Yeah, it's Death Squad Days in Iraq. Gosh Golly, who would have thought that an administration stocked with the remnants of adminstrations from Nixon to Bush 1 would be egging on the development of Death Squads as Foreign Policy.

The U.S. ambassador urged Iraq's divided leaders to rein in militias on Saturday as political blocs failed again to break a deadlock on forming a unity government that they hope can avert civil war.
...
"More Iraqis are dying from the militia violence than from the terrorists," he told reporters during a visit to a Baghdad youth center newly renovated with U.S. funds.

"The militias need to be under control." my emphasis

Goodness, now all we need is a never-ending war, a breakin at a swanky hotel and Preznit who thinks he's above the law...

The FBI, while waging a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering information on anti-war and environmental protesters, and activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless, the agency's internal memos show.
...
He stressed that the agency targets individuals who commit crimes and does not single out groups for ideological reasons.

The FBI's encounters with activists are described in hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Any definition of terrorism that would include someone throwing a bottle or rock through a window during an anti-war demonstration is dangerously overbroad," said Ben Wizner, an attorney with the ACLU. "The FBI will have its hands full pursuing anti-war groups instead of truly dangerous organizations."
...
ACLU attorneys say the FBI documents show the agency has monitored groups that were not suspected of any crimes.
...
An FBI counterterrorism official showed 35 slides listing militia, neo-Nazi and Islamicist groups. Senior Spec. Agent Charles Rasner said that one slide, titled "Anarchism," listed groups an analyst thought people intent on terrorism might associate with. It included Food Not Bombs, which mainly serves vegetarian food to homeless people, and, with a question mark next to it, Indymedia, a Web site featuring articles written by radical journalists and activists.

America, what a country.

It seems that the Christofacists are kind of upset because they aren't getting all their wishes in a 'timely' fashion.

Social-conservative groups have warned Republicans that their voters feel unappreciated and frustrated with Congress and that the party must get more aggressive on such values issues as marriage, human cloning, religious freedom and abortion if they want a decent turnout from the conservative base in November.
...
Leading conservative activists have been sounding off lately, frustrated that since 2004, when their voters turned out in force to help President Bush win re-election, the Republican Party has backed off the values issues. A constitutional amendment against homosexual "marriage" failed in 2004 to get the required two-thirds majority in both houses.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Let's address values issues," wrote conservative activist Gary Bauer last week in a memo to friends and supporters, noting that 19 states have amended their state constitutions to protect marriage with an average approval vote of 70 percent, yet many lawmakers still shy away.
...
On tap for action in the Senate, Republican aides confirmed, is an anti-flag-burning amendment ...
...
"Just those three alone -- marriage, abortion and religious freedom ... that would be really exciting to our grass roots, and it'd probably ensure that the Republicans keep the House and Senate," Mr. Backlin said.

Oh, and that whole flag-burning thing that was Duke Cunningham's baby...wonder how long that's gonna last? Again.

Oh, Hillary you do have your moments...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton invoked the Bible yesterday to criticize a stringent border security measure that, among other things, would make it a federal crime to offer aid to illegal immigrants.

"It is hard to believe that a Republican leadership that is constantly talking about values and about faith would put forth such a mean-spirited piece of legislation," she said of the measure, which was passed by the House of Representatives in December and mirrored a companion Senate bill introduced last week by Senator Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and the majority leader.

"It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scripture because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself," she said. "We need to sound the alarm about what is being done in the Congress."

You go Hillary...you've now just managed to earn yourself a subject line in a whole new RNC fundraising letter from Ken Mehlman: Sen. Clinton hates Jesus.

Jeebus.

Once upon a time, there was a Superbowl half-time show.

The pilot episode of "The Bedford Diaries," which concerns a group of college students attending a class on human sexuality, had already been accepted by WB's standards department. After the F.C.C. decision last week to issue millions of dollars in fines against broadcast stations, the network's chairman, Garth Ancier, contacted Mr. Fontana and asked him to edit a number of specific scenes out of the show, including one that depicted two girls in a bar kissing on a dare and another of a girl unbuttoning her jeans.

Now there's just paranoia. Way to go.

All for a tit, what George Carlin once described as "a friendly thing". Not for some folks, I guess. So much for the 1st Amendment. And tits.

Preznit Water Polo is off trying to shore up those sagging poll numbers (he doesn't read polls, right?). Right. Well, Unka Karl and the nervous republicans do. So they have the front-man for mangling the English language out there defending the indefensible, again.

"Let me put it to you this way: If I didn't think we'd succeed, I'd pull our troops out," Bush said. More than 2,000 supporters - including many active-duty military and their families - leapt from their seats and filled the gilded Capitol Music Hall with wild applause.

"I cannot look mothers and dads in the eye, I can't ask this good Marine to go into harm's way if I didn't believe, one, we're going to succeed, and, two, it's necessary for the security of the United States," Bush said.

Big Words from a man who can't seem to convince a single member of his own extended family of the value of military service in the CENTCOM theatre of operations, either Afghanistan or Mess O'Potamia.

Big Words from a man who wouldn't know the truth if it came up and bit him in the ass.

Big Words from a liar mean nothing. The American public is finally starting to figure that out. Finally.

The 1600 Crew, in it's quest for the zenith of silliness never fails to disappoint.

The Pentagon's defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
...
Darpa believes scientists can take advantage of the evolution of insects, such as dragonflies and moths, in the pupa stage.

"Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heal wounds and reposition internal organs around foreign objects," its proposal document reads.
...
A winning bidder would have to deliver "an insect within five metres of a specific target located 100 metres away".

The "insect-cyborg" must also "be able to transmit data from relevant sensors, yielding information about the local environment. These sensors can include gas sensors, microphones, video, etc."
...
Darpa's previous experiments to get bees and wasps to detect the smell of explosives foundered when their "instinctive behaviours for feeding and mating... prevented them from performing reliably", it said.

I guess if Mothra shows up in downtown DC, we'll know who to blame. Right? Mothra v. Darth Cheney...I'd pay to see that one.

Preznit King George the Lesser:

President Bush acknowledged yesterday that the war in Iraq is dominating nearly every aspect of his presidency, and he served notice for the first time that he expects the decision on when all U.S. troops come home to fall on his successors.

To. The. Fucking. Bank.

So why are none of La Famiglia Bush even in the military, answers anyone?

Doesn't this just make you wanna puke? As always, someone else gets to clean up the incompetant fucker's mess, at some future date.

Tammy Duckworth, the Army helo driver who is running as a "Fighting Dem" for Henry "Infidelity'R'Me" Hyde's seat in Illinois is the victim of yes, the patented Democratic Circular Firing Squad. Last known victim: Iraq Vet and Marine, Paul Hackett.

Tammy Duckworth, the decorated Iraq war veteran who lost both legs in a grenade attack, was locked in a close race last night in her bid for the Democratic primary nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R) in Illinois's 6th Congressional District.
...
With 26 percent of precincts reporting, Duckworth had about 44 percent of the vote, Cegelis about 40 percent and Lindy Scott, a Wheaton College Spanish teacher, about 16 percent.
...
Cegelis sought to portray Duckworth as a political carpetbagger in the congressional district, a traditionally GOP bastion west of Chicago in DuPage County. Cegelis asserted that many residents resented that Duckworth lives in a home three miles outside the district and that she raised most of her $517,747 campaign war chest with the help of her national Democratic allies.

Just my humble opinion, but it sure looks like the Joe Lieberman Circular Firing Squad is at right shoulder arms, and awaiting instructions in Illinois.

Here's to hoping Major Tammy kicks her ass.

Important Update

My bad. Sorry.

Well, there they go again...those goddam activist judges, rewriting the rules. Seems that the "Clean Skies" or whatever that piece of shit program was called is not quite legal per the Clean Air Act. Imagine that, the 1600 Crew violating the law...whoda thunk it?

A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's four-year effort to loosen emission rules for aging coal-fired power plants, unanimously ruling yesterday that the changes violated the Clean Air Act and that only Congress could authorize such revisions.

Just saw a Newshour this evening (caught the tail end, no transcript) with David Brooks and Tom Oliphant. Brooks, the Slime Monster of American Punditry spent more time running away from his positions than Lance Armstrong pulling away from the pack in a Tour de France. Unbelievable. He managed to paint the entire invasion and indeed the war, as a colossal fuck-up that was all the fault of Bunnypants, Darth You-know-who and Senile Donnie.

When Tom Oliphant tried to bring up the complicity of the press corps in the invasion and war, neither Brooks nor Lehrer were having any of that. So it's still nice to see our liberal media is still in denial. About Everything.

Hi guys. Somehow, I have had some weird problems with my host and all my files that drive the blog became inaccessible. Comments are still not working properly, and I need to figure that out.

Working on it... -sigh-

At least my host has good tech support, and they have been helping...it's just frustrating to have to go through this.

Will keep you updated. Thanks for your patience.

Update

Glad I have decent tech support... :)

Update 2

Remember, you can still (I think) vote in the Koufax's for your favorite blog More Deserving of Wider Recoginition. My mantle is bare, love to have one thing to dust. Never mind, voting is closed.

Have fun and wear your galoshes.

Caught a CNN segment this morning about the newest poll showing Preznit Fiddling Firestarter at an approval rating of 38%. Which you would think was significant for an "extremely popular preznit" ... according to the Fellating Media. So the guy on CNN was doing "man on the street" interviews where he interviewed three people, two supporters of Government de Bunnypants, and one not so supportive.

One of the interviewees, a woman who was "supportive" recited all the Rovian Talking Points and the CNN Fellater (or in this case perhaps a cunninglinguist) asked no follow-ups at all about why she thought the Preznit was doing a good job.

And I thought the inarticulate one was that woman...no, it was the (empty) talking head from CNN. Inarticulate, and intellectually challenged.

Sorry, I don't have a link.

Seems that the "Pharmacists for Bush" need to learn that most important of all lessons...they're fucked.

Pharmacists say they have been losing money under Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, and they have taken their concerns to the White House, forcing the administration to confront political problems caused by the rocky start of the program.
...
The pharmacists who visited the White House were all from Texas. Several have close ties to Mr. Rove and President Bush. ...
...
Richard E. Beck, one of the Texas pharmacists who met with Mr. Rove, said, "Pharmacies are losing money on Medicare." Slow payment by Medicare drug plans has caused cash-flow problems for many pharmacies, he said.

Mr. Pittman said he told Mr. Rove and other officials: "If pharmacists don't receive immediate relief, some will go broke. Others are hurting so bad that they will choose not to participate in Medicare and Medicaid."

Hey, it's worked before. I guess that these fools are probably wondering if they really should have voted for Bunnypants. Nah, they aren't. Well, they got what they voted for...now they can live with it. Broke and unemployed.

One of the original "Fighting Dems", retired USN Commander Eric Massa has an excellent diary up over at Kos about an impending visit by Preznit Clueless Nero to his district. Beloved Leader will, apparently, be visiting a freshly repainted school (shades of Mess O'Potamia?) to perhaps read "My Pet Goat" to the kids, but won't cross the street to visit the local VA facility.

Go check it out, and if you can, toss some cash to Eric's campaign. Remember, in 2006 winning isn't everything...it's the ONLY thing.

When I check my sitemeter stats, one of the bright things I find are new blogs who have linked to me. Here are two I like that just showed up today. The Lady Speaks and The Great Divide. Go, read, enjoy! Have fun!!!

Every time that the press bends over (forward or backward) to demonstrate their love of John McCain, this ought to be reprinted:

More than any of his potential rivals, McCain found a way to balance embracing a weakened President Bush...

McCain is no more of a "choice" for America then Frist is, both are the same side of a coin over-spent: they represent a future of debt, insecurity and humiliation for our once-proud republic. They, and especially McCain have been apologists for failed policy initiatives that will resonate far into this century, whose burdens will literally be carried forward by our children and their childrens children.

As McCain left the Peabody Hotel on Saturday to tour the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, he was matter-of-fact about his steadfast support for the president. "We elected him, we need him, he needs to do well and the country needs him," McCain said in an interview.

Alexander "I'm in Charge" Haig on Mess O'Potamia:

"Every asset of the nation must be applied to the conflict to bring about a quick and successful outcome, or don't do it," said Haig, an adviser to presidents Johnson and Nixon who says more troops are needed to succeed in Iraq. President Bush's father had 660,000 coalition soldiers for the 1991 Gulf War invasion, more than twice as many as his son had for Iraq's initial invasion.

Alexander Haig at least speaks with the benefit of experience. I don't recall whether or not he bought the Neocon line about the urgency of invading Iraq, and removing Saddam...likely he did, since he's a party-man through-and-through. Now he's making the point that the parallels are becoming so close that the success or failure of the misadventure in Mess O'Potamia will depend on revisiting what went wrong (in his opinion) in SE Asia.

I guess that the one thing that won't be the same is that Beloved Leader can't head down to work on the Senate campaign of some minor family retainer and play water volleyball with ambitious secretaries, or maybe he can, as long as Darth Cheney doesn't play with firearms for the next three years or so.

Bwa hahahahahaha. Claude Allen. Bwa hahahahaha.

"If the allegations are true, Claude Allen did not tell my chief of staff and legal counsel the truth, and that's deeply disappointing," Mr. Bush told journalists after a White House briefing on Iraq.

They all lie. About everything. Is this becoming clear yet?

btw...I wonder if Allen will practice Abstinence in prison, or at least try?

KittY-Killer Frist is back to parroting the Karl Rove "all terror, all the time" line that has worked so successfully for the past five years for the 1600 Crew. It's too bad that people are slowly (really, really slowly) starting to figure out that it's bullshit.

Russ Feingold (the only senator with a real set of certified American Cojones) has proposed censuring Preznit Constitutional Crisis for his flagrant violation of the Constitution and his Oath of Office. Offenses, which with a congress not in the hands of a Rove-driven majority would normally be the grounds for impeachment (yeah, it doesn't rise to the level of fellatio) in any sane times.

Appearing on ABC's This Week, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) announced that he will introduce a resolution tomorrow to censure President Bush for authorizing an illegal warrantless domestic surveillance program. Feingold said President Bush's actions were "right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors."

I think it's a crazy political move and I think it in part is a political move because here we are, the Republican Party, the leadership in the Congress, supporting the President of the United States as Commander in Chief, who is out there fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban and Osama bin Laden...

As for the Kitten Murderer's patriotism, well suffice it to say that they could probably use cardio-thoracic surgeons in the Army Hospitals in Mess O'Potamia, and the military will do age waivers for board-certified doctors and give them commissions. I don't see Milionaire Fancy Frist giving up any of his life-perks to join in the fray he allegedly supports, with his body or any other part of him except his big-ass lying yap.

The situation in Iraq has gone from bad to worse, and Preznit Vacation has no desire to let unpleasant facts get in the way of heading to Crawford to vote in the election there, at taxpayer expense.

President Bush won't talk about the prospect of civil war in Iraq and what it would mean to the U.S. troop presence.
...
"Khalilzad said the U.S. has little choice but to maintain a strong presence in Iraq -- or risk a regional conflict in which Arabs side with Sunnis and Iranians back Shiites, in what could be a more encompassing version of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, which left more than 1 million dead.

One dyed-in-the-wool republican (the rare honest kind) and the Duchess of Dupont. Amusing. Unfortunately with Sullivan's bi-polar love-hate disorder, he's as likely to be penning paens to Preznit Fails Everything as writing "biting" critcisms next week. Stay tuned, he'll claim it was the drugs.

Hey, look! It's the lying bastard republicans stripping away our civil rights, pissing on the Constitution, Fellating Beloved Leader and still getting to the bar for a tall, cold frosty one.

Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.

Read this and recalled this.

Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices, a scientist said on Monday.

Fascinating interview by The Talking Dog with Professor Rick Wilson, who is defending a teenage defendant in GITMO. This is our government...in action. Gosh, they make me so proud.

Preznit Whiny Baby got his PATRIOT Act, that legislative tribute to Bedwetters everywhere. Supposedly the PATRIOT Act was supposed to "fight terra-rism" everywhere, but when it was passed many of us foresaw it as a tool for the chickenshit law-and-order (until they are caught, Duke Cunningham) congresscriminals to toss everything but the kitchen sink into the US Code of Federal Regulations, damn it's relation to terra-rism.

Well they have:

The reauthorized Patriot Act includes new tools to combat the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. It will require retailers to place cold medicines with pseudoephedrine -- a key ingredient of the illegal drug -- behind counters, and would set limits on each person's monthly and daily purchases. Buyers would have to identify themselves and sign for their purchases.

DINO Henry Cuellar, the man Beloved Leader likes to kiss (right after Joementum) is going D-O-W-N (we hope) according to the latest results from the Texas Secretary of State. Rodriguez will be the replacement for Cuellar, since there is no one running as a republican (they did not need to, they had Cuellar, right?).

Ned Lamont is going to be running against Joementum, in that other state that can claim Preznit Rexall Wrangler as a "native son". He deserves to send Joementum off to join the Heritage Foundation as a Senior Fellow in charge of kissing ass and sniffing butts. I'm sure that Clarence Thomas' wife will be happy to help him pick out his furniture. Something in Early Homophobe will do nicely for him, and his pecksniff prig 'tude.

Some nice person nominated Democratic Veteran again this year for a Koufax in the category of "Most Deserving of Wider Recoginition". There are lots of great blogs nominated this year, as always. Check a few out if you have a minute.

Thanks, and if you toss a vote my way, thanks for that too...

Got an email today from a reader, Doug, who sent me a link to an article from DefenseLink, about how the good folks at CENTCOM are trying to get all buddy-buddy with bloggers...and it seems that they want to be bestest good friends with a certain...um...persuasion of on-line journalists...

Public affairs officials here said thousands of blogs are created each day, and they estimate that more than 21 million blogs are posted on the World Wide Web today.
...
McNorton said the team contacts bloggers to inform the writers about any given topic that may have been posted on their site. This outreach effort enables the team to offer complete information to bloggers by inviting them to visit CENTCOM's Web site for news releases, data or imagery.

The team engages bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information. They extend a friendly invitation to all bloggers to visit the command's Web site. (my emphasis)

Greetings Democratic Veteran,

My name is SGT Xyzt and I work at the US Central Command public affairs office. I found your site linked on another blog and I wanted to invite you to visit our website at:

www.centcom.mil

Our site provides news/press releases, images and casualty reports from the CENTCOM area of responsibility, including anti-terrorism activities. I wanted to contact you because of your interest in politics and the CENTCOM AOR. If you are interested in signing up for our newsletter, you can do so at:

[http://blah blah blah yadda]

I also wanted to invite you to place a link to the CENTCOM website on your page if you think that is something your readers would be interested in. If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please contact me and I will do what I can to help. Let me know what you think. Thank you for your time.

SGT Xyzt
USCENTCOM Public Affairs

Bottom line: next time I do a blogroll update, I'll toss you a link. I have no beef at all with the military, it was my home once too and I'm proud of that. My beef is with the idiots running the show. Clear as mud? Good. Now go find Osama, alright? And stop spending my tax dollars doing Unka Karl's dirty work.

Another milestone for this humble on-line magazine...the 10,000th comment. Not bad.

Thanks again guys, you keep me blogging...keep on commenting, I appreciate it.

So, India has gotten some promises from Preznit Where's Delhi....perhaps it would be wise to remind them what bright college students in this country in the American "Heartland" know before they begin counting any chickens, symbolic or otherwise:

He promised to deliver programs to encourage students to stay in school. Maybe the $12.7 billion in federal student loans he will cut over the next five years could have helped.

His response to the fledgling health care system was equally patchy. He hoped for a day when Americans would never face a new disease yet discouraged the use of human embryos in medical research necessary to find cures to fatal diseases like HIV / AIDS already afflicting the U.S.

Every American should be able to afford insurance coverage, he said, but massive budget deficits that may approach or exceed $400 billion this year leave little room for new, expensive initiatives to provide health benefits.

And with rising energy costs contributing to a large chunk of the deficit, Bush renewed his urge to decrease dependency on foreign oil.

“America is addicted to oil,” Bush touted, but with the president pushing during his last campaign for expanded drilling in Alaska and areas designated as national parks, is he sure it’s not his nose itching for some candy?

It's his trademark.

Put this into the Uh-Huh Files.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told a key House Democrat yesterday that the administration is not conducting any warrantless domestic surveillance programs beyond the one that President Bush has acknowledged, the Democrat said in an interview.

Fucking Gonzales doesn't know how to tell the truth, he's been sucking his boss's balls for so long, that the words Truth, Justice and Honesty are just labels to be applied to make inconveinent questions go away...

From recipient of the Houston Area Metro Ford Dealers "Hispanic Salute Award" for work in the field of education and counsel for Enron to Worst Attorney General in American History since John Mitchell. Great work, if you can get it, on your knees.

The last thing that the Democrats need going into 2008 is another Holy Joementum-wannabe. Tom Vilsack, Gobernator of Iowegia is positioning himself to be exactly that, a Democrat who listens to Democratic "Strategists" (exactly how many election victories do they have to their credit?).

After the 2004 campaign, Democratic strategists urged candidates to talk about their faith as way to to court voters in America's heartland. Vilsack appeared comfortable with that approach in his speech. He used religious imagery (the Biblical story of the loaves and the fishes) to illustrate the importance of community, saying the lesson "gives us the confidence to share."

Asked about what role religion should play in public life, Vilsack called it "a really important component to the makeup of individuals and community and it must be honored." But, he added, "There needs to be a recognition in this county that we are great because we respect all traditions."

The Iowa governor did his best to straddle the fence on the hot-button abortion issue. Asked his opinion on South Dakota lawmakers' effort to ban all nearly all abortions in their state, Vilsack said he did not agree with that "approach." Asked directly about his stance on abortion generally, he replied, "In a strong community you make life the best option." Vilsack makes no secret that he was born in an orphanage and adopted by a mother who struggled with alcohol and drug dependency.

Sorry Tom, take it down the road...we need a winner, not a republican-lite whiner.

Ok Campers, how does a blog with a total, but very dedicated readership of about 300 sets of eyes per day get some attention for Leonard Clark?

Ideas? Let me know.

1. Bastards, but Our Bastards
   
2. Nixxon Redux?
   
3. Christofascist wish lists
   
4. Then there's this...
   
5. Christofacist Amerika
   
6. Big Words
   
7. Buggered?
   
8. Vomitus
   
9. The Circular Firing Squad Effect
   
10. Silly Judges, don't they know rules are for "Little People"?