Bush claims right to wage war on U.S. citizens

Quite a read at The Existentialist Cowboy.

Bush proves himself a "state absolutist", arrogating unto himself the power to wage war on the American people.

The President is now claiming, and is aggressively exercising, the right to use any and all war powers against American citizens even within the United States, and he insists that neither Congress nor the courts can do anything to stop him or even restrict him.

-Glenn Greenwald: The NSA Fight Begins - Strategies for Moving Forward

So when Bush says that the "Constitution is just a Goddamned piece of paper", he aligns himself with Hitler, Mussolini, Mao -- "state absolutists", fascists, and radical communists. Simply, he has declared war on the American people, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Democracy and freedom.

The so called "intolerable acts" attributed to King George III pale by comparison.

If we are lucky, Bush is on the wrong side of history and will fail. If we are not lucky, Bush will wage war upon the American people themselves and America will be forever lost if it is not lost already!

Bush is best described as anti-American or fascist by virtue of his partnership with "big oil" and other corporate interests. For Bush sovereignty resides with the state; the people are mere vassals. He represents a tradition more at home in the Teutoburg Forest or the grandiloquent halls of Hitler's Chancellery.

Much, much more at the link. Kinda like 'Philosophy 101' meets 'The Constitution'.

GOP's Chambliss Compares Iraq Troop Rotations To WW II

From Bob Geiger, a Veteran whom we highly respect:

And since coming to the Senate, his tenure has been most notable to the extent that, even in a Congress characterized by Republicans who serve solely as rubber stamps for George W. Bush, he's among the most compliant even by that lot's sorry standards.

So it's no surprise that Chambliss went to the Senate floor this week to argue against Virginia Democrat Jim Webb's bill to mandate more time at home for Iraq combat troops before Bush could sent them right back into battle. What is amazing is the sheer stupidity of what he said.

"It is an unwise and harmful effort to limit the ability of the President and his military leaders and handicap their use of personnel and resources available to them," said Chambliss, in arguing for sending troops back to Iraq with insufficient rest and medical care.

Now, that's just spin and not the really dumb thing -- though one could wonder how anyone could at this point rant about how we should let a proven incompetent like Bush manage a game of Monopoly, much less the U.S. military after the mess he's made of things.

"Keep in mind that during World War II and other wars of this country, service members participating in those wars deployed for 3 and 4 years with little or no break. With this in mind the current proposal by Senator Webb seems out of step with history and what it has taken to win the wars of this country. I can think of no way in which the Webb amendment will help our Nation succeed in Iraq."

Leave it to a Republican desperate to bail out Bush, to compare World War II and the gravity of that global conflict with Bush's war of choice about absolutely nothing.

And I know you're wondering, given that both Webb and his bill's cosponsor, Republican Chuck Hagel, are Vietnam combat Veterans, about the military record of a blood-and-guts guy like good old Saxby.

You guessed it -- he didn't do time in the military. He got a student deferment so he could attend law school and was subsequently given a medical deferment because of a bad knee.

But now, that's really no surprise, is it?

No surprise at all. Like most Repugs, "good old Saxby" is all flaps and no throttle, a lotta hot air and smoke 'n mirrors.

This Repug is particularly repugnant for the way he swiftboated another combat Veteran, Max Cleland, out of his Congressional seat.

Impeachment on Moyers

Last night's Bill Moyers Journal on impeachment of Cheney and Bush did not disappoint. It took up about 45 minutes of the show. Video and transcript. Please take the time to watch it if you missed it.

Sorry but ...

If you have a preoccupation with running down a cobblestone street in the company of animals who weigh 10 times what you do, have big fucking horns, and don't particularly like you, you should have your head examined.

MADRID, Spain—Charging bulls gored seven people and seriously injured several others Thursday as this year's San Fermin festival in Pamplona served up its longest and most dangerous run yet.

...

Happy landings, dope.

Dumbass Americans take note: Spain is a beautiful country with great people. There are a lot of other things to do and see than run with the bulls.

Bastille Day

Time for our own version of the French holiday.

You wanna bomb something?

Fuck Iran, bomb Pakistan:

The new intelligence report showing that al-Qaida is at its strongest since 9/11 does not point an accusatory finger clearly enough at the figure who has made it possible for the terror network to rebuild: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan - a man touted by the White House as one of the chief U.S. allies in the war on terror.

...

We've given that little twerp close to $6bln since 9/11 and all he's doing is shoving it up our collective ass. Fuck him, blow his ass out the water and leave the Iranians alone.

Addendum:

We shouldn't even bother. We should bribe the Indians to do it. They've had an axe to grind with the Paks for years.

A whore in the hand ...

Another chapter of The Fourth Estate is up at The Practical Press.

Reality bitchslaps Peggy ...

Peggy Noonan puts down the Pernod, opens her eyes, and doesn't like what she sees. The great TRex tries to talk her through it.

[Warning: Don't click on the YouTube unless you want the damn song going around in your head all day.]

Spics and Niggers ...

Remember my post a couple months back, recounting my conversation with a customer?

So, I see a customer I hadn't seen in a couple months. He's ex-Navy, Republican, NRA member, mid-fifties. I've known him 15 years and he's always been a decent enough guy. Yeah, he watches Fox 'News' but he'd always listen to reason. He's really pissed off about the way Iraq was botched and about how it's all gone to Hell over there. So I ask him today, "I bet you're gonna vote Democrat next year."

"Nope," he says. "Republican across the board."

So I gotta ask. "Even after all this horseshit in Iraq?"

"Yup," he nods.

"How come?" I ask.

"Niggers and spics," he replies.

My jaw drops open. "What?"

"Niggers and spics," he says again. "The Republicans don't like 'em and neither do I."

...

And I'm sure many of you said, 'well, that's just one cracker motherfucker, the Republican Party isn't inherently racist'. Guess what? They are:

The one photo the GOP does not want anyone to see was snapped at yesterday's NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum. The NAACP invited all 9 Republican candidates to the forum, but only one showed up: Tom Tancredo. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum.

...

Click to embiggen

The American Republican Party, merely a cover for the KKK, Nazis, and any other racist, cracker piece of shit out there. Not only is it a criminal organization, but a racist one at that. Any black person who identifies as Republican should have their head examined. That goes for gay Republicans too. All you're doing is giving the bigots cover.

Great thanks to Nicole for the link.

On Harriet ...

Larisa Alexandrovna:

... Yet the Republican members on the [Judiciary Committee] are willing to hand over their Congressional oversight and even be slapped by the Executive branch publicly, making a sham of their work. That empty chair should have offended everyone, regardless of party. I can only conclude that whatever Miers has to offer is so damning that the GOP fears it more than they do the public outcry that will - and it will - come of this. [my em]

...

I can't wait to see what's in Harriet's airy little head.

"You win, you rule."

Good rant at ePluribusMedia Community.

In President Bush's case, he comes from of a particularly unsavory ultra right-wing Protestant religious influence that combines its influence on controlling his self-destructive personal habits with its claims that God's law supercedes man's laws and that the true believer must be obedient to the former.

The likes of Dick Cheney and others, of course, don't require the religious trappings on this notion. For them, Scalia is sufficient: You win, you rule.

Bush is constantly told that God is working through him. On the road to full Biblical rule, he must act without respect for the Constitution. He must wiretap, he must allow Guantanamo, he must permit Abu Ghraib, he must defend Cheney's refusal to disclose, he must sanction leaks exposing covert CIA operations, he must stack the court system, all this and more with disdain and disregard for the Constitution.

For him, it's not only because he can, but because God is telling him to.

I wish God actually would talk to Bush. Just once. I wish He'd tell him to shut the fuck up and go home.

Quote of the Day, sort of...

By guess who, at SPR

"By outlawing abortion, and keeping sex-ed and condoms out of the schools, we should be able to spawn enough cannon fodder for the next few generations."

Old news - move on

Yahoo!News

President Bush always said he would wait to talk about the CIA leak case until after the investigation into his administration's role. On Thursday, he skipped over that step and pronounced the matter old news hardly worth discussing.

Yeah, no point in discussing the White House role in the crime now Bush has seen to it that the star witness has no incentive to roll over on him and his, is there?

That weasly little punk sonofabitch. Again. Still. Forever.

Talk of Impeachment

Programming note: Bill Moyers Journal. PBS. Tonight. Check your local listings

Bill Moyers Journal explores the talk of impeachment gaining steam as a new opinion poll says nearly half of Americans favor impeachment of the president and more than half want to impeach the vice president.

.
I think it would be perfectly OK to just impeach a little more than half of Cheney. Just how much to be determined by a machete.

Opposition to American Oil Grab Is Unifying Iraqis

Well, I'm glad something is. The headline pretty much says it all, but there's more from UPI via Truthout.

U.S. President Bush may be right: Iraq's oil law, although highly controversial, could be a "benchmark for reconciliation."

When Iraq's council of ministers last week suddenly approved the law, critics of various stripes united in opposition. Shiite and Sunni political parties alike denounced it, vowed to defeat it, even threatened to ensure Parliament can't take it up. It is seen by some as weakening the central government and giving too much to foreign companies.

The oil law already faced opposition from Iraq oil experts - including two of the law's three original authors - as well as the powerful oil unions. The unions say they're willing to stop production and exports if the law gives foreign oil companies too much access to or ownership of the oil.

Last week the Iraq Freedom Congress - whose motto is "Working for a Democratic, Secular and Progressive Alternative to both the U.S. Occupation and Political Islam in Iraq" - teamed up with the new Anti Oil Law Frontier to rally masses against the law.

All the while a coalition in Iraq grows. It encompasses Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and secularists. Its goal is to keep Iraq together. But it also wants an end to the U.S. occupation.

"They are also strongly opposed both to the terrorist forces of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and to the growing influence of Iran in Iraq," Robert Dreyfuss wrote of the opposition in The Nation.

Despite sharing two key tenets of the war on terrorism, the United States isn't supporting the coalition.

Of course not. We're not going to support any coalition, no matter how unifying, that keeps control of Iraq's oil in their own hands and negates the purpose of Bush's War. We don't mind too awful much having to kick down some bread for them to share as long as Big Oil gets most of it.

Quote of the Day

“Don't fear change especially when the status quo is so freaking frightening.”

—Cindy Sheehan writing at AlterNet

Bomb Iran?

Before you get all gung-ho about attacking Iran (and I'm speaking to the war mongering Rethugs that occasionally pass through here), read this insightful post from Brother Lurch:

...

Let’s briefly recap: just about everything in the US runs on the internal combustion engine. People moved into the suburbs to get away from the awful, crowded cities, but many drive 30 to 50 miles a day to work. Unless you work in a major city like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Philadelphia, you don’t have a truly reliable public transportation system to rely on.

Most of our food is carried by semi-trailers. Are you ready for chicken at $8 or $9 a pound? Lettuce at $7 a head? $7.50 for a gallon of milk?

...

If you like gasoline at $3 a gallon, you’re going to love it at $8 $13 when the oil tankers stop sailing.

...

The oil producing nations have us by the short and curlies. Why do you think the Saudis have the ability to summon the Vice President of the United States to read him the riot act? Kicking them in the nuts right now might not be the best idea of the year.

Off to the shop; TGIF ...

Progress?

One day's headlines from Iraq Today - you decide.

Report: Iraq more violent in June

Iraqis bemoan lack of services in long, hot summer

Have the Tigris and Euphrates Run Dry?

“My mother was killed for not wearing a veil”

Iraqis grapple with high unemployment

Jobs fair aims to reduce unemployment, insurgency

Civilians help with raid on al Qaeda

'Arrowhead' Becomes Fountainhead of Anger

Iraqi lawmaker quits energy panel over oil law

Insurgent Group Condemns Saturday’s Car Bomb

Sunni extremists seize control of village in Iraq

U.S.-Iraqi forces retake village attacked by insurgents northeast of Baghdad

US Blunders Cause of Iraq Violence

US Faced With Iraqi Army Turncoats

US-Iraqi forces struggle to clear and hold Iraq's Diyala province

Explosives found in truck heading from Syria to Iraq

Wars Costing $12 Billion a Month

Audio: A Letter from the Front: A Soldier in Iraq

Dearborn man pleads guilty to spying for Saddam

Sensitive military files readily available online

Opinion: Resolute Amid the Wreckage

Aid agency appeals for help for 1,000 IDPs in desert camp

Number of IDPs tops one million, says Iraqi Red Crescent

U.S. Failing to Help Iraqi Translator and Family Targeted for Execution

Quote of the day: “We are not greedy, we gave up on the hope of living like the rest of the world long ago ... all we want is the luxury of water and a good night sleep.” —Lamia Hasan, a Baghdad mother of three

Second Quote of the day: “I just remember thinking to myself, I just brought terror to someone else under the American flag, and that's just not what I joined the Army to do.” —Sergeant Westphal

Quote of the Day

Aravosis:

America cannot afford to have a blithering idiot running our country in a time of war.

Your party of 'Moral Values'

Not that I care who you sleep with as long as they're a consenting adult, but if you wrap yourself in the cloak of 'morality' (gays are the anti-Christ), maybe you should practice what you preach or shut the fuck up.

Titusville police say they have arrested Florida State Rep. Robert "Bob" Allen, of Merrit Island, on second degree misdemeanor charges for soliciation for prostiution.

...

Officers say they noticed Allen acting suspicious as he went in and out of the men's restroom 3 times. Minutes later, he solicited an undercover male officer inside the restroom, offering to perform oral sex for $20. Officers realized he was a public figure after the arrest.

...

I'm tired of these Rethug hypocrites minding my business and preaching their sanctimonious bullshit. Let me ask you Christians something. Don't you think they are just as hypocritical when interpreting the Message of the Lord? Just sayin'. It's your souls you're worried about. I'm good.

Thanks to Maru for the link.

Update:

Lambert has more from the DC Madam:

... Jeanette says that most of the clients who wanted to be dominated were Republicans. She cracks a smile, then adds, “They wanted to be spanked and tortured and wear stockings—Republicans have impeccable taste in silk stockings—and these are the people who run our country.

...

Like I said, I give a shit what you do behind closed doors, but don't persecute people for practicing the same kinks you do.