I couldn't have said it better

Lambert at Corrente:

[. . .]

Yep, that's the Campaign Against Fundamentalism we've been talking about.Of course—surprise!—Bush doesn't really mean what he says. After all, the wingers, the gun nuts, the theocrats, the Jeebofascists, and the right wing domestic terrorists are all part of the base.... So they aren't "Idelogical Extremists" at all... Just part of the mainstream....

[. . .]

Reaffirming Our Commitment to Democracy

From Center for American Progress:

Reaffirming Our Commitment to Democracy in the Americas
[. . .}

The Bush administration has developed a reputation around the world for being ideologically driven and unbending. In the Americas, it has expressed that will by unabashedly interfering in elections, expressing preferences for candidates rather than allowing people to select their leaders and hold poor choices accountable by voting them out in future elections. While supporting candidates friendly to the United States might meet our country's short-term interests, in the longer term the administration is cheapening the democratic process and strengthening the ability of undemocratic leaders to rule in an undemocratic way.

[. . .]

Full story.

You gotta read this

From Kevin at Lean Left:

Is this what Republicans are going on about when they talk about "heartland values"?:

[. . .]

Joe Darby is a hero. He saw evil -- and yes, it was evil --being done and tried to stop it. If the United States is ever to be able to be seen as anything other than a sadistic colonizer in the Middle East, it will be because Joe Darby allowed the process to begin. He did so by acting with decency and courage in a place where authority and custom were running against him.

Instead of being treated as a hero, however, his life is in danger along with that of his wife. His neighbors hold vigils for the bastards who tortured people and talk casually about the harm Darby deserves. Rush Limbaugh excused the torturers and Senator Inhofe was outraged at the revelations and the outrage over those revelations. And what of Bush? Where has his vaunted character been? Darby is a genuine American hero -- and yet Bush is allowing his fellow travelers, his base, to treat Darby like this without saying a word. Bush talks a lot about honor and dignity and strength and doing the right thing --but his military has kept Darby under wraps, and I could find no mention of Bush bringing up Darby's name on the stump or of chastising the people who excuse the torturers or demonize Darby. A man of actual character, a man with real values, would not sit silently when a good person, a man who out his nation above himself, was attacked.

[. . .]

Go read the whole thing here. Chaps my ass.

Fired up

The Farmer at Corrente is fired up over President Nitwit's message on leadership.

Dogs

I posted this over at The Fixer for potential dog owners. Read it before you get a dog.

Holy Mary, mother of God

Chase the niggas out the yard. And the Latins, and the Jews, and everybody else who ain't a God-fearing Christian.

Via Pandagon from the New Republic Online:

COMING HOME: I noted a while back that recent polling by John Green of the University of Akron showed that despite a concerted effort Bush has done nothing to blunt the traditional Democratic advantage among Jewish voters. In Green's survey the sample size for Jews was actually very small, but a much larger poll out today by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research confirms that Bush has made no inroads. The numbers look almost identical to what VNS exit polls found in 2000. . .

[. . .]

I'd say with the exception of their efforts to woo Jews, blacks, Hispanics, and Catholics, Karl Rove's and George W. Bush's strategy to bring traditionally Democratic groups into the Republican fold is going swimmingly.

What I wanna know is what happened to the 'Big Tent' and 'Compassionate Conservatism'? Or are those just code words for 'racism'?

Update: 10:30:

From Atrios:

Boxed In

It really isn't clear what's left. Bush is distancing himself from the Falwellian branch of his base, even refusing to pray in public and offering up the heretical notion that even people who don't go to church deserve religious freedom. The much discussed Republican takeover of the Jewish vote (which I always scoffed at), isn't happening. Bush has lost the Hispanic-American vote, and is likely to be losing an important subset of that, the Cuban-American vote. Obviously Bush has lost the Arab-American vote. His campaign rallies contain screened crowds -- there are no real "public" events.

What's left?

No exceptions!!

From Jesus' General:

The Most Reverend John M. Smith, Bishop of Trenton

Dear Bishop Smith,

I've been an admirer of your work ever since you announced that pro-abortion politicians cannot receive communion. It's good to see that there are still a few Bishops out there who have the balls to stand beside Our Leader in this election season.

My faith in your leadership was confirmed again the other day when I learned that you had revoked a little girl's first communion because she partook of a wheat-free host. It does not matter that a normal wafer might have killed her. She'd have met our Lord in Heaven. Now, thanks to you, she faces an eternity in Hell unless she chooses the death and resurrection embodied in the wheat-based host.Sure, some might argue that it was the act that is important--not the Church law governing the constituents of the wafer--but they are ignoring the most important issue, transubstantiation.

Wheat was the grain that built the Church, and by extension, Western Culture. It was no accident. Our Lord commanded it to be so. Therefore, it would be heretical to use any other grain in the wafer. Indeed, other grains might corrupt our Savior's flesh as the host undergoes transubstantiation. A rice or corn based wafer might even result in worshipers eating the flesh of Buddha or Wankantanka, thereby releasing Hell's legions of demons to feast upon our souls in an orgy of apocalyptic destruction.

You're all that is standing between us and those demons. Thank you for
being strong.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot.

You think the Baptists are the only ones who are 'out there'? The Catholics can be just as fucked up.

Scary, again

This caught my eye a couple days ago, bit the news media whores in the ass yesterday, and Democratic Veteran adds:

Just when you thought that they might have learned their lessons, and quit fucking around with things that they don't understand, the Neocons do it again...this time with the "redeployment" of troops back to the US. The 1600 Crew is saying that this will give the troops more time at home...sure, between deployments back to where they were stationed overseas. It's a serious Catch-22 being sold by a bunch of guys whose closest association with military service was watching Bill Murray in "Stripes".

[. . .]

Entire post.

Fucking assholes have no idea. Thank God this is a long-term plan and Kerry will reset everything when he gets in. No quarter and no mercy in November.

Update: 07:15:

Bubba's got a take on this too:

Bush's move to withdraw troops from bases in NATO partner countries is designed to further isolate America and to poison John Kerry's chances for rebuilding our coalitions and getting real help in Iraq. What a bunch of cynical bastards.

Update: 08:30:

Watching CNN 'cause MSNBC has the 'lympics. So who's on? That nitwit Joe Lieberman, talking about this very subject. Jesus H. Christ, he's reciting the WH talking points! Oy gevult!!! What the fuck does he have, Zell Milleritis? Time to chuck 'em both out the party.

Update: 12:45:

Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway weighs in on this too.

Rock stars

From Kos:



Ya think they made all these people sign loyalty oaths? NOT!!!

Immigration news

From Ginger at the The American Street:

One of the interesting things about observing immigration news is that you end up reading so many interesting stories and learning a lot about how the US does business. This is a roundup of interesting immigration stories from this week that gives a good idea of the breadth of topics immigration touches on: civil liberties, public health, law enforcement, marriage law, and, of course, the war on terror.

[. . .]

In a move that will come as no surprise to experienced immigration-watchers, the government is giving border patrol agents the ability to deport illegal aliens without reference to immigration courts. Theoretically, this measure should relieve the jail crowding that necessitates the "catch-and-release" program. In real life, there's a significant concern about the due process rights of aliens, including refugees and asylum applicants, who may get swept up and removed without recourse.

[. . .]

Also from the Department of "This Makes Sense Until You Think About It": if you're from Montserrat, you're about to lose your temporary protected status. Not because the volcano that has devastated Montserrat has stopped erupting--because it's not going to stop, which means the problem is no longer temporary. To compound the brilliance of this move, immigration authorities told Montserratians who don't want to go home to apply for British citizenship (Montserrat is a former British colony). They neglected to mention this to the British government first, though.

The court decision to annul the same-sex marriages in San Francisco may force one woman to go into exile to stay with her spouse. Her spouse's work visa will end next year, and she can't renew it. Since they're not married, she can't get a green card on the basis of her relationship to a US citizen. It's one more thing to keep in mind when you look at what marriage rights entail under US law.

[. . .]

And she's got a lot more here. Yeah, you can trust us. We're from the government.

Reservists losing jobs

Let's see, you fought in Iraq, maybe you're wounded, maybe you've had your tour extended, and now you're home. Guess what? You ain't got a fucking job either. Glad I got out a long time ago.

Bubba turned me on to this and it pissed me off enough where I posted the whole thing.

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Benefits reduced. Promotions forgotten. Jobs gone.

It's tough to find these conditions when returning home from the mean streets of Iraq (news - web sites), ready to resume your civilian career. Increasing numbers of National Guard and Reserve troops returning home are experiencing just such disappointment.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Labor Department (news - web sites) reports receiving greater numbers of complaints under a 1994 law that is primarily designed to give Guard and Reserve troops their old jobs back, or provide them with equivalent positions.

Benefits and raises must be protected, as if the serviceman or servicewoman had never left.

Labor Department officials said only a nationwide campaign to educate employers about the law prevented the problem from getting even worse.

"Any increase in the number of complaints is a concern to us," said Fred Juarbe Jr., assistant secretary of labor for veterans employment and training. "At the same time, we're pleased by the fact that the increase in complaints is not at the level that would have been expected."

Some soldiers, however, are finding the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act can't protect them.

_Larry Gill couldn't return as a police officer in Thomasville, Ala., because a grenade injured a foot, making it impossible for him to chase criminals or duck bullets.

_Jerry Chambers, of Oberlin, Kan., discovered that budget cuts eliminated his job as a substance abuse prevention consultant.

_Ron Vander Wal, of Pollock, S.D., was originally told his job as a customer service representative was eliminated. He was rehired after filing a civil lawsuit seeking damages.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said the department is drafting rules to spell out the law's protections for service personnel because "we've got to do everything we can to protect their re-employment rights."

Labor was receiving about 900 formal complaints a year before the Sept. 11. The statistical picture since then, based on fiscal years ending Sept. 30:

_1,218 cases opened in 2002.

_1,327 cases in 2003.

_1,200 cases from Oct. 1, 2003 through July 31. If projected over 12 months, the figure would be 1,440, the department said.

Soldiers' complaints were upheld or settled by the department in one-third of last year's cases, while another third were found to have no merit. The remaining cases are inactive or closed, often because the government lost contact with the soldier or the soldier returned to active duty.

When Guard and Reserve troops returned from the first Gulf War (news - web sites), there was one complaint for every 54 soldiers leaving active duty. Currently, with the government's aggressive drive to inform employers of the law, the figure has improved to 1 in 69.

The complaints represent a small percentage of the quarter-million Guard and Reserve troops who left active duty since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Not all returning troops are bitter about their job loss.

Chambers, the substance abuse consultant, agreed that budget cuts left his former nonprofit employer no choice but to eliminate his job.

"I don't fault them for that and I don't hold grudges," said Chambers. He was among the lucky ones, finding employment with his Reserve unit, the 1013th Quartermaster Company, based in North Platte and McCook, Neb. His unit has been mobilized anew, and he is again on active duty.

For others, finding their jobs gone was an emotional and an economic hardship.

Gill, the former Alabama police officer with an injured leg, had to give up a career that began in 1992 and followed in the footsteps of his father and brother. "My biggest concern is loss of income," he said.

While some troops fault former employers for firing them as they served their country, most complaints involved alleged denial of benefits, promotions and raises, said officials from Labor and a Pentagon (news - web sites) organization — Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

Army Col. Brarry Cox, who coordinates the ESGR's mediation efforts between employers and returning troops, said typical issues raised by soldiers include: "What about the 401 (k)? The end-of-year bonus? What about my evaluation? I was due a merit promotion that I missed.

"We try to talk employers through a logical approach; How were they (the employees) performing prior to active duty, where do you think they would have come out?"

The Labor Department, which has subpoena power, asks employers to justify firings or reduction of benefits and can refer complaints to the Justice Department (news - web sites) for filing of civil lawsuits. Only a small percentage of cases get that far.

While the 1994 law strengthened previous protections, it doesn't help doctors, lawyers or small-business owners who depend on maintaining a client base. It doesn't save jobs eliminated by plant closings or budget cuts. And it doesn't help injured troops who can no longer perform the work they once did.

Weird (Bad) Science

From Democratic Veteran:

Making Bad Science pay, the Lobbyists way

Yet another use of bad science to enrich the coffers of the corpro-fascist pigs...and ensure that truly bad research is used predominently in making laws that [don't] protect us all...

Things were not looking good a few years ago for the makers of atrazine, America's second-leading weedkiller. The company was seeking approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to keep the highly profitable product on the market. But scientists were finding it was disrupting hormones in wildlife -- in some cases turning frogs into bizarre creatures bearing both male and female sex organs.
[. . .]

[. . .]

Entire post.

Well, that explains the guests on Jerry Springer.

Uhlaru

Hadda steal this from The Head Heeb:




Never made it to the Red Center when I was TDY to Australia for a week. Gotta drag the Mrs. there soon.

Do you haff ze papers?

From WTF Is It Now??:

Bunnypants the Yellowbellied

It's old news that while John Kerry has welcomed everyone at his campaign stops, the Boy King's handlers laborously handpick every one of the brainwashed mouthbreathers you see in all the Widdle Fuckwit's campaign stops and photo-ops, even forcing them to sign "loyalty oaths.

"Heaven forbid the senseless twit ever has to face a heckler or even somebody asking him a tougher question than why isn't Laura here today? He even has something called "Ask pResident Bush" sessions, where supporters who must have undergone thorough questioning into their political family trees suck up to the vacuous ninny and leave pucker marks all over his shiny yellow ass.

Well, in one such make-out session on Friday the stumbling mumblefuck couldn't even answer a question posed by a little kid about the firing of a school librarian:

"I can't answer your question why. But Laura was a librarian, so maybe the superintendent ought to talk to the librarian, Laura. But, no, I don't know."

But Saddam wuz a threat so ah took him out, you damn li'l commie.

I love the attitude over at WTF.

More on Bush and his Nazi rallies at Eschaton.

Cowards

Via Corrente, via Eschaton, from Sen Tom Harkin:

DES MOINES -- Sen. Tom Harkin called Vice President Dick Cheney a "coward" for avoiding service in Vietnam and called on President Bush to end the "backdoor draft."

[. . .]

Harkin, who served as a jet pilot in the Navy, said the exemption wasn't intended for situations like the war in Iraq. He said first responders like Nydam are needed to protect the community.

"The part of the U.S. code that provides for this anticipates major wars, major national emergencies," Harkin said. "That is not what we're confronting right now. You think about using this law only in (extreme cases), only when we're really in dire, dire need."

Harkin also shot back at Cheney, who said in a visit to Iowa on Tuesday that presidential candidate John Kerry lacks a basic understanding of the war on terrorism and cannot make America safer.

He noted that Cheney had several student deferments that allowed him to skip serving in Vietnam.

"When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil," Harkin said. "Those of us who served and those of us who went in the military don't like it when someone like a Dick Cheney comes out and he wants to be tough. Yeah, he'll be tough. He'll be tough with somebody else's blood, somebody else's kids. But not when it was his turn to go." [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Damn right.

Read the entire article here.

Twenty (one) questions

A bunch of questions our media whores should ask President Free Pass. From Lambert at Corrente:

We've been working on a list of questions we'd like to ask Bush; here they are.

The Kerry campaign has a site called "Ask the President" (thanks to alert reader raison de fem). It couldn't hurt to post some of the questions below there. (Sure, the form is an email-address-capturing device, but who cares? There's a lot at stake.) The Kerry campaign—or the surrogate team it has yet to form—sorely needs some spunk and snark. Let's give 'em some, courtesy of Corrente and the blogosphere....

NOTE: In this simulated transcript, I have replaced the press's usual kneepad-appropriate salutation to Bush—"My Lord"—with the "Sir" that most Americans still expect.

Readers, have at it... Maybe we can break 50!

[. . .]

Tough shit, I'm not stealing the whole thing. Go read the outstanding questions here.

Bush in Florida, again

Yup, a little over 24 hours and President Nutless Wonder is in Florida, surveying the damage. Real nice, asshole. Would you move so fucking quickly if Charley ran over a blue-fucking-state? I seriously doubt it. Took you 10 days to see if we were all right after 9/11. Sure didn't hesitate to have the Republican Convention here so you can exploit us though, right. Motherfucker.

This is scary

From The Talking Dog:

The Bush Administration gives us its plans for the redeployment of 70,000 troops from overseas station to bases within the United States. The People's Daily report linked to here is pretty consistent with other reports I have seen and heard: Bush will announce this initiative (which will not affect-- at all-- the 130,000 plus troops in Iraq or the nearly 20,000 troops in Afghanistan) at a VFW hall in swing state Ohio. The rationale for this pullback of forces permanently based in Europe or Asia is "to be able to respond more quickly to foreign situations."

[. . .]

Entire post.

All this says to me is that President Flightsuit is planning to go somewhere else and needs a couple more divisions to do it. While I've always advocated a kid going into the military after high school if he didn't know what do do and had no college plans, if I had an 18 year old kid, I'd try to talk him out of it. All these assholes are doing is squandering our childrens' lives. And I don't want to see any more kids turned into cannon fodder.

I thought they'd settled this

But I was wrong. That's why I rely on The Head Heeb:

THIS IS REALLY BAD

More than 150 Congolese Tutsi refugees have reportedly been massacred at a refugee camp in western Burundi. The National Liberation Forces (FNL) - a Hutu group that was until recently in rebellion against the Burundi government - has claimed responsibility for the attack, and DRC vice-president Azarius Ruberwa indicated that elements of the Congolese army were also involved.

This could have major repercussions even beyond the immediate tragedy. To begin with, the massacre puts the fragile Burundi peace process in very real danger of collapse. The FNL, which had been the last holdout among the rebel forces, joined the peace talks in January; it has since backed off and refused to be part of a national unity government, but its active campaign has subsided. Evidently, though, it believes that Congolese Tutsi refugees are still fair game, and this isn't likely to make the already-vacillating Tutsi parties any happier about the peace process. If the government and international mediators continue to urge the FNL to join the coalition, the Tutsi parties may pull out - and if talks break off, then it may return to full-scale rebellion and reignite the civil war.

[. . .]

Go read the entire post, damn it.

It just amazes me that we can intervene places that we fuck up even more, and this festering boil on Africa's ass continues to grow. These people have been hacking each other up for years. If we're gonna be a policeman for the world, we should start in Africa.

As an aside, I'm gonna get to Africa too one day before I die. I can still hear my mother singing: 'Wir lagen zum Madegascar'.

Taking over via 'regulation'

Via Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 - April 21 was an unusually violent day in Iraq; 68 people died in a car bombing in Basra, among them 23 children. As the news went from bad to worse, President Bush took a tough line, vowing to a group of journalists, "We're not going to cut and run while I'm in the Oval Office."

On the same day, deep within the turgid pages of the Federal Register, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation that would forbid the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles, saying that publicizing the information would cause "substantial competitive harm" to manufacturers.

As soon as the rule was published, consumer groups yelped in complaint, while the government responded that it was trying to balance the interests of consumers with the competitive needs of business. But hardly anyone else noticed, and that was hardly an isolated case.

[. . .]

"There's been more federal regulations, more regulatory notices, than previous administrations," said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, though he attributed much of that to the new rules dealing with domestic security.

And then there's Scott 'Lyin' Muthafucka' McClellan WH Press Secretary:

Scott McClellan, the chief White House spokesman, said of the changes, "The president's common-sense policies reflect the values of America, whether it is cracking down on corporate wrongdoing or eliminating burdensome regulations to create jobs."

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha bullshit.

Some leaders of advocacy groups argue that the public preoccupation with war and terrorism has allowed the administration to push through changes that otherwise would have provoked an outcry. Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, says he does not think the administration could have succeeded in rewriting so many environmental rules, for example, if the public's attention had not been focused on national security issues.

"The effect of the administration's concentration on war and terror has been to prevent the public from focusing on these issues," Mr. Pope said. "Now, when I hold focus groups with the general public and tell them what has been done, they exclaim, 'How could this have happened without me knowing about it?

[. . .]

The overall regulatory record shows that the Bush administration has heeded the interests of business and industry. Like the Reagan administration, which made regulatory reform a priority, officials under Mr. Bush have introduced new rules to ease or dismantle existing regulations they see as cumbersome. Some analysts argue that the Bush administration has introduced rules favoring industry with a dedication unmatched in modern times.

"My thoughts go back to Herbert Hoover," said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. "No president could have been more friendly to business than Hoover" until the Bush administration.

While John D. Graham, administrator of information and regulatory affairs at the Office of Management and Budget, does not dispute the administration's pro-business tilt, he said there had been notable exceptions, which his office approved when government officials "provided adequate scientific and economic justification."

[. . .]

The administration, at the request of lumber and paper companies, gave Forest Service managers the right to approve logging in federal forests without the usual environmental reviews. A Forest Service official explained that the new rule was intended "to better harmonize the environmental, social and economic benefits of America's greatest natural resource, our forests and grasslands."

In March of 2003, the Mine Safety and Health Administration published a proposed new regulation that would dilute the rules intended to protect coal miners from black-lung disease. The mine workers union called the new rules "extremely dangerous," while a mine safety administration official contended, "We are moving on toward more effective prevention of black-lung disease."

In May 2003, the Bush administration dropped a proposed rule that would have required hospitals to install facilities to protect workers against tuberculosis. Hospitals and other industry groups had lobbied against the change, saying that it would be costly and that existing regulations would accomplish many of the same aims.

But workers unions and public health officials argued that the number of tuberculosis cases had risen in 20 states and that the same precautions that were to have been put into place for tuberculosis would also have been effective against SARS. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Full story.

We've been hoodwinked, ladies and gentlemen. Time to wake up. President Ballbag might be a moron, but Cheney and Rove are smart guys. They've effectively sidestepped the checks and balances of congressional oversight. Hope it scares you as much as it scares me.