Jim Webb and the Populist Pitch

David Ignatius on Jim Webb in today's WaPo:

Sen. Jim Webb is talking about his mother's family, which lived in hardscrabble eastern Arkansas during the Great Depression and was so poor "there was nothing -- not even money." The Democrats built their party around such people, Webb is saying, while the Republicans never cared about them.

And then the freshman senator from Virginia begins quoting some lyrics from "Song of the South," recorded by the country rock group Alabama:

"Well somebody told us Wall Street fell,
But we were so poor that we couldn't tell.
Cotton was short and the weeds were tall.
But Mr. Roosevelt's a-gonna save us all."

That kind of populist anger is part of the Democrats' past, and Webb argues that it's the party's future as well. But he worries that "the people at the top of the party don't comprehend the power of that message" and that as a result the Democrats may miss their best chance in a generation to reconnect with the American middle class.

On the issue of fairness (if not political correctness) some influential Democrats are starting to come Webb's way. In a recent paper for Rubin's own Hamilton Project, Summers and fellow economists Jason Furman and Jason Bordoff made a powerful case for restoring the progressivity of the tax system. They found that in 2004 the top one-tenth of 1 percent in America made as much before-tax income as the bottom 28 percent combined. Actual federal tax rates on that top one-tenth have fallen sharply, from 60 percent in 1960 to 34 percent in 2004.

Webb's "fairness agenda" is political dynamite, in the best and worst senses. It's a powerful rallying cry, but it could turn into protectionist demagoguery if it isn't managed carefully. But Webb has one big thing right: America is becoming a more stratified society, in which the rich receive a disproportionate share of the growth in national income.

Denouncing the fairness argument as "class warfare," as Republicans like to do, may not work this time. The Democratic candidate who gets the fairness issue right could find a new way to rally the party and the country.

A musical group that you've never heard of is The New Lost City Ramblers. Here's their lyric about Mr. Roosevelt from their album Songs From The Depression (you can hear snippets at the site):

"...Back Again (Back Again)
Back Again (Back Again)
We've got Franklin D. Roosevelt back again
Since Roosevelt's reelected
Moonshine liquor's been corrected
We've got legal wine, whiskey, beer, and gin..."

A good populist move is to let us get fucked up legally so we won't notice what's going on in the Halls of Power. Maybe this time we'll get legalized marijuana...

It's something to think about, Dems...

"...show me a sign..."*

Go see the other signs PTCruiser put up in the EssEff Bay Area.

*From an old Linda Ronstadt tune (lyrics)(video):

And I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the backroads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
And I'll be willin' to be movin'

"Media Putz of the Week" Award

I won $5 from myself betting on who the first recipient of this award would be.

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

For our first BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week, we had so many nominations for Chris Matthews that we had to pick one by lottery. Before we even launched MediaPutz.com, it appears Matthews is already positioned for a lifetime achievement award.

Chris Matthews, you are indeed a trailblazing Media Putz -- and more than merit being named the first recipient of this dubious BuzzFlash distinction.

Every week, you remind us how easy it is to separate journalism from the truth.

Please read the rest.

Be sure to watch Noballs today. He's gonna have Al Sharpton and Christopher Hitchens 'debating' God knows what, but it oughta be funny.

Dear Dr. Dean,

Paradox asks Howard Dean for money:

...

One of the reasons liberal and democratic blogs barely limp along on amazingly little money is that their true talents, functions and values are vastly undervalued by the Democratic Party, and their effect on the political dynamic is so new what they contribute is not nearly appreciated enough. I’m quite sure, Dr. Dean, you have an immediate sense of who bloggers are and what they do, and I’m also quite sure it’s very insufficient, no disrespect an’ all.

...

What’s ethically wrong with the Democratic Party paying liberal bloggers a stipend every month as long as they continue to blog? Nothing, not that I can see. 100 bloggers paid $3,000 a month is $3,600,000 a year, total chump change.

...

Dear Dr. Dean,

Keep your fucking money. I don't want money from any political party. I don't sell ad space. I don't ask for donations.

Know why?

So no one can question my credibility or ethics. The day I take money from anyone for doing this is the day people can say, "I wonder who Fixer is shilling for?" My integrity has never been, nor will ever be, for sale.

I don't want your money. I want your party to do the job I and a bunch of other people sent you there to do. End this war, get rid of the Chimp and Cheney, and then you'll get money from me, lots of it, get it? Keep fucking around like you've been doing for the last 6 months and you won't get shit. Keep fucking around and you're gonna have me breaking your balls here until you get on the stick.

Here's the ball, Dr. Dean. Time for you and the party you chair to run with it.

Regards,

Fixer

Quote of the Day

The Rude One:

...

'Cause, see, the Rude Pundit still has the moral high ground, even if we discover Ann Coulter was killed by raping rhinos with stiletto horns. You could be standing neck deep in a shit filled sewer, covered with syphilis sores and shoving a crucifix up your ass, and you'd still have the moral high ground over Ann Coulter.

...

That's about right.

More, More Dick ...

Now this is what I'm talking about:

The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's controversial eavesdropping program that operated warrant-free for five years.

Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties have until July 18 to comply, according to a statement by Leahy's office.

...

Let's see you claim executive privilege now, you fourth branch of government motherfucker.

Great thanks to John Amato.

More Dick

Please pardon me for all the attention I'm giving to The Dick, but I'm just lovin' watchin' him step on his weenie! The prick thinks he can get away with anything because he has so far, but this one might be his undoing, God willing. Hmmm. That might go a long way towards proving the existence of a wise and beneficial God. Or at least a tacit admission that truth and maybe even karma actually exist despite propaganda to the contrary from this maladministration.

The Austin American-Statesman

America has never seen a vice president like Dick Cheney, and with any luck it will never see another one like him.

That towering arrogance and obsession with secrecy may backfire on the vice president in the end.

It'd be quicker to slip him an exploding cigar. Oh, wait, the CIA already tried that on Castro. How 'bout some acid, the squiggly kind, in his brandy? 5000 mikes oughta do it.

President Bush has to accept much of the blame for Cheney's arrogation of power because he has abetted his vice president's power-grab.

Bush has allowed Cheney to become a power base and establish policies that have lowered America in international esteem.

Bush has allowed Cheney the whip hand on matters from nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court to the torture of detainees at the now-infamous military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Cheney has had control over energy policy, space exploration and much more.

The Bush administration has pushed executive power and privilege to new limits, taken secrecy to new levels and shown disdain for human rights and international treaties. This administration had carved out a place — not a good one — in history before Cheney placed himself beyond both executive and legislative reach.

Now that this uniquely powerful and damaging vice president has produced a new constitutional crisis, the Bush legacy is more assured than ever.

Bush's legacy is most assuredly assured - a weak, incompetent, pitiful little man who allowed himself to be co-opted into ruining the United States for generations to come, if not once and for all. Worst. President. Ever.

W. Learns From Students

MoDo explores what happens when you put a group of extremely intelligent students in the the same room as a dunce.

A group of high school Presidential Scholars visiting the White House on Monday surprised President Bush by slipping him a handwritten letter pleading with him not to let America become known for torture and urging him to stick to the Geneva Conventions with terror detainees.

The president reassured the teenagers that the United States does not torture. Then the vice president unleashed a pack of large dogs on the kids, running them off the White House lawn, before he shut down the Presidential Scholars program and abolished high schools.

Since it's rare that Mr. Bush ever sees groups that have not been prescreened to be nice to him, he made the mistake of opening the letter in front of the students and was surprised to learn that he has made many Americans ashamed by subverting values that the country has always held dear, like abiding by the Constitution and respecting human dignity.

I'm glad someone besides The Dick finally told him something he needed to know, not that it'll make any difference.

Ms. Dowd comments on Sen. Lugar's statements about Bush's War:

Dick Cheney, the president of the Senate, immediately expelled Mr. Lugar and appointed himself the new Senator from Indiana. It was a busy day of Constitutional shape-shifting for the vice president, who had earlier nominated and confirmed himself to the Supreme Court, so that he could roll back judicial decisions tempering his desire for torture galore, and then morphed back into his executive branch role to bar the door to the Oval Office sandbox and prevent Condi and Bob Gates from giving W. the plan he wanted to close down Gitmo.

Once his BFF Rummy was pushed out, Vice mentally absorbed the role of Defense Secretary into his own portfolio. He allows Mr. Gates - that pragmatic meddler from the skeptical world of Daddy Bush - to keep Rummy's chair warm, but the new Pentagon chief is certainly not included in the super-secret paper flow Vice created to always get his own way. And Mr. Cheney never acknowledges the power of any secretary of state, be it Colin or Condi. Diplomacy is for wimps.

Cheney needs to go. Now.

Note to Congress: There's a guy in California and a guy in New York who would just love you to send them to deal with The Dick. Results guaranteed.

Cheneys Evicted from Naval Observatory

From Red Tractor-USA 'The Best News in the Field'

In a rare governmental move, the self-made non-executive Vice President and his wife were summarily evicted from their government-supported residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC today.

When the presiding Admiral of the Observatory was asked about the Observatory's mission and its relation to the resident of the house, he said "leaving a non-executive branch person in charge of the transit of stars across the meridian during the night would be a definite national security threat. Therefore, we sadly had to evict Dick and Lynn. They were damn good tenants, too."

An additional unwanted event happened just this morning when the GAO ceased Cheney's use of the executive "undisclosed location" bunker. The only temporary home left to the Cheneys, who value their executive-like perks of the office, finds them doing sleepovers in Air Force 2. That lease expires tomorrow and Trump wants his plane back.

The Post-CheneyBush Restoration

A good read at OpEdNews fast-forwards to the future.

(Boston, June 26, 2034) -- Pulitizer Prize-winning historian Isadora Tribe's much-awaited "The Restoration Years: America in the Post-Bush Era" jumped to the top of the best-seller lists almost immediately. The Harvard professor and I spoke in her Cambridge home about the revelations in that volume.

The reason why Bush was adjudged widely as "the worst president ever," even during his tenure, was a direct result of his years of unnecessary wars and chaos, bungling on a monstrous scale, the mangling of the Constitution, ideological extremism, and out-and-out corruption and larceny. In other words, he and his cronies laid waste to the institutions of our democratic republic.

When he was finally gone, nothing less than a thoroughgoing cleansing of the foul-smelling stable was in order. That was "The Restoration" era, years of undoing the great damage his administration has foisted on the country. Restoring our country's commitment to Constitutional rule and to sanity and realism in our foreign policy -- that was the Herculean job of his successors.

I'll be 88 years old when that book comes out. I'm going to get a signed copy.

"Wings of Justice" Award to Steve Gilliard

Wings of Justice

In an age when liberal blogging has become more competitive and many of its practitioners celebrities in their own right, Gilliard sought nothing other than to blog on behalf of fairness and justice.

"For helping to give me, and thousands of other progressives, back our faith in our country and in ourselves," Steve's BuzzFlash nominator notes. "With biting wit and snake-eyed determination, he fought the lies and obfuscation of our duplicitous opponents and never wavered in his love for his country and for his fellow citizens."

In a tribute on TomPaine.com, Gilliard's dedication is duly lauded. "He wrote 237 posts that month by my count -- yes, you read that right. One of the ways he was a pioneer was that he considered blogging his job. His readers were his bosses, and he wasn't going to let them down -- not one single day."

Most bloggers are white. Gilliard was African-American, but his only race was to get to the bottom of the truth.

Steve Gilliard, may God be with you. You've earned your Wings of Justice.

Crash Test Dummies ...

This affects me directly because, as many of you know, I'm a mechanic. When I saw this last night, I could just guess what my day would be like today. No, I won't be fixing any cars, I'll be fielding questions from customers, both on the phone and in person, about the cheap Chinese tires and if they have them on their car.

Federal officials have told a small New Jersey importer to recall 450,000 radial tires for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans after the company disclosed that its Chinese manufacturer had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating.

Tread separation is the same defect that led to the recall of millions of Firestone tires in 2000. At the time, tire failure was linked to an increased risk of rollover of light trucks and S.U.V.’s.

...

Gotta love that 'free market' economy. Fuck all you idiots who spout the Rethug line that "regulation hurts business". Horseshit. Look at the airline industry since St. Ronnie of Raygun deregulated it. Look at the mass media, TV and newspapers, and the sorry state they're in thanks to the abolition of the 'fairness doctrine'. 'Free market' means big business can run roughshod over the rights of consumers and employees.

We've seen it with the food we feed ourselves and our pets, in the medicines we use to keep us healthy, and we've seen it in the products we use and the services we contract for. Big business is using us as crash test dummies and it's time for them to be held accountable.

Too bad the Chinese hold most of our foreign debt. They know we can't push them too hard or they'll call in the note in the worst case, but they do have the power to fuck up our economy royally. Think that wasn't by design? It's time to reexamine the place big business has in our society and in the national discourse.

Great thanks to Chris at AMERICAblog.
Cross-posted at F & G.

If she were a liberal ...

Ann Coulter would be living out a refrigerator box under a bridge. X at Creature's:

...

It really does boggle the mind that news orgs continue to host this vile shell of what was once a human being as if she were some sort of serious political analyst. Even Chris Matthews' lament that "she sells books" is no excuse.

...

How does she get away with the shit she does? It should be an excellent commentary on Fox 'News' that they have her on so many times. It's also a commentary on ABC News that they would even give her a forum, but any network that employs Frank Luntz and Mark Halperin doesn't have too high a bar to jump over.

I look at Coulter, and the crowds she draws, and it troubles me that so many Americans think she's funny, or witty, or actually take her seriously. There are enough nuts out there who would be happy to 'pull a Bobby Kennedy' with Edwards. Just once, and Elizabeth Edwards didn't go far enough, I would like to see her called out for what she is and be held accountable for her words, the way all the rest of us are.

Grunt wisdom ...

From Lurch:

...

Nothing makes a people more loyal to a resistance than having their homes destroyed by a foreign occupier. It’s funny; I learned this back in the Viet Nam era. I don’t think many of our military leaders were around, then.

No wonder 80% of Iraqis think it's okay to kill Americans.

'Angler' For Power

Eugene Robinson

It's ironic that the latest outrage from Cheney is his claim to be exempt from a presidential order concerning the handling of classified documents because his office is not actually, or at least not exclusively, a part of the executive branch. Cheney, you see, has spent the past six years pushing the envelope of executive authority, asserting for Bush and himself the right to do pretty much any damn thing they want.

Didn't Cheney claim executive privilege as his reason for keeping secret the process he followed in developing the administration's energy policy, including the names of the people with whom he met?

The Dick reminds me of a friend of mine in the Corps. His name was Murray and he was from Dunedin FL if anyone out there knows him. Anyway, he had the name 'Murray' on the front of his field jacket, and something like 'Wojohowicz' on the back. If he was screwing up and somebody called out "Murray!", he'd turn around, point to the name stencilled on the back and go, "No, not Murray. Wojohowicz, see?". Conversely, if he was doing good and someone called out "Wojohowicz!", he'd turn around, point to the name on the front and go, "No, not Wojohowicz. Murray, see?".

He got away with it, too.

The Dick is pullin' the same cheap shit. He's part of the Executive Branch when it protects him from scrutiny, and not part of the Executive Branch when it subjects him to scrutiny.

Cheney ain't no Marine Lance Corporal. Congress has to come down on his ass like a ton o' bricks. He can't have it both ways.

I heard somewhere that this is just The Dick's attempt to get this bullshit into the court system so there won't be a decision from that molasses-in-January bunch until the clock runs out on the current occupant and they all get to go home unscathed and uncharged with all their crimes.

Students of public administration should have to take a course called "Cheney." How he has amassed and employed his power offers a case study in how government really works -- and how a skillful operator can make a bureaucracy dance. Take Cheney's penchant for secrecy, which seems to border on the maniacal. His office stamps "SECRET" on routine documents, including talking points for officials to use with reporters. He keeps papers pertaining to everyday business in huge Mosler safes. Is this loopy? No, he's just putting into practice the dictum that information is power. Sunshine is for losers.

The vice president, whose Secret Service code name is "Angler," really does know all the angles. And above all, he knows how to survive. His onetime mentor Donald Rumsfeld is gone, his onetime top aide Scooter Libby is on his way to jail, yet Cheney -- defiantly, disastrously, unbelievably -- remains. It will take years to uncover and undo all the damage he has wrought.

No shit, but it needs to be done. In the meantime, remove him physically from his office in the Executive White House. In shackles.

A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney

Sally Quinn

The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week's blockbuster series in The Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising.

As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration's leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party -- including the presidential nominee -- in next year's elections.

Cheney is scheduled this summer for surgery to replace his pacemaker, which needs new batteries. So if the president is willing, and Republicans are able, they have a convenient reason to replace him: doctor's orders. And I'm sure the the vice president would also like to spend more time with his ever-expanding family.

Be sure to go see who they want to replace him with!

I don't care if they replace him with Pee Wee Herman. Just get him the fuck out of there.

You ain't got the balls ...

Dear Dems,

I've been hoping you'd make a difference. I've been hoping since November. Know what? You all suck. Stop the whining and do something. I listened to you all on the talk shows this weekend, explaining how it is so difficult to rein in the President because you don't have enough votes to override a veto.

That's horseshit. It doesn't matter if Bush vetoes it all.

Listen to me, idiots. The fact you got the bills to the President's desk is enough to show the American people that you're actually trying to do something. That you're actually listening to us. You remember us, the folks who put you there in the first place?

None of you have come out and said, "George Bush and Dick Cheney have turned this country into a tinhorn dictatorhip". All of you who voted for this war because you saw it as a chance to finally grow some nuts are desperately trying to cover yourselves. Grow some today. Go before the people and say you made a mistake for whatever reason. Come clean. You'll feel better and then we can move on.

Or is it that you just don't get it? Do you think this 'collegial relationship' you have with your Republican counterparts is a good thing and you fear upsetting the apple cart? Take a page from the Korean Legislature, throw some punches. This won't wait until January 2009; our nation doesn't have the time. Get off your collective ass and call this situation what it is. At least you'll be on the record on the side of America.

There should be no compromise on Iraq, unless you have some sort of vested interest in our troops staying there. I certainly hope you're not making money off this war like Cheney. There should be no compromise on the U.S. Attorney matter and the subpoenas arising from it. In case you haven't realized yet, 'compromise' with the White House means giving them exactly what they want. (A hint: Google 'Neville Chamberlain' and 'Munich Pact')

It's time to say no. It's time to put a stop to this before we reach a point from where we can never recover. Grow some balls for crying out loud.

Sincerely,

Fixer

PS: I'm going to work now so I can pay the taxes that pay your salaries. So far, I feel like my money is being flushed down the toilet.

It's not working ...

A number of senior Sunni tribal leaders are among 12 people killed in a suicide bombing at a hotel in central Baghdad.

"According to initial reports, six sheikhs are among the dead," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said.

The Sunni leaders, from Anbar province, were meeting at the hotel and were the target of the attack, police said.

...

The Beeb.

Not just any hotel, mind you. This sucker is in the Green Zone, the most fortified patch of dirt in Iraq.

This guy drove through 2 checkpoints, parked his car, and then walked through another checkpoint to have his person searched. After that, he managed to calmly walk across the lobby to where the Sunni leaders were meeting before detonating himself.

So, tell me how, 4 years after 'Mission Accomplished', this guy got through all that security with a bomb vest? Of course it was an inside job and of course Iraqi security has been compromised.

The 'surge' isn't working, the occupation isn't working, and the only thing that is working is the insurgency, be it al Qaeda or homegrown groups. We can't win and the only thing we can do is get the fuck out.

God, what a moron ...

Your Preznit:

WASHINGTON - It might have been 80 degrees outside but it was snowing inside Ford's Theatre on Sunday, where President Bush attended a taping of an ABC holiday program.

...

"President Lincoln had a great appreciation for the performing arts," Bush said. "They offered relief amid the agonies of war, and he would likely be pleased that Ford's Theatre continues to bring together talented performers from across our country, including those with us tonight."

Last show Lincoln went to at the Ford Theatre, he left with with a terminal fucking headache, you dumb fuck.

Great thanks to Maru for the link.

Quote of the Day

Atrios:

... Our elite class is made up of a bunch of self-important children who believe lack of personal accountability for themselves is America's highest ideal.

The Government Is Misleading Us Once Again...

BeggarsCanBeChoosers

"As the U.S. government's official Web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the Web."

USA.gov's "Federal Executive Branch," section includes information for the public about all the offices and departments that made up the Executive Branch. And right there, under the Executive Office of the President section is a helpful link to the Vice President's official home page.

Dick Cheney needs to get on the phone and inform the U.S. government's own official Web site that it is giving the public misleading information about his office.

The Dick's a lyin' sack o' shit. Given the track record of his supporters it's no wonder he thinks he can get away with it. I am amazed, however, that he thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the other 98% of us.

The USA.gov site does have some useful info about getting a hunting and fishing license. Apparently you don't have to prove you know what you're aiming at.

"Jail to the Chief. He's the Chief and he needs jailing."

Go see "The Top 10 Reasons To Impeach Bush and Cheney". If I c&p 'em they come out all in caps and I'm too lazy to retype 'em.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Oklahoma
Still meets CAFE standards.

European Aviation Agency Approves Use of Cellphones on Planes
Also approves boomboxes, air horns, cowbells.

Latest Polls Rank Congress Even Lower Than Bush
But way above Cheney.

Report: Teams of Suicide Bombers Headed Here
In time to affect next election.

Army Corps of Engineers: New Orleans Not Ready for Big Storm
Even after two years of non-stop lip service.

CORRECTION

In an historical analysis of how Americans defeated the militarily superior British forces in the Revolutionary War, we quoted an expert at Georgetown University as saying, "Their strength is their mobility. They don't stand and fight." In fact, he was referring to how American forces are now being defeated by local forces in Iraq.

Doo-chay! Doo-chay!

I sincerely wish the same end for The Dick as the first 'Il Duce' - full of bullet holes and hung by his heels in the public square. Dead, discredited, and reviled. Win-win!

The photo brings one question to mind, though: what does the monkey do when the organ grinder ain't around? In some societies, monkeys are referred to as "Bushmeat". Yecchh.

A tip o' the Brain to The Satirical Political Report. And Photoshop!

Stereotypes ...

Tangentially related to the post below, regulars here know how much Mrs. F and I love Paris; enough to plan to retire there. It is 'our city', the place, next to New York, where we feel most at home.

That said, I take a lot of crap from Americans who've neither been there, nor know anyone who has beside me. Most of their comments begin with "those fucking French". I guess we have the conservative propaganda to thank for that. So today I was pleasantly surprised to read a post from someone who has learned some of the same things about Paris and the French that I did a long time ago:

...

But there's another, even more unexpected part of Paris I'm getting to know: plenty of warmth and openness, even (especially?) toward Americans. My immediate disclaimer is that I am a young woman, here alone, so of course men are going to be, ahem, warm (that particular stereotype holds water: some French men can be relentless). But well beyond that, I've by now met men and women--in bookstores, at the gym, at author readings, at cafes, and in shops--all over the city who have made my assimilation smoother. Everywhere I go, I always make a concerted effort to speak French, and all the people and groups whom I've met sit and listen serenely, even though it takes me ten minutes (and numerous consultations with my French dictionary and notebook) to stammer out one just sentence. Then they answer me in French--slowly--and I answer back. Viola! Conversation ensues. Another new friend of a friend of a friend, who is French, took me under his wing, inviting me out all the time, and introducing me to his large and lively group of companions here. From my first night out with them, I've gotten emails and phone calls from the various guys and girls with offers to see plays, have coffee, and practice my French.

I think the French camaraderie I'm discovering goes hand in hand, at least in part, with its café culture, prevalent here more than anywhere else I've ever been. Part of that translates from a slower, more relaxed pace of life (c'est possible, even in a big, cosmopolitan city), and the aforementioned deviation from disposability, but most importantly, it offers license for le parisienne to linger in cafes over her café au lait or the vert for as long as she chooses, by herself, or with an acquaintance or four. Each café in Paris has a slew of as many chairs as possible squeezed into one area, most of them facing out toward the street, and people sit in them all day along; everyone has equal access to the energy of passersby, of which there are what seem like hundreds, even on tiny, quiet side streets. (Here, people stroll everywhere, or if not, they hop on their bike or moped, not in their Denali, to get where they need to go.) Paris's café culture supersedes over-the-top imbibing, too: it's about socializing, sitting around comfortably, and relaxing, while drinking wine, or just an espresso or a Coca-Cola. So perhaps another reason I have yet to see a person carrying a to-go cup of coffee is simply that a staple of life here is having most beverages out somewhere, sitting down, preferably with friends, even if it's when you don't have tons of time; in other words, taking (at least) a few minutes to enjoy.

...

Paris is a 'live and let live' place. It is a place where any time of the year you can see artists creating their works on the Pont des Arts, mimes at Sacre Cour, and street food vendors at Notre Dame.

As someone who doesn't speak French aside from the normal greetings (Mrs. F handles the complicated stuff), I find the people have been more than patient with me and helpful, far from the stereotypes you hear regularly in this country. A "bon jour" when entering a shop and "au revior" when you leave goes a long way.

Yes, they have their problems too, but we could learn a lot from them.

One thing they do need is a pooper scooper law, but you learn to walk with one eye to the ground.

God, we're idiots ...

Soccerdad has a look at a poll on how much Americans really understand about what's going on around them. Dispappointing as usual for one of these things. At least I'm disapointed. I guess I give us more credit than we deserve.

...

Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

...

Where's Shakes?

Here for now. It'd be nice to find out who fucked with her page. Just sayin' ... heh ...

Silly me [slaps forehead]

Watertiger explains it all. Dick is the King:

The Office of the Vice President represents the independent, capitalistic and entrepreneurial spirit of America and has done so publicly since 2001. Wherever oil companies and military industrial complexes are repressed, wherever the morality of disproportionate corporate profits is called into question, the Office of the Vice President is there to remind us of that skyrocketing capital gains for the few at the sake of the huddled masses, yearning for decent jobs and nationalized health care, is the American way.

Two hundred and eighteen years ago, the United States Constitution established the Office of the Vice President. It was implicit in the Constitution that future generations of Americans foresee the need for a fourth branch of government to protect the people from the dangers posed by a tripartite system run amok and to protect the upper class from the great unwashed.

...

We should just shut up and go along with it and maybe they might "let us eat cake". How long have I been calling for a 'Bastille Moment'? Oh, that long.

Update:

Walt at Blondie's says it precisely:

...

This disgusting creature who dares sully our government deserves to be impeached and removed from all political office, then brought to criminal trial for treason and fraud.

...

Hearbreaking ...

Via Atrios, Johnny got his gun.

TAMPA, Florida: He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.

...

Cool resource ...

For Firefox users. I found this weather utility at the Firefox site, and have been using it for a couple months, and it's really helpful. It will install to your navbar or status bar (your choice) and shows you 3-day weather for your area plus provides quick links to radar and satellite data (plus a lot more minutiae). Did I mention 1-Click Weather is run by The Weather Channel? It's easy to download and installs itself (uninstalls just as easily if you don't like it).

Download Page

Shared Experience

AP

Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd is issuing a call for community service that aims to create the first generation in which everyone serves their country.

He proposes making community service mandatory for all high school students, doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 and expanding the AmeriCorps national service program to 1 million participants by the end of his presidency.

I doubt if there's going to be a 'his presidency', but it's still a damn good idea.

Dodd said his goal is to see 40 million people volunteering in some for or another by 2020.

"I think we want to have a shared experience again," he said earlier Saturday at a house party in Amherst. "Our shared experience today is we all pay $4 for the same cup of cafe latte no matter where you live in America. That's not a shared experience. A shared experience is going out and sacrificing."

I think it should be mandatory, not voluntary, with full citizenship and voting rights awarded only upon its successful completion. Fat chance that's gonna happen. Americans are too spoiled and arrogant to think they can be made to do anything simply because it's the right thing for them to do.

Call it something other than 'community service' too. Community service is a sentence imposed by a judge after you fuck up, like cleaning up trash off the White House lawn after the Negroes play music.

Military sees drop in black recruits

AP

The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began, as other job prospects soar and relatives of potential recruits increasingly discourage them from signing up.

Walking past the Army recruiting station in downtown Washington, D.C., this past week, Sean Glover said he has done all he can to talk black relatives out of joining the military.

"I don't think it's a good time. I don't support the government's efforts here and abroad," said Glover, 36.

The brothers are wisin' up.

Pretty soon we may get an answer to the Vietnam-era question: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?"

17 Syllables

Deadly Haiku Of We Are Now Officially 'The United States Of Dick And Bush'

Latest From Bushtard
Same As Cheney, Says Exempt
Rejects Oversight

Will Congress Stand Up
And Do their Job On This One
Bush Is Not A King

Immune From All Laws
Endless War And Suffering
Except for The Base

The Rich One Percent
The Defense Contractors And
Religious Zealots

You can say a lot in 17 syllables if you string 'em together right.

Can The 'Surge' Beat The Clock?

Rozius Unbound

Frank Rich looks at how the Bush Administration will try to play the American public yet again as the September deadline for the Iraq fiasco approaches.

Last weekend the latest custodians of the fiasco, our new commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and our new ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, took to the Sunday shows with two messages we'd be wise to heed.

The first was a confirmation of recent White House hints that the long-promised September pivot point for judging the success of the "surge" was inoperative. That deadline had been asserted as recently as April 24 by President Bush, who told Charlie Rose that September was when we'd have "a pretty good feel" whether his policy "made sense." On Sunday General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker each downgraded September to merely a "snapshot" of progress in Iraq. "Snapshot," of course, means "Never mind!"

The second message was more encoded and more ominous. Again using similar language, the two men said that in September they would explain what Mr. Crocker called "the consequences" and General Petraeus "the implications" of any alternative "courses of action" to their own course in Iraq. What this means in English is that when the September "snapshot" of the surge shows little change in the overall picture, the White House will say that "the consequences" of winding down the war would be even more disastrous: surrender, defeat, apocalypse now. So we must stay the surge. Like the war's rollout in 2002, the new propaganda offensive to extend and escalate the war will be exquisitely timed to both the anniversary of 9/11 and a high-stakes Congressional vote (the Pentagon appropriations bill).

For the Bush White House, the real definition of victory has become "anything they can get away with without taking blame for defeat," said the retired Army Gen. William Odom, a national security official in the Reagan and Carter administrations, when I spoke with him recently. The plan is to run out the Washington clock between now and Jan. 20, 2009, no matter the cost.

As General Odom says, the endgame will start "when a senior senator from the president's party says no," much as William Fulbright did to L.B.J. during Vietnam. [...]

[...] The best way to honor the sixth anniversary of 9/11 will be to at last disarm a president who continues to squander countless lives in the names of those voiceless American dead.

I think Daddy Frank's experience as a theater critic makes him uniquely qualified to critique this maladministration's Theater of the Absurd.

A Vice President Without Borders, Bordering on Lunacy

MoDo on The Dick:

It's hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly, unless J. K. Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter next month.

Dr. No used to just blow off the public and Congress as he cooked up his shady schemes. Now, in a breathtaking act of arrant arrogance, he's blowing off his own administration.

Henry Waxman, the California congressman who looks like an accountant and bites like a pit bull, is making the most of Congress's ability, at long last, to scrutinize Cheney's chicanery.

On Thursday, Mr. Waxman revealed that after four years of refusing to cooperate with the government unit that oversees classified documents, the vice president tried to shut down the unit rather than comply with the law ensuring that sensitive data is protected. The National Archives appealed to the Justice Department, but who knows how much justice there is at Justice, now that the White House has so blatantly politicized it?

"It's absurd, reflecting his view from the first day he got into office that laws don't apply to him," Representative Waxman told me. "The irony is, he's taking the position that he's not part of the executive branch."

Ah, if only that were true. Then maybe W. would be able to close Gitmo, which Vice has insisted he not do. And Condi wouldn't have to worry every night that she'll wake up to find crazy Dick bombing Iran, whispering to W. that they have to do it before that weak sister Hillary takes over.

I love that Cheney was able to bully Colin Powell, Pentagon generals and George Tenet when drumming up his fake case for war, but when he tried to push around the little guys, the National Archive data collectors - I'm visualizing dedicated "We the People" wonky types with glasses and pocket protectors - they pushed back.

Archivists are the new macho heroes of Washington.

I get a visual of bespectacled crew-cut nerdy types in 3-fer-$10 wash-n-wear white short-sleeve shirts beating Cheney to death with rolled-up archives. Ah, to dream...

Please read the rest.

Balls ...

It's about time. Not that I'm a big fan of Rahm Emanuel, but it's good to see a Dem calling bullshit on the White House:

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

...

"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch," said Emanuel in a statement released to RAW STORY. "However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments." [my ems]

...

Finally. Thank you. I hope it's contagious.

They forgot to tell us . . .

. . . that the "surge" would be in casualties. 25 more familes ripped apart this week, and that is just on the U.S. side:

From Yahoo! News:

“BAGHDAD - Roadside bombers killed seven U.S. troops Saturday, four of them in a single blast near Baghdad, and an eighth soldier died of a non-combat cause — raising to 25 the number of American soldiers killed this week.”

Impeach the bastards. Now!

R.

Fair fights ...

Let me tell you something right now. I never had a fight in which I fought fairly. Fuck that, I want to win. Anybody who wants 'to fight like a gentleman' is gonna get his ass kicked. This is not to say I'm a fighter, in fact I don't like violence in any form, but sometimes you have to defend yourself.

That said, it seems as if the generals running the Iraq mess believe the al Qaeda clowns over there should fight us 'like men'.

...

Let me see if I have this straight? We go after a supposed concentration of Al Qaeda. We encircle a city filled with civilians. We blow the living shit out of the place. And guess what? The terrorists aka insurgents beat feet and melt away. The so-called cowards won't "stand and fight". Well, looks to me like those cowards are much faster learners then we are.

General Odierno ought to go back and read some good old fashioned American History. There was this guy, General Francis Marion, who got the nickname "Swamp Fox" from a fussy British Colonel (Tarleton) who complained that Marion did not fight fair:

...

The current U.S. offensive will fail. We will punch ourselves out on an enemy that is smart enough to retreat in the face of overwhelming force. We will go house to house rousting able bodied men from their sleep and humiliating them in front of their wives. We will detain some of these folks but eventually let them return home. When they return home they will be fully prepared to support whatever insurgent group will help them reclaim the honor we took from them.

...

Iraq was doomed to failure before the first pair of U.S. boots hit the ground. The longer we stay, the worse it will get.

There are ways to fight an insurgency, none of which the American people have the stomach for. It's why we lost in Vietnam and why Iraq won't turn out any better.

Lock up the Children!

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

death (5x)

fuck (4x)

dick (3x)

gay (2x)

dead (1x)

I never said this was a family show. Heh ...

Back to normal blogging tomorrow. Spent most of the day cleaning my office. God I accumulate a lot of crap.

Great thanks to Watertiger for the silly link.

George W. Bush Would Like the Negroes To Clean Up

Wonkette

Congress joined the Bush Administration for a nice little barbecue on the South Lawn last night. The theme was Mardi Gras, so everybody could enjoy memories of New Orleans being destroyed by the Bush Administration and then pretty much left in that same condition years later.

Famous NOLA chef Paul Prudhomme catered the picnic and New Orleans jazz band Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers played Dixieland.

And then Bush told the black musicians to clean up after the politicians.

THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)

MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here.

THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over.

What. A. Dildo.

The early whore gets the worm ...

Saturday means another chapter of my novel The Fourth Estate is up at The Practical Press.

Farewell to the Queen

Regulars around here know what a nut I am for ocean liners. Well, I'm drinking heavily tonight. Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 has been sold.

Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cheney

Asia Times

In a development that underlines the tensions between the anti-Iran agenda of the US administration and the preoccupation of its military command in Afghanistan with militant Sunni activism, a State Department official last week publicly accused Iran for the first time of arming Taliban forces, but the US commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan rejected that charge for the second time in less than two weeks.

The use of the phrase "irrefutable evidence" suggested that the Burns statement was scripted by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. The same phrase had been used by Cheney himself on September 20, 2002, in referring to the administration's accusation that then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had a program to enrich uranium as the basis for a nuclear weapon.

But the NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, pointed to other possible explanations, particularly the link between drug and weapons smuggling between Iran and Afghanistan.

Given the very small scale of the arms in question, Cheney's interest in the issue appears to have much less to do with Afghanistan than with his aim of ensuring that President George W Bush goes along with the neo-conservative desire to attack Iran before the end of his term (my em).

Evil is as evil does. So is stupid. Somebody please dab a loop on The Dick and tie him to a fence post before he does us any more harm.

The US military command in Afghanistan, on the other hand, sees the external threat in Afghanistan coming from Pakistan rather than from Iran. US commanders there are very concerned about the increase in Taliban attacks launched from Pakistan's North Waziristan and South Waziristan after Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's truce with Islamic separatists in those border provinces last year.

See Fareed Zakaria on "The Real Problem With Pakistan".

The only institution that works in Pakistan is the military. The Army is mostly professional and competent. It is also vast, swallowing up approximately 39 percent of the government's budget. In a book published last month, author Ayesha Siddiqa details the vast holdings of Pakistan's "military economy"—including banks, foundations, universities and companies worth as much as $10 billion. And with or without Musharraf, as Daniel Markey ably explains in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, the military will continue to run Pakistan's strategic policy.

Deeply ingrained in the Army's psyche is the notion that it was abandoned by the United States in the 1990s, after the Soviets were driven out of Afghanistan. The generals are worried about Washington's warm overtures to India and fear that soon they will be abandoned again. One explanation for why the military has retained some ties to the Taliban is because they want to keep a "post-American" option to constrain what they see as a pro-Indian government in Kabul. If Washington were to dump Musharraf, the Pakistani military could easily sabotage American policy against Al Qaeda and throughout the region.

I wish I had the answers to all this, but I only have one: Get rid of Cheney. Quick.

Here, Tony! Come on, boy!

Ian Williams

In response to a news story, Tony Snow, Bush's spokesman, denied that Tony Blair was being considered for a position of special representative for the Middle East quartet. So, based on Snow's record for obscuring issues, it must be true.

It would be the final epitaph for a quartet that has already proven to be a quadruple diplomatic paraplegic.

Blair has consistently done whatever Bush wanted him to do. When he took British forces into Iraq, it was with clear knowledge of the ineptitude of the White House but he nursed the fond illusion that his support would give him a hand on the steering wheel - and then he found that runaway trains do not have steering capacity, and no working brakes either.

Not only that, but a train jammed at full throttle with the safeties tied shut. It's a toss-up whether the train will run off the cliff it's headed for or blow up first. Either way, its run will end violently.

Blair has shown consistently that he has no influence with the White House on any important issue and will not even try to influence the Israelis. In the unlikely event that he has a blank cheque from the White House, he could do something useful. But it looks much more like the White House tossing him a diplomatic dime because there are vestigial memories of him doing them an occasional good service.

I think the White House figures 'once a poodle, always a poodle', and/or that they need a scapegoat for yet one more botched policy.

We ain't gonna get our troops out of Iraq by supporting Bush

Today's 'must read' at Frameshop in response to Sen. Levin's letter to WaPo.

Senator, the wrong message cannot be sent by those who oppose Bush's Iraq policy. The wrong message can only be sent by those who support it.

In particular, Senator, over the past 7 years President Bush has been sending a message so wrong that it has led to the criminal destruction of our valued military: the message that the Democratic Party is a danger to the safety and security of the American people.

The cruel irony of that wrong message from President Bush is obvious to every American--including those Americans fighting in Iraq: the more President Bush says that Democrats are a danger to our troops, the more President Bush's Iraq policy destroys the lives, families and reputation of the U.S. military.

More. Kudos to Mr. Feldman.

Digby Speaks

Go see Digby accepting the Wellstone Award on behalf of the independent progressive blogosphere. There's also a transcript.

We are passionate about politics, and in this era of Republican corruption, excess and failure, that passion sometimes manifests itself as anger. But how can you not be angry? So many institutions have failed us in the last decade that being vitriolic seems the only sane response.

Angry? Vitriolic? Sane? Who, US?

Obvious

If you need to see which political party is more in tune with the American mainstream, just look at the group pictures of the Dem and Rethug presidential candidates. IF you look at the Dems, what do you see?

A black guy, a Hispanic guy, a woman.

Look at the Rethugs.

Rich, middle-aged white guys.

Not saying the Dems are wonderful, boy do they have some problems, but if you want a party who understands about what every day folks deal with they are the only solution right now.

I refuse to vote for that moron Nader, whom I had the misfortune to see both on Wolfie's and on Noballs yesterday. To vote for someone only because they are different than the rest is no reason. And yes, Al Gore could have done better in 2000, namely by putting Clinton on the campaign trail with him, but Nader knew what he was doing and knew the Dem vote would be split. He'll never be forgiven for the carnage done to the American system. He is as guilty as Bush.

Let me explain something that most don't get. A political party, a major one like the Rethugs and Dems, have an infrastructure set up in every state. As you've seen over the past 6 years, such an infrastructure is necessary to get the candidate's, and later the nominee's message to the people. An independent has no such infrastructure, no allies in Congress to help with important legislation, no election infrastructure to get other independent candidates elected to Congress and local legislatures.

An Independent President will end up being a lame duck in the first year of his term. Unfortunately, the Dems are our best be right now, especially if we want to correct all the fuckups committed during the Chimp's tenure.

Quote of the Day - Seite Zwei

Maru:

Preznit Veto McWarmonkey actually uses the words 'moral line' and 'sanctity of human life' and is not struck by lightning or laughed out of the room.

Up against the wall, Beltway muthas...

My San Antonio

LAREDO - In response to the Department of Homeland Security's plans to construct hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce started a campaign of their own: build a wall around Washington, D.C.

I would suggest a concrete dome, with a moat and NO GATES.

A time to sow, a time to reap, a time to kick ass

William Rivers Pitt

There is something happening today in America. With the right kind of ears, you can hear it in the sound of millions of brows slowly furrowing in anger and disgust. It feels like those tense moments just before the eruption of a summer thunderstorm, those moments when the air is electric, the ozone reek of spent lightning fills the world, and you know something very loud is about to happen.

What is happening, what can be heard and smelled and sensed all across the land, is the cresting wave of rage, betrayal and fury that is, finally, roaring across the shores of our collective American heart. After more than six years of lies, theft, graft, corruption, manipulation and misconduct, just about every living person within these borders finds themselves today gripped by the slow seethe, directed inward as much as outward, of one who has come around to see just how much of a fool they've been played for.

Americans are realizing that their faith and trust in the workings of the republic have been deliberately undermined, and the simple ability to feel good about their nation has been stolen away. Faith in the constructs of our democracy has turned to gall for the citizen who perceives now the magnitude of this theft. When joined in this by another citizen and another and another again, when the unrest of the one becomes a massed and overwhelming majority, those responsible should rightly tremble before the looming possibilities of what may come to be unleashed.

That is the missing thing people have come to sense, the stolen thing which summons the storm. Partisan sensibilities and the your-team/my-team nonsense of modern politics is being replaced by the broad belief that we have all been screwed, that what is most important has been discarded by those in power. The poll numbers charting low approval for Bush and the GOP are matched by similarly low numbers approving of the new Democratic majority in congress. The former bears most of the responsibility for what has happened, as far as the citizenry is concerned, but the latter's failure to stop or reverse the trend is equally shameful.

The seeds of this Becoming have been planted, and have grown, and the time has come to reap.

Reap, shit. The time has come to burn the Repug fields and cleanse them for generations to come.

How To Not Hire An American

BobOak at Kos. 'Must see' video.

It's on video, believe it or not, and even presented as a selling point to peddle their services by Cohen & Grigsby Law Firm. That's right, this group of attorneys put an entire seminar on how to screw over the American worker on YouTube. Imagine that, a seminar from lawyers on how to make sure one doesn't have to hire an American worker!

In the video attorneys explain how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and how they disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers.

And on getting rid of extremely qualified applicants:

If someone looks like they are very qualified, if necessary schedule an interview, go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them.

Employers who favor aliens have an arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply.

That's just disgusting.

This one's for Fixer

Update:

The "10 Commandments for drivers" here. Or at any AAA office, but they leave out the one about cars being used as an 'occasion of sin'. In my day it would have been, "Thou shalt watch the movie lest thy windows get steamed up".

The Surge, is it working Georgie?

Is it working Gen Petraeus?

14 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in 48 hours
“The U.S. military today reported the deaths of 14 U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq over the past 48 hours. The deadliest attack happened when a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle in northeastern Baghdad, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi interpreter. A U.S. soldier and two civilians were also wounded.”

More «here»

I don't think most of us have to wait until September to know the answer. It is time to remove these characterscriminals* from office. In shackles. Any possibility for getting BushCo out of there should be "on the table". It is the only important business that Congress has right now.

*=Hattip to wkmaier

R.

Quote of the Day

Creature (2 days in a row!) captures my sentiments on the possibilty of Mayor Mike running for preznit exactly:

I'd like to see Mike Bloomberg run for president if only because it will really, really, really piss Rudy "9/11" Giulani off. Go, Mike!

You're stayin', asshole ...

I mean, you volunteered, didn't you?

WASHINGTON - The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.

...

Either start up the draft, no exceptions, or bring 'em home. You can't do this to the troops and expect our military to survive.

Great thanks to Nicole @ C & L.

Update:

More on this from Lurch:

...

Maintaining 156,000 troops in Iraq from now until Mr Bu$h saddles up ole Marines #1 and rides off into the sunset, and dust of historical obscurity is going to require sending just about every swinging dick in a military uniform. (Apologies to the uniformed women of the US Armed Forces, who truly clank when they walk.) That would include a very large number of Majors, Colonels and even Brigadier Generals currently employed as messengers, walking folders around the corridors of the Pentagon. We could probably field at least one more brigade with those linoleum-trotters and never feel the difference. They could take turns playing brigade commander, and build up their Form 20s.

...

Off to the shop ...

Quote of the Day

Roger Ailes the Good:

I. Lewis Libby -- the I stands for "Inmate" -- ...

Accomplishments ...

Or, how's that surge going? Commander Huber:

...

Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace now rank Iraq as the second most unstable country in the world. Sudan just eked out the number one rating, a remarkable accomplishment considering that it doesn't have the advantage of being occupied by 150,000 U.S. troops to help destabilize it. Somalia ranks right behind Iraq for instability, which makes a certain amount of sense. U.S. troops are in Somalia conducting combat operations, but not nearly as many U.S. troops as are fighting in Iraq, so you can't really fault Somalia for not being more unstable than [Iraq]

The two non-African countries in the top 10 unstable states are Iraq and Afghanistan, and we pretty much know what those two have in common, don't we?

Shoot, if a fellah didn't know any better, he might come to the conclusion that the number one cause of instability in the world is the United States of America. [my em]

...

Thank you, Mr. Bush.

The Cookie Jar

Dissident News

The sprawling $43 billion homeland security department is known for being in charge of America's color-coded terrorist-threat alarm system, a sham that obscures HSD's real mission: to serve as a giant federal cookie jar for corporate America.

Go to HSD's website, and you'll find a prominent section called "Open For Business." There, on any given day, corporate shoppers can scroll through the hundreds of contracts and grants available to them. Just dip in and grab some cookies, each one worth from $50,000 to more than $80 million. Like the department's color codes, the vast majority of these projects do nothing to make our country safe. Instead, they are make-work studies, silly technologies, and useless systems that essentially serve as mediums for transferring billions of our tax dollars to a few corporate big shots. Ever helpful to its clients, HSD also maintains a private-sector office, headed by an assistant secretary who is not a security expert but a former banker from JP Morgan Chase. This office provides concierge service for cookie grabbers. For example, it recently held a corporate seminar, entitled "The Business of Homeland Security," offering "tips, hints, and directions" on how to grab the latest contracts and grants. Lest you think that patriotism or even national security might be the motivating force behind these government-industry confabs, a Sikorksy Helicopters executive who attended the session bluntly explained why he was there: "To us contractors, money is always a good thing."

Government by corporation.

Swell. Go read the rest.

Potpourri on JCS, Iraq

Good piece in Asia Times

"Pace is taking the fall for these assholes," a retired marine general said. "If you know how the war started, if you know anything about [Ahmad] Chalabi or Cheney or anything like that, you're gone (my em). Peter Pace is being sacrificed to the White House failure in Iraq." The neo-conservative press has also weighed in, calling the Bush administration's decision "cowardly".

Gates was nonplussed and quickly announced that Pace's replacement would be the current chief of naval operations, Admiral Michael Mullen - a riposte that was a mini-declaration of war against the pro-war press.

Mullen, a tough-minded and hard-nosed conservative, is known for his scoffing (if private) dismissal of Washington's neo-conservatives, though sometimes he can barely keep it under wraps. During a recent Washington reception, he was asked by a reporter whether he would oppose an attack on Iran: "It's your job to convince the politicians just how stupid that would be," he said, "not mine."

Since the retirement of Colin Powell, four generals have served as JCS chairman. All have been weak.

"This has been a purposeful policy," a former senior army commander said. "Bill Clinton quietly advised George Bush that the last thing he wanted was to have a strong chairman, as Colin Powell was able to dictate military policy to Clinton because of his prestige. He really stood him up.

"After Powell retired, Rumsfeld and Bush made certain that they never had a man of Powell's caliber in the chair. That's how we eventually ended up with Pace. He was a good man, no doubt about it, but Mullen is a real shift. He's Gates' choice. He's a real leader. He can say 'no'. and he intends to."

This is not to say that the United States is about to win the Iraq war. It's not. And it won't. But a shift, small and perceptible - away from escalation and confrontation - has begun. There are people, powerful people, in Washington who are still committed to confronting Islam, whose default position is the deployment of another division, another aircraft carrier. But there are others now, also powerful, who oppose them.

As General Joseph Hoar has put it, "Perhaps we are finally, finally learning that this idea that Americans can walk down the street and be safe in Iraq is ludicrous. And perhaps we are also learning that we cannot drag a Muslim man out of his house in front of his family, in front of his wife and children, and humiliate him and expect to be considered a great power and a great people. Maybe, just maybe, we are starting to learn that too. And it's about time."

These guys learn at about the pouring speed of molasses in January.

War footing?

Creature is right when he details what Iraq is really about:

...

Over the course of the last four years our Dear Leader, and his wingnut base, have preached to us that the United States is caught in a struggle of civilizations where our steadfastness is necessary and our weakness will be our demise as a nation. So, in essence, to analogize from Mr. Crocker, the issue is whether we are a country and a government at war.

We are told we are at war, yet we are encouraged to go shopping. We are told we are at war, yet tax cuts abound. We are told we are at war, yet profits continue to be made off the backs of our soldiers. We are told we are at war, yet the sacrifice is not shared.

...

Indeed, my friend. That was the first indication this war didn't pass the sniff test. If this was an all out clash of civilizations, the draft would have been enacted and we would all be focused on the 'war effort'.

The whole purpose of the 'War on Terror' is a cover to hide what we really went into Iraq for, and that's the oil.

This changes things ...

Just moments ago, Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced that he has changed his registration at the Board of Elections to independent, thus ending Republican rule over New York City. Here's his statement in full:

"I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party. Although my plans for the future haven’t changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our City.

...

A lot of folks like Mayor Mike and he has the money to give Hillary and Obama a run. The '08 race just got interesting.

Asleep at the Wheel

No, this isn't about the "Kings of Texas Swing". I wish it was.

FAIR

Press ignores congressional OK for martial law

On October 17, 2006, when George W. Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2007 - a $538 billion military spending bill - he enacted into law a section called "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." In the view of many, this Act substantially changed fundamental laws of the United States, giving Bush - and all future U.S. presidents - new and sweeping powers to use the U.S. military anywhere in the United States, virtually as he sees fit—for disaster relief, crowd control, suppression of public disorder, or any "other condition" that might arise.

I think the upcoming Democratic victory in the '08 election might qualify as an "other condition" to Bush. Maybe even the prospect of an election.

Indeed, the president could order the Guard of any state into any other state - even if the governors of both states objected. Or the president could choose to use any element of the U.S. military - the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines - to suppress a protest or carry out practically any kind of domestic action the president desired. And all of this with essentially no oversight - or checks and balances - on how the commander-in-chief uses these powers. Basically, after sending the National Guard somewhere, he or she merely needs to report to Congress every couple of weeks to let them know what the Guard is doing.

They won't be doing very well. Oh sure, the Guard will do fine against unarmed protesters, Code Pink, Grannies For Peace, etc. They might have a little trouble occupying Michael Moore...

I'm not too worried about the imposition of general martial law. The Guard's resources are at an all time low because of Iraq. They don't have the vehicles or logistics support they should have, and recruitment and retention of personnel is declining. They come to my town, they're liable to freeze to death or starve. I personally will be glad to trade them a hot nutritious meal for an M-16 or a SAW. They're Americans just like me, after all.

If push should come to shove, which is highly unlikely, there are a lot more old jungle fighters still in the prime of life than there are Guardsmen. Skill in treachery will always trump youth and enthusiasm.

Then of course, there's a good chance that the Guardsmen will balk at occupying their own country and repressing their own countrymen. They're just liable to tell their superiors to go fuck themselves right up the chain of command.

On the other hand, it might get them out of Iraq. Welcome to my town, Guard boys and girls. Just sit there nice and safe and don't do a damn thing and you'll be fine.

Here's the money shot:

What does it say about the fourth estate that such significant changes occur in our laws without news media coverage and without the intelligent and vigorous public debate one would hope for in the world's oldest democracy? The Jeffersonian ideal is of a well-informed citizenry capable of intelligent self-determination. All too often, thanks to a media asleep at the wheel, precious few even know that something has happened.

This administration banks on the media being asleep at the wheel, and has gone to great lengths to co-opt them. It also counts on the public's ignorance, ADD, and fascination with bread and circuses to hide their malfeasance from the light. Our ignorance is Bush's bliss. That's starting to change, but not fast enough.

The media has to pull the scales off its eyes, grow some sack, and start telling the truth. I don't know how they can sleep at night after ignoring, even promoting, the many crimes of the Bush administration.

There are some out there who are doing a good job, Sy Hersh, Frank Rich, and others, but there needs to be a lot more of 'em.

A Moderately Failed State

The Fund for Peace is pleased to present the third annual Failed States Index:



No worries. We'll be No. 1 yet! One more Repuglican't administration oughta do it if this one doesn't.

Gimme some skull...

Working For Change

The most recent Slowpoke strip studies the strong surge of skulls-as-style statement. What's with the fashion fetish for death heads? Maybe it's just a side project of the Bush Administration to make devastation cool again...

Working For Change has no idea how close they really are:

Death's Head emblem worn by SS-Totenkopfverbände soldiers

Motto reads in English: My Honor's name is Loyalty

"Side" project?

Think Gonzales, Rumsfeld, "Heckuva job", etc. A lot of loyalty but no honor. All the people of honor have been replaced with loyal incompetent yes-boss hacks. As they are found out or the kool-aid wears off, they leave to 'spend more time with their families', hopefully on visiting day. In most cases, the 'B-team' replacements are even worse, with a few exceptions.

The Death and Destruction, the Lies and Crimes, the Incompetence and Arrogance, continue. And will right into the bunker. I anxiously await VB Day.

Difficult tasks

Filling Digby's shoes is one of them. Dover Bitch is certainly up for the challenge as she looks over Sy Hersh's report on Abu Ghraib and the fate of another good general officer who was cashiered because he dared to speak the truth:

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At this point, there are so many examples of dereliction on behalf of the administration and the "party of accountability" that it's simply not plausible that any group of people could be that oblivious. But the idea that they could avoid responsibility simply by closing their eyes... that's the stuff a normal person learns won't work by the end of second grade in elementary school.

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Off to work ... later ...

Sky. Falling. Run!

[A big welcome to Salon readers. ~ F]

You know, once upon a time, I thought ABC's Brian Ross was a credible investigative journalist. Now, at best, I think he's a whiny bitch. At worst, I think he's a hand puppet for the Bush administration through which to release talking points. Every time there's bad news coming out, or word of a scandal, Ross comes on with some new terrorist alert. I guess people have caught on to the whole Homeland Security color-coded scare-'em-to-death system. Brother Lurch demonstrates using a blockquote and a graph.

PSA

Sy Hersh is on Noballs tonight. Catch it if you can. Video link is up at the page.

Bamboo Bike

This is fascinating. Be sure to check out the 'photo gallery'.

Let's hope Harley-Davidson doesn't hear about this...

Quote of the Day

Think Progress

"When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." (my em) — the tombstone epitaph of decorated Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, whose "medals, uniform and other personal effects make up the centerpiece of 'Out Ranks,' a new exhibit that documents the tortured relationship between gay troops and the U.S. military from World War II to the present."

There have been gay men in the world's militaries since time immemorial. There has never been a reported loss of combat efficiency due to widespread "friggin' in the riggin' ". This whole 'don't ask, don't tell' business would just be silly in the extreme if it were not for the fact that it hurts people who have dedicated their lives to protecting our country.

Mucho jamón por dos huevos...

In all good conscience, I cannot post this picture, but I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment.

The title of the post is a Mexican pun, literally "A lotta ham for two eggs". Figuratively and culturally, huevos has nothing to do with chickens...

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

IMMIGRATION PASSES IRAQ AMONG AMERICANS' GREATEST CONCERNS ⇒
But both lag behind other hot button issues.

Senate No-Confidence Vote on Attorney General Fails
Gonzales calls it "a mandate."

Scientists Developing Clothing That Monitors Your Health
Underwear beeps when you're due for checkup.

I was wondering what that noise was...

Too many good zingers this week to do 'em justice. Go see.

Father's Day

Go read about Brother Bulldog's dad.

Off to the shop ...

Insurgencies ...

I was gonna blog about this yesterday but Brother Lurch got to it and gives it the treatment it deserves:

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But GEN Petraeus’s response is quite interesting, because being in uniform and all, one might think he actually has studied this history thing that’s such a mystery down at the shallow end of the gene pool where the never-right seem to congregate.

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He goes on to detail a host of insurgencies that have 'cropped up' over the last few hundred years and how stopping them, usually unsuccessful, required methods the average American would not abide.

Are you idiots?

I'd like to know who the genius was who thought this was safe?

SELMER, Tenn. -- Two more people have died after a drag-racing car went out of control and careened into a crowd of spectators, raising the death toll to six, officials said yesterday.

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There was a guard rail along at least part of the highway but not where the crash occurred.

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We've been dealing with the street racing problem in NY a long time and are painfully aware of what can go wrong. Thing is, most street racing is illegal. This was a legal, sanctioned event so I ask the organizers, what the fuck were you thinking? How the fuck are you gonna sleep at night with 6 lives, so far, on your conscience?

This accident was a long time coming and as those of us in the business know, racing is inherently dangerous. I could regale you for hours with stupid racing stories of how shit happened at sanctioned tracks.

A note to the person who arranged this idiocy: You have a good cause; next year hold it at a racetrack instead of a highway. If there is a next year. Odds are, you'll be sued into destitution. Good luck living out of that refrigerator box.

Question for the Tennessee Highway Patrol: How the fuck did they get a permit for this stupidity?

Cross-posted at Fixer & Gordon.

So, tell me again ...

Why we went into Iraq and wasted, that's right wasted, over 3500 lives so far?

UNITED NATIONS, June 16 — The search for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction appears close to an official conclusion, several years after their absence became a foregone one.

The United States and Britain have circulated a new proposal to the members of the United Nations Security Council to “terminate immediately the mandates” of the weapons inspectors. Staff meetings on the latest proposal have already taken place, and officials say that the permanent Council members, each of whom has veto power, seem ready to let the inspection group — the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission — meet its end.

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So now it's official. When does impeachment happen and when do the war crimes trials begin?

Note to Rethugs: If you ever want to win another election, you'll bring up the subject of impeachment yourselves.

Link via Atrios.

Irony, thy name art Bush ...

Chicago Sun-Times:

CRAWFORD, Texas---- President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.

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How much is Iraq costing us?

Right-Winger Sues Blogger And Wins

Seeing the Forest

Just go read it. A textbook definition of a SLAPP suit.

Leadership

You know, after the lack of leadership from Washington in the I-P situation, it might be better at this point if Israel just kicked the place over and put it to bed once and for all. I'm no fan of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians but this situation has less hope of being solved then the mess in Iraq does.

One Mob Left

Daddy Frank on the last big mob and their attempts to free one of their own. Today's 'must read'.

But unlikely moral arbiter that Mrs. Gotti may be, she does have a point. As the Iraq war careens toward a denouement as black, unresolved and terrifying as David Chase's inspired "Sopranos" finale, the mob in the capital deserves at least equal attention. John Gotti, the last don, is dead. Mr. Chase's series is over. But the deaths on the nightly news are coming as fast as ever.

Among those contributing to the 373 pages of what thesmokinggun.com calls "Scooter Libby Love Letters" are self-identified liberals and Democrats, a few journalists (including a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine) and a goodly sample of those who presided over the Iraq catastrophe or cheered it on. This is a documentary snapshot of the elite Washington mob of our time.

No wonder Victoria Gotti denigrated "that mob in Washington." When the godfathers of this war speak of never leaving "a fallen comrade" on the battlefield in Iraq, as Mr. Ajami writes of Mr. Libby, they are speaking first and foremost of one another. The soldiers still making the ultimate sacrifice for this gang's hubristic folly will just have to fend for themselves.

Don't miss this one. That's our Pop! Even if he ain't coppin' to it...

Update:

Bill Moyers has a good piece on this as well.