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?

Never in the history of the Republic has there been a more paranoid, frightened little boy in charge than the current Miserable Failure. Word has it that he won't show up in the British Parliament becaus he does not want to be heckled (and the MP's who don't like him would do it too). He asked that parts of Buckingham Palace be rebuilt to make it more explosion proof, which apparently really pissed off the Queen, who rode out the Nazi bombing of London inside those very walls as a young woman.

So what does this tell us? Ah, that Bunnypants has less balls than a young woman...in other words none. Maybe he deserted from the TANG not to go work in Winny Blount's campaign in Alabama, but because he was too damn scared to get back into the cockpit again...it all sort of fits, doesn't it?

Viceroy Bremer parroting the party line was making the Suck-Timmy-Circuit today and making statements like this:

Yesterday, Paul Bremer, the chief administrator in Iraq, said the US would help write an interim Iraqi constitution that "embodies American values" and would lead to the creation of a new government.

He said: "We will write into that constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam’s constitution.

"We’ll have a bill of rights. We’ll recognise equality for all citizens. We’ll recognise an independent judiciary. We’ll talk about a federal government.

"All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time, probably two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values."

Yup, American Values for a significantly non-American country. News for you boys in the 1600 Crew, there was civiilization in Iraq while the Proto-WASPs were still making artwork on cave walls with excrement. Perhaps a little thought before engaging mouths might be in order...naaaah, yer neocons/chickenhawks.

In re the story of A Marine's Girl, Len Clevelin over at Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener has been having his own issues with the suppression-of-speech crowd. Seems Len posted a humourous screed (which has been around in one form or another since I was an Ensign...and that's a while ago), anyhow someone who obviously never got any closer to military service than their Playstation 2 got really, really offended by it and called him treasonous.

Unfortunately for them, Len is an ex-Navy JAG officer, not easily intimidated, and more than willing to give it back to them, I do believe. Go read the screed, drop a few comments in his comment box to let future chickenbloggers know that they need to get a life. Some of it is such inside humor, that without knowing the kinds of folks it was makiing fun of, you wouldn't get it in a million years...which proves it has to be an offended chickenhawk, someone who never pushed back from their game console except for a head call and more chips.

Someone remind me again about that pesky damn document...what is it again, The Constitution? Oh, good I thought that was just a ship.

"You know freedom is a beautiful thing, and the fact that people are willing to come out and express themselves says I'm going to a great country,'' Bush told reporters last week.

Oh, but wait it gets better:

Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.

In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.
...
The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. But British officials dismissed the idea that a suicide bomber could kill the President by blowing up a Tube train. Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a 'sterile zone' around the President should be policed entirely by American special agents and military.
...
White House political advisers hope, at least, that images of Bush standing alongside Blair and with the queen amid the pomp and ceremony of a state visit will remind Americans that the United States is not alone in Iraq, that the British are there as well.

But such images may have to compete with far more vivid pictures of street demonstrations, American flag burnings and the planned toppling of a mesh statue of Bush in Trafalgar Square during a ''Stop Bush'' march that organizers predict will draw 60,000 or more demonstrators.

It's so hard to believe that our Unelected Coward is so afraid of his own shadow that there would even be mention in jest of allowing Americans to use "deadly force" and have it sanctioned by diplomatic immunity. I can just see 100 or so duly authorized Bush Fedayeen storming that mosque they really don't like in Central London, wasting everyone, passing out "hi-fives", getting on Air Force One with the National Embarrassment and being flown home. It's just not outside the realm of possibility for this criminal enterprise to go there.

The most Excellent Blog, A Marines Girl is being shut down due to threats and initimidation by a retired Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant who signs himself as "Mstr. Gunnery/Sgt. KenDale Conover, USMC Retired". I guess Top Conover fought (?) and served for his right to run his fucking pie-hole, but no one else can, without it being approved by him.

Way to go Top, you surely bring honor and American Values to the Corps by your statements and threats. Are you sure that A Marine's Girl was posting "classified" intel? I mean back in my day, ships movements were "classified", but every bar-girl in Olongapo knew the deployment schedules of every ship in the West Coast that would make a port call in the PI.

Top, ya make me sick. Glad I never had to work with you...you would not have liked it very much. That's 0-4 to E-9 talking.

So the Miserable Failure, who can't catch a cold, much less Osama bin Forgotten and Saddam is now fighting on two fronts, which is one more than our country needs right now. Remember that little dust-up in Afhganistan, of which the Great National Embarrassment just said this

... President Bush's Veterans Day declaration that "in Afghanistan we're helping to build a free and stable democracy as we continue to track down and destroy Taliban and al Qaeda forces". ...

Like Iraq's Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mohammad Omar remains at large. And like them, the head of Afghanistan's ousted government apparently continues to try to rally support.
...
Reuters reported yesterday that one of its employees was given an audio cassette in the southern town of Spin Boldak. In the recording, a man claiming to be Omar calls on his former commanders to take up jihad again.

News from Iraq.

Two Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed Saturday night in northern Iraq, killing at least 17 coalition soldiers and injuring nine.

I think the level of casualties is secondary. I mean, it may sound like an odd thing to say, but all the great scholars who have studied American character have come to the conclusion that we are a warlike people and that we love war. . . . What we hate is not casualties but losing. And if the war goes well and if the American public has the conviction that we're being well-led and that our people are fighting well and that we're winning, I don't think casualties are going to be the issue.
Michael Ledeen
AEI Breakfast
March 27, 2003

I think the American people are going to have great tolerance for the war taking longer, and they are going to have great tolerance for more casualties.
William Kristol
AEI Breakfast
March 27, 2003

Jeebus, it's becoming such a waste. For a lie.

Someone do this: Buy Sullivan a box of condoms, a bottle of lube, a mirror and then paint "9/11" on his forehead backwards, lock him in a room and leave him there for the weekend. Maybe by then he'll be over it and never, ever want to see those numbers again. 9/11 was a National Tragedy. For Sullivan it's become a masturbatory fantasy to idealize and idolize his hero, Commander Codpiece. It's time he got on with the rest of his life...the rest of us have.

Here it is...stone cold evidence that your Governator is a wholly-owned, licensed and operated subsidiary of WilsonCO and other fine mega-businesses state-wide.

Seems that der Gropenfurherer wants to "trim" those excessive costs associated with workers comp. At the behest of the citizens of California who are likely the most affected by comp and its benefits? Oh, let's see:

One of the first bills Arnold Schwarzenegger will introduce as governor Tuesday when he calls lawmakers back into session is an overhaul of the state's costly and cumbersome workers' compensation system.
...
But by championing a plan backed by businesses and insurers, Schwarzenegger launches a direct assault on the Democratic-controlled Legislature and two of its most generous backers: unions and trial lawyers.
...
Schwarzenegger also is considering lowering the standard of care for workers under the system. The current standard says workers' compensation is designed to "cure and relieve'' an injury. Business owners believe that encourages continuing medical treatment for conditions that can't be cured.

Seems the Judge in the Moussaoui trial/hearing/territorial dispute/federal pissing match has decided that Mr. Moussaoui can not represent himself anymore. In what has to be (to me) one of the premier Bizarro World court proceedings, this admitted al-Qaida member has asked for many things, including Attorney General "Snake-Handler" Johnny to be sent to the Alexandria, VA jail where he is being held so that he can:

... he said Attorney General John Ashcroft "must be sent to Alexandria jail so I can torture him."

"After all," he added, "torture is now part of the American way of life."

So Condi has come out and said it...

The new approach amounts to Iraqification, or the handing over of responsibility for both a deteriorating security situation and a stalled political process to Iraqis. The goal, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday, "is that we find ways to accelerate the transfer of authority to the Iraqi people."

Those who forget the past...etc...

During the RNC Lovefest next summer, someone should hire the Jumbotron in Times Square and have it list the names of all the soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq while the convention is going on, 24/7 all week. That might put a damper on their sprits a bit.

Seems that perhaps William Kristol is posting on the Talking Dogs' Blog in the comments. Genuine? Perhaps. Go give him a piece of your mind, I did and felt better for 20 whole minutes. It's good clean family fun, and he is after all a Charter Member of the NeoCons. Go and speak your mind...if I'm right, it'll be good for him to hear from us. Grrrrrr.

Andy's pissed. Seems Fisk went to Baghdad, and didn't report on any Codpiece Milestones. You know, all the stuff that should have been reported on ... by the good puppy press and journalistas. According to Sully, Fisk apparently engaged in a sleep-walking tour of the country.

Once again, he reported nothing from Kurdistan, nothing about the return of the Marsh Arabs to their immemorial home. A journey to Basra provided a single story designed to show that the editor and publisher of a new paper there was a stooge who would give no trouble. Nothing about the new central bank, the opening of lines of credit or the currency reform. Nothing about goods and services, or supplies to hospitals. Nothing about markets. Nothing about private lives. Not a single interview with American officials or Iraqis trying to reconstruct their country. Nothing about Ahmad Chalabi. Fisk seems only to have haunted the prison of Abu Ghraib and the mortuary of Yarmouk hospital, exclusively searching for American brutality.

Well, it's no Vietnam...yet. But it seems that the forces of human nature are inevitably conspiring to make the National Embarrassment and the Neocons look like what they really are: Jackasses of the First Order.

While maintaining a brave face on the accelerating stream of bad news coming out of Baghdad, the administration of President George W Bush appears increasingly at a loss, not to say panicked, about what to do.
...
Asked about the CIA report that found growing popular disillusionment with the US occupation, Bremer was unusually uncertain. "I think the situation with the Iraqi public is, frankly, not easy to quantify." The CIA report, whose existence was disclosed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, concluded that growing numbers of Iraqis believe that the occupation can be defeated and are supporting the insurgents.

The report, written by the CIA's station chief in Baghdad, was formally presented to top officials on Monday, but word of its conclusions was also selectively leaked to various reporters, apparently, said the newspaper, to "make sure the assessment reaches Bush".

The Inquirer's source indicated frustration with Iraq hawks, including Vice President Dick Cheney and the Pentagon's civilian leadership, whose optimistic assessments of the situation had crowded out more sombre analyses in White House discussions.
...
It appears that the US military has decided to respond to the increased level of resistance with much more aggressive "shock-and-awe" tactics, a decision that was previewed last weekend with the unprecedented bombing by US warplanes of suspected guerrilla arms caches and hideouts near Tikrit.
...
The political front looks equally risky. While the administration wants to accelerate the process to put an "Iraqi face" on the government, Bremer appears to have lost confidence in the 24 members of the IGC, including Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi. The IGC, which has until December 15 to submit to the United Nations Security Council a plan to draft a new constitution, has so far failed to tackle the issue seriously, and the administration is worried that any delay will derail its own timetable, including plans to have an elected government in place before the November 2004 US presidential elections.

As a result, the White House is considering abandoning its previous plans and moving instead to create a provisional government similar to the one installed by coalition forces in Afghanistan after the Taliban's ouster, which could oversee the drafting of a constitution. One problem is that it has no obvious candidate to head such a government, as it did in Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Chalabi, one of the main instigators of this whole mess along with all the American Neocon Cabal is not a front-runner for the position of Key Puppet? Shocker. Guess the old thing about leopards and spots must still have some merit.

If this is politically bad for the 1600 Crew, then it's good for everyone else...removing this collective criminal enterprise of democracy-hating SOBs will be a Great Thing. It's just too bad we have to wait a year, and some other poor mizzerable slob will have to clean up after it's all over but the shoutin' on election night...

Oh, and I wonder if they are making book in Vegas on the remaining length of Viceroy Bremer's tenure...

There's no excuse for this. Here we are two days after the Great National Embarrassment stood in Arlington and dis-honored all interred there by his very prescence, and here we go:

Soldiers with the National Guard are already under the gun in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now a new government report claims that while the troops are fighting far from home, red tape is preventing many of them from being paid.
...
In six Guard units examined by the General Accounting Office, a stunning 94 percent of soldiers had pay problems, including:
Under- and over-payments.
Three-month delays in active duty checks.
Pay and benefits cut off for wounded soldiers in the hospital.

This needs way more attention than it's gonna get ... I'm betting any reporter who brings this one up finds themselves covering the Cherry Blossom Festival in the Tidal Basin next spring. RNC and Faux spin-meisters are even now spinning this as a way to, hmmmmm, save on Taxes, yeah, that's it. Save on Taxes.

Here are the logistics of the 1600 Crew UK invasion task force...could we call it "Operation Scaredy Cat"? Hey, if the foo shits...wear it, right?

Here's a guy from Tom Delay's hometown, he's currently unemployed, but by his "own hand" so to speak...his conservative and republican credentials are impeccable (totally, 100%). He's a perfect fit for almost any job in the 1600 Crew, but given his skill set, a position in Dan Bartlett's communications shop maybe in his best interest....

Radio talk show host Jon Matthews was indicted on one count of indecency with a child Wednesday. ...
...
Officials told News2Houston that a teenager who lives in Matthews' Sugar Land neighborhood went to police Oct. 9 and made accusations against Matthews.
...
Matthews has been a staple of Houston radio as a conservative talk show host, most recently on the KSEV AM morning show. He handed in his resignation, which was accepted, Wednesday.

This has to be one of the most disturbing stories to come out of Iraq yet. Thanks, you miserable failure. Thanks a lot.

If Washington doubts there is Iraqi public support for guerrillas killing its troops, it should consider the teenagers who happily watched American blood spill on Wednesday.

After a roadside bomb ripped through a military vehicle and wounded two soldiers, Iraqi boys rushed out of their homes to survey the damage.

"This is good. If they ask me, I will join the resistance. The Americans have to die," said Ali Qais, 15. "They are just here to steal our oil."

The U.S. administration has long dismissed the guerrillas as isolated "terrorists" who are Saddam Hussein loyalists or foreign Islamic militants.
...
Teenage boys were irritated to hear that two American soldiers were just wounded, not killed.

His fury has been fueled by what he says is an American desire to humiliate all Iraqis.
...
"They are watching us die and laughing. They humiliate us. They handcuffed me and arrested me in front of my parents late one night because I stood on my house porch after curfew," he said.

If these teenagers seem cold now, wait til the next group get shot before they have a chance to talk to a reporter...or while doing so. Shit, meet Fan.

Masstone Effect has the best thumbnail sketch of Kim Du Toit...

Heh. [/snark off]

Bloggus Rex is all over John Kerry in one sentence today...because Kerry has had some staff turnover. Of course in the 1600 Crew, felony convictions or malfeasance (Colson/Poindexter/Negroponte) are not enough to keep you out of the inner-circles of power, or induce the National Embarrassement to fire someone. I'm guessing it would take being caught in bed with a minor male child or incarceration in a "real" prison before you got canned by the Smirkster. So Kerry has had some turnover? Sully among others now has Kerry going down faster than he would in a hot glory hole...which so wrong. There may be a lot of reasons Kerry fails (a coherent message might be one; his vote on the Iraq resolution and subsequent equivocation, another), but staff turnover and the ability to tell a staffer "hasta la bye bye" is certainly not one of them.

And what the hell is the "...he served in Vietnam" supposed to mean? So did many other Americans and immigrants, except you. Is it now OK to "Bash a Vet for Bush" 'cause it's not November 11th? Such a warped and over-compensated jerk...it boggles the mind.

They have none. For all the whining that the republicans do about the "blocking" of Judicial nominees, they seem to have conveniently forgotten that there were a few nominees that Clinton sent to them in the 90s that they did not see fit to act on. How conveeeenient. I guess that the ginseng supply along with common sense is running low on the other side of the aisle.

With cots, coffee and choreography worthy of a Broadway production, the Senate squared off last night for an all-night talkathon -- its first in a decade -- that Republicans are staging to call attention to Democrats' efforts to block several of President Bush's judicial nominees.
...
The debate got off to a wobbly start when Sens. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) complained about unfinished work on a spending bill. Republicans, meanwhile, objected to a large purple sign reading "168 to 4" that Democrats posted on their side of the chamber. The Senate has confirmed 168 federal judges tapped by Bush, while Democrats have blocked four. Democrats were told to remove the sign until it was their turn to speak.
...
"The Republicans are consumed by those four jobs [for judges] and ignore the 3 million jobs that we've lost over the course of the last three years under this administration's economic policies," Daschle said.

Seems that the worst fears of some reservists is being realized even now. They would go off to do their duty and come home to...no job. I don't know if it's "widespread" but if it happens more than once, that's widespread to me.

Some veterans coming home from military duty say they are getting a cold reception when they return to work.

About 1,300 National Guardsmen and reservists filed complaints with the Labor Department in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, saying they suffered discrimination at work when they returned to their regular jobs after their tours of duty, government officials said. It couldn't be learned whether any were returning from Iraq. The number of complaints is up from 900 complaints in 2001.

Concerned about the rise in complaints, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao has released a televised public service announcement reminding employers that they must reinstate workers called to military duty. "They did their job -- now let's do ours," Chao says.
...
John Goheen, spokesman for the National Guard Association, said many employers have treated their workers generously. But many companies have downsized, asking fewer workers to do more work and leaving co-workers overburdened when some are called to duty. "The bulk of employers recognize what's going on in Iraq, but we've got some folks that don't know the law or are trying to skirt the law," Goheen said.

I remember what a good friend of mine used to say in jest "Twenty wasted years in the service of an ungrateful nation"...seems he must have been thinking of these bastards and not even known it.

How many of the Corporations our Troops in Iraq are providing security for do have maildrops in "Tax-Havens"? All of them who do, do so courtesy of the 1600 Crew and Congress. That should change...yesterday as it were, as long as that situation is going on, Congress should amend that rule. NOW! After all, it's only fair and might help 'balance' the budget.

Screw the lobbyists, change the Law. It's time.

Kimberley over at the fabulous Blog, Brief Intelligence has a great idea on this subject...check it out.

Our favorite little princess seems to think that over here on the Left we're all worked up about the outbreak of Freedom of Speech and Association in Iraq. Well, last time I checked, there was some department or another at the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) taking care to "moderate" the Free Speech stuff...and M-16s aimed by the Neocons and wielded by soldiers can pretty effectively take on the Association problems when the 1600 Crew wants "order" in the streets. Sully says that what concerns us most is that "capitalism" is breaking out...right, if your last name is Blount, or your corporate maildrop in Bermuda for tax purposes is under "Halliburton", or you have the blessing of the Saudi or Bush Royal families.

I guess that he never got the "Go Screw Iraq for Fun and Profit" memo from Perle & Feith...or he could be working on his first or second million; or he never got the memo, because well, they just don't like him that much.

I tried to find on the web (on a free site, so I could link to it) a story from Tom Wolfe's book 'Mauve Gloves and Madmen' called "Jousting with Sam and Charlie". It's a great story of aerial combat over North Vietnam written as only Tom Wolfe can, oddly appropriate to our times, except the SAMs don't seem to be chasing the go-fasters (tactical jets) but rather the slow-moving "grapes"...transport helicopters full of troops.

If you have the book, and have never read the story I recommend it. Otherwise, next time you make a trip to the library take a peek...or perhaps a friend has a copy they'd let you borrow...worth a read. A friend gave me a Xerox of the story years ago, somewhere in amongst my collected treasures that Mrs. Fish terms "junk" sits the dog-eared copy...wish I could post that.

Thanks to a faithful correspondant...a little humor about the Corps. Happy 228th to them!

The Marine Corps ain't so bad.

Letter from a Christmas Valley, Oregon farm kid in basic training at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot

Dear Ma and Pa,

I Am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 A.M., but am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon, when you get fed again.

It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on "route" marches, which the Platoon Sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it is not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat.

The Sergeant is like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move. And it ain't shooting at you, like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. He joined up the same time as me. But I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and weighs near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Gail

Semper Fi.

May all my friends now in the Fertile Crescent come home to celebrate many, many Veterans Days with their kids, grandkids and any other close or distant relations who might want to hang with them.

May the Neocons all read Dante, and take it to heart.

Talked about this one before, but here it is again, back in the news. The Gulf War 1 POWs who sued Saddam & Co for damages for mistreatment and won a default judgement, have basically been told (again) to go pound sand by the 1600 Crew. The ex-POWs are not being annoying, pushy or even disprespectful, they just want their judgement paid from the money Saddam left behind. It's a pretty huge chunk of change, but they won it in open court (albeit by default), and now they just want payment.

The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were tortured in Iraqi prisons during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein.

In a court challenge that the administration is winning so far but is not eager to publicize, administration lawyers have argued that Iraqi assets frozen in bank accounts in the United States are needed for Iraqi reconstruction and that the judgment won by the 17 former American prisoners should be overturned.
...
Stephen A. Fennell, a Washington lawyer who is also representing the former prisoners, said the Bush administration had rejected a proposal that would have allowed the United States to delay the payments to his clients for months or years — until after the reconstruction of Iraq was well under way. "My guys are obviously real patriots, and they authorized us to tell the government that we were willing to wait," he said. "But that was turned down."

Sully has another post up, the logic of which defies explanation...unless viewed through the prism of low-road wingnuttery; no surprise there. In worming his way throught the giant "Mission Accomplished" debacle of the Crawford Village Idiot, he does more contortions than Rosemary Woods operating a tape machine to show that Madeline Albright might have used the words "Mission Accomplished" with respect to Iraq during the Clinton Years. From the USIA write-up of Sec. Albright's remarks:

Four nights of air strikes against Iraq have
accomplished their mission, says Secretary of State Albright. "We have
accomplished what we needed to," the Secretary said in a televised
interview December 20 on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Saddam Hussein is weaker because all the targets and things that he
cares about most have been destroyed....and the region is safer
because we have managed, I think to, degrade his ability to threaten
his neighbors," said Albright.

As logical as this is, it makes no difference to HRH, after all the loyal opposition still maintains the actual or implied "imminence" words are out there, whether uttered by the Village Idiot or not...everyone was putting those words into any speechifying he did by implication. Imminence was never a controversial point until no WMDs were found, and the mission has turned out to be far from over. It's a shame that Sully and his ilk have gotten so defensive about the whole imminence thing, the more they doth protest and come up with specious examples like Secretary Albright's words, the more I think that they never really grew up or left the pre-puberty "nyah-nyah" sandbox stage of life.

An interesting take on the extended active duty the National Guard and Reserves sent into Iraq are doing and how it's affecting them.

U.S. Army reservists, pulled from everyday life to serve in Iraq, are suffering from a sharply disproportionate share of nonhostile injuries -- which include accidents, illnesses, and mental breakdowns -- as they adjust to the rigors of a long and unexpected tour in a hot, strife-ridden environment, according to a Boston Globe analysis of Department of Defense figures.
...
"If you look at the reserves, they are usually civilians that have jobs back home, and now you take them away from their families and you put them in a foreign war where they are less equipped than active duty troops and don't have the combat training," said Col. Juan DeRojas, a surgeon in the Army Reserve who returned from a tour of duty in Iraq in July.
...
"We took care of a number of reservists," he said. "Many are saying, 'I can't do this anymore.'"

Let's face it, the 1600 Crew has had no clue about anything but lying through their teeth to get to the oil fields and keep the lucre flowing to their campaign comtributors and friends (see the Lucky Sperm post below). I'm pretty sure the reserves/NG folks 'in-country' will do no less than 100% for their tours, however long that'll be. To hold them as "less capable" than their active duty counterparts now is to impute some kind of second-class citizenship to them. Their ace in the hole, if they have one will be the retention numbers that come out of post-deployment life...so we'll just wait and see. I think they'll speak with clear voices then...and it will be interesting.

It was interesting, I was out of the country when they passed the first "Three Strikes" laws...deployed overseas. I remember reading about the crime wave that was surrounding what the media was calling the "crack epidemic". Legislators just could not wait to get their 2-cents in to make the criminals go away forever...chest-beatin' tuff on crime they were. At the time, knowing little about the issue, and knowing it did not affect me 7,000 miles away, I gave it only one thought..."damn, they're gonna have to come up with some serious cash-ola to pay for that shit". Wow, was I ignorant...and right.

In the past year, about 25 states have passed laws eliminating some of the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences so popular in the 1980's and 1990's, restoring early release for parole and offering treatment instead of incarceration for some drug offenders. In the process, politicians across the political spectrum say they are discovering a new motto. Instead of being tough on crime, it is more effective to be smart on crime.
...
The new laws will save Washington a projected $45 million a year. But equally important, Mr. Satterberg said, the new drug policy "is a recognition that you can't incarcerate your way out of this problem."

"There has to be treatment as well as incarceration," he said.
...
"Even those people who favor being tough on crime don't want to find the money to build more prisons and go back on their pledge of no new taxes," Mr. Vratil said. "So they are choosing between the lesser of two evils." Will this new approach last when the economy recovers? Mr. Vratil thinks it will

The 1600 Crew sold so many Americans on their Educational Reforms...it seemed like such an attractive issue to wrest from the Democrats as they lied and clawed their way to power. What they have really done, yet again, is to fix the numbers and lie about the success of the programs that they barely supported using data from books that were pre-cooked to produce pre-ordained results.

When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary" status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best urban school district.

Just a year later, the high school has been downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.

Found this story via Today in Iraq who points to a story in the Tuscaloosa News Online edition about an Alabama Bidness Man named Winston Blount IV...does that name ring any bells?

Seems old Winny IV, a member of the Lucky Sperm Club, has set up shop in Iraq to do some bidness...

Winton Blount IV, the grandson of one of Alabama's most successful business executives, didn't stop working in his Baghdad office when a bomb exploded three blocks away at the Red Cross headquarters.
...
"I'm not scared, just charged up by the contracts moving forward," he told The Birmingham News in an e-mail.
...
"Believe it or not, when I visited my family in September, I missed this awful place," Blount said. "The business side of me can barely sleep because new opportunities arise every day."

Blount's family is no stranger to the Middle East. His late grandfather, Winton "Red" Blount, headed Blount International, which had profitable building projects in Saudi Arabia and Iran during the reign of the Shah.

Gov. George W. Bush's campaign workers have concluded that no documents exist showing he reported for duty as ordered in Alabama with the Texas Air National Guard in 1972. They are looking for people who served with him to verify his story that he did.

Dan Bartlett, a spokesman for Bush's Republican presidential campaign, said he reviewed another 200-page packet of documents last week from the National Guard's records repository in Denver.

``I have read it, and there is nothing earth-shattering,'' he said. The campaign was looking for payroll records that would show Bush reported for duty with the Guard in Montgomery, Ala., while working on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of former Postmaster General Winton Blount.

Democratic members of Congress can't visit Iraq to see where and how we are spending that $87 billion dollar negative inheritance we are leaving our kids, but a Crawford Cornhole Confederate can get an office and a fax machine to drop some of it into into their bank accounts...do not pass go; just collect your $200 million dollars.

So here's the relation of the guy that Drinky McDryDrunk tried to get elected to the Senate...gee, from a family that has ties to Saudi Arabia and the 1600 Crew. I am just so surprised...

Atrios had a post with the Wingnut Debating Dictionary...Ethel the Blog compiled it into a real list. We added two entries and would like to propose one more:

Sullytaire: Playing a gay, catholic, republican and pretending to never be intellectually dishonest, ever.

and from Miriam-Webter online:
Neologism
Function: noun
Etymology: French néologisme, from ne- + log- + -isme -ism
Date: 1800
1 : a new word, usage, or expression
2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic

damn, I'm in trouble....

Posted below is the news that the Army (for whatever reason) decided to withdraw the charges of Cowardice against SGT Pogany. I think it was simple expedience, and classic "over-charging" something Junior NCO's and some Junior Officers are wont to do, especially when their abilities as leaders fails them. Cooler heads obviously prevailed. But it says something that the Charges got as far as they did before the media caught on and it hit the press and internet. Given the bad publicity and the reportedly decreasing morale in the Iraqi theater, I fully expect this to happen again, and for the 1600 Crew to have a better spin on it...after all, Snake-Handler Johnny has been a bit quiet lately, surely he could loan the Service a couple of quickly sworn-in witch-hunters for a prosecution or two.

It's important to know what was up with this...my prediction: we'll see it again, and it won't go away so fast. The Political Machinery of the Nazi's and the Soviets found fear of retribution was a far better motivator in combat than rewards were, historical fact. Don't put it past the Chickenhawks to go there...especially if the draft comes back. Len Clevelin, of the blog "Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener" has an excellent analysis of this matter. Even if you have no background in Legal Theory or Military Law, you'll find it interesting and it will give you an insight into why this went away...and you can also see why and how the next one might not be made to go away so quickly if the Chickenhawks want to "stiffen the resolve" of those they hold in such contempt and use so indifferently.

Sullivan, has the temerity, unmitigated gall, chutzpah...whatever, to start in on the Kennedys again. This time he wants to evoke the image of Whistle Ass as JFK...okay, the 1600 Crew v. Camelot. I'm buying...NOT.

First he draws glowing parallels betwixt them...beginning of course with a comparison of St. McHappyCracks behavioural reforms at age 40, when most of us have grown up and moved on long ago...to Kennedy's continuation of the party life...hey, Captain Wi-Fi, let's look a little further back to say their 20's...LTJG Kennedy was a PT Boat skipper, truly responsible for the lives of others, 1st LT Deserter-Boy...well, he was. All other comparisons, courtesy of a fevered brain...to wit the 1600 Crew is responisble for "unleashing ... economic growth?" And the evidence of this is where, exactly...straight from your ass, like most of the rest of what you write, I guess. Smells like ca-ca to me. Evidence that you actually do make shit up. Daily.

Yesterdays post about SGT Pogany, the man accused of cowardice by the Army has changed...the Army has dropped the Cowardice charges against the Sargeant, opting instead to perhaps charge him with Dereliction of Duty, a much less grave offense. If the Sargeant even goes to an Article 15 hearing (otherwise known as Non-Judicial Punishment), I would be really surprised...do the words "arbitrary and capricious" mean anything (well they do...) to you?

I guess that the silly macho knuckleheads came to their senses, and realized how stupid they looked and made the Army look as well over what seems to be Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a medical issue. Some idiot should get fired over this...what a debacle. Glad for the Sargeant though, he sure was getting the shaft from someone...

Exactly how long is John Bolton's arm? I was wondering, because everytime he shoves it up The Great National Embarrassment's ass and moves his mouth, more crap keeps flowing out, and Americans die. Bolton is one of the chief NeoCon architects of the current debacle in Iraq, along with "Investments" Perle and Wolf-Wolf. Bolton's recent special interest neocon class project has been the whippin' into line (with the sons and daughters of others, of course) of Syria and Iran..."or else". The North Koreans hate him and he is persona non-grata in that part of the world. In fact, the North K's won't even be in the same room, much less the same hemisphere with him.

Today Whistle Ass made a little speech, praising his buddies in Saudi Arabia (they share puppetry duties with the Neocons) and putting out one of those warnings to Syria and Iran...you know, the old Western Movie Cowboy things..."you got 30 minutes to get outta down, pardner or we're comin' ta getcha."

Mr. Bush had sounded similar themes before, notably in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute a month and a half before he ordered the invasion of Iraq. But until Thursday's speech, he had not identified nations that he thought urgently needed to reform. For the first time, he also raised, gingerly, the issue of the absence of liberty in Saudi Arabia, one of America's major oil suppliers and a nation that has long been spared presidential rebuke.

"The Saudi government is taking first steps toward reform," he said, choosing his words carefully about a country that one of his senior aides said recently "is probably the most resistant to change of any nation in the region." He referred to its experiment with local elections, avoided any mention of the struggle within the Saudi royal family over whether and how to surrender some authority, and he offered the most gentle of encouragement.

"By giving the Saudi people a greater role in their own society," Mr. Bush said, "the Saudi government can demonstrate true leadership in the region."
...
Not surprisingly, Mr. Bush heaped the most scorn on Iran and Syria, which his administration accuses of seeking to undermine the Iraq occupation. "The regime in Tehran must heed the democratic demands of the Iranian people or lose its last claim to legitimacy," he said.

He lumped Syria's leaders with Mr. Hussein, saying they had promised a restoration of ancient glories but instead left "a legacy of torture, oppression, misery and ruin."

It's amazing that anyone still buys this shit. The more that Bolton and the Neocons have their hand up that Whistle Ass of his, the less secure our world will be. Having to listen to this crap for anymore than one more year will be, well, unimaginable. There's a real nightmare scenario for us all, The Crawford Village Idiot left in charge...again.

Ever been to Beijing? Been there twice, once in 1988, and once about five years ago. The first time, it was summer and beautiful. Few cars, clean air, pristine...five years ago it was had the atmosphere of the inside of a smoke stack, literally. The air was so polluted, in some days you could not see a block or two. We happened to be there during the Beijing Marathon...man I felt sorry for those folks. Seems that the 1600 Crew, in deference (AGAIN) to their campaign contributors want to begin the gutting of the Clean Air Act ASAP. Why am I not surprised?

A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said.

The lawyers said in interviews on Wednesday that the decision meant the cases would be judged under new, less stringent rules set to take effect next month, rather than the stricter rules in effect at the time the investigations began.

The lawyers said the new rules include exemptions that would make it almost impossible to sustain the investigations into the plants, which are scattered around the country and owned by 10 utilities.

Every once in a while, I go check out my webhost stats. Pretty mundane stuff for the most part. That Googlebot...it's quite a worker (hey, how else do those comment spammers find me to help enlarge some portion of the worlds anatomy?)

Well as I am sure everyone knows webhosts keeps track of Top Search Terms...also pretty mundane (usually). Lots of hits for Veterans stuff (gee, wonder why) but these were too funny not to share:

1. bank teller job blog - really?
2. grecian formula - OMG, my secret is out
3. ann coulter dominatrix - be afraid, very afraid

Another blood-boiler. Here's a young man, who has served in Iraq, and has seen more than any 32-year old or even 96-year old should. He didn't like it, and has now been called a coward by the Army and is being charged with Cowardice (a UCMJ-punishable offense) by the Army. Per usual the journalists have hosed up the story, he's not going on trial yet (if ever), but to an Article 32 hearing which is like a Grand Jury in the civilian world...ham sandwiches not withstanding. Anyhow, here's the story:

Not since the Vietnam War has the Army punished a soldier for being too scared to do his duty.

But on Friday, Sgt. Georg Andreas Pogany will appear in front of military court here to face charges he was a coward.

The Army says he is guilty of "cowardly conduct as a result of fear" and not performing his duties as an interrogator for a squad of Green Berets in Samarra, Iraq.

But Sergeant Pogany says he did not run from the enemy or disobey orders. The only thing he is guilty of, he says, is asking for help for a panic attack.
On his second night in Iraq, one month ago, Sergeant Pogany, 32, saw an Iraqi cut in half by a machine gun. The sight disturbed him so much, he said, he threw up and shook for hours. His head pounded and his chest hurt.

SGT Pogany saw something that was studiously avoided by those who sent hime there...all the Chickenhawks. And now they are prosecuting him...would they have fared any better? Doubtful, but see, we'll never know, they refused to go from the Deserter-in-Chief on down. How would President Dumbass have reacted if he saw someone cut in half in front of him? I'm betting sobriety might have been more of an issue in his worthless existance. But he went to the Champagne Squadron of the Texas Air National Guard, and even ran away from that cushy job.

Where among the senior Civilian ranks does the Moral Authority come from to even question these men? There is none...they barely have any law on their side to prosecute this young man. The last successful prosecution was in 1968 and that soldier actually ran away.

Cowardice cases are very rare. According to the Department of Defense, in 1968 Pvt. Michael Gross was found guilty of running away from his company in Vietnam and sentenced to two years in prison. His case is the last cowardice conviction on the books.

Maybe those charges need to be re-examined in light of this case.

If there were a way to get this onto a "Best of the Web" site, it would have to get there...go read this Norbizness satire, and see if you agree.

I'm still giggling, and the sad part is He's 100% on the mark!

There he goes again...if you are pre-disposed to forget that everything is the fault of 9/11, Sully is happy to remind you that we will all forget it ever so quickly.

I wonder how long the memory of 9/11/2001 will endure.

I suspect people will always remember 9/11 Andrew, they just won't obsess about it the way you seem to. We remember many things, but few drive us to the level of bad craziness that you seem to want from Americans over 9/11. The only modern pre-9/11 example was Pearl Harbor, and the consequence there was neither bad nor crazy, but an answer to a challenge presented by a sovereign power.

We answered the challenge again in Afghanistan, although more for politcal expedience than lack of National Will that victory becomes more hollow daily as your hero, the Miserable Failure, has allowed the Taliban to reemerge from the shadows and his buddy Bin Forgotten to remain uncaught. So, if I had to make an assessment, the ones who have forgotten 9/11 by the standards of Afghanistan and defeating al-Qaida are the 1600 Crew led by your hero, not the average American who is paying in more ways than one for Fearless Leader's selective amnesia.

Tbogg points to the return of Rush, so looking at Media Daily News, I see that the headline is:

Rush Limbaugh Poised To Return To The Dial

Rush Limbaugh Poised To Return To Denial

Simply amazing. Just when I thought that I could not read another amazing Iraqi war fact, one pops out. Seems that one of the points that the Political Division of the 1600 Crew aka the "Mayberry Machiavelli's" have tried to make the crowning jewel in the War is the happy smiliing kiddie faces in their schools. All those mentions by the Miserable Failure of schoolchildren orgasmically happy to be in school again. Seems that someone in the post-combat-free planning zone, which I think encompasses everything from the Pentagram to Northwest DC, forgot to plan for logistical security.

One of the most valued commodities in Iraq were good old number 2 pencils...virtually unavailable while sanctions were imposed, I guess for their Graphite content (?)...nukes from pencils? Okay. But it gets better:

The smiling children swarmed the theater at Al Farouq Secondary School and grabbed at the stacks of navy shoulder bags. A gift from the American government, the bags were stocked with goodies such as notebooks, rulers, geometry sets, and a real treat -- premium-quality No. 2 pencils, something that had been hard to come by under the previous regime.
...
In the Bush administration's grand plan for rebuilding Iraq, the delivery of the student kits is one of its more visible projects. ...
...
Route maps and delivery plans must be reworked constantly on the news -- or rumor -- of the day, a reality that has thrown both timetables and price tags askew.
...
In the psyche of even the youngest Iraqi schoolchild, pencils have a special symbolism. Bad pencils equal sanctions. Ever since the international community imposed restrictions on foreign trade on Saddam Hussein's government after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, it's been difficult to import school supplies. And Iraqi-made pencils wouldn't sharpen, smeared easily and couldn't be erased.
...
Meanwhile, the casualties -- a total of six military, four contract drivers killed -- and thefts -- everything from bottled water to construction equipment -- have military commanders scrambling to devise a new distribution strategy that tries to get as many people off the roads as possible. The Army 's Stultz said that soon more supplies will be moved through the Iraqi rail system and a new airbase north of Baghdad.

If getting a blowjob by Monica ever caused a single US fatality, please tell me about it...if going to war and getting men and women killed over NUMBER 2 pencils does not make you rage, you are either emotionally crippled, a brain-dead kool-aid afficianado, or a GOP Team Leader.

SK Bubba has a great post up that summarizes all the interesting details of where the cash and other things are going in Iraq, with all the "planning" that was done by the 1600 Crew.

If I planned that well, I'd be unemployed...hey, there's an idea, let's make them be unemployed. In about exactly a year.

OK, so I'm a geeky fanboy...after all the Network Hell lately, I treated myself to a morning off, and went to see the Premier of Matrix Revolutions. I was late becoming a fan of the original movie, never saw it until it came out on DVD.

That being said, I was lukewarm about Reload...but this last movie is pretty good. I tried to ignore the critics who said "too much Kung-fu" and had all sorts of criticisms about the Wachowski's efforts (hey, critics you make it if you're such geniuses!). Won't drop any spoilers about the movie... I liked it. In fact, I want to go see it again...maybe this weekend.

One Spoiler (non-cinematic):
I miss "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine, it's so Matrix...the closing credits music ...ehhhhn. It's kinda like that Enya stuff from LoTR...I'll watch the closing credits on the DVD eventually if I'm that interested, with the mute button on.

Good Grief...Wednesday Morning Cinema...I'm such a geek.

Linda Tripp, the heinous queen of Plastique Surgery just got a boatload of dough for committing an act of perjury on a DoD Security Clearance, made public as part of a FOIA request. I guess the 1600 Crew loyalty runs deep...she did after all play a major role in the impeachment waste 'o' time. But with her bucket o' dough, I am curious about something, how successful was this venture?

MIDDLEBURG -- Linda Tripp is going into business with the Christmas Sleigh, a year-round holiday shop scheduled to open next month in Virginia horse country.

After her involvement in the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, Tripp moved to a cottage near Middleburg, about 40 miles west of Washington.

Mayer found Tripp’s step-mother, who blurted out that Tripp had been arrested. The step-mother, who has confirmed that she was the source of this information, and gave Mayer sufficient detail to allow her to file an FOIA request, and to track down Tripp’s arrest record from the local police station where she was busted. ... But with the help of a huge network of right-wing lawyers and press outlets, Tripp turned her potentially felonious lie, and her felony arrest history into a cause celebre, shifting all blame for her own miserable conduct onto the Pentagon, and claiming falsely yet again, that somehow the government had released her arrest record and tarred her name. She tarred her own name. The government (incorrectly) denied she had an arrest record. Mayer wrote the story, straight.

Just added a couple of new denizens to the deep...A Marine's Girl, and Orwellian Times. Take a gander...BTW. I would not want to be Nascar Dad when the good Marine returns from the Mess in Mesopotamia.

Check them out..good reads. Welcome aboard, y'all!

Our Great National Embarrassment, Emperor Buck Nekkid hisself said this:

Bush's remarks about the economy hardly stirred workers, who sat nearly motionless in a warm maintenance shop where a white crane that can lift 385 tons served as a backdrop for the president. But the crowd started applauding when he talked of how a free Iraq would allow children to grow up without the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001.

Except in the tiny mind of a certain miserable failure.

Sullivan once again takes on his betters in a war of wits where he shows up unarmed, about as close to combat as we'll ever see him...as usual he attacks both Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd for their "inaccurate" reportage of George Nethercutt's comments about "one or two dead soldiers".

Sully, per usual, complains that the quote is taken out of context...(republicans of course always quote accurately, no matter the source) and that both Krugman and Dowd turned the quote against poor Congresscritter Nethercutt unfairly. Sully asks

Does that sound like someone not supporting the troops or, in MoDo's words, putting the casual back into casualty? Or does it sound like the Dowds and Krugmans distorting the truth again for cheap partisan advantage?

Here's some Sullivan history on "accuracy" in his mind:

According to Sullivan, Clinton had "call[ed] upon America to be introspective, to look into ourselves for the causes of this massacre." And Sullivan said this: "[I]t seems that the sins of the United States’ past make it impossible to judge the massacre of September 11, according to our 42d president." But guess what? Sullivan’s statements were slick, corrupt lies.
...
By today—Friday, November 9—Andrew Sullivan had done something great. He had put a second report on his site, his time linking to the actual comments which Clinton had actually made. And yes, the slick little guy had—weasel-like—acknowledged that his previous statements were wrong. By now, you see, something great had happened—Sullivan had actually read Clinton’s speech!

You know Sullivan’s motto—If it feels good, say it

Can I get an Amen?

Add about thirty more "Paying's" to that and we still will not close the budget deficit being inflicted on us by the republicans as the Craven Whore Congress gave the miserable failure yet more of our childrens inheritance for the qWagmire in the Fertile Crescent.

The Senate today approved an $87.5 billion package for the military and reconstruction campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, one day after an attack on an Army helicopter in Iraq left 16 American soldiers dead.

The voice vote took place late this afternoon, with only a few senators in the chamber. Although the voice vote allowed for passage without any negative votes being officially recorded, the approval took place over the conspicuously shouted "no" of Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, one of the few lawmakers in the chamber.

Senator Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who heads the Appropriations Committee and who was a leading author of the bill, declared: "As the president said time and time again, we will not walk away from Iraq. We will not leave the Iraqi people in chaos, and we will not create a vacuum for terrorist groups to fill."

The governors race has been called in Kentucky, and it's for the GOoPers. What a shame, if Politicians could keep their peckers in their pants, it might be less costly for everyone...and certainly remove an issue for whichever side is the opposition...you can't have the Trophy Wife (or Husband) on the political circuit and a little bling on the side and expect it to stay a secret (see: Clinton, WJ). That being said, one of the "issues" in the Missisisippi governors race is that pesky rebel flag thing.

Here's what I don't get...how can you support the values of that rag and be proud to call yourself an American, when those who fought and died for the Confederate Flag were violently Anti-American? No bullshit arguments about "states rights" allowed, the Civil War was a violent advocacy of the overthrow or secession from the lawful US Government, which all the states who secceded had been willing parties to.

"The Republican Party has run this election with a fist full of dollars in one hand and a Confederate flag in the other," said state Democratic Party chairman Rickey L. Cole.

Earlier, Barbour had revisited another issue that divided the races — the Confederate flag. Recent ads reminded voters that Musgrove had supported an unsuccessful 2001 referendum that sought to remove the Rebel X.

And for the record, I lived in Tennessee for a long time, as well as Texas and Florida...I never broke the code about the Confederate Flag and the appeal of sedition.

Seems that the guy who started HealthSouth just got his chance to do the Perp Walk in shackles...how silly do you have to be to hope that you're not going to get nailed on an audit eventually at a publically-traded company?

Former HealthSouth Corp. Chief Executive Richard Scrushy was indicted on Tuesday on 85 criminal counts for his part in deliberately inflating earnings and assets at the health-care company he founded by $2.7 billion, U.S. officials said.
...
Scrushy, 51, the latest top executive to face criminal charges in a series of recent corporate scandals, surrendered at the FBI office in Birmingham, Alabama and later appeared in court with his legs in shackles.
...
Federal prosecutors said they would seek more than $278 million in forfeitures from Scrushy, including a plantation, a yacht, two airplanes, four luxury cars, a diamond ring, antique rugs and paintings by famous artists. He faces up to 650 years in prison and more than $36 million in fines if convicted.

Jim Leach from Iowa is a pretty decent guy, for a republican. He has what has to be the Understatement of the YEAR:

Iowa Republican Rep. Jim Leach, once an aide to now-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said on Tuesday White House policy-makers had made one of the most misguided assumptions ever in U.S. strategy by not planning for a decisive withdrawal from Iraq.

They love us? How many Neocons are still waiting for the candy and rose petals strewn at the feet of the troops? Three major explosions in Baghdad following the weekend downing of the Chinook. Yup, we're definately winning.

Three powerful explosions shook central Baghdad this evening in an apparent mortar attack on the headquarters of the American civilian authorities here.

The explosions, in rapid succession, hit what appeared to be the sprawling American compound at about 7:45 p.m. local time. A spokesman for the American military said tonight that four people had been injured by the explosions, but otherwise gave out no details.

Iraqi witnesses standing near the gates of the compound described what they said they said was mortar fire coming from a neighborhood north of the American headquarters.

There the enemy was faceless, and could melt away within minutes of an attack, if that long. Many of my readers out there are VN vets, perhaps you would care to share some of your experiences in this area...it would be interesting to gauge the descent into the quagmire by those who fought through the last major war we fought. It's a perspective we won't get from anyone running this show in Mayberry...none of them could be bothered to leave their other priorities behind and step up to take those good jobs all the minorities wanted in actual combat. They are so disgusting.

Extremely sleep deprived...had network problems again, all fixed but at the cost of my sanity..sort of.

Back to normal blogging tomorrow. Thanx for hanging in with my in-sanity.

Arrrgh.

As Homer Simpson might say, mmmm...sleep.

I found myself reading [Maureen Dowd] (insert your favorite ink-pundit here) the other day. By and large I have given up on the Grand Old Papers to do the right thing. I read them once or twice a week, and I don't have a boyfriend. But when I'm bored, I read the crudest, cheesiest journalism I can find. I simply go to the Washington Times. It has everything, still blaming Clinton and the Democrats for everything from the extinction of the dinosaurs to Gay Anglican Bishops. Andy, IRONY DIED well before 9/11, so at least one fact is correct (amazing) with Bush v Gore, States-Rights my butt!. As much as I dislike your hatred of all things Democratic and Clinton, you're over Andy, you're over, done, fini. So get over yourself. I hear Dominos is hiring drivers.

So the republicans who can't stand losing, always whine til they get their way, have apparently made another move to drive a stake into the heart of discourse of any kind. They have apparently succeeded in getting CBS to stop or at least "reexmine" The Reagans...cause they didn't like it. Waaaaah. Waaaah.

A Web site called boycottcbs.com recorded more than 45,000 hits in less than a week. Such commentators as Bill O’Reilly have made “The Reagans” the plat du jour on their menus, and the Republican National Committee now demands that CBS let historians vet the show.

What's next, the "In His Honor: The Nixon Years, A Tribute"? At least the Soviets tried to airbrush the dissenters out of the picture. literally. The republicans just want to eliminate them (us) with a touch of repression. How democratic. Not.

One month into the first term of Rumsfeld as SecDef under Ford, this investigation was shut down. Read the whole story beginning on Cowboy Kahlil's blog, Reach'em High and hit the links to The Toledo Blade story.

You can only say two words. Holy Shit. And it's decades later, with the same guys in charge. Vietnam anyone?

If the 1600 Crew pulls out of Iraq early Just In Time for their Madison Square Garden gig

Coalition authorities speed up training of local police and army as Bush vows not to leave 'prematurely'.
...
Intelligence officers and other military personnel are being pulled off the increasingly futile hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and assigned instead to deal with the worsening security situation - one that claimed another two American lives yesterday.
...
President Bush insisted in his weekly radio address yesterday that the upsurge in violence would not drive coalition forces out. "Leaving Iraq prematurely would only embolden the terrorists and increase the danger to America. We are determined to stay, to fight and to win."

Of course this does not count the Chinook Shootdown today.

Has the 1600 Crew lost what's left of their minds?

"It's clearly a tragic day for America ... In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days," Rumsfeld said. "But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated."

President Bush, who was spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, was told by his staff about the shootdown and was receiving updates as required, a White House spokesman said.

How about this Rummy:

"His regime was so vicious and did so many horrible things to people that people are frightened. They're frightened he could come back. He's not coming back, but until he's dead or captured, there is that concern."

I have nothing to say really about the Chinook that was shot down other than Shame on the whole PNAC/Chickenhawk Cabal. The Iraqis have tasted real blood courtesy of the International Weapons Market and (supposedly) a Strela SAM.

This will not be like Vietnam, there is no place to hide big SAM sites in Iraq, but every resistance person has a place to hide a shoulder-fired SAM, whoever made it, us or the Russians (USSR variety?).

To all the soldiers headed for R&R, it turned into a flight from Hell. For the Aircrew, it was the double flight from Hell.

To all my fellow Airdales, whatever branch over there, Fly Safe. Come Home. May all your Take-off/Launches = # of Landings. No Autos Please.

To the Chickenhawks: Better Countermeasures for my Tax Dollar, please.

Okay, I had a lot more to say than I intended. I'm Pissed.

And to think, Pootie-Poot might be a bad guy after all. I guess that President Unsophisticated might have been wrong about ol' Pooties soul. Think of any other little things he might have been wrong about in say the last six or eight months?

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, Russia's leading sociologist and author of a study on Mr Putin's elite, says the proportion of so-called siloviki (a mixture of police, military and security servicemen) has increased twelvefold across the entire spectrum of Russia's political system over the past 15 years.
...
"We are witnessing the restoration of the power of the KGB in the country from the regions to the top of the Kremlin," she says. The most marked increase in the power of the siloviki has been at the regional level where five out of seven presidential representatives are former KGB or military men.

Indeed.

--If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier. Just as long as I'm the dictator.
- Washington, DC, Dec 18, 2000, during his first trip to Washington as president-elect

Hey, he said it.

A woman in Mississippi looking for her mother-in-law "snapped" and drove her car into a wall at a venue where the Miserable Failure was speaking. No one was hurt, but the woman was arrested, police and Secret Service seem to think she had no intention of hurting the Great National Embarrassment, she was just disoriented.

Authorities swarmed the car with weapons drawn and took away the driver and her children. Secret Service and local law enforcement investigators concluded after interviewing her that she had no intention of harming the president, said Ann Roman, a Secret Service spokeswoman.
...
Mixon, a nurse's aide and the mother of three sons, had been under stress recently because of marital problems and a hysterectomy, said her friend Amy Graves, of Walls.

"She just snapped," Graves told the DeSoto Times for its online edition Saturday.

Another friend, Lisa Jones, told the paper the incident was "absolutely not" politically motivated. "She is not that type of person," Jones said.
...
Bush had spoken at a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour, the first of four campaign speeches Bush had scheduled for Saturday.

If you have been to Atrios, you have seen this link to the NYT magazine article on Iraq. It's long, but it is a most interesting read. And it effectively refutes pretty much all the 1600 Crew Talking Points on the "success" in Iraq. It's gonna drive the republicans nuts, especially the Punditry and Congresscritters.

Good Sunday morning reading.

From an article in the New Yorker, about Tina Fey of SNL

Her anxiety has shaped her work. On a show in 2001, Fey said, “On Monday, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a terrorism warning, asking all Americans to be on high alert this week. . . . I think I speak for all Americans when I say, ‘Bitch, I can’t be any more alert than I already am. O.K.?’ I’m opening my mail with salad tongs. I take my passport in the shower with me. I am watching so much CNN I am having sex dreams about Wolf Blitzer.”

From a faithful correspondant, here's a really good blog, Today in Iraq (adding it to the Blogroll too) and a little Saturday Diversion. Enjoy!

Sully has his panties in a twist again, over Krugman and the newest economic numbers. Andy wants to ascribe America-hating Motives to Krugman's analysis of the growth numbers just released. Well, no one is unhappy when there is some movement in the economy...but a single point of data is like a flash-flood during a drought. Sure it's water, but it's hardly helpful or indicative of a permanent condition. Of course, since Sully admits that he does not really understand complex subjects like numbers, an analysis any more complex than that might send him screaming to bed with a hysterical migraine...

Hey Andy...the square root of 256 is 16, 2 cubed is 8.

1. The Latest from Steno Sue
   
2. Trot on over for a tour
   
3. Georgia, Georgia on my mind:
   
4. We are on Notice
   
5. Future Five O'Clock Follies
   
6. A Hooker in the Hand is worth a Chip for a Bush
   
7. Sulli-Mouth
   
8. Something Accomplished
   
9. Happy and Safe, Please!
   
10. I'da been the King...