From the NYTimes:

The stage for this political spectacle was a vote over a Democratic proposal to counter Mr. Bush's demand for unaffordable tax cuts by requiring offsetting savings in spending if the president's "temporary" cuts are to be made permanent. The vote was supposed to last five minutes, but it was held open for 23 extra minutes in a clear abuse of House rules.

The G.O.P. whips used the time to twist the arms of enough moderate Republican members to produce a 209-to-209 tie — the barest margin they needed to head off an embarrassing rebuff of President Bush's budgeting plans.

The proposal, on which 11 Republicans held fast in voting for responsible budgeting, was nothing more than a motion to reimpose the accounting process that brought fiscal sanity and ultimately surpluses to the runaway budgets of the 1990's. That the House leaders had to make such a desperate scramble was evidence that the skittish core of G.O.P. moderates realizes that voters are beginning to worry about the decade of deficit and debt being piled up by Mr. Bush's tax-cutting zeal.

Regime Change in '04. For all the correct reasons. Not the Right ones.

Stealing a little of "L'il Mick's Thunder from Down Under", Howie 'the Hack' Kurtz tells Al Franken how radio should work.

A good radio show has strong pacing and a deft mixture of ideology, confrontation and humor. Franken's "Factor" was meandering and discursive, almost NPR-like, sounding more like someone shooting the breeze at a dinner party than trying to persuade listeners. The "bumpers" between segments were soft and Muzak-like. With Franken speaking in a relatively low voice, the self-proclaimed "Zero Spin Zone" sometimes sounded like a zero energy zone.

Don't drive, don't wanna learn. If Sullivan were not a wealthy white guy I'd have to suspect he's one of the working poor. Uses public transit, relys on the kindness of friends (when he doesn't really need to) and refuses to learn a life-skill here in the US (unless you live on Manhattan, where a car is truly a handicap...NYC denizens do well without them and are proud of their four-wheel independance, good for them). Sullywatch covers this one with laser beam precision, I have only one question: where does the beagle fit on a Mountain Bike? One of those Wizard of Oz handlebar baskets? Does Sullivan see himself as Judy Garland?

No joking about this. Nine more Americans coming home in "transfer tubes". Four of them civilian contractors, five of them American Soldiers. Sent to die by Chickenhawk NeoCons.

Four American civilian contractors were killed in the Iraqi city of Fallujah Wednesday in an attack that left their vehicles in flames, and afterward at least three of the burned bodies were mutilated, dragged through the streets and suspended from a bridge while a group of Iraqis danced in the streets. Separately, in nearby Ramadi, five U.S. soldiers died after their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
...
The White House on Wednesday blamed terrorists and remnants of Saddam Hussein's former regime for the attack. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, "There are some that are doing everything they can to try to prevent" a June 30 transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

A police official in Fallujah, Major Abdelaziz Faisal Hamid Mehamdy, said he did not see any survivors and that it took police about 30 minutes to arrive at the scene. He said no arrests were made and that the gunmen escaped.

Mehamdy said: "I was surprised. . . . The violence is increasing against the Americans. . . . They took over the country and they didn't give us anything. They came for democracy and to help the people, but we haven't seen any of this, just killing and violence."
...
The attack began when insurgents fired assault rifles at two SUVs in a busy commercial area. Then, hundreds of people, young and old, gathered around the burning vehicles and shouted anti-American slogans.

Video footage showed the charred bodies on the streets, having been dragged from the vehicles and beaten with shovels. At least three bodies were seen hanging from a bridge in Fallujah afterwards.

Question is, when will we have gone so far that there is no recovery? I fervently hope we have not done that already.

Most powerful idiot in the world, job description includes a big red button to start the end of the world. Current occupant of said job: a useless fool whose daddy once held the job in the last big job-losing, business-killing recession. Now the fool's daddy is almost in tears because:

George Bush senior appeared to fight back tears as he defended his son’s decision to invade Iraq.

The former President told an audience in Texas that the constant attacks on his son George W Bush were “offensive”.

“There is something ignorant in the way they dismiss the overthrow of a brutal dictator and the sowing of the seeds of basic human freedom in that troubled part of the world,” he told the Petrochemical and Refiners Association annual convention on Tuesday.

The former president accused the media of presenting an image of his son which was “something short of fair and balanced”.

Well perhaps except a few of the good ones, like Jeralyn over at Talkleft. One of Jeralyn's themes over the time I have been reading her blog has been the needless over-criminalization of everything by LawnOrder Congresscritters. Case in point:

People who illegally trade large amounts of copyrighted music online could face up to three years in jail under a bill approved today by a congressional panel.

A House Judiciary subcommittee unanimously approved the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004," which would be the first law to punish Internet music pirates with jail time if it were signed into law.

Survey says: you'll do nothing. RIAA one; P2P afficianados, nothing.

Just like the two-faced guy, The Andrew is arguing both side of the point simultaneously. Again. Sigh.

This is a war, Senator Kerry, not a law enforcement operation.

The strongest argument against him [Kerry] is that he will not take the war seriously enough to allow law enforcement to play its vital but complementary part, and would prematurely pull out of Iraq.

Hmmmm.....

President Bush reversed himself yesterday and agreed to permit his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before an independent commission investigating the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
...
Capitulating on a second point, Bush said he will submit to questions in a private session with all 10 commissioners, backing off his previous demand to meet only with Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton. Bush added a new restriction by saying he will appear only with Vice President Cheney at his side.

You can take it to the bank that the Right-Leaning members of the Commission will be following a 1600 Crew approved Script and Condi-Liar will be practicing for a role that would win her an Oscar, if there were one for most convincing supporting liar.

And what is up with the Fearless Leader and Dick show? Does Unka Karl need Little Toad Cheney there to stick his hand up Preznit No Show's ass to make sure he does not talk too much or too incoherently? Or maybe they just need Unka Dick there just to hold Preznit Cheap Plastic Action Figures' hand, to keep up his spirits in the midst of adult conversation...sort of an interpreter and hanky holder all in one. Colin, the other "adult" must have had the day off.

New polling data seems to suggest that the furor raised over the last couple of weeks has left Turd-Boy's reputation intact. Hey, news flash News Organiztions...poll away. If there are still Three Million Plus Missing Jobs on a certain date in November we can add one more person to the first Unemployment Report after the inauguration...and his name rhymes with Tush. As in the Tejas Tushes (via New England).

Did these folks go to J-School, apprentice at some obscure newspapers with the hopes of being the next WoodStein and then get hired by the "bigs" only to make stunning observations like this?

The Bush administration's uneven decision-making on which sensitive documents it declassifies has prompted criticism that the White House is selectively releasing information to bolster its foreign policy agenda and respond to political pressure.
...
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking member of the committee, criticized Goss yesterday for bypassing what she said were normal House procedures in seeking declassification.

"This is a stunning violation that can only feed the impression that sensitive materials are being selectively declassified for political reasons, rather than national security or the public interest," Harman said. "The message this sends is that for partisan political reasons, classified material can be reviewed and selectively released."

I guess they're hoping no one will notice they have not really done their jobs since about 1995, they have just been the repeaters of the republican blast-fax machine output. I wonder what got them awakened, or are they really? Or is it all just an act to lull the sheeples?

So, the private security companies that bill by the second for services rendered now want to hire the soldiers from Special Forces and probably other branches who have Iraq on their resumes.

Senior American commanders and Pentagon officials are warning of an exodus of the military's most seasoned members of Special Operations to higher-paying civilian security jobs in places like Baghdad and Kabul, just as they are playing an increasingly pivotal role in combating terror and helping conduct nation-building operations worldwide.

Senior enlisted members of the Army Green Berets or Navy Seals with 20 years or more experience now earn about $50,000 in base pay, and can retire with a $23,000 pension. But private security companies, whose services are in growing demand in Iraq and Afghanistan, are offering salaries of $100,000 to nearly $200,000 a year to the most experienced of them.
...
Evidence of a drain of seasoned Special Operations members, including elite Delta Force soldiers, is largely anecdotal right now, but the head of the military's Special Operations Command, Gen. Bryan D. Brown of the Army, is so concerned about what he is hearing from troops in the field that he convened an unusual meeting of his top commanders in Washington last week to discuss the matter. "The retention of our special operating forces is a big issue," General Brown said.

Last December, he gathered 20 senior members of the Navy Seals and Army Green Berets and Air Force commandos and their spouses, at his headquarters in Tampa, Fla., for a weeklong session to discuss career-extending sweeteners, like special pay bonuses and educational benefits. A special panel is now reviewing those recommendations.

A WaPost Editorial about why Condi should testify: after 9/11 everything is different. On the other hand, maybe she shouldn't because well it's really not.

...Presidents are more likely to surround themselves with political loyalists, depriving themselves of diverse ideas and valuable experience. ...

Alice Marshall at GOTV has an interesting entry up on the ummm...relationship between well, we'll let you figure it out:

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is a small producer of high-quality beef in Kansas. But it's making a big point about mad cow disease. It wants to privately test all of the cattle it slaughters for the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in humans who eat infected meat. The way Creekstone Farms sees it, 100% testing would reassure U.S. customers. The company also says it is talking with Japan about restarting exports there, where total testing is required.

But the firm has run into surprising obstacles: from the federal government, which has pledged to do everything possible to detect the disease, and from the meat industry, which has scrambled to keep consumer confidence since December. ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently does not allow such private testing for mad cow disease.

The republicans who continue to parrot the party line about Preznit More Cowardly Than Thee not attending funerals of fallen service men and women need to remember this:

In the days and months after Michael J. Deutsch was killed by a land mine as he drove an armored personnel carrier down a road near Baghdad International Airport, various reminders of his short life and untimely death came home to his parents in this Middle American river city on the Mississippi.

The First Cavalry shipped back his military belongings in a duffel bag and two boxes. Michael died on the last day of July last year, at 21, but the bag and boxes remained unopened for months. His mother, Ilene, said she was not ready for the wave of grief that would wash over her again if she sorted through the artifacts of her youngest boy's final days. The U.S. Army also sent home a Bronze Star, Michael's posthumous award, and his father, Wayne, wears the small star unobtrusively, without talking about it, pinned to the collar of his shirt.

From the state of Iowa, the Deutsch family received a perfectly folded American flag that flew for one day in Michael's honor above the Capitol in Des Moines. And from the White House came a letter of condolence signed by President Bush. Two letters, actually.

"The exact same one, twice," Wayne Deutsch noted dryly, sitting at the kitchen table of their wood-frame house in Dubuque's working-class North End neighborhood. "What does that tell you? It was a form letter."

That says more than all the words that can be written about this fucked-up conflict in Iraq. And the attitude of the Lying Coward who has gotten Michael Deutsch and 600 other servicemen and women killed and who knows how many more wounded and disabled for life. We know that they have pumped up the VA budget because they Love the wounded vets; they have shortened tours and cancelled redeployments for Active, Reserve and National Guard folks because they Love our troops. They expected a Rose Garden, they got a Sceptic System...and about 150,000 Americans are living in it. Indeterminately. Preznit Vendettas 'R' Us is a brave, brave man with the lives of other family's sons, daughters, husbands and wives...his TANG service proves it.

Ilene Deutsch listened to her husband's lament as she stood by the kitchen stove. For several hours, she had politely refrained from answering questions about the politics of the war. She was afraid of what she might say. Now it came flooding out, along with the tears. "They didn't have a clue what was going to happen once the war was over. No anticipation. Bush had no idea," she said. "I don't like George Bush. We are listed as independents, but I will never vote for him. Surely he didn't look at the long range. . . . He didn't have a clue."

Getting Native Americans to spend $45 million dollars on efforts to lobby Congress has to be one of the more momentous feats of persuasion in the annals of "K" street. And guess what, a republican lobbyist got caught doing a bad thing.

Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined.Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff received $10 million in previously undisclosed payments from a public relations executive whom he recommended for work with wealthy Indian tribes that operate casinos, congressional investigators have determined.

Abramoff, one of Washington's best-connected Republican lobbyists, this month was forced out of his firm, Greenberg Traurig, after revelations that he and the executive -- Michael S. Scanlon, a former spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) -- had persuaded four newly wealthy tribes to pay them fees of more than $45 million over the past three years. That amount rivals spending on public policy by some of the nation's biggest corporate interests.
...
McCain, a senior member of the Indian Affairs Committee who has called the lobbying and public relations fees "disgraceful," launched an investigation earlier this month after a story about the fees was published in The Washington Post.
...
An undisclosed financial relationship between Abramoff and Scanlon could create further problems for Greenberg Traurig. On March 5, the firm wrote to the Saginaw Chippewa tribe offering to refund moneys if an internal financial review the firm is conducting finds that the tribe was shortchanged.

"Should we determine that the services provided or charges made on your account were inappropriate, you should know that we are prepared to make adjustments in those charges and take all appropriate action," the letter said.

As for the two men of somewhat questionable ethics, perhaps justice might be served if it ever comes to that by having them do a few years of "public service". On a Reservation.

Snort. Nothing makes me laugh quite as much as that poor fool in the throes of republican passion. Yeah, sorry. But his return from a break from his non-existant j-o-b can only be described in terms of ... huh?

So to spare you any more grim mental pictures, let me sum up his return piece and move on: Richard Clarke is obviously a man of limited capacity (9/11) and he has a bone to pick with the Administration because they let him go (9/11) this makes him a bad man and incompetant (9/11). It's all Clinton's fault because he had eight years to prevent the rise of Osama and Preznit Lying Always only had eight months (or was it nine?) to become the Action Figure he always wanted to be (9/11). Remember Republicans are Tuff'n'Buff in the War on Terror (9/11). I might like Kerry, like I liked Al Gore (9/11) but I fear he may not be bold (9/11). My hero might have lied, but it's not worse than lying about a blow job. (9/11). It's all Clinton's fault, including the continued employment of Richard Clarke (9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11). Continued tomorrow (9/11).

And in other news from the Duchy, Shelby Steele has a "leftist" view that corresponds exactly with those of Tom Delay (according to the Duchess) perhaps black is white, your highness. And not for the last time, he conflates that bad bogey-man of Commander Codpiece's febrile dreams with 9/11.

Yup, he's back.

So today we have struck another blow for the freedom of Iraq as described by Preznit Scared as Hell:

"...One year ago, military forces of a strong coalition entered Iraq to enforce United Nations demands, to defend our security, and to liberate that country from the rule of a tyrant.

American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.

Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The 1600 Crew in their vigilance against terrorists of all stripes has begun to process immigration violators as potential terrorists. Interesting.

Majed Hajbeh was in his stocking feet when the war on terrorism came calling. It was a rare morning off for the engineering technician, a lazy Thursday in a suburban Virginia neighborhood of red-brick townhouses and gently flowering Bradford pear trees. And then came the rap on the door.

Agents from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were on the stoop of the Woodbridge home. Hajbeh, 41, black-eyed and bearded, agreed to let them search it. Several hours later, they drove off clutching a sheaf of documents related to his immigration in 1992.

Today, nearly 10 months after that raid, Hajbeh sits in an orange jumpsuit in Piedmont Regional Jail near Lynchburg. He is facing a routine immigration charge: falsely portraying himself as a single man in order to qualify for legal U.S. residency. But if he is sent back to his native Jordan, he faces a life sentence.

"A person who has done this in the past . . . is capable of doing it again," he declared in the packed courtroom.

What is it they say? When it rots it starts at the head? Were they talking about a fish or the 1600 Crew? Well, you can be sure that if Condi [Never met a mattress I didn't like] Rice is mentioned it has to involve lying, protecting the status-quo and decimating National Security. What the hell is she a doctor of anyhow, bullshit?

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, at the center of a controversy over her refusal to testify before the Sept. 11 commission, yesterday renewed her determination not to give public testimony and said she could not list anything she wished she had done differently in the months before the 2001 terrorist attacks.
...
But Rice gave no ground on the administration's decision that she will not appear in public before the panel or testify under oath because Bush officials believe doing so would compromise the constitutional powers of the executive branch. The renewed refusal came despite the panel's unanimous plea for her testimony.

Republican commissioner John F. Lehman, who has written extensively on separation-of-power issues, said that "the White House is making a huge mistake" by blocking Rice's testimony and decried it as "a legalistic approach."

I think that the republicans are slowly coming up with a new definition of "is". And it has nothing to do with truth, justice and the American Way...thanks again to Preznit Remarkably Incurious for bringing the grown-ups from the Nixon Administration back to Washington.

Senator Jay Rockefeller

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have voted against it,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Friday. “I have admitted that my vote was wrong.”

The key Senate vote authorizing a war against Iraq came Oct. 11, 2003. It passed 77 to 23. The opponents included Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., an outspoken opponent of President Bush’s war plans. (The House of Representatives voted to pass a similar resolution, 296 to 133.)

“The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.

“You had a president who we now know was determined to go to war. He was going to be a war president,” Rockefeller said during an interview with editors at The Charleston Gazette on Friday.

“We had this feeling we could be welcomed as liberators. Americans don’t know history, geography, ethnicity,” Rockefeller said. “The administration had no idea of what they were getting into in Iraq. We are not internationalists. We border on being isolationists. We don’t know anything about the Middle East.”
...
“They are true believers. It started with [Rep.] Newt Gingrich [R-Ga.] in 1994. Nothing gets in their way. Facts don’t get in their way.

“And three chairmen of major [Senate] committees were told by Dick Cheney not to investigate anything in the administration.”

If this does not start to make the case for taking back at least one chamber of Congress as well as the White House, I'm not sure what does. After all, both chamber is in the hands of the adults got the exact dimension of the Clenis™, but can't seem to quite get a handle on the cost of the Big-Pharma Medicare bill or the cost of the Mess in Mesopotamia.

Well, I went west to the land of the wide-open spaces, where the men are men and the sheep are nervous. I was sort of hoping that Preznit Worse'n Nixon might have retreated to his bunker in Crawford with a bottle of Wild Turkey and a cee-gar. Guess Unka Karl and Unka Crashcart would not let him go...but, on the bright side, there's Richard Clarke, who could be this generation's John Dean...he knew what the Chimp knew and apparently when he knew it.

President Bush's intense efforts to neutralize the revelations of former national security official Richard A. Clarke have yet to succeed, leaving White House officials struggling to regain political momentum after a tumultuous week, according to interviews with Republicans both inside and outside .
...
...Beginning with interviews in connection with his new book and continuing with Capitol Hill testimony, Clarke said he had watched Bush repeatedly ignore warnings about al Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001, then diverted resources from the broader war on terrorism for an attack on Iraq.
...
Polling has shown that the Clarke's assertions have resonated as more than mere Beltway sniping and that voters are beginning to question the president's handling of terrorism.

It's nice to see that non-stick coating of shit is finally starting to get a spot of tarnish on it...well little spots turn into big ones. Has someone outside of Left Blogistan finally figured out that [gasp] there migh be previaricators in the 1600 Crew?

Looks like I picked a good week to quit vacationing.

Richard Clarke's book is liable to bear the brunt of major RNC and wingnuttery in high PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency...radar terminology)...it makes Preznit No Brains look even more like a school-yard bully with a nuclear trigger finger and a bad "Daddy needs to love me" complex.

Spotting Richard A. Clarke, his counterterrorism coordinator, Bush pulled him and a small group of aides into the dark paneled room.

"Go back over everything, everything," Bush said, according to Clarke's account. "See if Saddam did this."

"But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this," Clarke replied.

"I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred."

Reminded that the CIA, FBI and White House staffs had sought and found no such link before, Clarke said, Bush spoke "testily." As he left the room, Bush said a third time, "Look into Iraq, Saddam."
...
Among the motives for the war, Clarke argues, were the politics of the 2002 midterm election. "The crisis was manufactured, and Bush political adviser Karl Rove was telling Republicans to 'run on the war,' " Clarke writes.

From Merrian-Webester Online:

Vendetta: Etymology: Italian, literally, revenge, from Latin vindicta -- more at VINDICTIVE
1 : BLOOD FEUD
2 : an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts (waged a personal vendetta against those who opposed his nomination)

I did not add that last parenthetical comment, it's in the definition.

Sounds more like we ought to be studying abnormal psych to start to figure this boob out...he really does have some serious Daddy (and Mommy?) issues. Substance-Abusing Failure, Coward, Oath-breaker...hmmmm.

Iraq has been detrimental to the War on Terra™ notwithstanding the "flypaper" nonsense of blowhards like Sullivan and other overpaid talking heads. Here's why:

Usama bin Laden's terror network claims to have bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the black market in central Asia, the biographer of Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian television station.
...
"Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri laughed and he said 'Mr. Mir, if you have $30 million, go to the black market in central Asia, contact any disgruntled Soviet scientist, and a lot of ... smart briefcase bombs are available,'" Mir said in the interview.

"They have contacted us, we sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states and they negotiated, and we purchased some suitcase bombs," Mir quoted al-Zawahiri as saying.

Al-Qaeda has never hidden its interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.

Otherwise known as the price of "taking your eye off the ball".

So the repubi-pukes wanna take the gloves off on some "mythical" incident between Kerry and secret service agent?

Republican operatives even circulated to reporters and party members news of Kerry's jab at his Secret Service escort -- which Kerry aides say the senator made in jest. "It's perfect material showing that Kerry will say anything, and can't control what he says," one Republican strategist said.

Bush's statements, in chronological order, were:

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."

--United Nations Address September 12, 2002

"Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons."

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."

--Radio Address October 5, 2002

"The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons."

"We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."

"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States."

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" - his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."

--Cincinnati, Ohio Speech October 7, 2002

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."

--State of the Union Address January 28, 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

--Address to the Nation March 17, 2003

A-f-g-h-a-n-i-s-t-a-n. The place that the 1600 Crew would just as soon forget, home of the Taliban and real, but inconvenient support center and "home" of Al-Qaeda, suffered another setback when their Aviation Minister was assasinated.

Soldiers loyal to a local commander shot and killed Afghanistan's aviation minister Sunday in the western city of Herat, setting off a big gunbattle in which as many as 100 people died vicious factional fighting, the commander told The Associated Press.

In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet convened in emergency session after the killing of minister Mirwais Sadiq -- a son of Herat's powerful governor -- and dispatched extra troops to try to calm the city.
...
Karzai's first civil aviation minister, Abdul Rahman, was assassinated Feb. 14, 2002, at Kabul's airport, in circumstances that remain unclear. Gunmen shot and killed Vice President Abdul Qadir in the capital on July 6, 2002.

Both of those killings remain unsolved.

Look! Over there! It's a naked breast and a gay couple in love! End of Times!!!

Light blogging for the next week or so. We're going west for a few days...I'll try and drop a few entries in when I get the chance, but it's family time...if I don't get a chance to be utterly disrespectful of the Duchess of Dupont and Preznit No Obvious Intelligence after today, please check out the blogroll; some of the newer additions like BrownDemocrats and reliable friends like BoloBoffin and Sullywatch who are always good stops for reliable, pointed dis-repubublican-tarianism.

I must make sure to stop back on-line on Friday to get my weekly dose of Americas Worst Mother over at TBogg...who always makes me think of that old commercial...snark on ... snark off.

Preznit Numb Nuts sez that nothing is too good for our troops in Iraq. The Whore House might be wrong again...these troopers have "dodged the bullet" literally, and it's thanks to their ingenuity and determination to come home alive.

The absence of fatalities is all the more remarkable, the truckers say, because for the first three-quarters of their tour, the drivers, gunners and mechanics routinely traversed the deadliest sections of Iraq without bulletproof vests.

When a gunman in a speeding black BMW fired an AK-47 assault rifle into the chest of Spec. Nathan Williams, the slug was stopped by a steel plate Williams had purchased with his own money and then fitted into a Kevlar vest designed to stop only shrapnel. Otherwise, the high-velocity slug would have entered his heart.

"They were $3 apiece," said Capt. Joe Breeding, hefting one of the crudely cut, quarter-inch-thick steel plates a colleague had sent from a workshop in Virginia.
...
The unit was in fact still driving in January, but by then much of the military transport was being handled by a civilian firm, Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton. The 1032nd provided the armed escort, sending its makeshift battle wagons ahead to scout for roadside bombs -- Davenport spotted more than 30 himself -- and bringing up the rear, still the most dangerous position.

"KBR was better equipped than we were," said Stone, a student from Chatham. "We used to joke about that. All their drivers had actual bulletproof vests."

Guess they forgot to send the check for the "Catch Osama" fund to the right department of the Pak Army. They let Osama's top lieutenant get away again...at the cost of the Pakistani Army grunts who went in and were tossed into the fray so the "leadership" of Pakistan could say "we tried". Poor Bastards.

Pakistani security forces laying siege to tribal and foreign al Qaeda fighters in a remote area near Afghanistan have taken about 100 prisoners and may have wounded one of their Chechen or Uzbek leaders, military officials said Saturday.
...
But the commander, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, dismissed as "conjecture" reports that the fighters could be sheltering Ayman Zawahiri, the top deputy to Osama bin Laden and a key planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Intelligence reports had placed Zawahiri in the area last fall, officials said.

In an effort to again be seen as mas macho...Preznit No Obvious Intelligence is accusing John Kerry of being:

...a serial tax-raiser who has voted for tax increases 350 times.

So the amazing conversion of Howard Stern occured when the religious right cost him some air-time on six Clear-Channel stations, now the Howard Brigades are getting an earful everyday about Preznit Bible Belt. And it may be the same religious right Christo-Fascists that drive Andrew out of the "cold". But, we've heard that rhetoric from him before. Today he used a word I had not seen before, "persuadable".

Well, seeing is believing. I'll buy him a beer (or send him the money for one) on the day after he publishes his first endorsemnt of Kerry. But honestly, I think my money is safe...Andrew tends to be all blow and no show about 90% of the time and just plain full of crap the other 10%. So he'll suck up his dislike of Fundies over assurances from the 1600 Crew that they "went too far", become selectively amnesiac about things like squandering our future wealth and write a glowing review of our "bold, fabulous, wartime leader" in the Sunday Times which he'll justify with his rationaliztions that Kerry "just doesn't have what it takes" to be strong on national defense. Ignore that Silver Star, Bronze Star and the Purple Hearts Andrew, they mean nothing at all. Just trophies of a misspent youth.

Wearing a flight jacket with his "weenie" 1st Lt wings on it (hey, how come he never got past beginner and 1st Lt? Could it have been...piss-poor performance as an Officer?) But I digress here...Preznit No Armored HumVees for Our Troops went to Ft Campbell, KY to look all macho in a flight jacket and talk about how much he supports the "Troops". The one's he could not be bothered with in the TANG.

There are "currently more than 12,000 Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 10,000 of them are without adequate armor protection to withstand small arms fire, grenades and roadside bombs." Instead, many merely have canvas roofs and doors. "We're kind of sitting ducks in the vehicles we have," one lieutenant colonel told Newsday. However, writes Salon, "the White House doesn't appear to be helping."

According to the 3/14/04 New London Daily, some National Guard troops remain underequipped. For example, "most of the active duty army forces in Iraq last year were equipped with radios that allowed them to communicate voice and data clearly and securely over long distances. National Guard members, however, didn't have the Single Channel Ground-Air Radio System." Meanwhile, the Administration has taken "nearly a year to supply troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with ceramic-plated Interceptor body armor, capable of stopping rifle rounds and shrapnel."

The suicide rate among soldiers has risen 20% higher than normal, but the military has done little about it. Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy group for veterans, "said at least 23 service members committed suicide in Iraq since the war started and six killed themselves after returning stateside." Despite this, soldiers returning home from war have "little if any access to mental health help." Unlike tanks and planes, which are serviced or refurbished, Robinson said, what the White House is "doing for the human being is telling them, 'Thanks for your service. Now go home and cope.' "

Cheney received four 2-S draft deferments -- granted to students -- from 1963 through 1965 while he was a student at the University of Wyoming. He married Lynne in 1964, and was thus banned from the draft.

But in October 1965, the Selective Service announced that married men without children could then be drafted. Exactly nine months and two days later -- on July 28, 1966 -- his first child was born. Cheney hadn't waited until her birth before he sought a 3-A deferment classification -- given to those with dependents. He did so when Lynne was only 10 weeks pregnant.

The 1600 Crew policy. And so far it's worked. Not.

A year ago tonight, President Bush took the nation to war in Iraq with a grand vision for change in the Middle East and beyond.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq, his administration predicted, would come at little financial cost and would materially improve the lives of Iraqis. Americans would be greeted as liberators, Bush officials predicted, and the toppling of Saddam Hussein would spread peace and democracy throughout the Middle East.
...
...But the administration badly underestimated the financial cost of the occupation and seriously overstated the ease of pacifying Iraq and the warmth of the reception Iraqis would give the U.S. invaders.
...
..."A year ago, Iraq was ruled by the whims of one cruel man," Bush said. "Today, Iraq has a new interim law that guarantees basic rights for all: freedom of religion, the right to cast a secret ballot and equality under the law." Iraqis, he said, are "building a country that is strong and free, and America is proud to stand with them."

Remember that we have the coalition of the "willing" or the "bought", depending on your point of view, I guess...well, after the Spanish declared their Independence from the 1600 Crew "coalition", guess who was next to express, well, shall we say...'rethinking'?

President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a key U.S. ally, said today that Poland was "misled" about whether Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction and was considering withdrawing troops from Iraq several months early.

The remarks came as polls show about half of Poles are opposed to involvement in Iraq and after deadly bombings in Madrid - possibly by al-Qaida in retaliation for Spain's alliance with the United States - triggered fears of a terror attack on Polish soil.

Kwasniewski's comments were the first by a Polish leader to raise doubts about the intelligence behind the decision for going to war and the latest signs of a weakening of support for the war among coalition members. He tempered them by stressing that Poland is not about to abandon its mission in Iraq, and said Iraq was a better place without Saddam.

In an unusually frank Oval Office exchange between Iraq war allies, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski on Tuesday publicly challenged President Bush to relax stringent travel curbs on Polish citizens.
...
"We're working with the president on this very delicate issue," Bush said as a typical exchange of Oval Office pleasantries in front of a crackling fire turned into a televised airing of Polish grievances in an otherwise warm relationship.

The Polish leader agreed to work with Bush, but insisted: "I would like to deliver this idea to you and to our friends: The future of the world is without visa, not with visa. That should be our goal."

"Listen, let me just take a step back on this very important issue," Bush told Kwasniewski. "We value our friendship with Poland. Poland is our great friend. There are thousands of Polish Americans who..."

"Millions," the Polish president broke in with a smile.

Clearly a bit taken aback, Bush continued: "Millions, excuse me? I just don't want to overstate the case here."

I almost feel sorry for the simple bastard. Hoist? Petard? An-drreww? In what has to be one of the most mawkish displays of self-pity and bi-polarism yet, the Duchess is destroyed, yes destroyed mind you that Preznit Lies to All lied to him. He's gonna need big-time therapy. Maybe Charles Krauthammer has a spot open on his couch for him.

So which war is it going to be Andrew, the war on the noun, or the war on your soul? Pick Quick, the marginalization will be televised...and don't bet it won't continue to happen if the 1600 Crew is around to lead that revolution. Think Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. The Christo-Fascists don't like you (and they really don't) they lock your ass up. Simple, no questions and no recourse.

Sullivan admits one truth though, "without the support of gay voters, Bush would not be president", a million more votes for Gore would have meant peace, prosperity and a guarantee of Andrew's rights as a an American and a Human Being, now it could be a 100% Loss. Nice Going.

I hope Charles can clear his calendar for Andrew, but then, he might not like him either.

From an interesting op-ed in the the NYT, it's almost a compelling argument why we should leave troops there...to clean up the mess we made. But this paragraph just struck a chord.

Islamists of the kind represented by Al Qaeda are religious revolutionaries. But it is perfectly possible for a practicing Muslim to be against United States intervention, free-market capitalism, sexual freedom and the importing of Hollywood movies without being a theocratic revolutionary. Such a person may be a moderate reformer who believes, as did many Europeans until just a few decades ago, that democratic politics is best organized along religious lines.

I really like this guy's opening paragraph, especially in light of the post at Atrios on the text of Preznit Lying Bastard's speech about the vendetta war.

[O]ne year later, most of the stated reasons for invading Iraq have been discredited. But advocates of the war still have one compelling argument: our troops are not there to impose American values or even Western values, but "universal" ones. The underlying assumption is that the United States itself represents these universal values, and that freedom to pursue happiness, to elect our own leaders and to trade in open markets, should be shared by all, regardless of creed, history, race or culture.

It takes a lot of nerve to do this...why not just come out and call him a fucking traitor and be done with it, VP Other Priorities, you know you want to...

In a blistering critique of Senator John Kerry's record on military issues, Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday portrayed the Democratic presidential candidate as weak, inconsistent and a threat to the security of the nation.

"Whatever the explanation, whatever nuances he might fault us for neglecting," Mr. Cheney said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here, "it is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander in chief in this time of testing for our country."

He added: "The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample doubts about his judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security."

Don't worry, Preznit No Turkee and VP Angina have heard of such hardships, but golly-gee Gomer, it's never been a real problem for them. Ever.

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed and deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
...
I'm a tool of the government
and industry too
for I am destined to rule
and regulate you
...
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me Yet?
I'm the slime oozing out from your
TV Set

In the never-ending march to marginalize an entire segment of our society, ShrubCo, Inc has de-legitimized Gay Americans whose only apparent drawback is, loving or having the propensity to love another of the same chromosomal make-up, from being employed by their government.

Gay and lesbians in the entire federal workforce have had their job protections officially removed by the office of Special Counsel. The new Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, says his interpretation of a 1978 law intended to protect employees and job applicants from adverse personnel actions is that gay and lesbian workers are not covered.

Bloch said that the while a gay employee would have no recourse for being fired or demoted for being gay, that same worker could not be fired for attending a gay Pride event.

In his interpretation, Bloch is making a distinction between one’s conduct as a gay or lesbian and one’s status as a gay or lesbian.

Atrios is so right, I too, hate these bastards. Not Republicans, but these narrow-minded Christo-Fascist republicans...they are not one and the same.

So, how do all you Log Cabin Republicans who are federal employees feel about your guy now? Pretty swell fella, eh?

Krugman sez:

It's now clear that by shifting his focus to Iraq, Mr. Bush did Al Qaeda a huge favor. The terrorists and their Taliban allies were given time to regroup; the resurgent Taliban once again control almost a third of Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda has regained the ability to carry out large-scale atrocities.

But hey, when those sneaky terrorists strap a thermonuclear warhead to an ICBM, I'll know that the 1600 Crew protected me, well not really the system doesn't work, never has and costs billions...sound like any other policies of the Fortress 1600 Braintrust?