Memorial Day

[I wrote this 2 years ago and I reposted it last year too. Still works.]

You're probably saying to yourself. "Boy, the old Fixer-man is a bigger idiot than usual, bitching about this Memorial Day thing, and Americans forgetting what this weekend is all about."

You know why? Because I dodged bullets for four years in Asia, drug interdiction in South America, and killing a few Cuban Communists in Grenada. I've lost friends over the years, guys (and gals, you politically-correct busybodies) who had the same things to live for that I did, families, hopes and dreams to make something of themselves and a better life for their kids. In short, I hate war.

I am a child of war, but call me the silver lining in the dark cloud of World War II. My mom was a German Army nurse during that war, and my dad was a British paratrooper. They met in Jamaica, Queens in 1953, after dad came back from the Korean Conflict. Yes, the poor bastard moved to the U.S. after WWII and was promptly drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. They met and married and gave birth to one child, yours truly. In my family, on both sides, going back five hundred years, military service was understood.

I had to be coaxed, at age 17, to enlist (It was either enlist or serve 6 months on a Grand Theft Auto charge). And I'm grateful that my dad convinced the judge to give me a chance to redeem myself. I served eight years total (6 regular AF, 2 active reserve), and I'm proud of the part I played in protecting the country. I'd go again if they'd take this broken down old carcass, and there are many who would also go to protect this country without question. Old bastards like me who love America and would gladly lay down our lives to protect what we have. There are many like me, a couple million of them serving on active duty right now.

They go, without question, to where our leaders send them. They lay their lives on the line every day to do what our leaders say is a noble job. They will do it again and again because they made the commitment, officers and enlisted, generals to privates, they all made their commitments to the noble ideals of the United States of America. It is our leaders' responsiblity to assure the correctness of their sacrifice. People with such commitment do not deserve to have their lives wasted by those who have never looked into the business end of an enemy rifle. Unfortunately, I feel the lives of our boys and girls are being wasted in Iraq, and that pisses me off.

We have a bunch of guys in Washington who've never served in the military. Yes, I include President No Nuts because the only reason he went into the Guard was that there was no other way out. To these guys, the lives of our military personnel are just numbers on a ledger sheet, not exeptionally trained, valuable resources who should not be squandered in pursuit of imperialistic dreams.

Solders hate war. Anybody who enjoys killing, even in wartime, is a psychopath, period. Ask any general if he wants to put his people in harm's way. he'll tell you that a reality of war is that he has to, but he doesn't want to, and he doesn't want to do it frivolously. The glib frivoloity with which the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq is criminal, and the lack of planning for the aftermath is treasonous. I'm sorry, to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have perished in Iraq, to the families who will have an empty chair at future holiday gatherings, to all those who have suffered because of this fiasco, but 800 lives have been lost for NOTHING. You have not sacrificed your lives to protect this great nation and the Constitution, you were murdered by people who only see your lives as a means to an end. Hopefully, some time soon, they will be forced to pay.

Yes, I am one pissed off motherfucker this Memorial Day. 800 of my brothers and sisters are dead, close to 5000 wounded, for NOTHING. They say Bush went to war to avenge his daddy. Well, I want vengeance for our honored dead this past year. Getting Bush out in November is not good enough. I want him in jail.

[If you would have told me, 2 years ago, that I'd be able to post this for the third time, I'd have told you the American people can't be stupid enough to reelect the Chimp. I want a Democratic majority in November. I don't want to repost this next year.]

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

But mom, I want to see what the neighbor is doing.

Runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off...

Light-to-zilch blogging today. Mrs. G has to karmically pay for her birthday bash with a regularly scheduled dental appointment in Reno. It's been rescheduled once, cancelled as of yesterday, and suddenly back on today. I have to make an errand and shopping list, etc., in the spirit of conservation (read: $3.00+ gas) so we can combine things to make just one trip instead of also going on our normal shopping trip tomorrow.

I'll just leave you with a short reading list. There may be a quiz! Oh, what's the use? You all pass!

Paul Krugman on Al Gore's movie and the potential test of our national character that it may help pose.

Thanks, Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Robert Parry fingers the unindicted co-conspirator in the Enron case. You'll never guess who it is!


William Rivers Pitt on impeachment and how the Republicans are using it to try and not lose the November elections. Don't miss this one!

What's left? Vote for us, or else we'll be held accountable! That's just funny.

See ya later.

Morning question

So, now that the Chimp's biggest campaign contributor, and a member of Dick Cheney's secretive Energy Task Force, is a convicted felon, do you think anyone (Congress, the press) will demand accountabilty from the White House? Do you think someone will demand to know if the rape of California, during it's energy crisis that brought down a governor, was planned and orchestrated in the office of the Vice President?

Damn right

I want all these politically active TV preachers to have their tax exemptions revoked.

Mrs. G's B'Day - and Free Food too!

Today is my lovely young bride's birthday. To make it complete, we're going out to dinner at our town's finest restaurant, O.B.'s Pub, and to make it perfect, we're going courtesy of Chris and Phoebe at Truckee Realty.

They send out a quarterly newsletter telling us how things are going, real estate-wise, and they always have a coupon for a drawing to win dinner at a nice restaurant. They do this mostly to see who reads the newsletter. Since we won one of these two years ago and had Mrs. G's birthday dinner at Cottonwood, I asked Chris how many people respond. Her answer was "Oh, sometimes as many as 20". A smokin' good chance to win, if you ask me!

As far as how old Mrs. G might be, well, she ain't tellin' and I ain't askin', but she got a card from one of her co-workers today that read, "I can't remember how old you are, but your cake last year had 29 candles - on my piece!"

I hope that gal ducked!

Not Ready To Make Nice? Good For Them!

Since we're at Time anyway, go read the cover story about The Dixie Chicks.

Shorter:

Natalie Maines is one of those people born middle finger first.

Stick it waaay high in the air, Honey. And wave it.

Keep Gitmo Open

Time has a real good article by a reporter who spent a week with the Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Second Marine Division, in Ramadi, Iraq. These are "my" Marines, cuz I was in 3/8 for a coupla years in the '60s.

A real good look at a day in the life of a rifle squad, but the last few paragraphs really tell the story of the bigger picture.

So why does Ramadi remain beyond the U.S.'s control? Part of the problem, many officers say, is that the troops' authority to act is constrained by politics. Soldiers cannot lock up suspected insurgents without first getting an arrest warrant and a sworn statement from two witnesses. And those who are convicted often receive jail sentences that are shorter than a grunt's tour of Iraq. "We keep seeing guys we arrested coming back out, and things get worse again," says an intelligence officer.

The bigger problem, though, is one that few in the military command want to hear: there aren't enough troops to do the job. "There's a realization, as every military commander knows, that you cannot be strong everywhere," says Gronski of Ramadi. "In the outlying areas, we think in terms of an economy of force where we are willing to accept risk by not placing as many troops." But while Gronski says his fighting strength is "appropriate," other commanders bristle at the limitations. "I can't believe it each time the Secretary of Defense talks about reducing force," says a senior U.S. officer. War planners in Iraq say just getting a handle on Ramadi demands three times as many soldiers as are there now. Several U.S. commanders say they won't ask superiors for more troops or plan large-scale operations because doing so would expose problems in the U.S.'s strategy that no one wants to acknowledge. "It's what I call the Big Lie," a high-ranking U.S. commander told TIME.

There it is: the Big Lie.

Bush starts an illegal unnecessary war by lying, Rumsfeld then goes against the advice of his military advisers and turns a bad plan into a worse plan by not sending enough troops to commit the original crime. The American public has started to see through all the smoke and wants Bush's War over with because it's a)wrong to begin with and, b)failing, so Bush is trying to spread the message that everything's going just peachy and maybe, just maybe, the troop level can be drawn down by -oh, I don't know- election day. He dare not admit the whole deal was a clusterfuck from the get-go, so he can't send enough troops to do the job like he should have in the first place. Illegal war, bad planning, failure, shine it on, admit no mistakes, lie some more.

Meanwhile, young Americans are being hung out to dry, and die, for Bush's, Cheney's, Rumsfeld's and others' image of themselves, not to mention their crimes and incompetence.

Keep Gitmo open - for them.

Yo, Denny, Mess With a Criminal Enterprise, Whaddya Expect?

Heh. The 'Li'l Fat Denny' deal is gettin' good...ABC says he's under investigation...FBI denies it...his aide says it's retaliation for talkin' back to the FBI and the administration...

BuzzFlash has a good take on the whole deal:

What were you thinking, Denny? What were you thinking?

You don't start mouthing off about the Godfather and expect that he won't notice? Come on now. My friend, it's simple: they got the power and you don't. What did you think, this was a democracy or something?

I mean you start getting all hot and bothered about your former crew member, Porter Goss, being dumped from the CIA like a stiff being dropped into Biscayne Bay. You go to the big guy (Mr. Cheney) and the little guy who pretends that he's the big guy (Mr. Fredo Bush) and tell them off. What did you expect?

Let me tell you what an elephant and a mob boss have in common: neither of them forgets.

Listen Denny the Man owns your House! You got it? That's rule number one. He can come in anytime he wants to and you just put out a plate of cold cuts and some Scotch and welcome him like royalty, okay?

After all, Mr. Rove was just having the FBI go after a black Democratic Congressman to play the race card and shift the focus from the ongoing revelations about the Republican mob. It was a two-fer. Magnifico!

And what did you do? You ruined the operation.

You start screaming about how "your House" was violated and the separation of powers and all that stuff that gave me a headache in high school. The Man is the power: there ain't no separation. You dig, Denny?

Denny, after 6 years of letting the Godfather and Fredo loot your house, you should know that you aren't going to get away with suddenly slamming the door in their faces.

These guys don't take prisoners, Denny boy. They mix the concrete, shoot and bury.

So when they send you a horse's head and put it in your bed -- like this story about the FBI investigating you -- well, I'd do what the guy in my favorite film of all time, "The Godfather," did. I'd shut my trap and give them anything they want -- and one thing that they don't want is lip. You see where I'm going with this, don't you?

Learn from me, Denny. Learn.

This is a battle you can't win.

The Man is The Man and you are just expendable tuna fish to him.

He is the law, Denny. And he's the sheriff. He's the prosecutor, and he's the judge.

Think about that, Denny, before you start mouthing off again.

This time it was a horse's head. Next time it might be your head.

Ol' Denny might be using a halibut for a pillow any day now!

Jury Reaches Verdict

From Raw Story:

Former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling have been found guilty on dozens of charges of conspiracy and fraud.

Lay was found guilty on all charges, which could net him 165 years in jail.

Skilling was found guilty of the first 35 counts brought against him. He was acquitted, however, of numerous charges of insider trading.

Developing...

No mention yet of when they're going to pay back all the money they stole.

Under oath, bitch

Another ha-ha!

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

...

How much you wanna bet Cheney's first words are, "Scooter who"?

You too, Denny?

Looks like somebody squealed on the little troll:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

ABC, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

...

Ha-ha! Now back to writing.

Quote of the Day*

From Patrick Dog:

...The Republican Culture of Life: Offer expires at birth...

Back to writing.

*Not a daily feature.

Equal Time

As long as we're talkin' about marriages, let's give equal time. Again, it's none of our business, but rumor and speculation are sometimes the stuff of life on a slow news day. From Firedoglake:

George and Laura Bush's marriage has collapsed as his approval ratings plummet and a host of mounting personal problems rip the first couple apart and push them to secretly lead separate lives!

GLOBE has learned that while George and Laura still appear as the first couple at various public functions, they hardly speak to one another in private and don't even want to be in the same room together.

"When the cameras aren't on, they have nothing to do with one another," a longtime friend confides to GLOBE. "There's no interaction at all."

"For all practical purposes, they've broken up."

I hope Jane didn't actually buy that rag, the Globe! Nah, musta just read it over somebody's shoulder in the checkout line.

If I was Laura, I'd be way pissed-off: Given Georgie's drinkin' an' dopin' ways, she was supposed to be a rich widow by now. Instead, he supposedly quit them and got all self-righteous and fucked up the country and the world, and she pretty much had to sit there with her mouth shut and let him, against all better judgment.

Laura, can you say Lorena Bobbitt?

More Hil 'n Bill

Geov Parrish, obviously a regular reader of the Brain and a man poised to read my posts an instant after they're posted, agrees with my comments in my MoDo post about the speculation on the Clinton's marriage.

Okay, let me be up front about this. There are days -- about 365 of them, in the average calendar year, with allowances for leap years -- when the reporting in the New York Times pisses me off. (The nadir, perhaps, being when our self-styled "newspaper of record" sat on the domestic warrantless NSA spying story for 14 months, a decision that may well have given George W. Bush his second term.) But rarely does the Times strike me as classless, an exercise in poor taste that leaves me with an icky feeling just reading it.

But that's exactly how I felt Tuesday, reading the Times' exhaustive story on the state of the marriage between Bill and Hillary Clinton.

This is, of course, a dream article for the Republican National Committee. Without quoting a single Republican, it manages to insert a particularly tasteless incident of marital infidelity into the dialogue surrounding a probable 2008 presidential candidate, a full decade after the incident occurred. And as unsavory as that incident was, it pales compared to the repeated lies, law-breaking, Constitution-bashing behavior of the current White House occupant. The RNC could use that kind of distraction right now.

Get used to it, of course. If Hillary becomes a frontrunner in 2008, which her money and fundraising connections virtually guarantee, this is exactly the sort of thing smear-happy Republicans will pound. (They certainly can't criticize much in her senatorial record, which has often lined up nicely with the Republican agenda.) Conservative talk radio spent nearly a decade hammering away at the themes of Hillary as liberal queen bitch and Bill as amoral "Slick Willie," and they're not about to let go of a proven ratings winner.

Why the first frontal assault should come from the New York Times, though, is, as they say, "hard to gauge from the outside." Damn that liberal media, anyway.

Of course it's all about politics. It's still about as no-class as it gets.

While I was typin' and c-n-pin' this, this came to me:

"Bill 'n Hillary
Sittin' in a tree,
Nothin' but lies
From the RNC."

Nothin' new, and I apologize on behalf of my poetic muse.

The O-Zone Woman

Maureen Dowd

Al Gore must want to punch Hillary Clinton right through the hole in the ozone layer.

Heh.

She made it clear who's in power and who's in Cannes when she ostentatiously promised to take her motorcade back to Capitol Hill and introduce legislation for a strategic energy fund to jolt inert government and insatiable Big Oil into action.

Her timing is cunning. This is supposed to be Ozone Man's moment in the sun. His movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," opens today, buoyed by such raves that his supporters believe his green crusade could net him both a gold statuette and a white house.

He's being hailed as the new Comeback Kid, as New York magazine calls him, a passionate pedant. (Better than a compassionate conservative.)(Amen - G)

illary is keeping Bill at a distance so he doesn't overshadow her, contradict her, embarrass her or hurt her attempt to pander to the right. But Al, who says he and Bill have made up and are now brotherly, may want to embrace the Big Dog this time, realizing the cost of muzzling him in 2000 (and the cost of taking hired guns' advice to soft-peddle the environment).

Since Hillary and Bill often rendezvous to watch "Grey's Anatomy" on Sunday nights, that's a good time for her to soak up his unmatched political smarts.

But as someone in Bill's circle wryly told Mr. Heilemann, the boy can't help himself: "You can see him talking to Hillary one minute, then ducking into his study to take Gore's call and advise him on how to beat her."

What a contest: two ersatz ex-presidents vying for the support of a real one.

I just hope that underneath all this Al/Hil shit, there's a real candidate about to surface.

And just as an aside, I think all this talk about the state of the Clintons' marriage is in exceedingly bad taste and nobody's business but theirs. Haven't the gasbags ever heard of a professional marriage? It got them pretty high up, and now their individual careers are on separate tracks. Are they supposed to get divorced like Republicans would? Or are they showing commitment to one another and some family values?

A tip o' the Brain to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Injustice

[Our dear friends MandT (who have the floor here anytime they want it since they closed down the Adgita Diaries) emailed this to me. Since I have my head in a manuscript and they asked me to post it, I will. I know nothing of this but it seems seriously fucked up to me. - Fixer]

Recently the Heiress to the billion dollar Korbel Champaign Fortune, and her male lover were arrested for several violent felony sex crimes against two innocent young women barely over 21.

The specific crimes of this public figure and her recently arraigned co-conspirator are these :

1. One young girl had her head slammed repeatedly into a table while being forcibly raped from behind - with the intent of forcing the victim to simultaneously perform cunnilingus on the Wine Heiress - Ms. Anderson, for her gratification.

...

The rest below the fold.

Save on gas money, parking, and have fun

LATimes

In the first three months of this year, motorcycle sales rose 8.6% and scooter sales gained about 2% from the year-earlier period. Those numbers show a "strong start to the year," he said, because sales are typically highest during the spring and summer.

At Chaparral Motorsports, whose showroom has row after row of shiny and colorful Hondas, Suzukis, Kawasakis and other makes, sales manager Jon Gerwin said cycles were zooming out the door at a 30% faster pace than at this time last year. Motorcycles that get good mileage are the most popular, he said, and many customers say that they're afraid gas will hit $4 a gallon.

Sales of bicycles began pumping higher last year, rising 7% to nearly 20 million in the U.S., as fuel costs rose, said Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong Coalition, a national group of bicycle suppliers and retailers.

Even the Segway, the battery-powered, self-balancing "human transporter" that was dismissed as a fad when it debuted in 2001, has received a boost.

Here's a tip from a motorcyclist of a half-century's standing: don't forget to put your foot down when you're stopped.

And don't be like the guy who once asked me at a stoplight, "How many miles can ya go on a tank o' gas on dat ting?"

"About 200" I replied.

"Shit, I kin do dat in dis ol' Buick" he said as he roared off.

Update on Vets' Data Theft

Following up on Fixer's post, here's some more info that's coming out. From CNN via Raw Story.

Authorities waited almost three weeks (my em) to alert the public that personal data on more than 26 million U.S. veterans had fallen into the hands of thieves, a government source said Tuesday.

The data were on a laptop and external drive stolen May 3 in an apparent random burglary from the Montgomery County, Maryland, home of a Department of Veterans Affairs computer analyst, said the government source, who has been briefed on the issue.

The government did not immediately announce the theft because officials had hoped to catch the culprits and did not want to tip them off about what they had stolen for fear they would sell it, the government source said.

On Monday, officials abandoned that plan and alerted the public.

The computer disk contained the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of every living veteran from 1975 to the present, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Monday.

The missing data do not include health records or financial information, the department said. They do include some disability ratings and data on some veterans' spouses. (Watch the implications of the security breach -- 2:23)(Link to video over there - G)

I'm confused as to whether it's all Vets or just those since 1975. It's still a bad deal for everybody. I think the best we can hope for is that the thieves were just stealing a laptop to sell and don't know how to exploit what they got. We will see.

Wonderful 'security', huh? My ass.

Clueless Denny May Have Handed Dems The House

The Capital Times (Madison WI)

In the constitutionally mandated order of succession, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is two heartbeats away from the presidency.

Unfortunately, Hastert is also two bricks short of a load.

During Wednesday evening's debate on the House budget proposal, Hastert, who famously proposed bulldozing New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit, announced that working families should not be looking for any tax breaks.

Why? Because Hastert does not think that working families pay taxes.

The speaker explained on the House floor that "well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. So you probably if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut. Now, if you earn $1 million a year, you are going to pay about $400,000 of taxes. Maybe you'll get a $40,000 tax cut ..."

Just to clarify, working families pay federal income taxes, state and local income taxes, Social Security taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes and most of the other taxes that rich people pay. While some very poor families got a bit of tax relief during the Clinton years, working families of the sort Hastert was talking about still pay more than their fair share.

The people who do not pay their fair share are those very rich folks to whom Hastert wants to give another tax break.

In the case of some politicians, a statement as wholly inaccurate as the one made by Hastert would inspire charges that he is lying.

But Hastert is the Marie Antoinette of American politics.

The fairest assumption is that he simply does not know who pays taxes in America.

A BuzzFlash news analysis says Fat Li'l Denny might have just given the House to the Dems if the Dems play their cards right. If only.

If the Democrats can finally create some message discipline, Dennis Hastert just gave them control of the House of Representatives in the fall election.

Message to Dems: Take this quote and run on it until the last vote is counted. You've been looking for an opening to the working families who can swing enough districts to retake the House, and Hastert just gave it to you.

Message to the Democratic poobahs with all the campaign cash: Don't get sidetracked, don't get distracted, don't get sucked into peripheral issues with no voter traction. Fire the losing consultants and let Hastert give you back the House.

He already has. You just need to use his own words to remove him and the GOP from running Congress.

"Hey, Marie [shown as a waitress, serving a ham and eggs breakfast], do you pay taxes? The Republican Speaker of the House says that you don't. He thinks only the wealthy need a tax break. Do you agree with him? Vote Democratic, because we know how it is to stand in your shoes. [shot of waitress taking off her shoes and rubbing her heels]"

It's a simple and winning message.

Will the Democratic leaders look a gift horse in the mouth, again?

Probably, but let's hope they wise up and work this one like a rented mule.

'Yes, I Am Actually Calling Them Racist'

Molly Ivins is getting angrier and more disgusted with Bush and the Republicans with each passing day, it seems. I hope it's a trend that catches on.

Last week, Bush visited Yuma, Ariz., to tour a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border by Border Patrol buggy. Maybe Jorge was doing a little measuring for the $3.2-million-a-mile fence the Senate recently approved, which I guarantee will be really helpful.

Are they insane? As Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano observes, "Show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."

Yes sir, you want a solution, call a Republican.

Of course, I am enchanted to discover that the entire project will be turned over to Raytheon, General Dynamics and other military contractors - think Halliburton with noncompetitive bids, anyone? Because this outsourcing stuff is just working like a charm. Another Republican solution.

By all means, reform immigration with this deep obeisance to the Republican right-wing nut faction and their open contempt for "foreigners." But do not pretend for one minute that it is not a craven political bow to racism (yes, racism - I am actually calling them racists, although they pretend it hurts their feelings. Try reading their websites and see for yourself), and to nativism, to xenophobia and to Know-Nothingism. Just don't forget what you are throwing away in the process.

Please go read the rest.

Veterans Alert!

I was wondering where they got my info from.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of VA policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings. Importantly, the affected data did not include any of VA's electronic health records nor any financial information. The employee's home was burglarized and this data was stolen. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

...

This Day In History

From Working For Change

5/22/1955: Cops in Bridgeport, Conn. cancel a scheduled dance headlined by Fats Domino, because, authorities say, 'rock and roll dances might be featured.'

I sure am glad they nipped that cultural threat in the bud!

Talk-Show Joe

Paul Krugman on Senator Lieberman.

Friday was a bad day for Senator Joseph Lieberman. The Connecticut Democratic Party's nominating convention endorsed him, but that was a given for an incumbent with a lot of political chips to cash in. The real news was that Ned Lamont, an almost unknown challenger, received a third of the votes. This gave Mr. Lamont the right to run against Mr. Lieberman in a primary, and suggests that Mr. Lamont may even win.

What happened to Mr. Lieberman? Some news reports may lead you to believe that he is in trouble solely because of his support for the Iraq war. But there's much more to it than that. Mr. Lieberman has consistently supported Republican talking points. This has made him a lion of the Sunday talk shows, but has put him out of touch with his constituents - and with reality.

Mr. Lieberman's defenders would have you believe that his increasingly unpopular positions reflect his principles. But his Bushlike inability to face reality on Iraq looks less like a stand on principle than the behavior of a narcissist who can't admit error. And the common theme in Mr. Lieberman's positions seems to be this: In each case he has taken the stand that is most likely to get him on TV.

You see, the talking-head circuit loves centrists. But a centrist, as defined inside the Beltway, doesn't mean someone whose views are actually in the center, as judged by public opinion. Instead, a Democrat is considered centrist to the extent that he does what Mr. Lieberman does: lends his support to Republican talking points, even if those talking points don't correspond at all to what most of the public wants or believes.

But this "center" cannot hold. And that's the larger lesson of what happened Friday. Mr. Lieberman has been playing to a Washington echo chamber that is increasingly out of touch with the country's real concerns. The nation, which rallied around Mr. Bush after 9/11 simply because he was there, has moved on - and it has left Mr. Lieberman behind.

Enjoy your retirement, Mr. Lieberman. We will.

A tip o' the brain to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Why

In case you've forgotten why Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!) is coming down so hard on poor Holy Joe, Jane counts the reasons, with a little taste of Krugman thrown in for good measure. Let his be a warning to other Dems who haven't gotten the message yet. If you're gonna kiss Rethug ass and turn your back on Democratic, progressive principles, we're gonna get you out. Just remember this: We are a force. We have power and we're gonna use it. The time is too short to let you help them fuck this nation to Hell and we're gonna stop you. We can and we will. Wake up, the times are changing.

My posting might be sparse for a while. Once again, I'm trying to finish my book Empires so we can release it by the end of the year. We'll see how that goes, since I've been working on it for 10 years.

My Spring Break, Part 3.1

Click 'n embiggen

As far as I am concerned, that could be my ten-mile-long driveway. I can just hang a "Trespassers Will Be Gleefully Violated" sign under "Pavement Ends". For some reason, Mrs. G wants more access to stuff - like a town, you know, stores and stuff. She reminded me that one of the reasons we're we're looking around is so I won't have so much snow to shovel. I told her that if we plan ahead a little and stock up, screw shoveling it! We could get a big fast snowmobile for emergencies, like all-you-can-eat nite at the VFW. Anyway, in the spirit of compromise, I have offered to only have a five-mile-long driveway. I'm flexible. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Near here we discovered SNARL. Go see.

Picture taken not far above McGee Creek Campground.

We're Either Making Progress or the "End Times" are Near

BuzzFlash has some things to say about Daddy Frank Rich. They conclude with:

Thank you, Frank Rich, after six years online, it's nice to see someone coming up from the rear to the front lines of the battle for the future of democracy and out national security -- with a fierce sense of outrage, patriotism and common sense.

Hear, hear.

Our young

Generally, I'm an old curmudgeon when it comes to young people. It's generational, and I have the same gripes my dad did about my generation. In other words, pay no attention to the old man ranting on the porch. In truth, I've been impressed by many young adults over the years, and the young lady who spoke truth to McCain, and made him look like a clueless twit, impressed me to no end the other day. The story, and her motivations, in her own words.

Review

One Nation Under George

I finished Z.M. Wagner's satire about a week ago, but haven't had the time to write about it. I generally don't read political books; sorry Kos, sorry Glenn, sorry Dave. They make my eyes glaze over and roll back in my head, sort of like reading about economics. "How can you say that, being a political blogger of some (what kind is up to the judgment of the readers) repute?" you may ask. When I read, I want to be taken to exotic places, engage my imagination in adventurous ways. I can't read policy. That said, I was approached by Wagner's publicist to review this book and if it weren't humor I would have declined. I get my laughs in Blogtopia (yes! skippy coined that phrase!) from the likes of Jesus' General, WTF is it Now??, World O'Crap, Sadly, No!, and TBogg, and Wagner doesn't disappoint.

Wagner begins his story in 2008, as a Regular Joe ("a liberal Jewish man from the East Coast") looking back on the Bush Era. A few pages in, the smile grows on my face as he describes the Neocon/Republican/Bushista rise to power; the little push here, the keywords for the base there, always believing the propaganda. Always from the point of view of the uninformed who don't see Fox News for what it is.

He goes on, Wagner's best chapters in my opinion, explaining how school reform under Bush has transformed the public school system; individuality, violence, teen pregnancy, and drug abuse a thing of the past as accountability is stressed and demanded.

The Army, short on manpower, is also transformed, thanks to Rumsfeld's vision, and a new 'convict army' is sent to Iraq and Iran, avoiding a Draft and fulfilling the need for new recruits. In short, jail sentences served as infantrymen.

In the world of President George, every aspect of life is managed by the government, all to the benefit of the public good. Order is preserved, and the only places liberalism is practiced are in the ghettoes of New York and Massachusetts.

Wagner made me smile, and at the same time scared the living shit out of me. For those unfamiliar, imagine the world of Jesus' General as all too real, and then realize, should the power of the Neocon cabal remain unchecked, it very well could be.

I only had one complaint about the piece, and a minor one at that, and that was with the editing. It's probably more subjective on my part, but I've had experience with lazy editors in my own publishing career. I would most certainly recommend you drop the twelve bucks for a very entertaining fast read.

Kudos

To my fellow New Yorkers, whether transplanted or homegrown, attending John McCain's commencement speech at the New School for standing up and making your voices heard.

Update:

Seth has MoDo.

Don't believe everything you hear...

About Iran. Ron looks at the Rethug disinformation campaign against Iran, no doubt to rile up the American public in preparation for war. I mean, did you know Iran has a Jewish (yes, I said Jewish) member of their parliament? He also links to a Juan Cole article you should read too.

Whaddya do with old bathtubs and microwaves?

Go immediately to The Disgruntled Chemist and click to see his Limey alter egos answer that burning question!

My Spring Break, Part 3 - Real Estate Shopping

Click to illarginate

One of the purposes of our trip was to investigate possible retirement locales. Here we are about to check out some affordable homesites in a "Gated Community". For Liberals, perhaps?

Read the backstory here and here.

Tongue way in cheek...

Beer? Nein! Paint Thinner? Ja!

From the Times(UK):

IT IS brown-gold and alcoholic but, then, in the scathing verdict of German beer fans, so is paint thinner.

The Germans are furious that Budweiser will be the official tipple for the World Cup, which starts next month. The American lager has secured a near-monopoly of beer sales inside World Cup stadiums and within a 500m radius of the grounds, supplanting more than 1,270 domestic breweries.

And what most upsets the fans is that Budweiser - advertised as the "King of Beers" in the US - fails to meet the ancient German standards for purity, which stipulate that beer can be brewed only from malt, hops and water. Budweiser uses rice in its production process and therefore does not qualify as a beer in the German sense.

Budweiser's World Cup status is a slap in the face for a country that attaches such importance to beer production. When Germany was a patchwork of principalities and duchies, a sponsored brewery was seen as the stamp of independence. German pride at hosting the tournament is being dented by the fierce marketing of the American beer.

Go read the rest. If I was a German, I'd be pissed-off too. I've always thought most mass-produced American beer could be improved by runnin' it through the horse one more time.

This could mean war!

Primary!

It's a happy day in Connecticut!

To the stunned amazement of most Lieberman supporters, Ned Lamont racked up over a third of the votes cast at tonight's Democratic Convention in Hartford's decidedly downscale Expo Center. (Is that the best Joe's millions can do, Nancy?)

...

I got the blues...

Or at least the country does.

The Balloon Seems To Be Descending Rapidly...

Paul Krugman, via Nevada Thunder, on the stock market, housing, gas prices, working stiffs and the general brick wall facing our high-speed economy.

The rise in stock prices that began last fall was essentially based on the belief that the U.S. economy can defy gravity - that both individuals and the nation as a whole can spend more than their income, not on a temporary basis, but more or less indefinitely.

To be fair, for a while the data seemed to confirm that belief. In 2005, the trade deficit passed $700 billion, yet the dollar actually rose against the euro and the yen. Housing prices soared, yet houses kept selling. The price of gasoline neared $3 a gallon, yet consumers kept buying both gas and other items, even though they had to borrow to keep spending (the personal savings rate went negative for the first time since the 1930's).

Over the last few weeks, however, gravity seems to have started reasserting itself.

That's one law even Bush can't break for very long.

I can't resist pointing out that the Bush administration's response to the squeeze on working families has been, you guessed it, to accuse the news media of biased reporting.

As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China.

Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living - in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.

Just like Iraq, economic sanity will probably be left to the next president. Or at least to the next one that has his eyes open.

Bowing To The Police State

Ray McGovern at TomPaine.

Is Congress aiding and abetting the creation of a police state? Recently, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., helped to give the CIA and NSA unprecedented police powers. By inserting a provision in the FY07 Intelligence Authorization Act, Hoekstra has undermined the existing statutory limits on involvement in domestic law enforcement. This comes after revelations in January of direct NSA involvement with the Baltimore police in order to "protect" the NSA Headquarters from Quaker protesters.

Add to this, the disquieting news that the White House has been barraging the CIA with totally improper questions about the political affiliation of some of its senior intelligence officers, the ever widening use of polygraph examinations, and the FBI's admission that it acquires phone records of broadcast and print media to investigate leaks at the CIA. I, for one, am reminded of my service in the police state of the U.S.S.R., where there were no First or Fourth Amendments.

Like the proverbial frog in slowly boiling water, we have become inured to what goes on in the name of national security. Recent disclosures about increased government surveillance and illegal activities would be shocking, were it not for the prevailing outrage-fatigue brought on by a long train of abuses. But the heads of the civilian, democratically elected institutions that are supposed to be our bulwark against an encroaching police state, the ones who stand to lose their own power as well as their rights and the rights of all citizens, aren't interested in reining in the power of the intelligence establishment. To the contrary, Rep. Hoekstra and his counterpart at the Senate, Pat Roberts, R.-Kan., are running the risk of whiplash as they pivot to look the other way.

When the writers of the Constitution envisioned a separation of powers to ensure checks and balances in our government, they were relying on the leaders of those branches to fight to maintain their own power within the system. Fresh from the struggle against King George, they could not have predicted that some of our leaders would voluntarily sign away their own rights to another George who would be king.

Good article. Go read.

My Spring Break, Part 2 - Mother's Day

Click to embiggen

Last Sunday, Mother's Day, found us in the high country of Eastern California in the town of Benton (Pop. 164, Elev. 5317) when lunchtime rolled around. In honor of Mrs. G's many years of outstanding and resigned mothering to me and our pups, I decided that nothing was too good for her and blew her to a big feed at what I can positively guarantee was the finest restaurant in town. Reservations were not necessary. I had the Ortega Burger with Swiss and Fries. Mrs. G went for the Mushroom/Swiss combo and shared my Fries. Damn good burgers, cooked by the Native American lady who owns the joint. Her husband and I discussed real estate prices and other man stuff while she did all the work. I think them Injuns are onto something there!

As so often happens when I am enjoying myself, the cops showed up during our meal. There must have been something big afoot of an interstate nature, because there was a Mono County (CA) deputy and one from Mineral County (NV). They chatted awhile and drove away. You have to be big and strong to be a rural cop. These guys were carrying enough personal gear to wage a small war. I guess they have to be able to hold the fort by themselves in case of trouble, as their backup might be an hour away.

The cafe had a "Convenient Store" (that's what it said on the sign) attached. Small, but you could live out of it in a pinch. Not much junk food, but enough first aid supplies and auto parts to get you to civilization. Biggest jars of jalapenos I ever saw. A pretty good Native American jewelry selection as well. Mrs. G loves that stuff. I'm thinking of installing a winch on the pickup to get her out of those places...

The joint was obviously the town meeting place, where we were privileged to overhear the news of the day: "There was a shooting in Chalfant last night. Deputy so-and-so turned off his lights and the guy walked right into the side of his car...". Honest. I couldn'ta made that up, I swear!

Speaking of "reservations" and "holding the fort", there is a Native American presence and heritage all around this part of the country. There is a Paiute-Shoshone Cultural Center in Bishop, which was closed while we were there, as well as a popular local attraction, which was open.

After the way fun and interesting lunch we did stuff too, but enough for now.

Overtaxed National Guard To Use Illegal Immigrants To Guard Mexican Border

Tongue firmly in cheek, I direct you to Opinions You Should Have.

The National Guard, hard-pressed to keep up with its many duties at Iraq and at home, has decided to guard the U.S.-Mexico border with illegal immigrants it enlists as they come across the border. "We see it as a very special guest worker program," explained Guard Commander Sergeant Leon Rocknard.

"Once I learned that we'd be mostly cooking and cleaning, the idea came naturally," he said. He added that another upside of the program was that the workers could be paid "almost nothing." He further justified his decision by insisting that guarding the border was "one of those jobs Americans want done but don't want to do themselves."

Herminio Vasquez, an illegal immigrant who became part of the program after swimming the Rio Grande at 4:00 a.m. last night, praised the plan. "This is the just the opportunity I came to the U.S. for," he said.

Sometimes it's hard to tell irony and satire from the truth these days.

Cosmic Cowboy Music

This is an FYI for those of you with the impeccable musical taste to enjoy "the California Country sound". I never heard of I See Hawks In L.A. before, but I ran across this review at Blue State Jukebox. Sounds good. I'll probably pick it up.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna gives the 101st Fighting Keyboarders a Bronx Cheer.



"My dad was a real warrior, you panty-waist weenies," she was heard to say.

Thanks for telling us

You couldn't have said something in '01? Whoring bitch.

Still With Fox

This is pretty lightweight shit, but it's fun. From News Hounds.

During yesterday's press gaggle (5/17), new Press Secretary and supposed former Fox News employee Tony Snow, referred to ABC in response to a reporter's questions as a "competing network".

Snow: "Well, as I pointed out -- I mentioned this yesterday, and for -- let me see if I can find my quote, because I pulled it out. Chuck Hagel, as you may recall, made a fair amount of news over the weekend when he first said that -- let's see -- "Well, I want to listen to the details and I want to listen to the President," said Senator Hagel -- he said this on "This Week" on a competing network. But I would say this: I think we have to be very careful here. That's not the role of our military, that's not the role of our National Guard." That's what Senator Hagel said on Sunday."

Is Snow still on Fox's payroll? Is ABC "competing" in someway with the Administration? Or has Fox and the Bush Administration finally merged into one entity?

The video can be viewed here.

Perhaps it was just a slip of the tongue? As one of News Hounds' many commenters puts it:

As far as everybody on Faux news is concerened, a slip of the tongue is their stock in trade. A slip right up the asses of this administration.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

'Alpha Male on the Cruise Ship'

Robert Parry on the Chimp's smartass mouth. At Consortium News.

He was like the wise-cracking guy leading a pack of vacationers out of the elevator toward the all-you-can-eat buffet bar, while poking fun at Charlie for getting too much sun on his bald head or at Mildred for putting on a few extra pounds. The others in the group titter with nervous amusement, fearing their ribbing will come next.

Like that dominant male on the cruise ship, Bush exhibits a freedom to mock the appearance of almost anyone, holding up both American citizens and foreign leaders to public ridicule for how they look.

Bush exhibits other physical alpha-male tendencies, such as when he greets another man by cupping his hand behind the man's neck, a sign of both affection and control.

Damn fine way to get to break his arm if anybody had the stones.

Other times, Bush goes beyond playful banter and just tongue-lashes people who have gotten on his wrong side.

In 1986, for instance, Bush spotted Wall Street Journal political writer Al Hunt and his wife Judy Woodruff having dinner at a Dallas restaurant with their four-year-old son. Bush was steaming over Hunt's prediction that Jack Kemp - not then-Vice President George H.W. Bush - would win the Republican presidential nomination in 1988.

Bush stormed up to the table and cursed Hunt out. "You [expletive] son of a bitch," Bush yelled. "I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget this." [Washington Post, July 25, 1999]

If anyone I like as little as Bush cusses like that in front of my wife, he's gonna get his lights punched out in front of God and everybody, right then and there.

While always ready to deliver insults, the Bush family is famously thin-skinned about receiving them. For instance, George H.W. Bush restricted Newsweek's coverage of his 1988 presidential campaign after the magazine published a cover photo of Bush with the headline, "Fighting the Wimp Factor."

His eldest son, George W. Bush, doesn't even want to take chances with unfriendly audiences. He routinely has his advance teams and Secret Service details weed out people from his speeches who might be inclined to heckle him or ask hostile questions.

Indeed, between his pre-screened crowds and his layers of protectors, Bush has gone through five-plus-years as President with barely a single note-worthy incident of anyone challenging him to his face.

Unlike alpha males in the wild, Bush has managed to mark out his territory knowing that virtually nobody - not another head of state nor a private citizen - is in any position to contest his supremacy.

That's really a shame. With half the secret Service protecting him, he's like a Chimp in a zoo throwing feces, knowing no one can get to him. Once, just once, I'd like to see someone (Pick Me! O, please God, pick Me!) get through his defense cordon, poke him in the chest repeatedly and tell him in no uncertain terms what they think of him. I bet he'd hide behind his mother's skirts and cry. If he rose up on his hind legs like a man, better yet.

There's folks who put it a lot better than I do at "Readers React".

My Spring Break, Part 1 of ...

Click to embiggen

U.S. Route 6 starts in Bishop CA and doesn't stop until it runs out of U.S. When I was a kid, it started in Long Beach and ran from sea to shining sea, thus proving that things shrink as they get older. Tell me about it! It is also known as "The Grand Army of the Republic Highway".

Someone either is still sore about the outcome of the Civil War or doesn't like Northeastern Libruls, or both. Note the bullet hole just below the "3205 Miles". Actually, that's not too bad for a Western road sign in deer hunting country. It looks like it's way out in the country, but the business district of Bishop starts about a hundred feet behind where I stood to take the picture. A disgruntled employee at the Ford dealer, perhaps?

New face, same horseshit

Bob Geiger:

Having worked at Fox News prior to his appointment as the new White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow is accustomed to making the case for George W. Bush. So he seemed to avoid the first-day jitters in his initial day of full-time lying for a living. Snow held his first solo press briefing yesterday and, while watching him bob, weave and answer few questions, it was almost as if Scott "The Lyin' King" McClellan never retired to the GOP fibbers hall of fame.

...

Did anybody seriously think anything would change? Did the White House Press Corpse think this administration would finally be a little more forthcoming? The only thing that did change was that Tony the Liar is easier on the eyes* than that little troll Snotty.

Also, if you're interested in all the gory detals, our esteeemed colleague Holden is obsessed with the daily gaggle and brings highlights.

*By a very thin margin.

Trickle down

Didn't work for Reagan, it surely won't work for these inept nitwits. Bush signed that fucking tax cut yesterday. If you're waiting for this to be good for the economy, don't hold your breath. You sure as hell ain't getting shit up front and the people who are will still be buying new Hummers next year. Here's how it breaks down; read 'em and weep.

The Rich really are different...

Click to un-weeny

We have been having to stop for this for a month now on our every-coupla-weeks-or-so shopping trips to Carson City. On our way home from vacation I finally had a camera with me.

There are a lot of rich people at Lake Tahoe, but "Income Village" has more than its share. (Note: a lot of the year-round folks are there to service the richies when they deign to come to town.) Nevada goes real easy on personal and corporate taxes is one reason, so a lot of folks either relocate there or maintain second homes. Go see what their idea of a "vacation cabin" is like.

Are you back? OK, get yer jaw up off yer chest and wipe the spittle off yer shirt. Thought I was kiddin' about those folks havin' moolah, eh? Ha! Kinda makes me wonder what they have to do to other people to get a pad like that for a second home!

Ben, Adam, Hoss, Li'l Joe and Hop Sing used to call IV home, but they cashed out last year.

What this project is, is diggin' up the highway to put in a sewer. There's no wastewater treatment at North Lake Tahoe, so it's for shipping it elsewhere. The folks on the California side send theirs up over a mountain to get it to a plant in my town. I applied for a job there once, and they showed me a pair of swim fins and a stick...Seriously, it's a world-class facility and people come from all over the world to see it. But I digress.

Here's my point: Reg'lar folks flush the toilet, etc., and their sewage is pumped to a shit plant.

The Affluent have effluent and it's exported. If not to the reg'lar folks' neighborhood where it can be turned into sewage and pumped, then I bet it's goin' someplace nice. We should probably be grateful for the rose-y smell of money!

Same ol' shit.

Rove Update

Here's a coupla updates on the Rove indictment as reported the other day.

TalkLeft

The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Luskin, who has handled other high-profile cases, says blogs have made cases like the CIA leak case "an order of magnitude uglier and more personal."

Fuck up my country as bad as he and his have done, you damn right it's personal. What Luskin calls 'ugly' I call 'justice is a thing of beauty'. Eye of the beholder and all that.

Still lookin' OK I'd say, but we must have patience, as much as that hurts!

West Point Grads Against The War

Just go see.

Incompetence Is Simply a Byproduct of Something Far More Sinister

Bob Johnson (Snarky aside: I wonder if his middle name is 'Oliver'. As in "Bob Oliver this Johnson, Bush!")

I don't think the Bush administration is incompetent, in the pure sense of the word, as so many pundits have claimed. Everytime I read that charge, it doesn't sit right in my mind.

No, that's not the whole of it, I think. Their particular brand of incompetence is an outgrowth of something else - something far more sinister. If those who populate this administration, along with their co-conspirators in Congress, were simply happy-go-lucky fools, the incompetence tag would hang on them like a too-big suit. They'd wear incompetence like a pair of oversized clown shoes.

Osama's escape, the Iraq Debacle, Katrina, Medicare D... The list of incompetent actions and policies stretches on for miles, as far as the eye can see on a flat, blazing hot desert road.

Incompetence? Sure. But only because, fundamentally, they do not give a flying fuck about America or its citizens. (Nevermind how little they think of the citizens of the rest of the world.) They care only of themselves - and money. Simple, really.

he deficit is no accident. It is the ultimate manifestation of Norquist's dream. Cheney and company (through their idiotic puppet and perfect foil, George Bush) paint the government as incompetent while bankrupting the federal treasury and lining the pockets of everyone from Halliburton to the religious right.

The Bush years have been nothing less than a criminal enterprise. Organized crime. Thievery on a scale never before witnessed in the history of humankind. Billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars looted from the national treasury and delivered to the pockets of the well-connected. (Tax relief? For whom?)

The NSA spying program was never about ferreting out terrorist plots. We knew that. It was simply another tool to be used to stop any person or entity which sought to uncover their criminal cabal. And the Patriot Act is more of the same. This crew will stop at nothing to protect their criminal enterprise.

So I wish the Paul Krugmans of the world would stop letting Cheney et. al. off so easy with the "incompetent" tag.

He's right. There's a lot of just plain incompetence in the mid-levels of this administration, such as FEMA and TSA, but it's by design from above.

It will be a grand day when the MSM starts referring to the "criminal enterprise", but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to grow the sack to do so.

No comment necessary

...

No, Tony - let me remind You. I'm a fucking American citizen and a human being. The government has no, let me repeat, NO fucking business collecting information on my phone calls or listening to my phone calls - especially without a warrant. Just because President My Penis, Mightier Than the Sword thinks he's James Fucking Bond with a Bat-phone to God doesn't mean that anyone in this administration gets to listen in when I call the bank/doctor/pharmicist/therapist/Tom Delay's gay ex-lover.

And if you macho men think you can drag your filthy fingers thru America's private lives in an attempt to intimidate the Press, well... you can go fuck yourselves from here to Peru and back. "Constitutional obligation"? Go piss up a rope, Tony. Your boss couldn't pass a Jr. High Civics exam if you filled the answers in and asked him to write his name on the top of the paper, so don't try wrapping a red, white and blue ribbon around your cock before you skull-fuck the press. You know, the guys and gals who are asking you questions while the NSA is rifling thru their phone records to see if somebody with a fucking soul decided to say "Enough is enough!" and call them?

...

Link via Athenae.

Just shut up

Okay, I'll probably piss off some of my neighbors with this, but I'm tired of the 9/11 families inserting themselves into the WTC planning. You gave your input on the memorial, probably more than you had a right to, now just shut the fuck up. We have a 16 acre hole in the fucking ground going on 5 years now. Your loved ones will be memorialized, that's set in stone. Stop trying to spend the city's money like it's yours. If you keep this up, the memorial is gonna cost $1bn by itself.

A state supreme court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by 9/11 families who wanted to preserve the footprints of the towers.

The families had accused the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency in charge of the design, of not consulting with them, which is required by state law.

...

They are not gonna make 16 acres of the most valuable real estate in the world your private memorial park. Ain't gonna happen. The city and the Port Authority stand to make too much from the land. It's time to accept what you're gonna get.

It's like my aunt. My cousin passed away 15 years ago from malignant melanoma in his late 20s. My aunt has turned his room into a shrine and her life stopped the day he died. For 15 years, she's spent her time memorializing him in some form or another. It's not healthy, people have to move on, and it's the same for 9/11 families. For your own sakes, don't let this consume you. If 9/11 and the memorial to the dead becomes your entire life, you're not going to have any life. Ask my aunt. All her friends have moved on and all she's left with are memories and depression. And a little room at the end of the hall where she spends her days reliving the past.

It's time to accept this and move on, for all our sakes.

Joe who?

Maybe Joe and Hadassa can visit Israel next spring. 'Next year in Jerusalem' is a common saying in my family. He'll certainly have the time.

...

First prominent women in the Connecticut pro-choice community came together to form Connecticut Choice Voice for the express purpose of backing Lamont. Then Carolyn Treiss, current head of NARAL-CT, came out in support of Ned. And now the National Organization for Women has endorsed him, too.

...

Sorry, Joe, but the good folks of Connecticut aren't gonna let you pee on them and call it rain anymore. As the game show hosts say: "So sorry, you're out of time, buh-bye."

For those who don't know about Ned Lamont, let me introduce you.

Supporting the troops

Which senators and congresspeople really support our disabled veterans? It ain't the ones in the 'party of national security'. Easy to read chart.

Great thanks to fellow vet Farnsworth for the link.

I have PTSD

And I don't take myself this seriously...

Instashithead:

I think all three [conservatives who have broken ranks with Bush over runanway deficit spending or his immigration policy] may be suffering some variant of PTSD, worn down by defending difficult positions at the forefront of the battle against irredentist Democrats in Congress and their fifth-column in the media.

Pull up your pants and go outside, you loser.

Thanks to Digby for the link.

Another reason we need to know the truth about technology and how it's being used...

Voting.Yes,I know,this isn't a glamorous story,why it's even tin foil hatty to some people.But here's the thing:

There shouldn't even BE a question in regards to the process we use to vote.And if there is,anywhere in this country,a question as to the integrity of the voting(and voter registration)process,people of all political stripes should be demanding answers and and there should be transparency.This is not hard to do,and there are plenty of people willing to volunteer to help out.This isn't a partisan issue,it's about us,all of us,being good citizens.And if you say you love America,well hell,what's more American than the premise that every adult person who wants to can vote?

Now,read this and then go watch this.(this last link is an old flash video,but it's a nice little mini crash course.It leaves out stuff like the "Brooks Brothers riots" and other assorted dirty tricks in FL,but again,ANY question of what's going on with our voting shouldn't even BE.Anyone who refuses to support that concept is suspect,and certainly doesn't have our best interests at heart.)

Big Buisnesses can NOT be trusted to do the right thing unless they are closely watched.They just won't.They prove it over and over and over daily.They are not loyal to Country first,it's Money they serve.Being loyal to one's Company and Party above all else is NOT American.Trusting technology and those who buy and sell it to run our voting system is a bad idea.We need to go backwards,to the way it was before this madness took over.Until we can find more streamlined ways that don't involve big bidness.Americans are supposed to be creative and innovative,this isn't rocket science.

I don't know folks,I think our wisdom as human beings hasn't kept up very well with our technological advances.There's the NSA thing, connections to monitoring what's left of our so called"journalists"(which would explain alot,frankly.I think people are being blackmailed with stuff like their porn habits,evidence of affairs,maybe even medical or mental health info),which probably is also going to lead to stuff coming out about spying on political rivals(same blackmail theory applies there,and it does make sense when you pair that up with certain people's behavior),and then you add in the voting thing,I gotta wonder.Is all this stuff that's supposed to make life easier really a curse,or even leading to our own downfall in some ways?

I call for revolution!

Why not? Specter caved. What do we have to lose anymore?

B@B link thanks to Avedon Carol.

About fucking time

LUXEMBOURG (AP) -- Armed with key concessions from Germany, an 11-nation commission convened Tuesday to finalize arrangements to open a vast archive documenting the death, enslavement or oppression of 17 million Jews, Roma and others deemed undesirable to the Nazi regime.

The move to unlock the storehouse of some 50 million files in the German town of Bad Arolsen comes under pressure from the dying generation of Holocaust survivors and victims' families who fear their histories will be lost forever unless the rules are changed for accessing the files.

...

Now, all of you Holocaust deniers can shove it up your collective ass. I'm German. I know how anal we can get with record keeping. This should prove once and for all how many died; where, when, and how. I'm tired of these people saying it didn't happen. I've been to the camps, and it sickens me that my people could do something so horrible (lately, I believe Americans are just as capable), but the record has to be available for all to see, hopefully preventing this from ever happening again.

Great thanks to memeorandum for the link.

Liquid Alert:

Put down or swallow the coffee, juice, milk, bourbon, whatever, before you read Athenae's live blog of the Chimp's speech.

...

Catch and Release? CATCH AND RELEASE? THEY ARE NOT FUCKING 7 INCH PERCH YOU FUCKWIT!

...

So...

Now that we know the government is spying on the news media, what are these 'news organizations' gonna do? Personally, were it me at the head of MSNBC or CNN, I'd devote every fucking minute of programming to this story, bashing the American people over the head with it until they get it. Do you think anyone over at CNN ever read this?

When they came for they came for the mentally retarded, I did not speak up.
When they came for the gypsies, I did not speak up.
When they came for the artists, the writers, singers,I did not speak up.
When they came for me, there was no one to speak for me!

Just in case you've forgotten, you're the people who have the voice. We can yell all we want, but you've helped the Rethugs frame us as 'the angry Left' and most take us with a grain of salt. It's time for you to stand up because guess what? The way it looks, they're gonna come for you before they come for me. They know where to find you. To get me, they're gonna suffer casualties. Think about it, Wolf, Timmy, Lou. There's a target on your backs and you don't even know it. Time to fight back or you'll be silenced permanently. I thought you guys were supposed to be smarter than I am?

Lamont-um

Later, Holy Joe:

...

So I was extremely heartened to see that Carolyn Treiss, head of Connecticut NARAL, has joined the Connecticut Choice Voice organization that is endorsing Ned Lamont. A lot of women in the Connecticut pro-choice community were mortified when they discovered that Nancy Keenan and national NARAL had been telling their membership to thank Holy Joe for blackening their eye (information that was largely promulgated by the blogs) and as a result Connecticut Choice Voice was formed. It's really wonderful to see Carolyn Treiss getting out in front of this and showing the kind of leadership in her state that is going to be necessary if groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood are ever to be trusted again to be the guardians of choice once again.

...

Looks like my good neighbors to the north are opening their eyes.

Spreadin' Manure...

Following up on this post about the USDA promoting Iraq, go see Slowpoke.

Dixie Chicks: Not Ready to Make Nice

The Dixie Chicks on 60 Minutes. No quotes - I'm lazy. Just go read.

President Gore on SNL

I was gonna link ya to this hilarious video of Al Gore earlier in the day but YouTube took it down. It's ba-ack! If it ain't right on top, scroll down 'til ya get to it.

Thanks to iFlipFlop.

Eating their own

And so it begins...

Up yours, Amerikanskiy

I was reading the dead tree version of The Finacial Times when I came across this. When we sanction rendition to commit torture, incarcerate others without charge or cause, and look the other way when our people commit abuses, you can't go lecturing the Russians about theirs.

From Mr Dmitry Peskov.

Sir, In your editorial "The dangers of crying 'Comrade Wolf" (May 11), you write that President Vladimir Putin "worryingly" used his annual address to the Federal Assembly to jab back at Dick Cheney's hawkish remarks in a way that bodes ill for co-operative results at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg in July. Gone, you say, is the language of partnership.

You claim that Mr Putin's "hawkish foreign policy rhetoric" will make compromises with the US less likely.

In fact, the President's remarks were an extremely restrained retort to a speech by Mr Cheney that was described by many commentators as the most ferocious and unreasonable attack on Russia since the cold war. It should surely be welcomed that the Russian president did not rise to the bait and trigger a spiral of pointless mutual recriminations.

You rightly state that on the major issues of the day Russia and the US are not diametrically opposed. Let us build on the consensus that exists, and aim for a successful G8 summit in July.

Dmitry Peskov,
Deputy Spokesman to the President
of the Russian Federation,
Kremlin, Moscow [my em]

So...

I thought we're only monitoring 'terrists'?

ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

...

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

...

Time to storm the gates.

Damn lies...

Ol' Froth points up a factoid that seemed to get muddled in all the other controversy:

When news first broke that the NSA was listening in on calls, Bush said it was being done with warrants.

The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

That was a lie.

...

We don't need...

Dems like this:

Leading Democrats tell the New York Times that it would be better if the party doesn't win in the fall --- and if it has the sad misfortune to do so, it would be better off not holding any investigations into the Bush administration.

And if, somehow, the party does unfortunately win and "the loud left" insists that the party holds Bush responsible for his misdeeds against the wishes of these wise men, we already know Democrats will be like the Republicans in 1996 who lost seats because they shut down the government and like Republicans in 1998 because they impeached Bill Clinton. (Lord knows the Republicans have suffered in the wilderness ever since then.)

...

This is why the [Democratic] establishment is becoming irrelevant. It isn't a game to us hicks out here in America. These are our lives these people are talking about.

It's time to quit playing politics and start practicing leadership. The Repukes have been in power for five years. They own everything fucked up about America. This is our best opportunity in a long time and you don't want it? I swear, if you guys fuck this up, there's gonna be a viable Third Party by the time 2008 rolls around, even if I have to go bankrupt financing it. It's getting to the point where I'm gonna run for President, or at least a Senate seat, skeletons in the closet be damned.

If these assholes don't want to be leaders, what the fuck are they doing in Washington anyway? It's time to stand up and do the right thing, because if I have anything to say on the subject, there will be term limits for Congress sooner rather than later. Incumbency has ruined the lot of you. It isn't a game, morons. People are dying and being ruined and you guys sit back, ruminating about the safest way to play it. Fuck you all, I've had it with the lot of you. Get off the pot and do something before we decide to do it for you.

Ansel Adams Manzanar Collection

This is a cleanup. Last night when I did my Manzanar post I was very tired and somehow I forgot to put in a premier collection of photos of the camp in its heyday by California hero, Ansel Adams.

Go here for the overview and then scroll down and/or click "Collection Highlights" and go from there. Those photos are a short intro. For more, go here, click either link, scroll down to 'subjects' and have at it. It's a little screwy, I know, but that's the Library of Congress for ya.

I would have been remiss not to do this, but that oughta hold my "Injustice Jones" at bay for a while. Maybe.

Shorter Laura

On Little George:

We're liberating the women of the world so American women can stay home, get pregnant, and spit out rugrats until their husbands lose interest. And then they become librarians.

Frank Rich

...

The N.S.A. eavesdropping exposed in December by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The Times is another American debacle. Hoping to suggest otherwise and cast the paper as treasonous, Dick Cheney immediately claimed that the program had saved "thousands of lives." The White House's journalistic mouthpiece, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, wrote that the Times expose "may have ruined one of our most effective anti-Al Qaeda surveillance programs."

Surely they jest. If this is one of our "most effective" programs, we're in worse trouble than we thought. Our enemy is smart enough to figure out on its own that its phone calls are monitored 24/7, since even under existing law the government can eavesdrop for 72 hours before seeking a warrant (which is almost always granted). As The Times subsequently reported, the N.S.A. program was worse than ineffective; it was counterproductive. Its gusher of data wasted F.B.I. time and manpower on wild-goose chases and minor leads while uncovering no new active Qaeda plots in the United States. Like the N.S.A. database on 200 million American phone customers that was described last week by USA Today, this program may have more to do with monitoring "traitors" like reporters and leakers than with tracking terrorists. [my ems]

...

Seth has it all.

Axis of Feeble

I get the dead-tree version of The Economist at the house.

The cover.

The article.

Zealots and Morons and Nukes...

Pauly gives a thwap to a wanker.

Part 1
Part 2

Happy Mother's Day

All the best to all the moms out there.

Pic (click to embiggen) thanks to Sumo.

Update:

My mom is gone 10 years this July and I'm thinking about her this morning saying, "Thank God she wasn't alive to see what the Chimp has done to this country." She would have been sent to Gitmo by now. To see similarities between her beloved adopted nation and the Germany she left behind after the war, she would have started a revolutionary cell. I swear, my mom was a tough old broad and she wouldn't take shit from anybody. One of the things she loved the most about America were the freedoms and to see what the Chimp has taken from us would have made her fighting mad. I still love ya, ma, and I hope I have enough of your fire to do what I have to if the time comes.

Gulag, "Relocation Center", whatever...

In light of Fixer's earlier post, this is a little eerie.

Seeing as how one of the purposes of our trip is to kinda scout out potential retirement places, and seeing as how W. and his 29% (and dropping!) would dearly love to "relocate" those of us who are reality-based, and indeed have prepared "illegal immigrant (wink-wink) detention centers", today me 'n Mrs. G combined the two using our finely-tuned sense of history and visited the Manzanar National Historic Site here in the Owens Valley between Independence and Lone Pine. I've driven by this place a hundred times over the last fifty years, so this trip I made it a point to stop, and I'm glad I did.

Manzanar is one of ten Relocation Centers for Japanese-Americans during World War Two, mostly in the Western states, but there were two in Arkansas. These were for people and families who were not suspected of anti-American thought or action. There were other camps for those who were under suspicion, and they were much more heavily guarded. There were ten thousand people interned there, and no one ever tried to escape although one young man was shot while gathering firewood outside the wire. He recovered.

These folks, the Issei, first generation people from Japan who were not allowed to become American citizens, and their kids, the Nisei, most of them born here, who were American citizens, were basically yanked out of their lives and sent to the camps. Many of them went home to nothing - everything had been stolen or otherwise acquired from them by their white "neighbors" - and had to start over. Some of Mrs. G's sister's schoolmates were born in the camps as there were (and still are) lots of Japanese farmers in her Central Coast hometown.

These folks made the best of a bad situation, and turned Manzanar into a veritable garden: they grew crops and planted fruit trees and lawns to gussy the joint up. There were hundreds of lawns, but only one push mower, purchased by the War Relocation Authority at the hardware store in Lone Pine. I bet there wasn't any of that "when ya gonna bring my mower back?" stuff! Owens Valley residents picked fruit from the trees for years after the camp was abandoned.

I could go on ad nauseam about these folks and Manzanar. There isn't anything left of the wood-frame-and-tarpaper barracks, which were totally inadequate for the high desert winds and hot and cold temperature extremes in the area. A few of the stone structures, made of rocks, notably a couple of guard shacks and some staff housing foundations are still there. These are all that was there when I was a kid: no signs, no park, no nothing. My dad told me what it was, but basically no one wanted to know. There is a more recently built white obelisk monument to those who rest in the camp cemetery and a brand-new reproduction guard tower right next to the highway. Fitting, I'd say.

Since the National Park Service took it over in 1986, forty years after the camp was abandoned, it has been improved as a NHS: there is an Interpretive Center, which is government-speak for a museum. There is an Auto Tour, basically a dirt road around the camp with low signs telling what was there, such as "Buddhist Temple", "Catholic Church" (in honor of the nearby mountains, I innocently asked Mrs. G if it was "Our Lady of the Slopes". She hit me.), "Camouflage Net Factory", and locations of various barracks areas, the hospital, etc. You can see all this on the Virtual Tour. Highly recommended.

The Interpretive Center is amazing. Photos, video, artifacts, explanations of life in the camp, re-creations of living quarters. There are stories of the young American men from the camp who fought like tigers in Italy, including one posthumous Medal of Honor recipient. It brought tears to my eyes more than once.

The main emotion I took away from Manzanar, however, is anger. Anger at the vile things our government can do to its own citizens in a time of xenophobic (or any other kind) fear and hatred, or any other manufactured excuse.

Anger at the fact that FDR knew this was illegal when he did it in 1942, but only admitted it two weeks after his re-election in 1944. Sound familiar? Well, it would if we had a president who ever admitted a mistake.

Anger even at Reagan, whom I never cared for much anyway. In 1981 he apologized to the remaining internees and kicked 'em down some money in "reparations". He did this right after a Federal court ruled in favor of the internees in a lawsuit charging federal wrongdoing that had been in the courts since 1945 or so. Covering the government's ass because all those folks didn't have the decency to die by the time the ruling came down.

And anger at Americans who let, nay, encouraged, such an illegal breach of the Constitution against other Americans and remained silent for years despite knowing it was so wrong.

I felt a little shame as well.

Bush is ten times as desperate and dangerous as FDR could have ever thought of being. At least FDR had a real war to deal with. If Bush and his criminal cabal have learned anything from history, it is that they can do unconscionable shit like locking up Americans for any or no reason and get away with it.

Be warned, my friends.

Looking good

Mr. H says Rove's been indicted.

Update:

More from TalkLeft.

Word

I remember reading The Gulag Archipelago when it came out. Red Angel has a timely quote, stolen in full:

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? [...] The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"
-The Gulag Archipelago, A. Solzhenitsyn

I know I won't go quietly.