When is Freedom of Speech, not? When it potentially damages the republican legend of St. Ronnie of Brain Plaque. Seems the RNC (as a front for, well, every rabid republican) wants to vette the CBS mini-series about St. Ronnie, because (get this)

Republicans have expressed concern that the miniseries, titled "The Reagans," may inaccurately portray the couple.

Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate.

While Gillespie -- who acknowledged that he has not seen "The Reagans" and has formed his opinion of it based solely on news reports -- had a number of complaints, he said he was most concerned about a comment attributed to Reagan in one episode. There is no evidence that the president told his wife during a conversation about AIDS patients, "They that live in sin shall die in sin," Gillespie said.

I wonder how the mini-series will treat the real crimes of the Reagan Era...bankrupting the Treasury, Arms for Hostages, Repeated Violations of the Boland Amendment, the mechanics of Iran-Contra, School of the Americas Grads committing human rights violations, The S&L Scandals, Lying to Congress by almost every subpeoned official...and the list goes on. No wonder it's a mini-series.

Slowly the global dawn of awareness breaks; we all know that the media and journalists outside our borders have been perceiving the miserable failure as the engineer of the greatest foreign policy trainwreck since Casey Jones was high on Cocaine...

President George Bush has an exit plan for Iraq. Its blurry outline was revealed this week as the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein exploded in the country.

Mr Bush flagged his strategy on Tuesday. It calls for rapidly increasing the "Iraqification" of the conflict. By Thursday Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were spelling out what this meant. The idea is to push many more Iraqi police and security officials into the front lines against the insurgency while at the same time declaring political victory on the ground.
...
But in the face of the escalating conflict, Mr Bush, Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Wolfowitz all declared major progress was under way. Indeed, Mr Wolfowitz had gone to Iraq last week to give Mr Bush a progress report on the stabilisation of the country and to speed up "Iraqification". He was brutally interrupted by the rocket attack on his hotel.

Despite this, Mr Wolfowitz came home with a positive report for the President. "There is plenty of good news in Iraq," he said.

In a passionate speech on his return, Mr Wolfowitz drove home one point. Whatever Iraq's future, it is already a huge improvement on the past; therefore the Administration can chalk up the war as a success.

"War is an ugly thing, I agree with that. But butchers like Saddam Hussein are incredibly ugly," said Mr Wolfowitz. "I don't think there's much question here about the morality of having gotten rid of that regime."
...
But Mr Bush has little alternative except to put his faith in the Iraqification plan. If it works, he can begin to welcome home a respectable number of troops before next year's Republican convention.

If not, he can only hope that the good news on the US economy will distract most American voters from the casualties in Iraq.

If the "Iraqification" is run out of the White House by the Mayberry Machiavelli group (Mail stop 666), the last troops will be getting on Air Force transports as the Miserable Failure is giving his acceptance speech. In the final five minutes of the speech, Iraqi TV will show live pictures of a haggard, thin, bearded Saddam Hussein declaring victory and ordering the arrest, and execution of anyone who collaberated, starting with Ahmed Chalabi.

And that's Real Politik, 2004. Let's see if it happens, and hope it doesn't.

Have to love it when the gubmint agency charged with enforcing such minor laws as those that pertain to civil rights and diversity is unable to perform such tasks internally. But then it is the justice department of John "Southern Partisan" Ashcroft.

Seems an internal report on diversity at the Justice Department was posted on their website after being released by that over-worked, underpaid 1600 Crew employee Mr. R.E. Dacted.

An internal report that harshly criticized the Justice Department's diversity efforts was edited so heavily when it was posted on the department's Web site two weeks ago that half of its 186 pages, including the summary, were blacked out.

The deleted passages, electronically recovered by a self-described "information archaeologist" in Tucson, portrayed the department's record on diversity as seriously flawed, specifically in the hiring, promotion and retention of minority lawyers.
...
Another deleted part said efforts to promote diversity "will take extraordinarily strong leadership" from the attorney general's office and other Justice Department offices.

Even complimentary conclusions were deleted, like one that said "attorneys across demographic groups believe that the Department is a good place to work" and another that said "private industry cites DOJ as a trend-setter for diversity."
...
By the time the department posted the theoretically more secure version of the report on its Web site, it was too late. Russ Kick, a writer and editor in Tucson, who operates a Web site named thememoryhole.org, had had already electronically stripped the edited version of the black lines that hid the full text. Mr. Kick then posted the unedited version of the report on his Web site, where it has been copied more than 32,000 times, a near record for site. Justice Department officials said it was unlikely that any action would be taken against Mr. Kick.

Give me a break here, this is a department led by a fascist, racist, religious zealot. The only thing that could be worse is if the miserable failure were to put the nutso AG in Rummy's job. Can you say "Movin' to New Zealand?"

If this particular outrage had happened in the 90s, there would have been hordes of blow-dried brain-dead farts running around inside the beltway decrying the Clenis™ for everything from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the crucifixion of Christ.

Companies awarded $8 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to President Bush, and their executives have had important political and military connections, according to a study released Thursday.

The study of more than 70 U.S. companies and individual contractors turned up more than $500,000 in donations to the president's 2000 campaign, more than they gave collectively to any other politician over the past dozen years.

Let's ask all the Guard and Reservists who have not only been extended in Iraq to help look out for the 1600 Crew's investors, but are even being kept in the service past the end of their enlistments to make Iraq safe for the 1600 Crew investors. All based on the policies of a miserable failure.

Kurtz admits it...the media for all it's indignant posturing about "objectivity" are really just a bunch of swallowers. Wish I could say I was surprised.

Sometimes, when the candidates aren't playing the negativity game, reporters do it for them. The media crave negativity because it makes for more exciting stories ("Senator Smith slammed Congressman Jones yesterday, calling him a boob and a bozo, as their war of words escalated. . . . "). So much more interesting than the details of Wesley Clark's child health insurance plan.

Seems part of the sun blowed up, and we're the beneficiaries. There have been some of the most spectacular Northern Lights I have seen in years. Go check and see if you can see them in your area...soooo cool.

It's the Officially Designated night for kids to collect Sugary Stuff here in this part of Ohio. If it is where you are too, keep an eye out for the little ones...drive safely and have fun.

Remember, nothing is scarier than what's in the White House right now (he was in Columbus today Trick or Treating for Cash). More later, gotta go give out some candy...

I sure am glad to know that those wayward and errant crewmembers on the USS Lincoln were resposible for putting that banner up. Because with things like this happening,

The United Nations and the Red Cross will scale back their presence in Iraq, officials said Wednesday, responding to the threat of new terrorist attacks after a suicide car bombing at Red Cross headquarters.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed, meanwhile, when their Abrams tank struck an explosive device north of the capital on Tuesday night, the U.S. military said. Seven Ukrainian troops were wounded in a separate incident, the first reported ambush of troops serving in a Polish-led multinational division.

It seems that Donald Luskin is trying to intimidate Atrios. As a good little republican, he hired a attorney and the attorney wrote Atrios an attorney-like letter about Atrios using the word "Stalker" to refer to his client. The Atrios post in question was titled "Diary of a Stalker".

...You chose the unfortunate caption “Diary of a Stalker” for your link. More importantly, your readers, in responding to your invitation to comment, have posted numerous libelous statements regarding Mr. Luskin. Picking up on the theme you introduced, several have made false assertions that Mr. Luskin has committed the crime of stalking. ...

If Mr. Luskin was proudly proclaiming his stalkerhood concerning Paul Krugman, why is he so upset by Atrios applying the same epithet to him?

The good news is that Krugman is clearly shaken by the new experience of having somebody dare to challenge his insouciant lying. He's even starting to get personal — referring to me in his latest posting as his "stalker-in-chief."

If you're talking about the Harvard B-School grad who couldn't make a buck if you gave him two, I would say he's a miserable failure.

If you're talking about the guy who studied real hard for his pee-test, and then got too scared he'd flunk it so he ran away (some might say Deserted), I'd call him a miserable failure.

Now, what miserable failure could I be talking about? This miserable failure?

The fires are still raging, but there are folks who need help now. Is there an organization helping? Donations should go where? Should we start something to help out?

Update, thanks for the info. Here's a link to the San Diego chapter of the Red Cross. I am usually hesitant about the ARC, because of how they 'prioritize' their money distribution, but if this is going to the local chapter, I have to assume it's not going to be used to buy stuff for their offices in DC or something.

Let's do something unique here for a moment and pretend that I find Andrew Sullivan an offensive little twit. Why?

Is it because he's gay? Nope.
Is it because he's HIV+, and has no qualms about sharing the "love". Nope, again.
Is it because he's a republican? Again, no.
Is it because he's a (lapsed) Catholic? Again, I have to answer no.

It's because everytime he opens his yap, touches his keyboard or uses any other form of communcation, he somehow seems to equate the position of being against the war in Iraq with being Pro-Saddam, Anti-Troops, Anti-American and Pro-Communist. It doesn't matter the time or context, all those points seem to pop up, directly or indirectly. He goes to great pains to endorse the viewpoints of those who would call me and others who share my viewpoint "communists". Fuck you Sullivan, said it before, say it again...many of us out here stood lonely vigils against Communism while you were taking it up the ass and living large in the UK and in my country. The blithe assertion that somehow we're all communist sympathizers, communsts-in-fact, or that our loyalties lie somewhere other than to the United States makes me want to take a trip to P-Town and discuss this up close and personal...one American to whatever you are. But I really don't want to waste the price of a plane ticket...I'd rather donate it to some charity that supports folks with AIDS, instead of wasting my time and money on your worthless hide.

All those who find Sullivan a complete waste of time and oxygen, raise your hands. Thank you .

Let's drive a stake through the heart of another sheeple myth...republicans are real 'bang bang law 'n' order' types. Seems that since there was a new sheriff in town (and his name's not Reggie Hammond), well the crime numbers have started to increase.

Crime across the USA continued to tick upward in 2002 for the second straight year after record lows in the 1990s, according to a new FBI report that cites increases in rapes, homicides and burglaries.
...
Kevin Watson, spokesman for the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, sees a building problem in increasing homeland security duties for local police.

"These people are being stretched thin as emphasis is being shifted from policing communities to protecting potential targets in their areas," he says.

On another note though, we can all be proud of all the crimes that have been deterred by the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of Tommy Chong for selling those Bongs. The anti-big gubmint republican hypocrites keeping America safe via Snake-Handler Johnny & Co.

But himself. In what has to be the most disgusting statement (and there's lots to chose from), President AWOL 1st LT blames the crew of the USS Lincoln for "Mission Accomplished". That's right, the men and women of the Carrier are responsible for that statement and all the attendant misfortunes according to The Chimp.

The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way. But my statement was a clear statement, basically recognizing that this phase of the war for Iraq was over and there was a lot of dangerous work.

Remember, the action in Iraq was -- to get rid of Saddam Hussein was widely supported by the Iraqi people.

If he's been shilling for the Saudis and hence Islamist Terrorists via Karl Rove, will he still be allowed to hold his Wednesday meetings while awaiting trial for Treason? Just curious.

Have you seen the Virgin Ben's ode to TBogg? Wow, Ben Shapiro is defending Rush Limbaughs lifestyle to beat up on TBogg.

It is scurrilous of Rush's opponents to automatically assume that he began using prescription drugs recreationally (which they did, automatically branding him a run-of-the-mill "drug addict" and referring to OxyContin as "hillbilly heroin" -- the implication being that Rush was using OxyContin for fun). It seems to me a fair assumption that he did not. And lo and behold, it turns out that when Rush did speak, he validated my perspective. I don't expect an apology from TBogg anytime soon.
...
If TBogg had actually read my column, he might have come across this line: "All drug addicts deserve sympathy, but prescription painkiller addicts clearly deserve more sympathy than recreational users."

I would hardly call any assertion "scurrilous", especially when talking about the Slandah Pandah, Limbaugh, no one in America in modern times has made more scurrilous assertions than the horse-loving junkie himself. Oh and Ben, if they have not mentioned this in your school, a painkiller without a prescription is just an illegal, controlled substance. Just thought I'd mention that, ya over-educated yahoo.

Brave Andy, the Pixel Warrior is in blog-lust mode again. Finding the Big Iraqi Evil-doer Saddam, is Job 1 with her royal highness. Why? Because they don't like us...

This new wave of terrorist violence only underscores how the war is unfinished. It makes it all the more important that we find and kill Saddam Hussein; and that we aim more lethally at the Islamist forces that are desperate to prevent democracy of any kind coming to the Arab world. This is no reason to retreat. It's reason to intensify. These people are testing our will. We have to test their survival skills.

In keeping with the new DoD/1600 Crew policy of "see no coffins/be no coffins", would the 1600 Crew have recognized the returning coffin of Wolfowitz had he been a mort from the rocket attack on his hotel? Would the 1600 Crew have tried to get his sorry ass interred in Arlington?

Just wondering.

I pulled into Washington, was feelin' bout half past dead,
Just need some place where I can lay my Head...

Our favorite Auntie, Donnie R. is getting (1) pushed over the side by the little Mayberry Troll in charge of Order and Goodness or (2) desperately trying to jump ship ahead of all the rats...which is it?

The now famous 'leaked' slog memo sure seems to indicate a guy who has some reservations about the company he's keeping, on the other hand he seems to be spending a lot of time talking about how to fight the War on Terra™ in an op-ed in the Post. Seems he and his 90-nation fanatasy coalition (sort of Auntie Donnies Fantasy Anti-Terra League) are, well, taking the fight to the evil-doers. One at a time. But not without recognition of a key principle:

For every terrorist whom coalition forces capture, kill, dissuade or deter, others are being trained. To win the war on terror, we must also win the war of ideas -- the battle for the minds of those who are being recruited by terrorist networks across the globe.

It's gonna be long war on Metaphors, longer still while Auntie Donnie and his ilk are running the show. Maybe that anonymous Troll at the 1600 Crew will be doing us a favor a getting rid of Auntie Donnie...now how do we get rid of the rest of the neocons?

...and ya took the load, took the load right off me..

You know that it's gotten righteously bad when the biggest Kahuna at CheneyBurton Corp wants to get all the employees to send out thoughtful letters supporting their company.

Such a nice man. Remember, these are the same corporate leaders who will send your job overseas for their own self-interest, and ask you to support giving them a great retirement as they rob the pension funds of your company. Such nice men and women. Will we all be working for Wal-Mart soon or will that be the fate of our returning troops.

One of the talking points in Lesar's memo, sent last Friday, was that "Halliburton makes our troops more comfortable in a difficult environment by bringing shelter, supplies, clean uniforms and mail from home." According to published reports, however, as few as 20 percent of American soldiers in Iraq have access to purified water and entire units are suffering from dysentery. One senior military commander wrote that soldiers were "using hoses from an Iraqi latrine stall to get water enough to maintain their hygienic needs."

From loyal reader Reg, comes an interesting compendium. Go check it out.

Found this in the on-line Chicago Trib...(login gorevidal/gorevidal)

Illinois voters have soured so dramatically on President Bush, his handling of the economy and his Iraq policy that half say they don't want to see him re-elected next year while fewer than four in 10 say they do, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.

Bush's nose dive in popularity has been so precipitous that, in just four months, his approval rating among Illinois voters has dropped from 57 percent to 46 percent, the poll found. Over the same time, the share of voters who say they disapprove of the job he's doing as president has climbed from 34 percent to 44 percent.

If the Chimp joins the unemployment rolls next year, will you cry?

Ultra-Neocon Chickenhawk Pauly Wolfywitz was attacked in Baghdad today. To his credit, he did manage not to fly back to Kuwait to RON (Remain Over Night).

At least eight rockets fired on an automatic timer struck the al-Rashid hotel in central Baghdad where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was staying early Sunday morning, killing one American soldier and injuring 15 people.
...
Wolfowitz, who is traveling in Iraq, was not injured in the attack on the al-Rashid, which is home to hundreds of American soldiers and civilian reconstruction staff. In a televised statement, he vowed that the terrorist attack would not deter American reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

"There are a few who refuse to accept the reality of a new and free Iraq," he said. "We will be unrelenting in our pursuit of them."

Damn malcontents.

Major Network issues last night. Still working on it. So much good stuff, like the 1600 Crew Fund Drive...NPR has nothing on them. Damn. Be old news by the time we fix this.

Sleep (whenever), then blog...

And the Times is just getting around to figuring out that the 1600 Crew puts happy labels on it's programs to fool the dumber-than-dogshit Faux Viewership?

They honestly all need to be unemployed for a while...punitively unemployed.

Under the phony banner of "tort reform," this act is a legislative gift to wealthy special interests. It would make it harder for Americans to win redress in court for corporate violations of state civil rights, health, consumer and environmental protection laws. The act's core provisions would permit big polluters and other companies to delay justice, or even escape justice entirely, by moving most class-action lawsuits from state courts to the overburdened federal courts, which are less familiar with the disputed legal and factual issues. The act would also impose new litigation hurdles and burdens on plaintiffs.

President Bush backs the bill, and the House has passed an even more egregious version, which would be applied retroactively to all pending class-action cases. The central question today is whether the lawmakers with the courage to stand up to this bill can hang onto the votes they need to sustain a filibuster in the Senate.

They need to hire Molly Ivins, one of the best decoders of 1600 Speak in the US, or just get new jobs. Jeebus.

In the Giving Away the Store department: Seems President Hump-a-Lump might have been humping more than Lauras leg. In fact is looks like he was humping the entire Street of Wall in ol' Nuevo York:

A day after a chilly reception at the United Nations last month, President Bush received a warmer greeting from a New York group that he had been keeping at arm's length: about a dozen leaders of the biggest firms on Wall Street.

That private meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria, to discuss the economy, is just one illustration of how the president and Wall Street seem to have grown on each other.
...
After winning Congressional approval for cuts in taxes on dividends, capital gains and for certain business investments, and after navigating a raft of corporate accounting scandals that shook the investment community, President Bush seems to have won over many financial executives, who are now strongly supporting his re-election campaign.

A study to be released today shows that the financial community has surpassed all other groups, including lawyers and lobbyists, as the top industry among Mr. Bush's elite fund-raisers. The list of those generating $100,000 and $200,000 now includes chief executives like Henry M. Paulson of Goldman Sachs, John J. Mack of Credit Suisse First Boston and Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, whose firm has already raised twice the amount for Mr. Bush's re-election that it did during the entire 2000 campaign cycle.

[ring ring]
Yes.
Terrible about the buildings and all those people.
Yes.
Can you kill that EPA report so we can re-open?
Yes.
Checks are on their way.
Yes.
[click]
(fist pumping) YESSSSS.

The senate is interested in regulating Spam. How long before the SPAM trade association has a sentor-for-hire in their back pocket? Let's see...SPAM = Free Speech? Tick Tock.

The Senate agreed Wednesday to impose tough new limits on the irritating but lucrative business of e-mailing unwanted sales pitches to millions of people in the United States.
...
The Bush administration supports the bill, although similar legislation has stalled in the House. Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, missed the vote.

"Kingpin spammers who send out e-mail by the millions are threatening to drown the Internet in a sea of trash, and the American people want it stopped," Wyden said. Acknowledging problems with e-mails originating overseas, he urged other countries to approve similar limits.

"Kingpin Spammers"? Of course, silly me, we just hunt down all the Pablo Escobars of SPAM and lock'em up! So really simple...except don't most of them live off-shore? Hope they like GITMO. Sic'em Snake-Handler...they might be advertising Bongs!

The words of the Blog-Queen...I had to read it twice to see if my eyes were failing me

A very striking finding in a recent poll on Democratic party activists in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Given a list of issues and asked to say which ones they cared about most, almost none said terrorism. In Iowa a full one percent said they wre concerned about terrorism - less than three years since 9/11. The base wanted a candidate with credibility on national security - but didn't seem to care about the issue as such. A combination of cynicism and amnesia. I'm not a Republican. But polls like these make me realize I'm even less of a Democrat.

Anyone know if there is a line in Vegas on Rush and Recidivism? I mean they'll bet on anything, right? So what are the odds he stays clean and sober...two previous failures, a tough drug to kick...could be a money-maker. I guess maybe they don't take the bets that are a sure thing against the house.

Is it just me, or should we men not involved in a personal way just STFU about the whole issue of abortion? Personal way = your significant other is involved in the procedure and you are some percentage of the decision-making process.

Abortion has become the Christo-Fascist hot-button issue of the last 30 years. The religio-wingnuts for some reason, and I can't figure it out want to send women back to back-alley abortionists to get this procedure done. Then lock up everyone who has it "done" or "does" it. Reproductive rights...someone elses problem. Suddenly not pregnant? Suddenly eligible for Prosecution. Wife/Mom/Sister dies in an unlicensed, unregulated, unsanitary butcher shop. Too bad, they were not holy enough to be brave and carry that unborn, unwanted life in to the world. Tough shit...oh, and if they live, we'll arrest'em.

It's not women writing these laws. although many are involved in this lunacy. It's maniacally raving men like Rick "dead fetus" Santorum, who really think that (his interpretation of) great church law is public policy so horrific, it will take us back to midevil times. Thanks man-on-dog.

Last weekend, The Talking Dog who is an attorney (I'm pretty sure) had a post on the case in Florida of Teri Schiavo, who has been in a strange sort of coma for about a decade. Her husband has for whatever reason has moved on with his life, her parents for a lot of reasons have not, and being a parent I can understand that. Apparently Ms. Schiavo left no instructions as to what to do in the event something tragically unforseen happened to her. How many of us do?

But just so that their hard-core republican base would get the idea that they were not doing something to "protect" Ms. Schiavo, the Floridat Lege and Jeb! have imposed their collective will in the matter. Good or bad, not really for me to decide. I'm not really in favor of a legislative body or a politician getting involved...is their involvement out of genuine concern, or is it (more likely in my opinion) Grandstanding?

Although the Legislature acted swiftly, even some who supported the bill expressed concern about it.

"I hope, I really do hope we've done the right thing," said Senate President Jim King, a Republican. "I keep on thinking 'What if Terri didn't really want this done at all?' May God have mercy on all of us."

I think it's time to go see an attorney and get a living will made out. This is a special kind of hell no family needs to go through. And my familiy needs no legislative intervention to guess my intention.

Oh, it must be Sullivan. Sullywatch makes an excellent point in response to a post that they term as a "semi-fisking". You can't argue the points about all the "good outcomes" of the war in Iraq, after the war is "done" other than those points that fit the original premise of the War (i.e. WMDs, imminent threats). Making those arguments now is intellectually dishonest, since they are based on known outcomes, not on pre-war 'intelligence'. I agree, unfortunately, Sullly needs to read a bit more Sullywatch and get his head out of his backside. Here's his argument:

This applies also to the post-war debate about the pre-war. It is relatively easy to criticize the Iraq war, the intelligence behind it, and the post-war reconstruction. It's another thing to say what you would have done instead. Memories are astonishingly short, but the notion that 9/11 did not and should not have impacted our entire defense doctrines is absurd. How we pro-actively tackle the problem of Islamist terrorism, and the morass of the Middle East from which it comes, is an urgent question.
...

Apparently not all of what the good General said was released by the Pentagram, here's the rest of the statement that was speaking of Chimpy being selected by god to be president:

• "I believe that God intervenes in the affairs of men, to include nations, as Benjamin Franklin so eloquently stated. Yes I believe that George Bush was placed in the White House by God as well as Bill Clinton and other presidents."

Seems that many of the same folks outraged at the Clenis™ really have no real problem with the subversion of Army Regulations, the Constitution or really much else as long as it falls somewhere within their worldview. But that's not really news. Some of the Brave Members of Congress are taking up for LGEN Billy "Jay-zus Loves Me" Boykin, saying such brave things as this:

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., drafted a letter Monday asking Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld not to discipline Boykin, saying that elected officials and military leaders have talked about God and spiritual matters throughout U.S. history.

"As elected officials serving in the United States Congress, we recognize the vital importance our personal faiths play in helping us make decisions," Tiahrt wrote. "We ask that any actions taken in response to Lt. Gen. Boykin's remarks not, in any way, intimidate the free religious exercise of his faith."

Just another sad chickenhawk with a huge beak. [sigh]

He could get a job as a "consultant". I guess if his family tree has a branch somewhere near "K" Street, he might anyhow. Seems that this college kid not only left the forbidden materials on the aircraft, they were there a month, he told them what planes they were on and the TSA Rocket-Scientists still never did anything.

Heatwole told authorities that he left packages on four of the six planes, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio. Other packages were found on April 13 and April 14 in planes in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., but it was unclear when they were planted.

The TSA, which received Heatwole's e-mail, did not send it to the FBI until last Friday. FBI agents then located Heatwole and interviewed him.
...
The e-mail provided details of where the plastic bags were hidden — right down to the exact dates and flight numbers — and even provided Heatwole's name and telephone number.

How dumb has this whole process gotten, when they have explicit knowledge of a 'threat' and can't find their asses with both hands in a well-lit room? Simply Amazing. TSA=Transportaton Slacker Association? Perhaps. I mean other than make up rules, and make the screeners enforce them, what do the senior TSA officials do besides play power politics and try to get more money?

Not much apparently. Certainly not read their email.

David Blaine is no longer thinking inside the box. I hear Siegfried may be looking for a new partner.

From Bartcop

Quotes

"The administration strongly opposes efforts to convert any portion of this assistance to a loan mechanism. Doing so would slow efforts to stabilize the region and to relieve pressure on our troops, raise questions about our commitment to building a democratic and self-governing Iraq, and impair our ability to encourage other nations to provide badly needed assistance without saddling Iraq with additional unsustainable debt."

--White House statement, Senate Defies Bush On Iraq Assistance

Translation: A bank robber doesn't ask for a loan.

Compare and contrast: Heres the story's opening paragraph...

Deadly ambush teams struck U.S. Army targets from west to north in the arc of resistance around Baghdad, and the interim Iraqi leader called Sunday for an immediate mobilization of the old Iraqi army to help the harried Americans.

American officials blame the insurgency largely on die-hard Baathists, but many here believe other Iraqis resentful of the U.S. military presence have joined in the hit-run attacks.

In an opinion-page piece in Sunday's New York Times newspaper, Allawi, head of the 25-member Governing Council for the month of October, said the decision by U.S. occupation officials to dissolve the 400,000-man Iraqi army after the war's end in April produced a "security vacuum that let criminals, die-hards of the former regime and international terrorists flourish."

"I don't think there's a vast swath of people out there who want to serve in the Iraqi army," said this official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Americans are slowly rebuilding a new Iraqi army, having trained only a 700-man battalion thus far.

Banking on polls that most of the folks in the US are convinced that the media are either too liberal or a bunch of whores for the republican party it seems that the 1600 Crew has decided to start (or continue) the intimdation of any journalist not spewing the party line...

An AFP photographer and a Reuters cameraman were detained in Fallujah for several hours by Iraqi police who said they were acting on orders from the US military.
...
"Police told us they could not release us until American officers come here," Baz said by telephone from the Fallujah police station.

He said the police officers, none of whom would reveal their names, explained that the Americans were looking for someone who allegedly filmed the attack that caused the explosion of a vehicle apparently carrying ammunition.

Really, how stupid do they figure the average American is? I guess I really don't want to know the answer...as for the journalists as word gets around that the "Army" can yank you in at will, I guess it'll start to seem like the qWagmire that is is going so much better, don'tcha think?

The Doper is into his meds again...he's pimping the "Clark is a Republican" theme...again. If Clark wins the Democratic Nomination, will Sully finally start doing real reporting again? Sure, just like Bill O'Rielly will "never trust the administration for not finding WMDs", and Rush is a clean and sober, temperate individual.

Sometimes you have just know in your heart that the smartest most honest mammal in the house is the beagle...after all, how bright could boyfriend be having to put up with Dan'l Boone the Bar-Hunter?

* to the tune of "Daisy"

Seems everyone's favorite Christo-Fascist lieutenant general Billy (Ah Loves me some Jeee-zus) Boykin has issued a half-assed apology for actions he knew he should not be participatiing in to begin with.

Boykin claims that the statements he made to a captive Osman Otto dealt with idolatry. Here's the rationale of a three-star general:

"I am not anti-Islam or any other religion," Boykin said. "I support the free exercise of all religions. For those who have been offended by my statements, I offer a sincere apology."
...
A decorated veteran of foreign campaigns, the three-star general said of a 1993 battle with a Muslim militia leader in Somalia: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol." After the man was captured, Boykin said he told the man, "You underestimated our God."

Boykin's statement said that comment was misinterpreted.

"My comments to Osman Otto in Mogadishu were not referencing his worship of Allah but his worship of money and power; idolatry," Boykin said. "He was a corrupt man, not a follower of Islam."

I'm kind of liking that...should we sent questions to the Idolatry Division, 1600 Crew in the future?

More tapes from Osama bin Forgotten

The Arabic television station Al Jazeera broadcast two audiotapes on Saturday said to be made by Osama bin Laden, vowing more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States and demanding that the United States withdraw from Iraq.

The speaker on the tapes urged Iraqis to wage a holy war against American "crusaders" in Iraq until an Islamic government was set up in Baghdad.

Despite the "flypaper filosophers" obvious incoherence on the subject "terrorists" in Iraq, bin Laden is using conflict shrewdly to shore up his standing among hard-core muslims and recruitng others to his cause, who before the invasion might have paid lip-service at most to the ideals he espoused. The longer the qWuagmire exists, the more "ammunition" we are providing our "enemies", and creating new ones every day...so I have to say again: Thanks a lot, ya fucking idiot.

Tossing herself onto President Intellectually Incapable like a two-dollar hooker, the president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo spent a good part of her day making the Chimp feel all virile and macho.

Clueless Leader dropped by the PI on his 2003 World Tour of Unpronounceable Countries, to let them know that they could have more support in the War of Metaphors he has stirred up. Down payments for the Philippines includes 20 used Huey helicopters and empty promises for a non-existant threat that Arroyo keeps whining about every time her military revolts.

In an eight-hour visit, Mr. Bush for the first time drew explicit comparisons between the transition he is seeking in Iraq and the rough road to democracy that the Philippines traveled from the time the United States seized it from Spain in 1898 to the present day.
...
But the comparison has less power to reassure, given that the Philippine government did not gain full autonomy for five decades.
...
Mr. Bush said the United States had "liberated the Philippines from colonial rule," using the same verb he often uses to describe American action in Iraq, but he skipped past Washington's own 48-year-long occupation of this archipelago of 7,000 islands.
...
"Murder has no home in any religious faith," Mr. Bush said, "and these terrorists must find no home in the Philippines." He vowed to "bring Abu Sayyaf to justice,"

Once again, our internationally-handicapped intellectually-challenged bought and paid for Fearless Leader has managed to make us all look like idiots. Taking a "whirlwind" tour through the Philippines because the Secret Service said to make it short...yeah, right. Looks like the Tinhorn Terrorists are still winning; President Runnin' Away is still a...ba-caaawk Chickenhawk.

Der Volkischer Beobachter The Washington Post has a story on Wes Clark, right from Karl Rove's word processor to the front page. I guess that they must be trying to keep their seats in the pressroom, and not be sent to Helen Thomas Hell for not loving Junior.

To old friends and new supporters, he is a beloved and admired military hero who can protect the nation in troubled times. But to a fervent group of military detractors, the former NATO supreme commander, who led the allies to victory against the Serbs in Kosovo, was so unpredictable in his interpersonal dealings and overbearing in pushing his agenda that then-Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen had no choice but to relieve him of his command.
...
In interviews, people from throughout Clark's life made it clear that he always stood out -- a critical thinker of exceptional talent and drive. He is held in awe by his high school classmates, respected for his intellect by West Point peers, and liked by his 1975 White House fellows class. Evaluations from commanding officers over 30 years, which his campaign released last week, offer a lexicon of superlatives.

In an institution filled with ambitious men, some viewed Clark as over the top, someone who would do or say anything to get ahead -- and get his way.

If you happened to stop by earlier and the posts up now were not here, something is a-wonk on my site...if you were here earlier and the posts were here, leave me a comment or drop me an email and let me know what time (about) so I can try and narrow this down...

Isn't this supposed to happen on Mondays?

Andy will come back in his next life as road-kill, I am sure of it. Why? Because it would be a step up from the intellectual paramecium that is Sullivan.

Apparently in the Triple-Cocktail Wing of the republican party (which our hero is the apparent founder, main voting member and recording secretary of), it's okay to be rabidy against everything not in alignment with your beliefs. Now as a resident (well when he's not in Madams Organ) of MA, he has the right to bitch about his senator's positions, but to call Teddy Kennedy a "disgrace" for voting (or intending to vote) his conscience and beliefs? Fine, but we reserve the right to apply that epithet to every senator of any party we disagree with, which is an unreasonable use of the word "disgrace".

Why do I have the feeling that if Andrew Sullivan were an HIV+ nobody, Teddy Kennedy would be much more likely to take up his cause than say, Saxby Chambliss or Don Nickles?

Senator Kennedy kicks the troops in the teeth and betrays the Iraqi people by voting against any aid to Iraq. For what? Pure partisanship. Whatever you feel about this war, leaving the innocent people of Iraq to fight terror on their own is morally unconscionable. Kennedy is a disgrace. He believes we should pay no price, shirk any burden to defend liberty around the world.

I guess real karma would have Andy come back as road-kill at the moment of impact. All danger to other living beings could be avoided that way.

The Great National Embarrassment was in California, where he met with fellow Language-Mangler, der Gropenator. But before the great meeting of pages 1 and 2 of Merriam-Webster and Rogets, Fearless Leader went to Dinuba, California home of the Ruiz Food Plant, one of the states largest producers of Mexican Food. While he was there (undoubtedly with loosened tie, rolled-up shirtsleeves) standing in front of Boxes and Machines

...the president addressed a crowd of several hundred mostly immigrant workers at the 40-year-old plant, which churns out 3 million burritos a day.

The president expressed optimism about the economy, saying new jobs are being created and American productivity continues to increase.

"The entrepreneurial spirit is vibrant. And low interest rates have encouraged a housing boom here in America,'' he said. "And that's good.''

Is there more context to the remarks than the boiler-plate about the economy and jobs?

On a more scintillating note, Dear Fundraiser in Chief did manage to rake in 1.75 million for his re-election bid. He blamed it on the Clenis™ of course.

Okay, I'll give the good mayor credit for not wanting to run to DC and tar-and-feather anything that moves. She's a better person than me, no doubt. But holy crapamoly...this one is sneaking into that zone that begets the tin-foil hats and makes you want to start paying cash for everything...

Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly is warning her constituents in this liberal beach town not to jump to conspiracy theories about several unusual events involving her bakery in the days since the city council decided to challenge President Bush.
...
Four days later, a sophisticated burglar pried moulding off a window at Emily's Good Things to Eat bakery, evaded a motion detector and stole an old computer hard drive and the hard-drive backup.

Then, on Sept. 17, Emily's Good Things To Eat bakery was visited by an agent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who introduced himself, showed his identification, and looked around. He asked if they used artificial coloring (heavens no!) or if they transported anything across the state lines (they've been known to mail cookie-grams).
...
June Hoffmann, who co-owns the downtown Hoffman's Bakery Cafe, said that in almost two decades of shaping marzipan and kneading breads, she's never been visited by the FDA.

Bakers were baffled as well at the House of Bread. "Not one of our ten House of Breads has ever been visited by the FDA," said Sheila McCann. "I'd say this sounds a little bit suspect."

Thanks to Len over at Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener for this

Up in Heaven, Alexander the Great, Frederick the Great and Napoleon are looking down on events in Iraq.

Alexander says, "Wow, if I had just one of Bush's armored divisions, I would definitely have conquered India."

Frederick the Great states, "Surely if I only had a few squadrons of Bush's air force I would have won the Seven Years War decisively in a matter of weeks."

There is a long pause as three continue to watch events. Then Napoleon speaks, "And if I only had that Fox News, no one would have ever known that I lost the Russia campaign."

A little late to the party, but they made it. The first Chinese astronaut orbited the Earth 14 times, ate some Chinese Take-out, and did something (work of some sort, apparently). He returned to an unenventful landing in Inner Mongolia, where the sonic boom from the capsule probably scared some poor family of yak-herders for the next 25 generations.

The craft carrying Lt. Col. Yang Liwei landed by parachute on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China at dawn Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Minutes later, he grabbed the capsule hatch with his hand, pulled himself out and waved at rescuers.
...
After the landing, helicopters and trucks rushed to retrieve Yang. Reports had said he would be armed with knives and possibly a gun to protect himself against animals and other threats in the Inner Mongolian grasslands where the ship was to touch down.
...
China has had a rocketry program since the 1950s. It launched a manned space program in the 1970s amid the political upheaval of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but later abandoned it. The program was relaunched in 1992 under the code name Project 921.

The budget for the program is secret, but foreign experts say it totals at least $1 billion — a major commitment for China, where the average person makes $700 a year.

Earlier this week Testosterella had to get down on Ed Asner for comments attirbuted to him about Joseph Stalin. Sully of course, never waiting to bash one of us "commie symps" had to do it, he just had to go after Asner...but the quote was wrong and the author admits it...

McCullough has now withdrawn the gist of his claim about Asner's reverence for Stalin. It appears he distorted Asner's remarks; and has now partially retracted.

Tim Noah at Slate has post about the reason that the "Draft Hillary 2004" campaign is a creation of hard-core wingnut republicans...with three foundations.

The right's fixation on a Hillary run reflects GOP fund-raising imperatives, a longing to unite a splintered conservative movement, and the widespread winger conviction that the Clintons are vampires who cannot be killed and will come back to haunt the GOP again and again.

I published a few entries late, late last night. They had disappeared from my site at some point. Republishing them in MT seems to have restored them. Sorry for the vritual disappearance. I would say: we're back, but I'll wait until I have a couple of days of no problems with blogging before I don't save every entry to a text file, in case it disappears in to the mysterious world of Bytes.

Thanks again for being patient...

JF

If there were ever a more sleazoid, apologist piece of writing by AS, it would be pretty hard to find. The ever-conservative Hypocrite of P-Town strikes a blow for...major league substance abuse. See according to Sullivan it was OK for Rush to be a substance abusing hate-monger, because well, he did his best radio while stoned and advanced the Conservative Cause brilliantly.

Never mind that Limbaugh probably broke scores of state and federal laws while maintaining that Conservatve State of Oxy-Bliss.

Never mind that while stoned and bleating about the need to lock up the poor, drug-addicted non-white Americans Rushbo was (and still is) hauling in millions/year.

Never mind that the behaviour was just wrong. It was a bedrock part of the Conservative Movement, Great Radio and therefore by the twisted standards of Sullivan...okey-dokey. Gee, bad behaviour and republicans, do we see a pattern here?

What a pig.

Seems that the House republicans want to impose a co-pay for "home care" under the new medicare laws being rewritten to accomodate the Cash-for-the-Very-Wealthy lottery winners. Here's the plan:

Several negotiators said on Monday that they were seriously considering a co-payment of $40 to $45 for each 60-day period in which a beneficiary receives home care. That is about 1.5 percent of the average cost of such care. For each 60 day period, Medicare typically pays $2,700 to $3,000.
...
Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, the chief architect of the House bill, described the co-payment as a way to deter unnecessary use of home care.

"Requiring beneficiaries to share the cost of home health services encourages them to use care more prudently," said Mr. Thomas, the chairman of the conference committee.
...
Mary Vasinda, president of Around the Clock Home Care in Bakersfield, Calif., Mr. Thomas's hometown, said: "A co-payment would create a significant barrier for those in need of home health services. The burden would fall on home care users with the highest Medicare expenses and the worst health status."

I wonder how the medicare recipients in his district will view this, if they even know about it. According to the story, this co-pay was "buried" in the "voluminous bill". I guess there must be one or two J-School grads still interested in the story, not the glitter...thank goodness.

Everything comes around...

Back On The List
What a difference 28 years makes. The administration has OK'd the first port call ever by a Navy ship to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City. Raymond Burghardt, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, says details need to be worked out, but the November visit will be the first since the war ended in 1975. Also next month, Vietnam's defense minister will visit the Pentagon for the first time.

It's semi-official, Colin Powell is a liar...and he's in the 1600 Crew up to his well-paid neck it seems. 2+2= 4, right? Trumped up intel or the Chimpsters Nose Candy, what was it he was waving around at the UN that coooold winter day?

The person responsible for analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Colin Powell says the Secretary of State misinformed Americans during his speech at the U.N. last winter.

Greg Thielmann tells Correspondent Scott Pelley that at the time of Powell’s speech, Iraq didn’t pose an imminent threat to anyone – not even its own neighbors. “…I think my conclusion [about Powell’s speech] now is that it’s probably one of the low points in his long distinguished service to the nation,” says Thielmann.
...
Thielmann also tells Pelley that he believes the decision to go to war was made first and then the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion. “…The main problem was that the senior administration officials have what I call faith-based intelligence,” says Thielmann.
“They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show. They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce. I would assign some blame to the intelligence community and most of the blame to the senior administration officials.”

Honor and Integrity indeed...it's with the greatest of integrity they have honored their promises to their largest contributors to get their war on for profit and ensure that more money goes to them...forever. Is it now over 320 dead and how many thousand wounded over a f****** lie, or series of them?

Regime Change in 2004

A while back I blogged on the story of an Army Wife, Lisa Torey who got a little publicity for some interesting emails...as part of the story, there were lots of comments from readers, both supporting Ms. Torey and those with other points of view. Fine. Someone, pretending to be a very real person Captain Bradford Cary, posted several vicious comments about Ms. Torey and others, including his supposed "family members". None of these comments from this person representing themself as Capt. Cary were true, and Captain Cary asked me to remove the offending comments, which I have done.

Apparently the commenter is some disgruntled person in the unit or affiliated with it, and is at about the maturity level of my neighbors two-year old. I asked Captain Cary if he wanted me to restrict access to DemVet by IP address to prevent a reoccurance of this, and he replied "No, there might be others who legitimately want to read and comment. I won't take that away from them". That folks, is what we were in the service for...not petty-ante, piss-ant chickenshit stuff. I am truly sorry that there is someone in that unit who is disgruntled, annoyed, or just plain immature enough to make comments like that anonymously about their CO. Captain Cary seems like a decent guy to me, his note about the posts was both temperate and direct. I am happy to remove content like those comments, they were not legitimate and that's behaviour not protected on my site...ever.

We can only hope so. Seems that reality is finally catching up to our boy, and that's nothing but good. Seems that the ummm, unemployed, underemployed and perhaps soon-to-be unemployed are having a bit of "buyers remorse". No matter how the republicans want to spin it now, it's coming back to the 1600 Crew.

Since Reagan’s 1980 election victory, the votes of manufacturing workers and their families, unionized or not, have trended increasingly Republican in presidential races. This predominantly male, Roman Catholic, Rust Belt constituency cheered the New Deal but rejected the Democrats in droves during the 1970s and 1980s. Endowed with a deep skepticism for the kind of bespectacled intellectuals so dear to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, these so-called Reagan Democrats have regularly crossed lines ever since to support the GOP candidate and throw states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan into the GOP column.
...
There may be little any administration can do, short of disconnecting from the global economy, to halt such forces. Still, for those whose jobs are at stake, the anger is palpable.
“Look, I voted for Reagan over Carter,” says Messina. “Reagan was a regular guy. But this guy isn’t fooling us. The tax cut was supposed to stimulate the economy. All it ended up stimulating was rich people’s wallets.”

When some of these same folks wake ip and realize that they have been sold a pig in a poke the voter anger in California will look like a kiddie tantrum, it's only a matter of time... why do I have the sneakingist suspicion that the 1600 Crew response to this will be "9-11" "9-11"...

My web hosting company had a hard drive failure on the server that hosts all my bloggy goodness. I lost all the entries from yesterday (so if you are being referred here from another site's link, sorry 'bout that) and all/any comments that were put up after the backup on the 12th.

Sorry for the interruption of service...back to posting later today (gotta get to work).

Oh, and I'm still tired of listening to A.S. whine about the FMA...as SullyWatch points out, I doubt it'll pass into law as a constitutional amendment, but I also doubt Sully will ever get married, it would remove an item from his catalog o'whines.

Later!

From one of his speeches in New Hampshire, President 1st LT said

"Americans," the president said, "are not the running kind."

Bush's speech, however, was delivered on one of the more violent days in postwar Iraq: An attack on a police station killed eight, a Spanish diplomat was slain and another U.S. soldier was killed in an attack on a convoy.

Dollars raised off dead soldiers = Total Mission Accomplishment for the 1600 Crew and the Village Idiot.

If the new Governor of California plays the Enron Game on you again, who are you all going to blame? Knowing that not everyone voted to put this idiot into office, what's going to happen if energy prices and supplies do what they did a a couple of years ago as a result of the "deregulation" of the energy industry. Note to stupid republicans: Not all deregulation works. Not all regulation is bad. Examples: See California Energy and the Clean Air Act (now being gutted, courtesy of the 1600 Crew). I for one would not like to see the Federal Aviation Regulations go away...

Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing a push to deregulate the state's electricity markets -- a move embraced by business leaders and some energy analysts but criticized by many Democrats and consumer advocates as a return to the failed policies that sparked California's energy crisis.
...
Schwarzenegger's energy strategy is being driven by some of the same members of former Gov. Pete Wilson's team who led the push for energy deregulation in the mid-1990s. The governor-elect, for example, picked for his transition team Jessie Knight, a former Wilson appointee to the Public Utilities Commission and a leading proponent of deregulation.
...
"Deregulation has already cost the state $50 billion, give or take," said Mike Florio, senior attorney for The Utility Reform Network. "Why on earth anyone would want to do that again is mystifying to us."

The real plan here is to enrich all of the supporters of Pete Wilson (and Chimpy) with a second bite at the apple of one of the worlds largest economies...and on the way turn it into one of the worlds largest Third World Economies then move back to Texas, and give Tom Delay a couple of Thousand-Dollar a night hookers while waiting for their next "business opportunity".

Having eagerly signed on to the Kurrent Kwagmire in the middle east, and yes if there is a tiny bit of truth to this story, it's now become a Quagmire; the two "leading Liberal" newspapers online editions mention not word one of this as "Top" stories in their headlines. Check it out.

Thanks for the heads-up to an alert reader who gave me the link to a UK paper that had the story.

So really what's the deal here? How soon until we start whatever the next phase of Phoenix II, the Second Coming. I will start to really worry when I start to see the North Vietnamese hiring themselves out as "advisors" to the next-generation of freedom fighters...hey, if the US were ever invaded, how many of you would just roll over and take it? Show of hands?

Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
...
Farmers say that 50 families lost their livelihoods, but a petition addressed to the coalition forces in Dhuluaya pleading in erratic English for compensation, lists only 32 people. The petition says: "Tens of poor families depend completely on earning their life on these orchards and now they became very poor and have nothing and waiting for hunger and death."

The children of one woman who owned some fruit trees lay down in front of a bulldozer but were dragged away, according to eyewitnesses who did not want to give their names. They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation. ...

Coersive treatment like this is, I believe a violation of the Geneva Convention. As long as the 1600 Crew wants to play Chickenhawk GI Joe, they will have to abide by said convention...although the fate of the Gitmo Detainees makes pretty clear that they have thumbed their noses at it already. No wonder there is such a reluctance for other nations to join this folly in Iraq; who wants to be associated with stuff like this. It will be remembered long after the last shot is fired, and the last foreigner goes home.

GWBUSH '04 has the story! It's official, the Valerie Plame leakage was due to the Clenis™ read all about it! Q: Does Karl Rove play with the Clenis™ often?

Apparently Not. He has been fairly screaming over the past few days about the "liberal media" mis-use of the word "imminent", that our National Embarrasement never used that word, and in his latest drivel post, that Howard Dean has even agreed that the word "imminent" was not used to sell the Quagmire that Is. I guess we need to remind the little tramp about the parsing of the word "is". Seems that he and all his republican brethern (generically used, I include such luminaries as Nooner and Annthrax), used the word "is" as a code-word for "blowjob", over and over and over...ad nauseum. There is hardly a soul in America who does not know that Clinton got a knobber from Monica, but I don't recall Clinton explicitly saying: "I got head from that woman".

Now let's keep that thought in our pot-addled, testosterone-ridden brain for just a second Yer Majesty...the Crawford Village Idiot might never have used the word "imminent" or any direct derivative of it in a public speech, but didn't he say this in Cincinnati:

First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small neighbor, has struck other nations without warning, and holds an unrelenting hostility toward the United States.
...
We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country.

Once again SullyHackery knows no bounds. If, as postulated by David Niewart at Orcinus, the Village Idiot has mastered the art of saying one thing and meaning another, the most-fooled fool in America has now been shown to be A.S., by his own admission. He has drunk the Kool-Aid so deeply and so often, discerning fantasy and reality, truth and fiction are no longer possible. What was that old commercial...a mind is a terrible thing to waste? Apparently not his own.

Having just been named to head up the Iraq Stabilization Group, which is needed since we are doing so well over there...the question is asked Can Condi Cope. Seems that her management style is not too swift, and that she has basically hosed up at NSC (wasn't it her staffer who "allowed" the improper 16 words into the SOTU?).

Rice has proved to be a poised and articulate defender of President Bush's policies. But her management of the National Security Council -- the principal coordinator and enforcer of presidential decision making -- has come under fire from former and current administration officials and a range of foreign policy experts.
...
A senior State Department official -- voicing an opinion that few in the government disputed -- said: "If you want a one-word description of the NSC since January 21, 2001: dysfunctional."

When new staff members join the NSC, Rice outlines four key roles for her staff: preparing the president for meetings and phone calls; ensuring that presidential foreign policy initiatives are carried out; coordinating policy on matters that do not fall logically to a particular agency; and trying to interest different agencies in ideas developed at the NSC.
...
"The NSC is not performing its traditional role, as adjudicator between agencies," said a State Department official, who described "a very scattershot approach to staffing and management. You never knew quite what you were supposed to be doing and with whom."
...
Even members of Rice's staff expressed frustration. The NSC and State Department staffers were stunned to learn, for example, that the Pentagon, with the approval of the vice president, had flown controversial Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi into southern Iraq after Bush had opposed giving Chalabi special treatment.

It's disturbing to see that this woman can't seem to do the job, or she was placed there for other reasons by VP Pacemaker, who is actually doing this job. I'm sure she's smart, but she doesn't seem very bright...and the Rummy/NeoCon Cabal is running roughshod over her, daily it seems. Is she being set up to fail? Stay tuned...

Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan tunneled 30 feet out of their prison in Southern Afghanistan.

The 41 escaped convicts including several Taliban commanders and the brother of former Taliban defense minister, Mullah Ubaidullah disappeared late Friday from a high-security prison in the city of Kandahar, said Yousaf Pashtoon, the governor of Kandahar province.
...
Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five prison officials were missing. Pashtoon said there was an investigation into the role the five might have played in the escape.

When the 1600 Crew gets serious about "fixing" Afghanistan, they might have a chance to do some real damage to the terrorist networks out there...ObL has to be laughing his ass of in some Villa in the Hindu Kush right now, having tea with Mullah Omar on his way to afternoon dialysis.

Does President Lying Liar practice this shit standing in front of a mirror?

Bush acknowledged the sacrifices of reservists and Guard members Thursday as he defended his decision to invade Iraq.

"Serving your country can bring sacrifice and uncertainty and separation. Your lives can be changed in a moment with a sudden call to duty,' he said. "Thank you for your willingness to heed that important call."

The total amount of time that this sick little bastard has kept the faith: Zero
Kicking his sorry ass back to Texas in 2004: Priceless

Ooh, Oooh That Smell...

But it's not a Chronic problem.

Just when I refuse to be shocked any more by the sale of the 1600 Crew to anyone with a buck, here's more proof of the willingness of these people to be the biggest whores on the planet, bar none.

The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.
...
The straight-horned markhor, an endangered wild goat in Pakistan distinguished by corkscrew-shaped horns. According to the proposal, "allowing a limited number of U.S. hunters an opportunity to import trophies from this population could provide a significant increase in funds available for conservation."
...
John R. Monson, a New Hampshire trophy hunter and former chairman of that state's Fish and Game Commission, said the program would help preserve rare animals. In 1999, Monson applied for a permit to shoot and import a straight-horned markhor. He was turned down.
...
Monson is president-elect of Safari Club International, a national hunting advocacy group. He agreed to an interview only in his personal capacity.

Safari Club International gave $274,000 to candidates during the 2000 election cycle, 86 percent of it to Republicans. It also spent $5,445 printing bumper stickers for the Bush presidential campaign. Monson has made a variety of contributions himself, including $1,000 to the Bush for President campaign.

Of course Monson being a Rich American Big-Game hunter in the hills and mountains of Pakistan might not be the smartest thing to be these days. I guess Mr. Monson doesn't spend a lot of time studying that metaphorical War on Terra™ thing, or perhaps as a friend of Chimpy's, he gets a 'bye' from that long-time friend of the family, Osama bin Forgotten to do a little shootin' in the hills.

Jeebus.

In a gum-flapping speech, preaching to the already-converted and his pet media rodents, VP Angina rode them media ratz hard and put'em away wet...at the Heritage Foundation. While L'il Dick might have had Sleepy Clarence's wife creaming in her jeans, he certainly had a load of bullshit for the rest of us...

After several weeks of domestic and international criticism of President Bush's policy of attacking potential threats, Cheney struck back forcefully by calling the U.N. Security Council's 50-year tradition of giving permanent members a veto a "policy of doing exactly nothing."
...
But while Bush asked the nation on Thursday to be more optimistic and look beyond the negative headlines from Iraq, Cheney barely mentioned the hardships in Iraq. Instead, he took aim at Democrats and foreign leaders, such as French President Jacques Chirac and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who have raised objections to U.S. "unilateralism."

Cheney blasted the criticism "that the United States, when its security is threatened, may not act without unanimous international consent" -- a clear reference to U.N. procedures, under which "the mere objection of even one foreign government would be sufficient to prevent us from acting.

"Though often couched in high-sounding terms of unity and cooperation, it is a prescription for perpetual disunity and obstructionism," ...
...
Cheney's speech was an uncompromising argument that far exceeded what other figures in the administration have asserted. Cheney, for example, dismissed a dozen years of inspections, patrolling of no-fly zones and strikes against military targets in Iraq, saying "all of these measures failed."

David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, presented a different view in his congressional testimony last week. For example, he said: "Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW [chemical weapons] munitions was reduced -- if not entirely destroyed -- during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of U.N. sanctions and U.N. inspections."
...
Cheney, predicting that "historians will look back on our time and pay tribute to our 43rd president,"

I really like the way that this greedy little shit, who is still on the CheneyBurton Corporate Payroll, by the way, makes the case that there was still a WMD threat in Iraq...threat by intent, right? I mean, after all, under the 1600 Crews new theory if you shit in one hand and wish in the other, all your wishes will be granted before you're hands are full of shit, right? Seems about right to me...

Oh, and don't even get me started on this Cuba thing...

What a co-inky-dink, I get a nice letter from a fellow vet (next post) and the South Goodstone Sucker is whining about Frontline and WGBH painting an evil picture of the War in Iraq and the "trumped up imminence" of the war, using (horrors) our tax dollars. As my correspondant Doug points out,

...That impressive statistic has to be weighed against the fact that my tax dollars continue to pay for flying George Bush around the country in the taxpayers' airplane to pick up the corporate payoffs he is counting on to fund an uncontested Republican primary. His targeted $170 million will buy a lot of dirty tricks. We all paid for his ridiculous aircraft carrier stunt...

From a fellow vet, this pretty much sums up a lot of the anger, angst and reasons so many of us really dislike the 1600 Crew

For the first time in over forty years as a registered voter, I made a campaign contribution for a presidential candidate. Even through some bitterly contested presidential elections, I have never felt it was my duty to do any more than cast my vote. This time a lot of things have changed and much is at stake for all Americans.

My contribution to the campaign of General Wesley Clark helped him reach $3.5 million in just two weeks. That impressive statistic has to be weighed against the fact that my tax dollars continue to pay for flying George Bush around the country in the taxpayers' airplane to pick up the corporate payoffs he is counting on to fund an uncontested Republican primary. His targeted $170 million will buy a lot of dirty tricks. We all paid for his ridiculous aircraft carrier stunt, but ironically it now appears that his opposition will get more mileage out
that footage than the Bush campaign will.

My small contribution was a greater personal sacrifice for me than the
two-grand bets the high rollers are placing at Bush fund raising dinners all around the country, and I don't even get a meal out of it. All I hope to get in return is a new administration with the same sense of what is fair and what is American that I was raised to believe in. If all goes well, my taxes will probably go up as well.

Why is this pending election bothering me so much? It should bother all of us that the democratic process we chose over two centuries ago is being reduced to a cynical science that has little to do with the will of the people. Electoral mad scientists like Karl Rove are playing a dirty Game that apparently has no rules. The well bankrolled recall in California and the boundary tampering in Texas are plays that serve to defeat the notion that each of us has a vote that counts. The 2000 fiasco in the swamp state may have already disabused you of that myth.

The gurus of today's politics depend upon an ill informed or misinformed electorate. The alarming percentage of Americans who bought the fabricated reasons to invade Iraq, the reasons belatedly disavowed by most of the Bush administration, is a sad indicator of how poorly informed most who will cast votes really are. Even more telling are the results of a University of Maryland study showing that the largest percentage of people holding these erroneous views relied upon Fox News for their enlightenment. In age of information when we all have ready access to the truth, this state of affairs is appalling. The danger of unregulated media domination is abundantly clear.

We have entered an era in American politics when totally contrived
candidates can be victorious. Real qualifications seem to have
little importance if the game is played with ruthless tenacity, political
savvy and a huge war chest. Bush in 2000 and Arnold in 2003
indicate a dismal and potentially fatal trend in our choice of
leaders. If Ronald Reagan's simian co-star from "Bedtime for
Bonzo" is still alive, I wouldn't count him out.

The Bush campaign attacks on John McCain in the 2000 Republican primary give us some insight into how nasty the coming election could be. When they staged a vicious dirty tricks campaign in South Carolina, they were not even desperate and their target was a war hero and fellow Republican. Given Bush's plunging ratings, the gloves will be off for this clash.

The age old plea to register and vote may not be enough to get us through this pivotal election. To reclaim our democracy we will all have to make personal sacrifices and contribute what we can in time, money or both, to the cause of the candidate we believe will lead us back to our traditional values and, yes, a new American patriotism. No matter who you select as your preferred alternative to four more years of misery, get in the game. Reasonable people cannot remain on the sidelines this time. Speak out, register and, when you vote, take a well informed friend with you.

Doug Snider
LT. U.S.N. '67-'71
NFO VP-48

Lying Liars and the Lies...chiefly a certain one.

Regime Change in 2004

DJHighlights at Exit Stage Left has an interesting point about Der Steroidfuhrer...

Been to Norbizness lately? When you need to keep your snark levels up after heading over to TBogg and Opinions You Should Have, you have to hit Norbizness to keep the laughter going if you don't already...it's a seven-day a week snarkfest with an eye on Texas...also get onto Naked Furniture...Mary is hot: I heart her, does she heart me? check:

Yes

No

Happy Friday!

Sullivan writes:

Nope, the pacifists and anti-war crowd are on the side of the tyrants - now as so often before.

In an NYT piece today even the reluctant national organ of the 1600 Crew has indirectly admitted that well, it's not so great over in the Fertile Crescent. Seems a car-bomber not only blew up himself, a classic Oldsmobile and eight Iraqi policeman waiting for their paychecks, but also did some damage to the rhetoric of winning that was spewing from Viceroy Jerry's face...

This was not the best day to trumpet America's accomplishments in these first six months. But the job fell nonetheless to L. Paul Bremer III, the American civilian administrator here, and he argued that whatever the problems, the changes in Iraq have been positive.

"There will be bumps on the road," Mr. Bremer told reporters on Thursday. "There will be bad days like today. But I think it's important, as those of you who are here regularly covering the story, to put that in perspective, because it's a lot better than it was."

Where's Saddam? Hanging out in Faux Muslim Brotherhood with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Yup, it's all going according to plan...you know, the one that never existed.

President Lies A. Lot was at Pease AFB in New Hampshire, addressing a group of Air National Guardies, many of whom probably had barf bags handy. Most interesting what the fool said:

"When you become the president, you cannot predict all the challenges that will come, but you do know the principles that you bring to the office, and they should not change with time or with polls," Bush said. "The challenges we face today cannot be met with timid actions or bitter words; our challenges will be overcome with optimism and resolve and confidence in the ideals of America."

As for the optimism, resolve and confidence in the ideals of America, the 1600 Crew have shown contempt for the constitution, due process and the American people (think "first amendment zones"). The biggest challenge to come will be the removal of the Crawford Village Idiot back to Texas, where his heart lies. I'm sure he'll do well clearing the deadwood from his "ranch". I doubt Unka Karl and the other sycophants including the media will be hanging around much...

Awhile back I had blogged on a story about the spouse of a soldier who had threatened action based on an email or series of e-mails from the spouse of a member of the 400th Military Police Battalion. The comments/discussion thread has gotten sort of interesting, including a spririted defense of said Mrs. Torey by her husband SSG Torey (and a slamming of yours truly). The comments have it all, love, hate, friendship, infidelity...geez, what a firestorm.

There are comments there from Lisa Torey too, and I would like to second one thing she said...if you are in an FRG or affected by one GET INVOLVED. Sitting it out and letting other spouses carry the burden for YOU make it harder for everyone. It's also a way for your opinions to be heard by everyone, even the command folks...they do eventually care about pissed-off spouses, it sometimes just takes time for them to remember to turn on their hearing-aids.

That being said, even though I was single during my whole tenure in the service (active and reserve), I watched with some bemusement the different Wives Clubs and Family Support Groups that were in various commands/squadrons I was attached to. Some were great, and some were like bad Three Stooges skits...it disturbs me when anyone tries to suppress anothers opinions or questions. Wives (or husbands), no matter what they may believe are not holders of their spouses rank or authority, and to think otherwise breeds resentment among other spouses, sometimes overt...sometimes in the form of plain old non-participation in the activities of an FRG/Wives Club, and that's a loss for everyone especially in times like this for the deployed soldiers. Being young, deployed (and extended) and single sucks...all that and having a family at home double sucks, it's why I never wanted to have a family while I was in...too many of my friends ended up divorced, leaving broken families and lives.

Thanks for your comments Lisa. You are always welcome to leave them here...we may not agree, but I respect your opinions, even if I am "hysterical".

There has been a lot of talk about the folks coming back from Iraq on those oh-so-generous two week leaves and going AWOL/UA instead of returning to their units. I have only one thing to say...don't do it; it's a bad move. Remember that the time before being declared a deserter is 30 days and at about the 30 day and one-minute mark I suspect they will be preparing the paperwork for the court that will award at the very least a Big Chicken Dinner.

Also, desertion as I recall is an offense based on intent...the 30-day rule does not apply if they can prove that you never intended to return, and they can use statements (even in jest), actions (like over-packing your personal effects) and other things to try and prove desertion. Also the AWOL/UA and Missing Movement (for not getting on the plane) charges can be a "lesser included offenses" in a desertion charge, which make is easier to get a conviction.

Despite Fearless Leaders documented AWOL/UA, it's not the choice for you unless you have luck, a sympathetic court or want be an ex-pat for the rest of your life. IANAL, but spent enough time as a Squadron Legal Officer to know that it would probably be easier (and smarter) to tell the Service you are Gay and get ADSEP'd than to face a court...and administrative separation at least would get you an Honorable Discharge and whatever Veterans Benefits are left by the time the 1600 Crew gets done trashing them.

If the DoD would start looking for more guys like this and get them to Iraq (if they want to go) it might actually make our soldiers lives easier, not to mention longer...

Spc. John Helmy of headquarters company’s supply branch was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. His native language is Arabic.
...
Helmy was born to Egyptian parents in Cairo, but is not a Muslim. He’s Coptic Orthodox, the primary Christian religion in Africa.
...
Helmy’s Arab ancestry carries a lot of weight with the Iraqis, Bishop said.

“He’s more trusted than the ... Iraqi translators who are doing it for the money,” said Bishop. “They have not been 100 percent accepted.”
...
“I think to them, it means a lot that he’s an Arab brother,” said Bishop. “He’s opened up more doors” than an Iraqi interpreter could.

Unfortunately the 1600 Crew and the Snake-Handler Justice Division seem to be more focused on creating mis-trust and fear among Arabic-speaking citizens and non-citizens alike. Who can blame the native Arab-speakers in this country for being reluctant to help out when the stories of abuse, persecution and mistreatment of Arab-Americans are well documented and pervasive. Talk about shooting yourself in the proverbial foot...here's an example of what might help but may never be achieved on a wide scale until the 1600 Crew is gone, gone, gone.

And I would say that to the Great National Embarrassment's face (TBogg coined that phrase), no shit. Unfortunately the "First Amendment Zone" for an Ohio visit would probably be in Adak, Alaska. In a not-too-surprising statement, the leader of the 1600 Crew said:

"I want to know the truth. I want to see to it that the truth prevails"...
...
Mr. Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Tuesday that the White House counsel's office would turn over to the Justice Department only materials it deemed "responsive or relevant" to the department's criminal inquiry.

Of course President Hump-a-Lump signed the Executive Order banning research into the actions of Poppy & Co's administration in the 80's via the Presidential Records Act because the Truth contained in those records might have sent Dick Cheney and others in and out of the 1600 Crew to jail. He's such a Liar. But we know that.

Sullivan points to an article by Johnathan Rauch whom he praises as "incomparable"...yeah, compared to who, himself? Rauch, like Sullivan seems to be an apologist for the media's reporting of Gulf War 2, alternately taking the media to task for its reporting "lousy news judgment" and exonerating them by saying that "News is what is exceptional and what requires immediate attention". Sort of a bi-polar piece I think, which must be why Sully seems to like it so much.

I wish that Sully would make up his mind, are we muddling through as the "incomparable" Rauch suggests or are we boldly making progress against something (The War on Terra™?) in Iraq as Miss Milky Loads suggests in the Sunday Times "Flypaper" Essay (remember the "extra beauty"?)

But as the weeks and months have gone by, that conversation has stuck by me. It wasn't a retroactive justification of the mixture of progress and chaos we now see in the Sunni regions of Iraq - so I couldn't dismiss it as desperate post-hoc spin. If it wasn't a central part of the strategy from the beginning, it was surely a Plan B. And from statements from key Bush officials in the past couple of months, it's clear that it's now very close to Plan A.

What else did president Bush mean when he challenged the terror-masters to "bring 'em on," in Iraq? Those are not the words of a man seeking merely to pacify a country, but to continue waging war against terrorism.

Muddling through, Iraq and the War on Terra™: Lincoln and Washington would be so proud...Sully and Just Making Shit Up: the 1600 Crew are so proud.

My web host was down for upgrades, so more bloggy goodness tomorrow...

Arnold? Really? Is this what Darrell Issa imagined? Well, they gave us Ronnie Raygun so now it's the Austrian SteroidFuhrer...thank the Hairy Thunderer for the constitutional prohibition against Der SteroidFuhrer going to the 1600 Crew home of destruction and lying as its leader...

I hope that Gray Davis has a nice retirement, and the SteroidFuhrer has a wake-up call that the job involved more than just showing up...like he does for movies.

OK, not really. Seems that up there in the Sunni Triangle, where the livin' ain't so easy, our newly 'liberated' subjects are getting a little testy. I guess that having a few dead "hajis" doesn't make much of a difference to the 1600 Crew...now. Seems that the institutional memory on the civilian-political appointee (read: Chickenhawk) side of the Pentagram is pretty short to non-existant.

Five months after President Bush declared the end of "major combat" in Iraq, the war may indeed be over for most of the country.

But not for Sheikh Mishkhen al Jumaili. Last month, American troops killed nine of his relatives, including his son, in the span of just four days.

"They mean to kill as many Iraqis as possible," said al Jumaili, weeping silently as his younger relatives quietly lowered Beijiya's coffin into the parched yellow cemetery ground.
...
American officials say the price being paid by ordinary Iraqis, while unfortunate, is simply unavoidable collateral damage.
...
But Iraqis living in this region of rich and influential tribes -- largely spared the repression of Hussein's government because it sought to win their loyalty -- are outraged by the scale of the U.S. shootings. They say hundreds of innocents have been killed since Hussein was deposed.
...
Stories about what the Iraqis regard as American atrocities spread from household to household within hours in this tightly woven tribal society, sowing fear and anger at the occupiers.

Now it's becoming a forest and tree question...if we weren't there would any of this be happening? No...duh.

So why haven't Impeachment proceedings started yet? How about a two-fer...Chimpy and L'il Dick together? Oh yeah I forgot, republicans only run impeachment over sex-related lies, not death-related lies.

from Atrios, we find that President Lines O'Blow has declared this to be "Marriage Protection Week". Gee, I wonder if this is to honor such matrimonial-minded stalwarts as Newt, Clarence, Henry and of course He-Who-Just-Can't-Be-Stoned, El Rushbo. Perhaps next week will be "National Double the Alimony Tax Credit Week".

In a move that is well, sort of surprising President Cowardly Poet announced a new 1600 Crew support group, called the 'Iraq Stabilization Group', which will provide guitar music, light poetry, bongo music and massage therapy for the Iraqi people. The group will be led by noted serial liar and woman voted "most likely to need orthodenture" Condi Rice, who can't keep track of which lie she told since sunrise, much less what needs to be done to stabilize Iraq.

"Condi's job and Condi's team is going to make sure that the efforts are -- continue to be coordinated, so that we continue to make progress," Bush said at a news conference with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.
...
"The model we wanted to stay away from is: The police function is parceled out to this agency or this country, the justice function is parceled out to this agency or this country," the official said. "What we wanted to do this time is establish a point of focus and a central source of responsibility and accountability."

Forgetting all past history as he reminds us that he writes for Time, Sully takes the "media" (of which he is part since he writes for Time, right?) to task for continous repetition of the Yellowcake Road story. Sullivan wants us all to remember that the Honorary 9/11 Resident of Nebraska said "Africa" in his SOTU address, not "Niger" and that the NIE mentioned Niger, Congo and Somalia as possible sources of Uranium ore.

Yeah, fine, whatever...the fact that Sullivan still has to defend his hero is evidence that something is rotten inside the Beltway. As for his charge that the slant of the multiple stories featured the SOTU lies, is "projection" not journalism makes me wonder what every anti-Clinton, and anti-Democrat piece that fool ever wrote anywhere was. I guess it was the kind of journalism taught at a school you enroll in via matchbook cover, or perhaps Fox News now has a secret J-School and Sully was in the first graduating class, because when a president lies, that's news, not "projection".

There is no truth to the rumour that the republican prescription drug plan involves purchasing your meds in a gas station parking lot...but if you call El Rushbo, he might tell you which service station attendants double as pharmacists.

Sully wants to know why Gloria Steinhem defended the big dog for his "dalliance" with an "emotionally immature" 21 year-old woman (Monica Lewinsky, of course). I wonder if the P-Town Predator has ever slept (or had "relations") with anyone between the ages of 18 to 21, in which case has he just re-affirmed his his hypocratic oath...or is he just a hypocratic oaf?

I also wonder if they teach math at any school he attended, by my count it was more than one Terminator Grope...haven't there been at least a half-dozen women who have said that the were "groped"? I guess the bonnie lassie of BS is just waiting for her groping too. It might be a long wait your highness...

Did not turn on the TV much, so we did not hear about the accident at the Siegfreid and Roy show until the next day. What a sad event...there is a big bronze sculputure of the duo and a lions head on the strip, by 6PM on Saturday evening, there were many bouquets sent by well-wishers there...last I heard from the news in Vegas, Roy was "communicating" even though he was still on a ventilator. Apparently the stage crew practice for just such an accident, which was a good thing, it probably saved his life.

That's all the entertainment tonight....oh, except to mention that the first satellite "news" truck on the scene was Fox. Figures.

Damn, I picked a bad weekend to go to Vegas (Mrs. Fish is taking me for my belated birthday)...

Rush quits ESPN, has allegations of having an eensie-weensie little drug problem (wasn't he all over Cindy McCain?); which of course has the FReepers in huuuge denial.

Snake-Handler Johnny (Mr. Appoint a Special Prosecutor for spittin' in the street) has had two words so far, "No Comment" on the Plame Affair Investigation. All republicans are either in full denial mode or getting there quickly. Remember, "Honor and Dignity" are the other guy's worry if you are The Crawford Village Idiot. I guess it is different when your boys are facing felony prison time....

And speaking of the Snake-Handler, he's got to be in a really bad mood, since judge in the Moussaoui trial just barred the prosecutors from seeking the Death Penalty.

But Brinkema chose instead to strike the death penalty sought by prosecutors, and to eliminate the events of Sept. 11, 2001, from the case, as a way of punishing the government for defying her orders to produce three top al Qaeda witnesses for depositions by Moussaoui's defense.

So, I'll be back on Sunday night...while I'm gone may I humbly suggest visiting all the most excellent blogs in the Fish Pond...there are so many outstanding folks in the Pond, I just know you won't get bored.

See Ya Later!

Rove: pssssst...Mr. President, Polls not Poles

Oh, yeah, Ah don't pay no 'tention to poles...we govern from our knowledge of what's raaght fer 'Murika.

(turns away)...Okay, Karl goddammit, what's up with this 7 out of 10 shit wanting an independant counsel? We can't be having that, I can't have you getting investigated before the elections.

(turns back)...we're proud to support our poll-ish allies in Eye-Rack and welcome them to the broad-based international co-a-lishun we have builded there. I can't say enuff about their support.

(turns away) Karl, dammit, I know I said "I believe great decisions are made with care, made with conviction, not made with polls." but if this crap keeps up, we're just gonna hafta invade someone else...call Wolfie, Rummy and Bolton in here. Let's talk I-Ran or North Korea. And get me Ashcroft on the phone, if he needs help with shredding paperwork, Poppy says there are some unemployed Iran-Contra Bubbas we can hire, cheap.

(turns back) Night mah fellow 'murkans...an god bless 'murika.

There's nothing worse than being suckered once, other than being suckered twice. It made P.T. Barnum a rich man...well we all got suckered by the 1600 Crew and their promises of ... everything. Now we have Tom Delay, who makes most anti-environmental, christo-fascist racists look like regular joe six-packs. Tom Delays worldview is akin to the pre-enlightenment clergy in "Old Europe", the problem is he is working to consolidate his power base to project his worldview on us all, wanted or not.

What is scary is how far out on the fringe of American political thought this man resides. No comment more epitomized DeLay than one on the floor of the House in 1999 when, commenting on violence on high school campuses, he saw fit to blame birth control.

It wasn't the only worldly evil to blame, DeLay said, but one root of violence nonetheless: "that we have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things that they come to equate the receiving of the material with love."

Fascinating theory. Did John Wilkes Booth's mama and papa practice the rhythm method?

DeLay also blamed evolution and a school system that "teaches children they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized out of primordial soup."

Don't ever accuse Tom DeLay of being evolutionized.

Don't get DeLay started on the environment. If he has one enemy, it is environmentalists.

Recently Roll Call reported how at a closed-door meeting of the House leadership DeLay said the question about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was not about energy security vs. the relative natural merits of the refuge but "about the precedent" and about the "symbolism of ANWR."

If Congress could open up ANWR, any environmentally sensitive area could be opened as well, he said.

Sorry-Ass republican operatives and the patriotic Americans they screw....after this commercial message from CheneyBurton Corp...

Is there something just wrong with this headline from the NY Times?

Or is it just me?

Oil, torture chambers, mass graves, grievous human rights injustices...well, ok it was a leeetle bit about Oil. But remember it was really about WMDs? Really really! Fearless Leader said so...

Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass destruction.

For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological and nuclear weapons even while inspectors were in his country.

Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons:
....
The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving.

From intelligence sources, we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves.

In a "shocking" development today, David Kay, Chief of Three-Card Monte for the 1600 Crew had this little nugget:

With no chemical or biological weapons yet found in Iraq, the U.S. official in charge of the search for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is pursuing the possibility that the Iraqi leader was bluffing, pretending he had distributed them to his most loyal commanders to deter the United States from invading.
...
Officials said they expect Kay to document what the U.S. intelligence community has long reported about Iraq's significant efforts to deceive inspectors, including the hiding of documents and materials related to weapons programs. In a CIA white paper issued in October 2002, for example, CIA Director George J. Tenet said, "Baghdad's vigorous concealment efforts have meant that specific information on many aspects of Iraq's WMD programs is yet to be uncovered."

Regime change in 2004.

1. Censorship, Phase 1?
   
2. RealPolitik 2004?
   
3. The DoJ can't handle the Truth
   
4. Takes money to steal money
   
5. Howie the Hore
   
6. The Northern Lights
   
7. Be Careful Out There
   
8. Mo' destruction
   
9. Atrios, Luskin and Krugman
   
10. What would you call him?