little trouble rewarding their past tormentors. It is a small wonder Iraq is such a disaster when Dubya peoples his brain trust for the war with people like Douglas Feith:
[...]
Former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith, a key architect of the war, said the political process has not been perfect but that Bush was right to stick rigorously to the timetable. "That was a calculation," he said. "It involved some risk. It turned out not only not to be a disaster but a great success."
[...] my bold
Uh, yeah Doogie Howitzer, craptacular. Rumor has it Dougie beats the side of head because it feels so good when he stops.
Now the congress attempts to place some deadlines on Bush. But he stamps his baby Gap boots and calls everybody names. Lately he is warming up to the idea of "benchmarks" for Iraqi's.
It's not that the President was for deadlines before he was against them before he was for them, it is deadlines that apply to him, or any rules whatsoever, like torture, or habeus corpus, or warrantless wiretapping etc.
There is an expert in field in dealing with these types of people: Supernanny! No one is better at dealing with spoiled brats than her, I mean, Mary Poppins she ain't. Perhaps we should pass the hat and buy the boxed set for Pelosi and Reid. Or, they can just use the CliffsNotes:
Lower yourself to their level so you can see eye to eye.
Use a stern voice.
Waggle a disapproving finger and say:
"This is unacceptable."
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
To Blog Or Not To Blog
I came across this post from Atrios, about why Matt blogs. Atrios was sorta worried about the way the regular media was covering politics, so he sorta jumped in to do his bit. Cool. Now Matt descends into the realm of the town scold, telling others how and what to expect when they blog.
Matt may be doing a huge service here, I have no way of knowing. Neither do I know if anyone is linking to my blog or why. I do not really care. Perhaps there are those who blog merely for traffic or recognition, and if they don't get it they require a tissue.
Fuck that. I'm a big picture sort of guy and do not go into "niche" blogging. In case anyone hasn't noticed, this is not a battle for the margins of Democracy, but a war for the very heart and soul of our country.
We now have over 300 million people in this country and the government of this nation is allegedly "of, by and for the people".
Conservatives, aka, Republicans do not represent the people. The role of Government, according to Republicans, is to provide a strong national defense, and maybe some roads and bridges.
The private sector should be left alone to prey on its victims without interference from the government.
Did you get that? That is what I call "big picture". In case you didn't get it, let me repeat myself:
The private sector should be left alone to prey on its victims without interference from the government.
However, progressives and non republican lite democrats (DLC) tend to view government as a mechanism to benefit the people of America--all Americans, even and especially minorities.
The reason most Americans do not have cholera is because we chlorinate our water. It is just as important to administer the commons in our homeland as it is to hunt terrorists abroad. We cannot turn over our commons like air and water to private companies for profit while republicans move to limit their liabilities in the judiciary.
Do you see how this works?
And now my cat is dead. The concern from this administration for national security fills my mouth with ashes when bin Laden is in the wind and these cocksuckers can't even protect my goddamm cat.
And when an entire city drowns the best they can do is call the victims stupid and lazy. Go ahead and vote for anyone with an R attached to their name. You are getting fucked in the ass without a reacharound you stupid sonofabitch.
And Matt, That's why I blog. I promise not to cry if you don't link to me, and I won't draw a pony for Atrios for one.
Hell, the only thing I draw is flies in the summertime.
Matt may be doing a huge service here, I have no way of knowing. Neither do I know if anyone is linking to my blog or why. I do not really care. Perhaps there are those who blog merely for traffic or recognition, and if they don't get it they require a tissue.
Fuck that. I'm a big picture sort of guy and do not go into "niche" blogging. In case anyone hasn't noticed, this is not a battle for the margins of Democracy, but a war for the very heart and soul of our country.
We now have over 300 million people in this country and the government of this nation is allegedly "of, by and for the people".
Conservatives, aka, Republicans do not represent the people. The role of Government, according to Republicans, is to provide a strong national defense, and maybe some roads and bridges.
The private sector should be left alone to prey on its victims without interference from the government.
Did you get that? That is what I call "big picture". In case you didn't get it, let me repeat myself:
The private sector should be left alone to prey on its victims without interference from the government.
However, progressives and non republican lite democrats (DLC) tend to view government as a mechanism to benefit the people of America--all Americans, even and especially minorities.
The reason most Americans do not have cholera is because we chlorinate our water. It is just as important to administer the commons in our homeland as it is to hunt terrorists abroad. We cannot turn over our commons like air and water to private companies for profit while republicans move to limit their liabilities in the judiciary.
Do you see how this works?
And now my cat is dead. The concern from this administration for national security fills my mouth with ashes when bin Laden is in the wind and these cocksuckers can't even protect my goddamm cat.
And when an entire city drowns the best they can do is call the victims stupid and lazy. Go ahead and vote for anyone with an R attached to their name. You are getting fucked in the ass without a reacharound you stupid sonofabitch.
And Matt, That's why I blog. I promise not to cry if you don't link to me, and I won't draw a pony for Atrios for one.
Hell, the only thing I draw is flies in the summertime.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Piss On The Fire And Call The Dogs
It is time to draw the curtain on the PNAC misadventure known as Iraq. We should not have invaded to begin with, it was poorly done and now that we have "delivered Iraq" from the stranglehold of a Tyrant into the welcoming bosom of democracy, it is clear they must want it worse than us, or it just won't happen.
The latest warfare on the homefront entails the battle of the razor-thin democratic majority, a majority that owes fealty to Americans, not whacky dirty hippy lefties, there are not enough of them, but the Americans that just shook their heads at Bush and his little band of apologists for the war in Iraq.
The bill to fund the troops was vetoed by Bush because it included a time to go date.
As much as the corporate media try to paint democratic leaders being held hostage by the far left, it just is not true. Unless the dirty fucking hippy crowd is now defined as seventy percent of America. Dude!
It is time to go. Never worry about how Republicans will try to spin and blame the failures on Democrats because they will do that no matter what.
I suppose the Dems will toss out a 3 month band aide for funding until they get their collective shit together. This will be done mainly to get Boner (R-tobacco) and McConnell (R-anti pillowcase) from screeching that our troops are pinned down and running out of bullets.
These guys are soulless and morally bankrupt corporate shills that continually ratchet up the hyperbole in hopes of making it on teevee.
The time this buys for the dems will allow about a one-half FU (Freidman Unit) to expire. During this interim it will provide an opportunity to peel off more Republican support from the Presidents "Majik Pony Plan" (all this manure, got to be a pony here somewheres--geddit?) to get enough votes to override a Presidential veto.
It matters not what happens politically here in America when the Democrats are finally successful in pulling our troops out of Iraq--according to Republicans, it will be the Democrats fault.
This is what they do. Republicans cannot govern because they do not believe in governance. They are very adept in formulating shiny talking points to promote social Darwinism, a concept they deny the creator.
If, after we depart and a bloodbath ensues, they will shout very loudly how right they were while wrapping themselves in the bloody flag. Consider how unhinged and screechy conservatives like Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Bush, Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld have been up to this point, when they have been wrong virtually all the time.
Now imagine how screechy they shall become if, by some accident, they get lucky and get one right. I can't remember who said "Ten thousand monkeys typing on ten thousand typewriters for ten thousand years will produce the entire works of William Shakespeare.
They are bound to get one right once in awhile.
But if the other happens--the Americans pull out and the Iraqi's say, "Gee golly gosh, I guess we better sorta figure this thing out," and produce a stable government.
Then the Republicans will say, "We managed to hold to our principles just long enough and stave off the dirty fucking hippy horde to allow this to happen."
These shitwhistles are asshats. Fuck'em. The dog barks while the caravan marches on. I urge the Democrats to hold fast and do not capitulate to the resolute decider codpiece in chief. This man is irrelevant. All pressure must be placed on those republicans in vulnerable districts. Target them mercilessly in their own districts with their own hate-filled warmongering Bush ass-kissing ads possible. Shake down all lefties for money to buy the ads. Any Dem in a safe seat with a vast warchest must be coerced to pony up.
It is time to go.
The latest warfare on the homefront entails the battle of the razor-thin democratic majority, a majority that owes fealty to Americans, not whacky dirty hippy lefties, there are not enough of them, but the Americans that just shook their heads at Bush and his little band of apologists for the war in Iraq.
The bill to fund the troops was vetoed by Bush because it included a time to go date.
As much as the corporate media try to paint democratic leaders being held hostage by the far left, it just is not true. Unless the dirty fucking hippy crowd is now defined as seventy percent of America. Dude!
It is time to go. Never worry about how Republicans will try to spin and blame the failures on Democrats because they will do that no matter what.
I suppose the Dems will toss out a 3 month band aide for funding until they get their collective shit together. This will be done mainly to get Boner (R-tobacco) and McConnell (R-anti pillowcase) from screeching that our troops are pinned down and running out of bullets.
These guys are soulless and morally bankrupt corporate shills that continually ratchet up the hyperbole in hopes of making it on teevee.
The time this buys for the dems will allow about a one-half FU (Freidman Unit) to expire. During this interim it will provide an opportunity to peel off more Republican support from the Presidents "Majik Pony Plan" (all this manure, got to be a pony here somewheres--geddit?) to get enough votes to override a Presidential veto.
It matters not what happens politically here in America when the Democrats are finally successful in pulling our troops out of Iraq--according to Republicans, it will be the Democrats fault.
This is what they do. Republicans cannot govern because they do not believe in governance. They are very adept in formulating shiny talking points to promote social Darwinism, a concept they deny the creator.
If, after we depart and a bloodbath ensues, they will shout very loudly how right they were while wrapping themselves in the bloody flag. Consider how unhinged and screechy conservatives like Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Bush, Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld have been up to this point, when they have been wrong virtually all the time.
Now imagine how screechy they shall become if, by some accident, they get lucky and get one right. I can't remember who said "Ten thousand monkeys typing on ten thousand typewriters for ten thousand years will produce the entire works of William Shakespeare.
They are bound to get one right once in awhile.
But if the other happens--the Americans pull out and the Iraqi's say, "Gee golly gosh, I guess we better sorta figure this thing out," and produce a stable government.
Then the Republicans will say, "We managed to hold to our principles just long enough and stave off the dirty fucking hippy horde to allow this to happen."
These shitwhistles are asshats. Fuck'em. The dog barks while the caravan marches on. I urge the Democrats to hold fast and do not capitulate to the resolute decider codpiece in chief. This man is irrelevant. All pressure must be placed on those republicans in vulnerable districts. Target them mercilessly in their own districts with their own hate-filled warmongering Bush ass-kissing ads possible. Shake down all lefties for money to buy the ads. Any Dem in a safe seat with a vast warchest must be coerced to pony up.
It is time to go.
Propaganda
No one in the reality based community has ever denied that Faux "News" was nothing more than a propaganda tool for the Republican party, indeed getting its "news" from the blast faxes of the RNC and the White House.
But, to be "fair and balanced" they sometimes get their talking points from their BFF, Al Qaida. I'm not kidding.
As an armchair consultant, allow me to field this question for the Senator.
OFG: Now Wally, I think the fact this administration, prior to 9/11, received over 52 separate warnings, including a PDB stating Osama Determined to Attack Inside the US and not taking any action, or even calling a meeting, instead opting to take multiple lengthy vacations shows which party is soft on national security.
Further, the fact that Al Qaida makes more videos than Girls Gone Wild, and that Zawahiri and bin Laden are taking up oxygen that could be going for some useful purpose illustrates that this administration has done little more than recruit more terrorists.
Just. Too. Easy.
But, to be "fair and balanced" they sometimes get their talking points from their BFF, Al Qaida. I'm not kidding.
WALLACE: Let's talk about one aspect of that. The Democrats now seem in a race to try to come up with a plan to get out of Iraq.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two Al Qaida leader, says the bill that you Democrats sent the president is proof of the American defeat in Iraq. And we'll talk about the details in a moment.
But does your party run the risk of being seen by the American people, as they were after Vietnam, as soft on national security?
Now, smirky Wallace, posed this question to the senior Senator from CT, the real Democrat and Presidential candidate, Chris Dodd.
As an armchair consultant, allow me to field this question for the Senator.
OFG: Now Wally, I think the fact this administration, prior to 9/11, received over 52 separate warnings, including a PDB stating Osama Determined to Attack Inside the US and not taking any action, or even calling a meeting, instead opting to take multiple lengthy vacations shows which party is soft on national security.
Further, the fact that Al Qaida makes more videos than Girls Gone Wild, and that Zawahiri and bin Laden are taking up oxygen that could be going for some useful purpose illustrates that this administration has done little more than recruit more terrorists.
Just. Too. Easy.
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Punking Of America
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated most media ownership regulations, opening the door to "marketplace regulation". Proponents said that it would increase competition, but the facts are that in less than twenty years the number of major media companies has been reduced from 80 to six. Considering the growth of cable and the 24 hour news channels, this is quite startling. Corporations did what they always do--they buy and merge and consolidate and build this giant fucking thing.
I felt this was an important preface to Bill Moyer's media thumpin' he doled out the other night on his journal, "Buying The War," on public teevee the other night. You can view it here, in case you missed it. He really takes a lot of big shots in the media to task, many refused to come on his show and explain what stupid sumbitches they were. He cast a wide net across the media elites in search of the spawn of Edward R. Murrow and indeed found them. Both of them. Two guys who worked for Knight Ridder, a news service organization, named Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel.
They would hear some cockamamie bullshit spewed out by some shitwhistle named Kinda Sleezy Rice, Ronald Dumsfeld, Darth Cheney or Farticus and they would hit the phones to call around and find out it was total bullshit. Like the aluminum tubes. Or the Niger/Uranium thingy. Or the Kurd saying he had been in the bunker under Saddam's house and seen the WMD's. Yuk yuk. Imagine a Kurd being within a hundred miles of Saddam. Imagine WMD's under your house. Put there on purpose, by you. Nobody else batted an eye on these bullshit stories.
Punkinhaid Timmeh Russert said, "My phone never rang."
Why you stupid little quivering piece of shit, you are supposed to do the calling. Why didn't he? The OVP is on record in the Libby trial of giving Punkinhaid info so they can, "control the message."
Puppets. This is the effect of the telecommunications act. All news organizations are reduced to profit centers, giving rise to "personality courtiers" that can amass the "gets" for interviews on their programs. Contracts are negotiated for these preening peacocks in the realm of eleventy skillion dollars. What would happen if one of them would ask Newt Gingrich how anyone could take him seriously as a moral authority since he himself is a serial adulterer who gave his wife the boot for a younger chick while his wife was in the hospital for cancer?
Would Newt come back? Would any Republican visit such a show to face such withering assaults of truth and perspective?
And then we have the mighty right wing wurlitzer. On the radio, leading the assault on truth and morality, we have a drug addled gasbag with a penchant for oxycontin bought by his housekeeper for him, who also enjoys visiting small countries with rampant underage prostitution with a duffel bag full of viagra prescribed to someone else.
On the teevee we have a phone sex enthusiast who thinks harass is two words. Allegedly. He truly enjoyed telling his assistant about all the hot Italian chicks he had would bang while he was in Rome waiting for an audience with the Pope, while his pregnant wife waited patiently for him at home. Allegedly.
These two great moral authorities are the mouthpieces of the conservatives, and they wield great influence among their low information viewers. I say low information viewers because a recent survey showed Faux News viewers are as stupid as a sackfull of wet hair. And if anyone gets out of line from the "real" corporate media, they are given the full treatment of accusing them of a liberal bias. Their viewers send out blast faxes, email, threaten advertisers and sometimes they even mail out white powder. Cute huh.
So there you have it. More reporters working for fewer bosses where the wrong questions to the wrong people will get doors slammed in their faces and access denied. And if that weren't bad enough, they get bitchslapped by a hard-right organization that has the balls to call itself a news organization. So we get the war in Iraq, sold to us by a group of neocons, the sales pitches dutifully stenographed by a compliant press, and America, not to mention Iraq, as a result, got punked.
Except for our two hero's, Jonathan and Warren. Funny thing is, many papers didn't run some of their stories. Seems like they felt their articles were different, or something.
This is our FUBAR. I do not know what the solution is to a press that insists on a simple "he said--she said" format, and completely ignoring the galactic size fact sitting right before them. Even the acknowledgement of the possibility of the presence of a fact could potentially defund their children's private education. For now, the best thing we have is the blogosphere and the truth to keep hammering away at Brooks, Broder, Hiatt, Timmeh, Tweety and all the little satellites that get pulled into their orbits. They have no gravity, they just suck really hard.
I felt this was an important preface to Bill Moyer's media thumpin' he doled out the other night on his journal, "Buying The War," on public teevee the other night. You can view it here, in case you missed it. He really takes a lot of big shots in the media to task, many refused to come on his show and explain what stupid sumbitches they were. He cast a wide net across the media elites in search of the spawn of Edward R. Murrow and indeed found them. Both of them. Two guys who worked for Knight Ridder, a news service organization, named Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel.
They would hear some cockamamie bullshit spewed out by some shitwhistle named Kinda Sleezy Rice, Ronald Dumsfeld, Darth Cheney or Farticus and they would hit the phones to call around and find out it was total bullshit. Like the aluminum tubes. Or the Niger/Uranium thingy. Or the Kurd saying he had been in the bunker under Saddam's house and seen the WMD's. Yuk yuk. Imagine a Kurd being within a hundred miles of Saddam. Imagine WMD's under your house. Put there on purpose, by you. Nobody else batted an eye on these bullshit stories.
Punkinhaid Timmeh Russert said, "My phone never rang."
Why you stupid little quivering piece of shit, you are supposed to do the calling. Why didn't he? The OVP is on record in the Libby trial of giving Punkinhaid info so they can, "control the message."
Puppets. This is the effect of the telecommunications act. All news organizations are reduced to profit centers, giving rise to "personality courtiers" that can amass the "gets" for interviews on their programs. Contracts are negotiated for these preening peacocks in the realm of eleventy skillion dollars. What would happen if one of them would ask Newt Gingrich how anyone could take him seriously as a moral authority since he himself is a serial adulterer who gave his wife the boot for a younger chick while his wife was in the hospital for cancer?
Would Newt come back? Would any Republican visit such a show to face such withering assaults of truth and perspective?
And then we have the mighty right wing wurlitzer. On the radio, leading the assault on truth and morality, we have a drug addled gasbag with a penchant for oxycontin bought by his housekeeper for him, who also enjoys visiting small countries with rampant underage prostitution with a duffel bag full of viagra prescribed to someone else.
On the teevee we have a phone sex enthusiast who thinks harass is two words. Allegedly. He truly enjoyed telling his assistant about all the hot Italian chicks he had would bang while he was in Rome waiting for an audience with the Pope, while his pregnant wife waited patiently for him at home. Allegedly.
These two great moral authorities are the mouthpieces of the conservatives, and they wield great influence among their low information viewers. I say low information viewers because a recent survey showed Faux News viewers are as stupid as a sackfull of wet hair. And if anyone gets out of line from the "real" corporate media, they are given the full treatment of accusing them of a liberal bias. Their viewers send out blast faxes, email, threaten advertisers and sometimes they even mail out white powder. Cute huh.
So there you have it. More reporters working for fewer bosses where the wrong questions to the wrong people will get doors slammed in their faces and access denied. And if that weren't bad enough, they get bitchslapped by a hard-right organization that has the balls to call itself a news organization. So we get the war in Iraq, sold to us by a group of neocons, the sales pitches dutifully stenographed by a compliant press, and America, not to mention Iraq, as a result, got punked.
Except for our two hero's, Jonathan and Warren. Funny thing is, many papers didn't run some of their stories. Seems like they felt their articles were different, or something.
This is our FUBAR. I do not know what the solution is to a press that insists on a simple "he said--she said" format, and completely ignoring the galactic size fact sitting right before them. Even the acknowledgement of the possibility of the presence of a fact could potentially defund their children's private education. For now, the best thing we have is the blogosphere and the truth to keep hammering away at Brooks, Broder, Hiatt, Timmeh, Tweety and all the little satellites that get pulled into their orbits. They have no gravity, they just suck really hard.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
On Gays In The Military
General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disapproves of homos:
"I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts...," Pace said, while also calling it immoral for military members to commit adultery with another service member's spouse. "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is okay to be immoral in anyway."Peter...Pace yourself, or you will get your staff out of joint.
We remember when Big Dog split the baby and came up with this compromise of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" some fourteen years ago. Yeah, it was pretty limp, but with rightards running around with erect gherkins shrieking about the military not being a "social experiment" Big Dawg figured it was the best he could hope for.
I've always been fascinated by the foot dragging and reluctance of this issue. Every single officer has studied the history of war and battles. There is one group and one battle, that the mere mention of, humbles the mightiest of our warriors. The battle of Thermopylae which pitted 300 hundred Spartans against one million Persians.
They fought like hell, killed a shitload of Persians, lost the battle but won the war.
And The Spartans Were Gay.
One queer warrior worth over three thousand enemies in a battle that took place two thousand four hundred and eighty seven years ago.
Modern day soldiers are still today in awe of this battle, as are any who know of it.
Why are we debating this?
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Trial Begins
Five felony charges are staring I. "Scooter" Libby in the face as his trial begins involving false statement he allegedly gave to Federal investigators and a Grand Jury. Much of the pre-trial brouha-ha has surrounded efforts by the defense that Scooter was real busy on important stuff so he couldn't possibly be expected to remember who he told what about the identity of classified agent Valerie Plame.
So, that's it? Are they seriously shitting me? The Chief of Staff of the most powerful Vice President in history of the most powerful country on the planet--his defense is that he's a fukkin lamebrain?
Ay Caramba!
Artwork by On the Fritz!
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Lie Heard Round The World
I keep coming back to why we are in Iraq, what are we doing there, only because everything we have been told was wrong. The Administration bristles at the thought put forth that America was misled into war, but the recently deposed Republican congress refused to look into the matter. Well, they pretty much refused to do any damn thing. Now this story pops up, via AP:
WASHINGTON - A firedCIA employee, who collected prewar intelligence that Iraq was not developing weapons of mass destruction, can continue with a lawsuit challenging his dismissal, a federal judge has ruled.Kessler said in the ruling Friday that the covert agent, identified only as Doe, had the right to argue his firing was based on allegedly false information placed in his personnel file.
The agent said he collected intelligence from several countries in the Near East. "Obviously, Iraq was one of them," said the plaintiff's Washington attorney, Roy Krieger. The lawsuit does not name any of the countries.
[...]
Now the story filed by the AP contends that Bush was never briefed about this agents findings, which apparently contradicted the contention that Iraq had WMD's, effectively shielding President Bush from misleading the country. This is also known as plausible deniability.
But the thing is, I haven't heard of anybody getting fired for the massive intelligence flub, except for this guy, who may have got it right. This brings up a couple of points.
1) The CIA has been punked over this whole deal and have kept pretty mum about it. No defense in their behalf has been offered.
2) This has made the President look pretty foolish yet he has not extracted a pound of flesh from the CIA. In fact, he gave George Tenet a big ol' fat medal for the debacle.
And the cost to America and Iraq has been extraordinary.
The Cheney/Bush team just go full-steam ahead with their "New Way Forward 2.0" (Now with Iranian flavor added)
It looks like the Bush Administration will go out the same way it came in--through the courts.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Thank You President Bush
Sincerely. Before you took office, I was consumed by my own short-sighted personal interests and left political activism to others. After all, in the grand scheme of things, my vote and voice meant very little, and besides, I had to put food on the family. But in the 2000 election the vote was too close to call. Less than 400 votes separated Gore and Bush in Florida and with several voting irregularities. Election night came and went, and in the morning, still we had no answer.
Days turned to weeks and the two candidates turned to the courts. David Boies argued for Gore and won a string of successes in Florida, causing the Bush camp attorney, Ted Olson to refer to Mr. Boies as a "T-Rex of an attorney."
Politics definitely had my attention, and I started feeling guilty for not voting. Ultimately Bush the lesser would win by a single vote. His attorney, Mr. Olson successfully argued before the SCOTUS to stop the Florida recount and in a 5-4 decision installed by selection instead of election the President who would ignore the threats of terrorists allowing them to use airplanes to attack America. The one that slammed into the Pentagon was carrying Mr. Olson's wife.
Thank you President Bush, for showing me the power of one vote.
After seven minutes of stunned silence, you grabbed your bullhorn in the nick of time telling America your number one job is to keep us safe. Somehow, wondering around in the wreckage of your ignorance and arrogance did not seem like leadership, but hey, I guess all that Presidentin' is hard work. You round up a posse and search for a tall tree and a short rope but can't seem to find the guy whodunnit. No sense in lettin' a good posse go to waste, so you shake and bake a bunch of undercooked intel and invade Iraq. You will never be found guilty of diplomacy, one only need to look at how you treat our diplomats.
Thank you President Bush, for showing me how important it is who I vote for.
Now your occupation of Iraq is going badly. Whodathunkit? Certainly not your rubber-stamp congress (recently replaced btw). You continuously poked purple fingers into the eyes of your critics as evidence Iraqi's want to throw off tyranny and replace it with freedom and democracy. We point to America's vote of November 7th as evidence of the same. Terms like "congressional oversight" and "separation of powers" and "judicial oversight" had no real world meaning to me, until they were non-existent. And the constitution, which I thought was a bloodless document, is no such thing. When it is damaged, America herself is wounded.
Thank you President Bush for the civics lesson.
The Federal Government limits my employment to 70 hours in eight days, and I frequently bump this ceiling. Nevertheless, prior to the recent mid-terms found me pestering my neighbors to vote. I was dispatched 700 miles from my polling place on election day and threatened to quit. If both of my knees were shattered, I would have drug my unemployed ass across broken glass to cast my vote.
Thank you President Bush for giving me a passion for my country.
Fortunately, I did not have to do that by taking advantage of early voting. On November 7th as I was driving to New Mexico, I called my neighbors and urged them to the polls. My goal was to vote and add three more. The final result was nine. I plan on making them Lieutenants with orders to recruit three more new voters apiece.
Thank you President Bush for doing the impossible; you damn near organized the Democratic party.
Truly I don't think my education and motivation needed to be so costly for America. Curiously you took your one vote mandate (and questionable re-election), lassoed the stalled Gingrich revolution pendulum, pointed your wagon toward the neocon vanishing point and commenced to mash that gas and tote that ass and brought down your own house. You spent all of our money, our kids money and even their kid's kids money. We got no street cred worldwide, our military is sucking wind, our spies are gun shy from shooterface guy and the whole world is heating up. And that's just the short list.
Thank you President Bush for being the poster child of why politics matter.
I've turned the corner towards '08 and set my sights on the blatant homophobe and science denier, Senator James "Baghdad Bob" Inhofe. With any luck, my nine Lieutenants, or hero's (inside joke) will throw in and we can get him bounced. The nightmarish beginning of this century and all the horrors that have occurred since has been due to one man and one vote.
Bring a friend.
What has Bush taught you?
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Escalate For Oil
Looks like Big Oil is getting close to getting their greasy paws on Iraqi oil. Via The Independent:
Now, the cliff notes on this story revolve around "production sharing agreements" or PSA's. Usually a company that has the expertise in developing reserves retains a share of the profits for their work.
Nothing wrong with that. But these agreements nearly double the standard amount developers keep, both in the initial investment phase and in the later, easy money phase. Also these agreements are reportedly for thirty years in length, and all disputes would be settled by international law.
It raises the question of corporations taking advantage of Iraq's weakened state, and flies in the face, once again, of rightwing talking points:
Okay, so shooterfaceguy was actually shooting straight. But while they try to exploit the oil we did not fight for in Iraq, what is the plan for oil coming out of Iran? From Kim Murphy at the LA Times:
American Imperialism at work. Dollar Diplomacy has come a long ways.
(h/t to DPD)
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity
The 'IoS' today reveals a draft for a new law that would give Western oil companies a massive share in the third largest reserves in the world. To the victors, the oil? That is how some experts view this unprecedented arrangement with a major Middle East oil producer that guarantees investors huge profits for the next 30 years
[...]Now, the cliff notes on this story revolve around "production sharing agreements" or PSA's. Usually a company that has the expertise in developing reserves retains a share of the profits for their work.
Nothing wrong with that. But these agreements nearly double the standard amount developers keep, both in the initial investment phase and in the later, easy money phase. Also these agreements are reportedly for thirty years in length, and all disputes would be settled by international law.
It raises the question of corporations taking advantage of Iraq's weakened state, and flies in the face, once again, of rightwing talking points:
[...]"Oil revenues, which people falsely claim that we want to seize, should be put in a trust fund for the Iraqi people"
Tony Blair; Moving motion for war with Iraq, 18 March 2003
"Oil belongs to the Iraqi people; the government has... to be good stewards of that valuable asset "
George Bush; Press conference, 14 June 2006
"The oil of the Iraqi people... is their wealth. We did not [invade Iraq] for oil "
Colin Powell; Press briefing, 10 July 2003
"Oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50bn and $100bn in two or three years... [Iraq] can finance its reconstruction"
Paul Wolfowitz; Deputy Defense Secretary, March 2003
"By 2010 we will need [a further] 50 million barrels a day. The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies"
Dick Cheney; US Vice-President, 1999
Okay, so shooterfaceguy was actually shooting straight. But while they try to exploit the oil we did not fight for in Iraq, what is the plan for oil coming out of Iran? From Kim Murphy at the LA Times:
[...]
The efforts by the United States and its allies over the last few months to persuade international banks and oil companies to pull out of Iran threaten dozens of projects, including development of Iran's two massive new oil fields that could expand output by 800,000 barrels a day over the next four years.
"Many European banks which had accepted financing some oil industries projects have recently canceled them," Nejad-Hosseinian said.
[...]
American Imperialism at work. Dollar Diplomacy has come a long ways.
(h/t to DPD)
ExxonMobile Contributes To Massive Hoax
Senator Inhofe, R-OK, aka "Baghdad Bob," has claimed global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
ExxonMobile disagrees. (h/t huffpo) From Jerry Adler at Newsweek:
Baghdad Bob's shilling for Big Oil, instead of being an honest steward of the commons, y'know shit like air for example, is just another example of the extremists of the right protecting huge profits at the expense of the voters who elected him.
We can all die gagging and choking breathing his sponsors profits, but at least we can be comforted that Inhofe is a blatant homophobe.
ExxonMobile disagrees. (h/t huffpo) From Jerry Adler at Newsweek:
[...]
A report this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds a parallel between the efforts to whitewash tobacco and “greenwash” oil—and points the finger of responsibility at the world’s largest corporation, ExxonMobil.
[...]
For its part, ExxonMobil—after promulgating, and then withdrawing 20 minutes later, a statement that called the report an “attempt to smear our name and confuse the discussion”—wants you to know that it now accepts some responsibility for global warming. Specifically, and in boldface, it admitted that “It is clear today that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change, and that the use of fossil fuels is a major source of these emissions.”
[...]
Baghdad Bob's shilling for Big Oil, instead of being an honest steward of the commons, y'know shit like air for example, is just another example of the extremists of the right protecting huge profits at the expense of the voters who elected him.
We can all die gagging and choking breathing his sponsors profits, but at least we can be comforted that Inhofe is a blatant homophobe.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Downing Street Memo; Side B
The recent reshuffling of the deck chairs on the mid-termed renamed Administration vessel, the SS Minnow, telegraphs the much vaunted and delayed Best Plan Evah for Success in Iraq.
Or as has been said before, the intelligence is being fixed around the policy.
Since most of America lives in a Democracy and the Executive Branch floats in a sea of authoritarian fascism, they understand the importance of talking points.
There never was any doubt what this administrations shiny new plan would entail. The "listening tour" and the Baker plan was nothing more than finding the arguments they would need to address.
Bush is a war President.
The Republican party and neocons are very adept at messaging. By way of evidence, note the bowl of potato(e) salad they installed as President. American troop escalation in Iraq has less popular support than nearly every social disease, and yet, this is the dessert they serve after turning our noses up at the potato(e) salad.
This delay in announcing his new plan is to provide time to carefully craft the talking points to support it. Critics will be obliquely attacked as staining the memories of those who have fallen, and we must defeat the terrists. 9/11 will be mentioned a record 47 times in 22 seconds.
Rightards always know what they want. It is just a matter of a sales job to the American people. Now, the selling points may bear no actual resemblance to what they are actually trying to accomplish, you know, like:
We can scrub the face of our country clean of the middle class just as long as homo's can't be getting married and wimmens don't control their not-man parts and we unrelentingly kick some serious brown ass, both here and abroad.
Yes, the rightards have an agenda, and it has nothing to do with the well being of the 300 million people living in America. They use the fundies and their rightardlets peopling the media and the rightwing bigotsphere to get votes, just like a station wagon is used to get groceries. Just a useful tool to enact their greedy ambitions of self-enrichment, the seed wrapped in a foul wrapping of hate, bigotry and hypocritical moral relativism.
Of course the real agenda of this escalation is not the vanquishing of Iraq, but to fortify our position for the military engaging of Iran. I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am way wrong.
Or as has been said before, the intelligence is being fixed around the policy.
Since most of America lives in a Democracy and the Executive Branch floats in a sea of authoritarian fascism, they understand the importance of talking points.
There never was any doubt what this administrations shiny new plan would entail. The "listening tour" and the Baker plan was nothing more than finding the arguments they would need to address.
Bush is a war President.
The Republican party and neocons are very adept at messaging. By way of evidence, note the bowl of potato(e) salad they installed as President. American troop escalation in Iraq has less popular support than nearly every social disease, and yet, this is the dessert they serve after turning our noses up at the potato(e) salad.
This delay in announcing his new plan is to provide time to carefully craft the talking points to support it. Critics will be obliquely attacked as staining the memories of those who have fallen, and we must defeat the terrists. 9/11 will be mentioned a record 47 times in 22 seconds.
Rightards always know what they want. It is just a matter of a sales job to the American people. Now, the selling points may bear no actual resemblance to what they are actually trying to accomplish, you know, like:
[...]
today the wealthiest 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent...The CEOs of large corporations today earn more than 500 times what their employees are making...the Nation's 13,000 wealthiest families, which constitute 1/100th of 1 percent of the population, receive almost as much income as the bottom 20 million families in the United States.
[...]
We can scrub the face of our country clean of the middle class just as long as homo's can't be getting married and wimmens don't control their not-man parts and we unrelentingly kick some serious brown ass, both here and abroad.
Yes, the rightards have an agenda, and it has nothing to do with the well being of the 300 million people living in America. They use the fundies and their rightardlets peopling the media and the rightwing bigotsphere to get votes, just like a station wagon is used to get groceries. Just a useful tool to enact their greedy ambitions of self-enrichment, the seed wrapped in a foul wrapping of hate, bigotry and hypocritical moral relativism.
Of course the real agenda of this escalation is not the vanquishing of Iraq, but to fortify our position for the military engaging of Iran. I could be wrong. In fact, I hope I am way wrong.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Congressional Investigations
Seems there is a lot of talk about congressional investigations accompanying the 110th congress. Now, to me, an investigations usually accompanies a crime. It is usually what occurs once it is determined a crime has been committed.
Don't get me wrong, I believe the crimes against our country and humanity have been wide and rampantly inflicted on us and the world by the Bush crime family and his Republican enablers/co-conspirators.
The replacement of overlook with oversight is the first step, and since the backlog is so huge, it takes the appearance of an investigation.
What I hope for is responsible and honest stewardship of the peoples business.
The Democratic controlled congress is going to have a huge task before them. They will have to conduct present and future business in a judicious and thoughtful manner, while reviewing the previous six years that did not have that benefit.
Certain items like war profiteering and Iraq pre-war intelligence manipulation demand investigation from the outset. But oversight does not merit the description of an investigation.
The mighty right-wing wurlitzer and the corporate media will be wearing the public down on the word "investigations" making it appear the Democrats are only after retribution and political gain.
But these neocons have looted our treasury, spent our military, ruined our street cred and caused massive death, torture and maimings.
Some folks would like to know how they did that, and maybe even prosecute some of them.
This is not called investigation. It is called honest stewardship of the peoples trust.
Don't get me wrong, I believe the crimes against our country and humanity have been wide and rampantly inflicted on us and the world by the Bush crime family and his Republican enablers/co-conspirators.
The replacement of overlook with oversight is the first step, and since the backlog is so huge, it takes the appearance of an investigation.
What I hope for is responsible and honest stewardship of the peoples business.
The Democratic controlled congress is going to have a huge task before them. They will have to conduct present and future business in a judicious and thoughtful manner, while reviewing the previous six years that did not have that benefit.
Certain items like war profiteering and Iraq pre-war intelligence manipulation demand investigation from the outset. But oversight does not merit the description of an investigation.
The mighty right-wing wurlitzer and the corporate media will be wearing the public down on the word "investigations" making it appear the Democrats are only after retribution and political gain.
But these neocons have looted our treasury, spent our military, ruined our street cred and caused massive death, torture and maimings.
Some folks would like to know how they did that, and maybe even prosecute some of them.
This is not called investigation. It is called honest stewardship of the peoples trust.
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