I know that it's wrong to laugh at the ignorant (when has that ever stopped me before?). But this is the closing line in an email I got from someone who needs me to most urgently log in to my account via a URL they provided in their email.

*Important*
Please update your records on or before 48 hours, a failure to update your records will result in a temporal hold on your funds.

Amazing. As mean as it is to say this, I am just waiting for the next round of emails from the Nigerian scammers who lost incredibly wealthy relatives in that plane crash the other day. I feel sure that most everyone onboard from the guy in row one to the last row was probably worth no less than 15 million dollars.

Just send me your bank account information, and I'll tell you how I know... :-)

Amazingly, the Corpse that is Lieberman 4 Lieberman is still behaving like the beaten zombie that it is... and his campaign manager, Dangerstein writes letters. There was even a laff line in his letter to the New York Times extolling Holier-than-Thou Joe's many accomplishments, to wit:

Conducted a tough, exhaustive investigation of the Bush Administration’s failures in responding to Katrina, which led to the passage of a comprehensive FEMA reform bill.

It appears, then, that Mike Brown suffered 42 breathtaking minutes of serious nothingness (unless Lieberman's withering questioning regarding whether Brown would sufficiently keep the Senate informed --- duh,yes) to become Deputy Director of FEMA. When FEMA was, just a few months later, subsumed into DHS, Brown didn't need to be Senate confirmed as his new position -- technically as Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response -- was "germane" to his old position. Guess that's true. But it means that the four Senators who showed up to confirm a deputy director were, in fact, confirming the head of America's entire emergency management apparatus.

Joe Lieberman needs to go. I hope Ned takes him.

Gilliard has a post up today aptly titled "Fuck Zakaria", and I feel that making a few more points about the excreble Mssr. Zakaria are in order.

Apparently Zakaria, as a columnist for Newsweek and a huge supporter of the invasion of Iraq was also a part of a group of folks known as "Bletchley II". Again these dimwitted fucks adopted something from WW Second to make themselves feel that they were part of something "real" in their international game of Risk and being double-naught spies.

Bletchley II was an ultra-secret group assembled by one the NeoCon True Believers of other NeoCon True Believers from various think tanks (well, mostly AEI) who provided "deep thoughts" about the rationale and methodology for convincing the country that we needed to go to war with Saddam. From "State of Denial":

The US government. especially the Pentagon, is incapable of producing the kind of ideas and strategy needed to deal with a crisis of the magnitude of 9/11, Wolfowitz told DeMuth*. He needed to reach outside to tackle the biggest questions. Who are the terrorists? Where did this come from? How does it relate to Islamic history, the history of the Middle East, and contemporary Middle East tension? What are we up against here?

Wolfowitz said he was thinking along the lines of Bletchley Park, the team of mathematicians and cryptologists the British set up during WWII to break the ULTRA German communications code. Could DeMuth quickly put together a skilled group to produce a report for the president, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice and Tenet?
...
DeMuth recruited a dozen people. He later said they agreed to serve only "if I promised it would all be kept secret."

Included in the group were Bernard Lewis, a Cheney favorite and a scholar of Islam who had written extensively on Middle Eastern tensions with the West; Mark Palmer a former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary who specialized in dictatorships; Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International; Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at SAIS; James Q. Wilson, a professor and specialist in human morality and crime; and Ruel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Middle East expert. Rumsfeld assigned his consultant and general fix-it man Steve Herbits, to participate. Herbits, who had devised the original idea and encouraged Wolfowitz to push it, called the group "Bletchley II."
...
"The general analysis was that Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers came from, were the key, but the problems there are intractable..."
...
"Saddam Hussein was different, weaker, more vulnerable. DeMuth said they had concluded that "Baathism is an Arab form of fascism transplanted to Iraq."
...
"We concluded that a confrontation with Saddam was inevitable. He was a gathering threat - the most menacing, active, and unavoidable threat. We agreed that Saddam would have to leave the scene before the problem would be addressed." That was the only way to transform the region.

Copies of the memo, straight from the Neoconservative Playbook, were hand-delivered to the war cabinet members. In some cases, it was given a SECRET classification. Cheney was pleased with the memo, and it had a strong impact on President Bush, causing him to focus on the "malignancy" of the Middle East. Rice found it "very, very persuasive."
...
...Summarizing their conclusions, Herbits said, "We're facing a two-generation war. And start with Iraq."

Zakaria's latest tripe is pretty much deconstructed by Gilliards poster over at Gilliards blog. Suffice it to say that anything that Zakaria writes should be taken with not just a grain of salt, but a dump-truck load of salt. He's crossed the line once, in my opinion, between Journalist and Genocide Enabler by his rah-rah cheerleading of the war he helped rationalize. If he wants to play "think tank" twit, fine, but he should not be writing anything for Newsweek or any other publication without disclosing up front that he's responsible in no small way for the conclusions that led to the rationale for the fucking mistake that is Iraq.

*"State of Denial" pp 83-85

Well, whod'a thunk it?

A Halliburton subsidiary that has been subjected to numerous investigations for billions of dollars in contracts it received for work in Iraq has systematically misused federal rules to withhold basic information on its practices from American officials, a federal oversight agency said yesterday.
...
Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform and was one of the earliest critics of KBR's use of the proprietary label, said the new memo showed how the company had tried to conceal "corporate profiteering during wartime."

Yeah, you go Henry. On November 8th, it's all you!

You know, here's a story from the New York Times that pretty much summarizes why November 7th is so important. The first two grafs...

Frustrated with laws and regulations that have made companies and accounting firms more open to lawsuits from investors and the government, corporate America - with the encouragement of the Bush administration - is preparing to fight back.

Now that corruption cases like Enron and WorldCom are falling out of the news, two influential industry groups with close ties to administration officials are hoping to swing the regulatory pendulum in the opposite direction. The groups are drafting proposals to provide broad new protections to corporations and accounting firms from criminal cases brought by federal and state prosecutors as well as a stronger shield against civil lawsuits from investors.

So yeah, sure. Make businesses absolutely immune from criminal prosecution and civil litigation. What a great (and ultimately) republican idea! Shielding companies from federal and state prosecution for malfeasance! What a concept!

Notice that it's a plan being encouraged and espoused by none other than the 1600 Crew. I guess that after MBNA got their bankruptcy bill with the help of MBNA Joe Biden, these other guys figure that they have no real problems getting absolute immunity from Congress with the help of Beloved Leader. Let's see how long it will be before he starts making speeches (to selected audiences) about how not passing this legislation will drastically affect the competitiveness of American Business because they are soooo overburdened with you know, having to watch their asses and do the right thing.

The only thing keeping most companies from selling sub-standard shit are (1) some vestige of market forces, but mostly (2) fear of being sued and/or prosecuted. Yeah, those "voluntary" measures work oh-so-well, don't they?

Is this just funny (not in that humorous TBogg way, but in that sad, pathetic way) or am I missing something?

President Bush, campaigning aggressively ahead of the high-stakes Nov. 7 elections, said Saturday Democrats should not be trusted to control Congress because they have no idea how to win in Iraq.

Did he have a phone call from GAWD last night?

It's finally time for Jim Webb and the other veterans who have served honorably and valiantly, whether it was counting blivets or winning the Navy Cross to finally start pointing out the fact that their opponents who avoided Military Service are fucking loathsome human beings, and one of the reasons is that they (the opponent) avoided Military Service, usually with every fiber of their being. (See: Five Deferments Dick)

They are not always completely loathsome for having avoided service, but for thinking that their brand of self-serving patriotism somehow gives them license to attack Vets of any stripe. And if, in the process of pointing out these loathsome, self-serving pricks are well, just that, it comes out that they are dickless, self-indulgent cowards, well so be it.

No more swiftboating. No. More. I am sick of watching men and women who served honorably having to tip-toe around their opponents choice to not perform military service, when their Chickenhawk/Yellow Elephant opponents seem to have no compunction at smearing them for anything that they think will give them an advantage, especially based on military service, or any related facts.

Another JACKabramOFF-ette bites the proverbial dust. David Safavian, another ethically challenged crony-appointment to the GSA is going away for 18 months in another Abramoff conviction. Geez, these guys can start their own white-collar prison gang...

A federal judge yesterday sentenced David H. Safavian, a former top Bush administration official, to 18 months in prison for lying and concealing unethical dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
...
"Did he believe in public service? I guess he did," Friedman said. "But he also wanted someday to join Mr. Abramoff in that lucrative lobbying business."
...
Safavian, 39, a former chief of staff for the General Services Administration, wept as he told Friedman that he knows now he never should have given Abramoff inside information about government-owned real estate that the lobbyist wanted to acquire. At the time, Safavian said, he thought what he was doing was innocuous. "I didn't see anything wrong in helping Jack," he said.
...
Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's attorney, urged leniency, telling Friedman that Safavian exhibited an ethical "blind spot" in his dealings with the brazen and flashy Abramoff. "He may have been blinded, dazzled," she said, but his wrongdoing with Abramoff was "isolated, not a man beginning a life of crime."

Not a drop of sympathy for this man from me. Had he not gotten caught, he'd have continued to play the game, and moved on to being in the same league as his buddy, Jack. Buying and Selling CongressCriminals and their favors for fun and mostly profit.

I just want to know how stupid he thought the judge was to testify that paying $3,100 dollars for a week at St. Andrews in Scotland was "fair market value". Incredible.

All the content from the 7th to today is gone. There was a server crash at my hosting company and they could only restore up to the 6th of October.

So, all that wit and wisdom is lost for all time. [/snark off]

Apparently my hosting company must have had a server problem, and much of my recent content has vanished. (I hope there's a back-up).

More later (I hope).

Jo

Has-tert-ism: DEF: Doing something by doing nothing at all. A reference to the moribund GOP speaker of the house whose contribution to Late 20th and Early 21st century politics was to do nothing and claim he was doing something or vice-versa. See also: Mark Foley and "blame the victims".

Example:

The House ethics committee launched a wide-ranging investigation into Congress's handling of information about a Florida lawmaker and teenage pages yesterday, as Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) vowed to keep his job, saying, "I haven't done anything wrong."

See how it works? It's so Grand Old Pervert.

Krauthammer is an idiot. Perhaps a day or less (because that's how long he'd last) in "Bush's Democracy" eg the non-Green Zone regions of Iraq might cause him to rethink his "de-spinning of the recent NIE.

But then, he'd never live long enough to write anything other than "Aieeeee...mommmy help me!", once the Sunni's found out he's connected to the NeoCons who cost them their power, or the Shia just whacked him for not being Muslim in a No-Infidel Zone.

Well, there he goes again...

President Bush tried to drown out political anxieties about war and sex Wednesday by sounding alarm bells on national security and urging people to "vote Republican for the safety" of the country.
...
New polls show Americans are increasingly unhappy with Bush's leadership and the war in Iraq. ...

"If the other bunch gets elected, they're going to raise your taxes,"

"If you want to make sure those on the front line of protecting you have the tools necessary to do so, you vote Republican for the safety of the United States of America,"

And then the patented Bunnypants Crocodile Tears come out...

At the Beauprez fundraiser, Bush mourned the death of 16-year-old Emily Keyes, a Colorado student killed by a gunman who stormed her school and took six girls hostage. Bush said he hoped the federal government can find ways to help the community recover during a conference next Tuesday in Washington.

Even the most thickheaded kool-aid drinkers are starting to break that code. When has Karl ordered the airstrikes on Tehran to start?

*Because I just can't bring myself to call it "Page-gate".

Oh, the gift that just keeps on giving .... Mark Foley and Katherine Harris. Maybe they should hook-up together in November and take a vacation together somewhere where the staff is used to entertaining Bat-shit crazy people.

"The media are being quite disingenous to make it a partisan issue. If anything, the Republicans didn't know about these issues and we're going to be very anxious to find out who in the media and on the other side of the aisle knew this and kept it from the public interest as our children were at stake…"

It seems that Ms. Harris, a recipient of the largesse of "Duke" Cunninghams tutelage in the fine art of graft and corruption is still trying to find her way back into the good graces of the Grand Old Perverts.

When Charlie Crist won Florida's gubernatorial primary, the Republican National Committee dashed off a note of congratulations and posted it on the party Web site.
...
Mehlman did the same for 10 other GOP congressional and gubernatorial candidates. But U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, once a rising Republican star, got nothing.

In fact, her victory in the Senate primary wasn't mentioned by the RNC or the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

I have three words for the republican party about that..."Never Gonna Happen". People like Harris stay around long after the party ends to see if there was some good food or wine you were keeping for yourself, or to regale you with stories of their maladies, children's mediocre accomplishments or life tragedies. She's yours. Enjoy her, we do.

Bunnypants doing his best to forestall a Congress that may want actual answers from him...

President Bush ratcheted up his campaign offensive against Democrats on Tuesday with perhaps his bluntest rhetoric yet as he accused them of being "softer" on terrorists and willing to allow attacks on Americans rather than interrogate or spy on the nation's enemies.

Bush's language, though, characterizes Democratic positions through his own prism. Critics of the surveillance program have not argued against listening to terrorist phone calls but say the government should get warrants from a secret intelligence court. Likewise, many critics of the tribunal measure did not oppose interrogating prisoners generally, as Bush said, but specific provisions of the bill, such as denying the right of habeas corpus or giving the president freedom to authorize what they consider torture.

Bush again remarked that it seems "like an eternity" since December elections in Iraq but predicted that "when this chapter of history will be written . . . it's going to be a comma -- the Iraqis voted, comma, and the United States of America understood that Iraq was a central front in the war on terror and helped this young democracy flourish."

Oh, and I guess it's too impolite to ask his Royal Horses Assedness about that little mess in Afghanistan? Yeah, because then he'd be riding Denial again, in a boat with out a paddle.

The immigrant/migrant worker population in the Western US has long been one of the things that, IMHO, has kept some prices for produce at pretty low levels, relatively speaking. It's going to be interesting to see how long-term price increases, and the potential failure of agricultural industries are going to affect a desire for the "immigration reform" in the US. It's always been a republican virtue to pick on the weak and defenseless, instead of standing up for everyone. I wonder how it will ultimately play out when tomatoes are $9 a pound?

Bins of Granny Smith apples towered over two conveyor belts at P-R Farms' packing plant. But only one belt moved. P-R Farms, like farms up and down California and across the nation, does not have enough workers to process its fruit.

"We're short by 50 to 75 people," said Pat Ricchiuti, 59, the third-generation owner of P-R Farms. "For the last three weeks, we're running at 50 percent capacity. We saw this coming a couple years ago, but last year and this year has really been terrible."
...
Other industries that depend on immigrant labor, such as landscaping and construction, "are also concerned about the overall availability of labor given demographic trends," he said, adding: "But agriculture is the warning sign, if you will, of structural changes in the economy."

The problem is now reaching crisis proportions, food growers say. As much as 30 percent of the year's pear crop was lost in Northern California, growers estimate. ...

Clearly the "immigration reform" agenda was another facet of the 1600 Crew "All Fear, All the Time" agenda. Interestingly, it looks like another failure to be added to the legacy of the incredibly incompetant failure that Karl Rove has gotten into the Oval Office twice. It's only a matter of time before the republican war on the middle class provides all the agricultural labor needed ... for Mexico and California.

W*M is going to a more part-time workforce to be more "flexible"...
Yeah, as if...IMHO they're doing it to avoid getting stuck with having to pay health benefits, among other things.

To some extent, Wal-Mart is simply doing what business strategists recommend: deploying workers more effectively to meet the peaks and valleys of business in their stores. Wall Street, which has put pressure on Wal-Mart to raise its stock price, has endorsed the strategy, with analysts praising the new approach to managing its workers. In the last three years, the stock price has fallen about 10 percent, closing at $49.32 a share on Friday.

It's going to be interesting to see if W*M leads the way back to unionization. They ferociously cut stores out of communities that look like targets for unions, but how many times can they do that and remain economicaly viable? At some point it's going to have be about ensuring a fair return for shareholders and a living wage for the employees who generate the revenue that allows the shareholders to enjoy Beloved Leader's Tax Cuts.

An interesting story on 'My-Lai' Powell, the man of a thousand (or more) lies. Apparently Powell's inclusion in the 1600 Crew was because it was a foregone conclusion that as a faithful retainer and lackey of Bush 41 he'd lend some gravitas to the administration of Preznit No Cattle.

That Powell sold his reputation for slightly more than the hookers in Northwest Washington, and ended up with less self-respect is a matter for historians to debate 100 years from now. I don't buy Powell's assertion that a good officer always gives a "Cheery Aye-Aye and Three Bags Full, Sir" and marches off a cliff, as Powell seems to assert.

...He had been purposely cut out of major foreign policy decisions more than once, and his advice often had gone unheeded or been only grudgingly accepted by the president. Why hadn't he resigned?

The easy answer had the virtue of truth: Soldiers didn't quit when they disagreed with the decisions of their commanders. The fact that he had been out of uniform for nearly a decade was irrelevant to Powell; he would be a soldier until he drew his last breath.

Powell was handed literally pounds of crap by the White House political machine and told to make a golden table out of it to support the Preznit's rationale for going to war against Hussein and instead of acting like an Officer and calling bullshit, he acted like the four-star politician he was went along. Now he's all remorseful, yeah that works. So how many villagers died in My Lai, Major Powell?

His ignominious dismissal from the service of the family who found an articulate, popular African-American to be a convenient front man for their schemes is fitting.

When Powell saw the January 13 appointment on his calendar, his staff told him they assumed it was a goodbye photo opportunity with Bush. They suggested that perhaps he should bring his family.

"We've got a houseful of pictures," Powell replied dryly. Was he supposed to talk to the president? Or was the president supposed to talk to him?

"Am I supposed to say: 'This is what I think?' Or what?"

He didn't have to say anything, he was told. It was just a "farewell call."
...
The appointed time found Powell already in the Oval Office for a routine meeting; when it concluded, he lingered as the others left. As Powell later remembered it, Bush seemed puzzled and called after his departing chief of staff, "Where you going, Andy?"

"Mr. President, I think this is supposed to be our farewell call," Powell prompted.

"Is that why Condi ain't here?" he recalled the president asking.

That was probably the reason, Powell replied.

Card walked back inside, and the three men sat down. Powell had already decided to use the opportunity -- likely his last as secretary of state -- to unload.
...
...Bush dismissed his concern. It wasn't any worse, he said, than the legendary battles between State and Defense during the Reagan administration.

The session ended with a cordial handshake, and the secretary returned to the State Department. "That was really strange," he reported to Wilkerson. "The president didn't know why I was there."

Colin Powell has to live with himself for the destruction and long-term effects of the war in Iraq. Had he chosen not to play the "good soldier", public opinion about the need to go into Iraq might never have been so strong. He can't say he was "working for change from the inside", clearly he knew he had virtually no clout against Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the NeoCon Cabal, so the reponsibility is his alone. He had the reputation to put a stop to it, but chose not to excercise it. Another of history's would-a beens ... he would-a been great, but chose to sit by and watch his country make a huge error.

Our loss.

You know, with the Personal Responsibility republicans running everything you have to wonder how many of them with ties to brokerages, oh, I don't know say through their 'K' Street buddies might have shorted some of the stocks of the on-line gaming firms. Be interesting to know how many of their wives, kids or dogs had shorted these firms, on margin, of course.

Anti-gambling laws unexpectedly passed by legislators in the United States threaten to cripple online gaming businesses and will send their shares into freefall today.

Now I need to get up off the floor from laughing so hard...

It's kind of sad (but no it really doesn't bother me) that the downfall of the congressional republicans won't be because of their utter malfeasance in running the nation into massive generational debt, or allowing the executive to create a near-dictatorship, or ceding virtually their entire function to a few well-paid, highly influential money changers...it'll be the politician caught not-quite in-bed with a live boy.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week.

Hastert did not dispute the claims of Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and his office confirmed that some of Hastert's top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the boy and to treat all pages respectfully.
...
Republicans appeared to have kept the matter under wraps. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (Mich.), the only Democrat on the House Page Board, said yesterday: "I was never informed of the allegations about Mr. Foley's inappropriate communications with a House page, and I was never involved in any inquiry into this matter."

You have to wonder given the "Jefferson" precedent whether they'd be able to search Foley's computers at home and his (former) office for "interesting" pictures and information. I seriously doubt he's smart enough to know how to delete stuff so that it stays deleted. Most users just think that erasing a file is the end of it.

"As the author of laws designed to protect children on the Internet, I was appalled at the recent revelations that a member of Congress engaged in reprehensible behavior toward young people connected to the congressional page program," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). "Congress should thoroughly investigate this matter and, in cooperation with law enforcement authorities, support all proper legal action."

Hey, welcome this guy to the good fight. He's a retired SF officer and writes in the informed and intelligent style of Jeff Huber.

Check him out. Bookmark him. Read him daily.

Oh Great. Well, it was only a matter of time before another member of the Tricky Dick cabal surfaced as a prime mover in the Mess O'Potamian machinations...

A powerful, largely invisible influence on Bush's Iraq policy was former secretary of state Kissinger.
...
The president also met privately with Kissinger every couple of months, making him the most regular and frequent outside adviser to Bush on foreign affairs.

Kissinger sensed wobbliness everywhere on Iraq, and he increasingly saw it through the prism of the Vietnam War. For Kissinger, the overriding lesson of Vietnam is to stick it out.
...
"The president can't be talking about troop reductions as a centerpiece," Kissinger said. "You may want to reduce troops," but troop reduction should not be the objective. "This is not where you put the emphasis."

To emphasize his point, he gave Gerson a copy of a memo he had written to President Richard M. Nixon, dated Sept. 10, 1969.

"Withdrawal of U.S. troops will become like salted peanuts to the American public; the more U.S. troops come home, the more will be demanded," he wrote.

Knowing that Henry the K has been an architect of this fucking mess has to give more than one staunch republican with a half a brain a pause in their day.

It seems that the Nixon crew wanted a do-over on Vietnam and found an empty suit with a bad attitude to accommodate their desires. I wonder how long it will be before the rational republicans finally come to their senses and take back their party? Short answer: not any time soon... how sad.

1. So Stupid
   
2. Fuck Dangerstein
   
3. Fareed Zakaria
   
4. A shocker! (Not!)
   
5. Why we have to win
   
6. Unintentional funny?
   
7. Jim Webb
   
8. Yeah, baby!
   
9. Gone
   
10. Something's wrong here