Der Duchess has taken to comparing the movie "Jackass" to "Farenheit 9/11", since in his deluded mind they are both documentaries. In one, he delights in the "hot young straight dudes shoving toy cars" up their asses. In the other he's disgusted because Michael Moore shows America getting it up theirs. In one, he delights in the light-hearted comedy of stupidity that grossed $64 million dollars, in the other he solicits his readers to go out and commit a felony

...why doesn't some enterprising blogger take a tape recorder to a screening...

It's Mr. Sherri Annis aka Howard Kurtz and he writes this:

What's most fascinating about the Michael Moore coverage is that while conservatives are shredding his film, even many liberals say that it's a heavy-handed piece of propaganda filled with exaggerations, if not outright falsehoods.

But "Fahrenheit 9/11" has ignited the anti-Bush base in a way not seen since Howard Dean was warming up his vocal cords. Even though many of the scenes in the movie are old news, repackaged in a new way to make the president look like a doofus.

Without going into details, it was the experiences of men like Pete Peterson that fashioned the curriculum for what I learned about POW's while I was in the Navy. I have the utmost respect for him and others who endured what they did at the hands of the Vietnamese while a POW. That he could go back as a diplomat and help to "normalize" relations with the very people who tortured him, mentally and physically speaks volumes. So when he writes of his disgust with the 1600 Crew and their methods, I take it to heart.

Meanwhile, political appointees in the Justice and Defense departments were feverishly working with the White House to build a framework for circumventing legal constraints against prisoner abuse. These high-level advisories were plainly written not to prevent torture, but to authorize it and to help officials accused of torture escape punishment. At the same time, the Pentagon approved interrogation guidelines for Iraq and probably Afghanistan that permitted using dogs on prisoners, binding them in painful "stress positions," and subjecting them to sleep and sensory deprivation - techniques forbidden by the Army's traditional rules.

These decisions, which the administration still defends, undeniably set the stage for the horrible and illegal torture at Abu Ghraib. I am disgusted, angry, outraged and at the same time grossly embarrassed by what my government has sought to justify in the name of freedom! This is not the principle of freedom that I nearly gave my life to defend. Americans not only subjected prisoners to pain, suffering, isolation, hunger and degenerate sexual humiliation; some were apparently theatrically killed.

If you're just some African country with no resources and a bad attitude: a visit from Fat Mikey's daddy, Colin and this frightening action...

The Bush administration has begun circulating the text of a U.N. resolution that would sharply criticize the Sudanese government. Powell met with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan -- who will tour Darfur Thursday -- as his plane refueled for a flight to a regional security conference in Jakarta.

Dick Cheney said 'Fuck'. That's News.

A last step before a draft? All the men and women who are still obligors under the IRR system need to start checking their paperwork and see what their status is. The possible call-up of close to 6,000 Army folks ought to have everyone looking at their 214's and taking that discharge (if you have one) out of it's frame and getting a Notarized copy made and stored in a safe-deposit box.

It's one thing to want to go off to war; and it's another to have served and be called up after you've done your service. I doubt that a call-up of IRR soldiers would stop with those who are still "obligors". After all, the training curve is way more manageable for any prior service personnel; it's just a matter of convincing Congress to make an eeensy little change in the law I would imagine to get even those who have served and owe nothing back, especially if they were deemed "vital".

And hey, I think that if you're a fellow Officer, it's a pretty safe bet that you're a possible player...remember our Geneva Convention Cards (oooops Military ID's) said expiration: Indefinite. Unless you specifically resigned your commission, I think this whole thing could be problemmatic...but that's just my take on it, I'm probably wrong.

In any event, the whole IRR thing is an interesting event. The numbers are not huge yet, but the Preznit can call up something like 30,000 IRR members.

Unlike members of the Selected Reserve, who drill consistently with an organized unit, soldiers in the IRR aren't required to attend training, nor are they attached to a specific unit. In fact, many IRRists aren't even aware that they're in the reserves at all. But whenever the president sees fit, these troops have to answer the bell. Title 10 of the United States Code gives the president the authority to muster 200,000 reservists whenever "it is necessary to augment the active forces." Of that 200,000, who must serve for a period of 270 days, no more than 30,000 can be members of the IRR.

In addition, in times of grave national emergency, the president can authorize a partial mobilization of the reserves, which would involve up to 1,000,000 troops for a 24-month stretch. A full mobilization, which can occur only if Congress has declared war or during a national emergency, would call up all reserves and military retirees younger than 60 for the duration of the crisis.

This is just another facet of the lies of the 1600 Crew and the Chickenhawk Cabal...more bodies for their politics.

Dave Neiwert has a link to the most definitve post about the service record of Preznit Can't Show Up.

And it's all about the flight physical and desertion and altering records.

So, I wonder how the folks getting extended in Iraq will feel about this?

In keeping with the prevailing pattern of his life, as known to date, Preznit Stick 2 Naught pulled Viceroy Jerry out of Eye-Rack about forty-eight hours early, and has "handed" over the Iraqi government to ... someone. See, now it's not longer his fault if Americans die there, because the Eye-Rack-ees are in charge because there is "Freedom Reigning" or Raining or something. It's Harken Energy all over again, this time though Americans and others are dying and it's just as wrong now as it was then...criminal from start to finish and someone's making money off the deal and he will too, eventually.

President Bush celebrated the transfer of political authority in Iraq on Monday as the fulfillment of his promises to a broken country, but warned that violence and the U.S. military presence in the country are unlikely to end soon.
...
"We pledged to end a dangerous regime, to free the oppressed and to restore sovereignty," he said. "We have kept our word."

...It read: "Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from Bremer at 10:26 AM Iraq time -- Condi."

Bush, using one of the thick black pens he uses to sign autographs, scrawled "Let Freedom Reign!" and sent it back to her.
...
In a reflection of the dire conditions in Iraq as the interim government assumes power, Bush and Blair said that they would not be surprised if Allawi imposed martial law, and that they would support him if he did.

First Question on the test, pencils up please: Is Freedom Secure?

I'll be watching as the Huey's, Seaknights, Chinooks and Blackhawks take the last of the folks off the roof of the Embassy...hey, I watched it once, what's a little deja vu among friends?

Sometimes Stupid is as Stupid writes. Or something like that. Here's a description of something, you guess what.

This was tedious propaganda, using the most ancient of devices, and reflective of a pathology that can only be described as unhinged.
...
I'd address the arguments, if there were any. There weren't. There was just a transparently failed attempt to construct conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence, and when the entire framework was teetering into absurdity, the occasional necessary lie.

Or could it be Sullivan talking about F-911? We report, we deride. What a tool, talk about unhinged.

And has he been taking writing lessons from Michael Ubaldi? I gotta know.

The cases that everyone has been waiting to hear about were announced today by the Supremes. I'm no legal scholar, but from what I have read they handed the 1600 Crew a defeat of sorts for in their quest to start their own personalized 1600 Crew Star Chamber, LLC (which would, of course, be contracted out to CheneyBurton), all remittances sent to Bermuda, please. Interestingly, even Fat Tony was a bit upset, legally speaking, by the usurpation of powers by his 1600 Crew sponsors (maybe because he didn't think of it first)...

"The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive," Scalia wrote, with Stevens's support.

Only Justice Clarence Thomas embraced the administration's positions without reservation, referring in a dissenting opinion to "the breadth of the President's authority to detain enemy combatants, an authority that includes making virtually conclusive factual findings" that the Supreme Court is powerless to "second-guess."

So I go out of town, catch no fish, have a great meal with a great Blogger and Family and miss the whole F-Bomb flap.

Yeesh, I don't even get to say Dick about it.

Timing is truly everything.

Ever the scholar of Monumental Global Happenings and Water Polo, it seems that our Beloved Leader took a break from penning his latest article for Foreign Affairs to do an interview with Radio and Television Ireland, where he made this amazing pronouncement:

... You've got a democracy in Pakistan. ...

THE ongoing tussle in Pakistan, dear readers, is about democracy. The people of Pakistan and the politicians there are, no doubt, hungry for democracy, as they believe they don't have enough of it. And they feel that ever since Field Marshal Ayub Khan seized power in a coup in 1958--marking the end of a briefly lasted parliamentary system - there has been no real democracy there.
...
Since then, the people and politicians of Pakistan have sufficient reasons to believe that there is no democracy in their country in real terms. What is touted as democracy thereafter, they feel, is just drama - only to show to the outside world that there is an elected parliament and democratic system of governance - and that this is far from reality.

Got it. Discovered why the Duchess has made her choice and the choice is not Kerry...and it proves that She is as shallow as a storm drain in Sugarland, TX...

At a deeper level, it seems to me that Kerry is a world-class crashing bore. ...

I have a feeling that since the Dupont Dickhead managed to almost singlehandedly coarsen political debate in this country while at TNR, she is trying once again to influence an outcome by resorting to a gross oversimplification of these competing candidates. All for reasons best known to herself and Beagle; certainly not for any rational reasons...after all, as Sullywatch says, Andrew spends most days doing "he loves me, he loves me not" in front of an 8x10 color glossy photo of Her Hero, with circle and arrow and a paragraph on the back of each one describing Her unrequited love for Him (damn that Pickles!).

So to Review the Princess Political Primer:
Preznit Raper of Republics = Good and Wholesome and Entertaining
John Kerry: Patrician, Overly Intellectual and Boring Boring Boring = BAD. Besides he just looks French.

And oooh, baby, are they happy about that...heading out to the NATO summit, Preznit Going to Turkee is facing a group of our bestest international friends, who, after three years of drooling, idiotic foreign policy he has turned into, well...sorta not-friends of his anyhow.

President Bush's trip to the NATO summit meeting in Turkey comes at a time of diminished diplomatic strength, in which international organizations and individual countries have forced his administration into some strategic compromises, foreign policy specialists and diplomats say.

Bush administration officials deny that their diplomatic strength has been undercut. "Throughout, there has been extended outreach to the international community on a myriad of issues," one foreign policy official said, "and the international community has responded. One has merely to note the number of countries active in the coalition in Iraq."

Countdown to Utter Failure for the Miserable Failure: Seventy Two hours and change?

The differences between John Kerry and Preznit Send-me-a-check in a nutshell:

"These are pretty stark differences," said Robert D. Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former head of the Congressional Budget Office. "Kerry is expansive and wants to preserve and strengthen the role government has played in the economic and social life of the republic, and Bush would like to scale back the role of government to the most basic services of protection of life and liberty and a safety net for those who really have no ability to care for themselves."

Of course the republicans will have a field day with this, immediately after banning instruction in higher math (balancing a checkbook) and philosophy (common sense). All references to said subjects will be removed from future massive testing measures and replaced with "why god is good for the economy" and "how jesus made ends meet on a budget".

Off for a couple of daze...out west. Hope to meet up with a couple of fellow bloggers ... you know who you are... and (hopefully) catch some fish. From a small boat. If I don't drown. Hey, If I eat Fish, is it cannibalism?

Anyhow, will blog if able...otherwise, back to more Structured Ranting on Sunday night as I recover from jet-lag.

Have a great week, be kind, be safe and help a neighbor, and visit the folks in the Fish Pond...and someone tell that git I'll be watching...

Before Andrews tantrum about all us horrible leftie-president-haters and our cheap shots at The Hardest Workin' Rexall Wrangler in 'Murika today he had this to say:

... I haven't been able to peruse all the documents but I will wait for other journalists with access to summarize them in time...

How many presidents has Fidel Castro seen buried so far and sitting presidents come and go? Yeah, thought so. Now Bunnypants wants to be "tuff on fidel". Or is it really, play a Rove Strategy game to try and win votes in Florida

Miriam Verdura could hardly wait to visit family in her native Cuba next month, her second trip since immigrating to southern Florida in 1999. But the Bush administration has dashed her plans with restrictions that start next Wednesday.
...
Because she last visited in 2002, Ms. Verdura will be ineligible to return until next year.

"Bush's priority should first of all be to not keep Cuban families apart, because we suffer a lot," she said.
...
"People are crying, saying, 'Please, can't you put me on a plane?' " Tessie Aral, vice president and chief executive of ABC Charters, said. "One said, 'I have to go because my mother is dying.' They can't wait another three years."

The measures are part of a broader plan that President Bush announced last month to be tougher on President Fidel Castro and speed a transition to democracy in Cuba. Democrats and even some Republicans say the election year crackdown is a nakedly political move to bolster Mr. Bush's support among Cuban-Americans in southern Florida, a crucial segment of his base in this swing state.

Oh, we were doing it and gave up? Wonder why...maybe we just wanted to make Freedom Secure, like Preznit WarOn HardOn is you know, not a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of CheneyBurton, Inc.

And the Iraqis might as well start singing them now. Why? There is none. Otherwise how can the 1600 Crew explain this?

The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.

The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the year-long occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states." (my emphasis)

If this is to "ease the burden", so to speak for armed contractors to carry out their "Missions", and not face prosecution from some future duly-constituted Iraqi government, I think that the 1600 Crew has left yet another open can of rattlesnakes lying around in the desert heat.

The military folks who misbehave will I think be carefully watched after Abu G-Rape for evidence of malfeasance...almost another "zero tolerance" thing, which is a sort of typical military over-reaction to Things That Go Bad Then Go Public (like, ummmm, Tailhook). But who will watch the -ahem- contractors?

No one. So we get Order 17...another Limited Liability Clause from your favorite No Account(ability) republicans.

This is what it looks like. Today. The numbers can't go down any more than the lies can be put back in Preznit Dental Appointment's face.

Of the 842 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the invasion 15 months ago, 622 were killed by hostile fire, according to a Pentagon tally. The largest part of that combat death toll, 513, has come since President Bush's declaration on May 1 last year that major combat was over.

I guess that with all the RNC Blastfax facilitation that the Post and other media outlets of the SCLM kind have done since January 2001 it's hard to hold that mirror up to view themselves. I'm guessing about 842 pairs of Lost American eyes stare right back at the SCLM whores everytime they look towards Iraq.

Of course I would not want to make fun of family-values republican candidate Jack Ryan of Illinois, who is unintentionally aiding the destruction of the Illinois Republican party. The republican machine, as factually-challenged as it is, still supports wealthy Jack ...

Publicly, Republicans expressed support for Ryan.

"Our Republican candidate is outstanding," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. "I have had him in Nashville to meet my supporters. I have campaigned with him in Chicago and will continue to support him.

Jack Ryan? Righteously rich, but I would give his troubles about oh, a 7 of 9.

A judge today is allowing a sexual discrimination suit against Wal-Mart to go forward as a class-action suit. Wow. I know that these women have been fighting for this for a long time, I've read some of the stories that they have told of being passed-over for promotions based on their gender. It seems that Wal-Mart will now have to answer for their policies in court, and prepare to take a beating unless they get an all-white male jury of Wal-Mart gun-buyers, who want their wimmins home barfoot 'n' preg-nint. I can't see any jury not coming to a conclusion of some systemic problems; there was just no way all these women got together and made all this up, then decided to go after the company...although that will probably be part of Wal-Mart's argument.

A statistician hired by the plaintiffs to bolster the case found that on average, it took women 4.38 years from the date of hire to be promoted to assistant manager, while it took men 2.86 years. It took 10.12 years for women to reach store manager, compared with 8.64 years for men.

In his 84-page ruling, the judge noted that Wal-Mart claimed the difference is due to differing job aspirations and interests between men and women that exist in the general labor force and can't be blamed on the company, the nation's largest retailer and largest private employer.

I wonder if the CEO of Wal-Mart will be handing out stickers to the jurors every day as they come to court?

Interesting note for future Tom Delay vote-manipulator wannabees; study the methodology of Florida. They are getting the art of result-rigging down to a science and doing it pretty much legally...like this:

Currently, the Census Bureau counts prison inmates as residents of the congressional and state legislative districts in which they are incarcerated. This affects population data and, by extension, legislative redistricting.

Because Florida's prisons are disproportionately located in rural Republican areas, the inmate population increases the voting power of Republicans at the expense of Democrats.

Take, for example, Union County, a very rural county in northern Florida. In 2000, as measured by the Census Bureau, Union had a population of 13,442. Of this number, however, almost 4,000 -- a whopping 30 percent -- were inmates. Next door, Bradford County housed another 3,250 inmates.

Congress needs to make some changes to the way these folks are counted in the census, but don't hold your breath, after all it's only democracy we're talking about here, not anything really important, like our Republic.

Asshats.

Now that he's considering giving up blogging, is the Duchess trotting out Her conservative credentials for the folks at Happy-News Faux? I mean come on, a Clenis sighting and a story about That Horrible Man and His Prison, why it just gives me the Vapors...

I guess that if Saddam did something, and then we have soldiers who do something, it's OK because Saddam did it first. Neener Neener Neener.

An Ivy-league education, is a terrible thing to waste, but your proof of wastage is there. Major-league asshole.

Of course, Le Duchess says about the Clenis:

So he lied under oath. By his own admission. Does he take responsibility? Nah

But this was not a generals exam. It was a political event. the point of press conferences is not to naswer every question in full

"Q: I guess I just wonder if you feel that you have failed in any way?"

It was such a nice weekend here in the Battleground State of oHIo that I could not bring myself to sit at a computer this weekend. I'll be back after a fast road trip today, and then I'm off to San Diego for a little R&R...and maybe some fishing.

Back later tonight, I hope...

Why one will be remembered as a Leader and one will be consigned to the trash heap of history.

BILL Clinton claims that he warned President George Bush before he took office that the biggest threat to national security was Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, in a sensational passage from his memoirs revealed for the first time yesterday.
...
The details - culled from the first leaked copy of his memoirs - reveal that Mr Clinton has pulled no punches in his account of his presidency, even when it is he on the receiving end.

In the passage on his al-Qaeda warning, when Mr Bush was president-elect, Mr Clinton claims Mr Bush said little in response, and then switched subjects.

Mr Clinton looks at his personal failings with surprising candour, saying that his wife looked as if he had punched her in the gut when he finally confessed to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
...
"I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," he said. "I think that’s just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything."

In about 100 years, when all our Allies have finally forgiven and but not forgotten the Hubris of the 1600 Crew the history of this presidency will finally be judged as it should be. It won't be pretty.

Clinton will get a far better shake from history, and it's starting already. About two president from now, when they start to unseal the records of the 1600 Crew (what's not shredded before January 20th) it's going to be pretty clear what a miserable job they've done. In all respects, but mostly with respect toward ensuring our "domestic tranquility"... no one expected the 1600 Crew inquisition...right now, I'd settle for the comfy chair. Preznit Whore-for-Votes is already going for the fanatical devotion to the Pope to try and stay in power to try and keep us from learning about the 1600 Crew malfeasance any time sooner than we have to .

The boy just can't hep hisself. Even when he writes trash. Now I'm discovering why he has no "search engine" on his soap-dish...it would be way to easy to "fact-check" him, hoist ... petard, you know. Once again (and it's kind of a TGIF Twofer). Past:

Superb column by Jim Hoagland in the Washington Post today highlighting both Iraq's continued sponsorship of terrorists and the Clinton administration's fecklessness in coming to grips with it in the past. The CIA is directly responsible for much of this, which is why it is still a mystery to me how George Tenet has clung to his post. From Bush's press conference, I gleaned little about the administration's plans for Iraq, except that Bush is keeping his options open and refusing to pick between the factions in his own administration. My hunch is that there will indeed be action against Iraq, but that it will be covert and we may never know about it. That solves Bush's political problem, deploys his favorite method of secrecy, and keeps his commitment to a serious war.
--Andrew Sullivan, Friday, October 13th, 2001

RAINES AWARD NOMINEE: This one, caught by Mickey, is a beaut. It's CBS' John Roberts on the 9/11 Commission:

It is one of President Bush's last surviving justifications for war in Iraq, and today, it took a devastating hit when the 9-11 Commission declared there was no collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. ... Those repeated associations left the majority of Americans believing Saddam was involved in 9/11, but the commission today put the nail in that connection, or for that matter, any other al-Qaida acts of terror against America, declaring, 'There is no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States.' The report is yet another blow to the president's credibility as he struggles to find the exit door in Iraq and opens him up to new criticism on the wisdom of taking on Saddam with al-Qaida's leadership still at large.

Astonishingly biased, even by CBS standards.

I am, as of today, officially over McCain. His considered breaks from the total conservitard ranks have always set him somewhat apart in my mind, plus having met him before he became a politician also did it. But now...

President Bush and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) put aside their animosity Friday and hugged onstage at a rally for 6,000 soldiers, ending any hopes of some Democrats that the maverick Republican would form a cross-party ticket with Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass).
...
Bush has a strict rule that his introductions last only one minute. McCain went on for eight, but no one from the White House was complaining. "The man I introduce to you today understands all this and understands it very, very well," McCain said. "He heard the call to action on that terrible morning in September and summoned the rest of us to this long and difficult task. He has led this country with moral clarity about the stakes involved and with firm resolve to achieve unconditional victory."

Noting "ups and downs, as there are in any war" and never saying Bush's name, McCain called it "a great privilege to introduce to you your commander in chief."

Bush reciprocated, calling it "a privilege to be introduced to our men and women in uniform by a man who brought such credit to the uniform."

I never saw any reason for him to run with Kerry, but he was until today a voice of opposition to the dogmatic and fatally-flawed policies of the 1600 Crew. I wonder what his pay-off will be? SecDef?

The Womb-based refugee from military service is at again, lying and lying some more. A poll on the MSNBC webpage that had this story has the 'voters' split 64-36 on the issue of an Iraq-Al Qaeda tie-in. Even though those polls are as reliable as a Preznit No-Show Oath, it's still interesting that Crashcart is trying to blame someone, anyone for something, anything. In this case, it's:

... "lazy" reporters for blurring the distinction, Vice President Dick Cheney said that while "overwhelming" evidence shows a past relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Bush administration never accused Saddam of helping with the Sept. 11 attacks.

So really Dick what's the deal? No teabagging from Lynne lately? Why else would you go on with this bullshit? And why do you sound like Rummy, or does he really talk like you?

"I don't know what they know," Cheney said of the commission, adding however that he "probably" knows more about Saddam and al-Qaida than the panel.
...
"The press is, with all due respect there are exceptions, often times lazy, often simply reports what someone else in the press says without doing their homework," Cheney said.

Want to feel better? Well if one of the Major Campaign Contributing companies like our friends at oh, say, Lockheed-Martin whose security bidness fails to perform as paid for in the prevention of another Terrorist attack is found to be at fault, well they're not liable.

Four companies that sell security technology have been granted liability protection from lawsuits triggered by an act of terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security plans to announce today.
...
Among those receiving the limited liability protection is Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp.'s risk assessment platform, the computer system at the heart of the aviation screening program called CAPPS II. It is designed to use public records and intelligence to determine whether an individual poses a security threat.

A contractor charged in the death of an Afghan suspected of being involved in rocket attacks. Not the most savory individual perhaps, but in the Preznit No Lie Too Big "freedom is secure" scenario, surely someone who is innocent until proven guilty doesn't get beaten to death after voluntarily surrendering...ha hahahaha. Sorry, that perception is fading with the imprisonment of Jose Padilla...

Anyhow, the CIA has a contractor who was a former rookie police officer in Hartford CT, who was cashiered as a rookie for guess what? Assault. So he goes on to work for the largest employer of Felons outside Florida.. the 1600 Crew. Wow. Jackpot for him, eh?

But hey, the Asscrack Justica Department, ever vigiliant for New Orleans hookers and Big Bamboo Bongs can't charge this guy with murder because, there was no autopsy.

Holy crap. No wonder they're running out of Rose Petals and Candy over there, and maybe there's a reason the new Iraqi "government" wants to have some say over the actions of "contractors"... if they wait for Asscrack to make a move, hell will definately be chillin' on down.

Here's the historical look of Cowardly Cheney, the man who hid inside Lynne's Womb to avoid military service when called.

"Pursuant to the president's instructions, I gave authorization for them to be taken out," Cheney told Rumsfeld, who was at the Pentagon. Informing Rumsfeld that the pilots had received orders to fire, Cheney added, "It's my understanding they've already taken a couple of aircraft out."

Bush and Cheney told the commission that they remember the phone call; the president said it reminded him of his time as a fighter pilot.

An interesting story, from a reader who sent me an email...can anyone out there with (or who has) Lexis/Nexis access come up with anything on this:

So, I'm having a small problem. On Monday or early Tuesday I read a news report on some blog LIKE The Agonist, that compiles information from various sources, about an American convoy that was stopped at the Kuwait-Iraq border by Kuwaiti forces because their sensors detected a very radioactive cargo.

Anyone?

Nah.

But the beating he takes in the conservitard press today, specifically over at Satan's Handmaiden, Lucianne's period have gotta make him wince a little bit. Makes me wonder if this is his preemptive way to make good on his threat to get out of blogging..."awww, Mommy I'm tired, bored and hungry and besides they all hate me."

For months he's been talking about his two favorite topix...marriage and the relentless spending of a certain unelected man-child. Wow. Who'd have thought that his virtual accolytes would have gotten so tired of listening to him obsess about the two things closest to his flinty little heart. I guess even some of his shrill republican friends are getting tired of his whining.

It was different when he had Clinton to bash, they loved it and him... now that he's moved on and is questioning party orthodoxy, it looks like he's found an excuse to head off into the P-town sunset; they hate him. The question is, will he? And who can he criticize the way he took after Howell Raines (and still does) if he shuts down his blog? Jonah? Sullywatch? I like having a front seat at the demolition derby...especially since all the players do left turns...

Heh.

Governor Haley Barbour (R-Big Fat Idiot Corporate Whore) has signed another republican-insipired piece-of-crap piece of legislation to protect his corporate Masters. A bill to cap jury awards. I'm not quite sure how these are constitutional, after all, aren't juries supposed to make awards based on facts, not emotion or outside influences? If you're going to cap awards, then why not just mandate a $1 million dollar check and save everyone having to try and lie their way out of Jury Duty (well almost everyone).

Gov. Haley Barbour signed a new law Wednesday that limits large jury awards, touting it as a big step forward in erasing Mississippi's image as a haven for eye-popping verdicts.
...
The law caps pain-and-suffering damage awards at $1 million in most lawsuits. It keeps the $500,000 pain-and-suffering cap adopted in 2002 for medical malpractice cases — but it erases a cost-of-living provision that would have increased the cap over the years.
...
Barbour echoed that sentiment, saying Mississippi will be more business-friendly because the state will be less prone to "outrageous" jury awards.

"Every defendant will know the scales of justice are going to be balanced," he said.

By the way, have the scales of justice been balanced in Philadelphia, Mississippi yet? Oh, thought so.

Der Duchess is genuinely suprised that the Iraqis don't really like us. I guess when you live in denial and play defense, it's hard to see the truth. Last Year:

I biked past a rather pathetic figure in Dupont Circle this afternoon. barely old enough to grow a beard, this poor soul was wearing a large cardboard placard: "Ashamed American." Ashamed. Ashamed of the liberation of a people from an unspeakable tyrant. It's a form of self-hatred and inverse liberalism that truly boggles the mind.
...
Yes, failure and isolation. And it's going to get worse and worse for these deluded apologists for evil.
--Andrew Sullivan, March 21, 2003

The latest poll of Iraqis - skewed because it doesn't include the Kurds - is nonetheless bleak news. Paul Bremer will have spent over a year losing legitimacy completely. The Iraqis still have trust in the Iraqi security forces, while they have little or no trust in the CPA (it has an approval rating of 11 percent).
...
A staggering 92 percent view the Coalition forces as "occupiers" as opposed to 2 percent who consider them "liberators;"
...
It doesn't get more decisive a judgment than that.

From the same story (scroll down)...forgot to add it. This has to be making Donnie stand in line for sloppy seconds at the statue.

In other business related to the prisoner controversy, the Senate, by a 54-43 vote, defeated legislation that would have forced the Defense Department to cut back on its use of civilian contractors, who are accused along with military troops of having mistreated Iraqis at a prison outside of Baghdad.

Well it's a sort of a body-blow to the mid-section of the 1600 Crew. Figuratively speaking...

Confronting new doubts raised by government memos, the Senate voted Wednesday to make clear that the United States will not use torture against detainees.
...
The measure says the United States "shall not engage in torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment ... a standard that is embodied in the U.S. Constitution and in numerous international agreements which the United States has ratified."
...
Memos from Justice Department and White House lawyers have argued that a president can order torture or any other interrogation methods as part of his powers as commander in chief of the military. One, an August 2002 memo from then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, says torture "may be justified" in some interrogations of terrorist suspects.

In other news, after the Senate vote, Snake-Handler Johnny was seen dry-humping the infamous draped statue out of frustration claiming "something has to get screwed around here besides me and my good intentions".

Yet another Neocon Myth exploded again today.

Insurgents struck at the heart of Iraq's economic livelihood Wednesday, blasting a major pipeline to halt vital oil exports and killing the top security chief for the northern oilfields.

A rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 other people, including two civilian workers, the military said.
...
"What you are seeing here is effectively a terrorist war against Iraq's critical infrastructure, including the oil infrastructure,'' coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN. ''It is an effort to basically, economically, impoverish the Iraqi people.''

Also Wednesday, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war, began talks with the interim Iraqi leadership. Coalition officials say about 60 percent of the Iraqi government already has been transferred to Iraqi control, including 15 of the 26 ministries.

Okay, troll prophylactic: Saddam was an evil kinda guy.

Seems that the 1600 Crew really wants to control the care and feeding of the blackhearted villian, the Iraqi Snidely Whiplash, for a bit longer yet...now for the funny part...I think they may be on to something since the president of the "tribunal" that's going to "try" Saddam (like, what, the outcome is a big secret?) is Salem Chalabi ... guess whos Nephew.

The president of the tribunal, Salem Chalabi, has said that prosecutors will seek to charge Hussein and his lieutenants with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with his government's repression of ethnic Kurds and Shiite Muslims.

So when do those high-minded moralists of the 1600 Crew go after these guys? When they forget to pay their bills, or when the Neocons get around to them?

Apologize for the Bloggus Interruptus, Mr. Migraine came and visited me last night for several hours. Sleep and meds made him go away. It was a better living through non-narcotic chemistry night ... back to bidness later today.

Happy Hump Day!!!

Oops, that would be the other MPAA ... are they afraid of something or is it just perhaps...

The Truth.

Seems that they want to give Farenheit 9/11 an "R" rating for it's "graphic violence" or some such.

The MPAA, which represents major studios and administers its classification system, gave the film an R rating due to "violent and disturbing images and for language," a spokesman for the Washington-based organization said on Monday.

After all, what's the big secret? That war is just peachy keen? Or that the MPAA is in the 1600 Crew's hip pocket ... hey, if Disney couldn't suppress it, maybe someone else can.

Next up: Old enough to die, but not old enough to drink. Heard that one before?

Preznit Fuzzy Math went to the Show-me State on a campaign trip...but was it? Here's the lede for the story:

June 14 - President Bush traveled to the swing state of Missouri on Monday for a rare campaign skirmish over Medicare, an issue that Republicans once had high hopes of turning to their advantage this year. (my emphasis)

Mr. Bush's quick trip here, deemed official business and therefore paid for by taxpayers, marked his return to campaigning after two weeks in which he was traveling in Europe, at a summit meeting and participating in the ceremonies for former President Ronald Reagan. (my emphasis again)

Lawyers, Guns and Money? Nope, just Liars, Thieves and Criminals...

These guys ran a commercial on a local station tonight. Here's a collection of the stuff that is apparently running in markets around the US. The one that was aired here was "No Bid Contracts".

Really good stuff. Takes it to the 1600 Crew big time.

Sullivan and his hero. Imagine Incoherent meets Incontinent, and two wrongs make a right, Sullivan and Buckley sittin' in a tree, etc etc. So far even Sullivan has been brave enough to say that the prison scandal needs to be looked into more thoroughly, and he's right. But wait, as with all things Sullivan, he takes a weasel approach to making his point: he drags those of us who have opposed The Mess from day One into the picture, like we approved of the bad acts until made public:

... Just because some anti-war opportunists are getting on this bandwagon does not absolve pro-war advocates from holding this administration responsible.

It's really nice of Preznit Incoherent to say swell things about the Big Dog. I'm sure that it sent shivers up and down the spine of Tom Delay ... you gotta ask, what was the partisan political motive for it? And please, if you're a republican, don't say it shows the inclusiveness of the Clan Arbusto. I born late at night, but not last night. Puh-leeze.

Maybe it's a Zell Miller moment, or the Cowardly Fratboy Drunk lost his coke spoon...ah, who knows. Maybe he got a blowjob in the Trophy Room...

Pretty good column in the Post.

Because the administration seeks to obfuscate rather than inform and because congressional oversight has been so anemic, there is still much we don't know about the U.S. torture scandal. President Bush will say only that he has followed the law. "That ought to comfort you," he told reporters last week.

It cannot comfort us, though, because we have read the leaked Defense Department memorandum arguing (in March 2003) that no law banning torture or regulating interrogation can bind the president when he is operating in his role as commander in chief. So he may authorize abuse and still believe he is, as he said, adhering to the law.
...
Instead, we see a president who ducks responsibility and gives lawyers' answers. And the difficult choices are kicked down the chain of command, where they do not belong.

Never thought I'd see the day when I said that.

It seems that the abuse at Abu G-Rape was both more widespread and more systemic and approval might have gone to the top of the Chain of Command (now who could that be?). Some of the soldiers who were detailed to get soon-to-be released prisoners to answer the equivalent of a "Customer Service" survey from detainees were getting information about the conditions before the story ever broke.

The disclosure of the documents raises new questions about whether senior officers in Iraq were alerted about serious abuses at the prison before January. Top military officials have said they only learned about abuses then, after a soldier came forward with photographs of the abuse.

"We were reporting it long before this mess came out," said one of several military intelligence soldiers interviewed in Germany and the United States who asked not to be identified for fear they would jeopardize their careers.
...
Starting in mid-November, one member of the unit began asking detainees, "How have you been treated since you have been in U.S. custody?" It was intended as a tactic meant to make the detainee feel like the interrogator cared, military intelligence personnel said. But the question soon began eliciting vivid and disturbing answers.

"One guy said he was thrown on the ground and stepped on the head," said one soldier. "That's when I started paying attention to it."

As more abuse reports emerged, members of the unit made the question a formal part of the screening process. In early December, the question was added to a Microsoft Word document of questions for the unit's interrogators to ask detainees, several military intelligence personnel said in interviews.

"We couldn't believe what we were hearing," said one soldier. Two detainees reported having been given electric shocks at other holding facilities before arriving in Abu Ghraib, according to the interviews. One prisoner's file included photographs of burns on his body. "We didn't want people to know that we knew about it and didn't report it," the soldier said.

Everyone who had a "Jail or the Army (Navy/Marines/AF/CG)" baby in your units raise your hands. Those of you from the late 80's and 90's probably didn't. Recruiting was good and the service could be a bit more ... circumspect about its choice of enlistees. I actually had a PO1 who was one of my best sailors who had a judge give him the option: enlist of go to jail...he took it as a sign and turned his life around. But for every one of those, there were a couple who seemed to spend their lives at Mast, or on restriction, or in the Correctional Custody Unit. Now with the Mess in Mesopotamia, it seems that "creative recruiting" is coming back.

Thirty miles from here, in Topeka, James Nelson, 19, got the idea of enlisting from his probation officer. He says he hopes the Army will be his chance to straighten out his life and to stop, as his mother says, doing nothing all day aside from playing CD's and smoking cigarettes.
...
"Basically, I got kicked out of every school I ever went to," he said. "I slept through summer school. To be honest, I'm surprised I even graduated." He said he used to smoke dope nearly every day but quit entirely about a year ago.
...
Every day this spring, Ms. Reese, 23, has diligently exercised, and she has lost 45 pounds. The intellectual requirements, though, have slowed her. Four times, she said, she scored below the generally required 31 points on the Army's entrance test. Ms. Reese vowed to study harder to overcome what she describes as a learning disability. "I think I'll be ready this time," she said a few weeks ago. "I really want this so much."

Secret Ballot: Does the guy Make it or Not Make it through Boot Camp? Everyone has their own reason for joining up (or not). Like the article says: it's getting more interesting and they can't claim to have joined up for the college money any more and then say "I never expected to go".

And we all know it's DonnieCondieViceroy JerryPreznit Shiznit, the Neocon Cabal en banc. Duh. Now strangely the Newly-Sorta-Emancipated (yer free when we say so, Woggies) Gubmint of Eye-Rock want to excercise some degree of sovereignty over non-US Military personnel in their country...ie. the employees of companies like CACI and Blackwater and others. Not so fast, says the 1600 Crew ... don't you be fucking with our campaign contributors like that...

In an early test of its imminent sovereignty, Iraq's new government has been resisting a U.S. demand that thousands of foreign contractors here be granted immunity from Iraqi law, in the same way as U.S. military forces are now immune, according to Iraqi sources.

The U.S. proposal, although not widely known, has touched a nerve with some nationalist-minded Iraqis already chafing under the 14-month-old U.S.-led occupation. If accepted by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, it would put the highly visible U.S. foreign contractors into a special legal category, not subject to military justice and beyond the reach of Iraq's justice system.

The U.S. request, confirmed Sunday by Allawi's office, is one of a number of delicate issues revolving around government authority that will confront the incoming U.S. ambassador, John D. Negroponte, when Allawi's interim government assumes formal sovereignty June 30.
...
But the status of civilian contractors has become a special question because the contractors are not covered by the Security Council resolution or the letter from Allawi requesting that U.S. forces remain in Iraq for an undetermined time. Moreover, they do not come under U.S. military jurisdiction because they are not part of the military, although some are hired by the Pentagon.

In that light, the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority has asked Allawi to grant the contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraq similar to that granted soldiers, said George Sada, Allawi's spokesman. "They have made that demand," Sada said. "We think it is a bit too much. It is under discussion."

Boggles the mind doesn't it? There's probably no other government on the planet that would be so arrogant as to invade another country for Profit for it's campaign contributors and then bitch when the "new" government wants to apply the rule of law to them.

Rule of Law ... republicans ha ha ha ha sorry, I got carried away there. Won't let it happen again.

The braintrust who would "starve" the beast as the so gleefully put their ultimate goal, privatization of the government by their patrons and butt-buddies just have to be having contractor-gasms over the privatization of the CIA and probably other intelligence agencys.

Assessing, cultivating and recruiting spies has long been a key job of Central Intelligence Agency officers. But now it is the C.I.A. officers themselves who are being assessed, cultivated and recruited — sometimes right out of the agency's cafeteria. In what is leading to a critical spy drain, private companies are aggressively seeking highly trained employees of our espionage agencies to fill government contracts.

With the resignation of George Tenet as director of central intelligence and the final hearings of the 9/11 commission this week, the stage is set for the first major restructuring of the intelligence community in decades. While there has been much discussion of moving agencies and creating an "intelligence czar," the privatization of our spies has been largely overlooked.
...
But some of these former officers warned me that their talents are being wasted on unsophisticated tasks, and that because of the slap-dash nature of the rush to expand, the quality of intelligence produced has become questionable. "The problem is these jobs are mindless," one officer-turned-contractor with decades of Middle East experience told me. "So we're all just sitting there looking at each other, and we're making a ridiculous amount of money."

Another former agency employee told me that he was among a group of contractors assigned to analyze e-mail messages on computer hard drives snatched by operatives in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries. "A lot of it was in Arabic and none of us spoke Arabic — just a little problem," he said. "None of us really knew what we were doing and we had management who didn't know what they were doing either."
...
But better oversight is critical. If Congress doesn't even know whom the C.I.A. is hiring, how can anyone ensure that what they are doing (and how much they are being paid) is acceptable? As we decide how to remake our intelligence services, we need to find the right balance between the people who make the cloaks and daggers and the people who wear them.

A fascinating story. Worth the time for a Sunday morning perusal.

Well, it looks like ST Ralph might have, for all his vaunted expertise, made a teeny tiny little mistake.

Since October, Ralph Nader has run his campaign for president out of the same downtown Washington offices that through April housed a public charity he created -- an overlap that campaign finance specialists said could run afoul of federal laws.
...
Records show many links between Nader's campaign and the charity Citizen Works. For example, the charity's listed president, Theresa Amato, is also Nader's campaign manager. The campaign said in an e-mail to The Washington Post that Amato resigned from the charity in 2003. But in the charity's most recent corporate filing with the District, in January, Amato listed herself as the charity's president and registered agent.

The office suite housing the campaign, the charity and other sub-tenants had a common receptionist for greeting visitors.

And Federal Election Commission records show the campaign paid rent to Citizen Works and Citizen Works' landlord. Nader said the campaign has taken over the charity's lease on its coveted location on 16th Street NW.

"There is nothing, no wrongdoing here," Nader said Friday.

Let's not forget those generous republicans helping ST Ralphie run...like these guys.

I normally avoid right wing websites for more than amusement. It's not normally worth getting into flame wars with them. It's not really my intent now. I found this on Bill Hobbs website, Hobbs is a true Wingnut Chickenhawk who has turned down my many offers to administer his Oath of Enlistment so he can join our troops in Iraq. I post this comment I left on his blog because he has a tendancy to erase or "edit" comments he deems "unfavorable".

The guy who wrote this sleeps each night unendangered by nuclear holocaust thanks to Reagan, but he can't find one nice word to say.

Yeah Bill, I was not doing much during the Beloved One's tenure, just.. let's see... deploying off the coast of Iran; flying SSSC/recon missions against Soviet warships, supporting battlegroups off the coast of Vladivostok; standing the duty one night when that OPREP-3 came in telling us about an accident that claimed the lives of four friends who flew into the water; watching a squadron-mate hit the ramp, no, me and other ex-military types who don't particularly like Reagan weren't doing much. I wasn't doing much. Oh, except for that Seven Years pretty much back-to-back at sea.

What were you doing while we were not doing anything that earned us the right to speak our minds in the way we want? Ah, nothing, just like you are now.

One I wonder if the Post really pays attention to. This far into the Mesopotamian Misadventure I'm happy that the Post still cares enough to pay someone to do the job of keeping up with the tragedy of the needless deaths of US Forces in Iraq. I wonder how long they will consider it "worthwhile"...I wonder why this is not a bigger part of their coverage of the War. After all, they had a pretty damn big role in selling the lies, something history will not judge them well for.

The death notices from Iraq come across my computer screen by e-mail and always follow the same format. Each states the name of the dead soldier and his or her rank, age and hometown, as in: "Pfc. Melissa J. Hobart, 22, of Ladson, S.C." It also identifies the unit, and so tells you whether this was an active-duty soldier or a part-time reservist or a National Guard member.

As the Coast-to-Coast Casket Fest ends, I have wonder about this written by Knotheaded Dead Ronnie Apologist, Krauthammer:

The second-greatest president of the 20th century dies (with Theodore Roosevelt coming a close third)...

1. People claiming to be unusually enlightened with regard to a subject.
2. Illuminati Any of various groups claiming special religious enlightenment.

Heh.

Speeches at the funereal:

George H.W. Bush's self-penned speech was conversational...

Preznit Mostly Incoherent:

George W. Bush's speech, more than twice as long, was stylishly crafted by White House speechwriters; "Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us," he said, paraphrasing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton at Abraham Lincoln's death.

I wanna fly it. So cool. The Orteig Prize did a lot for the growth of Aviation in the first part of the last century, maybe the X Prize will do the same in this one.

Think of it as an elaborate badminton shuttlecock. Put a pilot in it, take it up in the air and fire it 62 miles straight up into suborbital space at three times the speed of sound -- a spectacular trip undertaken with the knowledge that as the spacecraft plummets back to Earth, it will always be pointing in the right direction.

Feeney noted that while Rutan has, in Allen, one of the world's richest men for a sponsor, Da Vinci is being developed on a shoestring by volunteers, with help from in-kind corporate contributions. And while the 220-foot-wide balloon may be awe-inspiring, Feeney said its chief attraction was low cost.

All day long I had all these John Prine songs rattling around in my head. I don't know why, but after hearing "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" for the 14th time, I figured it was probably my way of 'blocking' out NecropheliaFest 2004.

Then as I was driving home, this hit me...

Made me laugh stuck in traffic. Feel free to add your own verses...

Happy Friday and Thank the Hairy Thunderer:

The Corpse has Left the Beltway...

It's about the time of the second anniversary of DemVet so I have Just One Question, it's midnight, I'm doing the internet sort-of-dorm-room-in-College thing and contemplating my navel...and wondering, how do folks find this site?

I peer at my sitemeter stats and see where folks come from, but how are you getting here?

Now, back to the navel or is it naval? Let me think about that....

Sullivan makes fun of people by using their words against them. All's Fair...etc.

John Ashcroft has pledged that he will "not make sexual orientation a matter to be considered in hiring or firing" at the Department of Justice. (In case you're wondering, I'd still vote to confirm him, because I think more is to be gained by holding him to his current promises than rehashing the ugly past.) --Andrew Sullivan, Friday January 26, 2001

Howard's writing is an almost perfect representation of someone so stuck in East Coast intellectual and social snobbery that she can't even begin to conceive of why an intelligent person might have preferred Bush's modest conservatism to Gore's phony populism. (my emphasis)
--Andrew Sullivan, Tuesday, January 16th, 2001

As regular readers know, I've long advocated cutting France out of any post-war Iraqi settlement.
--Andrew Sullivan, Friday, February 23rd, 2003

We may not have unanimous global support for an attack but to describe the coming war as "unilateral" is simply false. Ditto the hyperbole about the deficit. In non-adjusted dollar amounts, it might be near a historic peak. But that's deeply misleading. As a proportion of GDP, it's under half its peak in the Reagan-Bush years. I'm not saying it isn't a problem.
--Andrew Sullivan, Friday, February 23rd, 2003

Fish. Barrel. Shoot. I could go on, but my head would explode, and it's Friday.

Remember, they impeached Clinton for consensual fellatio. This porn will earn the highest accolades of all republicans: a vote to reelect in November.

U.S. intelligence personnel ordered military dog handlers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to use unmuzzled dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees during interrogations late last year, a plan approved by the highest-ranking military intelligence officer at the facility, according to sworn statements the handlers provided to military investigators.

A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog handlers at Abu Ghraib were "having a contest" to see how many detainees they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, according to the previously undisclosed statements obtained by The Washington Post.
...
Master-at-Arms 1st Class William J. Kimbro, a Navy dog handler, said he was summoned to Tier 1 one night in November to help search a cell for explosives using his dog, Nicky, a black and tan Belgian Malinois. Earlier that night -- records indicate it was Nov. 24 -- a prisoner had allegedly been found with a weapon. When Kimbro and Nicky concluded the search, they were called to the second floor of the cellblock to search another cell.

"There was a bunch of yelling going on in the cell and my dog started going ape," Kimbro told investigators, adding that interrogators were yelling at a detainee in the corner. "I remember one of the males saying to the detainee, if the detainee did not provide the information the guy was asking about, then he would have me let . . . my dog go on him."

Kimbro said he was surprised by the comment and tried to calm Nicky down. He soon left, he said, upset that interrogators had tried to use his dog as an interrogation tool.

"I was leaving because this is not what my dog is trained for," Kimbro said in one of three statements he provided to investigators. "We do not use our dogs for interrogation purposes."

Kimbro was singled out for praise in Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba's report about abuse at the prison for refusing "to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib."

I wonder how some of the 'tough-guy' 1600 Crew officials would have held up with a snarling 80 lb set of teeth in their face? My bet, they'd have been peeing on the floor so fast they wouldn't have realized it was happening. I guess it's lucky for them that they'll never have to find out, as they leave the country in ruins and head off to their over-inflated salaries in lobbying outfits when the 1600 Crew is turned out in November.

I hope that MA1 Kimbro makes Chief, he's obviously a leader, and has the guts to prove it.

Only Der Volkisher Beobachter would give this clueless fool space to write an editorial . Yeah, so he's a national leader. He's also an idiot. No wonder Fearless Leader likes him, birds of a feather.

Africans will be objects of compassion and contempt until such time as we have become demonstrable masters of our own destiny.
...
We ask that the West abandon its neo-mercantilism -- its hoarding and protectionism

When you start your editorial with a quote from Henry the K, it can only get worse from there.

And it's what he does best. Hard to understand really, and trust me I've tried to break the code on the Duchess. Todays columns have to be among the best of Andrew-does-Sybil bits. It might just make it to the Hall o' Fame. Start with the "take-down" of the French (what else is new). Entirely missing the point that democracy is a product of some weird combination of culture and necessity, Andrew still believes we can "export" democracy like we export agricultural products. He sticks to the republican party line, just couched in slightly nicer terms that the cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys are all hosed up and blew their chance at empire because they were not tuff-enuff. Who now has designs on Tyranny and Colonialism in the [region] middle-east? Not France, they've got the T-Shirt.

But then the Duchess rolls over to and shows his soft white belly, hoping for a few pats for being "tough" on the 1600 Crew and his fellow Republicans. Taking righteous exception to some old Gipper-era press transcripts about AIDS that have surfaced, he's appropriately indignant. Fucking Duh. Those transcripts are the pornography of indifference; and remember Andrew waxes rhapsodic over the guy who directed the porn...so appropriately indignant and transparently pandering to other conservatives who want to sit on the fence with him and express outrage with at no cost. Gee.

And the best for last: yeah, Sullivan and writers block ... he doesn't believe in writers block, it's like "safer sex" ... someone elses cross to bear and affectation.

Another Neocon bubble burst...that the Iraqis could do it all, with no planning or anything else.

Misguided U.S. training of Iraqi police contributed to the country's instability and has delayed getting enough qualified Iraqis on the streets to ease the burden on American forces, the head of armed forces training said Wednesday.

"It hasn't gone well. We've had almost one year of no progress," said Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, who departs Iraq next week after spending a year assembling and training the country's 200,000 army, police and civil defense troops.

"We've had the wrong training focus — on individual cops rather than their leaders," Eaton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A credible, well-equipped national security force is crucial to America's plans to pull its 138,000 troops out of Iraq, along with the 24,000 soldiers from Britain and other coalition countries.

Everybodys favorite Patriot, General JC Christian has a great post which even includes the Snoop Dogg Shizzolator and this great comment from that post:

Ronald Reagan: the man, the myth, the vegetable. I suggest we rename ketchup 'Reagan' in his honor. He should be buried face down with his butt cheeks above ground so the media can continue to lick his ass.
Mike | Email | Homepage | 06.09.04 - 7:05 pm | #

I'll have ketchup with my Rapture Rings, please; right here in the apex of the pyramid.

In his continuing Virtual Necrophelia, Andrew attempts to make a point about how Dead Ronnie was just a well, color-blind kinda guy. Magnificently inclusive, a true believer in the rights of everyone. Certainly not someone who would have ever subscribed to to oh, say, Richard Nixon's infamous Southern Strategy. Or opposed the Civil Rights Act.

Which is of course why The Worlds Most Famous Corpse kicked off his 1980 Presidential Campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Maybe Andrew is suffering from the same thing that brought down Reagan...pay no attention to those civil rights workers Andrew, you were probably nothing but a zygote and certainly not a citizen when all that was going on here.

Does Fear Trump Reason? It would appear so.

To win the War on Terra™ we must become who we fear.

Here's the text of the document that would subvert the Constitution and grant George his fondest wish. To be a Dictator.

GODDAMNMOTHERFUCKINGSONSOFBITCHES I want my country back.

The Grand Experiment must not end with the likes of this Miserable Failure. Or because of him.

Too bad this did not happen in Texas...I guess that Delay can only threaten so many people at a time or something.

The battle over a new Congressional map for Colorado, one of the country's most closely watched redistricting cases, ended Monday in a Democratic victory at the Supreme Court. Falling one vote short, the justices refused to hear the Colorado Republicans' appeal of a state high court ruling that invalidated an unusual second redistricting plan the Republicans had pushed through the legislature in the closing days of its 2003 session.
...
Chief Justice Rehnquist's opinion, which the other two signed, was reminiscent of his opinion in Bush v. Gore, the Florida case that decided the 2000 election. He said the state court decision, "while purporting" to be based on state law, actually made a "debatable interpretation" of federal law in validating the initial court-ordered redistricting. The decision should be reviewed, he said.

Preznit Lucky Sperm thinks that the UN vote will make his little Iraq problem go away on June 30th. I did not realize that the white stuff under his nose was cocaine. Silly me.

The U.N. Security Council gave resounding approval Tuesday to a resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June. President Bush said the measure will set the stage for democracy in Iraq and be a ''catalyst for change'' in the Middle East.
...
The resolution spells out the powers and the limitations of the new interim Iraqi government that will assume power on June 30. It authorizes the multinational force to remain in Iraq to help ensure security but gives the Iraqi government the right to ask the force to leave at any time.

Bush claimed victory before the vote, telling reporters at the Group of Eight summit in Sea Island, Ga., that a unanimous approval would tell the world that the council nations ''are interested in working together to make sure Iraq is free, peaceful and democratic.''
...
But his administration lowered expectations of gaining other countries' military support one of the original hopes behind the resolution. Four members of the Group of Eight summit France, Germany, Russia and Canada have said they won't send troops to take the burden off the 138,000 American soldiers and the 24,000 troops from coalition partners.

Miserable Failure.

As the 1600 Crew moves closer and closer to that Alien moment, you know the one where no one can hear you scream as you are tortured for your non-republican beliefs or at least locked away forever without charges...Der Snake-handler won't release a memo that might have a profound effect on how we are perceived as a country for decades to come...

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told Congress today that he would not release to members a 2002 policy memo on the degree of pain and suffering legally permitted during enemy interrogations, but he said he knows of no presidential order that would allow torture for al Qaeda captives.
...
While he would not comment on the contents of the memo, he said, "It is not the job of the Justice Department or this administration to define torture." That, he said, has been done in explicit fashion by the Congress in enacting law that bars intentional infliction of "severe physical or mental pain or suffering."

Ashcroft said he would not be drawn into a discussion of the legal boundaries of aggressive interrogation, in part because it would reveal too much to al Qaeda.

What a brain-trust we have running our government. Makes me proud to be a 'mur-kan knowin' manly men like Asssscrack are watching the walls.

Just a bit more to help you get through another week ... another listing of Commander Corruption's Amazing Flip-Flops and one of which would make a great commercial...

BUSH PROMISES TO FORCE OPEC TO LOWER PRICES..."What I think the president ought to do [when gas prices spike] is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say we expect you to open your spigots...And the president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price." [President Bush, 1/26/00]

...BUSH REFUSES TO LOBBY OPEC LEADERS With gas prices soaring in the United States at the beginning of 2004, the Miami Herald reported the president refused to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds." [Miami Herald, 4/1/04]

It will be kind of amusing to watch the explanations if this is the Saudi "October Surprise."

When you have the choice of "shooting my eardrum out" going to Canada or having Daddy help you get into the ANG as a substandard candidate (and not showing up for duty), you never really ever have to worry about such things as getting turned into a POW. So imagine the shock of future American servicemen and women as they are tortured by oh, say, some future adversary, as the torture guy reads them something like this: "What I am about to do to you is because:

A team of administration lawyers concluded in a March 2003 legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security.
...
One reason, the lawyers said, would be if military personnel believed that they were acting on orders from superiors "except where the conduct goes so far as to be patently unlawful."

"In order to respect the president's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign," the lawyers wrote in the 56-page confidential memorandum, the prohibition against torture "must be construed as inapplicable to interrogation undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority."

Let the games begin. Jeebus. What Nuremberg Defense?

Number of posts Sullivan relates to Reagan: 12 so far (2,760 words)

Number of posts Sullivan points out/mentions Reagans AIDS policies: None One, (five words)

Updated, thanks to SullyWatch for the pointer to the five words.

So is it desertion or not? This story from the Asia Times about an alleged deserter in Korea makes for some interesting reading.

The issue of an American soldier defecting or deserting to North Korea some 44 years ago has become nettlesome in otherwise sunny US-Japan relations: The Charles Robert Jenkins saga. Was he, is he, a deserter, a defector, or a captive of Pyongyang?
...
The Bush administration repeatedly has made clear that it intends to court-martial the Cold War defector, while Tokyo wants him pardoned or at the very least given "special consideration".
...
The ongoing military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan make it impossible for President Bush to be lenient with Jenkins. Even though Jenkins deserted in 1965, the statue of limitation is 40 years. Wartime desertion is punishable by long confinement or the death sentence. Senior military figures say that not to convene a court martial would be seen as betraying the millions of military personnel who perform their duties in dangerous circumstances and would erode military moral. However, some argue that living in North Korea for 38 years is probably punishment enough for any human being.

How about tandem courts-martials?

If Preznit C+ Augustus can't get on the Illinois ballot at all, does that give all the electoral votes to Kerry by default? Interesting situation caused by the republicans wanting to have their convention close to 9/11, in more ways than one, and the Illinois legislature failing to act in regular session.

Well, if it all goes to the Supremes, we already know how they'll rule. Democracy indeed.

More on the Friends of Ahmed. An Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant for an American Bidnessman, who has ties to guess who...highly placed republican party operatives.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Ahmed Chalabi's right-hand man in Baghdad, the American consultant Francis Brooke, who tried to stop the recent raid on the politician's headquarters in the Iraqi capital.
...
"He stopped the raid by telling the police they didn't have the legal power to do it because he was an American and they were Iraqis," said Judge Zuhair Al-Maliky, of the central criminal court in Baghdad. "

As a result, the raid didn't go as planned. The warrant is for interfering with the work of the Iraqi police in their legitimate business.
...
Mr Brooke, who is an evangelical Christian, has worked with Mr Chalabi since 1990 - first as a consultant paid by the CIA and most recently as a consultant for BKSH and Associates, a company run by Charlie Black, a Republican Party veteran. (emphasis added)
...
Mr Brooke has boasted of engineering the war on Iraq by providing America the evidence it was seeking on weapons of mass destruction. "I'm a smart man," he told The New Yorker magazine last week. "I saw what they wanted, and I adapted my strategy."

Update: that would be this Charles R. "Charlie" Black, Jr..

This is interesting...

Earlier this year, 60 percent of Maine's 2,300 Army Guard troops were deployed. "The current pace isn't sustainable," said the state commander, Brig. Gen. John W. Libby, who said that pace appears to be damaging his efforts to raise manpower. "Our recruiting is down significantly from last year, and our retention rates are down also," he said. The biggest problem, he said, is that parents are discouraging their children from joining. "We've got a level of reluctance with parents this year that we haven't seen in the past."

Some soldiers in West Virginia's 1092nd Engineering Battalion got home in April from 14 months of duty in Iraq -- only to be activated in the past few days for weeks of flood-relief work in Mingo County and other southwestern parts of the state. One soldier told the state commander, Maj. Gen. Allen E. Tackett, that he had been back to his civilian job for exactly one day. "The spouses and the employers are raising hell with me," the general said.

Tackett said he is especially worried that his most seasoned soldiers are getting out. "A lot of my experienced people are coming back from deployments and retiring," he said. "They've paid their dues."
...
The last time the U.S. military engaged in sustained ground combat, during the Vietnam War, it could rely on a draft to provide new personnel. Now, lacking conscription, the Pentagon is relying on other tools to find enough soldiers to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has imposed controls such as "stop-loss" to keep active-duty troops from leaving. It has extended the tours of duty in Iraq for some soldiers from a planned year to a possible 15 months. It is reorganizing itself to create more units that can be deployed.

If that's so, this war just got a lot more expensive, on a lot of levels, unless you complete the headline...A-F-T.

The SCLM, who bought and sold the whole Iraq-as-patsy scenario of the NeoCons and the 1600 Crew really thought that in addtion to the candy-and-flowers offered by the "brown-skinned" oppressed Iraqi's they'd be able to pick up something else: Pulitzers. No, really, read between the lines in this piece.

Iraq is different. Good reporting is as urgently needed as ever, with lives and the political futures of perhaps two countries at stake. But it has never seemed more dangerous. Kidnappings and ambushes have driven most foreign civilians out of the country, or into bunkers guarded by U.S. soldiers.
...
After more than a year of relative freedom to follow questions wherever they led -- often into the heart of Iraqi experiences -- the media have renewed their reliance on embedding themselves with the U.S. military and on filtering reports from Iraqi stringers who can go where they cannot.
...
Broadly, reporting Iraqi experiences of the invasion and occupation over the last year has been the key to understanding what is going on. Intimate portraits of Iraqis won The Post's Anthony Shadid a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year (he is now on leave to write a book) and conditioned the way journalists assessed the challenges, successes and failures of the occupation.

The SCLM are as much as any force in America responsible for this war by their non-coverage and non-debate of any of the "facts" they presented in the run-up to "Mission Accomplished". For any member of the press to whine about not being able to "get the story" is disingenuous indeed. Feh. I doubt that they are judged as 1600 Crew tools by their lack of body armor as much as they are by their lack of responsibility for keeping the war-makers honest in the first place. Double Feh.

No documents, no dollars. How hard would that be to do? The Senate (money-giving folks) want to see the Pentagon-Boeing documents about certain transactions. The Pentagon (money-getting folks) don't want to release them. Gee, could it be there is something to hide there? Naw. Not with the 1600 Crew involved.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has sharply limited the information he is willing to let Congress see on a controversial defense contract that is the focus of multiple investigations.

Rumsfeld took a hard line even with fellow Republicans who want information from him about a proposed $23 billion deal for the Air Force to buy and lease 100 Boeing 767 aerial refueling tankers. Rumsfeld's refusal to give senators all the materials they requested could provoke a rare congressional subpoena.
...
n a letter to Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld said Warner's committee would get only a sharply limited release of internal Air Force e-mails and documents.

McCain said Rumsfeld's response would "eviscerate the responsibility of Congress to provide oversight in such matters."

"There is not one single element in that letter which is acceptable to me," he said.

I know that the Senate can't directly affect funding to the Pentagon, but politics being what it is, there's always a way to gain a desired net effect with patience and time. Besides, I'd love to see the SASC committe subpoena something from the 1600 Crew Pentagon, just for the practice...

Heh. Indeed.

A nuke sub named for Jimmy Carter. Cool. Carter being a Nuclear-Power Officer and Submariner of the Rickover-era Navy was notably thrilled.

Former President Jimmy Carter was in high spirits today as he announced Saturday's christening of a Navy submarine that will be named in his honor.

"This is beyond my wildest imagination, so yes, this a great, unexpected honor, and I'm delighted to be the recipient of it," says Carter.
...
"I look on this as a major contribution of peace and the conservation peace and not war and the killing of others," say Carter.

Politics of the moment or Anything But Iraq; something which I am sure would sound better in say, French. Alternate titles: The Domestic Culture Crusade (yes in that sense), anyone?

In his best preacher's voice, Bush spoke of souls lost and found, the power of the Good Book, and the need to surrender one's life to "a higher being." But his larger goal: Reminding the audience of what a key friend he has been. Stressing his commitment to government funding of religious groups, Bush noted that, when an obstinate Congress tried to block his plans, he outsmarted them by signing an executive order. (Take that, you godless legislators!)

The more illuminating speech, however, came from Jim Towey, Bush's faith-based czar, who helpfully focused the crowd on the fierce "culture war" still raging in this country. Iraq may be getting all the press these days, he allowed, "but there's also another war that's going on ... that really gets to the heart of the questions about what is the role of faith in the public square." If the anti-Bush forces wind up carrying the day, Towey reportedly warned, "you could almost wind up creating a godless orthodoxy." For peddling such divisive, partisan rhetoric at an official White House event, Towey most likely earned a cookie and a pat on the back from the dark wizard.

I guess Towey must have either his actual or honorary degree from PAT U on his wall, that's the Robertson line of attack almost verbatim. Robertson, no student of American History has been braying for years about the "myth" of seperation of Church and State. As it gets to be more evident that this culture war is the one that the Christo-Fascists want, perhaps it's time to give it to them...President Kerry has but to appoint Supreme Court justices who won't meddle with the constitution on religious issues, and the C-F's lose for a long, long time.

The scariest thing about a gathering like that described? Everyone of the attendees has probably read and believes the "Left Behind" books. Be afraid.

Just this to say, Reagan died. Hardly an unexpected event; there was some "chatter" about it before it was announced the other night. So blogtopia might have gotten word before Big Media was either ready to announce it or even had it.

What can be said about a guy who ruined an economy, shredded the constitution, and was objectively the father of the Christo-Fascist and the "Starve-it" wings of his party simultaneously? His Cowboy persona was the lead-in to Junior's Macho Trip, and he was the least knowledgeable president about the government in a Republic until Turkee showed up. A man who embodied a Greed is Good ethos, and tried to make Ketchup a vegetable to save money, while trying to build a 600-ship Navy. (We always wondered where we would get the sailors for that).

It's ironic that his widow is now fighting with the same Christo-Fascists that she and Hubby empowered to have Stem-Cell research used to help with Alzheimers research. I guess you get what you pay (and play) for. Millions for faith-based outreach. Not a penny for scientific-medical outreach for improving the human(ist) condition...a position a guy like Ronnie could have gotten behind; especially if it meant votes.

Update: Alice Marshall at GOTV has a good Reagan piece. Check it out.

Sullivan gets it ummm, wrong I think. Going on another SGR™ (Sour Grapes Rant), he rises from his knees to mount another spirited, but factually challenged defense of his hero; Preznit Needza Knobber.

Funny. I haven't read anywhere of the Bush administrration severely restricting the ability of various Iraqis to run their own ministries, control their own police forces, use their own revenues, etc.

Of course, the U.S. will retain strong levers of influence — its military presence that will remain the basis of the new government's security, and the largest American embassy in the world which will control the purse strings of the lion's share of the reconstruction budget (which as things stand will come from Washington).

Checked out the trailer. Can't wait for the movie. If this is what one determined voice can show about the 1600 Crew with publically available information, imagine what's in the "hidden" parts of the government.

I especially liked the scene where Moore asks the congressman to have his kids enlist to go to Iraq. The guy looks at him like he's got two heads and wants him to sell the kids to a satanic cult...although maybe the 1600 Crew is one.

Damn.

Sullivan refers to Mickey the Hack by his real name: The Flatulent Pusbag. Naw, just kidding.

In another post, the Duchess sings Fearless Leader's praises over a speech made in Colorado. I wonder if everytime Dear Leader opens his mouth in public Sullivan has a little voice in his head singing "You are the wind beneath my wings". Why doesn't he just go to DC an offer to give Junior a Knobber in the Lewinsky room, in the presence of the Great War Trophy and have done with it? That would be more honest than what he does now. All the smarmy, fawning adoration and then his "ruthless take-downs" of Preznit I-gotta-Gun ... so lame.

I can't see any political benefit for the Mayberry Machiavelli's in this latest little bit of 1600 Crew dishonesty. It can't be that long before some of the more senior NCO's and Officers start to bitch quietly about being sent back to Iraq again, and having their retirements held up over another tour. I certainly can't see the more junior enlisted guys being very quiet again. After all, what are they going to do, send them to Iraq? Give me a fucking break.

The Army will prevent soldiers in units set to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan from leaving the service at the end of their terms, a top general said Wednesday.

The announcement, an expansion of an Army program called “stop-loss,” means that thousands of soldiers who had expected to retire or otherwise leave the military will have to stay on for the duration of their deployment to those combat zones.
...
In an opinion piece in Wednesday’s New York Times, Andrew Exum, a former Army captain who served under Hagenbeck in the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, called the treatment of soldiers under stop-loss programs “shameful.”

“Many, if not most, of the soldiers in this latest Iraq-bound wave are already veterans of several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he wrote. “They have honorably completed their active duty obligations. But like draftees, they have been conscripted to meet the additional needs in Iraq.”

Hagenbeck said the stop-loss move is necessary only because the Army is also undergoing a major reorganization that requires some units to be taken off-line while they are restructured.

Hagenbeck had no numbers on how many soldiers would be affected.

Again, some functional part of the 1600 Crew can't talk without lying. Amazing.

So we all have our politics. Aging rock stars included. I remember reading once that Joey Ramone was enamored of Alzheimers Ronnie and his fiscal policies, I guess that what ever tax cuts were passed must have benefited him at some point. Now there are apparently several organizations that are getting help at "reaching out" to younger voters by using aging hipsters like the Ramones to try and channel enthusiasm toward conservative causes.

In an election year with lots of attention being paid to getting young Americans to vote, a number of Web sites and blogs are disproving the notion that punk-rock-powered voter education and activism are a liberal monopoly.

One in particular, Conservative Punk, is carrying the torch for independent-minded young conservatives, even as polls show young voters gravitating away from that end of the political spectrum.

On the other hand, I can't wait to see Dick and Lynne Cheney slam-dancing to "I wanna be sedated" or perhaps Rod Paige grooving to "Rock and Roll High School". I guess the Ramones forgot about the whole Bitberg thing. Ah, Well.

A few weeks ago, there was an article in a southern Ohio paper that drew some attention nationally, concerning the strength of the republicans fund-raising efforts and the overall strength of Commander Codpiece's minions in that part of the state. In the article there was a quote attributed to a German Teacher named Linda Zins-Adams, which she took some exception with and took the time to call the reporter on.

Read her exploits with the reporter. I guess he's a grad of the Judy Miller school of getting it right, eh? Good for you Ms. Zins-Adams. And by the way, your Hotmail address bounces mail...just saying, y'know?

Or head in the "gun room", what ever.

Glen over at A Brooklyn Bridge has a good post up about the republicans latest ambition to pass a "balanced budget amendment" in the first 100 days of the next congress. Glen opines, and I agree, the degree of 'seriousosity' depends on the surname of the winner of the general election. Remember that Cap'n Compassion's minions recently leaked this bit of news:

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year.

Gawd, Sullivan just gets more strange by the day. Knowing that he'd kick Howell Raines if he came across his injured body lying on the street then walk off, he does it in print instead. And gets it sorta-kinda wrong to boot.

Startiing with the premise that Raines was trying to use the Times as "a crusading left-populist pamphlet", which of course completely flies in the face of ahem, Judy Miller and the paper's enthusiasm for small NeoCon causes, like the War on Terra™, the bold 1600 Crew lies about details like WMD's, failing to challenge the 1600 Crew on other assertions and parroting the RNC party line on any number of things. Or even being the pre-Raines source and perpetuators of minor scandals like some land-for-whatever detail in some state called Ar-Kansas. Yeah, a regular pantheon of Journalistic Liberalism built by Mr. Raines.

Taking Raines words further, the Pukin' Princess goes on to excoriate Raines for equating Greed to Codpiece Republicanism ... sort of an interesting denial for Imodium Andy to make given this little gem which slipped into the public domain in the last couple of days.

"They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"

"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"

"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.

"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader.
...
"Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that?

Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.

"It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker.

That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush (news - web sites) would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.

"When this election comes Bush will f------g whack this s--t, man. He won't play this price-cap b------t."

Crude, but true.

"We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse and that's why I oppose price caps," said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001.

Both the Justice Department and Enron tried to prevent the release of these tapes. Enron's lawyers argued they merely prove "that people at Enron sometimes talked like Barnacle Bill the Sailor."

The only reason people vote Republican is greed and a desire to screw other people over? Has this guy got through his sophomore year yet? And the notion that people can actually make it big in this country is "a mass delusion, of course."

I think all this brou-ha-ha ha-ha ha might be because they hired Bobo instead of asking him back, which sort of puts all this bitching into a certain perspective, it's called "sour grapes".

Talk about one pissed-off right-winger. Ted Sampley. Near as I can tell, he's got a hard-on for both John Kerry and John McCain dating back to their days on POW/MIA issues and normalization of relations with Vietnam. Sampley is a vet, in fact apparently a Green Beret, who seems to have a totally pathological hatred of Kerry. This story, which I saw over the weekend was forwarded to me by reader Dave, thanks, man. I googled "john kerry ted sampley vietnam veterans memorial", and the only link to this story was in Newsmax, which Dave sent me, so take it FWIW.

Somehow I think that even that fair-and-balanced tv network would have been all over this one, with footage. Maybe they were, but I don't watch them, so I might have missed it.

Sampley obviously is an equal-opportunity political hater. One Republican, McCain and one Democrat, Kerry. How in the hell did he miss Fearless Leader's "missing months?". Ah, the kool-aid. How silly, I forgot.

Oh yeah, there was the Combat Water Polo with the Alabama Ambitious Secretaries Battalion. Worth at least an Honorable Discharge.

Is this what Judy Miller et al have reduced the Times to? Interesting story, but hardly page one material methinks, even on-line.

Well, I guess that they have to start somewhere to gain back their creds. Next week, Bears and Leather. Byline: you know who.

So if an RPG explodes and there's no IGC will anyone hear it? Seems that the US-appointed leadership wants to (1) get the hell out soon to avoid blame or (2) dig in as fast as possible to grab as much as possible before being tossed out by the "evil-doers". Neither choice bodes well for the average Iraqi who just wants a return to stability and peace. Seems that yet another exile-puppet is going into play in Baghdad.

A powerful Sunni Muslim tribal leader and critic of the U.S.-led occupation was named president of Iraq’s incoming government Tuesday after Iraqi leaders rejected the Americans’ preferred candidate.

After the selection of Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer to the largely ceremonial position, officials announced that the entire interim government was due to take power on June 30, and the body moved quickly to begin its work.
...
But many Iraqis have grown weary of exiles like Yawar returning to take positions of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

“I can’t say anything about Yawar because I haven’t ever really heard of him — he hasn’t been involved in politics in recent years, and he was chosen, not elected,” said Ahmed Ali, a merchant in the southern city of Basra. “But what I will say is that he must understand that he is in power only for six months and he must use that time for the whole of the nation, the whole of Iraq, not just for himself.”

“He’s a man with a good reputation. I only hope that he doesn’t make his tribe powerful and favored, like Saddam did with his tribe in the past,” said Haider Abdul Hamid, 22, a student in Basra.
...
The more powerful executive post of prime minister is held by Allawi, a U.S.-backed Shiite Muslim with military and CIA connections. Allawi, whose appointment was announced Friday, was chosen because he was considered the best candidate to cope with the deteriorating security situation.

I can't directly attribute the Snake-Handlers' shrunken huevos to Jose Padilla, but I'd be willing to make a good guess that Jose keeps the brown stain going in Johnny's drawas. The detention of any US CITIZEN for two years with no criminal charges is perhaps one of the most egregious things the 1600 Crew has done to date, and it's something that should make us all be afraid, very afraid. Wolf Blitzer (Idiot) "interviewed" Padilla's attorney Donna Newman today. Here's part of the exchange:

[Newman] For example, they would not let me see Mr. Padilla or my co-counsel ... see Mr. Padilla. And then when they had to file their Supreme Court brief, all of a sudden they said, for some strange reason national security is not a problem and you can see him.

So every step of the way, the history of this case demonstrates when the government has been pushed against the wall they come forth with something. This, however, while they say it is very damning, it sounds so much like an opening statement that it's really surprising that Mr. Comey has said it in this way.

Padilla may not be a choir boy, but this is still America. If we are "fighting" Terra™ world-wide, why are we allowing it in America in the person of John "Threat-Level" Ashcroft?

So Andrew took his loyal readers for yet another paid vacation...this time with the "flu" or something. Did a little math, the Duchess reportedly makes about $36/hour blogging and was gone for at least 40 hours, so do the paying citizens get a refund? Or a "free" subscription extension for the days out at least?

No? Thought so. Well, that brings me to my next topic, ecoomics. When I want to read valid economic musings, I usually read Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong, not Josh Marshall and certainly not David Brooks. Unfortunately, as much as I checked neither DeLong nor Krugman seem to agree with Sullivan about the "positive" effects of the 1600 Crew tax-wastage. Amazing, eh? So perhaps Sullivan would be better off to stick to real economists for actual information, not that Josh Marshall is all that wrong or that David Brooks is all that (b)right. Or Sully is even clued in. Economically speaking, that is...or any other way, even. Krugman today:

Last week The Washington Post got hold of an Office of Management and Budget memo that directed federal agencies to prepare for post-election cuts in programs that George Bush has been touting on the campaign trail. These include nutrition for women, infants and children; Head Start; and homeland security. The numbers match those on a computer printout leaked earlier this year — one that administration officials claimed did not reflect policy.

Beyond the routine mendacity, the case of the leaked memo points us to a larger truth: whatever they may say in public, administration officials know that sustaining Mr. Bush's tax cuts will require large cuts in popular government programs. And for the vast majority of Americans, the losses from these cuts will outweigh any gains from lower taxes.

Yeeeah, Thought so.

OMWW = Old Men Without Wombs. In what will surely become yet another rallying cry for the the old white guys who can't carry babies, a judge has ruled that all those idiot repubicans should get out of the bodies of women that they have no marital attachment to.

In a ruling with coast-to-coast effect, a federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Tuesday, saying it infringes on a woman's right to choose.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton's ruling came in one of three lawsuits challenging the legislation President Bush signed last year.

Gee, how lucky.

From a readers e-mail:

I have just returned from accompanying my father-in-law to the Memorial Dedication.

I will not take much of your time. But you should know that almost every vet we spoke with over the weekend was upset by the (p)Resident having had his name etched in the granite above the name of the architect. It is on the right hand entrance as you face the gold star wall/Lincoln Memorial.

Someone should speak out loudly about this abuse of power.
I would have placed AWOL letters on the granite but I did not wish to detract from the real purpose of the weekend.

I know it's sort of traditional for mayors and governors to have their names engraved in sites that they pork-barrel into existance, but this is the WWII Memorial, a National Treasure for the generations, not freaking statuary in city park.

What gives with this, and can it be removed ... ever?

1. Jackass, yeah.
   
2. You know it's a whore if...
   
3. A former POW on Abu Ghraib
   
4. Here's what you can expect
   
5. IRR and Us
   
6. It was the Flight Physical
   
7. Cut 'n' Run
   
8. Stupid for the Masses
   
9. A Backhanded Win
   
10. Timing