Repugs brown their knickers in fear and you should too!

Rack Jite.com

This seems to be one of those issues where we find the Party of Tea being against something only because President Obama is for it.

Rudy Giuliani makes it clear in this Daily Show video that in 2006 he was all for trying terrorists in New York City, gracefully speaking up for our country, our effective legal system and it being the ethical, moral and right thing to do. Three years later a full 180 that trying terrorists within our failed legal system is beyond abhorrent. What happened?

Project Obama Fail is what happened.

It would seem conservatives would want a public, transparent trial at the very spot it happened. To get their bloody hands on them and to personally have a say in their coming executions. It's so very conservative to allow New Yorkers to have at em.

Well of course the Repugs want to execute them! They just want to do it in secret, like they want to kill everybody who sees through their shit but can't due to some quaint ol' goddamn piece of paper 'rule of law' thing, what was it? Oh, yeah - The Constitution. What they're really afraid of is that the whole Bush/Cheney/Yoo/Addington/rendition/CIA "black sites' (like this one in Lithuania) might come out just in time for the 2010 elections.

What we have here is the Republican party playing the only working card they have in the deck. SCARE YOUR PANTS OFF! Whether it be Iraqis, Iranians, Muslims, the Taliaban, Chinamen, death panels, socialism, debt (other than war debt) and perhaps above all those Uppity Negroes in the White House. Fear is all they have any more. AND IT WORKS! Toughen up America!

The Repugs'll shit themselves in publicly suppressed joy if their fearmongering shoves some nutter off the edge and he offs Obama. They just love shittin' themselves if it hurts people and advances their retard agenda.

A little Saturday afternoon blues pickin'

Big Bill Broonzy ~ Guitar Shuffle

Thanks to Nagi40, Brazil.

Headline of the Day

VIDEO: Utah Senator Chris Buttars Doesn't Want The Gays Stuffing It Down His Throat All The Time

Flamenco!

Jesse Cook - Tempest

You know Afghanistan is lost ...

When the warlord Dostum comes out of the woodwork.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

I don't know where this was, but I think it was hot there. Some of the band's attire is quite casual.

Emmylou Harris ~ Born To Run

Thanks to WellExcuuseMeee.

Sometimes I wonder ...

About Ol' Barry:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has tapped a former top aide of his predecessor George W. Bush to a key post on a board overseeing government-sponsored international broadcasting.

...

I could understand appointing someone with a brain, as he did in his cabinet (Ray LaHood, Bob Gates), but Dana "I got a 60 mph wind blowing between my ears" Perino? The woman is a fucking moron. What the fuck is he trying to accomplish? Sometimes I just don't get him.

Shopping Day

We gotta go to The Big City today prior to our T'giving getaway next week. I'll kick off the weekend a little early with this pretty song. See yas later.

"Wooden Heart", created by Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, was based on a German folk song, "Muß i' denn zum Städtele hinaus". "Wooden Heart" features several lines from the original folk song, written in the German dialect Swabian.

Nanci Griffith ~ Wooden Heart

Thanks to Motelmatches.

The Tijuana of the Caspian

Interesting story in The Atlantic.

This makes the mullahs in Tehran very nervous. Books, DVDs, fashions, and—most important—ideas that are inaccessible in Iran are ubiquitous in Azerbaijan. Iranians line up daily to cross the Astara River to buy and sell jeans, chickens, bras, laptops — and often sex and schnapps and heroin. This commerce, combined with cultural curiosity and shared Azeri bloodlines, has transformed Astara into the Tijuana of the Caspian.

But is there a donkey show? Would you believe an Ahmadinejad impersonator and a goat?

Two words ...

1. "Bernie"

2. "Kerik"

Thought better of that run for Governor, didja Rudy? Heh ...

Late for work.

Equality California to Air Ad Featuring Same-Sex Couple during MISS CALIFORNIA USA Pageant

Via YubaNet.

San Francisco November 19, 2009 – Equality California (EQCA) will air an ad about the freedom to marry, featuring Pasadena couple Frances and Cynthia with their daughter Mary Kate during the broadcast of the MISS CALIFORNIA USA pageant on November 22.

EQCA previously invited former MISS CALIFORNIA USA Carrie Prejean to meet with leaders from the organization as well as with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students and a family headed by a same-sex couple to start a dialogue about who LGBT people are and the harm that is caused by denying LGBT community members equality. Prejean, however, did not respond.

"The MISS CALIFORNIA USA Organization does not endorse either side of the issue but believes in fair play, so we have donated a 30-second spot to Equality California and offered Carrie Prejean an opportunity to pre-tape a brief message," said Keith Lewis, Executive Director of MISS CALIFORNIA USA and MISS CALIFORNIA TEEN USA.

Prejean declined the offer.

Good. Who the fuck cares what that ignorant wingnut has to say?

Thanks to EQCAvideos.

This is probably not politically correct, but it may be culturally so. The ad makers were smart to use lesbians instead of male homosexuals. I think lesbians are less-offputting, even threatening, characters than gay men, particularly to straight men. Affection demonstrated by the gals is kinda sweet, but the same thing between men makes some straight men cringe. Even I do it sometimes if the gays are demonstrative enough, but real flamers are fun to watch!

The love's the same. So should be the civil rights.

To succeed in Afghanistan, we must fail

If you apply that logic to everything Bush did, we're winning everything! In regards to Afghanistan it might even be true.

Gerard Russell in the LATimes:

The struggle in Afghanistan is all about Afghans sizing each other up; foreigners are mainly just bystanders.

Until an equilibrium of power has been reached among Afghans that is generally unchallenged, pulling out foreign troops would precipitate a civil war. It would be a tawdry and selfdefeating end to the intervention in Afghanistan. Yet, for as long as foreign troops are dominating the conflict with the Taliban, and for as long as the U.S. is seen as the final arbiter of Afghan politics, an equilibrium of power cannot be reached.

The U.S. presence is the Afghan government's safety net, protecting it from the need to take responsibility for the fight against the Taliban. Until Karzai's government sees its survival at stake, it will not play its best game.

So let's fail in Afghanistan. Fail in the right way now, and the Afghans will have a chance of succeeding.

The right kind of failure could look like this:

So lose this battle too. By the end of 2010, withdraw forces to impregnable bases from which they can back up Afghan forces in cases of extreme need. Then there will be an end to the perception that Afghans now have: This is a war waged by foreigners in Afghanistan.

Yes, the Afghan forces will suffer. But they will anyway, one day, because foreign forces will not stay forever. Their chances are better now than they will be once the Taliban has irrevocably established itself in even more locations, and when U.S. patience is thinner than now.

But the Afghan government must be in the lead, clearly in charge, free to make its own political decisions and to learn its own lessons. And that is what the Afghan people must see.

Clearly we're not talkin' about Bush's Afghan government here.

What to do, what to do? Go? Stay? Now? When? Why? Who the fuck knows?

I'm still dithering.

Related:

Pashtoon Atif, LATimes:

On Afghanistan's independence day in August, my friends in Kandahar were puzzled. Why was the government bothering to celebrate the holiday? With 100,000 or so foreign troops occupying our country, how could we consider ourselves independent?

[...] An increasing number of Afghans view the international community as propping up a criminal enterprise disguised as a government, and more people than ever are registering their frustration by joining the Taliban, which can at least be counted on to provide security.

In 2001, most Afghan people looked to the United States not only as a potential mentor but as a model for successful democracy. What we got instead was a free-for-all in which our leaders profited outrageously and unapologetically from a wealth of foreign aid coupled with a dearth of regulations. Now that the result of this formula has crystallized in the form of industrial-scale electoral fraud, many have begun to question the very essence of the U.S. and NATO missions in Afghanistan.

Obama should send more troops to Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban and protect Afghan civilians. However, human and material resources should be distributed based on actions that Karzai takes to clean up his administration. The United States and its allies should produce a catalog of benchmarks aimed at tackling corruption, and make their support of the government contingent on its performance. One benchmark, for example, could be the dismissal of notoriously corrupt officials within Karzai's administration, which would send a clear signal to the Afghan people that duplicity will not be tolerated.

The U.S. must demand compliance by making the additional troops and foreign aid necessary to defeat the Taliban and build a legitimately sovereign Afghan state conditional on Karzai's prioritization of accountable governance, protection of civilians and removal of the worst abusers of political power. Otherwise, even 100,000 additional troops won't help to repair the damage.

Defeating corruption in the Afghan government may be a harder task than defeating the Taliban, who don't stand a chance of being defeated until the Afghan government is no longer corrupt.

Yeesh.

Happy Reunion

Thanks to ltschmidt02.

LATimes

More than four years after it was recorded, a home video uploaded to YouTube so it could be shared with family members has become a big hit with animal lovers virtually overnight.

In what Schmidt described as his "FINAL FINAL UPDATE" to the video's explanatory text, he extolled the virtues of pet adoption, explaining that Gracie is a rescue dog who "was on doggie death row -- she had been there for four months -- when we got her. She was days away, and she's been the best dog and a vital part of our family for the past five years. It's funny that a little dog that was found abandoned in a pen in West Virginia, completely neglected, could put a smile on so many faces." Amen to that!

Indeed!

To sober this up a little bit, there are far too many of these joyous reunions that will never take place because the doggie's person will not be coming home.

I apologize in advance for this one

The Rude Pundit goes off on the Coultergeist and takes me with him.

From Ann Coulter's latest "column" (if by "column," you mean, "the wracking, phlegm-spewing death cough of a self-mutilating she-beast quickly fading into an acid bath of obscurity and irrelevance"), a look at the qualities of diversity in a nation, re: the shooting at Fort Hood and the upcoming terrorist trials in New York City:

"Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem. [...]
...

She continues, after a few more irrelevant examples, "'Diversity' is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. [...]

[...] Because what you are actually witnessing is the pathetic last heaves of outrage-mongering by Ann Coulter, who is stumbling around like a coke-snorting heiress who's shoved her inheritance up her nose and is begging to still be let past the velvet rope into the club she helped build. She'll be blowing Glenn Beck for appearances any day now.

Now there's a visual I can live with!

You've heard of a 'Pyhrric victory', right? That's where the cost of winning is so great that the victory is a virtual loss.

So here you have a wraith, in the 'dangerous and evil being' sense, in Coulter, who can cause a normal man to lose a hard-on in her mouth, whippin' some skull on a most decidedly abnormal man who can't get a woody anyway! Ha! And for what? Some moonbat airtime on her way out.

Call it a pyhorreic victory. Sorry.

Here's the punch line of a joke about Coulter on her honeymoon. I go to some awful places for you folks. Heh.

Fuck me' says the exasberrated doorman, 'she's got gonnorrhea so you can't fuck her, pyhorrea so you can't kiss her and diarrhea so you can't even take her from behind! Why DID you marry this woman?'

'Well, says the hotel guest, as he adjusted his fishing rod, 'she's a great source for worms'

(rimshot) You should pardon the expression.

Thanks, RP. You made my day.

The Big Barge ...

We've touched on this before (here, here, and here).

Royal Caribbean Line's Oasis of the Seas will set sail this weekend for a 2-day out of Ft. Lauderdale on a cruise for the folks in the travel industry. My travel agent will be aboard I'll let you in on all the gory details when she gets back.

Leaving the yard in Finland

Inside Oasis

Word is, her maiden voyage is not yet sold out, rare for the cruise industry (and there is a sister on the way). I guess it's something to experience but you won't catch me dead on that big thing. As I wrote at Worlds:

I can't see it ...

But if it's your thing, have at it. Far be it for me to pee on anybody's sunshine, but sharing a ship with 5,400 other passengers ain't for me:

...

Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 (150,000 dwt)is about the biggest I'll go and she carries about half the passengers Oasis does. It's one of the reasons we love Holland America Line's Prinsendam (38,000 dwt) so much. She's like a big yacht and carries less than a thousand vacationers aboard. To me, the less passengers I have to deal with, the better.

Don't get me wrong, she's a fine piece of engineering, but it reminds me too much of Las Vegas. If I want Vegas, I'll go to Vegas. With all that crap on the ship, why would you want to go ashore?

Part of the reason we go cruising is to be aboard ships that convey the tradition and romance of the heyday of ship travel, when the only way to cross the oceans was aboard a liner. There's something to be said about walking through the Gallery aboard Queen Mary 2 and seeing those who've contributed to Cunard's storied history, and to feel a part of it.

No Hanukkah geld for you ...

Don't piss off the Rabbi before the holiday:

Rabbis call out insufferable shmegegge

Douchebag and quisling Joe Lieberman (I – Me!) in deep doodoo with erstwhile supporters --

...

He'll be sitting at the kids' table this year.

Interpret this...

I told Mrs. G about a dream I had last night, and she said I should blog it, that folks would get a kick out of it, so here goes:

I dreamt that I was trying to buy a pretty straight silver-grey '58 Chevy station wagon. I thought it would be a nice car to haul Mexicans in.

I was trying to buy it from Lou Dobbs. I didn't get it because he wanted $800 and I didn't want to pay more than $400, even though Mrs. G said I should offer $500.

That's it. There was other stuff in the dream that I can't remember, but when it comes to remembering dreams, which I usually don't, that was plenty.

The one question I had when I woke up was, why a '58? Why not a '57 Nomad? I'da paid what he wanted for one of those! The answer came to me soon enough: you can fit more Mexicans in a '58.

What does it all mean?

I guess the Mexicans had to walk. Oh well.

Sex tape tips from Carrie Prejean

Channelled by Mark Morford.

Hi, I made a sex tape! Eight, actually! And you can too! Praise the lord!

No candles.

People always ask me, Carrie, when you make a sex tape, does it help to actually be a Christian? I mean, like, not a very good one, more like a pseudo-moralistic, fundamentalist homophobe ex-beauty queen with as many brain cells as you have limbs? Someone who wouldn't understand true Christianity if Jesus himself came down and tickled your feet and called you Lilith?

My answer is always the same: Jesus was a foot fetishist? That is so awesome!

But to answer the other question: heck yes, it helps! I find that mock Christianity only cranks up the irony factor, the sexy hypocrisy of what you're doing -- and massive moralistic hypocrisy is a total turn on! Just ask all those Catholic priests! And Republican senators! And televangelists! And gay televangelists who have sex with Republican senator priests!

No comment...

Quote of the Day

The last two sentences in El Rude-o's post about Palin's book:

In the end, the facts of the the book don't matter. All that matters is that idiot America has its queen.

Idiot America.

I wonder if we can get a two-state solution.

Keep yer hands off my ...

What amazes me constantly about the Right is that while they decry government involvement in anything, they are all gung-ho for it when it suits them. Sorta how they look at the Constitution.

Toon stolen from Creature.

What? No ...

Is anyone surprised?

The F-35 program is behind schedule and over budget. No fucking shit. You could pick a DoD procurement program at random and insert the name of the program in the place of "F-35 program" and you'd have a near certainty of being accurate.

...

Business as usual.

... It's been this way since the Continental Congress first bought muskets for General Washington's army ...

Once again, shit's gonna cost more and take longer than promised. They probably figured out how to get a bonus for it too.

‘I Don’t Care About The Constitution!’

Think Progress, links at site.

Since Attorney General Eric Holder announced his decision to move five Guantanamo Bay detainees — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad — to New York for civilian trials on charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Fox News personalities have been up in arms. Karl Rove called it a “long-standing plot” by the Obama administration’s “left-wing lawyers who do not love America.”

But last night on Fox, the network’s top legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano — who has been known to disagree with Fox’s right-wing narratives on legal issues — disputed that view, citing the constitutional right to be tried in the place where the crime has been committed. “I don’t care about the Constitution!” host Bill O’Reilly responded. The debate continued:

O’REILLY: So why is he entitled to come to New York City to be tried in the civilian criminal court if he’s arrested in Pakistan?

NAPOLITANO: Because the document you don’t want me to talk about says when the government is going to prosecute you, it must do so in the place where the alleged harm was caused.

Yep. Says so right in the Sixth Amendment.

The wingers lurves them some Constitution when it goes their way. It's 'just a goddamned piece of paper' when it doesn't permit them to commit crimes and atrocities, or just generally dump on the populace. Which they then go ahead and do anyway.

The Onion has a related piece today:

Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be

Mortensen told reporters that he'll fight until the bitter end for what he roughly supposes the Constitution to be. He acknowledged, however, that it might already be too late to win the battle.

"The freedoms our Founding Fathers spilled their blood for are vanishing before our eyes," Mortensen said. "In under a year, a fascist, socialist regime has turned a proud democracy into a totalitarian state that will soon control every facet of American life."

"Don't just take my word for it," Mortensen added. "Try reading a newspaper or watching the news sometime."

All too true.

Afterthought:

I've actually read The Constitution, and that's the reason I believe in it as a 'living document' that needs to be re-interpreted and changed from time to time.

I offer Article 1, Section 9 as one example:

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

That's ten bucks a head on slaves you bring in, folks.

And Article IV, Section 2 as another:

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

That's 'state's rights' - when ya ketch one o' them uppity three-fifths of a persons who got away, ya gotta return him to his rightful owner.

Anybody who claims to be a 'strict constructionist' is a racist, or someone who has never read the document but thinks the Founding Fathers must have thought the way Rushole and Hannity and O'Rally and Miss Becky etc. tell you to think.

The 13th Amendment about half cleaned that up in 1865 after the Emancipation Proclamation:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

So, slavery's actually still permitted under the amended Constitution, but only if a judge OKs it. Whew, what a relief! There's never been a corrupt judge who would do that for money or on orders of the local KKK. Yeah, right.

Fixer and I and millions of others swore an oath to defend The Constitution, and many have died doing so. I never un-swore that oath and would like to think I am still defending a document that benefits everybody and not just a few.

I do care about The Constitution. Fuck you, O'Reilly.

Mexicans wire money to struggling relatives in U.S.

Every Friday afternoon, I see little brown guys at the post offices and convenience stores lining up to buy giros to send home to their families in Mexico. Looks like the tide is turning.

NYTimes

Unemployment has hit migrant communities in the United States so hard that a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States.

Times are tough all over, I guess.

Watch the Repugs pick up on this as proof their anti-immigration plans are working: wreck the economy and they'll quit coming, and the ones that are here can go back home or starve.

Loudobbsians must be rejoicing.

Headline of the Day

Not from The Onion! With video:

Tea partiers punk’d into supporting removal of white people from US

Stop, yer killin' me ...

Hypocrite and 3-time adulterer Newt Gingrich does a video in defense of marriage.

It's called chutzpah in these parts.

This is America?

WASHINGTON – More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest rate since the Agriculture Department began tracking food security levels in 1995.

That's about 49 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. households. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as "food insecurity" — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

...

You know, when I was a kid, all we ever heard about was how bad people in other countries, how they had no food or no access to healthcare. I, along with millions of American kids, went trick or treating with a little orange box to collect for those who were less fortunate. Never thought it would happen here.

Thanks to Ol' Fez for the link.

Heh ...

Tristero on Sarah Palin's view of evolution:

...

Yes, it is truly hard to believe that such noble species as fish and early primates are the progenitors of an animal group that includes such an ignoramus as Sarah Palin.

Evolution works in mysterious ways.

...

And how was your day?

Watch the guy in the wheelhouse.

Thanks to pukeyponche, UK.

Rudy Giuliani and Republicans Are Goddamned Cowards

There's enough typos in his post that I surmise he's installing tomorrow's hangover, but RP's all over the "they'll kill us in our beds if Obama brings 'em to New York!" thing like a cheap suit:

Mohammed ain't Magneto, nemesis of the X-men. He's not going to use his mutant Islamic powers to melt the chains and blow up the heads of the dozens of snipers around him, all while ululating some sinister shout that'll bring back the dead of the Crusades to liberate him. In other words, this ain't a movie. He's beaten man who'll be spouting crazy blather in hand and ankle cuffs while shitting his diaper who wouldn't even be coming to trial if his case wasn't a done deal, who will be sentenced to death. And if anything happens that could lead to acquittal, he will be taken right back into indefinite detention. In other words, we're not doing this for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He'd over. We're doing it for us.

And then there's the one big aspect that so many on the right are just flat-out fucking wrong about. Here's Giuliani, whose creepy-ass grimace and passive aggressive sneers are just played out, this time on Fox "news" after Chris Wallace asked him about bringing the Gitmo torture victims to New York City: "We generally don't bring people back to the scene of the crime for justice."

No, actually, that is what we do. It's what the Constitution says in the Sixth Amendment: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law..." Even if a change of venue is granted, it is usually in an area in reasonable proximity to the scene of the crime. Now, the Rude Pundit may not have a fancy law degree like America's (Most Craven Manwhore Desperate to Cash in on Being) Mayor, but that amendment seems pretty fucking clear.

Re technical misfires that could lead to mistrial and possible acquittal:

Still, no one out-wrongs or out-pussies Bill Kristol, and The Weekly Standard editor, who, one should always be reminded, was Alan Keyes's presidential campaign manager, didn't disappoint. Also on Fox, he repeated what is becoming a mantra of the right on Mohammed: "There are huge problems with this. These guys were not given their Miranda warnings...[W]here was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed arrested? In Pakistan in a pre-dawn raid. He wasn't read his rights."

Oh, calm down, Nancy. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan. The most stomach-churningly charitable reading of his torture and treatment for years at Gitmo is that he was like a detained suspect in a crime who is questioned before being formally arrested. That's the whole "enemy combatant" status thing. You can pretty much bet that he'll be Mirandized once he's officially under arrest, if he hasn't already. But, no, don't let that stop another talking point that sounds like it's from an episode of Law and Order: STFU.

We on the left have now become the defenders of law and order by simply saying the rules should be followed. We're the tough guys and they're the fruitcakes. The right has become the cowering wimps who want to toss the rulebook in the shitter when it doesn't suit their game. Put up or shut up, motherfuckers. You don't like what's in the Constitution? Then try to change it. Otherwise, it's goddamned obvious that we're doing what should have been done six or seven years ago (my em).

Fuckin' A.

Iraq: It's Still All About The Oil

Did Big Oil Win the War in Iraq?

Shorter: Yes. Just the way they were supposed to. Just as Cheney/Bush meant for them to when they started the Iraqi Oil Grab War. Not as big a victory as they had hoped because Iraq gets some of the money.

By the way, if there are any lingering doubts as to what Cheney's secret 'Energy Task Force' meeting with oil company execs was about in 2002 several months before the war plans were announced, it was about divvying up Iraq's oil. To their everlasting and rare credit, they demurred at that time. Taking the nation to unnecessary war to steal the oil outright was too much even for them. It worked out OK for 'em. They're getting in on it now.

Before the Invasion

In January 2000, 10 days into President George W. Bush’s first term, representatives of the largest oil and energy companies joined the new administration to form the Cheney Energy Task Force. As part of its deliberations, the task force reviewed a series of lists titled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts" naming more than 60 companies from some 30 countries with contracts in various stages of negotiation.

None of contracts were with American nor major British companies, and none could take effect while the U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iraq remained in place. Three countries held the largest contracts: China, Russia and France -- all members of the Security Council and all in a position to advocate for the end of sanctions.

Were Saddam to remain in power and the sanctions to be removed, these contracts would take effect, and the U.S. and its closest ally would be shut out of Iraq’s great oil bonanza. (my em)

That sentence alone tells the whole story of why Saddam had to go. It's a good thing that he's gone, of course, but it had nothing to do with any of the lies we were told, although we've known that from the gate. "We're going to oust Saddam and steal Iraq's oil" wouldn't have worked as an excuse for war. Probably.

All the oil in the world was not worth hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, trillions of dollars, and repercussions that will be with us for the rest of this century.

Except in the eyes of the neocon oilmen who hijacked the United States to enrich their accomplices. May God damn George Bush and Dick Cheney. Today would be fine.

Please read the rest.

Dr. No and the Wounded Veterans

NYTimes

A creative plan to help wounded veterans and their exhausted families adapt to the strain of long-term home care is on the brink of bipartisan approval — but for the familiar obstructionism of Senator Tom Coburn. This is one of the most deplorable displays by the lawmaker-physician, an Oklahoma Republican who relishes playing the self-styled budget hawk by putting attention-grabbing holds on crucial legislation.

The urgently needed legislation consolidates more than a dozen improvements in veterans’ health care — most notably a new assistance program for family members who wind up providing lifelong home nursing to severely disabled veterans. These vital caregivers — who sacrifice careers and put huge strains on their own mental health — assume an obligation “that ultimately belongs to the government,” Senator Daniel Akaka, the bill’s chief sponsor, properly notes.

The measure also expands benefits for women veterans who suffered sexual trauma on duty, extends veterans’ care in rural areas, tightens quality control at V.A. hospitals, and ensures that catastrophically disabled veterans will not be charged for emergency services in community hospitals.

The omnibus legislation drew unanimous committee approval. But Senator Coburn objected to quick floor passage, demanding that the five-year, $3.7 billion cost be offset with immediate budget cuts. The senator’s argument rings hollow in the face of veterans’ suffering and the world of deficit budgeting brought on by his party’s tax cuts and zealous war investments.

Now he is demanding balanced books for wounded vets? Sheer embarrassment should drive the senator into retreat as he trifles with veterans’ needs and burnishes his petty role as Dr. No.

$3.7Bil over 5 years? That ain't shit, particularly when it comes to aid for Veterans. The Senate is the only place I've ever heard of where one man can stymie the wishes of 99 others just because he's an asshole. He oughta get his ass handed to him and the others should throw that rule out the window right along with him.

Ah, what am I thinkin'? Every Senator wants that little bit of petty power for himself should he need some air time. They'll throw that rule out when pigs fly. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Sarah Palin, the Musical

Tina Brown

That Sarah Palin, what a tease!

This book tour of hers is one of the all-time great hoochie coochie dances. The tea partiers are lining up like rubes at the “Direct from Gay Par-ee!” tent at the Dingleberry County Fair.

The star attraction knows that you may take it off, but you don’t take it all off. As governor, she left the stage when she still had her political pasties on. As “author,” she knows that the key is to take off just enough to keep the crowd transfixed and wanting more, but not so much as to stand revealed in all her nakedness.

I got this visual and it won't go away: Moosebreath twirlin' her rack-tassles, clockwise, then twitchin' her shoulders and they're goin' counter-clockwise, then givin' one shoulder a little twitch and gettin' 'em to contra-rotate like a Square Four's crankshaft. Bleach and Prozac, please, with just a twist of heroin...

It’s an index of the fog we’re in that Palin’s confrontational ignorance still feels refreshing to a lot of Americans. With waves of sullen anger rolling through the country, her stringent vitality, her media mistakes, her unpredictability, and her pert victimology at least give us a reality show everyone wants to watch.

Someday there’s going to be a Broadway musical about Sarah, maybe based on the book. I see Going Rogue! (the exclamation point will be a must) as a blockbuster in the tradition of Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Funny Girl. Or, come to think of it, Evita. Every 40-plus diva on both coasts will fight for the starring role. And there will be juicy parts for those cast as Todd, Bristol, and Levi.

What a hoot — except that this musical isn’t a comedy. Just by being out there again, Palin will fuel the tea party cranks, the talk-show ranters, and the suicidal wing of the GOP with the sheer force of her Q rating. To many people who feel marginalized and left behind, Palin’s brashness seems to represent clarity when in fact she represents ignorance. David Brooks might consider Sarah Palin “a joke” and “a potential talk-show host,” as he told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. And he’s probably right that there’s no way she can actually get elected president. But that won’t necessarily stop her from getting the nomination. I have a persistent hallucination: Sarah Palin atop the GOP ticket in 2012, running with — yes, Lou Dobbs. Just to add a bit of gravitas.

Tina, stay away from the 'Brown' acid...

Thanks, YubaNet.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Business Groups Seek to Weaken Bill Cracking Down on Imports Made With Convict, Child or Slave Labor
Would only take jobs away from convicts, children and slaves.

Cell Phone Use Linked Again To Brain Changes
But only if you use one every day.

Health Reform Debate in Senate Breaks Down Along Party Lines
Dems want abortion covered, Republicans Viagra.

Obama Mulling Four Different Strategies for Afghanistan
Republicans mulling four different talking points.

Don't I wish ...

Painted on the dumpster in front of the house. Click to make big.

Heh ... Off to work.

Quote of the Day

Greenwald:

... As always, the Right's tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it's hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.

...

Oh noes!!!!!!1

Obama bowed to the Japanese!!1!

You ain't gonna believe this!

I had nagging suspicion this was a model airplane right up until the pilot opened the canopy. If I find out he does this all the time as part of his show, well, it worked. Sucked me right in.

Thanks to 808wiz.

Another benefit ...

Of having the "terror trials" in NYC. Tristero:

...

But the possibility is what's got the rufftuffcreampuffs on the right quaking in their booties, that American law will actually shine a light on the murderous, torturing, incompetent, insanely frightened, paranoid, corrupt, and completely out of control Bush/Cheney regime.

...

Be nice if we got some justice there too.

Wagon Wheel

Here's a group I just discovered yesterday. Here they cover an Old Crow Medicine Show hit.

The Barrel House Mamas ~ Wagon Wheel

Thanks to barrelmama.

Honey ...

A great blues/soul band I just discovered. Rock a little on a Sunday morning.

The California Honeydrops - Ms. Louise