Saturday, September 29, 2007

Saturday whorage

The first couple chapters of my novel Thirty Days at Zeta are up at The Practical Press.

As always, pimp your own in comments.

Nature's gentle reminder...

Click to embiggen


Got plenty of nuts stored up?

And what did you wake up to this morning?

Friday, September 28, 2007

Blackwater caused many Marine casualties

Hammerin' Hank's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform faults Blackwater for the Fallujah ambush that left four mercs as hangin' crispy critters and ultimately caused the deaths and woundings of many Marines in the first and second battles of Fallujah in '04.

The details of the events leading to the incident are disturbing, revealing an unprepared and disorderly organization operating in a hostile environment. Mistake apparently compounded mistake. [...]

And from Left I on the News:

Blackwater USA triggered a major battle in the Iraq war in 2004 by sending an unprepared team of guards into an insurgent stronghold, a move that led to their horrific deaths and a violent response by U.S. forces, says a congressional investigation released Thursday.

Not only are these un-oversighted mercs trigger-happy and not accountable for their actions, they're also incompetent. I believe in the magic of superior firepower as much as any Marine, but planning is basic and necessary to try to minimize casualties.

Recently I read No True Glory by Bing West, that detailed the two battles for Fallujah that were precipitated by the dumb-ass mercs. I highly recommend this book. The Marines had just about cleaned the city out when they were called off by Baghdad and Washington for political reasons, which let the insurgents re-arm and solidify so that the Jarheads had to go back in a few months later and do it all over again.

I don't give a shit if the mercs get their asses in a crack and get them blown off. They know the score and they get a lot of money to do what they do. They're making a pile by making a failed policy fail even more. Fuck them.

What I do give a shit about is that regular ol' underpaid actual soldiers and Marines had to go in and get their asses blown away in response to the stupid mercs' actions.

Why didn't big brave Blackwater go into Fallujah and avenge their own? Because they might get shot back at instead of just blowing away unarmed people?

It's a lot more complicated than that, but the mercs pretty much asked to get blown away, and they did. The Marine offensive was a political response from on high, sort of telling the insurgents, "You can't do that to the employees of big Repuglicant contributors without repercussions. We got real fighting men who'll see to that!"

Deep Dick Dark Secrets

Salt Lake Tribune

Vice President Dick Cheney will speak to a super-secret, conservative policy group in Utah on Friday during his second trip to the state this year.

"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before [or] after a meeting,'' a list of rules obtained by The Times showed. The group did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The 'elite' meeting to fuck the rest of us over, as usual.

I hope the 'secret location' leaks out. We could call in a fire mission and get 'em all with one round while they're all bunched up. Ah, to dream...

The war on voting rights continues

Glenn W. Smith with today's 'must read' on easy credit cards and difficult voter registration:

Posner is an outspoken advocate for "elite democracy." Issues are too complex for Americans to deal with, and so it is necessary that key decisions be made by a select few. Voting, Posner says, is good to have as a possible corrective on elites if they should get carried away with their power. But it is not important, Posner says, that many Americans participate in American political life.

These power-mad right-wingers, so different from the individualistic, Barry Goldwater conservatives of old, really do believe themselves to be our anointed strict fathers. No other authority approaches their own, at home or abroad. That is why attacks on voting rights are not so different from the Bush doctrine of pre-emption. No other world leader is Bush's equal; therefore in the eyes of these elites, we are not one of many sovereign nations, we are the only sovereign nation. With regard to voting rights, since we are supposed to do what we are told by our authoritarian leaders, how could it matter to us whether or not we have unobstructed access to the ballot box?

We are no longer sovereign individuals. That term is reserved for the conservative elite, just as the term sovereign nation is reserved for only one country, the country these elite believe they embody and rule.

I suppose it is easier to believe that attacks on voting rights are just partisan squabbling, that Bush is just another conservative, that an imagined ever-swinging pendulum will swing back one day. That democracy can thrive without an effort, like the moon circling the earth.

There is no pendulum. There is only us. And if we don't save democracy, no one will. God help us if the Supreme Court should agree with Posner that barriers to the ballot box are no big deal. They've already stolen one election from us. Now they have the opportunity to steal all future elections in a single ruling.

They for damn sure will if we let them.

The great American hypocrisy tour

Mark Morford's in rare form today! Don't miss it!

Larry Craig's bathroom stall! Haggard's meth hotel! See all the sites of GOP shame. Fun for kids!

[...] Love the idea of a crazy road trip across our fine 'n' scandalous land, one in which you get a real taste of just what kind of crow the local politicos get to eat for breakfast?

Well, search no more, good patriot. Your adventure travel package has arrived.

But who cares? Because it's the latest craze in domestic tourism, specially designed for happy cynics and satirists and fatalists and contrarians and atheists and liberals alike, all you savvy fans of "The Daily Show" and DailyKos and the New Republic and the Nation and pretty much anyone who finds delight in learning of yet another bitter BushCo conservative caught with his hands in the tacky polyester pants of his fellow countrymen. Best of all, it's totally free!*

(*Note: does not include additional costs of food, gas, oil, environmental devastation, condoms, souvenir baggies of crystal meth, cocaine, Viagra, hookers, STD meds, or the sad and savage toll on any happy or optimistic outlook you may have deluded yourself into believing actually exists on this planet.)

Itinerary follows.

(*Note: snorting of meth not allowed on tour bus, unless you're really quiet and do it in the back. That means you, Mr. Romney.)

Please note, the options listed here are merely the beginning. Call us in advance, and we will happily customize your trip to your exact specifications. Feel free to mix and match your desired tour stops from our enormous master list of suspected/convicted Republican pedophiles, adulterers, drug users, johns, felons, bribers, sodomizers, deviants, closeted homosexuals, and deadbeat dads who have besotted the "family values" party for the past, well, pretty much forever.

To hell with Hawaii and Disneyland this year, and take the kids on a trip of a lifetime. What are you waiting for? Book your vacation before Christmas and get a free framed copy of the marriage license confirming Jerry Falwell's secret gay marriage to Pat Robertson! Call now!

Well, not exactly my dream vacation (or 'cruise' you might say. Heh.), but definitely a hoot to read about. It's hard to imagine having enough vacation time to see all the sites (sights?) of hypocritical Repug 'doings', so this may appeal more to retired folks.

Condemnation much?

Iraq vet and Dem Rep Patrick Murphy on Rush Lintball from TPM:

"Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do. I served proudly, so did two of my fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne who spoke out and died just weeks ago. Generations of American veterans have worn the uniform with pride and we know it is no contradiction to serve your country and still disagree with the Bush-civilian leadership that mismanaged this war."


Any resolutions coming down the pike to condemn this asshole's verbal diarrhea? Yeah, thought so.

For those of you who don't know (understandable because I try to avoid Lintball's wet verbal shits too), ol' Rush declared soldiers who speak against the war to be "phony soldiers".

I wonder if Armed Forces Radio will continue to allow him to broadcast to the troops in Iraq? Does the Pentagon allow this nitwit who never served disrespect a goodly portion of the people in uniform over there, gallantly serving? Will the same people who were "outraged" by the "attack" on Gen. Petraeus be just as outraged by the disrespect of the grunts?

It would seem to me the "phony soldiers" are the ones who are making a hundred grand a year to indiscriminately kill innocent Iraqi civilians, hampering what little opportunity our guys have to maybe bring about peace.

The "phony soldiers" are those like our President, who feels compelled to dress up in military garb when he uses the troops a props but couldn't put up when it counted. When he wore the uniform, he couldn't wait to get out of it, even though he served stateside and would never see combat, not in a front line unit during Vietnam.

The "phony soldiers" are the ones sitting behind their computers, of enlistment age and able-bodied, cheering for war with no intention of ever serving even though some their friends and neighbors are on their fourth tour of the meatgrinder.

The "phony soldiers" are the flag officers who put their careers and egos ahead of the people in the trenches. The ones who went along with whatever Bush wanted, who sat back when they knew what the consequences of attacking Iraq would be. Cheney knew it in '92, Bush 41 knew it before the balloon went up on Gulf 1, and you can't tell me the admirals and generals didn't know in '02 when we began this folly.

So, dear congresspeople and senators, do we condemn Rush Limbaugh for disrespecting the troops or do we let him slide because, well you know, those soldiers who would stand up and criticize are ... phony.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Your Republican ticket

Playing to the base in '08. Heh ...



Pic courtesy of Dr. Attaturk.

Much as I bitch about the Dems ...

They are still head and shoulders above the Rethugs. Shakes:

This would be one example of why, despite our many legitimate grievances with the Democrats, there is still an essential difference between the two parties. The Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act would never have passed (or probably even been brought up for a vote) under Republican leadership.

...

Defense stocks hit new highs

Boston Herald

Defense stocks on Wednesday hit new highs as Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested an extra $42 billion in funding from Congress to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

The AMEX Defense Index, which tracks 14 major defense company stocks, rose 14.25 to a high of 1,686.72 in afternoon trading. Since last year, the index has risen roughly 47 percent, outperforming the broader S&P 500 index, which has climbed nearly 15 percent over the same period.

Although the anticipated request for more funding does not come as a surprise to Wall Street, the Pentagon’s message nevertheless reinforces the idea that defense spending will remain high in the near-term, said Myles Walton, a CIBC World Market Corp. analyst.

The Military/Industrial Complex is doing well. The rich are getting richer from the war crimes paid for with our grandchildren's money. Mission accomplished. Bastards.

Can't Win with 'Em, Can't Go To War without 'Em

The Brookings Institution has a report on outsourcing security to private military 'contractors'. Good read.

The use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq. Even worse, it has created a dependency syndrome on the private marketplace that not merely creates critical vulnerabilities, but shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction. If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to private military contractors and counterinsurgency, the U.S. has locked itself into a vicious cycle. It can't win with them, but can't go to war without them.

The study explores how the current use of private military contractors:

Several.

Inflames popular opinion against, rather than for, the American mission through operational practices that ignore the fundamental lessons of counterinsurgency. As one set of contractors described. "Our mission is to protect the principal at all costs. If that means pissing off the Iraqis, too bad."

Weakened American efforts in the "war of ideas" both inside Iraq and beyond. As one Iraqi government official explained even before the recent shootings. "They are part of the reason for all the hatred that is directed at Americans, because people don't know them as Blackwater, they know them only as Americans. They are planting hatred, because of these irresponsible acts."

Shorter: The mercs are hurting rather than helping the situation, not that there's much that can help anyway. No oversight, no accountability, no enforcement, not subject to any law. and at terrific expense.

Who was the fuckin' idiot that started this shit, anyway? My guess is Bremer and Rumsfeld. It's still Bush's fault.

Never Coming Home

Someone ought to tie Bush to a chair and run this for him in an endless loop:

Iraq War: Love and Personal Loss

A slide show of photographs. You won’t come away with dry eyes.

JG.

Cross posted at: Jersey Guy

Checkpoints ...

Trudeau gets it.


Click to embiggen.


This probably looks familiar to the Vietnam guys too.

Vets' care ...

Or the lack thereof. X finds that, even after all the Walter Reed hubbub, vets' care, you know, the guys who gave limbs, minds, and other body parts for this country, is still severely lacking.

...

The AP reports that staff shortages mean that nearly half of returning wounded veterans who are eligible for treatment don't receive any. Delays of 177 days or more for disability payments still persist. And the continued lack of a viable system for transferring medical records from facility to facility means further delays in treatment.

...


Now the Chimp wants another $190bln to continue what is nothing more than a delaying action. How many more lives for this war that should have been defunded this past spring? How much more money to this war that does nothing but kill and maim Americans who can't even get timely care after making the ultimate sacrifices for this uncaring administration? Is there anyone in a position of power who can say 'enough is enough'? Seems like there ain't.

Supportin' the troops. Yeah, right ...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Burning the troops

Click to Surge

The War Party

Matt Taibbi rakes the Repug candidates over the coals. An 'enjoyable read'.

[...] In other words, who cares about Iraq when you might get raped by a Mexican busboy?

In the face of the awesome political catastrophe that has befallen the Republican Party in the form of George W. Bush, the response of its new leaders has not been to re-examine their perverted values, their vicious tactics or even their position on Bush's singularly idiotic and supremely characteristic policy mistake, the Iraq War. Instead, the party is closing its eyes and trying, Dorothy-like, to wish its way back to Kansas, back to the good old days of mean-spirited, blame-the-darkies politics of Newt Gingrich, a time when electoral blowouts could be won by offering frightened Americans a chance to pull a lever against gays, atheists and the collective rest of onrushing modern reality.

If this were ten years ago, when America was safely suckling on the Internet bubble and restricting its overseas dabbling to military exhibition games like Kosovo, this back-to-the-good-old-days bullshit would be mere vileness. But thanks to the GOP's excellent leader, Mr. Bush, America is no longer in any position to hide from reality. We are now fully and catastrophically engaged in reality. And reality is kicking our ass, in Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere else in this world that hates us more and more with each and every passing day. The party's response is to blow that off, pretend it's not happening. Six years after 9/11, Bush's would-be replacements are still reading My Pet Goat. Their solution to the Iraq dilemma is to keep talking tough, as if our kids were not getting arms shot off from Basra to Tal Afar, as if bin Laden weren't still scoring record recruiting numbers in between bong hits on Al Jazeera.

[...] That's the best-case scenario for the Republican Party at the moment. First they screwed up, sending thousands of Americans to their deaths. Then they refused to apologize. And now they're going to pay.


Not enough.

My Bidet B'day

I got this birthday card from my friend Bev, who's one day younger than I am:

Clicking will reveal a load. Of inner beauty

Inside says "...ain't for sissies". No shit. The beauty is if you wanna ride around on a pink bicycle, you may. Or a moped or a pot-bellied pig. Fuck it, yer on the downslope, why give a rat's ass what anybody else thinks?

Today is also the earliest possible date for me to be eligible for the Gummint Rockin' Chair Money, which I have applied for and will start rollin' in soon. You kids keep workin'! Also, respect yer elders whilst yer out there snappin' yer whippers.

Besides being a day upon which the Lord shone on the Earth with my birth, many other notables share my natal day and many interesting things have happened. it is also "Whatdafuck? Day" on Easyriders calendar and the Full Harvest Moon, which I will (hopefully) not try to replicate tonight at dinner at Lanza's.

STOP Lieberman

USalone

In case you thought it was just an aberrant moment of lunacy last week when Lieberman pressed General Petraeus for an attack on Iran, just before the weekend he introduced an amendment to the defense bill to authorize exactly that.

No, we are not kidding. He has drafted language that any impartial observer would interpret as a DECLARATION OF WAR against Iran, and he is pressing for a vote as fast as possible.

Go read the language of the amendment and send a message to Stop Lieberman From SNEAKING An Iran War Declaration Through The Senate.

Update:

It passed.

By a vote 76-22, the Senate passed the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran via “military instruments.” Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment “Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and said it could “read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action.”

Also a list of the Senators who voted against it.

Do they think giving The Dick that kind of leeway means he won't use it? Idjits.

Insulting ...

Mrs. F and I talked about this yesterday afternoon, after seeing the CNN coverage of Ahmedinejad's speech at Columbia. What the fuck is the deal with Columbia's president?

I mean, I feel the same way about the Iranian; he's an uneducated, lying little fundamentalist shit. But if you're going to invite him to speak at your school, it seems bad form to insult him before he speaks. I could understand a rebuttal afterward, but I'm just confused about what this supposedly educated twit was trying to do. Why'd he bother inviting Ahmedinejad in the first place? Were I the Iranian, I'd have got up and walked out.

I see Nicole got the same message I did.

...

However, like him or not (and I don’t), Ahmadinejad IS the head of a foreign state invited here to speak. That’s why Columbia’s Dean Lee Bollinger’s scathing opening statement was so shocking in its rudeness. Can you imagine the outcry if Bush had been invited to give a speech at a foreign university and gotten that kind of reception? Can you imagine how this looks to other countries?

...


Can you imagine the wingnut heads exploding? Heh ...

A sham ...

Josh Marshall has an interesting tidbit:

My ability to bring you the full details on this are, to put it charitably, limited by my inability to accurately translate Spanish. But it seems someone in the Spanish government has leaked to El Pais transcripts of conversations between President Bush and then Spanish Prime Minister Aznar just before the outbreak of the Iraq War. The gist seems to be that Bush was rather candid about the fact that the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis were a sham and that the war was a done deal.

...


As I've said forever, the war in Iraq was a done deal in the neocon playbook since 1999. They just had to find the right excuse. (And the right idiot in the Oval Office)

Great thanks to our pal Cookie Jill for the heads up.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Not us ...

Boy, the wingnuts sure stand up to condemn Ahmedinejad's anti-gay sentiment. Have they looked in the mirror lately?

...

Interestingly, most right-wing bloggers have expressed this same exact view and have rightfully condemned the anti-gay sentiment, even going as far as locating footage of executed gay men in Iran, but they don't seem to see their similar extremism and hate against the GLBT community in the US.

...


I listened to the translation of Ahmedinejad's speech this afternoon at the U.N. Sounded a hell of a lot like a Christian preacher.

More racist GOP

Bob Herbert

I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week. But what I’d really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.

Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is.

At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

They won’t be there. They can’t be bothered debating issues that might be of interest to black Americans. After all, they’re Republicans.

This is the party of the Southern strategy — the party that ran, like panting dogs, after the votes of segregationist whites who were repelled by the very idea of giving equal treatment to blacks. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. (Willie Horton) Bush, George W. (Compassionate Conservative) Bush — they all ran with that lousy pack.

n one of the vilest moves in modern presidential politics, Ronald Reagan, the ultimate hero of this latter-day Republican Party, went out of his way to kick off his general election campaign in 1980 in that very same Philadelphia, Miss. He was not there to send the message that he stood solidly for the values of Andrew Goodman. He was there to assure the bigots that he was with them.

“I believe in states’ rights,” said Mr. Reagan. The crowd roared.

In 1981, during the first year of Mr. Reagan’s presidency, the late Lee Atwater gave an interview to a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University, explaining the evolution of the Southern strategy:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”

In 1991, the first President Bush poked a finger in the eye of black America by selecting the egregious Clarence Thomas for the seat on the Supreme Court that had been held by the revered Thurgood Marshall. The fact that there is a rigid quota on the court, permitting one black and one black only to serve at a time, is itself racist.

Mr. Bush seemed to be saying, “All right, you want your black on the court? Boy, have I got one for you.”

Republicans improperly threw black voters off the rolls in Florida in the contested presidential election of 2000, and sent Florida state troopers into the homes of black voters to intimidate them in 2004.

Blacks have been remarkably quiet about this sustained mistreatment by the Republican Party, which says a great deal about the quality of black leadership in the U.S. It’s time for that passive, masochistic posture to end.

There is another prominent minority now, but the Repugs treat them the same way - vote for us, then we'll fuck you. When they gang up, ot even if they don't, the Repugs are toast. 'Bout fuckin' time.

Quote of the Day

Sy Hersh on Iraq, by way of BooMan:

... As far as I am concerned, there are only two issues: Option A is to get out by midnight tonight, and Option B is to get out by midnight tomorrow ...


Off to the shop ...

Ahmedinejad ...

Juan Cole:

...

There is, in fact, remarkably little substance to the debates now raging in the United States about Ahmadinejad. His quirky personality, penchant for outrageous one-liners, and combative populism are hardly serious concerns for foreign policy. Taking potshots at a bantam cock of a populist like Ahmadinejad is actually a way of expressing another, deeper anxiety: fear of Iran's rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo. The real reason his visit is controversial is that the American right has decided the United States needs to go to war against Iran. Ahmadinejad is therefore being configured as an enemy head of state. [my em]

...


And were our "American Principles" still intact ... well, I thought we were all about free speech? That was before 9/11, I know. Look, I give a shit about Little Mahmoud. He's the Islamic Bush anyway, just another idiot who got control of a country. Most of the Iranians on the street feel the same way about him as we do about the Chimp, another national embarrassment. Bush worries me more than he does.

There's no reason for this hubbub aside from firing up the masses for an attack on Iran.

I'll give you something to think about before I split. Do you think, if Iran developed a nuke, they would allow it to get into the hands of terrorists? (We have more to worry about from an already-nuclear Pakistan in that regard.) Don't you think a nuclear attack (suitcase bomb, dirty bomb), were it traced to Iran, would be met with an all-out nuclear response? The Minuteman IIIs and B-52s would be launched within minutes. The Soviets knew it for 60 years and they had just as many missiles pointed at us.

The Iranian mullahs (who actually run the country) and Ahmedinejad don't want to lose their power and position. They certainly don't want to give up the money they're making off the oil. (You don't think everyone over there is waiting in line to get fitted for a bomb belt, do you?) The U.S. would survive an attack, Iran would not. Regardless of their rhetoric, the leaders over there aren't willing to sit at Allah's right hand just yet.

Say nothing ...

Just act tough. It seems to be the Rethug watchword since they gave us the Chimp:

...

It's almost as if saying ridiculous non-sequitors and non-answers is now the preferred form of political discourse. Can it be that the dim-witted Reagan/Junior are now actually the new Republican leadership archetype?

...


Indeed, easily manipulated by those who actually hold the power; William "The Bloody" Kristol and his neocons, Dick Cheney, and AIPAC. The next Rethug nominee will be just as big a fool as the last one.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Irony is dead ...

Your leader thanks to Holden, who reads WH transcripts so you and I don't have to:

When the 110th Congress took office earlier this week [sic], the leaders promised to make the legislative process more transparent, and to prove they could be responsible with the people's money.

The idiot can barely talk, has nothing to say, and he thinks people are going to pay him?



The Ostroy Report

What Does Post-Presidency Look Like for George Bush? Will Anyone Actually Pay this Nitwit to Speak?

That's right, George. Clinton does make a lot of dough. That doesn't mean you're going to. I mean, honestly folks, who in their right mind would pay good money to hear him speak? He could care less about the issues on a micro level; he's extremely limited and has the curiosity and attention-span of a 10-year-old; is narrow-minded; and can't string two intelligent, coherent sentences together without the bail-out of a TelePrompTer. Just what the heck would he speak about anyway? His successful military strategy? His deft handling of matters economic...like how to balance a budget and minimize debt? How to win friends and influence people through skillful diplomacy? How to attract the best and brightest and most ethical staff? If it wasn't so pathetic it'd be funny.

This one's worth going to read just for the 'comments'. Well, some of them anyway.

Black & White

Out from behind the paywall, Paul Krugman on Repuglicant racism in the wake of the Jena travesty of justice:

And yes, Southern white exceptionalism is about race, much more than it is about moral values, religion, support for the military or other explanations sometimes offered. There’s a large statistical literature on the subject, whose conclusion is summed up by the political scientist Thomas F. Schaller in his book “Whistling Past Dixie”: “Despite the best efforts of Republican spinmeisters to depict American conservatism as a nonracial phenomenon, the partisan impact of racial attitudes in the South is stronger today than in the past.”

Republican politicians, who understand quite well that the G.O.P.’s national success since the 1970s owes everything to the partisan switch of Southern whites, have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism.

And all four leading Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination have turned down an invitation to a debate on minority issues scheduled to air on PBS this week.

But to get the Republican nomination, a candidate must appeal to the base — and the base consists, in large part, of Southern whites who carry over to immigrants the same racial attitudes that brought them into the Republican fold to begin with. As a result, you have the spectacle of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, pragmatists on immigration issues when they actually had to govern in diverse states, trying to reinvent themselves as defenders of Fortress America.

And both Hispanics and Asians, another growing force in the electorate, are getting the message. Last year they voted overwhelmingly Democratic, by 69 percent and 62 percent respectively.

In other words, it looks as if the Republican Party is about to start paying a price for its history of exploiting racial antagonism. If that happens, it will be deeply ironic. But it will also be poetic justice.

Mr. Krugman says things so nicely. I don't care whether it rhymes or not, and I don't care if it's just or not. Just get rid of the racist Repug sonsabitches.

Generals Speak Out

A twofer at Truthout:

AP:

Corpus Christi - Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Saturday there is a "crisis in national political leadership" and that partisanship is preventing a strategy that would help the U.S. take on the threat of Islamic extremism.

Thank you for saying it where people can hear it, General. Too bad the MSM won't.

After his speech, Sanchez wouldn't name names, but told The Associated Press he was referring to "the most senior leadership in our nation."

Sanchez said Saturday he is not surprised that the U.S. still has a presence in Iraq, nor is he surprised at current troop levels. But, he said, focusing on troop numbers will not end the conflict.

What may put a start to the end of this deal is if a buncha you old Flags go get those creeps and rendition them somewhere. The Hague would be nice, but anywhere with iron bars will do. Maybe some palm trees and scantily-clad brownskin gals...

Mark Sauer:

What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation's history.

In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war.

It was a decision none of the men approached cavalierly. Most were political conservatives who had voted for George W. Bush and initially favored his appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

But they felt betrayed by Bush and his advisers.

"The ethos is: Give your advice to those in a position to make changes, not the media," said Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, now retired. "But this administration is immune to good advice."

Listening to good advice, indeed common sense, are not Cheney maladministration policy.

Please read the rest of these.

Succinct

Blue Girl on the faux outrage over the MoveOn ad:

...

IOKIYAR*? I guess so - Republicans can demean and degrade and insult veterans, but if a Democrat asks legitimate questions the foam-flecked fuckwits get in a lather?

Until someone can explain this, you outraged lot can quietly and expeditiously fuck right the hell off.

...


They disrespected Max Cleland, a man who gave three of his limbs in combat. They disrespected John Kerry, who was wounded three times in combat. But yet, if someone points out what an ass-kissing shill Petreaus is, it's the end of the world. Blue Girl has some good advice:

...

Make a donation to MoveOn today!


As with many others, I refuse to donate to the Dems, on any level, until they make a real effort to get us out of Iraq. The mealy-mouthed horseshit they've been playing since January ain't cutting it. MoveOn gets what I would have given them.

And just a note: I was annoyed when the Chimp disparaged McCain in 2000, but I lost any respect I had for the man when he took up Bush's cause. McCain deserves everything he gets. I won't stand up for a man who doesn't respect himself.

Update:

And before I split, before I hear about coming down on the Dems once again, let me say this. In 2002, when the Chimp was rattling his saber at Iraq, how many Dems went along with it because they had the "what could go wrong" attitude? They figured we'd drag our beefy cock across Mesopotamia and in a couple weeks, everything would be happy, like after Gulf 1. They listened to all that tough guy talk from Bush and Rummy and they got all big and beefy too. Iraq is their war too and I'm tired of this "it's Bush's mess, let him sit in it" attitude from them now. Like I've said many times before. People are dying every day thanks to the Dems' political expediency. It's time to end it, defund it, impeach the White House, whatever it takes, whether you destroy a talking point for '08 or not. Even if it costs them their jobs.

*It's OK If You're A Republican.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

e-Brain

Being a dedicated Brainiac, and a glutton for punishment to boot, I signed up to get Alternate Brain via e-mail. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes so I don't know how long this has been offered, but Fixer goes to great lengths to keep The World's Best Sidebars polished up.

Left sidebar, scroll down just past what I call the "Brainer King - Have It Your Way" entry and sign up. The Brain will come to your inbox in toto every time there's a new entry, which is about every ten minutes. Just kidding, but generally daily. You can get it in any language you've ever heard of, and some you haven't.

It's no substitute for the real thing of course, but it has its place if you can't come to the actual Brain for some godawful reason. It's a class act. Give it a try.

“Taser this… F--- BUSH”

The Coloradoan

The Rocky Mountain Collegian on Friday published an editorial that reads, in total, “Taser this… F--- BUSH,” spelling out the expletive, along with an explanation that “this column represents the views of the Collegian’s editorial board.”

It's refreshing to see some college kids with balls instead of just the chickenhawk CRs. There may be hope yet.

While the Collegian is editorially independent, CSU retains a measure of control though a 10-member faculty-student Board of Student Communications, which can fire the paper’s editor-in-chief, David McSwane.

That'd be worth gettin' fired for! Good on yer, kid.

In a letter addressed to the university community and Collegian readers, Jeff Browne, director of student media, said he is planning to launch an internal investigation into “the decision-making process” followed in publishing the editorial.

“The decision-making process”? The kids are PISSED-OFF. They're tired of Bush's bullshit. Absolutely rightly so. As is anybody who's been watching this crap go down for over six years.

When Bush took office (literally), some of these college kids were in junior high. I personally have been pissed-off, with short breaks, since fuckin' Nixon. Kids today get up to speed a lot quicker than us Olde Fartes. They have to. It's a faster paced world.

And the four-word editorial? Blame it on text messaging. Ya gotta cut through the crap these days and get right to the attention span.

"Take ten of these and call me in the morning...if you remember."

LATimes

Washington state allows a 60-day supply of medical marijuana. Now the Legislature wants to know how much that is. Any ideas?

Well, it's hard to think of mota as coming in dosages, but I'd say, manicured and pressed into bales, about enough to fill Fixer's guest room. Just a guess, mind you.

"There are so many variables here. Even if you just look at smokers, you have to look not only at the quality of the pot, but also at the efficiency of the smoker," he says. "Some people are better smokers than others."

Duuuude...

The fall of the Godmongers

I hope Mark Morford is right!

Praise Jesus, it's the collapse of evangelical Christian rule in America. Rejoice!

Halle-fuckin'-luja! 'Bout goddam time.

Because right now, there is perhaps no greater item we as a struggling human ant farm can be grateful for, no single social emetic we can look to for inspiration or hope or a happy tingly sensation in our collective groinal region indicating a possible move away from our long-standing Dick-Cheney-in-hell attitude of shrill bleakness, alarmism and religious righteousness than the simply wonderful implosion of the evangelical Christian right that's happening right now in America.

But when you come right down to it, the Great Truism has been validated once again: Righteous fundamentalism, be it Christian, Islamic, or otherwise, has the seeds of its own destruction built right into its very framework, a priori and de facto and by default. Powered by the deeply joyless engines of fear and shame, it can never quench its own impotent desires.

And for that, we can all praise Jesus indeed.

Do. Not. Miss. This. One.

"...it can never quench its own impotent desires." They'll keep trying. On Rapture Day they'll all go to Heaven and start telling God how he ought to be doing things. He'll set 'em straighter than we ever could, and then direct 'em to the 'down' elevator.

About that vibrator, ma'am?

Looks like the government wants to know a bit too much about you when you travel:

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

...

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

...


Can you imagine the dossier they have on my ass? The bright side is, I forgot the brand name of that Amsterdam reefer I puffed up as I made my way around the Med. I wonder if they'd tell me before I go back so I can get some more. Primo.