Literally. We're off on a week-long break from the world...will blog if I get a chance, since I'm sure that there are internet cafes somewhere in the town where we're staying...

Until then, Hasta La Bye Bye and see you next Saturday or Sunday...

Peace.

I missed much of the Kerry speech, we had network problem that took me away to the office, so I have been catching up via transcripts and blogs...then it struck me, what does the Duchess have to say... that recent No More Bush convert, which I guess is different from him supporting Kerry (can he vote?).

This made me laugh...

... The first and most obvious thing to say about Kerry's speech was that it was far too long. ...

FMA Bad

To me at least, he is a deeply unlikable guy: arrogant, dull, pompous, mannered, self-righteous.

our good buddy skippy the bush kangaroo, has a most worthy post noting that the gang whose war lies are as transparent as cellophane can't even lie about the little things and get it right...

the first family...does not snack...they are very good at respecting meal time hours and do not eat between meals...there is no snacking..."

- white house pastry chef roland mesnier, whitehouse.gov, 7/27/04

versus

"president bush fainted for a brief time sunday in the residence of the white house while eating a pretzel and watching a professional football game on television."

- cnn, 1/14/02

We blogged about Sibel Edmonds long ago, and now it looks like she may have in fact, have had a few legitimate concerns.

A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.

The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

Hope NEEDS to be on the way...the police state of a second 1600 Crew term will open the gulags and the soulless factories of a truly Christo-Corpo-Fascist state.

Catching a story off the MSGOP/WaPo internet site today...pretty much read like a rah-rah piece at first, until I got to this quote by Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr. who commanded the 82nd Airborne in eYe-Rack.

Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr., who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in western Iraq for much of the past year, said he generally endorses the idea of putting Iraqi security forces at the fore while U.S. troops move to the background. The problem, he said in a talk in Washington last month, was that the U.S. aid program has been too sluggish to put that theory into practice. "I never got to the point where we had the equipment to do that," said Swannack, who worked with Mines in Al Anbar. "I couldn't get the flak vests, communications and vehicles to do that." (my emphasis)

I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening. And so I take my responsibility seriously. And it starts with making sure we rebuild our military. Morale in today’s military is low. We’re having trouble meeting recruiting goals. Some of our troops are not well-equipped. I believe we’re overextended in too many places. I want to rebuild the military power. It starts with a billion dollar pay raise for the men and women who wear the uniform to make sure our troops are well-housed and well-equipped; bonus plans to keep some of our high-skilled folks in the services; and a commander in chief who clearly sets the mission.

Source: Presidential debate, Boston MA Oct 3, 2000

A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam. When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.

Source: Speech to Republican National Convention Aug 3, 2000

I never thought that I'd actually get to see Her Majesty verbalize her conceit that she's smarter, wiser and just better than us all...here goes:

I've been writing for months now that Kerry's most effective message would be that he'd conduct the war on terror with more allies and more wisdom than Bush. But I never actually believed he'd be canny enough to do exactly that.

Update: And then there's this little Andrew-esque gem:

And then there was the gut-punch: the indirect use of Bush's dubious National Guard service. In fact, the way in which the Democrats used the service record of Kerry against Bush was straight out of the Republican playbook. It's a pretty low blow, and Carter delivered it with a deep thud. When you describe someone as weak on defense and a draft-dodger, you're usually a Republican. But not this time.

This has to be one of the most overarching themes of the convention and this electoral season...

In Democratic circles not so long ago, "FOB" stood for "Friends of Bill." Now a new meaning has permeated the party: Fear of Bush.
...
"George W. Bush has done more to unify the Democratic Party than any other Republican in my lifetime, and I've been active in state politics for about 60 years," said Dennis Jenson, 79, an Arizona delegate from Sun City, sounding a variation on a theme that echoed again and again during interviews with delegates from Arizona to Wisconsin.

Everything about the phony little sleaze from stealing an election to lying about seeing the WTC being attacked to lying about Iraq has made him the worst President in American history. I wonder how he'll see himself a year from now, when he's unemployed and hung over, Mrs. Hump-a-Lump be damned. Probobly be stumbling down to the local package store for another bottle of Mescal or something.

I thought that we, as Democrats would not have to resort to the tactics of the 1600 Crew to keep the voices we disagree with out of sight, out of mind. I would not favor speakers who are inciting riots on the convention floor, but the whole "Free Speech Zone", used by either party is just plain wrong.

Bob Kunst is working up a head of steam. "Do you think this is a real election?" he thunders into the microphone from the stage of the Democratic Convention's protest pen. "This is a phony thing. We're being sold a bill of goods!"

...In fact, let's do a quick count: Not including a couple of reporters and a dozen cops and National Guardsmen working security, there's exactly . . . no one listening. ...

This is not entirely Kunst's fault. The officially designated "Free Speech" zone and all-purpose protest area for this celebration of the Democratic way isn't exactly front and center. It's wedged between a parking lot for buses and a bunch of trailers, and set beneath the blue-green steel supports of a condemned stretch of the T, Boston's mass-transit line. The area's perimeter is marked by a sawtooth pattern of Jersey barriers, and it's caged top to bottom with cyclone fencing and barbed wire. A black plastic tarp keeps officially credentialed types in the FleetCenter compound from seeing inside the pen.

I doub that any delegate would be harmed by the likes of Mr. Kunst, but our values sure take a beating over his treatment. I guess once again we can thank Preznit Brainless Twit for mainstreaming an abhorrent practice to the detriment of us all.

Damn.

Are we seeing a future president here? Was that not a kick-ass speech?

I tuned in to see one of the best speeches of the convention so far and to hear one of the most mindless pieces of punditry (paraphrasing...) BoBo Brooks on PBS -- "Why he was like Tiger Woods" or words to that effect.

BoBo Brooks...what an asshat.

Of all the things that the P-Town Puffer has written, this has to be, by far, the most asinine:

A SOLDIER: Responds to Michael Moore. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is having a devastating effect on morale. Which was, of course, the point.

If you read the piece the Dim Duchess links to, it's an excercise in listening to a soldier bitch about what he percieves as Michael Moore abusing what he (the soldier) perceives as Moore abusing the First Amendment. What surprises me more than anything about this is that Sullivan would so blithely link to someone who so narrowly interprets the First Amendment. The same soldier might (and I conjecture here) be as opposed to Sullivan as he is to Moore for both First Amendment (an active proponent of Gay Rights and all with a media prescence) and "moral" reasons (a "Levitican").

Sometimes it really is fun to watch Sullivan shoot himself in the foot with a howitzer...

So the republicans are set to take potshots at John Kerry during the convention. Fine. Here's Ed "Little Head" Gillespie:

...We know we're swimming upstream and that our quotes are going to be on the jump page. But we don't want to let charges go unanswered and we don't want to allow them to ditch the senator's record, because we believe it's important in the debate.

• Disappeared from the Texas Air National Guard, never explained the gap in his service
• Lied about What Saddam Could Do over and over and over
• Responsible for the unnesscary deaths of over 900 American in the Mess in Mesopotamia
• Responsible for bankrupting the economy for generations to come
• Runs an adminstration that presided over the largest job loss since Herbert Hoover
• Cost the American People the respect of the rest of the world due to his arrogance and stupidity

Hey Ed: refute that you punk-ass bitch!

Al Gore tonight:

Al Gore said tonight, "I prefer to focus on the future because I know from my own experience that America is a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote."

You know, the one that should be getting 100% of the attention of that minion of CheneyBurton, Preznit Saudi Sucker, they're getting ready to have an election ... if you know those pesky actual Friends of Osama don't interfere in the electoral process...

Officially announcing his candidacy for the country's first democratic election, President Hamid Karzai dropped one of his vice presidents from his ticket, raising concerns in the capital that the spurned faction leader might react violently.

NATO and the international peacekeeping force in Kabul were on a heightened state of alert and conducting additional patrols through the city after First Vice President Mohammed Fahim, who is Afghanistan's defense minister and commands the Northern Alliance militia, was left off Karzai's slate. "This is a sensitive time in the Afghan political process," said Cmdr. Chris Henderson of Canada, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force.
...
Monday was the deadline for candidates to submit their applications, and the final list will be announced by the election commission on Thursday. About 20 Afghans had expressed intention to run, including one woman, Masooda Jalal, 41, a pediatrician who is running a grass-roots campaign that she said has collected 20,000 signatures on filing petitions -- twice the number needed.
...
Taliban fighters still active in the south and southeast of the country have threatened to disrupt the polls and have staged several attacks in recent months against election workers and voters carrying registration cards. But military officials said the attacks so far appear uncoordinated and relatively ineffective.

Why do I suspect that the next major problem over there will be treated as a big shock by Fearless Leader and given as yet another example of his sterling "Leadership". Not.

James Carville, as noted, no paragon of restraint (that can be said for moi as well) went to a Veterans for Kerry event and laid it out:

Let me tell you something...." Pause for maximum effect. "It'll probably get out there, but what the hell...." Pause for comedic timing.... Glance at the dozens of cameras and journalists standing in the back of the ballroom.... "It'll probably get out there, but what the hell: John Kerry is just a better man than George W. Bush."

I wonder when the republican manufactured-outrage machine will be demanding the tapes...

Yeah, Saddam was a bad man. I guess his credit report must have gone south on him, because apparently there was no other compelling reason in our National Interest to invade Iraq other than perhaps non-payment of CheneyBurton invoices or something.

One week after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, White House counterterrorism director Paul Kurtz wrote in a memo to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that no "compelling case" existed for Iraq's involvement in the attacks and that links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government were weak.

Not only did Osama bin Laden resent the Iraqi government's secularism, Kurtz's classified memo stated, but there was no confirmed information about collaboration between them on weapons of mass destruction.
...
Four days later, when Bush convened a seminal meeting of his senior advisers at Camp David to decide retaliatory steps, the Defense Department submitted a paper that depicted Iraq, the Taliban and al Qaeda as priority targets in the first stage of action, the commission states. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith argued in three memos for Rumsfeld in subsequent days why Iraq should be hit, the report discloses.

The memos -- including one dated Sept. 18 and titled "Were We Asleep?" -- listed alleged ties between al Qaeda and Iraq that the commission report debunks, such as a theory that Ramzi Yousef, an al Qaeda-affiliated bomber convicted of masterminding the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, was an Iraqi agent.

I will always choose to defend America. I would never try to defend these miserable fuckwits.

In todays episode of "The Dirty Dish" our princess almost sounds rational, almost talks as though she's recognizing that the Christo-Fascist republicans want to march her off to a Lager in some Western State, complete with guard dogs and barbed-wire. The comes the usual "I can't believe that I could ever be as bad as a [gasp] progressive, Democratic kinda Princess" moment...

Yes, today's Republicans are now the inheritors of those Democrats who did all they could to prevent African-Americans from winning their civil rights.

The Army's investigator of abuse today decleared that there was not a pattern of abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An Army investigation has concluded that the abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq was the result of individual acts of indiscipline, not of any systemic problem or flawed policy.

Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, the Army's inspector general, told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that while his review of 94 confirmed cases of abuse found some "shortcomings and flaws," particularly in Army training of military police, overall there was no sign of a "pattern" of abuse that would suggest "any systemic failure."
...
The Army's long-awaited conclusions supported statements by President Bush and top military officials, who have said the acts of mistreatment of prisoners were aberrations rather than the product of any policy, implicit or explicit, or of a culture in the Army.

I guess a pattern would have involved incarerating and then raping children. Oh, my bad, that allegedly happened too.

The terrorists plan and carry out a devastating strike against our country. Preznit Fuzzy Thinking launches into action fresh from his 100th day of vacation in 2001. He continues to read a book about Goats to Kids and then proceeds to spend the next 24 hours doing what he did for his entire National Guard career: Hiding out. Then whipping up everyone's fear level to just short of a declaration of Martial Law, he reluctantly appoints a commission to "look into" the whole 9/11 debacle. Today they hand him the report.

Citing multiple failures across the government to detect and prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot, the bipartisan commission investigating the attacks today called for the appointment of a new high-level intelligence chief and the establishment of a national counterterrorism center to help overcome deep institutional failings and deal with the likelihood of another major terrorist assault.

President Bush, presented with a copy of the report at the White House this morning, said he would study the panel's "very constructive recommendations." But he did not immediately commit his administration to any fundamental changes.

Sorry, didn't mean to sugar coat it like that.

Der Duchess is having paroxsyms of joy over a statement by Joe Wilson:

WILSON: I never claimed to have "debunked" the allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.

When he returns to Terra Firma, someone will still be criminally liable for releasing Valerie Plame's name to Novakula to "punish" Wilson for not being a good little lap-dog. He seems to either forget or not care that a crime was committed by a member of the 1600 Crew. Just another case of Moral Relativism at work, officer, nothing to see here...move on.

I'm taking no position one way or another on the whole Sandy Berger thing...I wish that the SCLM was this upset about Valerie Plame being "outed". For a better analysis than I could do right now, go check out Functional Ambivalent's take on the whole thing.

Tempest. Teapot. Poll numbers down? Pimp a Dem. Original...oh, and how is the Valerie Plame investigation going, anyhow?

For all my buds out there running some kind of comment-policing software on your blog here are some URL's that dropped over 600 comments into my blog in the last couple of hours. One, play--- is still trying to spam me; it had over 400 of the entries alone. Add these to your blacklist...

playgay.biz
meds-pill.com
milfporn.org
xxx-dvd.biz
xxx-stories.net
zoo-zone.com

Happy blogging. I hate comment spammers with a passion.

When we start paying our enlisted men and women, especially those at the pointy edge of the spear maybe this will be a little less disconcerting. Watching supposedly "American" companies and individuals prey on those who are in many ways highly vulnerable makes me sick.

Nicholas Stachler was 19 years old when he reported for basic training with the Army at Fort Benning, Ga., before shipping out for 11 months to Iraq.

A gentle, trusting man, he had only weeks earlier graduated from high school with a handful of trophies in hockey and soccer, middling grades and hardly a clue about how to handle his money. He had held only casual jobs baby-sitting and mowing lawns and had never opened a checking account. The bus trip to boot camp, from the foothills of the Appalachians in southern Ohio to the kudzu-covered fields of western Georgia, took him farther from home than he had ever been.

About six weeks into his training - six weeks of combat drills and drummed-in lessons in Army ways - he tasted one of the less-honorable traditions of military life: a compulsory classroom briefing on personal finance that was a life insurance sales pitch in disguise.

Every serviceperson has access to some good, solid financial advice and services from companies like USAA, if they're eligible to join, or military credit unions, like Navy Federal and Pentagon Federal; they offer financial products that will meet the needs of service members and their families and they don't have to resort to 'interesting' practices to get business. Dollars to Donuts GEN Zinni is a member of both USAA and Navy Federal...

The solution to this is to pressure the congressCriminals to tighten up the laws and put some teeth into enforcement oversight against these predators. No E-4 should be buying financial products it takes an MBA to decipher and then losing their ass in the process while they are facing combat...why not just start selling them derivatives or something? It seems that these "salesmen" took advantage of a system that's badly in need of repair, to the detriment, it seems to me, of Good Order and Discipline...

Does anyone out there seem to remember hearing something like this before?

President Bush said Monday the United States is trying to determine whether Iran was involved in the Sept. 11 plot and accused Tehran of harboring al-Qaida leaders.
...
Bush said the United States will continue to look into whether Iran was involved. “As to direct connections with Sept. 11, we’re digging into the facts to determine if there was one.”

Iran, branded like Iraq by Bush as part of an “axis of evil” that threatens to fuel global terrorism, was “harboring al-Qaida leadership there,” the president said. He urged Tehran to have them “turned over to their respective countries” of origin.

Being an anti-death penalty kind guy, I'm really happy to see this, a call to end the execution of people who commit crimes before the age of 18. If it were not for Lawn Odor republicans, and pandering Democrats this would not even be an issue.

A broad array of individuals and groups ranging from Jimmy Carter to Mikhail Gorbachev and the American Medical Association to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the Supreme Court yesterday to declare that it is unconstitutional to execute people for crimes they committed before turning 18.

The United States is one of five countries that execute juvenile offenders, a practice that shocks European allies and violates "minimum standards of decency shared by virtually every nation in the world," nine eminent former U.S. diplomats told the court in one of 15 briefs filed yesterday. Virginia is one of seven states that execute juvenile offenders.

Choose a descriptor...guess who? Yes, sadly the She-Devil with No Memory is now rallying support to that most Chicken of Hawks, Michael Ledeen's newest bloodlust target ... Iran. Surely you all remember Ledeen, a General in the 101st Keyboard Brigade who said:

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

--Michael Ledeen
AEI Breakfast
March 27, 2003

It really is hard to believe this and to make it more ...interesting... her majesty couches the argument in terms that might make a reader believe he has no ill intentions. It's almost a debate on Foreign Policy ... except the concept of Policy is as Foreign to him as it is to the Dimmest of Bulbs, Preznit Brand'm Deke.

What Sullivan really wants is more young men (servants) in uniform so he can continue to live out those P-Town macho masturbatory fantasies of Hot Young Soldiers all coming for him. Remember, it's not about right and wrong it's about ... ahhh who knows with him anymore.

Sullivan. One twisted Cheneyer.

Oh, and Andrew...get a mirror.

... Has anyone as repulsively pompous as Joe Wilson emerged from the D.C. undergrowth in recent years?

Good morning...I'm back. Slacktivist has a post up re-examining biblical injuctions, something we should all regularly do in today's Murika. The Preznit says so. Anyhow in the comments in Slacktivist's post I found this. Laughed my ass off...hope you enjoy it,

A Letter to Dr. Laura...

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your radio show, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific Bible laws and how to follow them.

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors complain to the zoning people. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. What do you think would be a fair price for her? She's 18 and starting college. Will the slave buyer be required to continue to pay for her education by law ?

c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense and threaten to call Human Resources.

d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? ....Why can't I own Canadians? Is there something wrong with tham due to the weather?

e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should this be a neighborhood improvement project ? What is a good day to start? Should we begin with small stones? Kind of lead up to it?

f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. I mean, a shrimp just isn't the same as a you-know-what. Can you settle this?

g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here? Would contact lenses fall within some exception?

h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die? The Mafia once took out Albert Anastasia in a barbershop, but I'm not Catholic; is this ecumenical thing a sign that it's ok?

I) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16) Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan

Being in that hotel in New Orleans and not having decent internet access made me miss things like this, which of course begs the question: Fool, what the hell were you doing in your hotel room in New Orleans...okay, I got out some (note: lack o' blogging). Anyhow, I did not make the rounds and so missed this story I found at SK Bubba's fine establishment.

Trudeau said he penned his very first cartoon to illustrate an article in the Yale Daily News on Bush and allegations that his fraternity, DKE, had hazed incoming pledges by branding them with an iron.

The article in the campus paper prompted The New York Times to interview Bush, who was a senior that year. Trudeau recalled that Bush told the Times "it was just a coat hanger, and ... it didn't hurt any more than a cigarette burn."

"It does put one in mind of what his views on torture might be today," Trudeau said.

Krauthammer made another point with which we lustily agree:

KRAUTHAMMER: It is part of the trivialization of politics that we give endless attention to the inner life of the politician...I don't really care what a public figure thinks. Let God probe his inner heart. Tell me about his outer acts.

Preznit Coat Hanger...has a certain je ne sais pas ce qui. Forgive my French.

Over at MSNBC they have a list of stupid laws. Glad I never lived in Mississippi or went drinking there in my bachelor Navy days...

LAW: A man may not seduce a woman by lying, and claiming he will marry her.
COUNTRY: USA / STATE: Mississippi
CITATION: 97-29-55 Seduction of female over age of eighteen by promised or pretended marriage.
ACTUAL: If any person shall obtain carnal knowledge of any woman, or female child, over the age of eighteen years, of previous chaste character, by virtue of any feigned or pretended marriage or any false or feigned promise of marriage, he shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than five years; but the testimony of the female seduced, alone, shall not be sufficient to warrant a conviction.

Mark Kleiman bemoans the lack of civility of those pesky bots that harvest email addresses from all over the internet. Well, yer trusty Fish has found the answer...if you want an email URL in your blog or what ever follow this link, all its instructions and you too can have an unharvestable, encrypted email address in your blog. Might have to do it myself....

I think I read stories like this from the 1930's in Germany once upon a time...

"Dear Tenants," the letter stated, "As you know the United States Government and specifically the Homeland Security Administration is investigating illegal aliens . . . I have given them all the information that I know about my tenants (age, names, work, cars, marriage, country of origin, telephone numbers, children) . . . You should expect a visit in the near future."
...
Much has changed in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world of New York. There are subway announcements advising riders to watch for suspicious people and unattended packages. There is the shared memory of attacks past and the fear of more to come. And for some of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the city, especially those whose visa papers are not in order, the fear is doubled. They worry about more attacks and about those who might take advantage of them in these troubled times.

"This case in the Bronx is a particularly flagrant example of what our constituency faces with some frequency," said Andrew Friedman, co-director of Make the Road by Walking, an immigrant advocacy group that has worked with tenants in Brooklyn who have received similar verbal threats from landlords. "People put up with absolutely ghastly living conditions and feel they can't complain in this security-conscious world."
...
Landlord Scott Kalb, who owns a dozen buildings in the South Bronx, said in an interview that he did not write the letter. It bears his return address and telephone number, and the type font is the same as his previous letters to tenants. In the interview he referred approvingly to the letter's message.

"It's a whole, big scare thing; you're trying to turn me into a dragon landlord," he said. In reference to his tenants, he said: "You are talking about people who don't even speak English, who are illegal immigrants just like the letter says. Tell me this: What do they know?"

Close your eyes and imagine that you are living in a world where everything is awarded fairly and to the most competant company. Now open them up ... welcome to republican America in debt.

Congress is poised to appropriate $100 million to keep one of the federal government's most scandal-ridden and contentious programs -- the Air Force's plan to replace its aging aerial-refueling tankers with new Boeing 767s.

Insiders say that the primary reason for the payout is that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has made Boeing Co.'s cause his own.
...
According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com, a nonpartisan campaign finance research group, the $4 million Boeing spent to pay dozens of lobbyists last year (the latest data available) made it No. 20 on the long list of major companies and interest groups that try to influence Washington decision-makers. In the current election cycle, Boeing ranks No. 12 among corporations in campaign giving to federal candidates. Its political action committee has contributed $492,000 so far, of which $10,000 went to Hastert, PoliticalMoneyLine.com records show.

McCain and others have charged that the proposed $23.5 billion deal for 100 Boeing jets -- the costliest lease in U.S. history -- was designed more to benefit Boeing than American taxpayers. ...

Boeing has not been coy about saying one reason it decided to move to Chicago from Seattle was that it could count on Hastert's patronage. Hastert, the House's top Republican, makes a habit of helping Illinois-based corporations. He has championed measures for years that have benefited Caterpillar Inc. and UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines. In 1998, he added $250,000 to the Pentagon spending bill so that Amurol Confections Co. of his hometown of Yorkville, Ill., could study caffeinated chewing gum.

Well, he went and pressed his case for the jerk-off. As everyone and their box turtle knows, if it weren't for Sullivan and his self-serving smug overpaid brethren in the media who sold the Gore-Internet-Dog Meds bullshit over and over again, along with the Clenis™ life in these 50 states might be somewhat different...Al-Qaeda or not.

Reading how the GOP hopes to use fear of gays to rev up their base across the country really makes me feel ill.

Indeed.

Over at Atrios they're flogging this story, and it needs more attention. I googled for it, yahoo'd for it and came up empty. Both the Sydney Morning Herald and Bloomberg have picked it up. Saddam might have been a bad man, is Allawi worse?

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
...
They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death".

The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.
...
Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial.
...
"The prisoners were against the wall and we were standing in the courtyard when the Interior Minister said that he would like to kill them all on the spot. Allawi said that they deserved worse than death - but then he pulled the pistol from his belt and started shooting them."
...
A former CIA officer, Vincent Cannisatraro, recently told The New Yorker: "If you're asking me if Allawi has blood on his hands from his days in London, the answer is yes, he does. He was a paid Mukhabarat [intelligence] agent for the Iraqis, and he was involved in dirty stuff."
...
Before the shootings, the 58-year-old Prime Minister is said to have told the policemen they must have courage in their work and that he would shield them from any repercussions if they killed insurgents in the course of their duty.

If this story is in the least bit true, there goes the 1600 Crew rationale for "Saddam Bad Man...Must Go", I mean hell, we have pictures of SH and Rummy back when they were almost kissin' cousins. Now, we're seeing the genesis of another dimension of yet another Persian Gulf Disaster...no thanks, I think it's time for the Neocons, Warfloggers and CongressCriminals to start sending their kids over for a taste of the Persian Gulf Paradise.

Well in the world o'strange, this has to be one of the stranger things I've seen in a while. The Donald has little regard for Preznit No Accountability. In fact, The Donald says he'd fire him...will he put his not-inconsiderable bank account where his mouth is?

"Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the country?," Trump said.

"C'mon. Two minutes after we leave, there's going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he'll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn't have," Trump said in excerpts of the interview released in advance to Reuters.
...
What was the purpose of the whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and no legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!," Trump said.
...
"Bin Laden would have been caught long ago. Tell me, how is it possible that we can't find a guy who's six-foot-six and supposedly needs a dialysis machine? Can you explain that one to me? We have all our energies focused on one place, where they shouldn't be focused," he said.

Well it seems that the last straw that the Warfloggers clutched, the mythical "Coalition of the Willing" is now the coalition of "cabbie, Baghdad International, and step on it". Foreign Policy? Allies thru thick and thin? Uh-huh.

The Bush administration faces growing challenges in holding together the 32-nation coalition deployed in Iraq, with four countries already gone, another four due to leave by September and others now making known their intention to wind down or depart before the political transition is complete next year, according to officials from 28 participating countries.
...
Any dwindling of the coalition -- by choice or after hostage seizures and other violence -- further complicates the already difficult job of sustaining the multinational force, which is critical to Washington's assertion that it has international support for the Iraq mission. It could also encourage further abductions or attacks to heighten the psychological pressure and undermine the U.S.-led mission, coalition diplomats say.

"We think withdrawal sends the wrong signal and that it is important for people to stand up to terrorists and not allow them to change our behavior," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

Lockheed, the company repsponsible for legendary advances in aircraft design was, I guess, was not so progressive in their policies of dealing with racist employees. Last summer, an employee shot 14 of his fellow employees, six of them were black and dead by the end of his rampage.

The July 8, 2003, shootings by Lockheed worker Doug Williams left six of the victims dead, four of whom were black. Williams killed himself at the scene.
...
"Nothing will ever bring these persons back," Means said. "But it validates their claims that the killings were racially motivated and that something could have been done to have prevented these incidents from ever occurring."

Means said workers at the plant had brought Williams's conduct to the company's attention, and Lockheed sent him to anger management classes. Among other things, Williams once wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to work, according to Means, and brought unconcealed weapons into the building the morning of the shooting.

Preznit Incoherent Idiot was in the terra-tory of my fellow Rocky Top Brigaders yesterday...and he's still trying to avoid that the most obvious threat Iraq represented to Americans was the Death of over 800 of them at the hands of the 1600 Crew.

President Bush asserted Monday that the war against Iraq has made America safer as he sought to counteract the findings in a Senate report late last week that the U.S. intelligence community distorted and exaggerated the weapons threat posed by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
...
...A new Washington Post poll found that 45 percent of the public believes the war was worth fighting, compared with 49 percent in May and 57 percent a year ago.

Proof that Preznit Opium Dreams is smokin' the Poppy:

"We are defending the peace by taking the fight to the enemy," Bush said in a subtle reformulation of the idea of "preemption" that has been a centerpiece of his foreign policy since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "We have followed this strategy -- defending the peace, protecting the peace and extending the peace -- for nearly three years. We have been focused and patient, firm and consistent."

Bush said the administration's policies have not only benefited Iraq but also sowed positive change in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. As a result, he said, "the American people are safer" -- a refrain he used seven times in a 32-minute speech.

Just a note...blogging will be a bit sporadic; I'm on the road with my laptop and a funky hotel broadband connection...it acts like something like a cross between a dial-up line and a DS-3...so when I want to do stuff, it acts weird.

Back later...off to the geek convention!!!

Okay, help me out here, I know we've covered this before but I just have to know why ... Clinton lied about getting a getting a blow-job, certainly among the things the Baroness has at the top of her list of Indoor Olympic Sports, and he was not only unfit to be a leader but was to be denied membership in the Human Race. Preznit All-American Fuck-up not only lies about Everything Saddam, but uses the War on Terra™ as an excuse for Everything Iraq, hands out fat, longterm, no-bid, budget-breaking contracts to his VP's former company and Sullivan wants to be sure that Preznit BOHICA Boy is a moral, righteous guy, because well Kerry looks funny.

If this were not so sad, it would be hysterical. And Andy, what's with this:

I'm still glad we fought it.

Oh, and Andy...happy FMA in the Senate day are all your Commander Codpiece dreams coming true? You do after all, love him, does he love you too?

There ought to be two words that should bring fear to the 1600 Crew in this campaign season: Tora Bora. Where the 1600 Crew allowed Osama bin Forgotten to escape.

The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
...
After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States.
...
The Bush administration has never acknowledged that bin Laden slipped through the cordon ostensibly placed around Tora Bora as U.S. aircraft began bombing on Nov. 30.

A half-brother of Osama bin Laden said in a television interview he never thinks of whether to turn in the al-Qaida leader and questioned which court would try him.

Asked hypothetically whether he would turn in the al-Qaeda leader, Yeslam Binladin replied: "What do you think? Would you turn in your brother? Or half brother? Tell me. I put the question back to you. You answer it."
...
Binladin has been under scrutiny in France and Switzerland during a money-laundering investigation but has never been charged.

Every time that the 1600 Crew and Preznit Always AWOL bring up the War on Terra™ thing, Kerry and Edwards should refer to the Tora Bora incident; and how it allowed Bin Laden to escape. The 1600 Crew as Leaders...I think not.

A blog entry a little earlier today had a link back to a Post 9/11 press briefing where Ari was telling everyone to shut up. I was traveling around blotopia, reading other things when I found this piece by Digby about Valerie Plame (remember her?). Well, in keeping with his well-known policy of "Rules are for everyone but me", Preznit Electoral Whore said this back in 2001 (according to Fleischer):

A few Sundays ago, shortly after returning from a weekend of national security briefings at Camp David, President Bush walked into the White House with a small group of advisers and delivered a stern warning. "Anybody who discloses classified information could literally endanger somebody's life," he told the group, according to Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, who was there.

86-43-04.

This makes a lot of sense. Not. With about 100 or so folks expressing interest in this program so far, it'll be interesting to see how many interservice transfers the Army gets, especially since the "fresh meat" is, I'm sure, guaranteed a vacation in scenic ol' Baghdad pretty soon after reporting for duty.

The Army is looking for a few good sailors and airmen. Actually, more than just a few.

In what some military experts see as another sign of how the Army's commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan have strained it, the service for the first time will soon begin aggressively recruiting thousands of sailors and airmen who are otherwise scheduled to leave the Navy and Air Force because of cutbacks.

Under a new program called Operation Blue to Green, the Army plans to offer bonuses of up to $10,000, in some cases, and four weeks of extra training to airmen and sailors willing to trade in their dress-blue uniforms for Army green fatigues. The Army is especially interested in men and women who have jobs that are readily transferable to Army positions, like mechanics and logisticians.

Many details must still be worked out and final Pentagon approval is still pending, but Army officials say the new program is a marriage of convenience. The Army is temporarily increasing its ranks by 30,000 soldiers by 2006, and will need to recruit at least 77,000 soldiers this year and 80,000 next year to meet that goal.
...
f all goes according to plan, the program will begin around Oct. 1, Army officials said Thursday. While the program has not been formally announced, the Army two weeks ago posted details about the program on its Web Site, www.goarmy.com. So far, officials said, more than 100 people have already expressed interest in switching services.

"Operation Blue to Green will allow you to continue to serve your country, to maintain the benefits of military service, and to expand your horizons by gaining new training and trying new things," said a description of the program on the Web site.

Army officials said transferring enlisted personnel from one service to another would require a change in Pentagon policy, but could also save as much as $10,000 per service member in training and recruiting costs.
...
But some military personnel experts said the move was yet another last resort by the Army to fill its ranks. In recent weeks, the Army has said it will call up 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve, former soldiers who have left the Army and not joined the Reserves. The Pentagon has extended the tours of thousands of soldiers bound for Iraq or Afghanistan who had been scheduled to retire or leave the service. And, for the first time, the military deploying combat troops to Iraq from South Korea.

Army officials insist that recruiting and retention for active-duty, Reserve and National Guard forces remain strong and, in some cases, have exceeded goals for the year to date.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the stop-loss becomes even more widespread after folks who have done a couple of tours in Iraq come back and want to get out. What will the deserter-in-chief tell them then? No? Yeah, that'll go over well...most are probably professional enough that they'd stay, but sooner or later it's going to become a problem unsolvable by fiat, especially for the Guard and Reservists...and when their eight years goes by and they are still "boots on the ground", I wonder how well the policy of preemptive war will play out with even the most intoxicated of kool-aid konsumers.

I guess that having actual opponents is not what the 1600 Crew expected. They're looking for a replay of the 2002 elections again. Maybe it's gonna be different this time around. I don't think that the John-squared ticket is going to roll over at the sight of a republican waving an American flag.

Friday's debate demonstrated not only how personal the attacks have become, but also the aggressiveness of both campaigns as they move toward their national conventions. With polls showing the two sides still running essentially even nationally, advisers to Bush and Kerry have made clear they are unwilling to cede any issue or any ground with so much at stake in such a competitive election.
...
"I will give you a value: The value is that when you are entrusted with the presidency you are not entrusted to go and spend one-quarter of your term vacationing," Kerry said. "You're not entrusted to take the time away from efforts to serve the American people." Bush has spent several months of his presidency at his Texas ranch.

White House officials were concerned for weeks about the impending indictment, because it was sure to revive attention to the former connections between the White House and Enron. But Bush referred to the arrest as a sign of his commitment to cracking down on corporate practices, saying, "The message ought to be clear to everybody in corporate America now that we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America."

Oh, and let's see, the performers who said all those things that VP Angina said on the floor of the Senate. Fuck it. It worries me a lot more to when un-American things like this get said:

MR. FLEISCHER:...there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.

And his last couple of days have just been full of them. Let's start off with an easy one, F9/11 v. Jackass (which only a jackass would call a "documentary")

Jackass: The Movie $64,255,312 10/25/2002
Fahrenheit 9/11 $69,090,104 6/23/2004

...I certainly don't believe that a pro-war position means some kind of blind fealty to Bush-Cheney. And, of course, as a small government, balanced-budget, libertarian homo, Bush Republicanism is anathema in so many ways. But every time I listen to Kerry, I cannot help but feel that he is hopelessly out of touch with the threats we face and might make our budget problems worse with his healthcare proposal. So I am stuck between a president whose party now officially wants to purge itself of gays and a senator I cannot trust to fight the war we need. These are painful times indeed.

Our good buddy BoloBoffin has done yet another outstanding analysis of the Boy King's payroll records. Go check it out.

Outstanding.

Didja know that Preznit Touch My Ambitious Secretary had his payroll records from his desertion days in the TANG destroyed ... by the Clenis™? It's true; back during the Evil Clenis™ administration the Defense Accounting and Financial Service accidentaly destroyed the records of young no-show 1st LT Bush. Of course it's just now coming to light...

Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.

It said the payroll records of "numerous service members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25.

The destroyed records cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Mr. Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question.

The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both pro-Bush and con, by surprise. Even the retired lieutenant colonel who studied Mr. Bush's records for the White House, Albert C. Lloyd of Austin, said it came as news to him.

Well, he's got a track record for telling the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth...we just have not figured out to whom yet. Yellowcake, WMD's, Saddam and Al-Qaeda, Imminent Threats...why that's all true, right? Why start doubting him now?

Oh yeah, he's a lying coward. 86-43-04

A senate report set to be released about the intel used in the run-up to the Mess in Mesopotamia is going to gloss over the 1600 Crew, and shoot the messengers at CIA and other agencies. In fact it's going to give the 1600 Crew a pass on the whole thing.

A bipartisan Senate report to be issued Friday that is highly critical of prewar intelligence on Iraq will sidestep the question of how the Bush administration used that information to make the case for war, Congressional officials said Wednesday.
...
...As a result, said the officials, both Democratic and Republican, the committee's initial, unanimous report will focus solely on misjudgments by intelligence agencies, not the White House, in the assessments about Iraq, illicit weapons and Al Qaeda that the administration used as a rationale for the war.

In yet another show of hubris reminiscent of the Medicare bill, the Delay Nazis bent the rules of the House to coerce 10 republicans who were going to vote to repeal the part of the Patriot Act that allows law enforcement to see what you've been reading.

The Republican-led House bowed to a White House veto threat Thursday and stood by the USA Patriot Act, defeating an effort to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that helps the government investigate people's reading habits.

The effort to defy Bush and bridle the law's powers lost by 210-210, with a majority needed to prevail. The amendment appeared on its way to victory as the roll call's normal 15-minute time limit expired, but GOP leaders kept the vote open for about 20 more minutes as they persuaded about 10 Republicans who initially supported the provision to change their votes.

"Shame, shame, shame," Democrats chanted as the minutes passed and votes were switched. The tactic was reminiscent of last year's House passage of the Medicare overhaul measure, when GOP leaders held the vote open for an extra three hours until they got the votes they needed.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Why does this not surprise me? Nor should it surprise any semi-conscious American. Unless you've been imbibing in the 1600 Crew Kool-Aid.

In a bipartisan show of concern that the military is dangerously overworked, lawmakers said Wednesday the Pentagon is stretching troops to their limit and perhaps undermining the nation's future force.

Amid worries the high level of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan could discourage potential new service members, Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., said it was not reassuring that most reserve components were falling below their recruiting goals for the year.

As of May 31, the Army National Guard was reported at 88 percent, the Air National Guard at 93 percent and the Air Force Reserve at 91 percent of their goals.

So he's done the PerpWalk, escorted by a female FBI agent, hands firmly cuffed behind him.

Former Enron Corp. CEO Kenneth Lay pleaded innocent Thursday to federal charges that he was involved in a wide-ranging scheme to deceive the public, company shareholders and government regulators about the energy company that he founded and led to industry prominence before its collapse.

“Not guilty, your honor,” Lay, speaking loudly and clearly, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy at a court hearing hours after he surrendered to the FBI and was hustled to the federal courthouse in handcuffs.

Consumers like Grandma Millie, mentioned in one exchange recorded between two Enron employees.

Employee 1: "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?

Employee 2: "Yeah, Grandma Millie man.

Employee 1: "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."

Over at the People for the American Way website is a poll for your favorite progressive website. I have to take a bit of exception with their choices, neither Atrios, Kos or TBogg are there (neither am I). Go vote...it's good practice for November, the difference being 100% of the choices are Not Evil. In November, 50% of the choices are VeryEvil. And so it goes...

Apologies to Stephan King for stealing the headline. Tommy-boy Ridge is preparing to get the news media in a pantie-twist...seems that the Al-Qaeda bad-boyz want to disrupt the elections. No News At Eleven, because well, he's a little short on details...okay, now let me postulate something here...an attack would almost ensure the reelection of the Village Idiot. Is that the goal of Al-Qaeda? I think not...I'm thinking that staying below the radar is their style, unless they thought an attack would get us to Nuke Saudi or something.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday warned Americans that al Qaeda may try to carry out a large-scale attack to disrupt upcoming elections but offered no details and had no plans to raise the terror threat level.
...
"Credible reporting now indicates that al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process."

But he said authorities had no specific intelligence about whether al Qaeda was targeting either the Democratic convention later this month in Boston or the Republican convention in New York at the end of August.
...
When asked about the timing of his announcement -- in a week Democrats have captured attention with the announcement of presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites)'s running mate and as the campaign begins to heat up before the Nov. 2 election -- Ridge and the White House denied any political motivation.

Of course the term "Mayberry Machiavellis" does not spring to mind here. No siree. Never.

Oh, but wait...

Crude oil prices in New York surged above $40 a barrel Thursday for the first time in more than a month after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security signaled terrorists were scheming to disrupt U.S. elections.

Maybe I should just declare one day Crazy Andy day and have at it...just a thought. Anyhow, a reader sent me an email which asks the eternal question:

It began like this...

Wednesday, June 30,2004 First...

"JACKASS BEAT FAHRENHEIT: Yep, the movie with all those hot young straight dudes shoving toy cars up their posteriors actually beat out Michael Moore at the box office. F9/11 wasn't the biggest grossing documentary. Jackass was. It was non-fiction, and about as informative as Mr Moore. And a lot more to look at." 12:17 AM

Then when it was proven to him that he was wrong...

"JACKASS UPDATE: The initial returns of "Fahrenheit 9/11" were less than "Jackass." But the adjusted returns show F9/11 inching ahead of the boys with the toys. Let's see if Moore's propaganda beats out "Jackass's" total $64.2 million. 1:12 PM" (emphasis mine)

Now it comes out today that Fahrenheit 911 has grossed $64.058 million in less than two full weeks of release (actually 12 days).
http://www.leesmovieinfo.net/wbotitle.php?t=2592

Jackass? Grossed $64.269 million (later adjusted to $66.818 ** )in 42 days of release) with a built in audience of viewers weaned on the antics from the TV show. As it is brutally apparent that the "documentary" record Randy Andy keened about should fall within the next 48 hours or so, how will he manage to move the goalposts while firmly ensconced in his J. Peterman hammock this time?

The Pontiff of Pompous points to a blogger who really dislikes Preznit Numb Nutz about as much as I do, maybe more. Said blogger also dislikes Michael Moore, and points out all his reasons for not liking F911. Fair enough. Der Duchess takes this as proof of bi-partisan dislike of Moore and F911 making sure we all know that Michael is a Looney. A lefty said so after all. Interestingly enough, and maybe someone could point it out to me, I don't remember that the Baroness of Bent ever went this nuts about the propaganda flick made for Showtime where Fearless Leader was portrayed as the Steely-Eyed Missile-Man.

And while we're on the subject of the Double-Standards Duchess, enough with the Hack Ryan whining...where were you when the press was crawling up Clinton's ass? Oh, I forgot you were leading the charge; K-Y firmly in one hand and a check from the wingnuts in the other. Enough.

Howard "I never met a meal on AF1 I didn't like" Fineman, who if he was in the Oldest Profession would be considered "the Dean" makes this statement about John Edwards (remember, in attack journalism it's all about the subtle, damning with faint praise, etc...)

He is the son of a mill worker (even if we tire of hearing about it).

This was not a paid political announcement.

Yeah, a little name-calling there. But so what. I've seen this headline all over the web today (or some variant thereof):

Bush Questions Edwards's Presidential Fitness

Bush had cordially welcomed the freshman senator to the race hours after Kerry announced his running mate, but snapped when asked here how Edwards would stack up against Vice President Cheney.

"Dick Cheney can be president. Next?" he said pivoting away from his questioner and toward the next one.

Indeed.

Wanna bet there's a Marc Rich style pardon waiting in the West Wing for Kenny-boy, cause Preznit Mattress Back always pays his debts...and settles his scores.

A federal grand jury in Houston issued a sealed indictment against former Enron Corp. chief executive Kenneth L. Lay on Wednesday, and prosecutors are set to make the criminal charges public Thursday.

Lay, 62, who has been under intense scrutiny since Enron filed for bankruptcy in December 2001, issued a statement after news reports of the charges. "I have been advised that I have been indicted," he said. "I have done nothing wrong and the indictment is not justified."

There will be a pardon in the 11th hour from the 1600 Crew if they lose in November, if they win, they'll be a bit more decorus and wait til the jury returns a verdict and then cite some health issues or something. No way this turkee is doing a day in jail...he's too rich, too well connected and too much of an asset to the republicans as a fund-raiser (hey! I looted my company and walked you can too! just give til it hurts!!). Bastard.

We went to war for this:

The Iraqi government on Wednesday announced a long-anticipated package of security laws intended to help put down the persistent insurgency wracking the country.

The new law signed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi gives Iraqi officials the right to impose martial law in special circumstances and for limited periods of time in specific places, said Nassir Nassir, an official in Allawi's office. The law has been signed and approved by the government, he said.

I'm gonna be ill. 86-43-04

I'd like to believe that John Lehman learned his lesson back in the 80's. He's the guy most responsible for the whole 600-ship Navy debacle. We needed 600 ships like we needed holes in all our heads, but it was a policy roundly supported by the funding-driven Washington-based Admirals, always looking for the next Congressional handout. They knew it was a non-starter but to stay on Lehman's good side pretended it wasn't. Hell, we could barely man and deploy what we had...Lehman was also a kind of amusing character, he was a reservist who was an A-6 Bombardier/Navigator a truly honorable profession in a community of outstanding individuals. Except he liked to tell everyone he was a Pilot. Great amusement in the Fleet. He was also the guy who was most responsible for the F/A-18 replacing the A-7 and A-6 (well it had a few other problems) as tactical aircraft in the fleet.

Lehman, who was known as a reformer during his Navy days but who is not popular at the CIA, would be acceptable to most Republicans on the Hill — in sharp contrast to Rep. Porter Goss, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, who was roundly rejected by leaders of the committee when his name was leaked last week.

What, did someone take away their happy pills? The Times editorial board is just now figuring this out?

The Pentagon's decision to press 5,600 honorably discharged soldiers back into service, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the latest example of President Bush's refusal to face the true costs of pre-emptive war. As with other stopgap measures to paper over the poor planning of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, this one demands more from those who have already given the most: volunteer soldiers and their families. And because this call-up comes uncomfortably close to conscription, it highlights more than other emergency deployments the callousness of the administration's failure to budget for an adequate number of ground troops.

Thus begat this blog. Time has proven that foreign policy ain't so simple and that not only was Fearless Leader wrong, he's been wrong in a most deadly way. Now I know it's true, I just read it in the Times. Shouldn't we have seen this about, oh, 2.5 years ago? Just asking. Again.

Sites like this in places like Oklahoma give me hope. Thanks guys.

Apparently houses of worship are now competing for more than just souls. They're starting to compete for real estate. Funny, I thought that was a dark-ages Church O'Rome thing. Now they're calling them "Megachurches" and there are (amazingly) 850 of them in the US.

After a 14-month, $75-million renovation, the Compaq Center will reopen as Lakewood Church, the nation's largest house of worship.

With 16,000 seats, two waterfalls and an interior camera ready for Sunday broadcasts, the reborn structure dovetails national trends that promise to shake up the economics of urban real estate: the increasing number of obsolete sports stadiums and the meteoric growth of huge religious congregations that need "megachurches."

Requiring arena-sized seating and vast parking lots, these churches are expensive to build and demand large plots of land that are difficult to come by in urban areas. That has made rejected sports arenas, faced with demolition, fertile ground for religious conversion.

Well, I got an e-mail asking me if I was interested in going...and of course, I said 'YES!!!" but I haven't heard back yet, and don't think I will. Damn, it would have been fun to go and cover it "on the ground"...and just think of all the good stuff we'd have all been privy to...

The Democratic Party plans to give media credentials to a select group of bloggers who want to cover the event, where Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) is expected to accept his party's presidential nomination. The group has not announced which bloggers might get the passes, but that information will come in the "next few weeks," an event spokeswoman said. The convention begins July 26.

But officials said whoever gets credentials will have the same opportunities to cover the four-day event that journalists enjoy. "We want to treat them just the same as other reporters," said Mike Liddell, the convention's director of online communications. "We're even planning to do a breakfast for them the first day of the convention."

It is not clear how the Democratic Party will decide among the more than 60 bloggers who have applied for credentials. Convention officials said they are considering three criteria: the size of the blogger's audience, the "professionalism" of the site and the amount of original material it includes. It is subjective and a little vague. But then again, Liddell said, no one has tried this before. "We don't have a guide to go by," he said

It's very cool that they're letting bloggers in at all for both conventions. I wonder if LGF and FR will be credentialed for the FearlessLeaderLoveFest and Hooker convention in NYC?

Every year here in Columbus they have the massive fireworks display downtown, called "Red, White and Boom". The celebration manages to get bigger every year and of course it's covered by some TV station or another with breathlessness reserved for OJ trials and Scott Peterson as well as the color of the Buckeye QB's last bowel movement. No, really...

Anyhow, they had a soundtrack for the fireworks that had me snorting in my kool-aid (well iced-tea actually). They played that great most patriotical standard from the one-hit wonder, Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA" (I think that's the name) and then like within in one or two songs that great anti-war standard "Fortunate Son" by CCR. Someone obviously didn't do their homework. I was just waiting for "Born in the USA" and voice over by Saint Ronnie saying it was "morning in America"....

Anyhow, it was pretty funny. Just thought I'd share that.

The proprietors of this place will need donations to build a new wing for their museum. Maybe we ought to set up an Amazon or Paypal thing for them. Just to house the 1600 Crew's stuff.

A visit to this tiny central Nebraska town will squelch any suspicions that the National Liars' Hall of Fame is just a tall tale. It really exists. Honest.

Creator and humorist Roger Welsch will tell you the museum is dedicated to "the art of prevarication and metric mendacity." It's often compared with the Smithsonian and attracts just under two million visitors a year.
...
"I came in there and he had pictures on the wall of presidents," Welsch said. "I asked why he had those up. He said, 'Washington never told a lie, Johnson never told the truth and Nixon didn't know the difference.' I decided that would be the best foundation for the Liars' Hall of Fame."

Mentioned as a possible VP candidate for Kerry, moderate Republican from Nebraska Chuck Hagel has some interesting thoughts on the whole War on Terra™ thing. Nothing that hasn't been said before in Left Blogistan, but interesting nonetheless since it's coming out from a Republican.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, an influential moderate Republican from Nebraska, sharply criticized the Bush administration in an interview here Tuesday, saying that the war in Iraq appears to have hurt America in its battle against terrorism.
...
In a sharp critique of the leader of his own party, Hagel said he believes the occupation of Iraq by the American military was poorly planned and has spread terrorist cells more widely around the world.
...
Hagel, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, said he agrees with President Bush that the duration of the war on terror might be measured in generations and that to sustain the badly overstretched military for the struggle, a new draft may be needed.

"It's a whole different administration approach,'' Hagel said. "There is a newfound humility, a newfound realism" in the Bush administration.

E.J. Dionne in the Post, and I can't possibly say this any better:

God forbid that Americans earning, say, more than $1 million a year be asked to pony up a little more in taxes to support a larger military at a time when, we are told over and over, the country is in the middle of a war on terrorism. Millionaires can't be asked to sacrifice even a little bit. No, they deserve to have their taxes cut while others fight and die. And anyone who speaks up in opposition to this injustice risks being called unpatriotic by those who give up absolutely nothing themselves. Patriotism is defined as a solicitude for tidy incomes, a belief in anything Rush Limbaugh says on the radio and a demand that those in charge of the country never be held accountable for their mistakes.

A Marine Corporal who was kidnapped and is still being held hostage and is (hopefully) not dead is just the latest political human football in Iraq. Reports have him being beheaded, and on this Fourth of July, we hope that there's no truth to those rumors.

As the 1st Armored Division pulls out of Iraq, three months late, its commanding general, MG Martin Dempsey had this to say...

"We have learned a lot about the price of freedom," the division commander, Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, said in an Independence Day speech. "People experiencing freedom for the first time may not understand how fragile it can be."

"Our immediate task in battle fronts like Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere is to capture or kill the terrorists ... so we do not have to face them here at home," Bush told a cheering crowd outside the West Virginia Capitol.
...
Two Bush opponents, taken out of the crowd in restraints by police, said they were told they couldn't be there because they were wearing shirts that said they opposed the president.(emphasis added)

I wonder how Corporal Hassoun is feeling about the fragility of freedom, especially as defined by his water-polo-playing dry-drunk commander in chief? I'm pretty sure he was over in Iraq trying to bring closure to the whole "mission accomplished" debacle. Now he's a POW.

Come home safe Corporal, your country needs you.

And Sully is going to be soooo sad.

I was going to go celebrate it by seeing F911, but got sucked into Spiderman 2 instead. If you were ever a Spidey fan, (and I was) it's a really good flick. Enjoyed it immensely; it had it all, including Kirsten Dunst looking better than ever. Worth a peek...better than Spidey 1. Now, if I can just get to F911 before the end of the week, or maybe I can go see it when I'm in New Orleans next weekend.

Anyway, hope everyone is having Safe Fun!!! And don't eat too many burgers or whatever your poison is...save room for desert. :)

If you tried to leave a comment on the 3rd, sometime after 3PM or so you probably got an error. Why? Well, I'm not sure, but I got major league comment spammed (over 500 of them) sometime around then. They had a URL of something from the UK, so that's blocked. If that causes you problems, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Apologize for the inconvenience...happy commenting and Fuck the Spammers; Pond Scum of the Universe.

Kristof:

They even mangled the country's name — Mr. Bush called it Eye-rack — yet they bet American lives that all would go well.
...
Mr. Bush might even pledge that from now on, he won't invade a country before learning how to pronounce its name.

No one ever ascribed brilliance in some matters to Bobo. But here he fairly shines with ignorance.

Thanks, in part, to Bremer's decisiveness, the political transition is going well. It's when you turn to military matters that things look tough. The Iraqis and the Americans now face a choice. U.S. troops can take advantage of this hopeful moment to mount a full-scale assault on the insurgents, or they can hang back and hope that the Iraqis themselves can co-opt or defeat the fighters.

Official denial aside, it might already be a done deal if the 1600 Crew and republicans stay in power this year. Consider...they very seldom ever tell the truth, so on what grounds do you trust them? And with the 1600 Crew's obsessive secrecy, how do you verify. They've managed to step outside ST Ronnies edict, are we surprised? No.

The Pentagon says no. The Selective Service System says no. And Congressional leaders say absolutely not.
...
But top lawmakers, joined by Pentagon leaders and administration officials, say that there are definitely no plans to resume the draft and that the military is much better off relying on a substantially motivated volunteer force rather than on conscripts.
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"I think it is skepticism that we have been misled so many times about this war: weapons of mass destruction, ties to Al Qaeda, a cakewalk," said Mr. Korb, now at the liberal Center for American Progress. "People are clearly worried and figure, `They are just waiting until the election is over to spring the bad news on us.' "

He and others said this could appear to those people to be nothing less than logical progression, after the military's resorting to an extension of tours of duty and the recall of former active-duty soldiers.
...
Seeking to blunt public speculation, the Web site of the Selective Service System carries a long notice saying in part that "both the president and secretary of defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the war on terrorism or any likely contingency, such as Iraq."
...
"You have drafts when you can't get the requisite numbers," said the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California. "There is not now indications that you can't get the requisite numbers. But we watch those numbers every month."

Don't you love this quote: ""both the president and secretary of defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the war on terrorism or any likely contingency, such as Iraq."" They're both so honest and forthright about all things Iraq ... you just know they're telling the truth, it's just in their nature...we wouldn't lie to you, the check's in the mail ....

Naw. Not. Never. North Korea is now getting some attention from the 1600 Crew.

Politically, however, the Bush administration is eager to show it is making progress in the North Korean crisis. ...

It is common for presidents to make significant shifts in their foreign-policy approach during an election year, only to reverse course yet again afterward. President Ronald Reagan authorized peace talks with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in June 1984 -- but called them off after the election.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act, which authorized Americans to sue companies using appropriated property in Cuba, despite his long opposition -- and then waived key provisions after the election.

Seven days before the 1972 election, Richard Nixon's national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared that "peace is at hand" in Vietnam; by Christmas, Nixon had launched a massive bombing campaign.

Within the Bush administration, Powell has been a consistent advocate of trying to resolve the North Korean crisis through engaged diplomacy. Powell is expected to leave even if Bush is reelected, and other senior U.S. officials are deeply suspicious of the Pyongyang government and would prefer to isolate North Korea in hopes of fostering the regime's collapse.

Funny how the PNAC never sought to overthrow that member of the Axis of Evil, isn't it? Ah, well...I guess that CheneyBurton figured it would be easier to make a buck in Iraq then North Korea, and quicker too. Don't they know politicians lie?

For the last few days the Precocious Princess of P-Town has been castigating the press for publishing former republican senatorial candidate Jack Ryan's previously sealed divorce papers. The papers were a bit on the interesting side, and certainly did not cast Jack Ryan in a very favorable light, especially the parts about his taking his former spouse Jeri Ryan to clubs which were, let's say "exotic". Sullivan misses the whole point about Jeri and that most vital of words...consent. You know as in consensual, kind of like the relationship a certain president and an intern had. Consensual. Maybe not ethical, but certainly consensual. Well, Jack tried to make Jeri (according to her) do things she did not want to do. Repeatedly. Which got him in trouble with the whole consent thing.

Andrew misses all this. Repeatedly. Because Ryan said this:

There is no allegation, as you know, of breaking any laws, no allegation of infidelity, no allegation of breaking any marriage vows," he said.

Perhaps he's wishing that Jack had taken him clubbing instead...I have a feeling that Sullivan could have both given lessons and and introduced Ryan to most of his friends. Then written a paean about the joys of healthy intra-republican sex.

What was that nasty word from the Derbyshire Article he quoted? The one that describes what just happened to Sullivans' argument? It went "poof"?

I don't as a rule comment much on Noonan, whom the Good Roger Ailes calls Pegaloon...for good reason I might add. But today, she crossed a line that puts her into the Stratosphere of Hackery. The Good and Wholesome Roger Ailes busts her in his blog today, so I went to check it out, lazy Friday, Long weekend...you know, like that. What do I find? Peggy committing something which might be best termed Noonalingus...the insertion of her tongue in well...ah, hell it's not a family blog...you know where. So what's the Noonalingus? Check it out:

It has to do with Mr. Bush's re-election prospects and a worry I have. History has been too dramatic the past 3 1/2 years. It has been too exciting. Economic recession, 9/11, war, Afghanistan, Iraq, fighting with Europe. fighting with the U.N., boys going off to fight, Pat Tillman, beheadings. It has been so exciting.

Here is my fear: that the American people, liking and respecting President Bush, and knowing he's a straight shooter with guts, will still feel a great temptation to turn to the boring and disingenuous John Kerry. He'll never do anything exciting. He doesn't have the guts to be exciting.

From John Kerry's Silver Star Citation:

..."With utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets," the citation says, Kerry "again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet from the Viet Cong rocket position and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy . . . The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lt. Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission."

From his Officer Efficiency Report of 2 May 1973:

"Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report. A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama. He cleared this base 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama."

I guess in a guts for guts match up, John Kerry is not a very exciting guy, but then he really doesn't have to be does he? He's already got the T-shirt, medals and history. I wonder if Preznit All Gutz could take Noon-a-Loon to the Vietnam Memorial and point out the name of one person he knew who served his country and died in Southeast Asia.

I'll be waiting for an answer to that one. It's a gut thing you know.

So what? Somewhere upwards of three million or so voters that's what. Who would have thought that Howard Stern could play the role of kingmaker in 2004? I've been listening to Stern lately here in oHIo, where he's on a local station whose demographics I'll bet are skewed towards the 18-30 year-old singe males. Yeah. Could that be an audience that the DNC wants to reach. Think so... now they need to get off their collective asses (the DNC) and start getting serious with Howard. Now.

"I'm an independent. ... I always vote for the best guy,'' Stern told his audience this week, urging them -- as he has for months -- to vote for Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Dismissing Bush as incompetent and a threat to the First Amendment, he said of the choices facing voters in November: "I think the stakes are higher than they've ever been before.''
...
"By re-engaging those voters, Howard Stern could literally be one of the two or three things that turns the election this year,'' said Simon Rosenberg, who heads the New Democrat Network, which commissioned the survey by Penn, the pollster to former President Bill Clinton. "You've got a guy whose Web site gets 8.5 million hits a day. And ... it's virtually all anti-Bush.
...
"It was proven, in two elections, that we made a difference in who got elected in two different states,'' Stern said this week. "I see the Rush Limbaughs of the world, and I see the Sean Hannitys: They preach to the converted. I believe our audience is open-minded.''

Asked if he might make the difference in the November election, Stern told reporters this week, "I'm certainly no kingmaker .... But I suggest to you: When you have millions and millions and millions (of listeners) ... when they vote as a block, as my listeners do -- you gotta figure it matters,'' he said.

So, do we get Ambassador Atrios and Secretary of All Media Howard Stern? Sure. Why not. If you haven't heard Howard lately and he's in your market, check out the show. His anti-1600 Crew rants just pop in sort of randomly and are very, very good...man does he hate Fat Mikey and Preznit Corporate Puppet. Wow.

The first line of this story ought to make steam come out of your ears...I know it pissed me off.

The war in Iraq has been a windfall for Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., the company that has a multibillion-dollar contract to provide support services for U.S. troops. Its profits have come thanks to the hard work of people like Dharmapalan Ajayakumar, who until last month served as a kitchen helper at a military base.
...
"I cursed my fate -- not having a feeling my life was secure, knowing I could not go back, and being treated like a kind of animal," said Ajayakumar, who worked for less than $7 a day.

KBR -- which came to employ Ajayakumar and other Indian workers through five levels of subcontractors and employment agents and which employs 30,000 workers from 38 countries in support of the U.S. military -- said it had been unaware of the workers' concerns until recently. Spokeswoman Patrice Mingo said the company met with representatives of the Indian government to discuss the complaints. For now, there is "no substantiated proof on which to take action," Mingo said, but the company is open to discussing the matter further with current or former employees.

"KBR does not condone and will not tolerate any practice that unlawfully compels subcontract employees to perform work or remain in place against their will," Mingo said.

Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said contractors' use of multiple layers of subcontracts makes it difficult for the U.S. government to ensure the fair treatment of the workers it effectively employs.

"The whole area of private military contractors is very murky in terms of accountability, chain of command and relationship to our mission," she said, "but as you get into subcontracting it gets murkier and murkier . . . and you can't tell what's going on."

While their Western managers slept in air-conditioned trailers, they were crammed into tents in 100-degree-plus temperatures. The cooks set aside some rice and curry for them but it was not enough and they had to supplement their food with whatever was left over from the soldiers' meals -- which was often nothing. They were told they could not take the filtered bottled water but instead must drink the Iraqi tap water that was poured into aluminum buckets with tablets of chlorine and chunks of ice. The workers would pick through the soldiers' trash and retrieve the empty water bottles that they would use as cups.

Ajayakumar said he threw up for weeks from the contaminated water. He was allowed to see an Iraqi doctor who gave him one pill -- without explaining what it was for and which did nothing to alleviate his symptoms.
...
Ajayakumar has no job and no job prospects.

The only thing he has from his time in Iraq is a certificate of appreciation from KBR. It thanks him for his help in the success of the "dinning [sic] facility" at the camp. Thank you, the tribute on standard 8 ˝-by-11-inch paper reads, "for your tireless effort."

And it is. It always was. Until there's either an asteroid hitting the earth or a volcano in Baghdad it always will be. The Brits learned it the hard way back in the early 20th Century as their Empire was imploding, and well, we're just breaking that code now. Not like there aren't history books or anything...not like fearless leader wasn't a (what?) major (besides Drunken Stupor) at Yale. Well, I guess that the PNAC Neocons were a lot smarter than those stupid ol' Brits, eh?

After a particularly brutal day of bombings in Baghdad an Iraqi friend recently asked, "Are the Americans so smart that they have a plan for Iraq that's so complicated that I don't understand it, or are they so stupid that they have no plan at all?"

Over the past year, the CPA consistently relied on the guidance of westernized Iraqis who share (or at least say they do) the American vision for a free, democratic, pluralistic, secular (although this is rarely mentioned) Iraq.

The CPA was in effect talking to itself. ...
...
On Monday, the United States handed the reigns of power to a little-known Iraqi exile with credentials that fit the American vision for Iraq: Ayad Allawi, a British educated, secular Shiite whom the CIA once considered an "asset."

My bet, Allawi is still there, we have more troops for 'security' and it's a freaking mess no matter who wins in November. History does indeed repeat itself...and we're getting to learn that

again

and again

and again.

1. Gone fishin'
   
2. Kerry hits a homer, Sully fouls out
   
3. Skippy, Skippy, Skippy...
   
4. 1600 Crew SOP CYA
   
5. Blame it on the 1600 Crew dead-enders
   
6. P-Town Conceits
   
7. So True
   
8. This sucks
   
9. Oh. Obama!!!
   
10. What an Ass