So, how many Friedmans before the wingnut faction begins to whip up the all-war all the time rhetoric in advance of the next "Shock and Awe" campaign?

President Bush, invoking the same language that he used to describe Iraq before the March 2003 invasion, called Iran a "grave threat" and said "there must be consequences" for Tehran's actions. "It is time for Iran to make a choice," Bush said in a speech to the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City.
...
Since his 2002 State of the Union speech, when he singled out Iran as part of an "axis of evil," Bush has tried without success to roll back Tehran's nuclear energy program. He has asserted, without offering proof, that it is a cover for weapons development.my emphasis

Up next, the outing of a super-secret intelligence operative, the mau-mauing of the disloyal opposition and the pundits get to ride around in tanks for a weekend at Fort Irwin and 29 Stumps.

Donald Rumsfeld, one half of the kill'em all and let god sort'em out cabal of the 1600 Crew:

Surely by now we have learned the lesson that when our country gives our troops a mission, they should have the resources and support to finish the job. And surely, we have learned the dangers of giving the enemy the false impression that Americans cannot stomach a tough fight.

Except he's well, not willing to stomach a tough fight if it involves being in uniform, in the Military, in the desert, in the heat and in the vicinity of anything that has the letters "I" "E" or "D" in it together.

But other than all that, he's Rumsfeld's kind of guy! I wonder what Anthony will say when they start the draft again?

Probably the most fun this election cycle has been watching Katherine Harris, the woman most responsible for Preznit Incredibly Ignorant go down in not just flames but a huge screeching fireball. The beauty of it is, that she's done it all to herself.

The most recent missive from St Katherine of the Chads:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is "a lie" and God and the nation's founding fathers did not intend the country be "a nation of secular laws."
...
Separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told," Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is "wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers."
...
State GOP leaders -- including Gov. Jeb Bush -- don't think she can win against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in November. Fundraising has lagged, frustrated campaign workers have defected in droves and the issues have been overshadowed by news of her dealings with a corrupt defense contractor who gave her $32,000 in illegal campaign contributions.

Well, she did demonstrate in 2000 that she really doesn't truly believe in the electoral process, and now she's demonstrating that she doesn't really support, defend or understand the Constitution of the United States.

The first phrase in the First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." is called the establishment clause.

My guess, after the election she'll become either a Senior Fellow at some wingnut think tank like Concerned Women of America (what are they concerned about, anyhow?) or the Eagle Foundation. Or she could always become a co-blogger with the Shrieking Harpy (you know who, no linkee). Whatever, I don't think she's going to be occupying a seat in the Senate from Florida, call me crazy but it's just a hunch.

Well, I wonder if the Department of Homeland Security will be billing Mr. Karr for his business-class trip from Bankok to LA?

The DNA sample taken from suspect John Mark Karr does not match DNA found on JonBenet Ramsey's body and no charges will be filed against the schoolteacher who claimed he was with the child when she died, CNN affiliate KUSA reported.

And for the record, no, I don't think that Jon Benet's parents were involved.

-sigh- I guess the talking heads can get back to Natalee Holloway or Chondra Levy (or whoever).

Sebastian Mallaby.

Gosh, Sebastian d'ya think perhaps if Wal-Mart were to adopt a strategy that placed people ahead of profits even marginally they'd get this kind of crap?

And I love this:

Last year Hillary Clinton returned a campaign contribution from Wal-Mart, even though she had no compunction in banking a check from Jerry Springer.

Once upon a time Wal-Mart used to be a huge supporter of American companies by being a retailer that provided access to markets and consumers access to American-made goods. Then something happened, Wal-Mart went beyond huge, to something else entirely. It became a soul-crushing monolith with, for want of a better word, "interesting" employment practices and a reputation for crushing suppliers who could not meet their "Every Day Low Prices" promise. Like this:

Vlasic Pickles was roped into a contract with Wal-Mart, in which Wal-Mart sold a 3 gallon jar of whole pickles for $2.97. Wal-Mart sold 240,000 gallons of pickles per week. But the price of the 3 gallon jar was so low, that it vastly undercut Vlasic's sales of 8 ounce and 16 ounce jars of cut pickles; further, Vlasic only made a few pennies per 3 gallon jar. With its profits tumbling, Vlasic asked Wal-Mart for the right to raise the price per 3 gallon jar to $3.49, and according to a Vlasic executive, Wal-Mart threatened that if Vlasic tried to back out of this feature of the contract, Wal-Mart would cease carrying any Vlasic product. Eventually, a Wal-Mart executive said, "Well, we've done to pickles what we did to orange juice. We've killed it"—meaning it had wiped out competitor products. Finally, it allowed Vlasic to raise prices; but in January 2001, Vlasic filed for bankruptcy.

Separately, states are beginning to address Wal-Mart's practice of forcing its workers to rely on taxpayer-subsidized medical care instead of providing affordable health-care because it was not helpful in maintaining their "bottom line" numbers. To their credit, it seems that Wal-Mart may be addressing this slowly, but whether it's for show or part of a longer-term strategy to bring the company into the mainstream of corporate citizenship or an election-cycle aberration is anyones guess.

So, Mr. Mallaby up in your Washington Post Inside the Beltway Pundit Office, get on out to some place that is actually affected by Wal-Mart. Go talk to the employees of CostCo and other retailers, and then some Wal-Mart employees who do the same jobs; compare and contrast. See what impact Wal-Mart has had on entire communities. Are they really better off for the lack of competition and cheap imports at "EDLP" from China (or whereever)?

Then come back and report on whose hand is getting bitten, and why. Just my ill-informed opinion, but maybe you'll discover you have been shouting down the wrong aisle.

Interesting article on the South Dakota abortion-ban. Seems that the woman who is the figurehead of the movement, was like all pro-choice until she regretted her choice. Now she's trying to make sure that no one else in South Dakota gets to exercise their free will, you know, like she did.

Kayla Brandt had an abortion three years ago and instantly hated having done it. Now, hoping to stop other women from making the same choice, she is a public advocate for the most severe abortion ban in the nation.

"I don't want anyone to feel what I did," Brandt says.
...
"I was in a relationship and panicked and got scared and ashamed, and thought an abortion was the means to fix my mistake," said Brandt, who came to see herself as a "mother who was sadly stripped of her child."

"Where's the baby's choice?" Brandt asked. "What about the life of the baby?"

Shorter Kayla Brandt: "It's okay for me, but not thee". Hmmm....let's see, she could have used contraception (assuming she didn't), her partner could have used contraception (assuming he didn't and she wasn't conceiving immaculately), she could have carried the baby to term and immediately put it up for adoption...

No, Kayla chose to have an abortion. The she realized that being all grown-up meant she had to live with the consequences of her actions, and that's just not a very republican or christofascist thing to do ... live with the consequences of their actions, especially when they can proclaim their status as victims.

I wonder how Kayla Brandt will face another young woman who can't make her choice because she was raped by an abusive family member, or a stranger. I don't think she'll care much, she doesn't seem to now.

Because fundamentally this is all about her.

IMHO.

Saint John, he of the "Straight Talk Express", has turned into one lying sack of shit. In old aviator parlance, he's hit the ramp, taken a cut-pass, screwed the pooch...you name it, he's now done it. In everyone else-speak, Dude's done Jumped the Shark.

I used to like John, even though he's an unapologetic Reagan republican, and pretty unwavering in his conservative views I always thought better of him than most politicians. Because of his background? Perhaps. Because I met him and liked him when I was an impressionable young Enswine at Cecil Field? Maybe. But mostly because, even with all the bad points against him, after his trials and tribulations as one of the Keating Five, I figured that he'd value honesty over expedient political deceit, maybe because he was willing to work with Russ Feingold on campaign finance reform and take on the solons of Conservitard-dumb, I mistakenly believed that he'd at least hew to the principles of his alleged mentor, Barry Goldwater.

No, Saint John is just another low-life, vote-pandering pol whose primary purpose in life is self-aggrandizement on a truly Liebermanian scale. (Hey, I'm gonna invent the Lieberman-Nader Scale of Politcal Self-Aggrandizement...more to follow).

So what's this rant about? Here's St. John today:

Republican Sen. John McCain, a staunch defender of the Iraq war, on Tuesday faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."
...
"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required," McCain said. "Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders. I’m just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be."

I don't hear him calling for his "Good Friend and Distinguished Colleague, the Gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Senator Roberts" to get off his 100% bought and paid for corrupt ass and release the alleged investigation into the mis-use of intelligence by the NeoCon Cabal and the 1600 Crew that fomented this war.

McCain, and a tiny minority of senators currently serving can personally attest to the horrors of war first-hand. For any of them, especially McCain, to now be sitting there and clucking soporifically about the "bad intel" to soothe the base and make them believe that he's always opposed Beloved Leaders Excellent Adventure and the choices made by the Minions of Gozer running the show is pure bullshit.

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly. This was the reason that the President felt so strongly that we needed to take military action to disarm Saddam Hussein, since he would not do it himself.

As the military effort continues, I think you will see information develop for yourself, firsthand. This is one of the reasons that there are so many reporters present with the military. In many ways, you will have these answers yourselves. You are there, you are on the ground. And you will find the answers and they will speak volumes themselves.

Q So you expect the weapons will be found?

MR. FLEISCHER: There's no question. We have said that Saddam Hussein possesses biological and chemical weapons, and all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.

And Saint John said nothing.

So, it looks like the Yellow Elephants have been successful in their "avoidance at all costs" strategery of making sure that someone else will fight their battles for them. The Marines are now getting ready to start recalling IRR members to Active Duty, with orders to Mess O'Potamia in hand.

The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
...
This is the first time the Marines have had to use the involuntary recall since the early days of the Iraq combat. ...

Is it any wonder that they're having a hard time finding "volunteers" to head to Southwest Asia? I suspect that they guys just off active duty who would not have ever left their units until the whole unit rotated home are gonna be less than thrilled to be getting another view of the camel spiders, battle with the heat and the IED's and wonder if they'll be as lucky going back to beard the lion one more time.

I hope that by the time they get around to calling anyone up again there's a Democratic congress, and an exit strategy being discussed. The sad fact is that for as long as Preznit Fails At Everything is at the White House he's never going to willingly allow a single soldier, sailor, airman or Marine to be brought home under the aegis of being "withdrawn". Given that he's failed at every endeavor in his life, except being the Ceremonial Head of State in Texas, he can't allow himself to be branded with the failure of his Excellent Mess O'Potamian Adventure too. That would lead to some real silence at the dinner table in Kennebunkport after January, 2009.

Besides, there's an intern he hasn't farted for yet...

Note to all the piss-ants who stood by Preznit Decider and his veto of the stem-cell research bill:

"Because of my strong opposition to embryonic-stem-cell research, I hereby pledge that should I, at any point in the future, develop diabetes, cancer, spinal-cord injuries or Parkinson's, among other diseases, I will refuse any and all treatments derived from such research, at home or abroad, even if it costs me my life. Signed, ______"

Not me. Sorry if that's kind blunt, but you know what? They made their own beds...let them lie in them.

You gotta love the smell of fear wafting off the power elite and their paid punditry. Remember how we went into Iraq for ...er...something? Oh, yeah, "spreading democracies and freedoms".

David Brooks (subscription required):

"...polarized primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics."

Remember, according to Brooks if the rest of America (the coasts especially the Left One) were more like Flyover Country we'd all be just hunky-dory. Now if all those disgruntled partisan voters would just stay the fuck away from the polls, why it would be Morning in America again!

I'm Mourning in America because the New York Times actually pays Brooks to write that crap. I'm sure there's a good white-power website that would pay him $5.15 an hour and all the Prussian Blue albumns he could carry in the trunk of his car to the next Gun Show in the Meadowlands.

from the ever-amazing Think Progress:

Iraq Forced To Import Oil To Tackle Shortages

Paul Wolfowitz, 3/27/03:

There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. … We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.

AP, 8/17/06:

Iraq has doubled the money allocated for importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster, a senior Iraqi official said Thursday. Even though Iraq has the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, it is forced to depend on imports because of an acute shortage of refined products such as gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas. Sabotage of pipelines by insurgents, corruption and aging refineries have been blamed.

Back in May, 2004, Decter frankly explained the real reason we attacked Iraq:

"We're not in the Middle East to bring sweetness and light to the world. We're there to get something we and our friends in Europe depend on. Namely, oil."

...Abrams' appointment by the White House on December 2, 2002 was considered highly controversial due to his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, over which he subsequently pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of unlawfully withholding information from Congress.

I usually refrain from using any direct Nazi allusions when referring to Preznit Utterly Incompetant. So, I guess this is a first for me. Apparently, at a Camp David press conference, Beloved Leader got a bit testy when pressed with questions about yesterdays ruling out of the Federal District Court over the NSA debacle.

You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier... So long as I'm the dictator.

* Responding to the difficulties of governing Texas, "The Taming of Texas," Governing Magazine (July 1998); also cited in Is our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush (2000) by Paul Begala.)

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

* "Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security" speech at Kleinshans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York, 20 April 2004; whitehouse.gov (accessed 2006-05-18)

"I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live," Mr. Bush said in a question-answer session at Camp David, Md. "I strongly disagree with that decision, strongly disagree. That's why I instructed the Justice Department to appeal immediately. And I believe our appeals will be upheld."

My guess? It was probably this part of the judges ruling:

There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent powers" must derive from that Constitution.

I notice that when the republicans can't win on fact, logic and law they resort to slandering the Judge. Why am I not surprised?

Now it's just a race to see how fast Scalia, Roberts and Alito take out great nation from being a Nation of Laws to Banana Republic where Widdle Georgie gets to wear a pretty medal-bedecked uniform and a big peaked cap with aviator shades.

Oh, and a Little Moustache.

... and I have a nice bridge for sale, and if you don't like that, perhaps some swamp land in Florida.

The White House denied on Wednesday that the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden has been downgraded after the CIA disbanded a unit set up in the 1990s to oversee the search for the al Qaeda leader.
...
Bush had vowed to get bin Laden "dead or alive" after the Sept. 11 attacks but as the hunt dragged on, he described bin Laden as only one part of a global terrorist organization.

Someone asked me to define the Bush Administration in less than six words. After thinking about it, I came up with this: A Smorgasboard of Malfeasance. If the foo shits....

Today from Zogby:

Zogby: Bush Job Approval - 34%

A man suspected in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was arrested Wednesday in Thailand in a surprise breakthrough in one of the nation's most lurid murder cases - a decade-old crime some feared would never be solved.

Iraq, Foreign Policy and Domestic Affairs? Not so much.

Afghanistan is sort of like the weather...except no one seems to talk about it and no one seems to do much about it at all; it just happens to be there all the time. When was the last time you read anywhere, including out here in either right or left blogtopia about the goings-on in Afghanistan? Not too often.

Insurgents hit a Canadian base in southern Afghanistan with mortars, wounding six soldiers, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
...
Afghanistan is suffering its deadliest bout of violence since the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.

Bin Laden and his bestest friend and protector, Mullah Omar have to be sitting back laughing their asses off over exploding hair gel and the utter paranoia they've induced in the West. The re-ascendence of the Taliban has been one of the least noted phenomenon in the media, and potentially one of the more low-key long-term annoyances for the West.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Afghani Adventure turns out to be the utter debacle that is Mess O'Potamia or not, perhaps the international actual "coalition" there will keep it from descending into utter chaos, but it does bear closer scrutiny than it seems to get from both sides of the aisle.

The TSA, an agency that will begin to have to justify their existance sooner than later, I suspect is already out in front of the Great Exploding Hair Gel Alert. It might have happened, you see.

Transportation Security Administration officials said they had not decided when they would end the increased screening procedures enacted after British authorities last week said they had unraveled a plot to blow up commercial jets with liquid explosives. The TSA banned all liquids and gels, including bottled water and toothpaste, from aircraft passenger cabins.
...
Over the weekend, TSA officials revised some security measures and began requiring passengers to remove their shoes for examination at X-ray machines.

TSA officials said the rule requiring shoe removal was not motivated by any specific intelligence about a potential attack using shoe bombs. In late 2001, Richard Reid tried to use such a device to blow up an airliner on a transatlantic flight.
...
"TSA always seems to be at least two steps behind every threat we face," said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). "I have spent the last four years trying to get TSA to acknowledge the threat of shoulder-fired missiles, which are one of our biggest vulnerabilities, and they have responded with denials at first, then with begrudging acceptance, then one study after another."

The answers to ensuring airport security have to be somewhere between the minimum-wage screeners who didn't give a shit before 9/11 and the hyper-political, overly paranoid and pretty much incompetant TSA that is in place now. Before the most recent round of trying to make airline travel incredibly inconvenient for everyone, I was in LAX waiting to go through screening. The TSA folks (there must have been at least 20) were not screening anyone, because they were waiting to end their shift. Sitting on their asses at the "checkpoint" waiting for their reliefs to arrive. The line in the terminal got longer and longer, as people were getting impatient about getting to their gates and flights. Finally brave guy in a suit spoke to (I assume) supervisor who curtly told him to mind his own business, and get back in line, he'd get through when he got through. He finally did, and they did everything but body-cavity search the poor guy.

The TSA is the answer to nothing. They are just another, highly visible part of the failure that is the Department of Homeland Security. Perhaps a new congress might bring some fresh insights into the methodologies and means for the complex tasks of airline and other transportation security, because they're not beholden to the same set of corporate interests that benefit from DHS and the 1600 Crew, but I'm not holding my breath for a fix anytime soon.

You have to love this:

President Bush asserted yesterday that Hezbollah was defeated in its month-long conflict with Israel, casting the fighting that killed hundreds of Lebanese and Israeli civilians as part of a wider struggle "between freedom and terrorism."

More interesting in this article is this:

Bush warned Tehran to stop backing militias in Lebanon and in Iraq, where U.S. officials have long accused Iran of feeding the sectarian violence that is threatening to erupt into a full-scale civil war.

"In both these countries, Iran is backing armed groups in the hope of stopping democracy from taking hold," Bush said. "The message of this administration is clear. America will stay on the offensive against al-Qaeda. Iran must stop its support for terror, and the leaders of these armed groups must make a choice. If they want to participate in the political life of their countries, they must disarm."

"Forces of terror see the changes that are taking place in their midst. They understand that the advance of liberty, the freedom to worship, the freedom to dissent, and the protection of human rights would be a defeat for their hateful ideology," Bush said. "But they also know that young democracies are fragile and that this may be their last and best opportunity to stop freedom's advance and steer newly free nation to the path of radical extremism."

And that whole advancing of liberty thing in Iraq, going well is it? Ah, not so much.

John Hendren, reporting for NPR on a killing in an East Baghdad grocery: "The grocer and three others were shot to death and the store was firebombed because he 'suggestively arranged his vegetables.' ... [A]n Iraqi collegue explained, matter of factly, that Shiite clerics had recently distributed a flier directing grocers how to display their food. Standing up a celery stalk near a couple tomatoes in a way that might, to tbe profoundly repressed, suggest an aroused male, is now a capital offense."

Post bombing, of course.

This has to be one of the more dangerous new NeoCon lines of thinking to come out of the mouths of the All War, All the Time republicans. I don't know why Gingrich wasted so much space in the Post, he could have just cut the whole column down to this "USA USA USA" and had a picture of himself with one of those big foam fingers.

...an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is a mortal threat to American, Israeli and European cities. If a nonnuclear Iran is prepared to finance, arm and train Hezbollah, sustain a war against Israel from southern Lebanon and, in Holbrooke's own words, "support actions against U.S. forces in Iraq," then what would a nuclear Iran be likely to do? Remember, Iranian officials were present at North Korea's missile launches on our Fourth of July, and it is noteworthy that Venezuela's anti-American dictator, Hugo Chávez, has visited Iran five times.

Even assuming that Iran were so irrational as to launch a nuclear strike on Israel, there is no guarantee that Iran or its neighbors would survive a first strike. Talking in absolute terms of such a strike and discounting diplomacy is exactly what the hardliners in the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon adminstrations wanted when dealing with the Soviets.

What Gingrich apparently wants is a preemptive third world war, to settle the fact of American primacy in global affairs into the new millenium. Yeah, that's worked out so well in Iraq, hasn't it?

Eschewing diplomacy for direct military action is hardly a solution, and certainly not one when we have most of the active forces of the Army committed to either being in Iraq or in transit one way or the other for another tour there. The NeoCon fantasy of "shock and awe" air power is not a practical reality either. An educated guess would be that after GWI, most countries that had anything to hide put it in places where conventional munitions dropped from attack aircraft or targeted by cruise missles would do little to no damage.

As a goal this is precisely wrong. Defeating the terrorists and thwarting efforts by Iran and North Korea to gain nuclear and biological weapons must be the first goal of American policy. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, if violence is necessary to defeat the terrorists, the Iranians and the North Koreans, then it is regrettably necessary. If they can be disarmed with less violence, then that is desirable. But a nonviolent solution that allows the terrorists to become better trained, better organized, more numerous and better armed is a defeat. A nonviolent solution that leads to North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons threatening us across the planet is a defeat.
...
Holbrooke represents the diplomacy first-diplomacy always school. We saw its workings throughout the 1990s, as Syria was visited again and again by secretaries of state who achieved absolutely nothing. Even a secretary of state dancing with Kim Jong Il (arguably a low point in American diplomatic efforts) produced no results; such niceties never do in dealing with vicious dictators.

Or maybe I misread the whole thing, and Gingrich is just going to "fight the war of ideas" with these states from his air-conditined office. The dying will be left to someone elses father/mother/son/daughter/wife/husband.

Seems that Beloved Leader wants to keep the hardline republican economic stuff ticking...he's got to pay for those tax cuts somewhere, and where better than on the backs of those who can least afford it?

The Bush administration has begun sounding out lawmakers and other key figures about mounting a new bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security after the midterm elections, according to officials in the administration and on Capitol Hill.
...
The new Treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs chief Henry M. Paulson Jr., has made it clear that a major reason he took the job is to tackle the rising cost of government health and Social Security spending, which he described last week as "the biggest economic issue facing our country."

The hard choice is whether to stop hemorraging money in Iraq, or begin to counter all that waste by raising revenues. I suspect that support for the war would fall even lower if it were presented to the average American as a pay-as-you-go option. To date, the 1600 Crew has largely financed it off the national credit card...and they have shown no willingness to responsibly change revenue generation without hurting the most-vulnerable citizens of our nation.

If there is a shift in Washington, this will probably become a non-issue, I doubt that too many Democrats are going to sign onto any of the fake "bi-partisan" legislation that comes out of the Oval Office. We're not all Joe Lieberman (or Ken Salazar), after all.

Seems that with all the excitement that was here in early July, I forgot that it was something like my Fourth Blogiversary in late June. I can't believe this has been going on this long. Thanks everyone who has hung with me...

Have a virtual beer on me.

What coincidence...the day after Joey Loserman is sent swirling down the drain of losing politicians, we get another "Terror Alert" from the folks who make incompetant government employees look good. In the pantheon of color-coded Terra™ Alerts, this one is Brown for full of shit.

Yes, the Department of Homeland Cronyism has decreed that because of an alleged plot in Poodleland, no one in this country can pass through airport security carrying a cup of coffee.

"No liquids or gels. Shaving cream, shampoo, contact lens solution -- all of it has to be checked," Strum shouted to the would-be vacationers and business travelers who surrounded her. "You cannot carry any of that on. If you try to carry it on, you will be sent back."

The timing of these alerts is interesting to say the least. I wondered how long before the November elections Karl Rove would wait before ratcheting up the fear level in response to the republican's shitty poll numbers.

Oh, and a note about the utterly incompetant DHS and the TSA, didn't we spend some gazillions of dollars buying and installing "bomb sniffing" technology at all the major airports? I guess those machines were just another way for the DHS to reward whatever companies contributed to the 1600 Crew political campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Because it sure doesn't seem like there was much value for the dollar for anyone besides the manufacturers.

I guess if the TSA people can't distinguish a hot cup of just-purchased coffee from an unknown substance, what in the hell good are they? Just askin'...

Joey Lieberman announced in his graceless concession speech that he will run as an "I" independent. I use the diminutive Joey because he's acting every bit the spoiled, self-entitled, self-indulgent child that he is.

"I" because it's all about him. It's never been about what's best for his party, his country or his constituents (unless there was a payoff for Holy Joe). It's always been about "I".

If he doesn't take himself off the ballot as an independent and do what every other person who loses a primary does, accept his loss with poise and grace, then he needs to be made Persona non grata in the Democratic Party by noon tomorrow.

There's too much at stake in other races this year to be focusing on re-defeating a guy who is now taking his electoral cues from the vanity run of Ralph Nader.

Hey Hey Ho Ho,
Holy Joe has got to go!

Apparently the LieberButt Munchers are claiming that their site joe2006.com was victim of a Denial-of-Service attack because it was down. Now, Holy Joe has the media, most of whom would not know a flash drive from a flash bulb buying his story.

But wait. This might actually be a calculated move on the part of Liebemans' otherwise not-so-competant DC campaign staff.

Follow me here: ISP's usually sell their hosting plans with a fixed bandwidth allocation. Go over it, and they'll cut you some slack up to a point. Go way over it, and they'll put a message up that your site is suspended until you contact their billing/customer service department to pony up for extra bandwidth (after all, the InterTubes are not really free). Everyone who has ever bought a hosting package knows these rules going in, most ISPs want to avoid becoming another dot-bomb and enforce things like bandwidth that affect profitability.

Now, supposing as Christy over at FDL says, that the Lieberman folks knew that the 24 to 36 hours before the polls open would logically be the highest/peak usage time. So they underbuy knowing that their quotas will be pushed to the limit, before primary day, but not enough to cause problems. But in that magic window, BOOM! Out goes the site for the bandwidth qouta, and out comes a ready made explanation, it was the HaX0rz. Particularly of the Lamont variety.

Makes sense to me, and it's a perfectly untraceable "dirty trick". All you have to do is underbuy and blame Lamont for bringing down the website and you get Noron and Tweety being shrill about the mean old bloggers.

Update: apparently the Lieberdems were only ponying up $15/month for hosting. Would it have been irresponsible to speculate about the LieberLovers Asshattery? It would have been irresponsible not to.

If the Lamont campaign can get a commercial on in less that 24 hours, this ought to be meat of it: Here's the guy that Lieberman has been enabling for lo, these six years in every way possible...

You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box. And a unity government is working to respond to the will of the people.

It's well documented that Lieberman believes that everything in Mess O'Potamia is just going so well.

There won't be any "stand down as they stand up" bullshit. Come the November elections, there's going to be another "Mission Accomplished" moment with Bunnypants looking all sober (or maybe it'll be Deadeye Dick), and the keys to all the Humvees, Strykers and weapons lockers will be turned over to the militia leader who can assure that we won't have mass casualties inflicted on us enroute Baghdad International. And then Rove will blame the Democrats and American who feel that this war was in the wrong place and fought for the wrong reasons for the entire debacle.

(cue Earth, Wind and Fire)"That's the way of the world".

OMG, does Lanny Davis imagine he's talking to developmentally-challenged five year olds? The cocktail-weenie Democrats are getting muy desesperado to recast history to make Joementum not be the enabler of Beloved Leader that he is.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," meanwhile, a supporter of Mr. Lieberman, Lanny Davis, sought to explain a statement the senator made last December that Mr. Lamont's supporters have used against him. In those remarks, Mr. Lieberman said it was "time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years and that, in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

Noting that Mr. Lieberman had gone on to criticize the Bush administration's handling of the war on many occasions, Mr. Davis said on NBC that his friend had not been referring only to Democrats.

"That comment was made about exploiting the war politically," he said. "He was referring as well to Republicans, trying to use the war on terrorism for electing purposes."

Mr. Davis added, "I think if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn't have used those words."

Lieberman's only sorry that he used those words now because he's in the political fight of his life. There has been no point in the last six years where he has not backed up that assertion with both his words and his deeds from his enabling of the Bankruptcy bill to enabling the elevation of Samuel Alito the Supreme Court as a proud member of the "gang of 14", whose Democratic component is less in the vein of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and more in the mold of Neville Chamberlain and Vidkun Quisling.

Joe's Gotta Go!

Bwa-ha-ha-ha (now, how about those Yellow Elephants)?

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

(hat tip: Think Progress)

Now that even Pat Robertson is convinced (so he says) of Global Warming, perhaps we'll seen some movement in the 1600 Crew. Nah.

But seriously, how come we only get gloom and doom global warming stories...increasing hurricanes, weird El Ninos, melting ice caps, snow in South Africa, drowning polar bears. Where's all the good news, the happy news that comes on at 11 right after the stories of missing blondes, home invasions and convenience store heists?

Well, here it is:

Blistering heat was just what Sandi Fontaine needed to bake cookies for her co-workers - on the dash of her Toyota RAV4.

With temperatures soaring Wednesday, Fontaine placed two trays of cookie dough on the dashboard, shut the doors and retreated inside to her air-conditioned office.

"My husband wanted me to run some errands this morning," said Fontaine, who works at Baldwin and Clarke Corporate Finance. "I said, 'I can't. I'm baking cookies.'"

Fontaine first tested her dashboard oven three years ago. She said anyone can do it; the only requirement is for the outside temperature to be at least 95 degrees, so it will rise to about 200 degrees in the car. Temperatures in the area reached the mid- to upper 90s on Wednesday.

"Mrs. Fields has nothing on Sandi," co-worker Brian Champigny said of the cookie company.

Though Thursday was supposed to be cooler, Fontaine said she'll still enjoy the benefits of her culinary effort.

"When you open the door to that car," she said, "it's like, oh, my God. It's a wonderful smell."

From the Ned Lamont Blog comments on the Meriden (CT) cheeseburger incident.

Know the best way to keep College Republicans from showing up at an event?

Make sure there are some Army recruiters there...
- cosmo Aug 4, 12:03 AM #

Wow. Read this, almost fell out of my chair onto my fat ass. Speaking of the failed estate tax bill in the senate, Ms. Kay Bailey Hutchison:

"It is an excuse to make it a do-nothing Congress," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said. "And we are turning our back on the middle-class and poor people in this country who depend on the minimum wage and death-tax relief."

Then she asked me if I wanted fries with my MaMooby burger. I'm sure she's comforted to know that Senator Southern Hair Shellac is on the case for her.

Is this going to be another "Stand down when they stand up" moment? I mean WTF is going on with this?

The United States plans to help train and equip the Lebanese army so it can take control of all of the nation’s territory when warfare between Israel and Hezbollah eases, the State Department said Thursday.

The program was approved by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take effect "once we have conditions on the ground permitting," spokesman Sean McCormack said.

McCormack provided no details on what equipment the United States might provide, the training that would be conducted, how many U.S. personnel would be involved, or possible costs.

Would it be irresponsible to speculate about that?

It would be irresponsible not to.

Bwa ha hah hah

The White House fought the image that the president would be tuned out even temporarily to problems in the Middle East, where there was no end in sight to fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was going to the ranch during his first weekend in Texas.

"My guess is he's going to be working pretty hard," Snow said. "So this is not something where he's simply going to be gallivanting and ignoring the realities of the situation."

...not...going to be gallivanting and ignoring the realities of the situation

Woo hoo! The other poster boy for GOoPer corruption is back on the ticket for the November election! The appellate court in New Orleans is putting his name back on the ballot. So now the King of Korruption is back to do battle once more.

A federal appeals court panel on Thursday refused to let Texas Republicans replace Tom DeLay's name on the November congressional ballot.
...
While the U.S. Constitution requires a candidate to live in-state, the question is where he is residing on Election Day, not now, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

"Proof of DeLay's present residency may suggest where he will be in the future; however, it does not put the matter beyond dispute or question," the opinion said.
...
If the Republican Party chairman decides to appeal, the matter could be directed to the full appeals court or the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thomas: "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Scalia: "Wherefore and forthwith be it hereby resolved that whatever needs to be done to fight the war on Terra™ shall henceforth be done, Mr Delay will keeping you off the ballot further those ends? Then so be it!" After which he breaks into song - "Opus Dei-o, Opus Dei-o Armageddon's comin' 'n' me wanna go home!"

Alito: "Mr Delay is rich and therefore deserves whatever leeway we can give him to make a better life for himself and his family, again, I say Mr. Delay is wealthy and white, therefore I like him and rule in his favor, no matter what the question"

Roberts: "I agree with Mr Justice Alito. I like rich, conservative, corporately-connected guys and that RNC guy just doesn't call me anymore"

Kennedy: "Ah fuck it, I'm too old for this, heads he stays, tails he goes"

And so goes the Republic for repubicans.

Froomkin again:

President Bush's cheeky, newsless visit to the White House briefing room yesterday was an appropriate sendoff for a press corps that has been unable to get much if any advantage from its physical proximity to Bush's inner sanctum.
...
So there was something entirely appropriate about Bush stopping by the briefing room yesterday not to answer (or even be asked) a single substantive question -- but to insult pretty much everyone in spitting distance.
...
And when former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, famous for shouting out important questions to Ronald Reagan, asked Bush an idiotic one -- "Mr. President, should Mel Gibson be forgiven?" -- Bush responded: "Is that Sam Donaldson? Forget it. You're a has-been. We don't have to answer has-been's questions."

Even a press corps used to chuckling and guffawing at Bush's frat-boy towel-snapping responded with what the White House transcribers recorded as an "Ohhhhh!" over that one.

All in all, an appropriately ugly and useless sendoff to a room where both respect and self-respect have been in short supply.

With a few exceptions, I doubt it.

Yup, remember the Domino Theory of the hard-right cold-warriors? The one that said that if we let Ho Chi Minh win in Vietnam it would be all over of the free world? That Communisnismum would spread like a cancer and infect our lust for fast cars, cola products, poodle skirts, bomber jackets, surfing, apple pie and a peek at June Cleaver's bustline?

Well, they've done it again, the old argument is back via, no surprise, an old cold warrior. Unfortunately he's also SECDEF and one of Preznit Butt-boi's best buddies, right after Unka TeaBag.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned on Thursday against pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq prematurely, saying it would be seen as a victory by extremists who want to control a region extending beyond the Middle East.

"If we left Iraq prematurely as the terrorists demand, the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing.

"And if we left the Middle East, they'd order us and all those who don't share their militant ideology to leave what they call the occupied Muslim lands from Spain to the Philippines," he said.

Oh, wait. No, they don't. They've managed to fuck this up as badly as the Bay of Pigs.

Wow. Someone write Abazaid a citation for a Legion of Merit with an Oak Leaf Cluster for stating the blazingly obvious. Testifying on capitol hill:

The head of the U.S. Central Command on Thursday said sectarian violence in Baghdad was as bad as he has ever seen and could lead to a civil war.

"Sectarian violence probably is as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular," Army Gen. John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war."

Iraq. Civil War. Sectarian Violence. Whoda ever imagined such a thing?

Because there are no missing blondes, presidents getting head or anything else of major import happening in the World Today, Newsweek, that journalistic inbred cousin of the supermarket tabloids has decided that interviewing the author of the "Left Behind" series would be a stellar idea. See, Tim La Haye believes the rapture is imminent, and Newsweek is helping him spread the word. La Haye's charming view of the impending rapture is filled with tidbits like this:

...my understanding is that current biblical scholarship reads some of the apocalyptic scenes in the Bible as metaphorically addressing events that were taking place as the Bible was being written.
These are usually liberal theologians that don't believe the Bible literally.
...
Does this explain how living right with God, in a Christian sense, would entail supporting the Israeli state right now?
I think those two things are related. Christians who take the Bible literally are generally supportive of Israel because God promises to bless those nations that are a blessing to Israel and curse those nations that are not. And the history of America bears that out.
...
So believers in the Rapture don't necessarily foresee a damnation of the Jews then?
No, we don’t believe in the damnation of people in ethnic groups. We believe that’s an individual decision. Now, it often follows in people groups. Take the Muslims that we've been talking about. Everybody knows that they do not accept Jesus Christ as a means of salvation from sin. That's the only way you can be saved, is to call on the name of the Lord. They’re not about to do that.

I'm not worthy. I am so not worthy.

As part of his new media strategy to get out of Washington and reconnect with the voters, President Bush dined with "community leaders" Sunday night in Miami Beach.

Or so the White House wanted you to believe.
...
It was only hours after Bush had learned that an Israeli air strike had killed dozens of Lebanese children, a moment for soul-searching if there ever was one.

But what did Bush want to talk about?

Former Dolphin Jim Kiick told Steve Wine of the Associated Press that topics of conversation included movies, the 1972 Dolphins and fellow attendee and former Dolphin Dan Marino's achievements -- but little politics.
...
What's so special about the 1972 Dolphins? They were the only team ever to have a perfect season in the history of the National Football League. Bush's record isn't quite so good.

And where was Bush himself during that 1972 season? No one really knows.

The 17-game Dolphins winning streak extended from September to December 1972. Bush was suspended from flight status in the Texas Air National Guard in August 1972 after failing to take his required annual flight physical. During that 1972 Dolphins season, he had supposedly transferred to an Alabama guard unit. But available records and recollection of guard members who were there at the time suggest he didn't show up.

SSDD.

Dan Froomkin ROCKS!

1. Reprise
   
2. An ideal American! (according to, well, Rumsfeld)
   
3. Katherine the Self-Destructing
   
4. All John Mark Karr all the time
   
5. Wankerism
   
6. Christofascists to the Rescue! (Operation Rescue, that is)
   
7. McCain's Ramp Strike
   
8. Alrighty, then...
   
9. Sign Zee Paper...
   
10. Bobo Democracy