The Oklahoma Migratory Patterns

Proud principle author of Oklahoma's new racist immigration law, Randy Terrill, R-Moore, wants to relocate all people of questionable pigmentation and citizenship from Oklahoma to south of the Rio Grande river. Mr. Terrill denies he is a racist, as does staunch xenophobe Lou Dobbs, but advocating for his bill he simply could not refrain from using tinted language like disease, drugs and crime. Oh yes, terrorism was part of his hyperbolic rhetoric as well.

The good people of Oklahoma have seen the face of a terrorist and witnessed the actions of terrorism up close and personal. I don't remember them being very brown at all.

Our state is celebrating its 100th anniversary by creating legislation deputizing hordes of vigilante racists working under color of law.

A $1000.00 fine and/or a year in prison is imposed on anyone helping someone of questionable pigmentation. Well, actually, it specifies illegal immigrants, but why take a chance? Landlords, employers seem to be the primary focus, but I guess it includes bus drivers and cabbies as well, due to the "transporting" language in the law.

Perhaps Mr. Terrill is not a racist, but his law allows racism to flourish in broad daylight under the color of law, and in a state named "Red Man" and was the tail end of the Trail of Tears, it is a sad way to begin our second century with history repeating itself.

People are frustrated with the immigration issue, but the state level is not where you deal with immigration. This is a bad law born out of frustration that will result in overt racism. People who cater to that particular base will find it slowly shrinking.

Senator Rice

Andrew Rice, currently a state senator, is seeking a promotion in an attempt to unseat Jim Inhofe. Oklahomans will have a clear choice before them--to be a part of the solution to the many problems plaguing our nation, or do we continue to ride in the back of the bus and throw spitballs.

Problems like Iraq, our national debt, health care, environmental issues, torture, rendition, elimination of Habeus Corpus, warrantless wiretapping, immigration, etc. require solutions, not the partisan obstructionist machine that Inhofe is in lock-step with.

Mr. Rice got into politics shortly after losing his brother in the attacks on September 11, 2001. He opposed the invasion of Iraq and wants us out as safely as possible. He won a landslide victory as a state senator and is now campaigning to take Inhofe's job.

Mr. Rice has the backing of the netroots, a group of progressive bloggers created to fill the void of progressive politics. We have done quite well, as opposed to the conservative side of the blogosphere. Andrew Rice currently has 500 netroot supporters, kicking in $32,322. Inhofe, on the other hand, has one supporter who donated a dollar.

It was interesting to learn that Chuck Schumer, the Senator from New York and head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has been in communication with Mr. Rice. Chuck is not famous for backing progressive candidates. Indeed, in the 2006 campaign he insisted on backing only those candidates that were not to the left of the candidate running in the reddest of states. He would choose, or at a minimum, approve of the campaign director.

Fundage allocated from the DSCC came with strings held in the hands of DC insider consultants. A recent article in the Oklahoma Gazette held forth that perhaps Chuck would be reluctant to dole out millions of dollars in light of the drubbing Brad Carlson took by Tom Coburn in the 2004 campaign. The DSCC kicked in 2.3 million dollars and lost by 12 points.

The reporter, Grant Slater concludes Chuck may feel Oklahoma to be beyond the reach of the Democratic party, and sending money would be like "kicking a dead donkey." Brad Carson tried to hire a very effective advertising agency who hailed from the corporate world, Milwaukee-based Steve Eichenbaum. One of his clients was Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold who took the seat in an improbable bid in 1992.

Russ won again in 1998 against withering Republican assaults. He vowed to spend no more than $1 per voter in his campaign, about $4 million total, while his opponent spent $11 million. But when the DSCC heard Brad Carson was thinking of hiring Eichenbaum they reigned him in, pressuring him to hire the inside-the-beltway DC firm of Murphy Putnam Media. Brad quickly realized that these consultants were above him in the food chain. He had to negotiate what he put in his commercials and if he did not do as they said, they would call the money men in DC.

These consultants are beholden only to themselves and there position in the DC elite Village. They can lose and lose and lose, in fact they have for years, yet their positions are never in jeopardy and candidates are required to use them. Hopefully Mr. Rice has done his homework and talked with Brad Carson about these things.

The race will be tough enough fighting with Inhofe without having to fight the National party as well. We have a candidate in Andrew Rice. He is a very bright, articulate, passionate and charming representative, not an angry old obstructionist partisan idealogue. Mr. Rice needs all of our active support. We cannot leave this to others to do. Go to the Andrew Rice Website here and read about him and volunteer. Donate to his campaign here.

Amnesty

The Village is closing ranks to protect one of their own. Fred Hiatt is the latest of the Village Stenographers willing to give blanket amnesty to telecommunication corporations for illegal activity:

[...]
There is one major area of disagreement between the administration and House Democrats where we think the administration has the better of the argument: the question of whether telecommunications companies that provided information to the government without court orders should be given retroactive immunity from being sued. House Democrats are understandably reluctant to grant that wholesale protection without understanding exactly what conduct they are shielding, and the administration has balked at providing such information. But the telecommunications providers seem to us to have been acting as patriotic corporate citizens in a difficult and uncharted environment.

At one time I believed that people like Fred discussed matters too great for me to comprehend, mainly because what they said or wrote was indeed totally incomprehensible.

I now realize they are just that stupid. Shame on Hiatt for declaring illegal activity is somehow patriotic. Perhaps Fred is simply unaware that Corporations are amoral entities that exist merely to maximize shareholder profits. Profitable contracts that would have been revoked had they not undertook this criminal enterprise.

Fred's own paper, the day before he wrote this junk, revealed this criminal activity began before 9/11/01, and as everyone now knows, has continued for years.

Is Mr. Hiatt suggesting that Government officials should habitually grant unto themselves immunity as well as their Corporate enablers each and every time they get caught involved in criminal activity?

The amnesty clause being heavily lobbied by the Telecoms extends to everyone involved, including Government officials.

Or is Mr. Hiatt the arbiter of when amnesty meets the "patriotic threshold?" Does a flag lapel pin automatically protect dope smokers as "sufficiently patriotic?"

There are currently lawsuits working through the courts by customers of the Telecoms and it is there that the issue should be resolved, by an independent judiciary. These laws have been enacted by the people, through their representatives, and if they have not been violated certainly these huge Telecommunication firms have the wherewithal to defend themselves.

But they are using their money and influence to pressure the congress to grant retroactive amnesty instead. Mr. Hiatt, as part of the Village, declares them "patriotic corporate citizens", who willingly, blatantly and repeatedly violated the law for years.

If we are indeed a Nation of Laws, how can breaking them become patriotic? To give a retroactive blanket amnesty to everyone involved only encourages future criminality and demonstrates to the electorate that we do indeed have a two-tiered judicial system.

Hardball

Joseph P. Nacchio was convicted in April of insider trading. Is this just another sleazy used car salesman on steroids with his greed switch on overload?

Not exactly.

He is the former CEO for Qwest Communications International that rebuked the Administrations efforts to monitor their customers conversations without a warrant. Unfortunately, not all telecom companies felt compelled to follow the law.

Perhaps they felt they could eventually get retroactive immunity from a compliant congress. Donations have a way of purchasing a lot of explanations.

The really foul thing about this story is the offer of multi-million dollar no-bid contracts that were yanked when Qwest failed to participate in this criminal enterprise. A pay-to-play arrangement.

Bush, and the entire right wing fanaticsphere have trotted out the shiny slogan "Terris Surveillance Program" and just flat out scream at anyone who mentions privacy or civil rights. The wide stance viewpoint of the reich-wingers is "dead people have no civil rights."

But these legal documents state the Bush administration was attempting to put in place the warrantless wiretapping program a full six months before September 11, 2001. It makes it very hard to believe the reason the administration seized the power to break the law was 9/11 when the program was being implemented prior to 9/11. The fact that 9/11 occurred anyway does not give a ringing endorsement to The Party Of Torture's shiny new fascist Orwellian worldview of private Government and public citizens. In short, the illegal program is an failure, unless of course it was designed to do something else entirely.

But Nacchio is convicted for insider trading (currently under appeal) for selling some stocks in light of some sooper sekrit NSA contract opportunities for Qwest in the pipeline. They were yanked when he refused to go along with their scheme. The jury was not allowed to hear any of this because of the "states secrets" mantra that comes from anything Bush does.

But the other telecom companies named Not Qwest? They are lobbying for retroactive immunity. Perhaps three percent of the contracts relating to sooper sekrit NSA programs will find their way into the coffers of Senators charged with reigning in a Presidency run amok.

It is a sad day when the peoples house vote to give immunity to blatant and repetitive lawbreaking by Government officials and Telecommunication industries. This is the type of thing that cause people to shake their heads and quit listening to politicians. After all, they are not listening to us.

Mote In Eye

Kindasleezy Rice, speaking from the Department Of Glass Houses, threw rocks at Pootey-poo:

[...]

"In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development," Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

[...]

Uncomfirmed reports claim Vladimir Putin responded by saying, "Neener neener, I know you are but what am I?"

Witness The Kabuki Of The Village

UPDATED BELOW
September was supposed to be the month of change in Iraq. Now that September has come and gone with nary a budge of President* Bush's policy of neverending occupation, it is important to look back at the strange kabuki we witnessed.

First off were unconfirmed reports of a draw down, which were shot down by Petraeus staffers.

The Republican Senator from Virginia, John Warner, stepped before the cameras prior to The Man Called Petraeus' report and wagged a threatening finger at the President*, urging him to pull out some troops, maybe 5,000 or so, to be home by Christmas.

He explained his reasoning to send a strong message to the Maliki Government of Iraq to reach compromises needed to end the sectarian strife. Another reason was to send a message to President* Bush the impatience of the American people with the Iraqi occupation.

Reporters asked him if he had discussed this with the President* before his public announcement. Warner said he had but would not discuss the details of their conversation, because he liked to protect his visits.

It is clear now that all this was a very well orchestrated plan to continue the American occupation of a country involved in a multi-faceted civil war.

And the press played along, dutifully fulfilling their roles of the courtier class.

Breathlessly they portrayed Warner as a Very Serious Moderate Republican showing signs of doubt about the President's* policy and foreshadowing an avalanche of Republican defections.

Warner was the glue, the stalwart statesman that is guided by his long and credentialed history of military events. He was constantly hailed in the press as a reasonable, concerned and Very Serious Person.

So the political tactic was made to use the rotation of troops to appear as a draw down, therefore satisfying Warner's "line in the sand". He was satisfied with the 5,000 troops out by Christmas, a line parroted by both The Man Called Petraeus in his congressional testimony and President* Bush's statement a few days later.

No need to consider any Unserious Democratic Plan that called for troop re deployments, even though this is what 70% of Americans want, which was a possibility Senator Warner floated if Bush did not consider his proposal reasonable. This eliminated any crack in the Republican wall of obstructing troop redeployment out of Iraq.

So Warner makes a threat to the Decider, the press report a potential stampede of Republican defections, rotations are dressed up as a drawdown and the reich-wing marches in lock-step to a stay-the-course policy.

I don't think the term "moderate" and Senator Warner should be used in the same day. He is a tool for the Bush Maladministration and their War In Error.

UPDATE:
Now, I hate to say I told you so, but I am just a blogger that probably lives in his Mother's basement, and I am not an "Emmy Award Winning Member Of The Best Political Team On Television. AKA Chicken Noodle Nuze: from August 23, 2007:

[...]

Up first tonight, Senator John Warner's revolt against the president's Iraq policy, one of the most influential voices on military affairs is taking his reservations about the war to a new level. Says President Bush should tell the American people next month that he's starting a troop withdrawal from Iraq and that some troops should be home by Christmas. Now many are asking, if the president has lost John Warner, who might be next?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: We simply cannot, as a nation, stand and put our troops at continuous risk where there will be loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action which will get everybody's attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our congressional correspondent Dana Bash. This is a new level for John Warner. He's been somewhat critical in the past, but today he's saying things he's never said before.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. It is different. He has bugged the president on military strategy in Iraq. He never liked the surge to begin with. This is the first time he or anyone of his stature in the military community or in the president's own Republican Party has actually said it's time to start bringing troops home. And that's why he is very well aware that what he did here today is very politically potent because it is a stark challenge to the president and also one that nervous Republicans may come back in September and embrace.

BLITZER: What about, Dana, the whole notion of his specific proposal right now. He's stopping short of simply saying that all U.S. troops have to get out of Iraq?

BASH: He's stopping short of saying that. He may sound more like a Democrat in saying troops do need to start coming home, but he's being very clear, Wolf that he does not support a deadline for troop withdrawal as most Democrats want. The bottom line is John Warner just came back from Iraq really fed up with the Iraqi government and made clear what he thinks the only way to get them into shape is to show them, not just tell them, but show them that the U.S. isn't going to be there forever by starting to bring troops home, even if it is just a symbolic number of troops that will start coming home from Iraq.

BLITZER: Still a real bombshell on Capitol Hill today. Dana, thanks very much.

The Bush administration suggests it's keeping an open mind about Senator Warner's proposal. (emphasis added)
[...]

So, the very influential Warner threatens a revolt, a stark challenge to the President* that nervous Republicans may embrace. Oh, and Bush has an open mind.

Today, Jamie McIntyre filed a report at CNN that states the reduction is actually normal troop rotation and not a reduction at all. It was set in motion in August, which pre-dated General Petraeus' report to congress, where he recommended a reduction of a Brigade by Christmas (5,700 troops) which would have happened with or without his reccomendation.

It also pre-dated Warner's "stark challenge to the President", and Senator Warner's meeting with the President, the meeting Warner would not discuss. He didn't want to blow the whole plan by talking about it I guess.

Bush accepted the recommendation of Petraeus to bring home a Brigade by Christmas (5,700 troops) which would have happened with or without his reccomendation.

This number of 5,000, with the deadline of "by Christmas" being repeated verbatim by Warner, Petraeus and Bush is just too coincidental to pass the smell test and looks suspiciously like a carney pitch job to cheat America of more blood and treasure.

Now, nearly a month later, our Emmy Award Winning Newsperts, gets around to reporting there shall be no reduction. In fact, at the end of the surge, more troops will be on the ground simply because of support personnel.

Not like this is important or anything.

White House Spokesliar Issues Non-Denial Denial Over Imminent Iranian Attack By America

Cappuccino Perino, the diminutive spokesliar for BushCo offered a non-denial denial in her perky, Valleygrrrl sort of way, about BushCo's new fall product, War on Iraq. via Think Progress:

QUESTION: Dana, can I follow on that? This weekend, The New Yorker magazine came out with an article claiming that this summer the president, or at least the White House in general, asked the Joint Chiefs to redraw plans to attack Iran. Is that true?

PERINO: Look, you know, I’m glad you brought it up. Every two months or so, Sy Hersh writes an article in The New Yorker magazine and CNN provides him a forum in which to talk about his article and all the anonymous sources that are quoted in it.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: Look, the president has said that he believes there is a diplomatic solution that we can use to solve the Iranian problem. And that’s why we’re working with our allies to get there.

QUESTION: That’s what he said before we went to Iraq, too.

QUESTION: But what’s the — can you answer as to the substance of whether or not the White House asked? I mean, if it’s not true, then you can say Sy Hersh is wrong and CNN was wrong to air it. You can say it.

PERINO: We don’t discuss such things.

(CROSSTALK)

PERINO: We don’t discuss such thing. What we have said and what we are working toward is a diplomatic solution in Iran. What the president has also said is that as a president, as a commander in chief — and any commander in chief would not take any option off the table — but the option that we are pursuing right now is diplomacy.

QUESTION: But the article very specifically said that this summer in a video conference, a secure video conference, with Ambassador Crocker, the president said that he was thinking about, quote, hitting Iran, and also that…

PERINO: I’m not going to comment on that. One, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have been at that type of meeting. I don’t know. I’m not going to comment on any possible — any possible scenario that an anonymous source continues to feed into Sy Hersh. I’m just not going to do it.

QUESTION: Why should anybody believe that the president wants a diplomatic solution. He said that before he went to Iraq. PERINO: Because he’s sought a diplomatic solution in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein defied the U.N. Security Council 17 times.

QUESTION: Well, the history we’ve learned since suggests otherwise.

PERINO: That the president didn’t — that Saddam Hussein defied 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions?

QUESTION: No. The president was intent on going to war in Iraq in any case.

PERINO: No, the president has pursued a diplomatic option. He went to the U.N. Security Council, and then we proceeded.

QUESTION: Would he consult — would he tell Congress before he attacked Iran — before he attacks Iran?

PERINO: We are pursuing a diplomatic solution with Iran.

The underlying theme in Sy Hersh's latest article about BushCo's More!And!Bigger!Wars! is not really a discussion amongst Village Insiders whether or not it is a good idea, but how to get it done.

Having been told in no uncertain terms that the Iranian Nuclear ambitions are years away from being realized, the marketing strategery has shifted from counter-proliferation to counter-terrorism.

From the "mushroom cloud" scenario, to the "they're killin' our boys" victimization. Bottom line, they have come to realize the winners in our invasion and occupation of Iraq has been Iran, and they feel the need to soften them up a bit.

Norman Podhoretz, the "Godfather of neoconservatism, met privately with President Bush and begged him for 45 minutes to attack Iran, and is convinced he will do it.

The Senate recently passed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment which gives BushCo a "sense of the Senate" nod and wink to pursue Iran militarily.

So the table is set. The Decider is resolute and the big money boys who really run things are slavering in glee. I have no confidence that congress will stop BushCo from hammering Iran, and even less confidence in our chattering classes to investigate and demand answers. Here is one possible outcome that I came across via Wolcott who led me to Arthur Silber's most disturbing predictions:

...one of the standard objections to the likelihood of an attack on Iran is that it will put American troops in Iraq in grave peril. If you make that objection, I have only one thing to say to you: Wake the hell up. Of course it will put American troops in Iraq in grave peril. A great many of them will probably be killed. But -- and please try as earnestly as you can to get this -- the administration is counting on exactly that happening. [Added, to clarify: this must be true, given the logic of the situation, at least implicitly. In individual cases, it might also be true explicitly, in the sense that a particular person is consciously aware of what must happen.] I'm sorry to be rude, but honest to God, how stupid are some of you? Imagine that 500, or a thousand, or even several thousand, American soldiers are killed in a single engagement, or over several days or a week. What do you think would happen?

The administration would immediately blame "Iranian interference" and "Iranian meddling." They do that now. Every major media outlet would repeat the charge; almost no one would question it. Pictures of the slaughtered Americans would be played on television 24 hours a day. The outrage would grow by the minute. Within a day, and probably within hours, certain parties would be calling for nuclear weapons to be dropped on Tehran. Almost everyone would be baying for blood, and for the blood of Iran in particular.

No one, and certainly no prominent politician, would dare to remind Americans that we have no right to be in Iraq in the first place. They won't say that now. Who would point it out after 800 Americans have been killed? And what Democrat would dare to oppose the tide, especially with a presidential election looming? Not one. Everyone with a national voice would be demanding the destruction of the current regime in Iran. No one would oppose such a course.

And Congress would begin impeachment proceedings in this atmosphere? Please tell me you're kidding.

This was Sibler's reasoning against the possibility of stopping BushCo with impeachment. Here we are again wondering around as if we were underwater, seeing all this happen and all of our loudest protestations fall muted, as they die on our very lips.

BushCo's New Fall Product; Iran

We have been hearing these rumors for quite some time about an American strike on Iran. Hear me now and believe me later, Dubya's gonna do it.
You think gas prices are high now? You ain't seen nuthin' yet. That is, if you can find any at all...

The Generals BetrayUs, According To Faux Snooze

The feigned outrage of a million decibels of rightard spew had the entire government falling all over itself to cast a vote condemning an ad ran by MoveOn. Yet a mere squeak is heard when the mighty right-wing wurlitzer does far worse. The Oxy Moron calls over 70% of our troops currently deployed in Iraq "phony soldiers" and Fox News Contributor and a frequent guest of phone sex enthusiast Bill O'Reilly David Hunt says:

Top Military Officials are a Disgrace to Those They Lead

By Col. David Hunt

Our generals are betraying our soldiers … again
[...]

We can be assured that the very serious Mr. Hume for Faux Snooze will not pound his little table and demand a retraction, since both of these despicable people live on the same side of the Village.

We on the left can loudly and vehemently proclaim our righteous indignation at the heresy proclaimed by chickenhawks that crowd the war-mongering division of BushCo, send blast-faxes, set up phone-banks and email campaigns to our legislature demanding a vote condemning each and every one of these outrages. The result would be some timid, watered down version calling for a return to civility.

Why?

Because the right protects its base and the left run from theirs. This very dynamic has drug this country to the very brink of fascism. The rightards control corporate media. Most syndicated columnists are conservative, 9 out of ten hours of political talk terrestrial radio are conservative and every time a Delay or Foley or Craig or Abramoff is mentioned on network news, the chattering classes out of pure reflex say "Democrats too" to give "balance" and smear all public servants with the criminal regime that is the Republican party.

Further, in America we believe in the freedom of speech. But when Democrats curl up in a fetal position and flail themselves in the disgusting spectacle they exhibited in voting with the enemy to flog themselves, it drives one to demand two wrongs make a right, despite what my momma told me.

Perhaps the pushback the left is inflicting on Democrats has them confused and hurt. The truth is we are trying to keep them from making asses of themselves. Never repeat right-wing talking points. The very fact that they want to muzzle free speech about a war's fifty-seventh reason is to export democracy and freedom is absolutely insane on the face of it. We are here to help. Please pay attention, cause, well, we vote, we have money and we are correct.

Troop Hater

OxyMoron rightard pundit, Rush Limballs, declared on his radio show that any soldier who does not march in lock step with the Reich wing's unflagging fealty to the failed policies of the Bush Administration, are in fact, "phony soldiers."

This would include the seven soldiers who wrote an op-ed that was published in the New York Times. The opinion piece gave a very differing view than the one delivered by the Administration, or their legions of spokesliars peopled by the likes of Sir Oxy Moron. The seven soldiers ended their column this way:

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.”

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.

We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.

This view is not only a "boots on the ground" perspective, but hats on the ground as well since two of these soldiers have given their lives in pursuit of the Cheney/Bush policy.

But Rush has declared these seven individuals "phony", and indeed any soldier who disagrees with Dear Leader. According to a Zogby poll, this includes 72% of the soldiers in Iraq.

They are all "phony soldiers" according to Rush.

The recent outrage directed at MoveOn.Org about an ad they ran questioning the veracity of General shook the very halls of congress. One ad about one soldier drew condemnation from 72 Senators and 341 members of the House in actual votes to register their outrage.

The vote was goaded by the mighty right wing wurlitzer in an obvious bait and switch to detract from the lives and treasure being flushed down the toilet of BushCo. So now the question is will the Reich wing bloviators be equally outraged at Rush declaring over seventy percent of our troops in Iraq are "phony soldiers?" Legislators need not draft a new declaration, since this field has already been plowed.

(b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate--

(1) to reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, including General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq;

(2) to strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces; and

(3) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.

Just some minor changes need to be made in the language. The faux outrage generated over one ad about one soldier should be proportionately increased since Rush has slurred over one hundred and fifteen thousand soldiers. This coming from a man who got a medical deferment from serving in the military due to an anal cyst.

John Amato over at Crooks and Liars has the phone numbers of certain congresscritters that may enjoy encouragement in condemning Oxy Moronic attacks on our soldiers.

Let Me Be Clear

I Am Not A Racist...
I Never Have Been...

A Racist.

Where they gather to declare themselves idiots and spew their hateful ideology...

And the political party that holds them close to their bosom.

Much like a belligerent drunk being accused of alcoholism, the immediate response is denial and threats of a boozy brawl. Never is any admission made to an actual problem existing. The real problem is with all the trouble-makers attacking such fine, upstanding citizens. At least in Billo's world. At least Imus and Cosmo apologized, however, they denied being racist.

Again, this is the foggy thinking of a drunk, the public shame of being a racist (in most circles) makes it nearly impossible for someone to admit, or even recognize being a racist. Bill'o was just simply fascinated that black people were acting just like normal people, which leads one to conclude he expects minorities to behave in an abnormal way, and was surprised that they did not.

To defend his confounding logic, he claims he was defending minorities by pointing out, to his shock and awe, that they can behave in public.

This sad and pathetic pundit then sulls up and lashes out at Media Matters for putting up his undoctored audio from his radio show where he made his racist comments, along with a complete transcript, for taking his words out of context. Further, he lambastes all other media that picks up on the story to expose this small-minded racist for who he is.

Yes, It is Bill O'Reilly who is the victim. The rich white guy from the mean streets of Long Island proclaims loudly that it is all about "the man" keeping you down.

It is Bill'o who does not know how to behave in public.

No Reindeer Games For Rudoph

Rudy, America's Governor, is clutching his pearls and fanning his face in a massive case of the vapors over the MoveOn.org's ad questioning the spin delivered by Petraeus. I guess he thinks it is a drag. This is a typical Republican ploy to divert attention away from the wholesale slaughter and financial ruin that lay's in their wake by screaming and shouting about "incivility" and lack of "comity."

Hey Rudy. Fuck You. You are a vapid slut, a serial adulterer who has been married three times. Your first wife was your second cousin fer chrissakes. In all of your dealings, both politically and professionally, you leave a foul slime trail.

The front-runner for the Republican party is in favor of gun control, abortion and gay rights. This means the only people left in the Republican party are sheeple, mindless hive-thought stepford wives dutifully reciting the chorus issued to them by the mighty right-wing wurlitzer. God, guns and gays are the trifecta platform of the "family values" party, and yet, if you chant terror 24/7 the rightards cast all this aside out of concern for their soiled pampers.

And Rudy chants terror, 24/7.

Congress formed the Iraq Study Group, a bi-partisan group to look at all aspects of the rapidly deteriorating conditions in Iraq in a futile attempt to get Bush to change course. Rudy was named to this committee. But after five weeks of no-shows, the top Republican told Rudy to show up or quit. Citing scheduling conflicts, Rudy quit. Now, what could be more important than getting some bonafide foreign policy cred and helping America with the most important matter in a generation?

Making some money!

That's right, America's Mayor was busy delivering speeches for hundreds of thousands of dollars standing on a podium of three thousand dead Americans saying, "I...Me...I...Me...blah blah blah."

And he is one of Bush's biggest cheerleaders in The War In Error. Their latest product slogan is "Return On Success."

I sent three labels of right-wing kool-aide to Battle Creek Michigan and just got my rightard decoder ring back in the mail. It amazes me how concise rightardspeak is compared to what it means when decoded.

"Return On Success" means "we don't care how stressed and strained the troops are, you ain't coming back until you win our goddam war!"

The Petraeus Report

Fresh on the heels of the shocking MoveOn.Org ad, that did not call the Venerable General an "asskissing little chickenshit" like his boss, CENTCOM chief Admiral William Fallon did, David Petraeus delivered a glowing self-assessment of his job performance since taking over in Iraq.

Citing progress and success and a decline in violence, Petraeus forgot to mention that this was the bloodiest and deadliest for US servicemembers since the beginning of the invasion. Somehow that part got left off of the Valiant and Honorable General's self-edited report card. One should expect such omissions of import when an individual is allowed to self-evaluate ones own performance.

No longer does a huge block of the American people allow such weighty decisions to be made by Very Serious People about matters too far over the heads of the average layman.

We remember hearing about the Weapons of Mass Destruction and the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. We remember slam dunk intelligence and charts used by another General at the United Nations making the case for invasion with aforementioned slam dunk intelligence.

We remember the time frame of the invasion stated as "six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." We remember being reassured by a Very Serious Person that Iraq's oil could finance its own reconstruction efforts. He went on to head the World Bank, where it is assumed, some math was involved. We remember an overstuffed codpiece landing on an aircraft carrier offshore of San Diego decorated with Mission Accomplished banner. The Leader of The Most Powerful Photo Ops in the World pulled off this miraculous feat over four years ago.

We remember the "last throes" and "a few dead-enders". We remember a mind-numbing slew of "turning the corner" and "critical times" and seemingly endless Freidman Units.

And now, Petraeus and Dear Leader have joined chorus in a petulant effort to chide the majority of Americans, who simply do not understand weighty issues far over the heads of The Unserious who wish to end the occupation. The picture they paint is dark. Islamo fanatics will move in and take the oil to finance their hateful ideology. Iran will help. Widespread slaughter will be immediate and America will be in danger.

But we remember making these very same arguments, those of us on the Unserious Left, as good reasons for not invading Iraq, but we were shouted down as giving aid and comfort to the enemy, Anti-American and defeatocrats. It is really Kafkaesque to have the very arguments against the invasion now being endorsed as why we can't leave by those who so thoroughly trashed them.

Catching Up

Sheesh. This blogging stuff is hard work, or as the Preznit would say, Heckuva job, OFG! Nevertheless, I feel the need to recap our political situation at this point in time, the waning days of the Republican Party.

First off, there seems to be a swabbing of the decks at the good ship lollipop. Bertie Walnuts, aka Alberto Gonzales finally crashed under the weight of his own incompetence. The strangely familiar refrain of an inability to correct the boy king, Bertie fell victim to the urban legend of a snake being able to hypnotize a bird in flight, bringing to its doom. He conflated loyalty to country and constitution with fealty to person hood clothed in ideology. Certainly the frat-boy mentality and clubby towel-snapping ridicule of monikers like "fredo" goaded him into behaving like a dog in the back window of an El Dorado, his head constantly bobbing up and down for approval.

Certainly the republicans and their legions that people the mighty right wing wurlitzer blame the Democrats. As I have stated before, nationally, there are nine hours of rightard hatespew driving their chickenhawk killdozers over the American airwaves for every one hour of everybodyelse. This, of course, needs fixing in the context of radio. See, terrestrial radio is a fixed and finite universe. They cannot throw an extra sig of paper on the press to cover more shit, and the radio universe is a publicly held universe. Right now, blogs are the only counter-prevailing force for the hate-spew put out by Oxy morons, phone-sex enthusiasts and slant-head-Hannities. There exists no real opposition in the blogosphere from the right. Last count I got to date was since the Dean campaign, we on the left have raised $26 million and the right, somewhere north of $300 thousand.

Yes, the right blogosphere is fat and stupid and even their mother's don't like them very much.

I hate to reduce the muscle of the left blogosphere to dollars and cents, but unfortunately, this is what politics understand. Still, it seems there understanding wanes significantly.

Bertie Walnuts is out. Karl Rove is out. Tony Snow is out. The Republican majority in the Senate is out. The Republican majority of the House is out. And yet, even Speaker Pelosi's muscular language of a "new congress is in town," which was elected to conclude the Republican Reign of Terror, we still have:

An escalation of the occupation of Iraq, fully funded, with no strings attached. Codification of the Bush warrant less wiretapping program, running unabated and unchecked, giving the Administration congressional approval to shred civil liberties. Continuation of the suspension of Habeus Corpus. The founding principle of free people that says its government cannot snatch them from the streets and imprison them with no explanation to a judge or anyone else. Giving the boy king the exclusive authority to determine what torture is...the same guy who blew frogs up for kicks as a child.

In other words, to contrast Speaker Pelosi's admonition, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Congress is confused. Yes, Nancy, it is really swell you increased the minimum wage. Yes, we are so happy you made it easier to afford college for our kids and it is so kewl you passed the 9/11 commission recommendations, like 12 years after they were, you know, recommended. Health care for the kids and ethics reform are good too, but holy fucking shit, quit mowing the fukkin' lawn while the house is burning down!

End it. End all of this authoritarian cultism that preaches that all will be well if we have enough cops/soldiers on the streets. Do not lead from the center as defined by those who have drug this nation 1200 miles to the right. End the occupation. End the warrantless wiretapping. Re-establish Habeus Corpus. End torture. End free trade that is not fair and only benefits multinational corporations. Enact card check for the establishment of Unions. Roll back the tax cuts of the Bush/Bush/Reagan regimes. Establish a 91% tax rate on incomes over $3 million and perhaps we wouldn't have CEO's making 400 times what the average worker makes. Eliminate all offshore tax havens and any benefits of outsourcing labor.

It doesn't matter what the rightards say, because they will bad mouth you whatever you do. It is time to do what you were elected for, and the main thing is to defend and protect the constitution, something Republicans do not believe in. Republicans are corporatists, not Americans.

Sacrifice

I had a little dust-up at work the other day with a co-worker over the Iraq war. A defender of the war, and die-hard Republican, my co-worker directed a lecture, actually a scold, about the need for sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy. Or something. The lecture was a sophomoric and petulant attempt to shame me into supporting the invasion/occupation/escalation of the PNAC agenda. It was also mixed with a small bit of spittle.

I agree with the need for sacrifice for Dick and Dubya's most excellent adventure, but it should not be so compartmentalized. The pain and blood and death sacrifice being borne almost entirely by our all-volunteer army, their families and friends. And in typical Republican fashion, the payment for this war is punted well out of reach, falling as a sacrifice to our grandchildren. This Administration has a war, an occupation, expanded the federal government by forty percent and cut taxes to its billionaire corporate donor base.

So where is this sacrifice? If indeed, as the rightards vehemently point out that America being invaded by 20 box-knife wielding fanatics is an existential threat to end life as we know it, then perhaps each and every American should share in this sacrifice.

Re-institute the draft. No wussy-assed loopholes like "five deferment Dick Cheney" or anal cyst OxyMorons. Two years of Mess-O-Potamia for all. The Democrats just initiated the PayGo system, which means, like, pay as you go. Apply this to Iraqistan. No new funds issued until the last tab is paid in full. One would definitely have to eliminate the billionaire tax breaks. Perhaps everyone else's taxes would have to double--or triple.

I'm down with that. Perhaps if the sacrifice, in real time, of suffering and funding for the disaster known as Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) visited the hearts and bank balances of each American, the 30 percent domestic support it enjoys would evaporate, and people would take to the streets, banging a pot or a pan, demanding an end to this fruitless disaster.

But mostly it remains Somebody Else's Problem. As Drifty so elegantly pointed out, people are perfectly happy to just sit at home and watch "Poo-Flinger Island" and "Smell My Wife."

As far as the occupation escalation, can someone please explain to me how arming and training people involved in a civil war is supposed to quell the violence. With more guns and better training?

The Big Picture Conservative Machine

Work hard and play by the rules and you will succeed has been the American mantra for generations. But what chance does a regular American have when the deck is stacked so decidedly against him or her? Consider the modern-day conservative machine cobbled together not for the benefit of America, but for the benefit of the wealthy elite. What began as a memo in 1970 to the National Chamber of Commerce by Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell saying that all of our best students are becoming anti-business because of the Vietnam War, and that we needed to do something about it. Powell's agenda included getting wealthy conservatives to set up professorships, setting up institutes on and off campus where intellectuals would write books from a conservative business perspective, and setting up think tanks.

Business folks took this advice seriously, coupled with Republican scandals that resulted in running a Republican President out of town.

Captains of industry set up non-profit think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, and converted earlier ones like the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institute to benefit their own corporate interests. They carefully peopled these symbiotic organisms with the fruit of their loins, children with double doctorates carefully bred and nurtured to provide sustenance to the maw of the elite.

There are thousands of such organizations across America, located in every state, closely affiliated with the local chambers of commerce and genetically linked with Corporate CEO's who routinely make 500 times more than his average employee. The sole purpose of this machine is to maintain this outrageous imbalance of economic distribution, which bears no relevance whatsoever on the profitability of the company.

But it doesn't end there, since this is all quiet lobbying behind the scenes intended to nothing more than perpetuate Corporate wingnut welfare. It also extends into the airwaves, the so called fourth estate, also known as the media

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Hailed to foster competition, it in fact reduced the number of major media companies from 80 to six in twenty years. This was preceded by the death of the Fairness Doctrine during the Reagan Administration which demanded radio stations to provide balanced programming.

The birth of the mighty right wing wurlitzer had begun, and a cancer began to grow on the body politic. The right wing noise machine caters to the low-hanging fruit, the easy boogeyman, pointing at the dirty fucking liberal hippy as the irrational reason of all societal problems. Liberals want to take all the money from hard working Americans and give it to lay-about coloreds, welfare queens and illegal immigrants. The lazy and hateful ideology they spew is not countered whatsoever in over 90 percent of the country, according to Ed Schutlz, a popular progressive radio talk show host. This is backed up by a recent study done by a liberal think tank known as The Center For America Progress which shows:

the Center for American Progress concluded that 91 percent of weekday talk radio is conservative, compared with liberal content at 9 percent. The group, which said it analyzed 257 news and talk stations owned by the five biggest radio broadcasters, calls for stricter media-ownership limits and public-interest requirements.

In other words, a handful of media owners are effectively silencing the political voice of 70 percent of the people. One may say this is stupid, since advertising is the lifeblood of media and one should go where the money is. This is true. Since General Electric is a major media holding company, it is interesting to note that its PAC donated over $800,000 to the Republican party last year and about half of that to the Democrats, a pattern that is consistent in the past several years. But you won't find that on Faux News. They point to the fact that journalists give to the Democratic party 9 to 1 over Republicans.

This is one of those things that is fundamentally true while being simultaneously patently false. Stay with me here. One hundred and forty four "journalists", nationwide, made campaign contributions from 2004 through the first quarter of 2007. There are over 116,000 journalists in America. This is a toenail clipping of the body politic, not some rampant liberal press. Besides that, those who did contribute to Democrats were copy editors and sports reporters from sisterfuck Alabama, not editorial writers for the New York Times, or Washington Post.

We are not done yet folks, because even with armies of sooper smart lobbyists from think tanks, the fruits of the loins of captains of industry invading our state-houses and Federal government by the platoon, and a million decibels of rightard spew blasting "it's all about icky libruls keeping you down," still, even with all that, the best the mighty conservative machine can do at the ballot box is forty percent.

Hello Ralph Reed , James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell. These three, along with many other pious and upright Christianists preached intolerance and hatred against any and all that would oppose the Glorious Conservative Revolution. Indeed if one supported the babykilling sodomites, one should expect eternal damnation. No need to address the poor and downtrodden or environment or any other issue of society that was about to be gobbled up by corporatists on their way to an industrial lunch because that may hamper the millions of taxpayer dollars they get for "faith based initiatives."

Think I'm done? Hah, you silly blogreader! Even with armies of Doctorates invading Washington and millions in corporate PAC's flooding in being blanketed with a million decibels of rightard radio and the soothing dulcette tones of the Pentecostal preacher urging "vote Republican or suffer eternal damnation," it still ain't enough!

Enter massive purges of voter rolls and the privatization of voting machines with closed source software that flips votes on command and three minute waits in Republican precincts and eight hour waits in democratic ones and still, we have a sitting President who complained to the Supreme Court in 2000 that if Florida kept counting votes he would be irreparably harmed. The court agreed, which I guess means he would have lost. But he won by a one vote Supreme Court margin.

This is the Republican Party and how they came to power. The results are all around us. Strong on sales, short on delivery, unless of course you are a member of their trifecta.

Senator Coburn; Good Republican--Bad American

U. S. Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, is earning his bonafides as a conservative by shielding racists from prosecution under the guise of being fiscally conservative. No expense is too great for the neocon war on brown people in a country that was not a threat, did not attack us and had no connection to 9/11, but less than 10 million dollars is way too much money to spend investigating and prosecuting murderers of Americans defending civil rights in America.

The bill, H. R. 923, the Emmitt Till Unsolved Civil-Rights Crime Act, focuses on hate crimes of the civil-rights era prior to 1970, sailed through the House last week with only two votes opposed. It was expected to sail through the Senate by unanimous consent, but Coburn placed a hold on the bill for budgetary reasons.

Senator KKKoburn feels perfectly fine spending unlimited fundage killing foreign people of questionable pigmentation but is unwilling to spend a pittance to prosecute those who do so, even if the victims are Americans attempting to exercise the right to vote. One wonders if he is opposed to African-Americans or civil rights, or both. Why does the Senator oppose the defense of Democracy in America yet fanatically support its exportation by military force?

On behalf of all Oklahomans, allow me to issue this public apology for the oxygen Senator Coburn is using up that could be going to some useful purpose.

For more info and background on this bill and what it means, please read this outstanding post by Meteor Blades. mcjoan weighs in here, and, as usual, what Digby said.

Made His Mark

Some people say tut-tut, there oughta be a law, and some people break the law to fix it. I am referring to the law against tattooing in Oklahoma, the last state in the Union to have such a ban. The law was recently changed, thanks in large part to a frustrated young artist named D.J. and several of his buddies.

Al Lindley, a local Democratic Representative in Oklahoma City had written legislation to legalize and regulate the profession and bring it out into the open. It languished in committee for seven years.

DJ and Co. said "fuck this shit" and opened up a tattoo shop storefront with bold signage and flashy graphics right out in broad daylight. They commenced to giving tattoos. To cops and prosecutors and bikers. Hell, everybody gets tattoos these days, even your very own Oilfieldguy's daughter is a tattoo artist in Lost Wages, Nevada.

His open and notorious defiance of the law was short-lived however, and I watched on the teevee as they froggermarched DJ and Co off to the pokey.

"Dood," one of the wayward tattooers said to the cameraman on his way to the squad car, "the law says, like, permanent markings, and like, they got lasers that can remove tattoos, so we feel they aren't so permanent."

I grinned and shook my head at the obvious stoner argument. Still, I admired their pluck. Tilt on, dood!

About a week or so later, the defense attorney had her chance in front of the camera. She viewed it as a constitutional issue involving freedom of expression, and her clients method of expression was tattoos.

Now that, my friends, is an argument. Seems Lindley's languishing legislation got some wind beneath its wings, and that is how a bill becomes law.

DJ, and a small group of defiant "outlaws" challenged the system, risked the loss of freedom and fundage for what they believed was a righteous cause.

Can we all give a polite golf applause to our modern day Don Quixote's?

But this is not the end of the story. You see, I have softened you up, perhaps invoked a hint of admiration for DJ. I met him through my daughter who is good friends with his wife, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Seven of Nine, and they have a new baby.

The other night DJ was having a barbecue at his house with several friends. In the crowd was a recently separated young lady, whose ex-boyfriend showed up with several friends un-invited. Harsh words were exchanged, and the jilted boyfriend broke a baseball bat over DJ's head and stabbed him with it.

DJ is young and tough, but he will have to continue life without a spleen, his recovery will be slow, but he will recover. He has no insurance, a young wife and a new baby. Last time I checked it costs between 40 to 50 thousand dollars to have a spleen removed.

I plan to pass the hat. I won't be putting up a donate button, because a) I'm too fukkin' stoopid, and b) I do not care for any money to pass through my hands. We will be having a benefit for DJ next month at a local eatery. For those in the blogosphere, check back here and I will give mailing info to an account we will set up for him.

I'd like to show this guy some love, dragging Oklahoma into the 21st century and protecting a damsel in distress. What's not to love?

The Big Dick

Apparently, Dick Cheney is a government unto himself and claims his office is not an entity within the Executive branch.

Washington, D.C. — The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President’s position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President’s staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President’s executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: “I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. … [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials.”

So, "Top Secret" does not apply to Dick Cheney and he can willy-nilly out CIA operatives if their husbands get crosswise with the Sith Lords evil ideology. If the pesky congresscritters try to get an attitude about it, he uses the Dark Side of the force and Jedi mind tricks.

The Sith Lord is a brutal infighter. He has proposed modifications that would eliminate oversight and review by the Attorney General--not that he's all that concerned with Bertie Walnuts--who has problems of his own.

Dick Cheney's nonchalant history of abusing national security secrets for partisan political gain is stunning. During the run-up to the Iraq invasion, he cherry-picked certain items from the National Intelligence Estimate that helped the neocon vision of Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) and leaked it to his favorite media bitch, Judith Miller via Scooter Libby.

The NIE is a classified document. It is important to remember the war in Iraq began on March 19, 2003.

Congressman Waxman notes:

In 2001 and 2002, your office had provided the National Archives with data on its classification and declassification activities, as required by the executive order. Your office ceased to provide this information in 2003, and has refused to provide it in each year since. No rationale for this change in policy was provided to the Archives at that time.

I wonder why?

Waxman, being no shrinking violet, even in the face of evil ideology, continues:

Your office may have the worst record in the executive branch for safeguarding classified information. As Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald established, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, your former Chief of Staff, leaked the identity of a covert CIA operative to several reporters in June 2003. Mr. Libby was convicted in March of perjury, obstruction of justice, and false statements for lying to a grand jury and to FBI agents in order to conceal his role in the leaking of this information.

The prosecution of Mr. Libby also revealed that you apparently misused the declassification process for political reasons. In July 2003, you reportedly instructed Mr. Libby to leak to the media portions of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein’s purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Your selective declassification of this information was apparently made outside the formal declassification process and done as part of a damage-control effort you undertook to defend the Administration’s rationale for going to war in Iraq.

In a separate incident, Leandro Aragoncillo, a former aide in your office, pleaded guilty in May 2006 to passing classified information to plotters allegedly trying to overthrow Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Mr. Aragoncillo reportedly disclosed numerous secret and top secret documents to Philippine officials over several years while working in your office.

Private Government absolutely resistant to any oversight that has seized the power to wiretap, jail and torture its citizens without judicial or congressional review.

Welcome to the land of Republicans. It's a long way from America.
H/T to Think Progress.

Close Gitmo

I've seen stories flying around about the closing of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It needs to be done, but I don't see how the Administration can do this. They only have two real options, and that is to either put them into the American justice system, which means bring charges and provide them with legal counsel, or cut them loose. A third option would be detain them in other military bases, but that is just more of the same.

Open hearings would subject this Administration more accusations of torture and perhaps the reveal that some of the "evidence" used to detain these "enemy combatants" is thinner than a gnats ass stretched across a rain barrel. Evidence gathered by torture would be inadmissible, and surely such claims will be made. Guards will talk, defending themselves with orders from headquarters.

No doubt some bad hombres are housed in Gitmo. They deserve to be brought to justice. Those who cannot be convicted deserve freedom.

This administrations hesitancy is not out of concern for the illegal activities of Gitmo prisoners, but of their own.

To a modern day conservative, all problems can be solved with enough police on the ground, and just the utterances by their Glorious Leader of the magic words "enemy combatant" is enough to grab them by the scruff of the neck and toss them in jail.

Indefinitely.

No Judges, no lawyers, no "phone call."

And they can be tortured, or crush their sons testicles in front of them.

It helps if the "enemy combatant" is of questionable pigmentation, but it is not required; anyone will do, even an American.

A government that can jail people based only on its own will with no proof or requirement thereof is something completely alien to the definition of America.

This government is called Republican. It is no longer possible to be a good American and a good Republican. In other words, Republicans are bad Americans.

The government of bad ideas and authoritarian cultists who ignored all pre-911 warnings and on that fateful day, when Dear Leader was told "America is under attack," impersonated a bull looking at a new gate for seven minutes.

Let the bad guy get away.

Invaded the wrong country.

Spied on his own people, in violation of the law.

Could not manage a Safeway, much less a national disaster (Katrina) or a global war on terror.

And now Gitmo, full of rat bastids ready to dime out the petty little torture thugs in the White House.

Can't cut 'em loose and can't let 'em talk. What is a Preznit to do?