I guess Karl must've stuck his hand up Beloved Leader's ass and wiggled it around a bit...

Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend our condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time.

I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and value and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in the favor of life.

Presumption of Life. Right. Presumption of Staying in Power to carve up America for his criminal friends and corporate sponsors, with the help of the American Christo-Fascist movement...

Tom Delay, now threatening anyone within hearing distance with hell and eternal damnation (if you know, you believe in that) or tax audits until the year 3012:

Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow.

Man-on-Dog Santorum champions caps on liability reforms, because, well, he's gotten his back in 1999:

A Virginia jury last night awarded the wife of Sen. Rick Santorum $350,000 in damages after she charged in a lawsuit that a Virginia chiropracter's negligence caused her permanent back pain.

Deliberating more then six hours after a four-day trial in which Santorum, R-Pa., testified, the Fairfax County Circuit Court jury unanimously ruled for Karen Santorum. She had sought $500,000 against Dr. David Dolberg of Virginia, because of pain from his 1996 treatment of her.

"Mrs. Santorum has been vindicated," said her Pittsburgh attorney Heather Heidelbaugh. "She was injured permanently through the actions of a chiropractor who acted negligently.

Preznit Loves Sum JimmyJeff a real fambly-valewes kinda guy...

April 27, 2001: Jenna Bush arrested for possession of alcohol as a minor.

May 31, 2001: Jenna and Barbara Bush arrested trying to purchase alcohol as minors. This is Jenna's 3rd arrest, but she avoids the three-strikes law her father signed 4 years earlier.

And it goes on. But remember, they're pure as the driven snow...somewhere...

For a guy who once had an actual ounce or two of self-respect, Colin "My Lai" Powell has certainly lived up to his nickname (at least the one I have given him..."My Lai" for his staff weenie cover up of the My Lai Massacre). Ol' Colin has to be feeling the sliminess of the santorum left on his asshole from the literal buttfucking the 1600 Crew gave him for four shit-stained years culminating in his performance at the UN, babbling about non-existant bogeymen in the Iraqi desert while the world looked on thinking "What an idiot". Now it comes out (and was this the report that the 1600 Crew kept under wraps just before the election?)

A special presidential commission reported today that the U.S. intelligence community was "dead wrong" when it overstated pre-war Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and today knows "disturbingly little" about the weapons programs and intentions of U.S. adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea.
...
For example, the report notes, before the speech by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, the CIA failed to provide information "casting serious doubt on the reliability" of intelligence about Iraq's alleged mobile biological facilities initially obtained from an Iraqi defector.

The analysts who helped prepare Powell's speech were unaware that, as the commission's report puts it, the defector was "lying" and that he was the single source for that information, which became a central feature of Powell's presentation.

It's pure neocon bullshit that we're better off with Saddam in jail...we spent 20-plus years selling him shit, or allowing our allies to sell him military shit (Exocet...Stark...boom). If he had not put Preznit 41's face on the floor of the al-Rashid hotel, he and his kids would probably still be getting paid by the CIA to send agents into Iran, and still be buying oilfield supplies and services from CheneyBurton International, to whom a dollar is still a dollar... nice to see they're giving up their bidness in Iran only what, three years after being declared part of the Axis of Evil Weasels by Beloved Leader?

Gotta love this...with thousands of actually qualified folks (which probably boils down to tens who actually want the job), Preznit Lucky Sperm awards a job to Crashcart's son-in-law. Not just any job mind you...I mean he could have made him an oyster inspector in Louisiana or a USDA pecan-shell grader in Mississippi, but no, he gave him a job that directly affects something minor, like National Security....

President Bush has nominated the vice president's son-in-law, Philip J. Perry, as general counsel of the Homeland Security Department, where he would oversee 1,500 lawyers who work on legal matters like Coast Guard maritime laws and immigration.

Mr. Perry, who is married to Elizabeth Cheney, is leaving the Washington office of the Latham & Watkins law firm, where he was a partner, as well as a lobbyist for Lockheed Martin, one of the top 10 contractors for the Homeland Security Department.
...
Mr. Perry, according to disclosure forms filed last year with the Senate, lobbied the Homeland Security Department and House Homeland Security Committee on behalf of Lockheed Martin as it applied for a government designation that certain of its products were "qualified antiterrorism technologies" and approved for sale. Last year, it was among the first companies to win such a designation.

Lockheed Martin and its partners have won hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commitments in the last two years for products and services it sells, including a contract to train airport security screeners for the Transportation Security Administration.

Kind of like having the Vice Preznit of America having been the president of one of the largest no-bid contractors in Iraq. You know...now, move along. Nothing to see here...

If this doesn't resonate with some of the folks who have voted republican, but are now starting to see their republican party being hijacked by crooks, neo-nazis, liars and opportunists, I don't know what will wake them up. America was once a democracy...but the 1600 Crew are managing to bury that concept a little more each day, with each action like this and others...

Mayhap I'm a bit naive. Or dense. Choose your adjective wisely, Grasshopper. But I think that we never needed the infamous kerning memos, or the help of Dan Rather. What we needed was Terri Schiavo to prove the lack of character and the absolute consistency of Beloved Leader. Think about it...

In the late 60's to much fanfare and clanging of bells, Preznit Bunnypants is inducted into the TxANG as first an enlisted man (no hoopla there) and then amidst a deafening roar, he's made an Officer with no special qualification other than family connections. When the limelight disappears, so does Bunnypants, to something that was suspiciously like a vacation. In Alabama. Old news.

In 2001 we are struck here at home, and in the visceral reaction to the attack, amidst much fanfare and clanging of bells, Fearless Leader proclaims that he wants Osama "Dead or Alive". Then as the limelight disappears, he goes back on Vacation and soon denies he ever made any public pronouncments about Osama. Unfortunately for him, there was video.

In 2003 he stood on the deck of an capital ship of the line, an aircraft carrier, amidst much fanfare and clanging of bells (literally) and pronounced the "Mission Accomplished". Two years later with over 1,500 Americans and countless Iraqi's dead and mutilated and an insurgency that is growing incrementally stronger, he denied he was responsible for starting a war based on lies and deceit or that his operatives were even responsible for the photo-op sign. And then he went on vacation.

In 2005 he's asked to come back to Washington to intercede in a private famliy matter, amidst much fanfare and clanging of bells. He does this to mollify his "base" who handed him the election and now want payback. But as with all his other efforts when the going got tough, he simply got going. Back to vacation and his cocoon.

I heard once that the present is the key to the past. I guess it's really true. Memos? We never needed no stinking memos...all the evidence has been there all along, it just took the events in Florida to make it even more clear.

It doesn't really take any memos to see that the inherent character that made him disappear after the Schiavo debacle hasn't changed much since he was appointed as an Officer in whom "special trust and confidence" were misplaced.

Fair is fair. TBogg gets to bust on the Virgin Ben, and via Seb who has fun with Kyle Williams from time to time at Sadly, No! I found a Teenage Wingnut to have some fun with. Meet Christian Hartsock. Who? Well, he's certainly a young healthy-looking 18-year old man...(guess where I'm going with THAT...1-800-GO-GUARD)

Anyhow, our young Mr. Hartsock is doing well in our first encounter with him, writing a column that shows absolutely no regard for either the truth or real fact-checking:

Liberals are now assuring us that the only reason the president and the Republicans decided to push this bill was to pander to their religious right constituents and score some sort of political victory. The New York Times accused President Bush of "intruding into the sufferings of the Schiavo family," insisting that the move was "directed not at the bulk of the populace, but at their base vote among the evangelical and fundamentalist conservatives who have been demanding greater deference since working to deliver Republican victories last year." Maureen Dowd explained that the real intention of the Bush administration in this endeavor is "to pander to religious fundamentalists who want to dictate how the government should be run."

It evidently never occurred to liberals to think twice about why Michael Schiavo is so adamantly pressing to subject his wife to this much-anticipated "mercy killing." Surely it's not for the $1 million in medical malpractice suit awards which he stands to inherit after Terri's death. Let's not be too cynical.

Which ivy league school will our Young Mr. Hartsock be attending after his tour of duty in Southwest Asia as a member of the Armed Forces?

Oh, no plans to eat MRE's in the sand?

Next year, he'll be attending Brooks Institute of Photography, a film school in Ventura, California. His columns have been printed in various publications, including Political Vanguard, World Magazine, Free Republic, Newsbull, The Daily-Times Post, The Sierra Times, Reality Check, The Piedmonter, The Piedmont Highlander, The Montclarion, and The Contra-Costa Times.

Chickenhawk?

From Comments:

I have become ashamed of being a registered Republican. I am probably more accurately a Libertarian in my heart. But as a woman who loves God but does not presume to know the direct will of God for a personal fact, I am stunned how much hatred is spewed in God's name. Terri...suffered from an eating disorder. It was truly the cause of her loss of life 15 years ago. Her body lives, but her cortical function is gone...and why? This should be a lesson to us that a vital, vibrant woman would literally kill herself by bulimia to look better. Everyone loses sight of the true tragedy of the case. What is more tragic is that the family has become so totally caught up in this...that they have lost sight of the fact that she loved Michael and they always believed he loved her...until they lost sight of reality. She is never coming back. They need to let go for their own sake and hers. She lost her battle for life years ago when she allowed herself to become critical ill from an eating disorder. Perhaps no one sees the irony in that. However, the Republicans who say that those of us who think she should be let go are part of a "culture of death"...do not know what is in our hearts. I cry for the sadness of what is going on...I sympathize with all involved including her husband who has been vilified without merit. Let her go to God and have the joy that left her years ago. Did her husband start another relationship...many years after her death as a person...yes, but how many of us would not do the same. She is gone and he knows it, stop making him the devil and see him as a person doing the best he can...not perfect, but not evil either.

I can no longer watch or listen to conservative commentators whom I feel have betrayed me, her, and all Republicans who don't think that dying with dignity when the brain has ceased is cruel or immoral.

Goodnight and God bless.
Posted by Virginia at March 25, 2005 11:05 PM

Amazing isn't it that the GPS/SatNav systems on Air Force One don't have any mapped routes to Northern Minnesota?

Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.
...
"From all over the world we are getting letters of condolence, the Red Cross has come, but the so-called Great White Father in Washington hasn't said or done a thing," said Clyde Bellecourt, a Chippewa Indian who is the founder and national director of the American Indian Movement here. "When people's children are murdered and others are in the hospital hanging on to life, he should be the first one to offer his condolences. . . . If this was a white community, I don't think he'd have any problem doing that."

"Tribal sovereignty means that. It's sovereign. You're a ... you're a ... you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."

Asked Thursday about Bush's silence, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that he plans to dedicate part of his Saturday radio address to the Red Lake tragedy and that he is following the case closely through the FBI and the Justice Department.

Culture of Life my ass ... Culture of Political Consequence.

The entire debacle down in Florida (what! another one?) has an interesting side note that hasn't been mentioned much. Everyone knows that the malpractice money, close to $700k for Terri's care ran out a while back. I understand that the care facility she's in has been providing care gratis, I think, which is a mighty kind act for a Hospice to do...

But with the recent drive to cap mal-practice judgements and the "bankruptcy reform" the christo-fascists have all but assured that bills similar to the Texas Futile Care Act will become the law of the land, because they're based on a two-prong test; willingness of a facility to take a PVS-type patient and ability to pay...how far will $250k go for these types of services? Would Terri Schiavo even be alive in Texas if her award had been capped and a facility not been willing to take her?

The Christo-Fascist Corporate Health Care Equation:

Liability Caps + Bankruptcy "Reform" = You are so Fucked (for a generation or more).

Of course it's not fair to leave out those stellar Democrats who support "bankruptcy reform", even if they not be christo-fascist wackos .... they are certainly polishing up their creds and inflating their kneepads...

Not a surprise really that Chris Matthews is about brain-dead. Flipping thru the channels I saw him challenging Hitchens about the facts in the Sun Hudson case. He wanted to know if there were any "documentation" of that...Hitchens being either drunk or hungover was not capable of replying coherently before Matthews cut him of with a primal scream.

Hardblogger indeed. I doubt he even reads blogs, much less the papers or anything else. A glass of water, a throat lozenge and he's ready to perform, as content and fact-free as ever.

Now I remember why I don't watch TV for news.

Randall Terry has just given our political leadership a gift beyond measure.

Terry, the spokesman for Schiavo's parents and the former leader of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, threatened political retribution on those who didn't support them.

"I promise you, if she dies, there's going to be hell to pay with pro-life, pro-family, Republican people of various legislative levels, both statewide and federally, who have used pro-life, pro-family, conservative rhetoric to get into power, and then when they have the power, they refuse to use it," he said.

Digby:

These people want to dictate how you live your private life. They want to tell you who you can marry, how to raise your kids, what religion to practice (and you must practice it) and what "values" you must hold. And they want to use the strong arm of the government to do it. Sure, there are problems in our society. Yes we are living in a fast paced society in which it is difficult to raise children and the world is changing so quickly that it's hard to keep your balance sometimes. But most Americans don't wish for others to make decisions for them about how to live their day to day lives, regardless of the challenges. It's just not the American character.

If in the next 72 hours, the Democratic leadership can't take that paragraph and use it as a manifesto for the direction of our party in the next election cycle, we're so fucked. The christo-fascists want it all, and they want it yesterday...there's not going to be a better opportunity to seize the day. Because if nothing else, the republicans will learn from their mistakes here and next time they will frame the discussion so there's not room for discussion. Believe it.

I'd like to get one of those vans with big speakers on it, and drive it right up to the Pinellas Wingnut Vigil, park it and put on Todd Rundgren's "Fascist Christ" and Green Day's "Jesus of Suburbia", over and over and over. Now I know it's not nice to provoke the already unstable travelling WingNut contingent, but damn, the entertainment value might be somthing to share with the grandchildren before the Hairy Thunderer takes me off to Cookie Land in the Clouds....(make mine Oatmeal Cherry, please).

Interesting note from a fellow dem nav vet in the Chicago area about the Glenview NAS museum...sounds interesting, and check out his blog too...he's not a Blagojevich fan.

I thought. On Sunday, I suggested that perhaps Preznit KravenKristian might call the 101st Airborne down to Pinellas Park to "rescue" Ms. Schiavo from her situation. Now, with all the courts falling in line against them, the Florida Senate rejecting JEB!'s bills, and the DCF being unable to get past that pesky Florida Judiciary, it's not looking so far-fetched after all.

Ooops, they forgot one thing, aren't the brave men and women of the Florida National Guard (and the 101st Airborne) on another Fool's Errand? Well, I guess those Christo-Fascista won't get the Army they sent to War ... or something like that.

You couldn't make this up...

Founding Fathers ...
Graves ....
Spinning.

Well, it makes good street theater, I guess...

... some of the Schindlers' supporters continued to try to take matters into their own hands. About a dozen people tried to bring water to Schiavo, but police arrested most of them ...

Why do her parents supporters want to commit homicide?

Has Comments. I can't wait to see what he writes about all the spam he'll get to make his Bassett Hound have firmer breasts and four hour erections while they play on-line poker...

Behave.

In what has to be a blast of great news for Jonah Goldberg and a chance to lose the moniker of "Doughy Pantload", the Army is considering raising the age of enlistment from 34 to 39 for reservists!

The Army is tapping into a new pool of potential recruits for the National Guard and the Army Reserve by raising the maximum enlistment age from 34 to 39, officials said yesterday.

The Army also has increased the number of recruiters on the street by 33 percent and is offering bigger signup bonuses. Last week the Army announced that the National Guard and Reserve were raising the maximum age for recruits from 34 to 39 in order to expand the pool of potential enlistees. The regular Army could not raise the maximum age without congressional approval.

On a more serious note, it's interesting that this latest push, precipitated by the declining numbers of enlistments in the Army has induced their Chickenhawk Secretary, Francis J. Harvey, to decide to start targeting parents and appeal to their patriotism to send their kids off to foreign wars aka The Mess in Mesopotamia:

``The `D' word is the farthest thing from my mind,'' the former defense company executive told a Pentagon news conference, his first since becoming the Army's top civilian official last November.
...
``I'm clearly not going to give up,'' Harvey said. ``At this stage we still have six months to go'' before the recruiting year ends Sept. 30. ``I've challenged our human resource people to get as innovative as they can. And even as we speak we've got a number of new ideas.''

One of those new approaches is designed to persuade more parents to steer their children to the Army.

``We're going to appeal to patriotism,'' he said.

That might be done through a new advertising campaign, he said. He also is encouraging more members of Congress as well as senior Army leaders and Army boosters to spend time in local communities touting the benefits of military service.

Well, it'll be interesing to see how many parents respond to that Patriotic Fervor Secretary Chickenhawk is trying to whip up. I notice that no one is suggesting that Beloved Leader do any Public Service Announcements for the virtues of National Guard and Reserve service...

Just sayin'.

The parents have been rebuffed again overnight by a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit, voting 2-1 against the Schindlers. Expect more crapulent posturing from the christo-fascists conceming the SC justice who hears this case, Anthony Kennedy.

It's almost as though the judges are handing the Bugman and his allies an oblique judicial smackdown for trying an extra-Constitutional run through the thoroughly litigated personal matter of Terri Schiavo. But then that's just the opinion of one lay person out here in "flyover country".

The saddest spectacle so far: the Florida doctor who being paraded around as a "Nobel nominee" by the wingnuts. This document is interesting in it's discussion of the doctors past problems with the Florida Department of Health. It's almost as though he's in this for the notoriety of being associated with such a high profile case, he's been referred to on WingNutTV as a "Nobel Nominee"...although, imagine my surprise to learn that his republican congressman is a person allowed to send in nominees for the Noble Prize.

An Army lieutenant suffering from diagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder who was going to be charged with desertion will instead be facing two article 15 charges (NJP) for "Conduct Unbecoming an Officer" (the garbage-can charge) and Fraternization. At least he won't be facing a duck dinner and losing all his benefits for just being human.

The U.S. Army last week dismissed a court-martial against an officer and Iraq war veteran who is in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

First Lt. Jullian P. Goodrum will not be dishonorably discharged, will not face imprisonment and will not forfeit his much-needed medical benefits now that he is no longer charged with being absent without leave.
...
At his hearing next week before Jackman, Goodrum will defend himself against a charge of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." This charge stems from Goodrum's refusal in November 2003 to obey a captain's admonishment to leave Knoxville and return to Fort Knox. The charge sheet does not mention his treatment in Knoxville for post-traumatic stress disorder.
...
However the case turns out, Goodrum will likely be leaving the military, Klimaski said. An Army medical board that already has examined his case is set to recommend that he be medically discharged.

"Lt. Goodrum has been diagnosed with PTSD, though this should not be reason to not pursue court martial action," Amaral wrote late last year in a report sent up the chain of command.

A rare event for me, watching WingNutTV...because of the events of the weekend and the Federal Court hearing in the Schiavo case it was an interesting way to see the events unfold from the wingnutteriest POV. Of course there was no mention of the 1999 legislation that Preznit Gassed'n'Ready signed, the No Hospital Fund Left Behind Act, to ensure that hospitals could (and do) turn off life support for the Sun Hudson's of Texas. Of course they can't mention that before little Scotty gets to spin it.

So, what is SchindlerSpin? It's Pat Robertson's pet JD4Jeebus, Jay Sekulow saying this on a Newshour broadcast:

JAY SEKULOW: They have done it; not in the context of a life-and-death decision like this, but they have had special legislation. You heard about them; Professor Tribe just talked about them in the context of there's been legislation passed on economic issues that affect one company or a series of companies within a sphere.

Private laws: Affect an individual, family, or small group. Private laws are enacted to assist citizens that have been injured by government programs or who are appealing an executive agency ruling such as deportation. Private laws citations include the abbreviation, Pvt.L., the Congress number (e.g. 107), and the number of the law. For example: Pvt.L. 107-006.

The Wingnuts are trying to distort this by using words and phrases like Private Bills to conflate and confuse the meaning of the law. Base emotional appeals coupled with misleading rhetoric and (a fanatical devotion to the pope) are their best weapons.

We have to keep bringing the facts to bear, relentlessly until this issue is one that becomes a "good political issue" for us against the wingnuts. After all, how do they run for reelection on a platform of dismantaling the Constitution if we don't let them?

The federal judge in Florida ruled agains the parents of Terri Schiavo this morning. The case now goes to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. If it fails there, the Supremes have already declined to hear the case, albeit on different grounds. If it does not make it there, what do the Bug Man and his minions do next, pass a law making it a criminal offense to let Terri Schiavo die?

Just askin'.

Mark Kleiman and a few others have been posting about republican bloggers who are experiencing more than a little "buyers remorse" over the election of Preznit Bunnypants. He says, and I agree that we have to get beyond "I told you so" to begin a constructive dialog with them. So....?

I'm willing to talk to almost any republican...can we start by agreeing that the horrendous events that occurred this weekend in congress were about as unConstitutional as you can get and were an act of hubris? Can we agree that tax cuts are okay when we are running a budget surplus and we're a creditor nation, not a debtor? Can we agree that making war based on the same hubris that led to the events of this weekend might not have been the best of ideas?

I don't think the majority of the self-described "one-issue" (War on Terra™) voters out there are all that divergent from us, and we can find common ground for discussion...we'll always disagree on some things, and that's okay, healthy in fact. It keeps the events of last weekend at bay.

But...

Please don't expect me to get on board supporting C+ Augustus. If the republicans are allowed to indulges their little fanatasies about Bill Clinton and his "lack" of character, then, please allow me to remain completely disgusted with the reality of George W. Bush the man. If there were ever a person with opportunistic, no-talent hack loser writ larger, you'd have to go back centuries to find him.

Other than that...we're all American, let's start there and work out the differences, or this "Grand Experiment" is going to end rather poorly, I think.

From Alice Marshall...the christo-fascists are already at it. Here's the "Culture of Life" on the march:

Attention Wisconsin voters, Republicans in your legislature are trying to take away your right to an Advanced Medical Directive-

"Legislation currently before the Wisconsin Senate allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other medical personnel who morally disagree with the guidelines regarding feeding and hydration tubes to ignore living wills and advance directives. The legislation already has passed the Republican-controlled Assembly and is likely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate."

For the slime crawlers in the congress:

"Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. ... The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community." James Madison, Federalist Number 44, 1788.

I think. Looks like my blacklist/anti-spam software caught and inserted something generic into its database that prevented comments.

Let me know if it's still a problem...I thought it had gotten awfully quiet in here, thanks to the readers who pointed it out to me...

More Preznit Turd Slurper blasting to come...

Having followed, but not not commented on the sad case of Terry Schiavo, I read a column by a legal analyst at CBS, Andrew Cohen. Cohen makes an excellent point about the christo-fascist slime machine at work.

QUESTION: So you are saying that it is not a slam dunk that this effort by Congress ultimately will succeed even in getting another round of substantive hearings on the merits of Terri Schiavo's rights?

ANSWER: That is exactly what I am saying. And I will go a little further. I'm also saying that there are probably some smart folks on Capitol Hill who are supporting this legislation knowing that ultimately the courts will strike it down. That way, being the politicians that they are, they will be able to blame the heartless judiciary for the result and still will be able to say to their constituents that they tried their best. It is the politics of cynicism at its very best (or very worst).

For the politicians this becomes a no-brainer, who wants to vote to kill puppies, kittens and women with liquid brains? Even the politicians who should know better, those who are medical professionals, have picked up this cause. Kitten-Killer Frist made a diagnosis via video-tape, something which is I think pretty unethical and has thrown republican support in the senate behind this travesty.

If the federal courts reject the Schiavo parents arguments, what's next? Does Preznit Bunnypants call the 101st Airborne home to invade the care facility in Pinellas Park, because Terry deserves freedom too?

Trial by legislation. Be afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Mark Kleiman points to an excellent example of the cynicism of all the politicians here. In 1999 Preznit Slime Licker signed a bill in Texas allowing the exact thing he professes to be so horrified about in the Schiavo case:

Under chapter 166 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, if an attending physician disagrees with a surrogate over a life-and-death treatment decision, there must be an ethics committee consultation (with notice to the surrogate and an opportunity to participate). In a futility case such as Sun Hudson's, in which the treatment team is seeking to stop treatment deemed to be nonbeneficial, if the ethics committee agrees with the team, the hospital will be authorized to discontinue the disputed treatment (after a 10-day delay, during which the hospital must help try to find a facility that will accept a transfer of the patient). These provisions, which were added to Texas law in 1999, originally applied only to adult patients; in 2003; they were made applicable to disputes over treatment decisions for or on behalf of minors. (I hasten to add that one of the co-drafters in both 1999 and 2003 was the National Right to Life Committee. Witnesses who testified in support of the bill in 1999 included representatives of National Right to Life, Texas Right to Life, and the Hemlock Society. Our bill passed both houses, unanimously, both years, and the 1999 law was signed by then Governor George W. Bush.)

Alterman has just announced his third "Alterlinks" voting. Send a vote for Democratic Veteran to Jeralyn Merritt at alterlinks@aol.com. Vote early, but please, don't vote often...I'm not a republican and don't condone cheating for votes...

Thanks again for putting up with my shameless blogwhoring. Anything for a little Friday end-of-week amusement since I have to work late tonight....

Soldiers who have been there and done that, and some who don't want to. The Mess in Mesopotamia soldiers who faced, or are facing charges of desertion.

The night before his Army unit was to meet to fly to Iraq, Pvt. Brandon Hughey, 19, simply left. He drove all night from Texas to Indiana, and on from there, with help from a Vietnam veteran he had met on the Internet, to disappear in Canada.

In Georgia, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, whose family ties to military service stretch back to the American Revolution, filed for conscientious-objector status and learned that he will face a court-martial in May for failing to report to his unit when it left for a second stint in Iraq.
...
A group of former soldiers who succeeded in achieving conscientious-objector status has created a Web site, www.peace-out.com, showing people how to apply. The site reported 3,000 hits the first day.
...
Sergeant Benderman applied in December, days before his unit shipped to Iraq without him.

His conscientious-objector application is being processed, but so far, one military official has recommended against its approval, he said. He faces a general court-martial on charges of desertion and missing his unit's deployment. He could face penalties as severe as seven years in confinement, forfeiture of all pay, reduction in rank and a dishonorable discharge.

"Everybody wants to put you in a little box, wants you to have some grand epiphany and bolts in the sky when it comes to this," Sergeant Benderman said recently. "But it's not that way. Here's what happened: I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people."

Wolfowitz licks his comb and laughs at these kids as he signs another order denying them body armor and supplies, thus showing his fiscal conservatism, making him the perfect choice to be preznit of the World Bank. Rummy just wants these men and women to get back to the "Army they have", because dammit, it's getting to be time to invade the next country of brown-skinned heathens.

Saturday is the 2nd Anniversary of Preznit Mission Accomplished's Mess in Mesopotamia. November 2006 are the mid-term elections. 2008 we get to toss the drooling idiot onto the pay-for-blather circuit, and with all that in mind, it's interesting to read this:

The Army's second-ranking general said Thursday that the number of American troops in Iraq would probably decline by early 2006, largely because of post-election progress in combating insurgents and training more Iraqi troops to take over security duties.

The officer, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, did not give specific figures, emphasizing that the decision would be made next month by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, and senior Pentagon officials. But other senior military officials said American troop levels could drop to around 105,000 by early next year from 150,000 now.
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General Cody and other Defense Department officials said the precise size and composition of American forces in Iraq by early next year hinged on several factors, including the security situation on the ground, the size and competence of newly trained Iraqi forces and the wishes of the new Iraqi government.

In the past, similar projections have been abandoned as the situation deteriorated unexpectedly. Almost a year ago the Pentagon was planning to cut troop levels by the summer of 2004, but it ended up abruptly extending the tours of units that were on their way home, and the numbers have not declined since.
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Asked to clarify whether fewer troops would be deployed in Iraq by early 2006, General Cody answered carefully: "I would think so. I would think so, but your definition of smaller and my definition of smaller may be different."

Just noticed that there have been a ton of visitors from the Daou Report at Salon and Dave Johnson's most-excellent Seeing the Forest to peer into the (still empty) Conservative Pundit Hall of Fame. Still waiting for that first nomination.

Welcome. Feel free to come in and poke around, just remember, chew your food and don't run with scissors, we want you back again!

Thanks also to Firedoglake for noticing the CPHoF and pointing it out!

Law Professor Eugene Volokh, speaks about his version of justice. Well, not exactly. See Professor Volokh uses his blog to unleash his inner Angry White Christian Bigot, and I don't even know if he's any one of those things other than Angry. And White. Volokh's whose rant is about giving in to the dark side of his desire to perpetrate revenge not justice on those sentenced to death. It was fomented by the public execution of an Irani man, where the victims relatives were allowed to participate in the particulary barbaric execution. And Volokh revels in it. Absolutely revels in the bloodlust.

I particularly like the involvement of the victims' relatives in the killing of the monster; I think that if he'd killed one of my relatives, I would have wanted to play a role in killing him. Also, though for many instances I would prefer less painful forms of execution, I am especially pleased that the killing — and, yes, I am happy to call it a killing, a perfectly proper term for a perfectly proper act — was a slow throttling, and was preceded by a flogging.
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I am being perfectly serious, by the way. I like civilization, but some forms of savagery deserve to be met not just with cold, bloodless justice but with the deliberate infliction of pain, with cruel vengeance rather than with supposed humaneness or squeamishness.
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Why would my humanity be diminished by participating in the killing of a monster (he had sexually abused and then murdered at least about 20 children), or even by deliberately inflicting pain on him?

I'm pretty sure that he'd have been one of the laughing yokels in the grainy black-and-white pictures of lynchings (they got what they deserved, sayeth Eugene!), or more recently he'd have been more than happy to hang with the Negroponte's death squads in Central America or even the kids in the Abu Gonzales justice system, because his humanity would not be diminshed, after all someone must have thought those being tortured and executed were worthy of revenge, not justice.

Nice guy. True modern-day republican. Bloodthirsty as they come, it's all about revenge and being the victim. So sayeth Eugene.

Sometimes the stories are just too bizarre. So bizarre in fact, that if they were not documented somewhere, no one would ever believe them. It's clearer and clearer that the 1600 Crew marched 1500 or more Americans, and more to come, off to their death to enrich their corporate buddies. After all, why were the weapons facilities (like Al Qaa-Qaa) left unguarded while Cheneyburton and their ilk were allowed to get away with this malfeasance?

Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.

The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it.

The audit summary, written in October 2004 but withheld from public release ...

I know that it makes wingnuts heads explode when I say this, but our deficit economy is as much of a long-term National Security issue as any war we'll ever fight. And it's an issue that we're losing on, thanks to Preznit Lucky Sperm and his idiot-bastard colleagues.

The US dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency is under threat as Asian banks back away from the superpower's ballooning twin deficits.

Over the past three years, central banks in the region have been scaling back their holdings of US dollars amid jitters about the United States' ever-expanding current account and budget deficits, which collectively soaked up at least $US1000 billion ($A1265 billion) of foreign currency last year.

A report by the Bank for International Settlements has estimated that the share of deposits held in US currency by Asian banks dropped to 67 per cent in the September quarter of 2004, from about 81 per cent of total deposits three years earlier.

The figures suggest that a dramatic but not widely publicised regional shift away from the US dollar is under way.

Why, Tax-Cuts of course. Idiots.

Harvard President Lawrence Summers, in remarks written by Fox News commentator Susan Estrich, again reiterated his belief that wimmins din't belong in Seince...[kidding, cause Summers prolly thinks Estrich should be home barefoot 'n' pregnint two, not writin' his speekin' peeces.]

In a stunning move, the Harvard faculty of the college of Arts and Sciences passed a no confidence vote in his leadership. Duh. However, one of his supporters had this to say following the 218 to 185 vote:

Ruth Wisse, a literature professor and Summers supporter, emphasized the "lack of confidence" measure was different from a "no-confidence" vote, which in the British parliamentary system causes the fall of a government.

"The president of the United States speaks out on unpopular things and doesn't get shot down, whereas the president of Harvard speaks out and gets pilloried," she said.

If there were one DC hack with less credibilty than the overtly partisan Alan Greenspan to talk about anything these days, I don't know who it might be...

The federal government did produce a budget surplus in 2001. But after that, it has been racking up record amounts of red ink.

The Fed chairman, however, didn't retract his support for the 2001 tax cut.

"If confronted with the same evidence we had back then, I would recommend exactly what I recommended then," Greenspan said.

In his testimony, Greenspan again endorsed a key part of Bush's Social Security overhaul — private investment accounts.

Greenwanker...what a hack. The only crisis he's worried about is that when he's dead and gone 50 years from now, students of Economic Sciences will look back at him and make fun of the Retard of the Reserve System.

Just couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. After looting WorldCom of about $400 million in "loans", and cooking the books Bernie Ebbers gets to face a trip to the Federal Ranch. Boo-hoo.

Bernard Ebbers, the once-swaggering CEO of WorldCom, was convicted Tuesday of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history — an $11 billion accounting scandal that capsized the big telecom company three years ago.
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The former chief executive reddened deeply when the jury announced its verdict after eight days of deliberations, and his wife, Kristie, burst into tears in the courtroom's front row.

Now...on to Kenny-boy. Yeah, right.

Well, we know that.

Now there's a blog to make it official as hell. Go check it out...a cheeky little thing. A new addition to the Pond?

Perhaps in another era, this story might have made it to press before a presidential election. Perhaps there might be more outrage over the twisting of journalism by an administration. Perhaps there's never been a more compelling reason for blogs.

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad.
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To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department.
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Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report...
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...records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations, given industry ethics standards that discourage the broadcast of prepackaged news segments from any outside group without revealing the source.
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Some reports were produced to support the administration's most cherished policy objectives, like regime change in Iraq or Medicare reform.
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It is also a world where all participants benefit.

It used to be that we just thought that they were whores. Now there's apparently proof. It doesn't seem too far-fetched to guess that someone in Karl Rove's office reached out and fed those memos to Dan Rather, knowing that it's already been proven de facto that TV "journalists" are about as lazy as they come.

Their laziness and corporate greed have helped in no small part to perpetuate this atrocity of a government. I hope they're proud of themselves. Perhaps it's time for bloggers to start keeping a more careful eye on local TV news a calling immediate "Bullshit" on these propaganda pieces when they show up.

Patricia Harrison, told Congress last year, the Bush administration has come to regard such "good news" segments as "powerful strategic tools" for influencing public opinion. And a review of the department's segments reveals a body of work in sync with the political objectives set forth by the White House communications team after 9/11.

It's supposed to take 20 days to get a response from a Freedom of Information Act request. 20 days. A reporter in San Francisco has been waiting 24 years for compliance with a request. That means it's passed through four administrations...Raygun to Preznit Hides Everything. He's gotten some stuff...but not everything.

FBI spokeswoman Megan Baroska told The Associated Press that the agency cannot discuss other people's FOIA requests.

"Basically, the FOIA is a matter between the FBI and Mr. Rosenfeld," she said. "Mr. Rosenfeld could file a request to get further information about his request." my emphasis

File a request about your request. With the Department of Redundancy Department, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.