Sigh, again

Remember this a few days back?

From SKB:

Tennessee fights off Iraqi insurgents
Wednesday August 04, 2004

By way of readers Janet and Peter Jung, Atrios, and about 150 news outlets, you probably heard this news about a group of Iraqis who were denied entry to City Hall in Memphis while there on official business.

It seems the State Department brought the seven Iraqi civic leaders over to tour the U.S. and learn all about democracy and how to operate their government. Memphis city council chairman Joe Brown decided they posed a threat and wouldn't let them attend a scheduled meeting with another city council member.

He said he would have to "evacuate the building and bring in the bomb squads" because they might be dangerous. What a shining example of American values.

Joe Brown is a Democrat and a highly respected community leader and activist. Unfortunately he is now nationally known for being a dickhead who pulls stupid political stunts to get his name in the paper.

OK, then.

Are we that scared?

Well, today Bubba has this:

I'm Goin' to Graceland...
Friday August 06, 2004

...where I have reason to believe that we will all be received. (Sorry, couldn't resist).

Remember the Iraqi delegation who visited Memphis to learn all about freedom and democracy? Not only were they denied entry to City Hall, two of them got robbed in the Beale St. area:

And while the Mayor's apology may have softened the blow, what started as a civil rights tour, some say turned into one slap in the face after another. Adding insult to injury, Memphis police say two of the delegates were robbed at gunpoint Tuesday night on North Main Street.

Mike Hollihan has all the details of the whole embarrassing mess, which the Memphis Chamber of Commerce is apparently and understandably trying to downplay. I was happy to see, however, that they were able to visit Graceland without incident. (By way of SayUncle).

You'd hope they'd go home with a good impression of Americans in this country, especially after we've torn theirs up, but I guess that's not to be. Shouldn't be long before they learn how to say, 'Yankee go home'.

Oh yeah, the economy's fine.

------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC Breaking News
------------------------------------------------------

Jobless rate dips to 5.5% in July, but only 32,000 new jobs created -
The Labor Department says the economy added just 32,000 jobs in July, the smallest gain since December; but the jobless rate dipped from 5.6 percent down to 5.5 percent

Glad things are so rosy in Bush World.

See Kos, A Brooklyn Bridge, and Eschaton for more on the wonderful job information. I thought the White House said they were gonna create 275 or 300 thousand jobs a month? Lying bastids.

Read this

[. . .]

They also show that while some Texas officials aided and abetted Bush's efforts (and others apparently acquiesced to what was happening), there is no reason to question the character of Alabama officials, or Air Reserve Forces personnel as a whole. Finally, the only conclusion that can be reached from an examination of Bush's records for the period after he quit the Air National Guard is that the Air Force attempted to take punitive measure against Bush, but that political pressure prevented those measures from being carried out.

[. . .]

The Farmer at Corrente has much more here. Talk amongst yourselves. Friday-Friday-Fri-day!

Our governor

Governor Pataki. At least other people see him the way we do here in NY. From the Farmer at Corrente:

You know how to be sure something is a posed marketing event? It's when George E. Pataki, the Punxsutawney Phil of Republican Party photo-ops, pops up out of whatever burrow hes been snoozing in, blinks into the bright lights and cameras, has his picture snapped with the mayor, announces the opening of a ski lift or golf course, predicts six more weeks of fabulous NY weather and then scurries back into his hidey hole until the next snapshot "news" filler opportunity rolls around. Most recently he popped up long enough to sniff at the wind and share a friendly NY minute with CNN's Judy Woodruff.

[. . .]

Pataki: And this president understands that you don't just pat yourself on the back and declare a victory. You look to see how you can continue to move forward. And that's what this president is doing.

[. . .]

Entire post.

Yup, that's our little Georgie. Remember 'mission accomplished', putz?

Yeah, I stole the picture too. It's just one of my things, sorry, but I love photgraphic evidence of President Fuckup's fuckups.

Where do you want me to put it?

Sorry, couldn't resist.



Via Reuters.

You're glowing, my dear

From The Talking Dog:

If I don't have that third martini, the terrorists will have won. This seems to be the logic of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's sudden decision to stop publishing nuclear plant safety and security deficiencies, because "it might help the terrorists".

Well, no-- what it actually does is allow the nation's (103?) active nuclear plants to operate under an even greater veil of secrecy than they do now. It is interesting to note, for example, that the Indian Point nuclear plant at Buchanan, New York, around 60 miles North of Manhattan, owned by the Entergy Corporation (which ominously has recently been advertising its safety and reliability... as if any of us have a choice about where our electricity comes from) is often touted for the benefits it provides to its local economy, i.e. virtually no property taxes for around 1,000 or 2,000 residents of Buchanan. New York, and a few jobs in the region (and the electricity of course, which otherwise would have to be acquired on the regional power grid, or supplied by other means, or worst of all, perhaps force reasonable conservation measures).

[. . .]

Ah, but the economic damage, not to mention psychological. It is unclear to me how wide an area would have to be evacuated, or for how long. But keep this in mind: after the WTC, most of lower Manhattan was evacuated completely for a few days, and residents nearby, for months-- maybe a half-mile radius. Economic damage estimates are usually put in the $100 billion range.

Pretend instead we're talking evacuating a radius of 50 or 60 miles from a nuclear catastrophe. That's not only millions of people, but potentially the entire New York area-- not merely our largest population center, but the nation's (and probably the world's) leading business center. In short, it would make $100 billion seem like a bargain, compared to the probable economic devastation equivalent to a signfiicant part of our GDP-- especially if the area is uninhabitable for a significant amount of time.

And that's just one nuclear plant: we have over 100 of them up and running.

[. . .]

Entire post.

Another group of Bush friends, the nuclear power industry. Are you surprised?

Truth

From Kos:

Bush finally tells the truth
by kos
Thu Aug 5th, 2004 at 13:44:48 GMT

It was bound to happen. It was clear that Bush would eventually tire of telling one lie after another. So, in a moment of rare frankness, he finally told the truth.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Truer words have never been spoken.

Indeed. Our President is a fucking asshole, period.

From the 'they would never do that' files

From Lambert at Corrente:

Gaslight watch: It just keeps getting better and better!
Now the administration has revealed that part of what really convinced them to go Code Orange in the latest extremely non-political terror alert was not the three- and four-year old files and documents themselves, but—wait for it—the fact that the files were written in perfect English:

[T]he separate flow of information that was arriving at the same time via the Central Intelligence Agency from Pakistan ... was based on information culled from seized computer disks that contained detailed case reports of reconnaissance conducted on buildings in Manhattan, Newark and Washington in 2000 and 2001.

In providing new details about those case reports, senior government officials described them for the first time as discrete documents, each at least 20 pages long and devoted to a particular target, and perhaps most intriguingly, they said, written in "perfect English.''
(via the see-no-evil Times)

Um.

"Perfect English?" Sounds like one of those panty-waisted extreme librul Democrat traitors to me!

The malAdministration has a really bad history with the written word in intelligence matters, you know? Remember the "crude forgeries" (here) on Iraq uranium? Remember the Brits lifting a report off the Internet and cutting and pasting it into their own report?

Hey, maybe the document was written in "perfect English" because... Um... No! They would never do that!

Talk amongst yourselves.

Sigh

From SKB:

Tennessee fights off Iraqi insurgents
Wednesday August 04, 2004

By way of readers Janet and Peter Jung, Atrios, and about 150 news outlets, you probably heard this news about a group of Iraqis who were denied entry to City Hall in Memphis while there on official business.

It seems the State Department brought the seven Iraqi civic leaders over to tour the U.S. and learn all about democracy and how to operate their government. Memphis city council chairman Joe Brown decided they posed a threat and wouldn't let them attend a scheduled meeting with another city council member.

He said he would have to "evacuate the building and bring in the bomb squads" because they might be dangerous. What a shining example of American values.

Joe Brown is a Democrat and a highly respected community leader and activist. Unfortunately he is now nationally known for being a dickhead who pulls stupid political stunts to get his name in the paper.

OK, then.

Are we that scared?

I'm beat

I'm hot and tired so I stole this whole thing from Kos.

Gay marriage victory in Washington state
by pucknomad
Wed Aug 4th, 2004 at 13:52:55 GMT

(From the diaries -- kos)
This morning, a King County Superior Court judge ruled Washington's ban on same sex marriage in violation of the state constitution.

"The Court concludes that the exclusion of same-sex partners from civil marriage and the privileges attendant thereto is not rationally related to any legitimate or compelling state interest and is certainly not narrowly tailored toward such an interest."

This will end up in the state Supreme Court, but still is wonderful news!

Yay.

The best

From Jesus' General:




Read the entire post.

A month or BOTFOJ

Just an aside, tomorrow it'll be a month since I started The Alternate Brain. Big whoop.

See why I call them Nazis

From WTF Is It Now??:

I got an old uncle who was in the SS during WW2. He still salutes like this too.

They suck

Fucking assholes. From Bill at Whiskey Bar:

[. . .]

That's why I was startled to read tonight that the intelligence information that triggered the latest threat scare - and which Ridge breathlessly described as as evidence of imminent danger - actually dates from before 9/11:

Pre-9/11 Acts Led To Alerts
Officials Unsure Spying On Buildings Continued

Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued since then, numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday...
"There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," said one senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. "Why did we go to this level? . . . I still don't know that."

[. . .]

Entire post.

Yup, EVERYTHING President Numbnuts and his surrogates do is political. Motherfuckers. You know, one day when Bush is out of office, I'm gonna drive down to Crawford, Texas and punch his fucking lights out.

A tree grows in Brooklyn

Another New Yorker who has to deal with these new terror alerts. BTW, he works just down the street from Mrs. F. From Glen at A Brooklyn Bridge:

[. . .]

First, I saw a couple of misleading reports that New York, northern New Jersey, and Washington are now on orange alert. Most got it right, but lest there be any confusion: New York City has been on orange alert since the system was introduced. Welcome to the neighborhood, folks.

(Parenthetically, the Holland Tunnel was closed to eastbound commercial traffic at midnight. The Williamsburg Bridge was apparently closed to westbound commercial traffic around 11:00 pm. Driving is going to be worse than usual for a while. Potential visitors should take note.)

[. . .]

Second, the conventional wisdom is that, in the event of another attack, the people would rally 'round the flag, happily draped on George's shoulders, Kerry would be trounced (assuming that the election was held, eventually or at all), yadda, yadda. But is the conventional wisdom wise?

[. . .]

Third, if New York, Washington, or some other place is attacked, National Guard and reservists are stationed several thousand miles from where we would need them. Voters might notice that, too.

Fourth, many bytes and trees have given their all to the "debate," does Osama want Bush or Kerry in the White House. That's a no brainer. A few days after September 11, I saw people in Berlin, Ottawa, and Paris singing "The Star Spangled Banner"; I cried. Now? George is held in contempt, suspicion, or outright hostility by a plurality of Americans, most allies, and almost all of the Islamic world (including the moderate or bribable oligarchs). Though most average people abroad would still sympathize with average people here, we'll find ourselves more overstretched and more isolated than before. (At that point, it's likely that talk about a draft will become more than just talk.) None of that works to our advantage.

Last, is it factual or political? I have no idea. New York Senator Charles Schumer was on local news last night at 11; he says it factual; I earnestly hope he's right. The problem is that George & Co. have spun, manipulated information, and just plain lied so many times in the past four years. That's why the question can even be asked. Nice job, George. Sorry for your foot wound.

Entire post.

On 9/12 we could have gone after any place in the world and the rest of the world would have gone with us. Now, only Tony Blair would even consider it. Thanks a lot, Mr. Bush. You've turned the brightly lit, beacon of freedom known as America into nothing more than a dark alley and you're the guy with the 3-card Monte table at the end. Rat fucking bastid.

Yeah, what I said

What I said the other day:

Well, Bush is going back on the campaign trail, now that the Dems Convention is over, promising to answer Kerry's charges made during the convention. Do you think they'll try to attack him with substance? Nah, they're gonna be like little kids and make fun of the way Kerry looks, the way Cheney did the other day. It's gonna get infantile now. Watch.

What Josh Marshall at TPM said today:

[. . .]

The more discussion-worthy point, however, is the use of humor as a political weapon -- mockery, derision, diminishment.

Republicans are very good at this. And it can be a tool that is deceptively difficult to respond to or combat. Effective mockery is 'sticky', hard to shake off, hard to parry. And it appeals to people's appetite for fun and humor.

Indeed, it's not just contemporary Republicans who have a knack for this. There seems to be something intrinsic to the reactionary or right-leaning mentality that gravitates toward this method of political combat. Think of the Tory pamphleteers and essayists of the 18th century in Great Britain or others of a more recent vintage in the US.

This is potent stuff. And Democrats would do well not only to be on their guard but consider applying this approach to the current president, who is more than a bit ripe for such treatment.[my emphasis]

A voting machine EVERYONE can use

From High Desert Skeptic:

Anna Quindlen

On Obama and Liberal pride:

Aug. 9 issue - At the end of Barack Obama's keynote speech to the Democratic convention, I stood up and cheered at the TV. I was alone in the den with two dogs, a piece of needlepoint and a cup of Sleepytime tea. I must have looked like a solitary lunatic, but I'm certain I wasn't alone in my reaction.

[. . .]

We liberals have fallen on hard times in recent elections. At the very least, like feminists, we are not supposed to say our name. Certainly none of the sanctioned speakers were supposed to describe either John Kerry or John Edwards using the L word. That will be left to the Republicans, who will use the description as a pejorative to suggest that the Democratic candidates are out of touch with the moderate values of the American people.

But it's worth remembering that today's moderate values were the liberal notions of yesteryear. Social Security. Integrated schools. A war on poverty. In just one generation we have gone from the dark threat of something labeled socialized medicine to the promise of the same thing, called universal health care. We liberals have been shamed into thinking our vision failed, when in fact it has simply been absorbed into the national self-portrait. From the idea that a woman ought to have the same legal rights as her male counterparts to the belief that workers should count on being safe from hazardous conditions, formerly liberal principles have become bedrock democracy.

[. . .]

In his speech Obama reclaimed patriotism and traditional values for liberal activists, who have allowed their detractors to confuse dissent with disloyalty and tolerance with amorality. "There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it," he said. And he added, referring to the great fractured map of Blue Democratic states and Red Republican states that is the legacy of the 2000 election, "We worship an awesome God in the Blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red states. We coach Little League in the Blue states and have gay friends in the Red states."

[. . .]

But his own was the story that made his point most powerfully. It was a story that, under the status quo of the recent past, would probably never have taken place at all. "In no other country on earth is my story even possible," he said. But it was possible in some substantial measure because of a movement devoted to replacing the status quo with something fairer, greater, different. According to the dictionary, and to history as well, that movement was, and remains, liberalism.

Full story.

Where is Rumsfeld?

Yeah, where is that war criminal? Have you seen him lately? Ain't heard him peddling his doubletalk in a while. Kevin at The American Street asks the question:

Where's Rummy?

Polling can tell us who's unpopular in political administrations, and when someone has high negatives, it's common for a president to compel the guy to reduce his visibility. I suspect Rove and Bush are currently doing that to Don Rumsfeld.

The only other possibility occurs when someone's nut cracks and they're kept sedated, on the q.t.

For a second, I though this might be what happened to Rummy. But then I remembered, if Rummy went perv, he could just get Dick Cheney to talk dirty to him.

In the meantime, though, I still gotta wonder: WHERE'S RUMMY?

Yeah, what Bubba said

They should have thrown Zell Miller out the Party years ago. Can't stand the dried up old bastid, he has no ethics and less principle. Bubba feels the same way:

Zell Miller is a drooling idiot...
Sunday August 01, 2004

...and should no longer be allowed to call himself a Democrat. On the other hand, I'm glad he's on their side and not ours. What a moron.

On Meet the Press today, he said:


The Democrats are the party of "division and diversion." (Excuse me? Oh, I must have tuned into Bizarro World TV).

[. . .]

Entire post.