I finally got my RTB links up below the Fish Pond, SKBubba was kind enough to welcome this tired ol' former East Tennessean to the RTB a week or so ago, and I just got the links up on the site. There are a couple of folks there who belong in the Equal Bandwidth section of my links, one, Rich Hailey I have been meaning to include, but now he's here with the RTB.

Welcome Aboard to the entire RTB! (sound of Bos'ns pipe...)

Is it just me or does anyone else out there get creeped out when you see Chuck Colson's name involved with anything involving Public Policy? It seems that he sure has some in's with the 1600 Crew because of his post-Watergate Christ-conversion (read: prison time). Coming attractions: Nixon (or a wax replica) lying in state in a crystal coffin (a la Mao) in the Capital Rotunda?

As one who has seen it in Tienamen Square let me pass out the first Eeeeew of summer. But with the current occupants of the mis-administration, I would not put it past them to at least try.

So who exactly is our Finder-in-Chief for Iraqi WMD's? It's a high-profile job, of that there is not a doubt. In fact, I would have to say that job-wise, it's the hottest potato in town. At a meeting in Qatar, when he was there, our Fahbulous Fearful Leader asked who was in charge (and it isn't President I'll-Hug-the-Relatives-of-the-Deceased)

President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked.

So take heart Mr. Cambone, there may be a Supreme Court appointment in your future...you don't even have to be an attorney to be a Justice (see: Clarence Thomas, he's just a hack).

Update: from fellow RTB'r Resonance, here are Dr. Cambone's credentials: Rummy Sycophant, no intelligence experience and Washington Beltway based. Yup, those WMD's are as good as found with Inspector Gotcha on the trail.

From his air-conditioned palace in Baghdad, American Pro-Consul-in-Residence for Iraq gave out some interviews over the weekend where he said:

"We're certainly not panicked," he said in an interview with several newspapers tonight, one of several meetings he had with news outlets over the weekend. "We're not going to get deflected from our direction by an attack now and then, tragic as it may be."

The attacks "are a sign of weakness," he said of those responsible for them, adding, "And I think we have to anticipate that as we succeed, we will continue to see attacks, and indeed you may find an escalation to terrorism as we go forward."

You have to wonder, how could we have been down this path once before in Southeast Asia and be so willing to see ourselves set our feet on it again. None of the Neo-Cons at the AEI or in the administration who so desperately wanted this war are there fighting it, and I'm betting with the exception of Anthony Principi of the VA, not a single one has a child within 1,000 miles, hell 6,000 miles of Iraqi soil.

Prove me wrong, I'd love to know.

One of DemVet's favorite blogs and daily must-reads, Sullywatch is celebrating an anniversary. The first. Congrats and many happy returns...here's to number Two!!!

...well christo-facist conservatism anyhow. Here's the real face of the Bush Anti-Abortion gag rule applied to the $34 Million given in USAID fund to countries that want help funding their family planning efforts. (The emphasis in the quote is mine)

In the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan, influenced by anti-abortion fundamentalist Christians of the “Religious Right,” funds were withheld from foreign family planning agencies. The Reagan “gag rule” barred health providers from counseling women on abortion or providing abortions even with the organizations’ own funds. But in 1993, the Clinton government reversed the gag rule and restored family planning funding to the United Nations. Finally, in 1994, the declaration at the International Conference on Population in Cairo was ratified by 179 countries to help promote the campaign for women's reproductive rights. Not only had the aims of the UN Conference been endorsed by Clinton but Vice President Al Gore spoke at the opening plenary to pledge US support worldwide for women's rights.

On George W. Bush's very first day in office in 2000, he reimposed the Reagan gag rule. The Bush anti-abortion policy also withdrew $34 million from the United Nations family planning program, and at every international meeting on such issues the United States delegation lobbies against women's rights.
...
But Bush plans to expand his “global gag rule” to HIV funding, disqualifying a large number of organizations -- especially family planning programs -- from delivering integrated HIV prevention services. Rather than saving lives, this policy will cost lives. Although their deaths could be prevented by humane and rational sex education and protection programs, very large numbers of women and girls not receiving proper sex education and protection will be condemned to infection, suffering, and premature death.
...
Dr. Nirmal K. Bista, director general of the Family Planning Association (FPAN) of Nepal said, "If we were to accept the restricted U.S. funds I would be prevented from speaking in my own country to my own government about a health care crisis I know first hand.”
...
At the UN Special Session on Children in New York City, the U.S. delegation led by Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson formed an unholy alliance with Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Iraq in the midst of Bush's “with us or against us” declaration of war on Islamic fundamentalists. Together, with the Vatican, they fought to purge the world of comprehensive sex education for adolescents, restrict STD-prevention and contraceptive information to heterosexual married couples, and redefine "reproductive health services" by excluding legal abortion.
...
Françoise Girard of the International Women's Health Coalition said, “This is the fringe who've taken over U.S. policy on sexual and reproductive health.” Girard added, "Some people asked me, ‘Do you think they're doing this because they want to save our souls?’”

Because I once used the a-word. And the christo-facist nazi's have spoken.

It seems that the GOP (Gay Ol' Party?) fears that the recent Supreme Court Decision keeping what goes on in a bedroom between its occupants private will lead to the downfall of Western Civilization. Well everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if they are wrong. Ah, but to make things better, those forward-looking prudes want to pass a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriages (sorry Andy, I think I called this one in the 10-Watt Sully post) a while back.

The Republican leader of the U.S. Senate said on Sunday he supported a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed concern about the Supreme Court's decision last week to strike down a Texas sodomy law. He said he supported an amendment that would reserve marriage for relationships between men and women.

``I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between, what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined, as between a man and a woman,'' said Frist, of Tennessee. ``So I would support the amendment.''

A constitutional amendment is a bad idea for a lot of reasons, but this one might have a small chance of getting a thin-supermajority in the Senate. Remember that the ERA did too, and it was a far more worthy cause. But it died in the States, and I suspect this will too. It also might die from over-reaching, the same folks who are likely pushing this reside in places like ummm, Virgina Beach and Lynchburg VA, and have a tendency to push too far on their first try to do anything. I doubt they'll be given a second bite, especially if they try to add in language for anything else like say, Abortion.

Let's hope this dies as speedy and painless death it deserves in the Senate, these repeated GOP attempts at social engineering are getting really boring.

In a Friday post, Her Royal Highness says:

THE UNHILLARY: A moment of silence, please, for the man who knew perfectly well what the correct interpretation of the role of First Lady was and executed it flawlessly - in pants. Denis Thatcher died yesterday.

Ann Coulter's new blog has a very appropriate name: "Coultergeist" (how many PR geniuses did that take?). Why? Because like a poltergeist it makes a lot of noise, has no form or content and apparates only through your TV to annoy you.

Recently she was spotted on the Michael Weiner show by Scoobie Davis. Mikey was off, most likely reading all the websites that Appropriated his Name last week, looking for lawsuit material or practicing for the handjob he wants to give Ashcroft, or both...Scoobie Davis got on and trashed Annthrax and her book "Treason" (coming soon to remainder tables everywhere...).

Why what's going on in Iraq needs to end, and the Neocons can do it. All they have to do is admit they might be wrong. And I'll be elected the next Pope.

Around 10 p.m. Thursday, Mohammed Kubaisi, 12, was fatally shot in the chest on the roof of his home in Baghdad by a U.S. soldier.
...
According to the U.S. military, what the soldier saw was a figure in the darkness carrying an AK-47 automatic rifle and moving across the roof of the house, with exposed U.S. soldiers below. The U.S. forces recovered the weapon when they searched the house after the shooting, according to Maj. Sean Gibson, a military spokesman.
A military investigation is underway, but the results are already moot for many residents of Baghdad. In their mind, the killing was gratuitous. Even some Iraqis who initially welcomed the U.S. occupation see the boy's death as another grievance against U.S. forces.
...
"The bullet that shot Mohammed will be worth a million bullets," said Mohammed's mother, in a veiled threat of revenge, after she emerged from the home, staggering and supported by family members.

U.S. officials said they did not want to engage in an argument with the family and offered a bare-bones account of the event -- as they do with most incidents involving U.S. forces.

The family members have offered an emotional account of what they see as U.S. brutality, further poisoning an atmosphere in which U.S. troops are being killed almost daily.

It is the family's story that is now circulating in the al-Jihad neighborhood of west Baghdad and beyond.

Bookmark this page, it's from one of Kos' commenters. It has the latest US casualty count.

I have nothing else to say, other than Bookmark it.

Road Runner had a little problem letting me have an IP address. Tough to connect when you have no method of doing so. It only took them 24 hours to get me back on-line. Sorry for the interruption to the regularly scheduled Snark.

Of course everyone on the Planet except Sully has seen the Honda Ad (made in France)...as Sullywatch points out (we first saw it via TBogg several months ago). But...there's a parody of it with a group who look suspiciously like the Pythons (it's not, sadly) and it's very good. Thanks to SW for the pointer.

via the ever-delightful Tiger Lily and her blog Brief Intelligence, here's a little something that will warm your heart: Not only do the Bushits hate economically less-fortunate civilians, they really don't like junior military (well, any military) folks too much. Acording to an editorial in the June 30th Army Times the 1600 Crew wants to do the following:

...the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary — including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day.

Similarly, the administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.

Remember to vote next year, it's important for your survival. Obviously.

*SGLI - Serviceman's Group Life Insurance

If you believe in Heaven and Hell, where is Strom Thurmond now? Still dead I expect. I'm such a sensitive guy. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

But he left us with some nice little Nazi offspring. His boy, Junior, US Attorney in South Carolina, is prosecuting an anti-war protestor who would not get himself into one of the "First Amendment Zones" favored by President Beloved, so he does not have to actually see that not everyone loves him.

the local United States attorney, J. Strom Thurmond Jr., brought federal charges against Mr. Bursey under a seldom-used statute that allows the Secret Service to restrict access to areas the president is visiting. He faces six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Sully the fool:

I absolutely support an investigation into whether anything was actually deliberately faked or egregiously spun. The reason is that I want us to be credible the next time we have to make such an argument. But so far, the evidence for blatant deception is extremely thin.

President Bush, speaking to the nation this month about the need to challenge Saddam Hussein, warned that Iraq has a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used "for missions targeting the United States."

Last month, asked if there were new and conclusive evidence of Hussein's nuclear weapons capabilities, Bush cited a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the Iraqis were "six months away from developing a weapon." And last week, the president said objections by a labor union to having customs officials wear radiation detectors has the potential to delay the policy "for a long period of time."

All three assertions were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought. And all three statements were dubious, if not wrong. Further information revealed that the aircraft lack the range to reach the United States; there was no such report by the IAEA; and the customs dispute over the detectors was resolved long ago. --10.22.02, Washington Post

Billy (Boo-Boo Kitty) Frist has had a LOT of experience lying. After all he's been in politics for years now. He first practiced how to lie to Animal Shelter workers about what he was adopting cats for, then he lied about his Senate opponent Jim Sasser, equating him to Marion Berry, and just kept the duplicity going until he reached the leadership of the Senate. Now Senator Bill has managed to somehow ignore why we went to war in Iraq.

The Republican leader in the Senate said that Iraq weapons of mass destruction was not the main justification for the US-led invasion of Iraq.

"I'm not sure that's the major reason we went to war," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told NBC television's Today Show.

Did Frist maybe get into the controlled substances in the OR one too many times and incur a little brain damage?

Biggest Whopper of his career. What a Putz.

No, No, No, not those Supremes. Well, in the opinion of Ana Marie Cox

Second of all, could Anthony Scalia be any gayer? Why isn't he posting in the Corner -- he's that gay.

State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise sustainable only in light of Bowers’ validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding.

No, but they did manage to Log Cabin the decision.

Apparently Nino did get that memo from Man-on-Dog Santorum's office before the ruling. Good. Nice to know that the post still travels.

Joining him in the defense of heterosexuals everywhere were of course Clarence the Stupid and L'il Billy Rehnquist. There were rumors that the decision was going to be 7-2 until Fat Tony leaned on Sleepy Clarence to remember "who's your daddy, who's your daddy" so that Virginia gets to keep her day-job at The Heritage Foundation and does not have to go back to cleaning floors in Dupont Circle. Or perhaps Fat Tony just promised him some videos with hot girl-girl action featuring O'Connor and Ginsburg...we're pretty sure the coke machine in the lobby of the court was sold out by noon when they wrote the decision in any case.

the kid stands at the island in the kitchen singing "The Tide is High" and thinks it originated in a Hillary Duff movie or something. When I tell her it's Blondie, she looks at me like I have two heads. "Blondie Who?" she says.

Yeesh. It begins.

Well it seems that the 1600 Crew does truly not like the middle of America. How many of you out there want to work 60 hours and get paid for 40? Show of hands, please. That's what I thought.

Seems the ever worker-friendly group of fatcats running the government want to hose you...and improve your value to their shareholders in the process. Just think how wonderful it will be for them to work you to death, and not have to pay you for it!

Some 2.5 million salary earners and 5.5 million hourly employees would lose their overtime, according to the estimates by the group, which is affiliated with labor unions. Some of the most impacted job types would include: mid-level supervisors such as restaurant managers or safety inspectors; professionals such as dietitians, social workers and writers; and technical specialists, such as dental hygienists, drafters or computer programmers. The report’s authors argue the new rules would lead to longer hours for most employees with minimal cost to companies.
“That will have a big impact on their personal family budgets and also on their hours of work,” said EPI vice president and policy director Ross Eisenbray. “It’ll be more profit, but it won’t end up in worker paychecks.”
...
The Bush administration and business groups argue the changes are necessary to reflect a growing service sector in the economy, and to spur economic growth and hiring practices. Among the arguments is that by paying less overtime to more highly skilled workers, employers would have more money in their payroll to hire new employees and reduce the unemployment rolls.

Dubya: bad for America and this proves it.

Hey, all I have to say is: Welcome to the Democratic Party...help your state become a Blue State next year and crap like this won't be an issue.

This has been traveling through blogtopia has for a day or so now, I'm not a Californian, so I can't be overly (or overtly?) snarky about this, but haven't we heard a line like this before?

"I am not a Crook"

--Richard Nixon
Orlando, FL, Nov 17, 1973

"I do not steal,"

--US Rep Darrell Issa

Congresscritter Darrell Issa, I am sure, is a huuuge proponent of Miranda Warnings and due process....bwahahahahahaha

Must've been Asleep At The Wheel the other day, missed this tidbit from Cowboy Kahlil

Howard Bashman points to something entirely different, yet I see a commonality. Nearly two-thirds of American adults can't name any of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices. What's the common thread here? First, let's consider a few more poll results from recent months.

* Approximately 40% of Americans believe WMDs have been found in Iraq.
* Approximately 30% believe Iraq used WMDs during the recent war.
* Approximately 35% believe Saddaam helped plan and fund the 9/11 attacks.
* Approximately 40% believe professional wrestling, and Fox News, are real.

Are you sensing what I'm picking up here? Intellectuals have a fancy-schmancy name to describe the phenomenon when beliefs ride roughshod over the known facts: cognitive dissonance. Old trailriders like myself usually ascribe it to the capacity for alkies sufferring from delirium tremors, so desperate for a drink that they'll drink the Sterno™, which makes them loopy as all get out.

Before any get the notion this is going to devolve into a snarky, wildly exaggerated essay, let me remind you that if you don't pass this essay on to ten close friends within the next half hour, you're likely to die from some horribly disfiguring disease, while those who do pass it on will receive more than $25,000 in the next 30 days, from Bill Gates... or even more from that unfortunate Nigerian fella trying to free up his fortune.
...
* When provided 'proposed laws' that are actually our current Bill of Rights, approximately 55% of American voters would reject them.
* Approximately 60% of adult Americans consider Donald Rumsfeld's assertions to be credible.
* Approximately 65% of Americans believe actors are the characters they portray on TV.
* Two-thirds of the three Western religions (Christian, Islamic, Judaic) accord incredulous powers and respect to the doings of virgins.
* Approximately 70% believe Democrats are the biggest spenders.
* Approximately 75% can name all the contestants on every version of Survivor, including intimate personal details of their lives.
* Approximately 80% root for the biggest backstabbing betrayers on reality TV shows and Jerry Springer.
* Approximately 90% know the exact size of Pamela Anderson's tits, how many surgeries they've endured, and the dates the surgeries took place.
* Approximately 145% believe Dolly Parton's tits are real.

Now all but three of these thoughts and beliefs did not arise from the mouths of politicians. Instead, they're rooted in folks' interests and biases and represent the basic human psychology of the modern American. And yet, Democratic representatives and candidates typically prefer to stress truth, even when the truth requires that voters surrender their worship of popular mythology.

Here's the whole Jerry Springer interview, if you did not catch it over on the Political State Report. Enjoy.

JF: Give me some sense of who Jerry Springer is, not the talk show host, but the guy who was a TV news man and former mayor of a Major US city. What brings you back to Ohio for a senatorial bid?

JS: Although I've always remained active and interested in politics (and have given much time and money to Democratic causes over the years), this is the first time that there has been a confluence of events that makes a Senate run possible. By that I mean: I've got a window now where I could end my contractual obligations to do the television show; there is a paucity of potential Democratic candidates in Ohio who have a reasonable chance of winning; and the elitism in Washington has grown to epidemic proportions -as has the downward spiral that Ohio now finds itself in, economically, educationally, and otherwise.

The overarching issue, as I see it, is the elitism of America's political system; the fact that regular, ordinary Americans aren't considered in policy debates or legislation, and regularly get shafted by the powers-that-be in Washington. The latest tax cut bill is Exhibit A ---not only is it skewed overwhelmingly toward the rich, but regular people earning under $27.000 per year were originally going to get nothing ---zero ---under that bill. I think the tax cut bill shows that regular people aren't even on the radar screen in Washington.

JF: What are the major issues that you see within the OH Democratic Party? Help or hinder a Springer for Senate run?

JS: The major issue within the Ohio Dem. Party right now (and I include the county parties here) is the fact that we don't have much money ---and don't have a stable of viable, state-wide candidates who have the name identification and resources to make competitive runs for office. As I've travelled around the state for the past 4 months speaking at Jefferson-Jackson dinners and other events, I've sensed a fatigue with losing...a desire to nominate someone who has a reasonable chance of winning a significant race in Ohio. Although there are undoubtedly still some people who would rather I didn't run, I think its fair to say that a majority of country chairs and other Party officials would love to see me do it.

JF: What is Senator Springer's vision for Ohio and America?

JS: Stripped to its essentials, it is this: an Ohio and an America where regular, ordinary, hard-working people aren't ignored at best, and screwed at worst by their own government. I know it might sound hokey, but I am living proof that at least once upon a time, the American dream really could and did work. In one generation, I went from a family that was largely exterminated in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany to this ridiculously privileged life I live today by virtue of my getting lucky with my television show. But I also believe that many, if not most, American families today do not have the benefit of equal opportunity. I want to turn that around and help redeem the American dream...I want to be in the forefront of a populist, grass roots movement that will demand economic and tax justice, equal educational opportunities, and access to basic health care and health insurance. Too many people today don't vote because they see no point; they don't identify with either Party because they believe ---and correctly, I might add ---that they and their concerns are not on the radar screens of the power structure...that it doesn't matter if a Democrat or a Republican wins because their lives never change no matter who wins. Those are the people I want to attract to the polls. And let's face it: if everyone voted, do you really believe we'd have the economic policies we have today that favor the wealthy and the privileged? That we'd have 41 million Americans with no health insurance? That our public schools in states like Ohio would be so unevenly funded? Of course not.

JF: Where do you see yourself as a player in OH politics?

JS:I see myself as a voice for regular people who aren't represented by lobbyists and whose interests aren't being protected or served by those in power. I will fight for them ---and I would be one of the few politicians who can't be owned by the special interests. Because so many of the problems facing Ohio as a state emanate from Washington, I believe I could be most effective as a U.S. Senator. Moreover, I believe that whatever celebrity I have as the result of the show would give me a kind of national "bully pulpit" that I could use to mobilize regular, ordinary people all across America.

JS: In Ohio over the past 10 years or so, Democratic, state-wide candidates generally have gotten between 1.5 and 1.6 million votes. Even well-funded candidates like Joel Hyatt in '94 and Lee Fisher in '98 topped out at about 46 or 47% of the vote. Clearly, the only way for a Democrat to win in this state now is to entice a significant portion of the 2 to 2 ½ million eligible Ohio voters who don't identify with either party and only vote occasionally. I believe I have a connection with those voters ---and if I can attract enough of them to the polls and add them to the "regular" Democratic votes in Ohio, it can add up to a win.

JF: Can you turn your viewers into voters? Re-enfranchise/re-energize a perhaps "turned-off" group/constituency?

JS: See (my answer) above. There is no question that when these folks hear me speak, I can move them. The question we have to answer now (which we're examining through polling, focus groups, etc.) is will my message move those voters if I deliver it on television (since I obviously will not be able to speak personally to even most of the voters in Ohio). The answer to that question will largely determine if I run.

JF: What are major issues you see for OH that you can work on at a national level?

JS: the economy (especially tax justice); education (where I believe the Federal government must make a major commitment, especially in early childhood education, providing resources to allow major reductions in class size in what I refer to as our "red zone" schools, and making college more affordable) and health care.

JF: What is your view of the vouchers case in Cleveland? Help or hurt inner-city schools?

JS: Generally, I am opposed to vouchers because I think they drain resources away from public schools and put them in private schools. I understand why parents who have kids in failing inner city schools are looking for some alternatives, but I remain convinced that the answer is not in giving up on our public school system.

JF: The US Senate has been termed one of the last of the "old-boys" clubs in America (apologies to Sens Boxer, Murray, et al). It's very collegial and many of the members have been there a long, long time. Colorful is not a word that describes the men and women there, (I think that the Singing Ashcroft's probably pushed the limit). How does Jerry Springer fit into a group like that?

JS: I don't fit in with a group like that ---and I never will. I've been an outsider most of my life, and I don't want to go to Washington to be a member of "the club." I think the incestuousness of Washington is a large part of the problem ---and I want to go to Washington to shake things up. If I were in the Senate, I guarantee you that we would not have gone to war in Iraq without a vigorous debate on the Senate floor ---and I guarantee you that we would not be stuck with the tax cut bill that passed the Senate a few weeks ago. I would not have 'cut a deal" like Sen. George Voinovich did ---I would have stood up to the President and simply said "no."

And remember, if I were in the Senate, I'd be one of the few who would not be running for President (I was born in England), and one of the few who couldn't be owned, or even rented by the special interests. What could they offer me? Would they say: "hey, Jerry, vote our way and we'll give you some money for your next campaign? We'll put you on television and make you famous?" Fortunately, I've got all those things already...and I'm not looking for a job or another career. My only motivation would be to fight for regular people ---and I can promise you I would spend every day doing just that.

JS: If I had my choice, I'd pick Finance (tax laws are done there), Labor and Human Resources, and probably, Foreign Relations. But I'm also realistic enough to know that a junior Senator doesn't get all of his or her first choices. Frankly, though, I think that I could exert an influence that goes beyond committee assignments and beyond what your usual first-term Senator can wield. Because I'm well known, I think I would be extensively covered by the news media ---and I think I could mobilize regular voters all across America in support of policies that would help them. I learned long ago that nothing much gets done in politics unless 51% of the people want it to be done. And I think I could play a major role in mobilizing a majority of voters to bring pressure to bear on their elected officials.

JF: You are obviously in the brackets that Bush was/is targeting for the maximum benefits, how does it make you feel to be the recipient of such incredible "largesse"? Give me some thoughts on the Tax-cut(s).

JS: I understand the need to juice up the economy. But why in the world are they giving me a tax cut? Do they think that if I get a large check back from the government that I will suddenly to out and spend more money? Wealthy people like me can and do already buy what we need and want...that's why we're called "wealthy." Instead of giving me a tax cut, how about looking at reducing the payroll tax? 4 out of 5 Americans pay more in the payroll tax than they do in the income tax...yet nobody talks about cutting the payroll tax for regular, ordinary, working folks. I would. B ecause when you cut the payroll tax for regular people, they will spend every dime of that cut...because they have to. Specifically, i'd like to see major relief on the first $10 to $20 thousand dollars a person earns...everyone spends the first $10 to $20k they earn because that's what they live on...what they buy groceries with, what they pay the mortgage or rent with; what they make the car payment with. So they'd spend every dime ---and that would truly juice up the economy.

JF: How will the tax cuts help/hurt the economy?

JS: Apart from the fact that the deficits created by this tax cut (which will be at least $350 billion, and probably more like $550 billion or more) will crowd out private investment and likely scare Wall Street (as happened during the $250 billion annual deficit years during the late '80's), remember that the projected deficits do not even include the billions ---and perhaps hundreds of billions ---of additional dollars that the war and rebuilding of Iraq will cost. The net effect, of course, will be to allow right-wingers to claim that they must slash social spending because we simply "have no money left." So the rich will get more tax breaks, and regular people will get a reduction in the government services they count on. You know, I'm delighted that we're trying to give the people of Iraq a better life. But I believe that before we spend $70 to $200 billion to rebuild Iraq, we ought to rebuild America and states like Ohio first.

JF: How do you feel about the War in Iraq and the Bush Doctrine of Pre-emption?

JS: I opposed the war in Iraq because I did not believe it was in our national security interest, and I still don't. What we did was akin to taking a baseball bat to a beehive. Our primary security threat right now is terrorism ---and by doing what we did in Iraq, we've managed to alienate a good part of the world and most of the allies whose intelligence and other help we need to combat and defeat terrorism.

Moreover, there is a very real question right now about whether the Administration hyped and perhaps even twisted intelligence information to justify going to war. Of course, the right-wingers and the apologists for the Administration tell us that it really doesn't matter whether Saddam had weapons of mass destruction or not. They say that because he was a horrible tyrant who murdered and tortured his own people, the war was justified. Well, I believe it does matter that we tell the truth. It matters because the rest of the world needs to know they can count on us telling the truth when we try to enlist their support the next time. It matters because the doctrine of pre-emption can't possibly be justified (if it can at all) unless we have good intelligence that is honestly analyzed. And if the standard for going to war is henceforth going to be mistreatment of a people by their ruler, we will never be at peace in our life times, or the life times of our children.

In short, I believe war was the wrong remedy for the problems we face. And I think the chaos now gripping Iraq is proof that we may be there a lot longer (and spend a lot more) than most Americans have bargained for.

JF: Would you have voted to go into Iraq?

JS: No.

JF: Would you vote to pull out the troops if no Allied support is forthcoming?

JS: It's pretty clear that we can't afford to pay for or police everything ourselves. But when or under what circumstances we should pull out is a question I don't think we can answer right now.

JF: Has the War in Iraq substantially interfered with the War on Terror?

JS: Yes, it has interfered, but not in a positive way. For one thing, there is little doubt that Saddam was NOT in cahoots with Osama Bin Laden, the Administration's allegations to the contrary notwithstanding. Moreover, as I said above, I believe we have probably hurt ourselves in the war on terror by alienating so many of the other countries whose help is vital. And I also believe that our war in Iraq has probably served as an excellent recruiting tool for terrorist groups like al-Qaida.

JF: Should the Democrats continue to filibuster "unacceptable" Federal Court nominees (over 100 have been approved, 2 filibustered)?

JS: Although Presidents should have some leeway in nominating jurists for Federal courts, Democrats must oppose nominees who are extremists and who would turn back the clock on such important issues as choice, privacy, and civil rights. I would have no problem filibustering extremists.

JF: What is the has been the most disappointing action of the current US senators from OH that directly affected Ohioans?

JS: Their votes for the tax cuts. Those cuts not only overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans, but also really hurt the state of Ohio, which is already facing a $5 billion deficit -and now will have an even higher deficit, thanks to the reduction in taxes on dividends. As Sen. Voinovich knows (because he used to be Governor), Ohio's revenue is directly dependent on the income taxpayers show on their Federal tax forms. Since taxpayers who have dividend income will now be reporting less income at the Federal level, they'll also show less at the state level. That will reduce Ohio income taxes ---and that will boost the state's deficit, which is already at an historic high.

JF: Your primary opponent might be Eric Fingerhut, what about him?

JS: He's a nice man and a good State Senator. If he is the Party's nominee for U.S. Senator, I will support him.

JF: How can you overcome his political presence in the state?

JS: I don't intend to attack him, if that's what you mean. Instead of attacking each other, I believe Democrats should be holding their fire for our common enemies, the Republicans. If I run, I will wage a campaign of ideas. I hope Sen. Fingerhut will, too. And let the voters decide who has the best ideas and the best chance of beating the Republicans in November of 2004.

JF: What's the message you have that he does not?

JS: I don't wish to characterize his message. If I run, I'll concentrate on presenting my message, and let voters decide who has the better one.

From Merriam-Webster on-line: Git
British : a foolish or worthless person

Am I alone here in thinking that Captain Muscles has to have some sort of Strange Brain Disorder or that he's becoming so incapable of reason, that he's about to start genuflecting and praying to his demi-God Bush? From an entry today, Sully takes the most circuitous route possible to forgive and even attempt to rescue the Bush Posse from the perfidious attacks by those who claim the Posse [gasp] lied!

The good news for the president is that the left is still obsessing about his "lies" and his stupidity. The question of lying, however, is obviously an important one. Did, on current evidence, the president deliberately mislead the public on the imminence of the threat of WMDs under Saddam? I've read a lot of critiques now - and it seems obvious that a few parts of the administration's multi-faceted and drawn-out case for deposing Saddam were, to put it kindly, hyped.

Doesn't every politician lie? To an extent, of course. But this man has taken the principle of cynical duplicity to a new and chilling level.

The premise is that after 9/11, only rock-solid evidence of illicit weapons prgrams and proven ties to terrorists could justify a pre-emptive war to depose Saddam. But the point of 9/11 was surely the opposite: that the burden of proof now lay on people denying such a threat, not those fearing it. Would I rather we had an administration that remained Solomon-like in the face of inevitably limited and muddled intelligence and sought the kind of rock-solid consensus on everything that would satisfy Jacques Chirac or the BBC (or John Kerry)?

Do I wish in retrospect that the Bushies - and more pertinently, the Blairites - had been doubly careful in not saying things that couldn't be proven? Yes. Does this prove them to be liars and irresponsible leaders? Nope

Notice he makes no comments about President PNAC's intellect. No possible defense there, I guess even for Sully.

Dumping Three Billion dollars into the black hole of Karachi, President Too-Stupid-to-Eat-SnackFood (yea, Billion) said:

It's only a matter of time before Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are captured or accounted for...

"Today, both countries are working with the Afghan government to build a stable democratic Afghanistan with secure border regions that are free from terror and free from extremism," Bush said. "Pakistan and the United States also share a determination to bring ... the benefits of security and freedom to the people of Iraq (news - web sites)," he added.

Asked about the fact that the fates of both bin Laden and Saddam remain unknown, Bush said, "There's more than two principles at large. ... There are others around, too. And we're just on the hunt."

Two principles indeed, lying his ass off and greed. Works for him.

When bowtie-boy said on Crossfire that Hillary Clinton's book Living History would not sell a million copies, he also said that he would eat his shoes and his tie if a million copies were sold. As sales are approaching the 600,000 mark, Tucker (Ducker?) Carlson is trying to weasel out. Take Back the Media has the story.

Don't let Ducker get off so easily...send him your Nikes!

And while we're talking about republican talk show wingnuts, didn't Whining Bill O'Reilly say he would quit if no WMD's were found in Iraq? Maybe I'm mistaken...or maybe not.

Check out my interview with Ohio Senatorial hopeful, Jerry Springer over on Kos' Political State Report. It'll be up here later tonight too. He's pretty much of level-headed populist. I think that he makes a lot of sense and has a pretty damn well-founded and rounded view of the world. What folks may think of his "public image" may change as the Senate campaign heats up and he has a chance to spend more time talking about ideas and spends less time defending his TV persona. I believe that he can be force in Ohio politics (he's been the Mayor of Cincinnati already) and a welcome addition to an otherwise mediocre group of Professional Politicians in our party. Here's a quote:

JF: What is Senator Springer's vision for Ohio and America?

JS: Stripped to its essentials, it is this: an Ohio and an America where regular, ordinary, hard-working people aren't ignored at best, and screwed at worst by their own government. I know it might sound hokey, but I am living proof that at least once upon a time, the American dream really could and did work. In one generation, I went from a family that was largely exterminated in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany to this ridiculously privileged life I live today by virtue of my getting lucky with my television show. But I also believe that many, if not most, American families today do not have the benefit of equal opportunity. I want to turn that around and help redeem the American dream...I want to be in the forefront of a populist, grass roots movement that will demand economic and tax justice, equal educational opportunities, and access to basic health care and health insurance. Too many people today don't vote because they see no point; they don't identify with either Party because they believe ---and correctly, I might add ---that they and their concerns are not on the radar screens of the power structure...that it doesn't matter if a Democrat or a Republican wins because their lives never change no matter who wins. Those are the people I want to attract to the polls. And let's face it: if everyone voted, do you really believe we'd have the economic policies we have today that favor the wealthy and the privileged? That we'd have 41 million Americans with no health insurance? That our public schools in states like Ohio would be so unevenly funded? Of course not.

Interesting guy. Full interview up here later, or hop over to Polstate now.

Thanks to Skippy for pointing this ol' kindergartner (me) to Joe6Pack and this wonderful song...you know the tune.

Sing 'n Clap Along (If you're happy and you know it...Bomb Iraq!)

If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are Saudi
And the bank takes back your Audi
And the TV shows are bawdy,
Bomb Iraq.

If the corporate scandals growin', bomb Iraq.
And your ties to them are showin', bomb Iraq.
If the smoking gun ain't smokin'
We don't care, and we're not jokin'.
That Saddam will soon be croakin',
Bomb Iraq.

Even if we have no allies, bomb Iraq.
From the sand dunes to the valleys, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections;
Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions,
Bomb Iraq.

While the globe is slowly warming, bomb Iraq.
Yay! the clouds of war are storming, bomb Iraq.
If the ozone hole is growing,
Some things we prefer not knowing.
(Though our ignorance is showing),
Bomb Iraq.

So here's one for dear old daddy, bomb Iraq,
From his favorite little laddy, bomb Iraq.
Saying no would look like treason.
It's the Hussein hunting season.
Even if we have no reason,
Bomb Iraq.

Now that's #1 on the hit parade today...going out to all the boyz and grrlz in the 1600 Crew, great beat and you can dance to it too....

Love it.

Robert "Nofacts" Novak's not someone I'd usually quote, but this column of his from the Washington Dispatch makes an excellent point...Rumsfeld is squeezing the Army by overextending and overworking it. Gee, what a Patriot, eh?

It started with Rummy ignoring the advice and counsel of a relatively unimportant person, General Eric Shinseki, his Army Chief of Staff. Shinseki's views, like those of many professionals soldiers were that Iraq was going to need both a large short-term force to invade and perhaps a larger one to sustain the inevitable "mission creep" of nation-building.

So, Rummy dissed Shinseki at his recent retirement ceremony...he fired him (in effect) a year or so ago, then he blew him off altogether at his retirement. Shinseki recently said of Rummy: (not mentioning him by name)

When his June 11 speech declared that "mistrust and arrogance are antithetical to inspired and inspiring leadership," everybody in the Pentagon knew he was accusing Rumsfeld of exercising command but not leadership. The general declared that "command is about authority, about an appointment to position" but that "leadership . . . must be learned and practiced."

On the previous Sunday (in the New York Times) ... Pfc. Matthew C. O'Dell, 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, told a reporter: "You call Donald Rumsfeld and tell him our sorry asses are ready to go home. Tell him to come spend a night in our building."

Like to welcome these new fish to the Pond...People's Republic of Seabrook, Rushlimbaughtomy, Topdog04.com and High Desert Skeptic.

Click over and show them some luuuuv....

In a ruling today from the bought-and-paid for SCOTUS, aka the Scalia Bandits, the Super Supremes ruled with the 1600 Crew and against Holocaust Survivors. The case, which was ruled on today is a defeat for the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco, which last year had ruled in favor of the Holocaust Survivors.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the 1600 Crew took the side of the Insurance Companies with the argument that California was interfering in Foreign Policy by having a law on the books that required insurers who want to do business in California research and make available information about companies that once sold insurance to Holocaust victims/their families/survivors, if they were related to the present day company. Disclosure seems to have been the thrust of the law, not Foreign Policy. But as with all things Smirk-related, there's a twist...

Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution.

"That's where the Bush family fortune came from: It came from the Third Reich," Loftus said. Loftus made his remarks during a speech as part of the Sarasota Reading Festival. The author of "Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis and the Swiss Banks," Loftus documented the Swiss bank accounts that harbored funds confiscated from Holocaust victims and the participation of Italian priests in smuggling Nazi war criminals to safe haven in Canada, Central and South America and the United States after the war.

...

That money flows into American politics today, he said, from "a series of multinational corporations behaving like pirates. They don't care about ideology; they care about money." Loftus' speech left many in tears.

"I am absolutely shocked," said Nancy Krauss of Punta Gorda. "I wish this would have come out before the election. My husband voted for Bush. I don't think he would have voted for him if he would have known."

Do you suppose that he had little Dubya on his knee one day and said "Junior, if ya ever get the chance to put it to 'em...don't hesitate, they tried to dry up my cash flow, damn Roosevelt and his damn Crew. Take'em down...destroy their memory, trash their legacy, now go play with Muffy and Buffy, there's a good little WASP".

Maybe not. But it sure looks like payback time to me...

"President Bush has the legal and moral responsibility to ensure that these heirs do not continue to be victimized by insurance company secrecy," Garamendi said in a statement.

Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, said the ruling showed the need for Congress to adopt legislation.

"The time for talking is over. It's time Congress rights this horrible wrong," he said in a statement. "Holocaust survivors and their families are being denied what is rightfully theirs.

The first Iraqi Oil (it wasn't about OIL) has been loaded on a Turkish Tanker and headed off to the refinery and then on to market. Air-conditioning, running water, sewage and other services are still lacking in Baghdad and elsewhere, but damn, that OIL is flowing.

Iraq returned to the world oil market Sunday, exporting its first crude oil since the U.S.-led invasion, a step crucial for paying for the country's reconstruction.
...
Money from Iraq's oil sales will go into a U.S.-controlled fund dedicated for reconstruction. Iraq, which has the second largest oil reserves in the world, is in desperate need of funding to repair battered infrastructure - including its oil facilities - and rebuild an economy devastated by more than 12 years of U.N. economic sanctions.

Translation: the money heads straight off to to ChenyBurton, Bechtel and Carlyle coffers with a brief stopover at the RNC offices for a bit of fondling. Any work done in Iraq will be done whenever it's deemed economically feasible by the no-bid corporations who have the contracts. Indeed, why bid when your friends make sure the money heads your way, no matter how badly you might perform?

After all, we would not want to deprive them of too much interest on their no-bid "death-driven" income by keeping all those petrodollars in Iraq.

Found this website through Buzzflash, funny stuff and sadly it's probably mostly true...it's just called "republicans".

Go take a gander. Fun stuff.

Monrovia, Liberia. Africa. Africans. Not White. Perhaps Muslim, Perhaps Not. War. Dead people. Ignored by the 1600 Crew.

Even as the latest theme among the apologists for the Iraqi Conflict has been the discovery of the "mass graves", which proves that Saddam was a truly awful guy, makes the rounds through right-blogistan and Faux-News and all its wannabes, similar events are occuring in Liberia, but they just don't bury the bodies. In a bloody civil war where the bodies of the executed and combat casualties don't even get a burial, they just rot in the sun alongside the road.

The road from Clay Junction to Monrovia provided snapshots of Mr Taylor's Liberia. The bodies of young men and boys lay spread-eagled on the asphalt, face-down, face-up, their eyes pecked out by birds. Casually, a soldier sprayed a stinking corpse with bullets
...
On the edge of Monrovia, Anthony Washington, 30, turned off the road into a displacement camp, carrying a bundle of palm sap and cassava roots, scavenged from the bush. "You gotta advocate for us, man, cause we're dying here, people dying here every day,"he said. "We got no food, no medication, we got no food, man."

The rebels launched their attack at the camp, looting its market, then fighting a gun battle with the army over the prostrate bodies of thousands of terrified refugees.

"Bullets hitting arms, bullets hitting legs, we were crawling around screaming," said Vanday Ibrahima, 37, who was there at the time. "God help us, we need some peace."
...
Britain and France have set precedents for this, with Britain's successful intervention in its former colony Sierra Leone, and France in Ivory Coast. "America is the only country Liberians listen to. It's the only country Taylor fears," Ms Iro said.
...
That is not welcome news to Washington. It sent about 100 navy Seals to protect its embassy in Monrovia last week, and this week evacuated all remaining non-essential embassy staff to a battleship sent from the Gulf.

But the US amabssador in Monrovia refused to comment on the misery outside his walls.

Well, this is sort of disturbing, if only for its Hollywood-ish overtones...whatever that means.

U.S. troops psyched up on a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam war film ``Apocalypse Now'' before crashing into Iraqi homes to hunt gunmen on Saturday, as Shi'ite Muslims rallied against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

With Wagner's ``Ride of the Valkyries'' still ringing in their ears and the clatter of helicopters overhead, soldiers rammed vehicles into metal gates and hundreds of troops raided houses in the western city of Ramadi after sunrise as part of a drive to quell a spate of attacks on U.S. forces.

Gee, what a shame for whichever genius thought this up that they no longer use Napalm, then they could all stand around saying the "line", and feeling like Robert Duvall. I guess the subtle anti-war parts were overlooked by the designers of these little events. Not too surprising I guess.

from the LA Times via the SEMissourian

Except it's for real, and it's in Texas...where? Oh, the old home of Mr. Compassionate Conservative himself. Grover Norquist reads this and has Orgasms...sorry, didn't mean to make you wince.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- This state, which already has the nation's highest proportion of residents without health insurance, is about to acquire a new distinction.

With its legislature on the verge of approving a budget that closes a $9.9 billion deficit without raising taxes, Texas soon will lead the United States in the number of low-income children dropped from publicly financed health insurance.

Destynn Hatcher, who at 19 months old has a list of medical conditions, specialists and prescriptions as long as he is tall, could be one of them.

He was born with a hole in his heart. At 6 weeks, he nearly died from a lung infection. He has battled pulmonary stenosis, pneumonia, apnea, severe dysphagia, pituitary dwarfism and a "failure to thrive." Yet thanks to a federal-state health insurance program for the children of the working poor, which pays for his surgeries, feeding tube, daily growth hormone injections, expensive medical equipment and regular visits to specialists, Destynn recently gained a pound and grew 2 inches.

Far fewer states are cutting CHIP, the widely praised program created by Congress in 1997 that gives states matching funds to insure children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private coverage.

But in Texas, the health-care ax is falling most heavily on children of the working poor.

The state's new two-year budget will keep about 170,000 Texas children off the CHIP rolls. And the parents of children still eligible for CHIP will face increases in their premiums and co-payments and a dramatic decline in the range of covered benefits.

The legislature ultimately decided to shrink CHIP by making it more difficult for families to qualify. New asset tests, stricter definitions of income, and a 90-day waiting period to join will leave many currently eligible families out of the program.

The new state budget also reduces home-health services for 100,000 low-income elderly and disabled Texans, eliminates temporary catastrophic health coverage for about 10,000 families and denies prenatal care to 8,300 low-income pregnant women per month.

County officials across Texas, who were among the strongest opponents of the cuts, are bracing for the additional costs they will be forced to absorb as children once covered by CHIP begin flooding emergency rooms and public hospitals.

"Every dollar we don't spend in preventive care will later cost us $20 in acute care," said Rick Merrill, president and CEO of Driscoll Children's Hospital. (emphasis added)

But a high-ranking state official, who asked not to be identified, said that given the state's finances, "it's all the more impressive that the outcome was not as drastic as people had feared." The "pain to come in implementing these kinds of changes," the official said, "will depend on how humanely we do it."

...or why "Homeland Security" is like toilet paper.

It's ubiquitous, everywhere and apparently we can't survive without it. Right.

A caricature was born during the anthrax crisis -- not a good thing for someone trying to convey reassurance. It grew a few months later when Ridge introduced a color-coded scheme of terror threat levels. (Comedian Jon Stewart said Ridge was issuing an alert for "partly evil around Texas and Oklahoma while, in the Midwest, morning evil will give way to afternoon skulduggery.") And it exploded earlier this year when the department suggested that citizens stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape in the event of a terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction.

The caricature has grown to a point where Ridge began to collect mocking cartoons. One of his favorites features a couple cowering in a safe room. "We've got canned goods, water, batteries, flashlights and candles," the woman says. "We've also sealed the windows with plastic sheeting and duct tape. What do we do now?"

"Act normal," her husband says.

Why are they looking for such acceptance of their "brand"? I'm sure that we would be just fine without the hyper-instrusive TSA; they have a function, but are slowly starting to expand their scope into areas they have no business in...for instance if I were to piss off a TSA guy they could yank my pilot's license without any due process. They just one day ceded themselves that right via memo, and even FAA is pissed about it. They are in charge of the mysterious "no-fly" lists that keep American Citizens who have spoken out about the 1600 Crew, the war or any other "subversive" topic off planes. They even have a list that has a person with the same name as Ozzie and Harriet Nelson's son, David on it and since there is a David Nelson on some Terrorist Watchlist list he gets harassed every time he boards and airplane.

Welcome to America, where you can't pick your brand of harassment, courtesy of the Paranoid Powergrabbers...the 1600 Crew, they decide then harrass. Kinda like Faux News...

Yay. Give me a Sears Catalog...worked for Grandad, in the one-holer out back.

I'm going to be doing some link maintenance over the next few days. If you want a link to your site, (reciprocal links always appreciated) send me an email at jofish -at- usndemvet.com and I'll make sure to toss you in the Pond...

Thanks...

Jo

The doctrine of preemptive stupidity is coming back to life inside the Beltway. This time undersecretary of state (Note to Powell: is he in charge now?) John Bolton is making all kinds of Perlowitz noises about invading Iran.

John Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control and international security for the Bush administration, told BBC radio: “The president has repeatedly said that all options are on the table, but (military action) is not only not our preference, it is far, far from our minds.”

But when pressed on the issue, Bolton said: “It has to be an option.”

In Amman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said: “My own viewpoint is that our president... (has) emphasized the diplomatic route.”

The only thing wrong with impeaching this unelected muttonhead is that all we would end up with is Cheney and Delay...could that be any better? There is some serious anti-impeachment insurance there. Pacemaker and Toxic at the levers of real power, that's worse than any scenario from the most fevered writer's imagination.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues to build nukes, delivery systems capable of reaching the West Coast, and is determined to be at least a regional power. But they have no oil and a reputation for taking no shit as well as a million-man standing army of very dedicated soldiers, ready to step off tomorrow.

An invasion of North Korea would assure a republican defeat in 2004 and any year beyond that...no "feel good" there, just body bags and a long hard war we've seen once before.

Gee, what a choice for the foreign political policy geniuses inside the beltway. No choice at all, really. No job too hard, just distract the sheeple and stay in POWER.

Somehow, I doubt Iran will be a cakewalk with the Iraqi conflict not even close to being settled, and Afghanistan still a mess. It will be interesting to see how some of this gets spun on the Sunday Talking Head fests...or if it even gets a mention. I think this story was already pulled from the Washington Post's site.

And my iTunes just started "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine...does my Mac know something I don't? Be Afraid?

Because the Snark never sleeps TBogg has made this list for the Nether-regions (r Blogista Hell?) below his Hot Links and guess who's in there? Here you go...

The Sad and the Ridiculous

Ann Coulter's Daily Discharge Sullivan's Travails 80% True The Virgin Ben Corner of Mediocrity and Banality Village Idiots Central Darwin's Waiting Room Scaife's Lamprey News for Mouthbreathers

Sully in one of his latest screeds goes after John Kerry for attacking President aWol's prevarication (Sully just says lying) about well, everything.

...John Kerry is that he doesn't know when to stop. He has no controlling mechanism when he goes on the attack. To accuse this president of deliberately lying to get this country into war is therefore a typical piece of Kerry excess. I think Kerry will pay dearly for it in the long run - and maybe even sooner.

My bet is that we soon have a breakthrough in WMD evidence in Iraq - and that we are getting closer by the day to discovering Saddam himself. Bush and Blair will be vindicated more clearly than before; and this president will - once again - out-fox his mewling critics on the war.

In the relentless drive by the 1600 Crew to hand over more and more of the Federal Government's business to their campaign supporters, the Bushies want to hand over the FAA to private contractors. In particular, they want to hand over the functions of Flight Service Stations, as well as expand the numbers of Control Towers staffed by private contractors, and maybe even some radar facilities (now that's scary stuff). From todays NYT:

Both the House and Senate voted last week to forbid further privatization of the air traffic system, after vigorous lobbying by the controllers' unions, supported by a group representing private pilots. Soon, negotiators for the two houses will iron out differences in the bill to which the measures were attached. The underlying bill authorizes the Federal Aviation Administration to spend money for the next few years; the House version is for $58.9 billion over four years, and the Senate version is for $43.5 billion over three years.

The administration is threatening to veto the bill over the privatization provision. On June 11, it announced that "restrictions are unnecessary and would hinder" the ability of the aviation agency to manage the air traffic control system. In May, the administration said that of 850,000 government jobs that it says could be handled by private contractors, it would like to open 15 percent of them to private-sector competition in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. Officials have said they would like to find some of those jobs at the F.A.A.

• FAA has an inherent enforcement authority that helps keep pilots of all skill-levels honest about what they are doing; the last thing you want to hear from a controller is "Say Pilots Name" or "Call me when you land". Big Trouble most likely coming your way.
• FAA controllers are some of the most professional government employees that I have ever had to work with as a pilot (that's 30+ years now). Contract Tower employees are not always so, let's be tactful here, professional.
• FAA will never be worried about "bottom-line" results as they affect safety issues, a publicly-traded company might get a bit concerned about profits in their Air Traffic Control division, especially if management was not overly familiar with the systems and impose budgetary measures detrimental to public safety.
• FAA is accountable for what it does, to Congress. A contractor might not be, especially if they are "Bush Buddies".

I have grave reservations about this, from a professionalism standpoint and from a safety standpoint. It would be truly horrible to have aviation safety compromised for the sake of Grover Norquist's mad fantasy of re-making government in his own perverted image.

The "Private Pilot" group mentioned in the NYT article is AOPA (the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association) which does a fair amount of lobbying on the Hill for causes like this. Here's a link to their article on this if you're interested. It's not just an issue that affects "general aviation", but every air-traveler.

Yeah, it's been blogged elsewhere. But it's so much fun torture the computer-illiterate with their own words.

“I am very concerned about Internet piracy of personal and copyrighted materials, and I want to find effective solutions to these problems.

“I made my comments at yesterday’s hearing because I think that industry is not doing enough to help us find effective ways to stop people from using computers to steal copyrighted, personal or sensitive materials. I do not favor extreme remedies – unless no moderate remedies can be found. I asked the interested industries to help us find those moderate remedies.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.

But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.

The following quote is mightily disturbing to me on many levels. On one level it bothers me that any soldier would run their mouth like this, unless they were trying to get a Rambo Rep; on another level, it bothers me that if there were any Army PAO (Public Affairs Officers) there, they did not shut this kid up ASAP. But it really bothers me because this will become a perception of our military's attitude towards POW's; and that's bad. Really Bad. I can't share all the details of Navy Survival School, I can tell you they have one and it's easily the most intense training given to those who attend. If you're an Aviator, it makes you wish you back in the Training Command prepping for a checkride, any checkride.

One of the things that they talk about is that Warfare as uncivilized as it is has some rules, and the treatment of prisoners after surrender is one of them. By both sides. Of course, the 1600 Crew have not done too well, but they do find creative excuses all relating to Terrorism, so no one seems to notice the POW three-card monty going on. Maybe that's where this kid seems to get his 'tude about POW's. I don't know. But I would hate to be ejecting from an aircraft falling into a bunch of the enemy who had read (or had read to them) these words:

Making a shooting sign with his hand he went on: "Once you'd reached the objective, and once you'd shot them and you're moving through, anything there, you shoot again. You didn't want any prisoners of war. You hate them so bad while you're fighting, and you're so terrified, you can't really convey the feeling, but you don't want them to live."

And despite there being no link between Iraq and the September 11 attacks Richardson admitted that it gave him his motivation to fight Iraqis.

"There's a picture of the World Trade Centre hanging up by my bed and I keep one in my flak jacket. Every time I feel sorry for these people I look at that. I think, 'They hit us at home and, now, it's our turn.' I don't want to say payback but, you know, it's pretty much payback."

The 9-11 issue is emotional, but not an excuse to have invaded Iraq. Unless you breath the rarified air at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I guess. I wonder how this soldier will feel in 12 months; 3 years; a decade from now. Will those he "double tapped" come back to him at night? Will he become one of the victims of this war, or will he tape a picture of the WTC on his refrigerator and use it as a rationaliztion for killing those who by the laws of Warfare been made POW's when they were wounded or put their weapons down; to go home now that the war was over for them?

I don't know. Don't misunderstand me, I am upset with SPC Richardson for his words and I don't really know if he did those things (or like a good friend of mine who made it into an NYT article years ago, said "I am the Worlds Greatest Fighter Pilot" (page 1 of one of the sections...really), he said it only because there was a super-gullible reporter who was so awed by F-18 drivers she believed him). I'm disturbed by this attitude and I hope that no enemy ever reads those words. I do blame Bush and all the others who have so demonized and dehumanized the soldiers who fought to keep their nation's sovereignty. That's what soldiers do, and have always done.

Unless the Chickenhawks are in charge to demonize them for it I guess.

It was only matter of time before the nuts started coming out of the woodwork. Of course most of the folks seeking Faith-Based dollars from whatever agency is dealing them out won't have quite the star-power of Tom Cruise, or the innate strangeness of Scientology but they're coming.

The Church of Scientology’s Top Gun has been lobbying the White House. Tom Cruise has been meeting with officials from the Department of Education and lawmakers at the White House, reports the Washington Post, and a source says he believes that Cruise is hoping to get government funding for the church.

I wonder what Grover Norquist thinks of this use of tax dollars?

Best Selling author JK Rowling is upset that The Daily News published an excerpt of her newest book that was mistakenly sold in a Brooklyn Health Foods store. Seems Ms. Rowlings and her publishers want $100 million as compensation for the mistake from the Daily News. They claim the review is harming their $3 million dollar "world-wide" publicity campaign.

Hey newsflash for the Scholastic Legal Braintrust...you need to spend publicity money on this only to reach the four score and seven people on the planet who have not heard of Harry Potter. As for JK, what the hell is she so upset about. Didn't she start writing these books in a coffee shop in Scotland on the equivalent of an NEA grant of like $25,000 as a single mom?

More power to her success, but hubris and greed are not pretty. I used to think so highly of her...perhaps I will again if she drops this nonsense.

Anne Salisbury of Two Tears and Digby? More hiatus fever?

Afghan Opium production is reaching new highs (forgive the pun). Didn't we pay the Taliban something like $43 million dollars to not produce Opium about six months before we turned the country into a JDAM practice-range?

I think so.

But, now we all get to sit here and watch as the country we can bomb but not support after destruction, gets turned into a major supplier of Opium.

Antonio Maria Costa warned the UN Security Council that the government's commitment to eliminate drug production by 2013 and prohibit the drug trade will only succeed "if security and stability spread throughout the country."

Afghanistan's production of poppies, from which opium is made, stood at an estimated 3,400 tonnes last year.

"The task to rid Afghanistan of the drug economy requires much greater political, security and financial capital than presently available, to assist the rural areas affected by opium production and, above all, to improve the central government's ability to implement its opium production ban," he said.

Yeah, I wonder who might have once promised "greater political, security, and financial capital" to the Afghani people once upon a time. I guess he did not really mean it since he wasn't on an Aircraft Carrier with a big "Mission Accomplished" sign up there on the island.

Fearing that actually reading the summarized notes about imminent executions from Alberto Gonzales might take up too much of his Gubernatorial Day, it seems that the ADD-sufferer-in-Chief could not give up his jogging minutes to actually read the summaries; he just checked "kill" and signed zee papers. From an absolutely astounding story by Alan Berlow in The Atlantic, the memos that the Fedahyeen tried to keep secret got released by order of the Texas Attorney General, who amazingly enough sided with a Texas-version of the FOIA for their release. From the article:

During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those facts by his counsel; based on this information Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one. The first fifty-seven of these summaries were prepared by Gonzales, a Harvard-educated lawyer who went on to become the Texas secretary of state and a justice on the Texas supreme court. He is now the White House counsel.
...
Gonzales never intended his summaries to be made public. Almost all are marked CONFIDENTIAL and state, "The privileges claimed include, but are not limited to, claims