Paging Dr. Mengele ...

...

Of course they used detainees as guinea pigs and of course they documented it. The question is, are they still doing it?

...

It was the documentation that sank the Nazis. One day it will sink us too.

Quote of the Day II

Cheney’s memoir could be called, ‘I Upped Halliburton’s Income – So Up Yours.’ - Scott McClellan

Headline of the Day

Artists Asked to Lighten Faces of Latino, Black Kids on Arizona School Mural

Update:

Warning From Frommer's: Arizona Too Dangerous For Americans?

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

BP Orders Containment Booms Around Beachgoers
Those covered in oil will be scrubbed, released.

Radioactive Fish Found In Connecticut River
Don't need refrigeration, cook themselves.

Americans Prefer Drugs to Psychotherapy for Depression
The more the better.

Teenage Female Knuckleballer Makes Her Pro Debut
She's clobbered, yanked, booed, released, hits skids, takes HGH, makes comeback, signed by Mets.

Survey: Brits Worst-Dressed Tourists
There was no runner-up.

Being I lived in Ft. Worth for a couple years ...

This doesn't surprise me:

Louis Torres has a can-do attitude.

Just one glance at his yard, which is adorned with thousands of beer cans -- some strung together, others crafted into ornaments -- provides proof.

Torres began putting together his beer-can canopy a couple of years ago. He and his buddies share an affinity for Miller Lite and Milwaukee's Best Light, and when the cans began to pile up, Torres went to work.

...

Far be it one of them yahoos would toss the load into the back of his pickemup and drag 'em to the recycling center. I know I rag on Texas a lot, but this shit writes itself:

Q - What's a 'Texas savings account'?

A - A string of beer cans hanging from a tree.

...

The cans not only serve as yard art; they're a savings account of sorts.

"If I'm short of money and need cigarettes or beer, I'll pull down a string and cash it in," Torres said.

...

I'll say this; in my neighborhood, if that guy strung up a buncha beer cans in his yard at night, they'd be gone by morning and somebody else would be cashin' 'em in.

Yeah ...

BP is gonna pay all right ... not:

...

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean — and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.

...

Like Exxon and Union Carbide, BP won't have to pay a dime in damages for decades.

Update:

And if you're waiting for any BP execs to face prosecution, don't hold your breath:

...

Over the years, the Justice Department has repeatedly pursued criminal charges in major environmental accidents, from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident a decade earlier. In most high-profile environmental cases, criminal charges are brought mainly against the companies involved, while corporate executives typically escape punishment.

...

And our pal Montag sums up my feelings quite well:

...

I am not a lawyer, I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express but it seems to me that the recent SCOTUS grant of human rights to corporations should carry with it the assumption of a grant of human responsibilities/liabilities. If an unincorporated human would be thrown in jail, so too should the executive officers of a corporation. Just my humble opinion.

Welcome to America, where responsibility is assigned to those who can't afford the best lawyers.

Quote of the Day

Fez on BP's sponsorship of the U.S. Swim Team:

... I just hope Dawn detergent works on Dara Torres and Michael Phelps.

It's about time ...

On every trip to Spain, in every city we've been to there, we see more bull rings closed and repurposed. It is a barbaric sport and has no place in the civilized world and it's about time Spain made a national effort to ban the sport. The Catalons are taking up the charge:

...

That day in Barcelona saw the biggest anti-bullfight demonstration of all time: 5,000 people marched from the Ramblas to the Plaza de Toros Monumental, where the bullfight world was busy acclaiming its conquering hero. From here it was but a step to the massive campaign of signatures – a total of 180,000 were collected across Catalonia – which eventually led to a parliamentary bill.

...

Barcelona has three bull rings, only one of which still operates. The other two, one being rebuilt into an apartment complex, the other a sports center, are closed. Hopefully the last one will close when (if) this legislation is passed.

Thanks to Chris for the link.

Gentlemen ...

If you can't do your job around a beautiful woman who dresses appropriately, it's your problem, not hers.

Grow the fuck up.

Thanks to our pal Montag for the MoDo link.

Los Lobos cancels show in Arizona

Crooks and Liars

Mad props to Los Lobos (website) for their principled stand against SB 1070.

This just in from Los Lobos' camp: The band is canceling its performance at the Talking Stick Resort in Arizona's Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on June 10 as a protest against the passing of the state's controversial new immigration bill, SB1070. The band issued the following statement via its management:

“We support the boycott of Arizona. The new law will inevitably lead to unfair racial profiling and possible abuse of people who just happen to look Latino. As a result, in good conscience, we could not see ourselves performing in Arizona. We regret the inconvenience this may have caused the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Casino Arizona, Talking Stick Resort and our fans, but we feel strongly that it is the right thing to do.”

Good on yas, mis East L.A. amigos!

Good advice...

...from Daddy Frank's column today:

Don’t Get Mad, Mr. President. Get Even.

That always works for me.

Sunday Reality Snark

Thanks to rizzio247.

"Queen of the Boogie Piano"

Brainiac Joe the Troll slid me east from Texas a little and had me check out Marcia Ball (website). Thank you, Joe.

I checked out a dozen or so of her vids and chose this older one as pretty representative.

Caution: move everything breakable for several feet around you! Try not to hurt yourself. Enjoy.

from Marcia Ball's 1988 performance on Kentucky Educational Television's "Lonesome Pine Specials"; H. Russell Farmer & Richard Van Kleeck, producers; Clark Santee, director. Copyright 1988 KET

Marcia Ball ~ Eugene

Thanks to rghm.

Night Rider's Lament

As long as I'm on about Texas singer-songwriters, here's ol' Jerry Jeff (website) doing a song I like for the visuals it provokes as well as relate to in a metaphorical way. I call this one "Motorcycle Mechanic's Lament" after 40 years in that saddle.

Jerry Jeff Walker ~ Night Rider's Lament

Thanks to BRod313.

Apropos of nothing at all, I happen to know that Jerry Jeff and I owned the same year, make, and model of motorcycle. This was 1 of 1000 QE2 commemorative bikes imported to here. You got a certificate with it, and when I worked for the distributor of these I saw his certificate. I don't know if he still has his, but I still have mine. That was back before all the showbiz types got Harley-Davidsons and looked cooler and rode slower. I don't know if it was the intent or just a natural result of riding an anvil, but it's a lot harder to outrun the papparazzi on a Milwaukee Vibrator. Heh.

1977 Triumph Silver Jubilee

Click to embiggen

Adios Jolie Blon

One of the best things to come out of Texas besides I-10 and the only thing I'll miss when they secede is the musical genre of the 'Texas singer-songwriter'. Guy Clark (website) is one of my favorites.

The first song is possibly historical now, homage to and remembrance of a way of life that may be gone forever in the wake of the BP disaster. The second alternates between making me hungry and making me sick. Heh. All the white gravy in the world ain't enough to cover up Armadillo á la Goodyear and fried okra. Blechhh...

Guy Clark ~ South Coast of Texas/Texas Cooking

Thanks to BRod313.

Breitbart's Whore

1st and last ¶ from El Rude-o:

Goddamn, wannabe gotcha journalist James O'Keefe must know how to suck a dick. Way more hooker than pimp, O'Keefe must be able to lap Andrew Breitbart's mighty two-incher into a magnificent two-and-a-half inch erection and just go to town. The best part is that he's such an enthusiastic cock gobbler. O'Keefe rings up the Big Government blogger (and, really, that's what Breitbart is, nothing more, nothing less) and begs for another dose of Breitbart chowder. Seriously, this skeevy, ugly fucker could give porn stars lessons.

But such truly noble things are not what Breitbart demands. Like many conservatives, Breitbart is attempting to discredit the census because of fears that urbanization will tilt the balance of representation, among other things. But, oh, O'Keefe. The finest kind of cum whore is the kind who'll do anything for a chance to show how much he loves a cock. And O'Keefe ain't about to give up such bounty for anything like "journalism."

Enjoy the rest. A little light weekend entertainment.

"Oh my God! Somebody tossed a little Baby Ruth of Truth into the swimming pool!"

The title quote simply has to be a 'Quote of the Day' as well! Cue Jaws theme and horror amongst the assembled throng...

David Neiwert at C&L, article, links, and ClusterFox video:

Foxheads freak out when Rep. Linda Sanchez points out the white supremacists lurking behind Arizona's immigration law

The problem they have is that it's in fact perfectly accurate. Sanchez may have gotten the information from a blogger, but it's more than likely the blog got its information from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League -- both of which have, as Sanchez suggested, fully documented that a number of the leading "respectable" anti-immigration organizations are in fact fronts created by white-supremacist ideologues.

Finally, it's worth remembering that the two people most associated with SB1070 in Arizona -- its coauthor, State Sen. Russell Pearce, and the law-enforcement officer whose immigration obsession inspired the law, Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- themselves in fact have documented associations with Arizona neo-Nazis.

Fox may think they can whip this up, bloody shirt style, in favor of the Arizona law's advocates. I'd wager those same people are wishing they'd just let it quietly drop. Because Linda Sanchez told the truth, and they all know it.

Truth? F** don't need no steenkin' truth...

BP and Iran

Note to President Obama: Watch this and watch out for BP. They've had the CIA take out regimes before that displeased them by threatening their empire and bottom line. If you come down on 'em, don't pussyfoot around with 'em. Do it hard and from a position of power.

Democracy Now and BuzzFlash

Sixty years ago, BP was called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, takes a brief look at the story of the company’s role in the 1953 CIA coup against Iran’s popular progressive Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh. Currently, as the result of Iraqi Invasions Part I and II; considering BP recently won the biggest Iraq oil contract, should make it obviously clear as to why Iran now rests within the brutal crosshairs of a savage and thirsty empire.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging, sort of...

Emmylou Harris, Paul MacCartney, Barack Obama and others having fun with "Hey Jude" at the White House on June 2.

Thanks to TakenAlso.

Wah-wah-wah ...

The "Mouth from the South", Ol' Bobby "Jive-Ass" Jindal, the man who wants no federal involvement in his state, until it's time to save his ass from something, now has a problem with a moratorium on offshore drilling:

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Gov. Bobby Jindal's contradictions may confuse you at first. While shaking his fist at BP and the federal government's inability to stop the river of oil poisoning the Louisiana coastline and wetlands, he's also unbending in his support for offshore drilling to continue.

...

Fuck him. It's time to make a choice, Bobby, get with the program and shut the fuck up or clean up the next mess by yourself on Louisiana's budget. Figure it out soon.

Can't go out on his shrimp boat, might as well sing...

This is the most appropriately saddest version of this song I've heard.

Liang Dong-Ping ~ Gulf Coast Highway

Thanks to lonecranedp, Thailand.

Faster, Bee-yotch!

Click to magically embiggen

Thanks to YubaNet.

I'm quite sure the cartoonist only stopped after those "expectation balloons" because he ran outta space.

I still think Obama is doing OK under the circumstances. When yer up to yer ass in alligators, it's hard to remember yer main objective was to drain the swamp. He inherited a swamp chock fulla 'gators, and his (and our) sworn enemies and ugly stepsisters keep throwin' in fresh ones.

Behold our dark, magnificent horror

Friday Morford on the oil spill. A 'recommended read'.

What a thing we have created. What an extraordinary horror our rapacious need for cheap, endless energy hath unleashed; it's a monster of a scale and proportion we can barely even fathom.

Because if you're honest, no matter where you stand, no matter your politics, religion, income or mode of transport, you see this beast of creeping death and you understand: That is us. The spill may be many things, but more than anything else it is a giant, horrifying mirror.

Finally (and a bit shockingly), I'm not hearing Pat Robertson or any of his cretinous cult of apocalypticans blame the gays, or voodoo, or anal sex, or reality TV for what's happening in the Gulf. Oil is, after all, completely non-denominational. It mocks all religions equally -- except, of course, the only one that really matters: capitalism.

This is how you know this is one of the more universally damning disasters of our time: No one really seems to know how to process it, much less react. The GOP is backtracking like terrified hyenas from Sarah "Queen of Duh" Palin's "drill baby, drill" mantra/ass tattoo, as suddenly the incessant Republican wail for more oil exploration, more drilling, more tax cuts for oil conglomerates don't just reek of the usual inbred cronyism; they reek of death and destruction the likes of which the country has never seen.

Truly, BP is behaving no better or worse than any other corporate spawn of Satan would in a similar situation. What's more, if you don't think every oil company on earth is right now kneeling before Beelzebub in gratitude that it wasn't one of their own wells that exploded, you haven't been paying attention.

That said, after all is said and done, it's gloomily nice to think our darkest disaster in a generation could somehow ultimately improve our attitudes, change our behavior, lighten our violent treatment of the planet. As someone recently noted, the BP spill isn't Obama's Katrina, it's actually Big Oil's Chernobyl. Meaning: a disaster so appalling and devastating it might very well alter the industry and change the course of our energy policy forever.

Is it possible? Or, more accurately, are we even capable of such a shift? Is there any silver lining to be found in that black and greasy gloom? This is, perhaps, the most imperative question of all: If we can produce a demon of such extraordinary scale and devastation, can we not also somehow create its exact opposite? Let us pray.

Yeah, that'll work. Yeesh. You think the oil execs aren't praying for deliverance from our wrath? That's more likely than shifting energy consciousness for a long time to come, which is happening a lot slower than the toxic ooze is crawling onto our shores.

BP is praying in particular that they are somehow spared from paying for all this and that it will shift to the taxpayers. It must not. If it puts 'em outta business, so fuckin' what? It won't. They make so much money they could do a 'money shot' and plug the leak with $100 bills and it would barely be a blip on their boardroom wall chart. They're only about the fifth most profitable oil company. There's plenty more just like 'em.

Let us pray.

Yeah, I did it. I'd do it again. Fuck the rule of law, you ain't got the balls to fuck with me, so fuck you too, America.

In case you missed it. Never forget.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch this ...

Or, Instant Moron: Just add alcohol:



Update:

What me and Gord were talking about in "comments".

This is the bottom line ...

Click to embiggen. Pic stolen from Digby.

"Drill, baby, drill."

About time ...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says it's time to roll back "billions of dollars in tax breaks" for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development.

...

He said the catastrophic Gulf oil spill shows the country must move toward clean energy by embracing energy efficiency, tapping natural gas and nuclear power and eliminating tax breaks for big oil.

...

Indeed! Shit's gotta be paid for and we have to move away from burning fossil fuels. Any corporation that makes billions every quarter in profit should not get a tax break for anything.

Thanks to Susie for the link.

"the majority of the country doesn't give a rat's fuck about the Sestak nonsense "

The Rude One

So just to get this straight, Republicans, 'cause Jesus Christ knows your views shouldn't be misrepresented: with the unstoppable Gulf oil gusher poisoning everything in the sea and destroying the economies of probably four states at minimum, with Israel gettin' all raid-on-Entebbe with a ship that was trying to get food and medicine to starving people in Gaza, with Afghanistan becoming the war that it was always gonna become, with the need for jobs programs and housing programs and training programs in this country, with immigration, climate change, civil rights for gays, and more needing work and leadership and legislation, with all that shit plus whatever the fuck's going on with the European economy, some of you guys think that President Obama should be impeached because a guy was offered a job to not run for office.

California Republican and weepy, greedy, power-hungry bitch-boy Rep. Darrell Issa, a man destined to be a prison twink, is pushing that very notion. Issa believes that, because the White House has admitted that Rahm Emanuel asked Bill Clinton to offer a job to Rep. Joe Sestak if he'd clear the way for Arlen Specter to get the Democratic nomination for the Senate in Pennsylvania, the government should come to a screeching halt while Obama is investigated, impeached, and tried. Because why? Because that's what's first on everyone's mind right now?

Just as an aside, the visual of Issa pullin' a train for the Crips, the Bloods, the Mexican Mafia and last but not least, the Aryan Brotherhood, just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. Wait 'til those guys find out he made his considerable fortune selling the car alarms that may have stymied them professionally. Heh. He's one of the worst pols we've got out here in California, and we've got some bad ones.

As Joe Conason points out, this ain't something to be taken lightly. These fuckers play for keeps, damn the consequences on the route to taking back power. The entire affair, playing nonstop on Fox "news," has been elevated to "Obama's Watergate," thanks to Issa, who never misses a chance to demonstrate his extraordinary ability to fellate himself on live television. He's so good at it that Sean Hannity got jealous, bent over, and said, "Hey, look, I can actually get my tongue to my own anus."

Fine, if we're gonna get out the hyperbole machine, let's do something a little more appropriate: the Gulf oil spill is not Obama's Katrina. No, it's his 9/11: a sudden, explosive event that hit in the first part of the presidency and revealed to the nation a threat that crosses party lines. Now, howzabout DC Republicans get off their bullshit propaganda machine for a little while and saddle up to help? Howzabout the media do what they demanded of Democrats after 9/11 and tell Republicans to put aside "partisan bickering" for the "good of the nation"? Maybe a little help instead of mindless slash and burn?

Oh, wait. Don't forget that we're dealing with Republicans. The fact that the majority of the country doesn't give a rat's fuck about the Sestak nonsense doesn't matter. All that matters is that, at all costs, even at the cost of the country itself, they try to bring down the president. Again.

The Repugs are more than happy to commit any act including treason to get the power back so they can further enrich their masters at our expense. Luckily for us, they're all perverts and afraid of getting caught, or it'd be lots worse.

Headline of the Day ב

Conservative pundits blame Obama for Israeli raid on flotilla

Well of course they do. You'd think they'd love him for crucifying Christ and giving them yet another myth to live by. Oy.

To rule Big Oil, we need Big Government

Donna Brazile

The far right likes to invoke Big Government like a bogeyman, a ghost to frighten the uninformed. But when they need Big Government they decry its absence. Bobby Jindal was trying to privatize much of Louisiana's government services. Had his approach been applied nationwide, the Federal government wouldn't have the resources he's demanding it use to save Louisiana's coast.

Can government get big and bloated? Of course. But there's a difference between starvation and a diet.

What the right fails to acknowledge is that big business, by its nature, is a bully. And you don't stop a bully by turning yourself into a 90 pound weakling. In fact, you may have to gain weight. Regardless, you have to exercise, changing pork to muscle.

It's going to take lots of muscle to truly hold BP responsible for the massive impact of its failure.

In short, make sure Big Government is big enough to keep Bigger Business in check. Or who knows what price we'll pay.

Just know that we have been and will continue to pay until government, that's you, Barry, grows the balls to leave BP and others face down bleeding in the dirt for transgressions against us. I mean that both figuratively and literally.

Note to President Obama: Make me'n Fixer Prez For A Day and we'll show you how to do it. Call it 'dungaree liberty on Big Biz assholes'. It won't be pretty, but it will be educational for you and Big Corpora and entertaining for us and our fellow Americans.

Al O'Qaeda

Haaretz

Like a robot lacking in judgment, stuck on a predetermined path - that's how the government is behaving in its handling of the aid flotillas to the Gaza Strip. The announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the security cabinet meeting Tuesday that the blockade of Gaza will continue and that Israel will keep on using force to prevent ships from entering Gaza's port suggests that the foolishness continues and no lessons have been learned from this week's incidents.

Instead of taking the initiative and developing a political exit strategy from the crisis, Netanyahu and Barak are digging themselves deeper into the quagmire. The government apparently believes its own public relations, according to which Israel was the victim of "Al-Qaida supporters." If this is the case, it must immediately dismiss the heads of the security and intelligence services who failed to issue warnings in time and did not prepare accordingly to meet this new and dangerous enemy. How does Israel plan to deal with the Irish ship the Rachel Corrie, which is on its way to the Gaza Strip? Will it also argue that the Irish government, which has given this ship its backing, is a member of Al-Qaida?

Any bets that Haaretz' offices will be mysteriously bombed by 'Palestinian terrorists' pretty soon? Or maybe the IRA. Mossad'll think of something.

Headline of the Day

A short refresher on common knowledge:

When the CIA Overthrew Iran for British Petroleum

The CIA did the same for bananas in Central America. Anything for private profit.

I doubt if BP will use the CIA to get out of trouble this time. This time they'll use the Federal and Supreme Courts.

Be careful what you wish for ...

Me and my big mouth ... (If I had a dime for every time I said that).

When the economy tanked last year, and Barry was talking about the stimulus plan, I would kvetch that there's a "shovel-ready" project in my neighborhood, namely the road I live on. It's been fer shit for years thanks to them replacing the gas lines in the street (they just tossed asphalt over the trenches) and about 10 years of winter (and the heavy-duty snowplows that grind over it) since they paved it correctly, and it looks like the Moon. Been kvetching a long time.

Well, seems, for the first time in memory, somebody in the local government heard and actually listened to me. A few weeks ago they began, not just my street, but the whole approach to the Long Island Expressway that's 3/4 mile up the road. New overpass, cloverleaf, and adding an extra lane each way to the secondary road which feeds it. It'll be 2 years until they're done.

So now I'm not just worrying about the fillings being shaken out of my head (I drive like I'm on the slalom on the B.F. Goodrich Test Track) when I come home but it's a pain in the ass with the increased traffic thanks to constant pattern changes. What a fucking mess.

I know it's been sorely needed for years and I'm glad some Long Islanders are back to work, and I know it's going to be good when it's done, but all I was hoping for was a little asphalt rolled over the top of my road to make it smooth. Ah well, I asked for it ...

More dysfunction ...

From the New York State Government, second only (sometimes) to them Wes' Coas' folks in Sacramento. Our Rethugs had their primary and one of the guys trying to be the next governor is my county executive (the turncoat democrat). Res Ipsa sums up the jocularity succinctly:

...

Lazio is the putz who blew an election by trying to physically intimidate Hillary Clinton live on television. Levy is a porn-stache-wearing immigrant-bashing party-switching clown. And Ed Cox is Richard Nixon’s son-in-law.

...

If Andy Cuomo ain't our next governor, it'll be because he self-destructed in the next 6 months. But this is New York. FDR could be the governor and he'd still have to deal with the useless blobs of biomatter called the New York State Legislature.

By the way, the Putz won.

IOKIYAR ... part eleventy billion ... something

Remember when I warned Orrin Hatch about trying to criminalize speech, no matter how distasteful:

Before you push your silly legislation:

...

You might want to figure out how many of your own* will get caught up in it:

...

Headline over at C&L today:

IOKIYAR: Orrin Hatch Says His Amendment Would Not Apply to Mark Kirk

But of course!

Update:

Seems Kirk also has another "conservative problem":

His military record appears to not be the only thing about which Mark Kirk is lying.

...

Headlines of the Day

Fishermen Hospitalized: BP Not Allowing Clean-Up Workers to Use Respirators

Hazmat suits but no respirators. That arrogant Limey bastard CEO says it may be 'food poisoning' from 'unsanitary conditions' in the temporary worker camps. Hey, asshole, if there's one thing Americans know that Limeys don't, it's how to cook in outdoor situations. Fuck, the English can't cook in a kitchen. Yeesh.

Someone said on TV last night that BP may not have had a clean-up strategy, but they sure as hell had a legal strategy ready to go. The respirator thing is just another plan that's going to backfire on them.

Their larger plan is that they know there are going to be tens of thousands of claims, lawsuits, litigation of all sorts. Their plan? Keep 'em all tied up in court until all the plaintiffs are dead.

Let's hope the prosecutions go a little quicker.

Update:

Fisherman who fell ill during oil spill clean-up alleges BP tried to cover-up evidence.

“At West Jefferson, there were tents set up outside the hospital, where I was stripped of my clothing, washed with water and several showers, before I was allowed into the hospital,” Wunstell said. “When I asked for my clothing, I was told that BP had confiscated all of my clothing and it would not be returned.”

Knowingly exposing workers to toxins and carcinogens without safety equipment due to their (well-founded) fears of legal liability that is going to come back and bite them on the ass and rightly so. We're a very litigious society. This time, that's a good thing.

BP's gotta go down over all this.

Update II:

From the 1953 CIA Overthrow of Democracy in Iran, to the Iraq War, to the Criminal Gulf Catastrophe and Deaths, BP Was There

If you were to draw an oily line from the first exploitation of oil in the Middle East by the British in 1901 (they were in the process of converting their then world dominating naval fleet from coal to oil and were in desperate need of it) to the overthrow of the secular democratic leader in Iran, Mohammed Mossadeq, in 1953, to the Iraq War, to the criminal environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, BP would have been there.

BP and its American counterparts are part of the corporate oligarchy that run governments when it comes to energy policy. They don't take orders from sovereign nations; they give them. [...] There is no brake on their malfeasance, greed and criminal behavior, nor their ability to get nations to go to war, overthrow democratically elected leaders, and to get away with pollution of proportions beyond the imagination.

It's way past time for that to change. More.

From "can-do" to "can't-do" ...

In a mere 40 years.

Bob Herbert via Montag:

...

For a nation that can’t stop bragging about how great and powerful it is, we’ve become shockingly helpless in the face of the many challenges confronting us. Our can-do spirit was put on hold many moons ago, and here we are now unable to defeat the Taliban, or rein in the likes of BP and the biggest banks, or stop the oil gushing furiously from the bowels of earth like a warning from Hades about the hubris and ignorance that is threatening to destroy us.

...

Instead of staring mesmerized at the tragedy in the gulf, like spectators at a train wreck, we should be trying to regain that innovative can-do spirit that made America the greatest of nations.

...

The result of the American people being told, for the last 30 years, that they can have everything for nothing, that they can spend beyond their means, rape the environment, and not pay to support the national infrastructure (except for our military infrastructure, you betcha).

Spot on ...

Click to embiggen. Stolen from Oliver Willis.

Israel who?

Stays on top today - G

At the risk of being called an anti-Semite once again (not that I care anymore), at what point to we say "enough is enough"? At what point does Israel have to pay a price for their actions? At what point do we say, "Israel has become what it despises the most"? At what point do American Jews stop having the knee-jerk reaction to protect and defend anything that Israel does to the point of labeling anyone who disagrees an anti-Semite? And, at what point do our politicians stop kowtowing to Israeli lobbying groups in this country?

What Israel is doing - squeezing the Palestinians out of the West Bank through continued settlement expansion (my people called it Lebensraum), through the siege of Gaza, and disproportionate responses to any Palestinian transgression - is indefensible and unjustified under the blanket statement of "protecting Israel's security". Thanks to our alliance and unquestioned protection of Israel, our troops in the region are put in more danger than they already are. Our diplomatic efforts in the region are consistently undermined by Israel's unilateral aggression toward its neighbors, tainting us with the stench of their inhumanity.

JERUSALEM – Israeli commandos rappelled down to an aid flotilla sailing to thwart a Gaza blockade on Monday, clashing with pro-Palestinian activists on the lead ship in a botched raid that left at least nine passengers dead.

...

Their ruthlessness, their indifference to the human suffering (the direct result of Israel's policy toward the Palestinian areas) just across the border, and the Israeli government's adamant defense of those policies only makes them a 21st Century Nazi Germany. They learned well from those who once oppressed them.

As everyone in this country is complaining about how we're going broke (thanks to the two wars we're fighting, an underlying result of our alliance with Israel), I have a serious problem sending billions of dollars of my tax money (in the form of direct payments and military support) over there. I'm tired of our government looking the other way when Israel persists in implementing their plan to take whatever land the Palestinians have left and either shove them across the Jordan River or over the border into Egypt, or just kill as many as they can.

The United States can no longer afford to give the Israelis diplomatic cover in the U.N. with their veto power over the Security Council. I am very sorry for what my people did to theirs, there is no excuse or justification and will be a stain upon Germany for centuries to come, but that does not make Israel 'untouchable' (because, underneath it all, the label "anti-Semite" is inferring Nazism and if you say a cross word about Israel ...). It does not make them unaccountable for their actions and the consequences resulting. They certainly have no right to determine U.S. policy in the region.

If we expect to ever get our troops out of the Middle East, our policy toward Israel has to change. If we ever want to stop living in fear of a terrorist attack, the likes of which we saw here on 11 September, we have to distance ourselves from a government we have no control over. It's time to stop treating Israel as the 51st State.

Quote of the Day

Our pal Nunya:

The United States Supreme Court make up

is a right-wing Bush created Frankenstein nightmare that might end before I die, but I doubt it.

...

"The siege itself is becoming Israel’s Vietnam."

Haaretz via The Moderate Voice:

In going to war in Gaza in late 2008, Israeli military and political leaders hoped to teach Hamas a lesson. They succeeded. Hamas learned that the best way to fight Israel is to let Israel do what it has begun to do naturally: bluster, blunder, stonewall, and fume.

Hamas, and no less, Iran and Hezbollah, learned early on that Israel’s own embargo against Hamas-ruled Gaza was the most sophisticated and powerful weapon they could have deployed against the Jewish state.

Here in Israel, we have still yet to learn the lesson: We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel’s Vietnam.

'Seige' is a much better word for what Israel is doing to Gaza than 'blockade' because it invokes a medieval picture of trying to starve the Palestinians to death.

Related:

Egypt Opens Border With Gaza Strip to Allow Humanitarian Aid

Israel's Vietnam? Hmmmmm. Shades of Haiphong...

We'll see what Israel does about this 'outrage', as they will no doubt call it. It won't be good.