By the time it's all said and done, we will have prosecuted and locked up as many American servicemen (or women) in GITMO as we have "suspected terrorists". Another officer, COL Jackie Farr, who was in charge of gathering intelligence from prisoners in GITMO has been charged with attempting to remove classified materials and then lying about it. Hmmmmm, there's something that's starting to smell like day-old fish here. Could it be that a turf war between intelligence services, like something betwixt the DoJ and the military?

An Army colonel who directed the collection of intelligence from Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has been charged with illegally removing classified material, the fourth serviceman at the base accused of security violations.

U.S. Army Col. Jackie D. Farr, a reservist heading home to the United States after a six-month tour at Guantanamo, was accused of improperly transporting classified material on Oct. 11 and with later making a false statement to investigators. The charges, violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, were announced Saturday by the U.S. Southern Command.

Jeebus. Our tax dollars hard at work, perhaps fighting government turf wars, instead of whatever else they are supposed to be doing (besides enriching CheneyBurton).

Is COL Farr perhaps a victim/scapegoat or something here? Betcha a beer he is.

Or maybe he was bringing home information about this.

Well, there's something to be said for pollsters, they always have something to say. Talking about all of the smoke-and-mirrors success of the 1600 Crew, republican pollster and strategist Bill McInturff has this to say about the Great National Embarrassment:

McInturff concludes: "We've got a president who is well-liked personally and credible as a leader. By next summer we ought to have reasonable stability in Iraq. So what's the reason to change?"

Here's a little bit of disturbing news. I wonder if the Miserable Failure had this guy in mind at the SOTU? Probably not, since it would have required actual Intelligence.

When police caught up with him on May 31, Tedo Makeria was headed toward Tbilisi's main rail station, his lethal cargo hidden in boxes lined with lead so thick his taxi sagged from the weight. The suspicious policeman who halted the cab had barely cracked the trunk when he noticed the boxes and the distinctive labels that warned, "Danger: Radiation."
...
Inside Makeria's boxes were two capsules of highly radioactive metals -- strontium and cesium -- of a type that terrorism experts say can be used in a dirty bomb, a device that spews radiation but does not trigger a nuclear explosion. A third container held a vial of brown liquid that Georgian police identified as the substance used in mustard gas, one of the earliest chemical weapons. Only later did police learn Makeria's role in the affair. He was a courier for criminals trading in components and materials for weapons of mass destruction.

In the Presidential Sweepstakes we have just gotten a notice. Get Fucking Ready. The 1600 Crew is.

President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004.
...
Organization alone cannot elect Bush to a second term. Given the reality that the president's campaign team cannot control such potentially decisive factors as the economy or events in Iraq, officials are determined to maximize their advantage in areas they can control. Rarely has a reelection committee begun organizing so early or intensively -- or with the kind of determination to hold state party and campaign officials, and their volunteers, accountable for meeting the goals of the Bush team.

In the world of the 24-hour news cycle the old Five O'Clock Follies of MAC-V days may not have quite the impact of the days of yore, but hey, one thing remains the same. When the Cretins in the Pentagram want to make one thing perfectly clear, they trot out that old MacNamara-ism: The Body Count. I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning!

U.S. troops repelled simultaneous attacks Sunday afternoon in the northern city of Samarra, killing 46 Iraqis, wounding at least 18 and capturing eight, the U.S. military said. Five American soldiers and a civilian were wounded.

So, when do the follies begin? Or have they started and I missed it?

Oh, and has anyone mentioned that the insurgents/guerillas are getting despondant? Just thought I'd toss that in in case the geniuses at the Pentagram had missed passing it on...I think it was in a Doug Feith to Viceroy Bremer memo.

Seems everyone's favorite Baby Bush is back to being a 'big' Asian Businessman. With a four hundred thousand dollar "consulting contract" Ol' Neil (Love-em, Leave-em) Bush is doing a little business with the Chinese. If he were my brother, he'd still be looking for a job...so what's in a last name anyhow?

Neil Bush, a younger brother of President Bush, has a $400,000-a-year contract to provide business advice to a Chinese computer chip manufacturer, according to court documents.

At the same time the Bush administration is promising to crack down on alleged trade abuses by the Chinese, Neil Bush has agreed to strategize with China's Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the documents show.

Sullivan has a "happy day" as he insults another American for their point-of-view. A person who wrote to the SF paper wanted to express their views that the soldiers Bush visited in Iraq were not there at her behest, and that she was not interested in their fighting a war in her name.

These men and women in the military are not protecting me, and I do not want or need their protection. Bush should get off the big lie that they are there to protect me as an American. I would rather die than be protected in that way.
I am ashamed to be an American as long as Bush is in office.

Saying this about Ms. Merrill truly shows that Sullivan's love of America and his understanding of Americans outside the Jingoistic NeoCon Crusders is truly very shallow

I'd love to see Cheryl go hand to hand with al Qaeda on her own, wouldn't you?

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

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

-- Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers

Going off to Baghdad for yet another tax-payer financed Photo-Op. The right thing for the wrong reasons. If this had truly been about the troops, everything would have been as it was, but no planeload of media whores would have been making the trip.

Two Hours? That's a refueling stop for a 747, long enough to top it off, get it catered, pump out the lavs and be on it's way. Oh, and have numerous photos taken with soldiers who probably wish they were getting on the plane home.

Do they feel safer in Iraq today?

Hey Everyone, Happy Turkey Day. Have a very good Thanksgiving and be safe out there.

After suffering through a day of a Network that's still down (router problems), I am taking the rest of the evening to recover...I have to cook for tomorrow, and so all the Bloggy Goodness should resume on Friday. All my new equipment won't be here until Saturday (I hope) so it looks like a really long weekend coming up, can you say comp time? Sure, I knew you could.

Anyhow, enjoy the day with family and friends. I wish everyone the best...see you on Friday!

According to the latest info, and in the Charge'em with Everything mindset, they have charged the Muslim Chaplain from GITMO with ... adultery and storing porn on his computer. This is so absurd, if I had ever had to testify about all the married officers I had direct knowledge of who spent their money on Hookers in Westpac, hit on DoDDS Teachers, etc. there would have been lots of rapid promotions to fill the vacancies...as for porno in GITMO, hell, you'd have to go there to understand that. If it was not Gay Porn (which is for the military problemmatic only from the Gay angle, not the porn angle), I don't know what the big deal is.... GITMO is not for Lovers...trust me.

Thanks to TBOGG, who went to Fox News, so I didn't have to.

One of the few, maybe the only thing that Sullivan ever got right was the total fiscal irresponsibility of the 1600 Crew. Well, he was saying it all for show...today he proclaims his love for the heart of the 1600 Crew fiscal disaster, what Commander Codpiece's Daddy even called Voodoo Economics; the Tax Cut.

Yup, the Tax Cut that will ensure my kids (and grandkids) have some sort of legacy, DEBT, from the Turn of the Century Tyrant...childless (short-sighted?) Sullivan LOVES them.

I never said I blamed the tax cut! I love the tax cut.

Commandante Milky Loads hasn't broken that code yet, because it involves number-crunching, but we all know less money in means less money to spend. Spending without collecting is a recipe for disaster...for the rest of us. Sully obviously is either fab-u-lously wealthy or lives on credit cards.

Well, he doesn't believe in Safe Sex either, so fiscal responsibility is real stretch I guess. One day he'll figure it out...taxes are like condoms, not the best answer, but they'll probably save you from something bad down the road (like bankruptcy as a nation). Poor Sully, I guess the urge for Tax-Cut Kool-Aid is just...irresistible.

Posse Comitatus. Has nothing to do with those old westerns we like to watch; and almost everything to do with some of them. Confused? Like most Americans, I prefer my Law Enforcement to be done by ummmm, Professional or at least Trained Police Officers. Not soldiers. Posse Comitatus was the law that forbade Federal Troops from acting as police in local venues. It was a good law, until the republicans got ahold of it in the "War on Drugs"...that little disaster that preceeded the War on Terra™.

Now there's a whole new command structure set up within the military to begin working against Posse Comitatus with the blessings of the Congresscritters and the 1600 Crew. Our liberties, pissed on again.

Preoccupied with the war in Iraq and still traumatized by Sept. 11, 2001, the American public has paid little attention to some of what is being done inside the United States in the name of anti-terrorism. Under the banner of "homeland security," the military and intelligence communities are implementing far-reaching changes that blur the lines between terrorism and other kinds of crises and will break down long-established barriers to military action and surveillance within the U.S.
...
The U.S. military operates under the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the direct use of federal troops "to execute the laws" of the United States. The courts have interpreted this to mean that the military is prohibited from any active role in direct civilian law enforcement, such as search, seizure or arrest of civilians.
...
Eberhart says his Northern Command operates scrupulously within the bounds of the law. "We believe the [Posse Comitatus] Act, as amended, provides the authority we need to do our job, and no modification is needed at this time," he told the House Armed Services Committee in March.

Of course, what he knows is that amendments approved by Congress in 1996 for that earlier civilian war, the war on drugs, have already expanded the military's domestic powers so that Washington can act unilaterally in dispatching the military without waiting for a state's request for help. Long before 9/11, Congress authorized the military to assist local law enforcement officials in domestic "drug interdiction" and during terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, the president, after proclaiming a state of emergency, can authorize additional actions.

Indeed, the military is presently operating under just such an emergency declaration. Eberhart's command has defined three levels of operations, each of which triggers a larger set of authorized activities. The levels are "extraordinary," "emergency" and "temporary."

Blogging is getting better all the time. A new Blog, The Blogging of the President:2004, a cooperative effort of Matt Stoller (To the Point) , Christopher Lydon (christopherlydon.org) and Jay Rosen has made it's appearance and is now swimming around the Fish Pond. Their new effort is pretty cool, incorporating multi-media blogging as a standard...it's very, very cutting edge I'm thinking.

Check it out.

My emotions after reading this story about how some communities have spent (or mis-spent) money intended for "Homeland Security". Some examples:

• In Virginia, a small volunteer fire department spent $350,000 on a custom-made fire boat.
• Another Williams supporter, former District mayor Sharon Pratt, was awarded a no-bid bioterrorism consulting contract worth $236,000. Pratt successfully lobbied the city to give another no-bid contract worth $15,880 to a company on whose board she sat.
• As Leslie Hotaling, director of the District's Department of Public Works, said: "If we can tie it to 9/11 and build capacity in our core functions, let's do it!" Her agency spent more than $55,000 on basic employee training courses such as "map reading" and "handling problem employees."
• In October, D.C. Council members questioned the use of homeland security dollars to pay for sanitation supervisors to attend a "Dale Carnegie" management course with no disaster preparedness instruction. City officials later relabeled the course on their documents by removing the management guru's name. The routine training helps employees better handle an emergency, Hotaling said.

  Her agency used an additional $300,000 to help pay for a computerized car towing system that the mayor had promised for three years to help combat fraud by private towing companies.

  The rationale: The city could use the new system to more efficiently clear streets during a terrorist attack and aid with "recovery efforts" by locating towed cars in the aftermath.

Forty low-income young adults were trained in first aid and other emergency skills, then paid to rap and dance about emergency preparedness as part of outreach efforts. The program was nationally recognized and a "brilliant" use of money, said Deputy Mayor Margret Nedelkoff Kellems, who oversaw spending.

According to the latest FBI instructions, all those pesky protesters out in the hinterlands of America are well, potential Terrorists or Terrorist Patsys...and well they just wanna know about them.

Civil liberties groups and politicians raised the prospect Sunday that FBI monitoring of antiwar protesters could jeopardize people's First Amendment rights.

''What is the chilling effect that will be felt by Americans all across the country if they think they will come under FBI scrutiny just by going to a protest?'' said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
...
In a weekly bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies nationwide, the FBI last month detailed some of the tactics used by antiwar protesters that police could expect at large rallies in San Francisco and Washington to protest the Iraq war.

The bulletin described how protesters plan their tactics at ''training camps,'' how they use gas masks to defend against tear gas, and how some use fake ID to get into secure places. The document also says that while most such demonstrators are peaceful, protests such as those against the World Bank have turned violent in the past.

Kevin Drum at Calpundit has been running a series from the LA Times on Wal-Mart. Fast Company magazine has a story in their December issue which is just as fascinating and is a real insight into the realities of the company.

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."
...
Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being.

Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.

If the Senate Democrats hand Fearless Leader a medicare bill on any terms but theirs, Daschle, Reid and several others need to be spending more time looking for new jobs than they are now. By handing the republicans this bill, they might just as well set up a pillory and invite every republican to take a cut at thier collecitive asses. It's a major propaganda piece for sure and it'll be hammered home more than the "Al Gore Invented the Internet" theme...with the advantage of being true from their spin perspective.

With the Senate moving toward final congressional approval of his Medicare prescription drug bill yesterday, President Bush has made a bid to break the historic political alliance between Democrats and senior citizens -- a feat that could change the dynamics of next year's election and perhaps long-term partisan patterns in this country.
...
Indeed, the White House was poised last night to claim credit for the measure, which would begin subsidizing seniors' drug bills in 2006 and at the same time move Medicare from a purely governmental program to one with a major role for private insurers. Despite the GOP's victory dance, a variety of political analysts said the effects in 2004 and later years are more difficult to predict. Robert J. Blendon, a health care pollster at Harvard School of Public Health, said Bush "will get credit because chief executives always get credit for getting something done, even if that something is viewed as inadequate." But he added that "I'm absolutely convinced the design of this thing will be a major issue in the 2006 election," the first year seniors will be confronted with a choice about their drug coverage.

Yeah, rolling over works all the time. Cowards.

Contract on America anyone? Remember that sad little piece-o'crap document that was sort of the beginning of the republican run to power? All the crap it contained has been unceremoniously tossed out the window by the republican hypocrites who stood up for it. Now as many of the beneficiaries of that specious document linger in office far longer than is good for our country, we find this.

But a rising tide of GOP spending on home-district projects is making those Democrats of yesteryear look like mere pikers of pork, according to a 15-page study just released by the minority staff of the House Appropriations Committee.

The study finds that the number of home-state projects earmarked in various bills has skyrocketed under the GOP, despite the party's rhetorical commitment to reining in a profligate federal government.

Moreover, it contends, Republicans "have opened up broad new areas of government to the practice of earmarking that were previously not subject to earmarks."

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

"Republicans had better hope that the Democrats never regain the majority," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Can we sue them for Breach of Contract?

Not being a senior, not being affected by Medicare and not really being plugged into the whole prescription-drugs-for-seniors debate, I have to wonder one thing. Given Bill Frists genetic ties to HCA (his family owns it), isn't this whole thing sort of an obvious way for him (and his family) to just get richer and richer via a "Government Entitlement" program? I would think that as an ethical man (stop laughing) he would recuse himself from this discussion, and even a vote on this...

Honesty in government my butt.

The story of the two GI's killed in Iraq (Mosul?) just disappeared off the websites of every US paper almost simultaneously. Or am I just delusional? Finding them through another link is not hard, but it seems strange that page One news would all of a sudden be buried...or not.

I guess the "Hearts and Minds" campaign is succeeding beyond all hopes. My sympathies go out to the families of those who lost their lives for the 1600 Crew today and in all days past this year.

More when (if) it becomes available.

Sullivan again misses the obvious, pointing to the evil dicatators in Iran, he misses the good solid fascism being practiced in Washington today. I wonder what he really thinks (or if he really thinks) of Jose Padilla, Yaser Hamdi and Maher Arar. All might be really bad guys, but America is not about depriving Americans of their rights or consigning people to torture.

But since all is viewed through the Sullivan 9/11 prism, it's ok. I wonder if he's got the pink triangles for his clothes ready to go...the Theocrats Falwell and Robertson blamed 9/11 on folks like Andy in near real-time. Will other things be far behind? And he thought it was evil in Tehran...silly boy.

Expressing outrage, fear and everything but a fanatical devotion to the pope, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao gave a press conference where unlike Fearless Leader he appeared undrugged, in possesion of his faculties and brighter than the reporters involved. No nicknames were passed out...

Wen began the complain-a-thon by holding the semi-annual PRC bitch-fest about Taiwan. I mean it's like the State of California (pre-Governator) being worried about Manhattan getting too prosperous...get over it, y'all. He also went on to reject calls for talks with the Dalai Lama about Tibet and free elections for the rest of the Chinese, remarking

... He pledged to "develop democracy," protect human rights and improve China's legal system. But he all but ruled out talks with Tibet's Dalai Lama, and he rejected bold reform of China's one-party political system.

"Conditions are not ripe for direct elections at the higher levels," he said. "The first hindrance in my view is the inadequate education level of the population."

From a faithful reader, had to share this one.

Psalm 2003

Bush is my shepherd, I shall be in want.
He leadeth me beside the still factories,
He maketh me to lie down on park benches,
He restoreth my doubts about the Republican party.
He guideth me onto the paths of unemployment for the party's sake.
I do fear the evildoers, for thou talkst about them constantly.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy deficit spending,
They do discomfort me.
Thou anointeth me with never-ending debt,
And my savings and assets shall soon be gone.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me,
And my jobless children shall dwell in my basement forever.

If they have figured out that the "No Child Left Behind" nonsense is an opium-fantasy inspired Educational Ponzi Scheme in Utah, then it must mean that the code is slowly getting broken on the 1600 Crew...and every "break" counts.

Today's column: Trying to understand the federal government's No Child Left Behind law.

Or, as educators fondly call it, No Child Left Untested. Or, No Teacher Left Standing. Or, No Child Left. Or, No Child's Behind Left.

I hope you picked up the sarcasm. If there's one thing that makes a teacher madder than a kid with a spitball, it's this Alice-in-Wonderland legislation.

In case you haven't heard, or you have and you're totally confused — remember, these are the same people who wrote the tax laws — the law is this: By the year 2014, every child in public school must achieve grade-level proficiency in reading, math and science.

What a great idea — perfect children!!! Next the feds will require the Justice Department to reform every criminal in the United States en route to closing all prisons by 2020.

But you can't mean every child, you're thinking. Yes, every child.

Well, you can't mean kids with severe learning disabilities, you're thinking. Yes.

Well, you can't mean kids who don't speak English, you're thinking. Yes — and the law requires that they be tested in English, too.

Well, you can't mean a child with Down syndrome, you're thinking. Yes!
...
This law is the equivalent of telling a high school track coach that every one of his kids has to run under 12 seconds for 100 meters, including shot putters, discus throwers and pole vaulters. Even though Johnny weighs 100 pounds and runs a world record for 100 meters, he still has to throw the shot put 50 feet or else. Fat kids, skinny kids, slow kids — they all must hit the mark, because, as everyone knows, all kids have the same abilities.

Utah...let's hope the madness spreads!

So now the "insurgents" are using ultra-low-tech methods to attack high-value targets (HVT's) in Iraq

Faced with an American military crackdown using all the paraphernalia of high-technology warfare, Iraqi insurgents resorted today to the humblest of creatures and the simplest of transports to carry out what American officers called "spectacular" strikes against heavily fortified targets in Baghdad.
...
American commanders said they had no immediate suspects in the attacks. The donkey carts themselves yielded few clues, beyond the sort of hand-lettered inscriptions that Middle Eastern carters commonly inscribe on their vehicles. "Allah, Muhammad, Ali," one said, invoking the Shiite Muslim trinity of God, the Prophet Muhammad and the Shiites' first imam, Ali.
...
The donkeys were tethered to trees, with the rockets inserted inside home-made launchers linked to car batteries and time-fuses, and hidden under hay. But these "contraptions," as one American officer called them, were armed with powerful battlefield rockets. Several feet long and as big around as a fire hose, they were said by American officers to have been either Soviet-made 107-millimeter or Brazilian-made 122-millimeter rockets, two types that were stockpiled by Mr. Hussein's army before the American invasion. They have a range of up to 10 miles.

Former US Senator from Georgia, Max Cleland said this not too long ago

Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance

Alterman examines the relationship between the Murdoch Media Empire and the 9/11 commission. Great stuff.

Oh, and when is Bill O'Reily going to quit? WMD's and all...just wondering.

Seems that now free speech and disagreeing with the Liar in Chief make us well, Terrorist Supporters. At least according to a new GOP advertisement that will begin running soon. Apparently the ad has this text in it

"Our war against terror is a contest of will, in which perseverance is power," he says after the screen flashes the words, "Some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists."

I would challenge the GOP to a test...would the Unelected Fraud have dinner with a group of wounded GI's and their families, or a member of the Bin Ladens and/or Saudi Royal families if the choice was never publicized and the dinner was completely private? I'm not holding my breath waiting for an answer.

So take the whining about what the Failure is reaping and sow it elsewhere...the longer he's in office, the worse everyone will think of him. "War on Terra™" notwithstanding.

Today at some sort of a press availability in the UK, the Miserable Failure probably made Unka Karl extremely happy he was still on that blood-pressure medication...seems the National Embarrassment was, well, Embarrassing.

Bush raised the possibility of increasing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. When a reporter mentioned the United States' announced plans to reduce troop levels, the president responded: "We could have less troops in Iraq, we could have the same number of troops in Iraq, we could have more troops in Iraq -- whatever is necessary to secure Iraq."

A top aide to Bush, who briefed reporters after the news conference on condition that she not be identified, said that Bush was not announcing a change in policy and that expectations remained that troop levels would be reduced. "There is simply nothing to suggest that the number of American forces would need to increase," the official said. "In fact, the conversations with the commanders have gone the other way."

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced plans to reduce U.S. forces from the current 132,000 to 105,000 by next May. The Pentagon has also said it plans to reduce forces to about 50,000 by mid-2005. Though it said those figures could change based on the security situation in Iraq, military experts have said it would be difficult to increase the U.S. troop levels in Iraq without calling up more reserves and National Guard units and extending rotations for a military that is already stretched thin.

Seems that A Marine's Girl has been vindicated. The "Top" aka "Master Gunnery Sergeant Conover" is, according to AMG a 33 year-old man. It's not too likely to he has an honorable discharge at the rank of E-9 or as she points out, string of Vietnamese Ears as a "necklace". Hmmm, doing the math, that would make him about what, Five years old when Saigon fell? Sounds like just another Sad Wannabe Couch-borne ChickenBlogger, who well ... who knows. How Sad.

She's trying to resurrect her site, and she's planning to push on with the good work she's been doing, supporting her Marine in Iraq and making many significant others feel better about being here on the "homefront" while their husbands/wives/girlfriends/boyfriends are counting down the days until they get back here to the world, for good.

Semper Fi, A Marine's Girl. All's well that ends well...keep us all posted.

A couple of weeks ago Howard Dean caused quite a flap by making a valid point about people who vote against their own self-interest, just because. In light of the Massachussets SJC ruling, I'm waiting to see if Sullivan falls in love with red necks, white socks and blue ribbon beer, and slaps that Confederate Flag sticker on the rear window of the vehicle.

Useful idiot indeed, Judas Goat, more likely.

Today Richard Perle, Chickenhawk investment guru and unfortunate afterbirth of some mammalian creature said this:

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.

But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.

COUNT ONE -- THE COMMON PLAN OR CONSPIRACY

(Charter, Article 6, especially 6 (a))

III. Statement of the Offense

All the defendants, with divers other persons, during a period of years preceding 8th May, 1945, participated as leaders, organizers, instigators or accomplices in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit, or which involved the commission of, Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, as defined in the Charter of this Tribunal, and, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, are individually responsible for their own acts and for all acts committed by any persons in the execution of such plan or conspiracy. The common plan or conspiracy embraced the commission of Crimes against Peace, in that the defendants planned, prepared, initiated and waged wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.

In the development and course of the common plan or conspiracy it came to embrace the commission of War Crimes, in that it contemplated, and the defendants determined upon and carried out, ruthless wars against countries and populations, in violation of the rules and customs of war, including as typical and systematic means by which the wars were prosecuted, murder, ill-treatment, deportation for slave labor and for other purposes of civilian populations of occupied territories, murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and of persons on the high seas, the taking and killing of hostages, the plunder of public and private property, the wanton destruction of cities, towns, and villages, and devastation not justified by military necessity.

The common plan or conspiracy contemplated and came to embrace as typical and systematic means, and the defendants determined upon and committed, Crimes against Humanity, both within Germany and within occupied territories, including murder, extermination, enslavement deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations before and during the war, and persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, in execution of the plan for preparing and prosecuting aggressive or illegal wars, many of such acts and persecutions being violations of the domestic laws of the countries where perpetrated.

The saddest part is that within the US, Perle knows that the vast majority of people who will vote republican neither know nor care what he just said. If it outrages the Europeans, so what they don't vote. It's kind of like when John D'Iulio called the 1600 Crew "Mayberry Machiavelli's" ... they were pissed, but he had already started to gravitate away from them. These statements of Perle's just ensure that the 1600 Crew will be at the very bottom of all presidencies since 1776 when viewed in a historical context, except in the minds of those who still think Ronnie Ray-gun was a studly guy.

Der Volkischer BeobachterThe Washington Post is just determined to keep up the appearance of the Great National Embarrassment being just a Joe Six-Pack kinda guy. Check out this line:

Queen Elizabeth did indeed provide the president and his entourage with superior accommodations at Buckingham Palace. But although the royal hospitality gave Bush a comfortable distance from the madding crowd, it introduced a new problem: Bush, a man with little patience for ceremony, had to endure the very pinnacle of pomp and pageantry -- a state visit to the United Kingdom.

Norbizness has the statistic of the week...

And, of course, if something disagreeable does enter the President's mobile panic room, the non-response du jour ("This just shows the value of free speech") has already been thoroughly tested and mother-approved. Hopefully, the 14,000 police officers assigned to this small detail (only 3,000 more than the number of coalition soldiers in the whole of Afghanistan!) will see that this gross indignity does not occur.

So President 1st LT is in the UK. Seems he went straight from AF One to Marine One at Heathrow so he could overfly all those nasty protesters. Then, he made more of his asinine comments to the captive press puppies (from anticipated remarks, I guess):

In a speech on Wednesday, Bush will argue that war is sometimes necessary as a last choice, said a senior administration official traveling with him on Air Force One.

"History has shown that there are times when countries must use force to defend the peace and to defend values," Bush was to say.

But Bush did not plan to elaborate further on when it is necessary to go to war.

• Bring up those sagging poll numbers
• Get the Macho back in your Morning with the Blood of Others
• Show you are the Baddest Mother on the Block, so you can sneak in a celebratory drink or two when the Lump's not looking

• Because you promised all your campaign contributors some ass-kicking good payback for their investments in the 1600 Crew Inc.

Ahh, I love the smell of Bullshit in the Morning.

...perhaps Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr and Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus of the well respected 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions respectively. Why might they be bending elbows at the Retired Flag Officers Club with Eric Shinseki? Because, darn it, they tell the inconvenient truth.

"I want to underscore that most of the attacks on our forces are by former regime loyalists and other Iraqis, not foreign forces," said the officer, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

His view was echoed by Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, which controls northern Iraq and parts of its borders with Syria, Turkey and Iran.

During a briefing on Monday for a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, he said that since May, his men had captured perhaps 20 foreign fighters trying to slip into the country from those three countries.

Anything to cover up a Miserable Failure, eh. Hope the Generals have some lucre put aside for their golden years...I think they're gonna get shitcanned for even mentioning this in a non-spin approved method (it did not come from FNC, therefore it's not true)...

A Registered Nurse became the first person (out of two volunteers Nation-wide) to receive a trial vaccine for Ebola. Two people...the other is a landscape developer in Maryland.

Steve Rucker, a registered nurse at the National Institutes of Health, broke with his lunchtime routine yesterday, forgoing his usual visit to the cafeteria and opting instead to roll up his sleeve for a shot filled with the biological essence of Ebola -- one of the world's deadliest and goriest diseases.
...
"I've had better lunches," Rucker quipped as the shot's 100 trillion strands of synthetic DNA began to make their way into the cells in his arm.

Rucker is a pioneer in a high-tech effort to beat Ebola. If the vaccine works in people as it has in monkeys, it could fell one of the world's most horrid infectious scourges.

Alas, health officials say, despite weeks of advertisements and other pleas, only two people have volunteered to be part of the effort.
...
The irony, scientists and doctors lament, is that this first Ebola vaccine is probably the safest and most sophisticated vaccine ever made, without a single component coming from the virus itself.

Indeed, the product spray-blasted into Rucker's arm (no needle necessary) is by any standard a marvel of biotechnological engineering. It was designed to rally the immune system even more than a real Ebola infection would, without causing any symptoms of the disease itself.

"It's remarkably sophisticated technology," said Gary Nabel, the virologist who is leading the Ebola effort in a fast-track program that has catapulted his basic research from the lab bench to the clinic in just three years.

Someday, perhaps two billion people will be grateful to Mr. Rucker for taking the time and risk to do what he did. Bravo.

Today the Massachussets Supreme Court ruled:

... The Massachusetts Constitution affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens. In reaching our conclusion we have given full deference to the arguments made by the Commonwealth. But it has failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples.

Sullivan: 9/11. We can't forget the calumny of 9/11 and it's relationship to Unpatriotic Democrats. We must keep ourselves pure and sacrosanct as an example of our 9/11 rememberance. But now we're only second class citizens in 48 other states and California! Oh, the rapture!. When all Americans realize my vision of our Steely-Eyed Rocket Man and of horrible (but sometimes hot and hairy) terrorists they will see that we deserve better and award it to us, just like the Massachussetts Supreme Court did. 9/11 9/11 9/11. Nothing has changed. 9/11.

Beagle:I have a migraine.

I was just growing up out in the Bay Area in what is now the heart of Silicon Valley and I remember reading stories that started like this:

U.S. fighter jets pounded suspected insurgent positions Tuesday in the largest aerial bombardment against guerrilla positions in central Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat in May, the U.S. military said.

In northern Iraq, guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb, wounding two soldiers, the military said. On Monday, a U.S. civilian contractor was killed in an insurgent attack near Baghdad, the military said without giving further details.

In fighting throughout central Iraq, U.S. soldiers destroyed 12 safe houses, 14 mortar firing positions and four ambush sites, said Lt. Col. William MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th ID said. There were no reports of casualties.

Elsewhere, an Iraqi militant group called Muhammad's Army claimed responsibility Monday for the downing of a U.S. helicopter on Nov. 2 that killed 16 soldiers near Fallujah, located west of Baghdad.

The group warned that U.S. forces would face more attacks if they did not leave Iraq in 15 days. There was no way to independently verify the claims.

Despite the administration's efforts to repair the country's infrastructure, Iraqis frequently complain about the slow pace of reconstruction seven months after the war that deposed Saddam's regime.

Coalition authorities have frequently pointed to the gradual restoration of power supplies in the aftermath of the war as a benchmark of their success in rebuilding Iraq.

But those efforts suffered a major setback when the grid supplying the capital from power plants in the north collapsed on Saturday.

As a result, much of Baghdad has been left with only brief, 10-15 minute periods of electricity during the last three days.
...
On Monday, the Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the resignation of an Italian official of the U.S.-led coalition, who accused the occupation authorities of incompetence

"The provisional authority simply doesn't work," the Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted Marco Calamai, a special counselor of the Coalition Provisional Authority, as saying. "It's neither fish nor fowl. Reconstruction projects that were promised and financed have had practically no results."

I'm gonna be a big star someday
or an analyst for the CIA,
it don't matter that I'm gay
still gonna be a big star someday

Meet London's mayor: Ken Livingstone: "I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen."

Welcome to der Gropenator, Gaulieter of Kalifornia for the 1600 Crew. Nice job sinking your state an instant $4.2 billion further into debt by eliminating your car tax. Ask all the folks in Virginia how well that worked out...especially the ones who live up north where most of the heavy traffic/long commute times exist.

Remember Planet Hollywood...a well-run establishment, still in business world-wide. Which world we have not figured out yet. Wasn't der Governator involved in that phenomenal success somehow?