Who knew ...

J.C. Christian was the President's speechwriter?

Saturday whorage

The next chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

As always, let everybody know what you got in comments.

One paragraph ...

Via Atrios, posted without comment:

It is increasingly clear that by now that a severe U.S. recession is inevitable in next few months. Those of us who warned for the last 12 months about a combination of a worsening housing recession, a severe credit crunch and financial meltdown, high oil prices and a saving-less and debt-burdened consumers being on the ropes causing an economy-wide recession were repeatedly rebuffed the consensus view about a soft landing given the presumed resilience of the US consumer.

...

Are we smarter than 5th Graders?

Barely:

Great thanks to our pal Lambert for the link.

Veteran Outreach

Click to embiggen

House to telecoms: Fight your own lawsuits

Raw Story

Democrats scored a pair of victories Thursday in the battle to hold accountable telecommunications companies that allegedly assisted the Bush administration in its efforts to warrantlessly wiretap Americans.

The House late Thursday passed an update to a foreign surveillance law that did not include a Bush-requested provision granting legal immunity to the powerful telecoms. A Senate committee scored a similar win against immunity when it unexpectedly sent to the full Senate a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act revision that did not include immunity.

Activists who had fought to exclude the immunity provision last night cheered the dual victories, but none was ready to rest yet.

"It’s a huge victory," wrote Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake, "but just the beginning of the fight."

The article says that there are about 40 lawsuits pending against phone and Internet providers.

Maybe if these lawsuits cost them a few billion dollars, they'll think twice next time before violating the Constitution and breaking the law just because a criminal president tells them to and threatens them with the FCC and loss of contracts if they don't. Look for your phone and IP bills to go up.

Everything this criminal president does costs us - you and me - money, the Prick.

The American Sportsman

I have a special recipe for skeet, just for The Dick: delivered by a golf club and eaten raw.

Rescue!

[A big Brain welcome to Crooks and Liars readers]

I always have a section in the sidebar for animal rescue. Good organizations for you to donate to or adopt an animal needing a good home. Remember, between 2 and 3 million cats and dogs are euthanized every year.

The North Shore Animal League, along with the Humane Society of the United States, just accomplished a rescue of over 1100 dogs from a puppy mill in Virginia:

...

On November 8, 2007, North Shore Animal League America embarked on a rescue mission to help the HSUS save these endangered dogs, bringing as many of them to the safety of the League as possible. Preparing for a round trip journey of more than 1,100 miles, the League’s mobile units were packed up with the necessary provisions and ready to assess whatever conditions they were to encounter. When the League’s team of dedicated professionals arrived at the dismal destination, they worked diligently assisting with examinations, vaccinations, taking the dogs for walks, keeping them exercised, distributing feedings and keeping the chaos of hundreds of stressed dogs down to a minimum.

...

NSAL America has a special place in my heart. A Long Island organization located a few miles from where I work, I know first-hand the good work they do. Our Princess Shayna is a rescue and NSAL alumnus as well.

Pulling off a rescue of this size and magnitude puts a real strain on the resources so I'm making this appeal for donations on their behalf. I realize the economy is going to shit and the holidays are coming up, but even $10 will help [pass on a drink the next time you go out and you'll be able to swing it]. If you're considering a new addition to your household and you live in the NY/NJ/CT/PA area, why don't you check out some of the animals they have for adoption before buying one from a pet store that, chances are good, got their animals from a mill of the type NSAL and HSUS are trying to shut down.

If we can't help the creatures who give us so much joy, who rely on us to protect them, we really should examine our humanity.

And just a note: DO NOT GIVE DOGS AS CHRISTMAS PRESENTS UNLESS YOU KNOW THE POTENTIAL OWNER ACTUALLY WANTS ONE! Do you realize how many animals end up in shelters because a surprise gift of a puppy turns out to be too much of a commitment, or hassle, to those receiving it? Don't add to the fucking problem.

Estimates ...

Seems the only people who think invading Iran is a good idea are the neocons. Kevin Drum links to an article on the National Intelligence Estimate.

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.

But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. The White House has now apparently decided to release the unsatisfactory draft NIE, but without making its key findings public.

...

Because I'd bet those 'key findings' probably say Cheney is fucking crazy and should be locked in a room with rubber wallpaper. As Kevin says:

...

Those are your choices. The NIE's key findings, which are normally released, are being withheld because (a) they contain dissents Dick Cheney doesn't like, or (b) because they might expose U.S. intelligence capabilities. If you choose (b), I have a subprime loan you might be interested in taking a look at.

I wonder, since the Chimp and Cheney have set the bar so low, will we ever get another government that doesn't lie, cheat, and fudge the facts to suit their political needs? Somehow, I don't put much faith in the Dems to give back some of the vast power amassed in the Executive over the past 7 years. If the whiny Rethugs have any use, it is that they might be able to force the Dems to return the power structure on Washington to where the Founders envisioned. You know they, even in a minority, wouldn't let a Dem president get away with half as much as the Spineless Ones did with the Chimp.

Just so you understand ...

TBogg has a photo essay up highlighting the difference between George W. Bush and what America really stands for.

Dear Barry Bonds,

Ha-ha!

SAN FRANCISCO - The home run king wasn’t home free after all.

Barry Bonds was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice Thursday and could go to prison instead of the Hall of Fame for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

...

Guilty or not, it'll be good to see this smug, cheating bastid squirm on the hot seat. Now if we could get indictments on the two assholes who've been fucking up this country, life would be good.

Quote of the Day

Digby:

... Only bumper sticker slogans are allowed in American politic[s], which explains why George W. Bush has been president for seven long years ..

.

News from the front ...

From an email from Sen. Dodd's office:

... If needed Senator Dodd will filibuster any amendment seeking to add retroactive immunity to the underlying [FISA] bill. By filibustering, he will force the opposition to find 60 votes to pass the provision ...

God bless him.

The Economy

Swiped from Slate

Gitmo SOP Manual Leaked

At Invictus. Many links from there.

The Camp Delta document includes schematics of the camp, detailed checklists of what "comfort items" such as extra toilet paper can be given to detainees as rewards, six pages of instructions on how to process new detainees, instructions on how to psychologically manipulate prisoners, and rules for dealing with hunger strikes....

The Pentagon did not reply to a request for comment on the document.

So what else is new?

Kinky is as Kinky does...

Go have some fun and read this Truthdig interview with Kinky Friedman.

Kinky on Bush:

Friedman: Well, you know there are two kinds of people who wear cowboy hats: cowboys and assholes.

Yup. Or is it yep? I can never get that cowboy shit right...

Tell Pelosi: Put Impeachment back on the Table

This one calls for a little work on our part, but I'm going to do it.

Connie Talk

Nancy Pelosi has received a whole lot of criticism for continually repeating that impeachment is "off the table." Now, House Resolution 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney is off of the House floor, and has been sent instead to the Judiciary Committee for "further study."

Just as an aside, in the world of motorcycles a lot of us have learned how to say 'fuck you' in Japanese: "Ah, so, must study!".

This action, consistent with Pelosi's mantra that impeachment is "off the table," has many people angry. Pelosi did, however, provide us a small window: in reply to a question of impeachment, she stated that if she received 10,000 handwritten letters, she would proceed with it.

So, in this high-tech world, where we do everything possible to avoid manually writing out our correspondence - we shoot off e-mails, sign up for electronic banking, pay our bills through the computer, send in rebates electronically, write blogs instead of diaries - I'm asking you to do something a little old-fashioned.

Sit down with a pen and paper, and a stamped envelope, and write.

And don't put it off - the letters will be hand delivered to Pelosi's office in San Francisco before Thanksgiving, so have your letter mailed by Friday, November 16th.

The body of the letter they want us to write and the address to send it to - NOT Nancy Pelosi - is at the site. It's a pretty long letter. Watch your penmanship.

If we're not serious enough about impeachment to spend a little time risking writer's cramp, we're not serious enough about impeachment. Do it now, please.

Update:

The suggested letter was waaaay too long. I used the first, third, and last paragraphs. It fit on one page. Took about fifteen minutes.

Now to catch the outgoing mail. Hark! I think I hear his mule clip-clopping by...

Update zwei:

Not enough coverage, pro-impeachment Dem launches KucinichTV

Early Morning Jokes

Tony Peyser

The Justice Department wiretapping probe, shut down by President Bush, has been reopened. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will boldly side with Democrats, rabidly defy the White House and help bring down this criminal administration. (Sorry: I just went off my meds.)

In related news, President Bush promises to work with his new Attorney General to rebuild the Justice Department. This is kinda like Osama bin Laden showing up at Ground Zero to help construct new World Trade Towers.

Ain't it just so?

Beyond Mukasey's Confirmation

Elizabeth Holtzman

Though it failed to send his nomination the way of Robert Bork, attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey's evasiveness on the definition of torture has done something historic. It has made it unmistakably clear to mainstream observers that the president may be criminally liable for violating anti-torture laws. Criminal liability of this White House will have wider repercussions than Mr. Mukasey's confirmation. It will reverberate through his tenure as attorney general and beyond the end of the Bush administration.

We now know that the reason Mr. Mukasey refused to acknowledge that waterboarding meets the legal definition of torture, or at the very least cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, clearly had nothing to do with not being briefed about the procedure. If he didn't know at the time of the Senate committee hearing, he certainly learned afterwards that the US had considered waterboarding criminal and prosecuted it for at least a century. The real reason, as mainstream news analysts now acknowledge, was that publicly admitting waterboarding is torture or cruel and inhuman would have put the president in jeopardy of criminal charges.

Still, holes remain in the legal barricades the Bush administration has tried to erect around itself. Even if immunity from prosecution under the War Crimes Act stands, it only applies through 2006, not for mistreatment of detainees after that. And the 1994 anti-torture law applies throughout.

As attorney general, Mr. Mukasey can try to plug these holes. He may shield President Bush and others from criminal liability; he may resist appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate White House actions. But he cannot, as the 2002 Gonzales memo recognized, tie the hands of future prosecutors. In lethal cases, our anti-torture laws have no statute of limitations. Sooner or later, those who violated US law will be held accountable to them, if not by Mukasey, then by some future AG.

There's hope yet that Bush and his fellow malfeasors will someday answer for their crimes. They don't call it "the long arm of the law" for nothing, but I'm not sure it can reach into Paraguay.

A thousand words ...

Pic stolen from the Existentialist Cowboy. Click to embiggen.

I stole this pic from EC while reading his insightful post about the warnings being sent by Russia and China to the Chimp to change his plans regarding Iraq:

...

China, likewise, warned America's rogue psychopath. As if to underscore the point, a Chinese submarine popped up --undetected --in the middle of a Pacific Ocean exercise. The Sub was said to be "dangerously close" to the USS Kitty Hawk, having slipped past a US "shield" of a dozen warships and two US subs. US brass are "dumbfounded"!

We can only speculate about US ability to detect "subs". One would have assumed advances since the making of the early 90's film --"The Hunt for Red October". Even so -- that China has a sub that slips so effortlessly, silently past vaunted US detection technology confirms that the sub was of advanced design and equipped with advanced stealth technology. Just recently, in the comments section, I stated that China had the ability to put a nuclear sub undetected just off the US East Coast. China exceeded my prediction. I had not expected to be confirmed so quickly by events.

...

If China had other plans, Kitty Hawk Group would now be an artificial reef. My great concern is the idiots running the show over here won't grasp the magnitude of the demonstration. Maybe if they'd stop watching 24, they'd understand that others who have a vested interest in the Middle East will not sit by and let us act unilaterally. They will protect their national interests, regardless of ours. The fact the Chinese can sneak a sub into the middle of a U.S. carrier group makes my ass pucker. It says they can take out any of our naval assets in the Pacific at will.

We got big problems. Off to work ...

Addendum: In light of this revelation, what do you think the Chinese would do if we came to Taiwan's defense if they decided to push the issue over the "rogue province"?