It seems that possible WMDs are being found in the Bay Area. A local health physicist has detected measurable levels of Uranium in tiles used in construction from the turn of the century. Administration officials, quick to discount invasion plans were heard to remark that they "had no plans, all planning has been taken off the table". Ken Adelman and Richard Perle however were allegedly spotted in the Knob Hill area looking at properties, for their post-invasion palaces.

No Nigerian documents have surfaced, and SECSTATE Powell has declined to go to the UN to invade the Bay Area, saying "the greatest resistance might come from Oakland and Napa. We must protect the grapes, if not for us, then for our children".

Tom ("I am the Federal Guv'mnt") Delay, sang his praises of the invasion of as he put it "Sodom by the Sea". A staffer from his office was allegedly seen with A & P on the property hunt rounds, along with an attorney who is an expert in emminent domain law.

Asst Secretary of Defense for Misinformation, Torie Clark and other Pentagonian Luminaries are defending the whole PFC Lynch rescue now. Let's make a single ground rule here: Leave PFC LYNCH out of this mess. She was legitmately a POW, and that's an emotional thing she'll endure no matter the conditions of her capture, and subsequent captivity. That being said, there's not a whit of excuse for the lying and dissemblance of the Pentagram Press Officers who have tried to spin this story of the blond-haired, blue-eyed woman from capture to "rescue". Except perhaps this:

"...a hysterical belch of outrage from the right-wing media, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox empire, which has already committed a huge book advance to the telling of this mythic tale. A fiery and disingenuous response from the Pentagon, however, was quite a bit more sobering."

Calling the column a "tirade," Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke wrote in a letter to The Times that "Scheer's claims are outrageous, patently false and unsupported by the facts."

If those damn, pesky truth-seeking journalists screw up Unka Rupe's chances to make a buck off the war, then it's like in Strangelove, remember the scene where Peter Seller shoots open the Coke Machine and the other guy tells him he's in trouble now, he'll have the Coca-Cola company after him.

And Kubrick thought

he was doing satire.

Seems Cindy Adams, of the NY Post made a joke at Vice-President Evil Dwarf's expense (scroll down past all the Lindsay Buckingham blather, unless you're a Fleetwood Mac masochist).

YESTERDAY, to lighten everyone's load, I shoved this joke in the column: "The White House is now concentrating on the economy. Vice President Dick Cheney has told subordinates: " 'The way to lick this recession is to get all those deadbeats out of the soup kitchens.' " From sea to shining sea, America the Beautiful has a sense of humor. It stops at the Potomac. Washington-types wanted to know the source of my item. The Vice President's office called to deny he'd ever said it. I said, "Of course, he never said it. It's a joke." They wanted me to take it back. I said I don't know how you take back a joke. So, with the music of "Les Miz" in the background, the teased-up head of c. adams is now marching to the gallows. Let it be known that, in future, Jay Leno may have to hold up cue cards saying, "Attention D.C.: Joke coming."

I guess since the joke had nothing to do with guns, money, oil or sending troops off to die for any of the three, it was not deemed amusing. Imagine the correspondance she would have gotten if she had riffed on the other Evil Cheney, Lynne. Oh, what, whitehouse.org has that covered? Sorry.

Speaking of First Amendment Zones, I have a hard time reconciling this little bit of movie fiction with anyone who obsessively needs to be protected from American Political Demonstrators.

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Thanks to TBogg for the formatting idea.

Has to be, 'cause "the media" pilloried a married guy who did not want to admit he had extra-marital sex, but was smart, courageous enough to admit he screwed the pooch (nothing personal Monica), and was well-thought of and respected internationally. The same "media" glosses over a total lie, even when one of the Chiefs of the Chickenhawk Brigade admits freely to telling it, that so far has cost us hundreds of lives, the lives of thousands of our "opponents" and has made the world a much more dangerous place to be an American. Do they have First Amendment Zones in Europe or is President Fraidy-Rabbit gonna hide on another Carrier in the Med?

Let Freedom Ring.

Whooo Hoooo

This is just another test to see how the New Site's coming along. So far, it's a really good thing that the user community is so active at MT. I "fixed" the goofy links issue. Whew. Well at least for now. Let's see if it stays "fixed".

It seems the leaders of latest US - international charm offensive have been taking lessons from the Bugman himself. According to the WaPo, all the diplomatic missions in Iraq, of all the countries which had diplomatic ties with the Great Unloved one (no not Dr. Laura), are being tossed out summarily, because, by Golly we're in charge now and we can just make our own rules!!! Damn Furrniers, wanting to be damn panty-waist diplomats. Can't they just go away and let our Dear Leader concentrate on planning his next Crawford Vacation?

Remember the song? Hostages, hostage rescue gone wrong. Life just seemed to not want to get much worse facing a long long deployment to the Norhern Indian Ocean (IO) for the foreseeable future. Now, just like a really bad nightmare, the same lying sacks of shit want to exercise the McHappyCrack Doctrine of Total and Perpetual War on everyone but the real sponsors of State-sponsored Terror. Yup, they wanna Bomb Iran. Hey, chuckleheads, get your heads out of each others asses (as much as it makes Sully happy that you are practicing that) and take a look at Iran. A little long term support for the Irani middle-class and you might get your wish without a shot being fired.

But that would ruin another "Golden Hour" speech following a BOLD and Glorious carrier landing for President Crotch-sock.

What was I thinking. Oh yeah, of the unfinished committments in two other countries. Dopey Moi.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues to build Nukes and looks forward to destabilizing South East Asia. Again.

From the upcoming movie (Working Title: Romancing the Stoner's Image ?)

Trapped on the other side of the country aboard Air Force One, the President has lost his cool: "If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come and get me! I'll be at home! Waiting for the bastard!"

His Secret Service chief seems taken aback. "But Mr. President . . ."

The President brusquely interrupts him. "Try Commander-in-Chief. Whose present command is: Take the President home!"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Was this incredibly bad bit of dialog written by Dale Brown, another ex-Air Force Legend in his own mind (he lets his reviewers call him a "pilot" on his web site, he was a NAV, which is not the same as being a pilot, sorry Dale), and, I believe an avowed Clenis™-Hater.

The dialog more likely went as follows:

"Can we mid-air refuel? Does this plane have the range to take me to Switzerland or Saudi Arabia, my daddy has money and friends in those countries, I'll be safe. Daddy an' Unka Dick always look out for me!"

The Steely-Eyed Rocket Man in total, calm cool command or;

The fraidy-rabbit scuttling too and fro, mangling the english language as he ran away harder than he did in the TANG?

History v. Hollywood (made in Canada, no less) and guess which one comes out "just in time" for a September showing.

No fair peeking at the answers before the flick comes out!

More on the mysterious flight on September 13th, 2001 when every non-military aircraft in the US was effectively grounded. A Saudi Princeling and some other Saudi (bin Laden?) family members were flown around the country and then back to the land of their birth, permission of guess who?

...
And further, why did the families of the young men "perceive a threat" when it wasn't yet clear on the 13th of September exactly WHO had attacked America or where they were from?

According to a transcript on the State Departments website of a statement given by a "Senior White House Official" on September 13 at 5:22 PM it had not yet been announced that Bin Laden was behind the attacks when protection was requested for the three young men.

When this "Senior White House official" was asked if Osama Bin Laden had perpetrated the attacks against the US at 5:22 PM on September 13th, to which he replied: "I think that right now what we need to do is -- as I said, again, this happened 60 hours ago. We don't want to be premature, not because we don't want to name or finger someone, but because we want to make sure that we understand all the connections, not just a connection."

Was Prince Sultan a psychic who somehow mysteriously predicted that 15 of the 19 hijackers would turn out to be Saudi nationals? Or did he perhaps know who was behind the attacks since he was funding charities linked to Al Qaeda?
...
According to the Newsweek article, when three attorneys from the "prestigious Houston firm" that represents Sultan bin Abdul Aziz filed a motion in court in the Prince's defense, they also inadvertently provided evidence in the form of "stacks of affidavits and canceled checks" that indicated that the Prince had personally authorized the funneling of millions of dollars on the behalf of Saudi Arabian government to organizations that the US has identified and raided as terrorist front operations sympathetic to Osama Bin Laden.

But it gets worse...

The name of the "prestigious Houston Law firm" that is representing this suspected supporter of terrorism?

Why that would be none other than Baker Botts of Houston - as in JAMES Baker, as in THE James Baker: George Herbert Walker Bush's former Secretary of State and George W. Bush's counsel during the 2000 election recounts (you know, "Mr. the votes have been counted and recounted and counted again and even though we still lost we're taking the crown"?)

It seems that in spite of the fact that Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz and his government have been accused of funding charities linked to Al Qaeda, James Baker's firm still feels the need to defend the Prince against those "evil" trial lawyers representing the orphaned families of the 9-11 victims
...
As average citizens struggle to carry on their daily business and keep their blood pressure in check in the midst of a new "orange alert," Mr. Bush & Co. are still busy protecting their buddies in Saudi Arabia and lying to the American public.

Why can't we know the truth about who our enemies are, Mr. Bush?

One has to wonder when George W. said, "You're either with us or against us" - just exactly who he meant by "us." "Us" is beginning to look like a Bush-Saudi-Al Qaeda conspiracy, especially when one includes the well-known business ties between George H. W. Bush, James Baker, and the Bin Laden family through the infamous Carlyle Group.

So what is the answer. Is the 1600 Crew "with us or against us". Magic Eight Ball says:

Against Us

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Seems Sully has "discovered" that the head of the al-Jazeera network had some financial connections to Saddam the Unloved.

Yes, I know the Arab press hardly has the standards of, er, say, the New York Times, but people should stop treating al Jazeera as if it is a credible journalistic source.

Do I need to point out that Sully, from a credibility standpoint can be compared to Ahmed Chalabi, perhaps? A sycophantic suck-up, looking for republican love in all the wrong places and getting slapped on all of his faces.

Sully's possible future career choices if the dish runs out of soap are: New Iraqi Information Minister or Mark Foley's director of communications (heh ... might be able to get Raines to love him then)...he'd have a BlastFax with the NYT on speed dial!

Well, since Head Start is not the Christian Coalition, has no real meaning to the conservatives running, robbing and raping the country right now, the folks in charge of Head Start are being warned against Lobbying officials on behalf of keeping their doors open and serving their constituency...kids. See, the Hatch act, named for our extra-collegial leather-lover Mr. Hatch, forbids such un-American activity as talking to your representatives for political purposes if you make money on the federal payroll. It doesn't cover the President on a Carrier however lying about al-Qaida being cooked...

...
Federal law bans using government money or staff time to lobby Congress for or against legislation. But if a Head Start teacher talks to a Head Start mother about legislation and urges her to call her representative in Congress, is that lobbying?

Federal officials say maybe yes, maybe no. But just in case, they say, they sent a letter this month to Head Start centers warning them of the provisions of the Hatch Act, which bars certain political activity
...
"Head Start has been around for 38 years and no previous administration has ever seen fit to twist and contort the federal laws in order to justify what appears to be an unconstitutional attempt to silence the critics of its proposal," said Ron Herndon, chairman of the association.
...

But in 38 years, there's never been adminstration that so violently hates the poor, disenfranchised and minorities like the 1600 Crew. No wonder they want to dump Head Start, it just opens the payback door, yet again, for the religio-fascist fundies to get more for themselves..both power and money.

The republicans just can't stand to lose. Now they're trying to overturn an fair and free election in California, because a Democrat won. Amazing. How American, what an amazing sense of fair play they have. When they lose next year in the presidential elections, will President Too-stupid-to-win declare martial law, void the ballots and open the reeducation camps?

...
Dan Terry, president of the California Professional Firefighters, made the announcement at a Sacramento fire station, calling a Republican-led recall drive "sour grapes."

Terry said it could cost taxpayers $40 million "for a rerun of an election held just seven months ago," when the Democratic governor defeated Republican Bill Simon to win a second term.
...

I'm sure that given California's present fiscal climate there are a hell of a lot more important things to spend that kind of lucre on, other than a replay of a lost election. The only amusing thing would be for the recall election to go through and for the republican "candidate" to get ground into the freaking dirt. Now that would be a hoot.

Oh, and what does whatz-is name, the last republican candidate think of all this? Is he suitably embarrassed?

Great, now blogger is dumping headlines...and I pay for this?

In a move to reduce or even eliminate the HIghway Beautification Act of 1965, Clear Channels newest, bestest storebought Congresscritter, Rep Sam Graves (R-Major Sack of it from MO), wants to repeal the provisions of the Act so that (don't laugh) Small Businesses can put more signs up on the interstates, and othe roads built with Federal Funds.

Citing small-business survival, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Small Business subcommittee on rural enterprises, agriculture and technology, is proposing an overhaul of federal regulations that could mean more signs along U.S. highways.

“Simply put, small business in rural communities cannot survive under current laws governing outdoor advertising,” Graves said.
...

And when said small businesses go under, which many, many do, who pays for the removal of the signs? Or do they just sit there for years becoming more and more of an eyesore as time passes? Alternate possibility: Clear Channel, which practically owns the billboard business takes over and it's just trading in one eyesore for another.

David Broder

When the school year is shortened, when state troopers are laid off, when health care benefits in Medicaid are curtailed, people feel it -- and the pain ripples through their neighborhoods.

George Bush has not spent so much of his life in Washington that he should have forgotten where most Americans live -- and how they respond

Well, David, are you really starting to get it? Or was that from one of RNC joke blastfaxes that hit your desk today?

Somehow, as highly involved member of the SCLM you seem to have forgotten that the Unelected Fraud comes from wealth, privilege and power. The only time the laying off of a state trooper would have affected President Crotch-sock would have been cutting down the size of his security detail as Governor or if the Trooper could not show up to testify at a DWI trial, or something.

Does the first one who gets offed by the locals get to be a martyr? Is that the point of this supremely sanctimonious, stupid as hell, misguided and utterly narcissistic attempt by these looney-toons to get their freaking' heads caved in by the locals? It seems that even congresscritters have a helluva tough time getting into Iraq, but the self-righteous wing of the republican party can put their troops on the ground to follow that part of Anne Coulters advice about converting the heathens that they seem to have heard. They are really going to do it, folks and that video, all uncut and uncensored will most likely make it onto the news, you know the video of the missionaries being disemboweled by some thoroughly pissed-off Islamist, who would rather be listening to Osama tapes but took some time from his busy day of hate, to kill a christian religio-fascist for Allah (if they sat down and had a couple of hookahs of weed, they might discover more in common than they suspected...Mullah Omar:Franklin Graham etc..)

At the grass roots of evangelical Christianity, many are now absorbing the antipathy for Islam that emerged last year with the incendiary comments of ministers. The sharp language, from religious leaders like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jerry Vines, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has drawn rebukes from Muslims and Christian groups alike. Mr. Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion, and Mr. Vines called Muhammad, Islam's founder and prophet, a "demon-possessed pedophile."

But then our friendly islamo-fascist would discover what the good rev graham said about Allah and the beheading would begin...especially if they had a Faux news crew there, and a satellite uplink.

I guess it would not do much good to suggest that these knuckleheads get some advice from the first Green Berets in Vietnam, who actually tried to use the Hearts and Minds philosophy as it was supposed to be used. Nah, they're christo-fascists, they know everything.

I know, I saw the president boldly get on TeeVee and say "we won", well at least I think I did, but hey, it might have been those geniuses at PIXAR™ who made a cgi-Smirk to give a speech...come to think of it, he didn't mangulate the english language once. Hmmmmmmm. Anyhow, this heartening little bit of news out of Afghanistan, seems that the AF-PAKs on the north west border want to reestablish Shariah, that's Islamic Law, as opposed to the New Rumsfeld-Bremer code (shoot, kill, te absolvo) being set up in Iraq.

Months after sweeping to power amid a surge of anti-American sentiment, a coalition of Islamic parties on Tuesday proposed laws that will make this conservative frontier region the first in Pakistan to be governed based on the mandates of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Islamic leaders promised the bill would bring the North West Frontier Province's educational and financial systems in line with Shariah, or Islamic law. Some said they hoped the package would be the beginning of an Islamic wave that would spread throughout Pakistan.
...
The renewed power of the hard-liners has caused concern in Washington, which counts Pakistan as a key ally in the war on terror. Many intelligence experts believe Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida figures may be hiding in the mountainous region between the North West Frontier Province and Afghanistan.

So, it seems that there's a chance that the worlds most wanted fugitive is involved, even if peripherally. We have wasted time, resources, effort and most of all the precious lives of our men and women in Iraq, to get a guy who was going nowhere. Meanwhile, both Mullah Omar and ObL are tweaking the tigers nose, in a country that is both unsettled (Afghanistan) after having the shit bombed out of it, and a country that has no great love of America on a good day, Pakistan.

And now the neo-cons are talking Iran? What quality of dope is John Walters bringing over to be smoked from the drug busts on the border...I'm sure President Straight Arrow is no stranger to rockin' the gange!

William Saletan disses Dean in salon.

Prayer, the Boy Scouts, and the military. That's way too much to take on at one time, even if you're as clever and confident as Howard Dean. "I don't pay attention to polls, because this campaign is not just about winning; this campaign is about educating and moving America," Dean told the crowd. "If you stand up for the things we believe in, people start to come to you." Maybe so, but a lot of those people will be carrying baseball bats.

Not disses like he's being mean, more like he just doesn't get it. For I don't know how long, the SCLM has been constantly crticizing the presidential candidates and the Democratic Party specifically for not taking the battle to the enemy, bringing rubber knives to the gunfight as it were...now Dean says something to make people talk and think and Saletan all but calls him a fool for it.

Hey, Bill, ya can't have it both ways! Why is it we're damned if we do (speak up) and damned if we don't? Are those checks from Unka Karl that big?

Democratic Veteran is changing homes on or around my "blogiversary"...I have been thinking of leaving Blogger for some time, but when the template problems started, the pages would not reload, and the assorted other problems started to show up it got to be too much. And the traffic issues also bothered me, over the last 7 to 10 days my page has seldom-to-never loaded up. At exactly the same time, my traffic numbers dropped over 60%, coincidence? I have had to hit reload numerous times to get to my faves, even the mighty Atrios is not immune. So, I got a new hosting company, after some research, got Moveable Type, and am headed off into the sunrise sometime after the middle of June. My new url will be unsndemvet.com, and we'll have all the stuff we need!!! I'll be leaving a link after moving, since my blogger contract has a couple of more months to go. BTW, if you are thinking of moving, I'll be happy to share my thoughts on my new hosting company in the email world..my bill for year of hosting is exactly what blogspot*plus cost, $55/year and I have much more control and a 99% uptime guarantee.

again.

Rummy sez: those bad ol' Iraqis might have dee-stroyed their wepinz of mas destrukshun before the war. Damm Eye-Rackis.

Wow. How insightful. Thanks, Don. You're right up there on the cutting edge of "sharp" eh?

"My guess is that the kind of things the intelligence community provided Secretary Powell, and Secretary Powell provided the United Nations, will in fact be turned up, to the extent that they're still there," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

In February, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pressed the American case for the Iraq war before the United Nations Security Council, presenting evidence that indicated Mr. Hussein's government was harboring weapons of mass destruction.

In his speech today, Mr. Rumsfeld sought to counter critics who have argued that the administration has bungled the postwar phase of the military campaign in Iraq, and to ask for public patience for a stabilization effort that "will not be a smooth road."

And I thought that Donnie and the Neocons had all the answers, pre-invasion. Guess not, well now they have their quagmire. Why are Perle and Wolfie not over there yet? You know, helping Paul "Jerry" Bremer turn things around, they are after all the experts, right? Right? Oh no, sorry they're only conservative, not right.

In a move that surprises no one:

The Canadian government introduced legislation today to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana but set stricter penalties for those apprehended for trafficking the drug.

Merde! Must have been the French-speaking ones that were responsible for this travesty. When do we start a war to liberate those poor oppressed Canadians from their opressive government?

I want my doctor to measure me in kilos the next time I get a physical. Then I won't weigh so much, right? If Mrs Fish ever dumps me for being the lazy, blogging, good-for-nothing I am, I can honestly describe myself as being XX kilos in the personals...

Ain't science wunnerful?

Seems that the 1600 Crew, those obsessively fair and open-minded maroons are tossing more midnight where the sun ought to be shining. The Columbia Investigation is going underground. Deep underground. Using a tricky legal loophole, the adminstration is putting the civilian members of the accident board on the Federal Payroll, which means that there is now no requirement for there to be public meetings, disclosure or anything else that might lead to embarrasing revelations about the accident. They of course, would have us believe it's to make "witnesses" give "more honest" testimony. What a crock.

Is there something else, like was President Too-Dumb-To-Not-Go-AWOL down at the Cape beating on the leading edge of the wing with a ball-peen hammer right before take-off? No? Well bad conspiracy theory anyhow.

Try this one on for size: The contractor in charge of the wing insulation might have been somehow affiliated with CheneyBurton or Carlyle.

Gasp.

SKBubba has a story about a man convicted in East Tennessee (that's the really conservative side of the state, for those not-in-the-know) of murder and sentenced by a jury to life without any possibility of parole. My late-night question to all the death penalty advocates out there is this: is it really a deterrent? We've now been gassing, zapping, shooting and injecting people in state-run death chambers since what 1976, with the execution of Gary Gilmore and the population of death rows has done nothing but increase. Where is the deterrence? How could all those on death row since the late '70s have missed the moral lesson..unless they were ill-equipped to understand it in the first place, and then you have to wonder why executing them is nothing but revenge under the color of justice.

Just Wondering

Just when you thought that the 1600 Crew was hosing this economy and creating less and less jobs every week, it seem that they have brought their patented brand of unemployment assurance to the Iraqis.

Iraq's U.S. governor, wielding powers newly endorsed at the United Nations, fired hundreds of thousands of state employees Friday in what he called a drive to rid the nation of links to Saddam Hussein's era.

Tax-cut legislation is being presented to the Iraqi parliament after Memorial Day to further hose their economy.

Will_Not_Laugh_At_Stupid_People. Especially priests. Known some great Roman Catholic priests. One of my favorite chaplains aboard ship was our catholic chaplain. Great Guy, and I doubt he would have had much time for the child-molesters. But this takes the cake...not only was this mutt an "authority" or "expert" but he was molesting kids too.

And I'll bet the catholics thought it couldn't get any worse. The guy who was writing their legal positions couldn't keep his hands off the altar boys.

The director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, has named a team of retired C.I.A. officers to scour the classified intelligence reports that were circulated inside the government before the war on a range of issues related to Iraq, including those concerning Baghdad's links to terrorism and unconventional weapons, officials said. The team plans to compare those reports with what has actually been discovered in Iraq since the war ended.

And this report will see the light of day when, exactly? I'm betting that the investors at Richard Perles seminars had better intelligence than the CIA did, after all they expect a return on their investments, in blood and money.

We all have our places on the political spectrum. I appreciate and sometimes even understand or agree with those I would normally oppose, but this whole tax-cut thing has me baffled. Especially when our country is in a recession, we are pouring money (though seemingly not enough) into foreign policy iniatives, and every month brings new jobless reports. How does anyone make this a statement like this:

"This is a great victory for the American people," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "The wonderful thing is it really boils down to greater job security for people."

Really, which people?

I know that most doctors are economically-challenged when it comes to doing their checkbooks, many of my MD friends laugh it off and tell me they just listen to their CPAs. But Frist should be smarter than this, he's intellectually light-years ahead of Smirky, and yet he makes stupid statements like this, which are pure idiotic republican dogma which is turning our economy into dogmeat.

My comments are open to any republican (or democrat) who can give me a rational explanation for this stupidity. Have at it, I'm willing to listen.

And the 1600 Crew can't stop, intimidate, threaten or coerce him.

I would never say "ha ha" to anything the 1600 Crew does or says...of course not. Seems that another Dick in DC has an opinion about Iraq, the war and politics and it's not what the 1600's want to hear. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana is trying to send the McHappy Warriors a message: "It ain't over 'til it's over". It seems that for some reason the good senator might believe that administration is less than committed to post-Saddam reconstruction in Iraq; that maybe there was some fudging of the Intel (well that's got to be pretty obvious; all those stockpiles of weapons just grew legs and walked off) estimates from Iraq that led to the invasion of a sovereign country whose sole recommendation for invasion was their huuuuuge oil reserves.

Of course, there's always that old chestnut us silly lefties have been tossing up for quite a while: any war would be a recruiting video for Al-Qaida. Seems that one well respected, real foreign-affairs expert in the senate agrees. According to Senator Lugar

Washington was in danger of creating “an incubator for terrorist cells and activity” unless it increased the scope and cost of its reconstruction efforts. He said that more troops, billions more dollars and a longer commitment were needed if the US were not to throw away the peace

Does Bush II not remember how badly Reagan/Bush I screwed up Afghanistan? Look what that cost us, well don't because we're still paying the tab and likely won't have a real idea until we toss President McKnucklehead and his gang of felons from power next year.

Welcome the Cosmic Iguana to the Fish Pond.

In an editorial in the LA Times, Arianna Huffington nails the 1600 Crew as perhaps the most delusional power-grabbers since...well, I don't know maybe since Marie Antionette was a Royal Ruling Babe (my kid just discovered Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure). She makes the point of saying that a Bush without Blinders, well that's no Bush at all! GHWB wore them with respect to the economy when he was Prez, Jebby has them handy when infants die in Florida and President McHappycrack has them on all the time!

That pretty much sums up the White House MO on everything, from the status of Al Qaeda to the magical job-producing virtues of the latest tax cuts.

Who else but a fanatic would have made the outrageous claim, as the president did Friday, just four days after the deadly reemergence of Al Qaeda in Riyadh, that "the United States people are more secure, the world is going to be more peaceful"?

More peaceful than what? The West Bank?
...
The fact is there are now 2.1 million more unemployed Americans than when Bush took office, the vast majority of them having lost their jobs after the president's initial $1.3-trillion tax cut was passed in 2001.

A popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, that seems to be the White House theory on the power of tax cuts to produce new jobs: It didn't work before; let's try it again

Oh, Arianna keep it up...you might be getting up there on the Molly scale. To read the whole, most excellent piece login with gorevidal/gorevidal and enjoy.

Justice and FBI abuse powers granted under the so-called "Patriot" Act. The former Nixonians in the 1600 Crew are partying tonight. They have their revenge. A muzzled and meek press corps, a supreme court of fools and all the law enforcement they can eat. No, wait. There's Son of Patriot, the Sequel. .

Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the report confirms fears that Justice and the FBI would abuse some of their new powers. "Many of these terrorism powers were actually being asked for as a way of increasing the government's authority in other areas," Edgar said.

I'd thank Ralph again, but I honestly don't think even he saw this coming. We are losing our country to the fear-mongers, led by the Reichmarshall Ashcroft and his minions. I wonder what happens when they discover bloggers?

Is John Kerry right about greed being the overarching philosophy of the 1600 Crew? After 9-11, when President Megaphone had all the male and female journalists/commentators/congresscritters and anyone else with a swoon left in them, just behaving all giddily on account of his new-found bold manhood. But then a curious thing happened, we all remember what it was. It wasn't a call to national service (except as American Gestapo under the TIPS program). It wasn't a call to the shared and common sacrifices here at home that a war would impose, both by it's nature and structure. I was a call to the mall. And as our eyes have moved off the ball onto the target du jour of the 1600 Spin Team, there seems to be a lot of a ramped-up culture of greed quietly taking place.

Consider, no-bid contracts for companies that either fostered current administration officials (you could not mean the VP, right Jo?), or were significant donors to the GOP. Amazing.

If John Kerry is even 50% right about this, and the security of our nations is being compromised in any way for a greedy few, there's no hole deep enough to toss them in, no winter too cold for them to endure naked and no thirst too great for them to ever know. I would hope that no Americans would behave as Senator Kerry suggests; but then I've always been accused of being naive.

To add another blog to the Fish Pond is not an unusual occurrance, as many of you know. In fact, I probably owe some of you all links and have not gotten them up yet (one of the best features of sitemeter is seeing who's sending me traffic). Mea Culpa. What makes this such an unusual addition is that this goes down in the Equal Bandwidth links, along with Tacitus and the Volokhs. To be one of three there is sort of unique. I have nothing against righty-bloggers, in fact I appreciate (for the most part) their points of view (and sometimes their pointed heads, subject for another discussion). I choose my right of center blogs with the following criteria: thoughtfulness, rationality and being able to see beyond Bill Clintons Penis. It's tough for many on the right to get that Trifecta. So without further ado, may I present my newest guppy:Dustin Frelich of DUSTINet. Enjoy...show him some liberal love. Welcome aboard, Dustin.

From an editorial I found via Buzzflash.

In 1799, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following to friend and former student, Archibald Stuart: "Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light."

So what might the mighty punditry (jernalistsss) of today say?

Limbaugh: That Jefferson, he was a Democrat Racist, he owned S-L-A-V-E-S. How typical of the liberal democrat operatives to be slaveholders and want a free press, and that's what we are folks, here at the Rush Limbaugh Show, a free press in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson without the slaves.

O'Reilly: It's a outrage. Show me an unfree press, and I'll quit. All you media-loving crybabies make me sick.

Savage Weiner: You hate my country Thomas Jefferson. I'm a man, a mighty A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N man and I don't have time to listen to crap like that from you. Come to the west coast, when it's been discovered and I'll beat the crap out of you. Free Press, sunshine. Goddam Hippie.

Coulter: Obviously a liberal who should be killed as an example to other liberals. The Free Press should be used to make them live in abject fear and despair.

Dubya: Poor People aren't killers. What was the question again? Thomas Jefferson, he had a kite, right?

Seems that the USDA just doesn't like those pesky journalists who actually report on stuff. So in a committee meeting this past week Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassely grilled Ann (sold mah soul to big agriculture) Veneman.

The stake-out lockout grabbed the attention of both of Iowa's senators. Grassley fired off a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman. "During a time when USDA's senior officials are struggling to relate to all the concerns of family farmers, limiting information or access is not a good idea," Grassley said.

Sen. Tom Harkin grilled Veneman about it at a hearing, demanding that the dispute be "cleared up." Veneman agreed it should be. Harkin observed he's often questioned by reporters when he leaves a closed-door meeting, and he might not like it much - but maybe it's not the job of reporters to make him feel comfortable.

The only thing that surprises me is that Veneman did not somehow manage to invoke either the spectre of 9/11 or current Al-Qaida activity in their little dust up with the local DC press corps. I guess maybe if she'd have had more time and talking points, she might have gone there....

Poppy Bush risked life-and-limb and fought the Japanese in the Pacific, and Grampaw Prescott was a war-profiteer with the Nazi's? Here's the link. My how interesting and how un-surprising. Wow. How Precedential.

Sullywatch wants verses for his Smalltown Boy pome...here's my contribution. FWIW.

smalltown boy he went to blog
looking for donations
stuck a tipjar up his site
barebacking his remunerations

the cache was gone, the blog queen sad
a year saw cash depleted
so now it's gonna be pay-per-view
I think he is defeated

OK, so I have no future as a poet or a comedy writer. Well, I can still get a router to work (I think).

WorkingForChange.com has another excellent op-ed piece. Here's my favorite paragraph that about sums up our friends in the 1600 Crew. To a "T".

We have become tolerant, even appreciative, of spin skill. We've been conditioned by a compassionate conservative who wants Clear Skies legislation and to Leave No Child Behind while enacting a tax cut for the rich that will be “helping American families.” When this White House issued updated excuses for the flight-suit photo-op, most criticism went to its critics. But when is the spin so fast that it melts into lies?

If we have become that tolerant and appreciative of spin skills, it's no wonder that Journalism has become a cesspool of re-written Blastfaxes and incidents like that involving Jayson Blair.

I guess a great haircut, youthful appearance or B-I-G mouth are the best qualities for a journalist these days. I have a feeling that all the real reporters went to the Weather Channel long ago, at least they get to report on facts and the only spin they talk about are cyclonic and tornadic winds.

Just a quick love note with this link to all those non-supporters of Stem Cell research out there...get a grip you religio-facsists...I see more of this on the way, especially when there's this kind of money involved and the next time there may not be a Police Agency involved, or maybe the Police just got lucky this time.

Chinese doctors are reporting their lowest increase in SARS cases. Given the fact that the PRC government has announced that they might execute anyone who "intentionally" passes on the virus, I can only imagine what they might do to physicians who actually report new cases. Remember, that until recently the government in Beijing denied having an HIV/AIDS problem, especially in their rural areas where it was pretty horrific.

China's president said he is confident the country will "gain victory" over SARS as the government on Sunday announced its lowest daily increase in the number of deaths from the illness — two

Yeah, with like a couple of billion warm bodies, they have a handle on this to one or two people - not.

Q: How many Saudi Al-Qaida members does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None, there are none. Never have been. Just ask 'em.

Okay, bad joke. They (the Saudi's) are the world's new ostrich people, and I was just thinking....

Maybe Geraldo who has massive experience with empty vaults, and John Edwards (the "Crossing Over" one) can lend a hand in the search for WMDs that is going ever so well. These poor guys in the Military over there are being made to look like such colossal screw-ups by the 1600 Crew. They have to keep looking for the mythical weapons, for the 1600 Crew to save face. How sad. Well, at least maybe those vacuum cleaners they found are the ones that can pick up bowling balls, then they might have found something useful; stuff for a silent auction to augment the VA benefit cuts on the horizon.

Welcome NewJersey.com to the Fish Pond, lots of good stuff to check out. And being somewhat of a former Jersey Boy (Bergen County area) it's an honor to be included in their links as well!!!

China threatens execution of people who deliberately spread SARS. Now who would do that? If you had it, why would you want to spread it?

No wonder these guys are some of President Provincial's bestest buddies, they have that whole police-state thing down to a science after decades of practice.

I wonder if the 1600 Crew is sending folks over to "study" the PRC-equivalent of Gulags, so that Ashcroft gets it right the first time.

Back to more regular blogging after Saturday...been in school to learn more router-monkey stuff. Finishing BGP today, so school's out at 4PM! Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

CNN gets a story wrong? I guess that the apocalypse is just around the corner. Seems that surprise, surprise they were carrying a story about an Oklahoma Sheriff who was "assisting" the Dem members of the Texas Lege in Ardmore. Sheriff Burkhart was described by the "worlds most important network" as

basically saying, 'He's protecting them.'

The Sheriff did say that valid arrest warrants would be served if they were presented.

The sheriff said both he and District Attorney Mitch Sperry have talked with "the so-called Texas fugitives" and explained if legal warrants are issued for their arrest those warrants would be served.

"But as of this moment no Oklahoma laws have been broken and no laws in Texas have been broken. We don't arrest people who have not broken the law," he said.

I guess that Reichminister of Justice Ashcroft could not get any out of the FISA court before the Legislators were due to return to Texas today.

Well, I guess that John the Knucklehead will have to wait 'til another day to arrest Democrats for being Democrats, or maybe they still are putting those barbed-wire and Concentration Camp construction bids out to the FOC (Friends of Cheney) government contractors.

Senator Bob Graham is just plain nuts. He says silly things like the war fought for Operation Iraqi Liberation has made the 1600 Crew take their "eye off the ball" with regards to Terroism. He is just so not right. After all, without the Homeland Security folks in the Air and Marine Interdiction Group, how would DeLay's little Nazi stormtroopers have found those pesky Democratic Legislative Terrorists in that well-known hotbed of Terrorist activity, the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Now I ask you, could the Honorable Senator Graham be more wrong?

Ties, no ties. It's all propaganda to me. Seems that 1600 Crew propaganda machine is in overtime mode. Instead of allowing the ordinary working stiffs about to take it up the backside with the next round of "tax cuts" to be on-stage with President Codpiece in Indianapolis recently, the Reichsministry of Information had the VIP's sitting behind him remove their ties, so they would look more like 'regular folk'. I'm surprised that they did not have a U-Haul load of Oshkosh bib overalls and corncob pipes for them instead. Just to keep up with the Indiana Hayseed Fashion look they seem to think Indiana folks are prone too. Wow. Talk about micromanagement.

“When you see somebody who is in coat an tie, then not in coat and tie, then in coat and tie, it sort of reveals that this is about stagecraft rather than statecraft,” -- Bill Bloomquist, political scientist.

Yeeup. Stagecraft not Statecraft, that about sums up this administration in a nutshell.

And just when you thought that you didn't need more proof that the inmates were running the asylum, here's a story from TomPaine.com about a group that wants to further gut our civil liberties and rights. Yup. They want to criminalize environmental and animal-rights activists activities. Just get two or more green-leaning folks together and pack your bags, you're going to Jail. Who says that major corporations have no influence in our state legislatures? Heaven Forbid, that we actually are allowed political dissent by our corporate masters!

Have you ever signed a petition in support of an environmental or animal-rights issue? Do you belong to the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, or Greenpeace? Have you publicly protested some environmental or animal rights outrage? If legislation crafted and promoted by the ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) becomes law, these fundamental rights of American citizenship could become illegal.
...
The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act may be next. Intended for states, it criminalizes virtually all forms of environmental or animal-rights advocacy. Versions of the proposed law were introduced in Texas in February and in New York in March. New York Assembly member Richard Smith (D-Blasdell), who introduced that state's bill, says four or five other states have also expressed interest.

The Texas bill defines an "animal rights or terrorist organization" as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person from participating in an activity involving animals or... natural resources." The bill adds that "'Political motivation' means an intent to influence a government entity or the public to take a specific political action." Language in the New York bill is similarly broad
...

Write your state legislators, get involved here. This is a genuine stealth issue. This defining of any "objectionable" activity or speech as "terrorism" is simply getting out of control, now even a bad excuse to accuse someone of terroism is not required. It's a 1600 Crew republican wet dream come true and needs to be stopped. In it's tracks.

It seems that the Republicans in Texas are pissed. So pissed that they somehow managed to get a part of the Homeland Security Department , the Air and Marine Interdiction and Coordination Center, involved in the search for the 'missing' Texas Democratic legislators. Somehow, I remember that we were all assured that the Homeland Security Department was supposed to protect us from Terrorists, not rogue Democratic legislators. The folks in Texas need to take a really good look at their legislature and now. If the Republicans they have elected would do this to their colleagues, what makes the average Texan think that they would not do it to them?

And it gets even better:

State troopers have followed the Democrats wives, parents and children. Troopers even staked out a hospital where one lawmaker's premature twins are being cared for. Staffers have been harassed. All this has happened after the location of the Democrats was known.

This is truly frightening. Bill Clinton got sex and we're going to get screwed. The hate-mongers in the Republican party aren't going to be happy until they have some of us behind barbed-wire, I'm getting more and more convinced of that.

I just don't see any of this ever happening in a Gore Administration. Thanks again, Ralph.

From the KansasCity.com:

Rep. Tom Lantos of California, top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said Monday's attack was "a reminder of the intimate relationship between Osama bin Laden and Saudi society, which continues to incubate the hate and religious fanaticism that spawns terrorism." (emphasis added)

The Saudi government has rejected any suggestion it helped the hijackers and says it is working with the United States to fight terrorism. The government and its defenders note that bin Laden has targeted the royal family.

And of course, no Saudi Royals drink, gamble or smoke either. If I leave a tooth under my pillow tonight, the tooth fairy will leave a quarter, or John Ashcroft will leave a microphone. I'll get back to you on which one occurs first in our War_On_Terror (the series).

I never link back to own stuff, but I wanted to wait 'til the great carrier codpiece scandal had made it's landing and sort of coasted to a halt and everyone was moving on, to point back to this post from last February about President Shaky-Stick's escapades in the TANG and the linked story on his taking Commerce Secretary Don Evans for a ride in a Cessna. I have to wonder if he had a medical and thus was actually legal to take Evans flying or be flying at all. There are rules and then there's whatever the Chimp lives by. Enjoy.

Paul Krugman hits the media right where they live. As usual, he nails the issue with spartan prose and laser-beam precision. Big Corporate Media gets white glove treatment from the adminstration if it sufficiently sucks up to the administration (whether US or Communist Chinese it seems).

...
The plan's defects aside — it will further reduce the diversity of news available to most people — what struck me was the horse-trading involved. One media group wrote to Mr. Powell, dropping its opposition to part of his plan "in return for favorable commission action" on another matter. That was indiscreet, but you'd have to be very naïve not to imagine that there are a lot of implicit quid pro quos out there.

...

Meanwhile, both the formal rules and the codes of ethics that formerly prevented blatant partisanship are gone or ignored. Neil Cavuto of Fox News is an anchor, not a commentator. Yet after Baghdad's fall he told "those who opposed the liberation of Iraq" — a large minority — that "you were sickening then; you are sickening now." Fair and balanced.

We don't have censorship in this country; it's still possible to find different points of view. But we do have a system in which the major media companies have strong incentives to present the news in a way that pleases the party in power, and no incentive not to.

Was this what the Framers had in mind?

In a remark that reveals that he is living in a different place (country?) than the average American, President Squawking Chickenhawk remarked today at a Sheeple Rally in Indianapolis that:

"Any time anyone attacks our homeland, any time anyone attacks our fellow citizens, we'll be on the hunt, and we'll find them and they will be brought to justice," Bush said. "Just ask the Taliban."

Excuse me, since when is my homeland Saudi Arabia? And the last time I heard, both the Taliban and Al-Qaida were making a remarkable comback in Afghanistan, due to the current mis-administration's lack of attention to detail and underfunding of the promised efforts help bring that country into at least the 19th century.

Then he went on to talk about American Justice. Gee, there's a concept I think he got from watching way too many cowboy movies and not doing his schoolwork as a kid. I'm sure that he's still all ga-ga over the concept of summary justice, lynching and speedy executions (well, he set records in Texas), it all must just seem so cool to him. Horse, gun, girl, badge, gallows, justice. Cut.

If President Fox of Mexico will not roll over on Oil Issues, will the 1600 Crew all of a sudden find the Iraqi WMD's hidden in thong shops in Cancun? If so, what happens to the next "Girls Gone Wild" Video? It'll be tough to make it amongst the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, air raids and encroaching infantry divisions.

Well, they could always ask Jenna and Barb to come and film it I guess. That would be the closest proximity to combat for any Bush since Gramps was in WWII, where he actually served and didn't run away unlike their daddy.

Seems that in the Kingdom of the House of Saud, those pesky terrorists (you know, the ones we have given up our civil rights to fight) have managed to blow up more stuff in breathless anticipation of Colin Powell's visit. Never mind that Saudi interests are one of the largest sponsors of Fundamentalist Islam and Wahhabism (sp?), they're all such good buds with the 1600 Crew, and not to be investigated or even questioned. But then why be surprised, after all, they all invest with Bechtel; Carlyle and other multinationals. Remember that some of the taxpayer dollars we dump into that F/A-18 go back to the Saudi Investors who have interests in the say....the Carlyle Group and these same Saudi Investors either fund or know those who fund hmmmmmmm say Al-Qaida. Like they say, it's the Circle of Life, but let's modify that to the Circle of Money; and we're the Circle of Jerks getting screwed yet again by the 1600 Crew.

Why do Republicans hate America?

Blogger. is not letting me post. I'll try later. Anyone else in similar straights? Yeesh. this post is sort of in the blind. Thanks for dropping by tonight y'all come back now, hear?. If Blogger lets me post tomorrow, I will....and I had sooooo much good stuff..

Is anyone else getting bloggerized tonight, or is it just me...yeesh. So much for "improved performance". Did Eric Schmidt convert all their web servers to Netware web servers or something?...before you send the hate mail; I'm just kidding; I spent years doing Netware support before Cisco stuff...

If you have not been sleeping under a rock, you know that in Guantanamo Bay we have children incarcerated who were captured during our "war" with Afghanistan. Sad but old news. Well in this story from the Miami Herald, it seems that we are incarcerating kids who have been granted asylum by our courts.

Enter Ashcroft, invoking his broadened powers as the nation's top cop. He ordered that David and other Haitian detainees stay locked up without bond. Among those are numerous children, some of them toddlers, who have been confined for months under armed guard in Miami-area hotel rooms. They aren't allowed to step out the door, much less play outside.

How incredible that our tax dollars are paying for armed officers to hold children as prisoners. Makes you proud, doesn't it?

In custody at the Krome Detention Center are Haitians who were granted asylum by immigration judges, who said they deserved it. They remain incarcerated because the government is fighting to overturn the court decisions.

The Ashcroft Reichsministry of Justice has decided that immigrants, even those who have been legally allowed into the country, should be detained for "National Security" Great, more proof that poor, disenfranchised and black are a winning combination with Herr Reichsmarshall Ashcroft.

At this point, the biggest threat to National Security in this country is named John Ashcroft. He ought to be the one locked up, or at least tossed out. I hope that on Jan 21st 2005 rolls around, the new President heads over to Justice and personally carts Ashcroft and all his stuff into the street. Then have him arrested as a "material witness" to all the illegal acts committed in the last couple of years, and held in solitary.

Just another mindless daydream...oh well.

Bob Graham would be the bravest man in the world today if he would get up in the Well of the Senate, and read the entire 900-page report into the record. It might spell the end of the 1600 Crew. Could they prosecute him? Good Question, I'm not a legal scholar, but others are and they might have the answer. Would they look stupid prosecuting him? Well the Nixxon Crew didn't look real bright after the Pentagon Papers came out.

Go for it Senator, backbone is good and might even help your electoral prospects (but that's not a reason to read them into the record).

If America is your primary concern Senator, start reading tomorrow.

From James Landrith's blog, "Taking the Gloves Off", here's a link to a story about a Medal-of-Honor winner whose conscience would not allow him to keep the MoH, because of US Policies in Cental America in the 80's. Check it out...

As James says, the local fascist warbloggers would, I am sure excoriate him; but being the holder of the Nation's highest decoration for valor does give you some moral authority to comment on the state of the nation, I think.

Over in the comments on DKos, Matt Stoller from To the Point makes this comment about Lieberman:

(What's up with Lieberman?) He's like the fat kid who offers to be the football team manager in hopes a cheerleader will date him and the players will stop beating him up.

That about sums it up.

Go back to Connecticut, Joe. Help us work toward a Democratically-controlled Senate and ditch this silly presidential idea. We don't need Bush-Lite in 2004, it's a losing formula, and just gives Ralph another excuse to run.

Remember John J. DiIulio Jr? He was one of the first to desert the waterlogged raft at 1600 PA Ave. and paid for his candor by being slammed in the media with attacks being led by the prevARIcator:

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called the remarks nonsense.
"I dismiss it as baseless and groundless," he said.

Yeah, okay Herr Fleischer. Well as more and more of the 1600 Crew agenda becomes part of the public record (or at least those parts not classified on the grounds of National Security), it seems that as everyone suspected, DiIulio was telling the truth about the way policy was made by this (mis)administration.

...
"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: complete lack of a policy apparatus."
...
DiIulio called senior White House adviser Karl Rove "enormously powerful, maybe the single most powerful person in the modern, post-Hoover era ever to occupy a political-adviser post near the Oval Office."

And of course, DiIulio was the one who coined the term Mayberry Machiavelli's. It seems our Mr. Rove has been a busy little beaver, starting wars; hosing up the economy with an incoherent (but politically expedient "Tax-Cut") domestic agenda, and the orchestrating of the Senate to do away with the time-honored tradition of checks and balances...oh, I mean constitutionally mandated system of checks and balances.

But as with most other government documents, Rove is using the Constitution for toilet paper and the government to meet his master's ends (which are most likely his too).

Who is the most evil troll in the kingdom? I used to think it was Tom Delay (make no doubt about it, canonization ain't coming to him any time soon), but I think Rove may have the Troll King title all wrapped up, and wants to keep it that way.

Thanks to Atrios for the pointer to Howie Kurtz's piece.

A lot of folks are making a big deal out of President 1st LT wearing a flight suit when he arrived onboard Lincoln. All of those on the left are making it out to be the President wearing a military uniform (which is really not a good thing, we're not a banana republic, yet) and those of you who are my loyal opposition are starting with this 'Bill Clinton did it first' because there's a picture of him in a flight jacket or something. News flash, there's pix of GHWB, Reagan and lots of other presidents wearing flight jackets. BFD.

As to the flight suit, it is believe it or not, a safety thing when flying in military aircraft, especially tactical ones like the S-3 that have ejection seats, and lots of thingys that could catch on fire right where you are sitting, or you could have a bad landing, not eject, and have a fire in the cockpit. The flight suits are Nomex, flame retardant (not flame-resistant) one-piece suits designed for pilot comfort, utility and protection; and unless something has changed, NOT considered by either the Navy or the Marine Corps to be uniforms. The Air Force is the only branch of the service that considers a flight suit a uniform. We were not even allowed to wear our 'bags" through the gate, because they are so not uniforms. When I had an early AM hop, (like a 0200 logistics flight), I'd put my flight suit on at home, unzip it and tie it around my waist and drive onto the base so it looked like I was wearing a T-Shirt. It saved about 20 minutes (that meant 20 mins extra rack time), and the gate guards always knew what was up, and would let us slide as long as we were subtle about it.

So, hey, the USN does not consider it a uniform, just a another piece of safety gear. I know it's emotional, I dislike the guy as much as most of you for all the same reasons. But let's get to things that are meaningful, like this Judicial Fiilibuster thing. That deserves way more attention than whether President 1st LT got a flight suit and flight gear he gets to hang on the wall in his museum some day, at least I think so.

Nope, it was never about that! From Yahoo:

The long-awaited U.S. draft resolution, to be introduced at the U.N. Security Council on Friday, outlines a U.S. vision for postwar Iraq sharply at odds with that of several Security Council members, particularly Russia.

It would limit the U.N. role, ending the world body's control over Iraq's oil revenue and letting the U.S.-led coalition use the country's vast oil wealth to help finance its reconstruction — with international oversight.

Sounds to me like everyone in the world will have to make an appointment with the CEO of the CheneyBurton Corporation to get their $$ from Iraq. Invest 10 get 100 if you're white, rich and republican and go to RNP's seminars. The new motto of our new 51st state will be "Greed before All(ah)", the state bird will be the Ostrich (head in the Iraqi sand, looking for OIL) and the new flag will be dollar-bill green with an oil derrick on it.

And in 18 months, we'll wonder why they hate us.

Nothing was better than coming back the pier after a long deployment (or even a short one). I have no doubt that Lincoln's crew was anxious to get home. I'm sure that some of them were disappointed that they had to wait an extra day. I am also sure that many of them were actually pretty pleased that the president was coming out visit them; recognition is recognition after all. I can tell you that I have been onboard ships that have been delayed getting into port sometimes by a few hours, sometimes by as much as a day. Many times for reasons beyond the control of the Captain, or event the Carrier Task Force commander; just as in the rest of the world, Shit Happens. And a sailor just has to say a cheery "aye aye" and get on with the Plan of the Day, you'll be in port when you get there, and there's no amount of bitching that's going to change it.

So was the whole "Bottom Gun" episode shameless on the part of the 1600 Crew? Yes, I think so. If in fact, Lincoln were scheduled to be in a day earlier, President 1st LT could have ridden out in Marine One and given his little speech as the ship was transiting the channel inbound to the carrier pier at NAS North Island. They could have had the endless horizon of the Pacific in the background pretty much all the way to Pt Loma as he speechified and thanked the men and women of Lincoln, but the choice was made to have a photo -op and that was just wrong if it cost the crew (and the taxpayers) another night at sea.

As an aviator, I usually got to fly off anyhow (like Lincoln's airwing did after the speech) which made up for delayed entries the surface guys/ships company had to endure.

For what it's worth.

Tom Daschle says little about anything, at least publicly. He seems like a good guy, I guess. Never met him. But on some issues and certainly major policy items that seem to concern corporate America, he's stunningly silent. Linda Daschle seems like a nice lady, she's married to Tom. She's a lobbyist for some of the top firms in Corporate America. Is she making sure Tom does not become Mr. Mom? Or is Tom making sure she doesn't have to give up the corporate lucre and become a soccer mom involuntarily?

Just wondering.

In a move that would probably get any other administration official at any other time in our nation's history locked up for a long time or at least sent from the public eye in disgrace, it seems that Richard Perle, well-known spender of other parents children, had a teleconference with investors advising them on how to profit from the Iraqi war and subsequent US-led occupation. It's amazing. Again, from the LA Times:

Last February, the Defense Policy Board, a group of outside advisors to the Pentagon, received a classified presentation from the super-secret Defense Intelligence Agency on the crises in North Korea and Iraq.
Three weeks later, the then-chairman of the board, Richard N. Perle, offered a briefing of his own at an investment seminar on ways to profit from possible conflicts with both countries.
Perle and his fellow advisors also heard a classified address about high-tech military communications systems at the same closed-door session in February. He runs a venture capital firm that has been exploring investments in that very area.
The disclosures in recently released board agendas and investment documents are the latest illustrations of how Perle's private consulting and investment interests overlap with his role on the board, which advises the secretary of Defense.

One word description of Perle and the entire NeoCon scumbag movement: Hubris.

Well Richard, here's a link for you and your slimeball shitbird investors: a list of the American Servicemen who died for your stupid investment opportunities. Read it and choke you miserable bastard.

If Sullivan insists on bashing those more prone to actual thinking than himself, he has no one to blame if his next fund drive leaves him in debt. Since he REALLY dislikes Howell Raines and the NYT, it follows that he's pretty unhappy with anyone they actually pay to put words on paper, and perhaps sell dead trees for them. Sully's crosshairs have been lowered on Paul Krugman (again) for taking on the aWol story about President 1st LT and his highly successful military career.

More slipperiness from Raines' apparatchik. Yesterday, he again questioned the president's truthfulness. This time he went after Bush's military record:
[N]obody seemed bothered that Mr. Bush, who appears to have skipped more than a year of the National Guard service that kept him out of Vietnam, is now emphasizing his flying experience. (Spare me the hate mail. An exhaustive study by The Boston Globe found no evidence that Mr. Bush fulfilled any of his duties during that missing year. And since Mr. Bush has chosen to play up his National Guard career, this can't be shrugged off as old news.)

Sully, the president's truthfulness is about as evident as your hetero street creds. Need I say more?. This is one issue that can't be spun, and is being studiously avoided by the 1600 crew and the wurlitzer, because they'll have to start producing real documentation real soon if the heat gets too hot. And they can't do it without making President Bottom-Gun look like the deserting, UCMJ-violating fratboy coward that he is. So head back to where they love you, Santorum-land. They're waiting for your check, remember to make it payable to the Campaign to Re-elect the President.

In the LA Times, there's a piece that asks a very interesting question, how does Karl Rove fit in exactly? That he has been the brains behind the bush is an undisputed fact since anyone can remember. Without his guidance, deserter-boy might still be yet another drunken rich kid in his 50's. But as the fates have it, smirk met Rove and we're now stuck with an idiot.

I digress. The LA Times (username gorevidal/password gorevidal) piece makes an interesting point, one which should make even the most cynical person scratch their heads in wonder.

...
No, this was mostly a product of Rove's usual prescience. He looked around and saw that the economy was anemic and people were complaining about the president's inability to find Osama bin Laden. In another corner, the neoconservatives in the Cabinet were itching to launch ships and planes to the Mideast and take control of Iraq. Rove converged the dynamics of the times. He convinced the president to connect Hussein to Bin Laden, even if the CIA could not.

This misdirection worked. A Pew survey taken during the war showed 61% of Americans believe that Hussein and Bin Laden were confederates in the 9/11 attacks. (emphasis added)
...

Until this administration showed up, I thought that a "campaign" political advisor showing up at a meeting about a war was a Hollywood plot device to help you identify the bad guy. Well, maybe they had it right in Hollywood, they were just making a prequel to the horror show we are living in now.

So how much is the House of Saud paying for Rove's help in misdirection of the facts? I hope it's enough to assuage his conscience (if he has one) in later years, when he's having his Lee Atwater moment .

If you don't visit Barney Gumble over at MediaWhoresonlineWatchWatchWatchWatch daily, you are missing out on one of the best blogs on the net (in my humble opinion). Barney has lots going on, from hunting down cool things like the Symbolman flash-thingy to spanking the freetards in their own virtual living rooms. Interesting, informative and gets my vote for the most fun website that you don't need a credit card for..

send that check out to me in a plain brown envelope, ok Barney?

Not much good ever came from being an occupying, and colonial power, at least as I remember my world history. Countries and "empires" that had a colonial bent soon found themselves managing much more than just acreage; it soon became about internal and external politics, economics, everything that had pertained to the "managed" country. Not wanting to be a colonial and occupying power might have been one of the reasons that the post-WWII Marshall Plan was such a success, we won, we helped them rebuild their way and we went home (for the most part). The story in Iraq seems to be shaping up somewhat differently; this quote from the Post uses a word that's truly frightening: Viceroy.

When asked Friday by reporters about the possibility that L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer would be named the new viceroy of Iraq, and whether that indicated some unhappiness with current viceroy Jay Garner, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued the following formal statement:

"Jay Garner is doing a truly outstanding job for the nation. Any suggestion to the contrary is flat untrue and mischievous. The White House has made no announcement regarding other appointments."

So yesterday, President Bush, perhaps feeling mischievous, introduced Bremer at the White House as Garner's boss, telling reporters, "He's a man with enormous experience. He's a person who knows how to get things done."

Viceroy?

In America I thought that was a brand of smokes or something, not a role we would impose on another country. Unless this is all about the future administration of petrodollars in the Iraqi Raj.

Notice that this was dated just after the 5 idiots appointed the unelected fraud. Wonder why? Inconvenient information in those DD-214 codes that Rove could not fix, so remove the source info from the public domain? Yet another example of the paranoid secrecy and prevarication of the "honor to the white house" liars

.

Sigh. Howard Kurtz, you just don't get it do you? Here's a story...can you follow it?

Here's the url for this graphic. Click away...

Richard Cohen of the Post is an idiot. I used to like reading his columns, now he makes me sick. He has turned into a cheerleading apologist for the 1600 crew. Maybe he's hoping Dan Bartlett will give him a gig as a communications consultant in the 2004 campaign. His Post piece today is about as nauseating as they come, but certainly not his worst. Here it is, make sure you have some compazine handy to fend off the nausea.

A truck. A vat. A theory. That about sums up the latest feeble attempt by the 1600 crew to show that the Iraqis had WMDs. Seems that someone found a truck, with some kind of fermentation vat bolted to the floor. But gosh darn it, it had all been cleaned out with bleach or something, because there were no nasty little bio-beasties for the WMD hunters to find. Damn Iraqi's. So clever, so non-compliant; don't they know that they are supposed to let us find the evidence, so we don't have to waste valuable CIA resources manufacturing and planting it?

I sure am glad that the conflict in Iraq wasn't over WMD and was for the liberation of the Iraqi people. Or was it oil? I'm so confused.

Mitch Daniels, one of the rich kidz running the 1600 crew mighty economic policy engine is going home to Indiana, where he's considering a run for Governor. If he does for Indiana what he did for the rest of the country, I suspect that the I-70 will be bumper-to-bumper with cars headed east and westbound, packed with folks trying to escape the economic devastation he hath wrought. But by golly, the conservatives loooooove him so much that noted bug-sprayer Tom Delay said:

"I would hope we could bring back cloning, and we could clone Mitch Daniels," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Yeah never mind cloning and stem-cell research for things like diabetes and alzheimers; heart disease and organ transplants, use it to build more America-hating republicans who want to trash the economy and enrich themselves forever.

President 1st LT going out and bagging a trap in the right seat of an S-3 Viking onboard the Lincoln could potentially be a real gift. There has not been this much discussion of the AWOL issue in many media circles since the Globe article came out. As the AWOL meme travels through the internet, more and more people outside blogtopia begin to see the story for what it is: more half-truths from an administration that goes with the "big lie" philosophy as their most-treasured guiding principle. Is it enough to cause grievous harm to the 1600 Crew? No, but I believe it certainly pushes the skepticism meter further over to the 100% mark for journalists and others who might never have otherwise had reason to re-think this issue.

I read somewhere today that the whole landing on the Lincoln thing might give John Kerry (should he be the nominee) an opening to ask for full disclosure of deserter-boy's service record, all of it. More people now might pay attention to omissions, where two weeks ago they might have shrugged it off and accepted the explanations of the prevARIcator. This whole thing might have been an unintentional gift, it just did not seem so at the time.

Now that would be some irony, eh?

In the most ambitious set of policies to strangle the government in recent memory the republicans led by the 1600 crew and fearless leader have been placing higher burdens on unwilling state legislatures/governments, while talking tax-cut tax-cut tax-cut. If all the tax-cuts come to fruition everywhere, will there even be enough money to pay the legislators at both the federal and state level. If not, that would be the ultimate irony...

In an argument that is so specious as to be almost laugh-out-loud funny, the anti-tax lobby always uses an analogy of the federal budget and the family budget. But no parent would toss a family member out on the street because they did not have enough money to make the household budget, which is exactly what the 1600 crew is proposing, a responsible person would seek additional revenue to maintain the household's status quo, and make cuts after no other alternatives were available, assuming of course they were not unemployed in Bush's America of the brave new millenium. The tax cut conservatives seem to believe that keeping current or future revenues coming in is not what a family would do. What a crock of shit. I guess they, like President Fuzzy Math are either fabulously wealthy, have weathy benefactors or are trust-fund babies. There's no other explanation for such a weird viewpoint.

In a story from alternet, there are a couple of interesting quotes from a Ford Motor Company christo-fascist, who seems to believe among other things that the earth is only 10, 000 years old, and thus all fossil fuels just can't be any older than that. I guess that the subtlety of things like carbon-14 and potassium-argon dating are just a wee bit more than his eensy little intellect can handle...math above a third-grade level probably gives him a headache, and his take is, I'm sure, that mathematics were designed by the devil to influence skeptics.

In his book "The Carbon Wars," Greenpeace activist Jeremy Leggett tells how he stumbled upon this otherworldly agenda. During the Kyoto climate change negotiations, Leggett candidly asked Ford Motor Company executive John Schiller how opponents of the pact could believe there is no problem with "a world of a billion cars intent on burning all the oil and gas available on the planet?" The executive asserted first that scientists get it wrong when they say fossil fuels have been sequestered underground for eons. The Earth, he said, is just 10,000, not 4.5 billion years old, the age widely accepted by scientists.

Then Schiller confidently declared, "You know, the more I look, the more it is just as it says in the Bible." The Book of Daniel, he told Leggett, predicts that increased earthly devastation will mark the "End Time" and return of Christ. Paradoxically, Leggett notes, many fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action, but as God's will. In the religious right worldview, the wreck of the Earth can be seen as Good News!

Some true believers, interpreting biblical prophecy, are sure they will be saved from the horrific destruction brought by ecosystem collapse. They'll be raptured: rescued from Earth by God, who will then rain down seven ghastly years of misery on unbelieving humanity. Jesus' return will mark the Millennium, when the Lord restores the Earth to its green pristine condition, and the faithful enjoy a thousand years of peace and prosperity.

If our environmental policy is being rewritten by wealthy corporate clones like this guy, our planet may soon look like the arid, oxygen-free dustball that has been envisioned by science fiction writers for generations. Unfortunately, the sci-fi authors always used the premise that the eventual destruction of this planet was the impetus for a diaspora to the stars. With the current state of NASA and manned space program research and funding, we'd be lucky to get a vessel to take us all to Johnny Rockets in the mall, much less Alpha Centauri or something.

This insane belief that all science done before the 1600 Crew came to power is somehow "junk science" or "incomplete work" is as dangerous to us all as the Patriot Act and its proposed sequel, just less well known. It's something that bears watching and might be yet another way to get the 'greens' onboard.

No difference indeed, just a group of fanatics who believe in the boogeyman and fairytales, ruining the earth and ensuring that we all suffer to make them happy.

Light blogging. Blogger is hosing up and alternately allowing me to log in then throwing me out...sorry for the paucity of posts.

Just wondering, instead of using the term "Borked", which is descriptive for some things related to nominations and other political stuff, could we use the term getting "Scaifed" for unprovable claims, smears and yellow journalism tossed at Dems and others who line up with us from time to time? It just seems to fit...

File it in the suggestions pile.

Protestors who went to the make-believe cowboy's make-believe ranch to excerise their First Amendment rights were threatened then arrested by Crawford Police. A witness to the events, was a Ms. Freddi Yasinkoski. Far from outrage over the trampling over the constitution by the Crawford PD, here's her take on the events:

Freddi Yasinkosky, who watched the spectacle from her front porch, said her son was in basic training in the Army and that colored her opinion of the protesters.
"I think they could find a better way to get their message across," she said. "They dress like bums, which undermines their cause. It defeats the purpose. A lot of them seemed to not be taking it very seriously, and if they are not going to take their message seriously, neither am I."

So all you protesters remember Ms. Yasinkosski's words. Gents remember: wear a three-piece suit or a tux (for protests after 6), have business cards ready to hand out and heavens! shine those wing-tips; Ladies; NO PANT-SUITS! Skirts should be tastefully below the knee, bras are essential and blouses buttoned to the neck; and always, always, always, remember to wear pantyhose! shoes should be low-heeled and comfortable and goodness, no sandals! (and no white shoes after labor day either!) For evening protests a simple evening gown is good, with matching tasteful footwear. Remember that for this, black or red may be too political, so pick a nice pastel to keep the mood light!

Now you're ready for those bystanders to take you seriously!

One of the most successful leaders of the 20th century prevaricates because he got caught getting oral sex and gets excoriated, impeached and becomes the object of universal loathing even by those supposedly loyal to him. He is attacked on all sides, but most vehemently by moral absolutists like Bill "slots" Bennett; Hair-Helmet Lott and Pornographer DelGaudio, but in the end leaves us in better shape than when he showed up with a U-Haul load of furniture from Arkansas.

One those who I'm pretty sure history will show as one of the worst presidents of all time lies about going to war, gets 600 or so young service men and women wounded or killed, as well as lots of Iraqis, in an invasion that's contrary to everything we as a nation stand for; while at the same time is engaged in a domestic economic policy that is setting us on a road to ruin, and the majority of Americans think he's some kind of hero?

Well, I guess there are lies and there are lies...the Clintonian ones about moral issues and the Hitlerian ones about issues that concern the State that seems to have become the preferred PolicySpeak of the Bushies.

Guess which one the Sheeplefolks are likely to be positive or negative about?

A stained blue dress worn by a consenting, adult young woman is the end of western civilization, a bloodstained uniform worn by a dying soldier who is only there because of a lying president is just peachy keen according to the Chickenhawks and moral absolutists who seem to be pulling the levers of power right now.

How do we explain this to our grandkids?

I am reminded by Elayne over at Pen-Elayne on the Web, that it's the anniversary of the Kent State shootings. I have to wonder, given the attitude of so many my fellow countrymen and women, if a shooting of that magnitude would have a similar impact on the national consciousness today, or would most Americans, led by the hate-spewing TV and Radio punditry, spoonfed by RNC blastfaxes blame the protesters and then put out the line "they got what was coming to them".

Sad and Scary. Is this who we are becoming?

If you don't remember the shameful events, and the government response, read this.

Compare and Contrast:

From the Christian Science Monitor:

While Laden is believed to have made his first trip to the region in 1979, most Arabi joined the Afghan jihad from the mid-1980s onward. They operated with their own commanders but made little difference in the war against the Soviets. For many Wahhabi (a fundamentalist Islamic sect that also includes the Saudi Royal family), particularly young Arabs anxious to prove their religious mettle in battle, Afghanistan was the only place for them to indulge in a true jihad. Subsequently, quite a few Arabs - referred to as Afghanis in their home countries - have used their mujahed experience in Bosnia, Algeria, and other wars involving Muslims.

The Afghans accepted the Arabi not because of their fighting ability but because of their lavish funding for pay-offs and weapons. During the war against the communist Kabul regime, many Afghans expressed horror at the ruthless nature of the Arabi who tended to kill their victims, notably prisoners, by slashing their throats. Also, I witnessed numerous captured female women and children from communist villages being transported by Arabs across the Pakistani border. According to Afghan sources and human rights groups, they were shipped to the Middle East as slaves. This human trafficking was well known to the Pakistani government and US intelligence.
...
Despite Arab atrocities and their imposition in Afghan society, the US and Pakistan condoned, if not supported, Arab involvement in the war to oust the Soviets.

During the early 1990s, the post-communist leadership in Kabul expelled most Arabi as disruptive, unwanted guests. But that did not stop their influence in Afghan affairs. Hundreds of millions of Arab dollars had been spent in the 1980s on Koranic schools, clinics, and orphanages in Pakistan-based refugee camps. Many young Afghans schooled in the Arab-backed Koranic institutions of Pakistan now constitute the Taliban of today.

From robertscheer.com:

Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban's estimation, are most human activities, but it's the ban on drugs that catches this administration's attention.

From the LA Times: (username/password: gorevidal/gorevidal)

The Bush administration is looking for a quick fix, but this is one that could easily turn into a long-term problem. No, this isn't the tax cuts that threaten to create huge deficits; it's the cease-fire agreement that American officials have reached with Iranian terrorists based in Iraq who have murdered Americans and are on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. By cutting a deal with the 15,000-member Moujahedeen Khalq, or People's Holy Warriors, the administration is undermining its ability to fight terrorism.

Drug Dealers, murderers, America-hating arabs. Gee, it's a Trifecta.

Hate America and Americans? Just, sign up and collect your US-taxpayer subsidized check around back at the servants entrance, please.

Buh-bye and thanks for playing "Support the Oppressors", here on Faux Reality TV Network.

As the conflict in Iraq moves to the peacekeeping phase, it's worth looking at a word. Hero. Why? well I'll get to that in a minute. The word has become sort of overused in everyday conversation and commentary I think. When I was younger, I used to think of "heroes" as ten feet tall, and made of steel. The word denoted (to me) courage, valor and an almost superhuman presence. Being a younger boomer, War Hero connoted a guy like Audi Murphy or Joe Foss the great Marine Aviator. As I grew older, my perceptions changed and heroes came to include people who helped others, whether it meant personal risk or not; they put themselves ahead of others to make sure that the best outcome for all was achieved.

All of men (and women) who have fought (and died) for our country are heroes, not in the cartoonish sense of my youth, but rather by just showing up to do their part as terrified only someone facing the spectre of combat can be, but does the epithet "war hero" apply to them? Ask them, and they are likely to tell you no, they just did their duty. Ask others, especially those who never served a day and they're likely answer at 100 db "OF COURSE".

In today's Daily Howler, there is a link to an especially egregious Hardball broadcast, where Chris Matthew spends most of the show rhapsodizing over how deserter-boy looked in a flight suit, trying to extract some measure of heroics from the unprosecuted deserter's flight-of-fancy. His guests included Pat Caddell, and Ann Coulter. As the blonde bumbler (Matthews, not Coulter) fires off his incisive, meaningful questions at his "panel" this exchange came out:

MATTHEWS: Ann Coulter, you know, some people have that leadership presence, that aura. Colin Powell has it. You may think him too liberal, but he’s got it. Dan Quayle, whatever his mental powers, he doesn’t have it. Some people just don’t have it. This guy’s father, George W. Bush-
George Herbert Bush, was shot down by the Japanese at least once...
CADDELL: A war hero!
MATTHEWS: ... maybe twice...
CADDELL: A war hero!
MATTHEWS: ... and yet he didn’t seem to have it, Pat.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: He didn’t seem to have that.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Ann, enter!
CADDELL: ... much more patrician.
MATTHEWS: Ann.
COULTER: Yes. No. That’s true. And though I have to say, in the current President Bush’s defense, he was a pilot. I mean, it wasn’t like the typical avoiding...
CADDELL: McCain. McCain.
COULTER: ... the military service by serving in the National Guard. He was a pilot in the National Guard. He was training to be a pilot. It’s a dangerous National Guard duty. If the Vietnam war had continued, he would have gone to the Vietnam war as a pilot, so-I mean, he is a pilot, though he was not-he did not serve in wartime.

For the record, GHWB was shot down once, and picked up by a sub in the area. Like his half-wit son, that arrival aboard a capital ship of the line was also filmed, but unintentionally and without Karl Rove's help. The interesting quote above is from Caddell: "a war hero!". Interesting use of the phrase. Matthews seems to be trying to make the point that heroes must somehow fit his child-like cartoonish caricature of a hero, that they could not possibly be less than ebullient about their heroics. Matthews and company pass over references to others in politics who fit the definition of hero as much as smirk's daddy, certainly more than smirk himself; John McCain and George McGovern (35 combat missions over Europe).

So is Pat Caddell's reference gratuitious? Is the word overused everywhere by people like him, and the others on the show? I think so.

In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: "In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'

"'No' I answered, ' but I served in a company of heroes.'"

-- Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers

Molly Ivins, who I like as much as Katrina, has written an excellent piece in workingforchange.com. If it has not become intuitively obvious, Puppetmaster Rove had to have a focus group for the mismanagement of our country. It seems that that focus group was called "Texas".

It seems that the things that this group have been looking at are some of the same things that are being pushed as prescriptions for the broader consumer population of the US, for instance defunding programs to keep mentally-ill offenders on their meds (so they go back to jail, where it costs even more for their upkeep or just be wondering around doing whatever); compassionate things like cutting 250,000 poor children off the Children's Health Insurance Program and about 365,000 from health insurance through Medicaid; cutting prenatal care and delivery for 17,000 pregnant women and services for 366 women with breast and cervical cancer. But never fear, those intrepid Texas legislators want to make sure that wealthy corporation can't be sued for wrong-doing, nor can doctors who commit malpractice (if a doctor is of such incredible incompetence and serially commits malpractice, then what's wrong with civil remedies? A doctor who is not a complete zero, or has not been criminally incompetent will have their day in court, and as painful as the litigation is, has as good a chance of winning as the plaintiff it seems to me.)

Those heroes in the Texas Legislature want to be sure that the christo-fascist delegation is not neglected, so women who want an abortion have to wait 24-hours and get to look at graphic, state-supplied color photos of fetuses, while waiting that 24 hours to exercise their rights under the law.

And if all this sells in Texas, with their republican legislature blazing the way will the Delay/Frist Congress follow with equally as progressive legislation? Seems the Texas focus group gave them the preliminary thumbs up already.

I was listening to an interesting conversation the other night, a guy from a VA regional office was talking about a pending change to the law to allow the Gulf War II POW's to be afforded POW status by the VA. What makes this interesting is that the "standard" used to be 30 days in POW status before being considered a POW for certain benefits. He seemed to indicate that the move was purely political, based on the response to PFC Lynch and others that were captured in the first days of the conflict. I have no real objection to the change, but it seems that somebody can't wait to make political mileage out of these men and women and their captivity, just because they can. I wonder if the surviving POW's from Bataan, Germany and other places think that this a good change, I defer to their wisdom on the proposal. I understand the desire to "do good", but wonder at the timing and motivation.

The other thing this gent mentioned was how surprised the vets of GWII would be when trying to use their already "user-friendly VA" since the administration was proposing such huge cuts in VA budgets to pass the money back to their friends and donors.

William Bennett, author.

The Bookies of Virtue?

or

The Virtue of Bookies?

Just wondering.

From the chair of the Wake Forest University religion program (hey, so they play basketball too). Professor and Reverend Charles Kimball has some really good advice. He's a religious kinda guy, maybe the administration will take his words to heart before letting the religio-freeper knuckleheads loose in Iraq.

Pat Robertson's broadcasts on Middle East Television, for instance, drove deep wedges between many of the Christians and Muslims who had lived together in Lebanon for centuries.

You only get one chance to make a first impression. Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Charles Stanley and various leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have made their impression through repeated, highly visible proclamations about Islam as an "evil religion," declaring Muhammad a "terrorist" or a "demon-possessed pedophile," and saying that "Allah is not the God of the Bible.".

A man with a cogent thought. Heaven forbid that he should be giving advice to the current christo-fascists, but it's advice worth listening to. With the seminal peacekeeping forces and the problems that they are having with kids tossing sandals, I can only imagine the difficulties that may be encountered when a christo-fascist missionary is attacked in view of a 19 year-old soldier with an automatic weapon.

We don't have to convert them, just help them and leave. Wasn't that the point?

Does anyone feel sorry for the poor old GOP'rs in the senate who are annoyed, annoyed I tell you about the filibustering of judicial nominees? Let's review for a minute, Clinton would have most likely filled many of these seats long ago, but for who? Oh, the GOP senators who did not want to allow him to get any appointees to the bench, preferring to play the odds on the world's stupidest man becoming president. Well,. they sort of got their wish. We got the stupid one as president, but the GOP got a taste of their own medicine. And now it's WAAAAAH time. Poor babies want to sue to get their way. Oh yeah, well TORT REFORM TORT REFORM TOO MUCH FRIVOLOUS LITIGATION. Sorry, I lost my head, thought I was Geraldo for a minute.

Seriously, why are they whining because they are getting beaten at their own game, oh yeah, it's the republican hypocrisy gene...kicks in as self-proclaimed entitlements recede.

Here's what it looks like to America when you're a run-away butthead:

Which act also qualifies as disobedience of a direct order to get a PHYSICAL. It's right there, "Reason of for suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Officer will comply with paragraph 2-10, Air Force Manual 35-13. Authority (governing): Paragraph 2-29m, Air Force Manual 35-13." Disobedience of a Direct Order. Do I need to say more?

Actually I do, here are the articles that would apply:

Article 92—Failure to obey order or regulation

Article 133--Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman

It's so obvious.

Tbogg wants to marry Ann Telnaes, I want Katrina of the Nation!!! Anyone who sees the value of this piece by David Korn in todays on-line entry has gotta love that woman!! David does what many of us have done, deconstruct AWOL's service record. But he does it at such a timely moment. Thanks. Now keep hammering, please.

If you believe what Daniel Gross says in Slate today, there may be a chance that if President Big-Keys Calculator can't bring the economy in for a landing any smoother than he had on the Abe Lincoln (even a good landing on a carrier is somewhat violent) that it might spell the end of this administration. Whooo-hooo!

If in fact there is a correlation between the lack of real job growth and presidential incumbency, then we might in fact have hope.

With changes to welfare, unemployment benefits and the declining industrial base in some parts of the country, Project Regime Change 2004 might actually be getting somewhere, as the natives grow restless and want a return to low deficits, and better living. It's really not all about 9/11, it's about getting this country back on track and maybe the continuing-to-suck job market will bring that message home to even the densest unemployed republican. It's tough to pay the rent with patriotic fervor.

The bad news for Bush is that even if the economy does add 2 million jobs by October 2004, he will still have presided over the only job-losing presidency since Hoover. And as Karl Rove surely knows, that name is never good company for a president seeking re-election. Since 1900, the only incumbent Republican presidents to lose second-term bids have been named Hoover and Bush

No matter, Hoover and Bush are the most remembered. And look how long it took to recover from their regimes (oops, administrations).

President 1st LT Bush is off to try and look military tonight. Seems they are gonna let him fly out to the Abe Lincoln in a real live jet, sort of like the kind he deserted from in the TANG. 1600 Crew officials have not "announced" what kind of plane he's going to "fly out in", but since it's from San Diego, I suspect it's some variant of the S-3 Viking, whether the ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) version or the cargo version, Miss PIggy, is anyone's guess. One of the most interesting things about this, is that this mission of taking the president (any president) out to a ship at sea is usually done by the Marines of HMX-1 in one of their VIP'd out helicopters. Others get hauled out by local cargo haulers stationed nearby. All the flight crews of the Air Force and Marine squadrons/units responsible for moving the president have background investigations out the yiing-yang conducted almost continuosly around the clock while they are attached to that unit. Forgetting to pay a credit card bill can get you removed from "flying the boss". So how in the hell have the picked someone to fly the president from say an S-3 squadron. If the CO is a pilot, he's the most logical choice, if the XO is a pilot he's the obvious choice. (S-3 squadrons, like most squadrons that have Naval Aviators (pilots) and Naval Flight Officers (TACCO's. WSO's, B/N's, RIO's, basically guy's in the back; non-pilots) attached usually alternate command between the groups to ensure that both warfare specialties get "equal opportunities to get command at sea").

And in the niggling details department, does he get an ejection seat card? He obviously had one once, but I doubt he ever got any Water Survival training, or anything like that. And does he get a waiver from AirPAC to ride in the back seat if it's a TF-18? Or can he give himself one?

Personally, I hope he has to use his airsickness bag. It would be interesting to see how the media spins that story.

It will be kind of cool for whoever gets to fly him out to "call the ball" at the Lincoln as Navy One. That doesn't happen very often

Update

So President 1st LT rode through the trap, sitting in the right seat of an S-3 tanker (the carrier's flying gas stations, callsign: Texaco) , it was flown by the squadron XO, who I am sure was given a OK-3 wire, or even an OK-no comment (the best you can get) landing grade by the LSO's on the LSO platform, even if he just flew the worst pass of his life (which I very much doubt he did).

I liked the comments on Atrios, especially whoever said "how does it feel to be landing in a military installation, instead of running away from one?". Now that's snarky.

How many times will we see this in the 2004 campaign? I hope that for every time this shows up in a commercial, someone asks to see his service record. All of it.

The only other thing that was kind of funny were all the write ups in various stories about how "steel cables" would be stopping the aircraft within 300 feet of touchdown. Like after Deserter-boy lands they run out and replace all four of those cables with long silk scarves across the deck for the real aviators to use when landing. Our stupid media hard at work, seeing the obvious, and not getting it.

When MSNBC is not too busy slapping Ashleigh Banfield around, they are publishing stories like this on their website about the 9/11 report that should have been about the 9/11 attacks. It seems that the 1600 Crew want to not only disallow the promised full disclosure of the report, they want to reclassify information already in the public domain.

Entire portions remained classified. Some of the report—including some dealing with matters that had been extensively aired in public, such as the now famous FBI “Phoenix memo” of July 2001 reporting that Middle Eastern nationals might be enrolling in U.S. flight schools—were “reclassified.”

Now we all know that fearless leader has a penchant for secrecy, no make that an obession, for keeping nasty little secrets, not seen since old Uncle Joe Stalin died, but this is ridiculous. It seems that they want to both use the 9/11 report to facilitate the launch of the 2004 GOP lovefest in NYC and to suppress/cover-up the facts about who knew what and when. Didn't anyone ever tell Unka Karl, it's the cover-ups that getcha?

Equally as disturbing is the news that more of the responsibility for our "Homeland Security" is passing to the hands of ex-military folks who share fearless leaders obsessions. How long will it be before I have to show my drivers license to cross state lines?

Remember, that when you start seeing pictures of the 1600 Crew with Colin Powell airbrushed out, it's time to start looking for that property in New Zealand. Reasonable prices, english speaking, and I doubt fearless leader could locate it on a map. Might be safe.

Join me in welcoming Mac Diva to the Fish Pond. One of the finest and most timely sources of information on the web...just see how often MD's stuff makes it into Atrios' leads...I'm thrilled to be added to the Mac Diva Mac-a-ro-nies. Now off with you, when you are done here, read learn enjoy!!

Help me to recall, Scumbag Saxby Chambliss ran against a decorated, Vietnam Vet Max Cleland by insinuating that he was not patriotic enough because Senator Cleland wanted some job protections for the workers at the Homeland Security Administration, which TSA is part of. Now the uber-patriotic republican bottom-feeders want to get rid 6,000 jobs at the airports.

The U.S. will cut 6,000 airport screening jobs -- 11 percent of workers who clear passengers and luggage through security checks -- over the next five months to comply with congressional demands to limit staffing and save money, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday

So, I thought 9/11 changed everything. I guess that's just another piece of political bullshit for the records, eh?

Well, here's my counter proposal, if we need 6, 000 less airport screeners, how about we revisit the PATRIOT act also and repeal most of it, and if in a year law enforcement still needs tools and abilities not available under the unabridged constitution, we examine the situation again.

The whole security thing is now being revealed as a naked power grab by the man who said it would be easier to rule if he were a dictator. It's time to start rectifying that, even the dimmest of bulbs in congress (Mssrs Delay, Allen, Nickles and Santorum are officially excused from all IQ testing, since body temp is max) ought to see it. It's their country too, and their hands are being further removed from the levers of power than ever. They can stop it.

But are they smart and brave enough to step up now?

Bush, Bechtel and Bin Laden. From the New Yorker:

...

At the National Security Agency, Arab-speaking linguists eavesdropped on phone conversations. But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama.
...
Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind.
...
It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq. In a closed competitive bidding process, the United States Agency for International Development chose Bechtel to rebuild the major elements of Iraq’s infrastructure
...
When the contract was awarded, two weeks ago, the Administration did not mention that the bin Laden family has an ongoing relationship with Bechtel. The bin Ladens have a ten-million-dollar stake in the Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based company formerly called Bechtel Investments, which was until 1986 a subsidiary of Bechtel.

...

Not mentioned? Well, how uncharacteristic for this sunshine-filled administration. A closed bidding process? I assume that means a pre-ordained winner? So for a small 500K donation to a Bush alma-mater, the Saudi's once again clean up on our dime, damn they must be laughing their arab asses off in Riyadh every time they pull a string and watch these clowns dance.

On any given day, the average merchant in an arab bazaar is more honest, intelligent and trustworthy than the Smirkster.

Oh, and in a culture where family counts, I have my doubts that with like 50 or so siblings, that ObL is totally estranged; perhaps just for the record.

1. Invasion if SF Bay Area slated, Prez in Europe looking for new coalition
   
2. There really is a clown in that suit, her name's Torie
   
3. I'm the Pasty-White Draft Dodging Thin Skinned Veep. Respect, Fear and Kneel Down Before Me!
   
4. Which is more believable? PT III
   
5. The parallel dimension we are in
   
6. Second Entry
   
7. It's only a matter of time before they all hate us
   
8. Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
   
9. Which one is more beliveable PT II
   
10. Which one is more believeable?