Please Don't Vote For Crazy Cousin Georgie.....

Think your crazy Uncle Ernie is a handful at Thanksgiving dinner? Go see what Bush's family thinks of him at Bush Relatives For Kerry. Just for fun.

My Christian faith moves toward greater inclusiveness and acceptance, George Bush moves toward punishment, division, and exclusion. My Christian faith seeks to bring people into the circle of decision-making, George Bush seeks to keep them out. My Christian faith seeks to afford equal rights and responsibilities to all, George Bush seeks to reserve more rights for the privileged few.

"I am voting for Kerry because I am terrified of the police state that is being created by George and his cronies. I am also voting for Kerry because he is complex and sees the paradox of things, that we are living in a complex and paradoxical world. George prefers to see everything in black or white, good or evil and this old paradigm world view will ventually doom us and perhaps the entire human species to extinction.

The thing that troubles me most with this current president is a heightened sense of entitlement. Throughout the 2000 election process, George W. Bush seemed to view his ascendancy as something of a given, something he didn't feel he had to work for along the way, like many others before him.

Jeeminy, that's his family. Imagine what they'd say if they didn't have to like him!

The Fall Of Castro!

Man, ol' Fidel took a righteous header! Read and see the video on MSNBC.

Now, I have never agreed with Fidel's politics, being a Cold War veteran and all. I am old enough to have served with Marines that were actually aboard ship ready to go fuck him up during the Cuban Missile Crisis.There was a time when his overthrow of the Cuban government could have been turned to our advantage, but we blew it, and the rest is history.

I have always admired his spirit, however. Here he is, in charge of a pipsqueak of a nation, 90 miles off the coast of the most powerful nation in history and he has always held his middle finger high at us. That's OK. The worst thing I can really say about him is that he sent us a lot of Republicans that we don't need. Sneaky bastard.

I wish him a full recovery. This type of injury to a 78 year-old can easily be a death sentence.

I think it is high time that our silly embargo of Cuba be called off. Most of the rest of the world already has, but our pols don't want to piss off the Cuban voting bloc in South Florida.

I have an ulterior motive. I like Old Iron and there is plenty of it in use as daily drivers in Cuba, dating prior to the revolucion. Castro himself has a '59 Chevy and an old Ducati, one of Italy's finest motorbikes. I would like to take an auto carrier (rent one from Japan, Inc.?) or tow a barge down there and load it up. I would pick a couple of real cool ones for myself, and retire on the rest of them. Wanna go, Fixer?

Edwards today

Go to Atrios.

“There’s a problem when the Vice President is warning of a nuclear attack and the Homeland Security Secretary who has declared that he is separate from politics spends the bulk of his time traveling battleground states."

The only thing I don't like about Edwards is that he's 10 years older than I am and he looks 5 years younger.

I love a good hanging

Cruising through Bubba's and I came across this. But when rifling through the 'comments', I saw my partner Gord was there before me. It's a great comment and I figured more people should read it instead of it being buried somewhere. So here it is:

Well, I can see that you're all being nicer to that bastard than I am. I do hate him. Personally. He is not a good person, and he is not a nice person. He is an attention-deficit-disordered dyslexic dry drunk with a messianic, little man complex and a mean streak who doesn't give a damn about anything besides power.

With his personal and business history, and that of his family going back about four generations, the gall of that little twerp to even think he should be President infuriates me. Stealing the election didn't help. If things had remained as they were before 9/11, maybe he could have pulled it off, but he has proven that that event was too much for his little pea brain.

His willingness to be led by the nose by the neo-cons, his incuriosity, his inability to see reality or take the advice of experts, his reliance on his 'instinct' (that must have been what made him such a success in business), his inability to admit mistakes, his fear of showing 'weakness' by doing so, and his interjection of his phony morality into our lives as public policy, all stoke the fire in my gut.

Commit a crime and tell the judge that 'God told me to do it' and watch what happens. You'll be in the rubber room so fast it'll make your head spin. Bush says that and a good percentage of people in this country actually believe it. That so many people want so desperately to believe in something like that saddens me no end, as I have always thought most people were rational and at least a little intelligent. He's got them fooled big time and works them like a red-headed step-child. He is outwardly religious, but it's a LIE, judging by the things he has done. He talks the talk, but his religiosity is empty of spirituality. The milk of human kindness does not exist in him.

Bush lies every time he opens his mouth. The only two words I have heard him say that were true are 'results matter' and his handlers made him quit saying that right fast, as his 'results' won't stand the light of day. He blames everybody else for things that are HIS responsibility. Maybe not always his fault, but being President, they ARE his responsibility. With Bush, the buck always stops somewhere else. After all, he's infallible. Ask him, he'll tell you.

Don't get me started on the cabal he installed around himself to effect the coup d'etat which will be up to Kerry (and us) to undo. I have never been to a hanging, but I am damn sure hoping for a twelve-roper. [my emphasis]

I'm wit ya, pal. Hope ya don't mind me grabbing this.

The High Sierra

My partner Gordon sent me this and he assures me this ain't him (strange folk in them thar hills). They had snow up in his neck of the woods the other day. Follow his struggle with Mother Nature over at TF&G.

Suppressed II

Yesterday. Josh Marshall today:

There's a buzz now about why the House Intelligence Committee still hasn't received a copy of a CIA inspector general's report which examines the Agency's performance during the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks. Democrats suspect it's being held up until after the election. And even the Republican chairman of the Committee joined the ranking member telling the CIA to stop delaying. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

So, if my theory is right, that this report is severely damaging to the White House, it must really shwack the Agency or they would have let it leak by now. Somehow, I don't think that political hack and DCI, Porter Goss, has the wherewithal to keep it from leaking, just to protect Bush. I can't wait until it does come out, one way or the other, it should be very interesting (yes, you should be thinking Arte Johnson).

Those fucking French

Business Report via Kos:

Washington - A French pharmaceutical company will supply 2.6 million extra anti-flu shots to help the United States cope with a vaccine shortage that has sparked public concern, a top US health official said on Tuesday. [my emphasis]

Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary for the United States, said Aventis-Pasteur, a division of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, will raise the number of vaccines available in the US to 58 million in January.

[. . .]

Yeah, good thing we have 'Old Europe' when our balls are in a sling and our are backs against the wall. By rights, the Frogs should tell us to go fuck ourselves after the way we've treated them lately. Mon dieu!

Cannon fodder

Enjoy The Draft.

Via Atrios.

You Don't Have To Candy-Coat It, Jon...

If you've a mind to, here's the transcript of Jon Stewart's recent visit to "Crossfire" with Paul Begala and Tucker 'Dick' Carlson.

You'd Think They'd Get Tired Of Having Their Pants On Fire...

Joe Conason, one of my journalistic heroes, from Working For Change:

For reasons known only to America's leading conservative thinkers, it is far more offensive to utter an inconsequential truth than to tell a long series of important falsehoods.

But Mr. Bush need not worry that serious scrutiny will be applied to his speeches or utterances. On Oct. 18, in what was dubiously billed by the White House as a "major foreign-policy address," he said things about his opponent which might more aptly be described by terms like "shameless" and even "McCarthyite." His "major speech" was nothing more than the same old catalog of misleading charges and plain falsehoods that Republicans have been repeating with increasing shrillness since their national convention

It isn't surprising that the President and his surrogates would try to deflect attention from his record with strained and misleading rhetoric. It certainly isn't surprising that they would try to distract the voters and the press with a bogus "issue" like the "lesbian" flap. It is disappointing that they can engage in such obvious manipulations and distortions with the smug expectation of easy success.

Lesbian flap? Now there's a mental picture. Shudder!

They'll think it's a success all right. When the moving van backs up to the White House. Hopefully the Paddy Wagon, too. Success for America.

Do As We Say, Not As We Do...

This, from today's Washington Post:

While many Americans search in vain for flu shots, members and employees of Congress are able to obtain them quickly and at no charge from the Capitol's attending physician, who has urged all 535 lawmakers to get the vaccines even if they are young and healthy.

The practice appears to directly contravene the instruction being given by the government's executive branch.

It must be nice to be above the common folk. If we run low on hookers and booze, they'll probably get those first too, while the rest of us do without.

Support our troops II

Cincinnati Enquirer via The American Street:

[. . .]

Hundreds of thousands of veterans of earlier U.S. military conflicts might also no longer qualify for VA health care or might be forced out by rules proposed by the Bush administration to relieve an overburdened system. The changes would increase veterans' out-of-pocket costs by increasing co-payments for out-patient care and prescription drugs, as well as require many to pay a $250-a-year enrollment fee just to stay in the VA health-care system.

That, critics say, will force many veterans to say goodbye to a health-care system they had assumed would be available all of their lives.

[. . .]

"Young men and women go off and fight for their country and are told that their needs will be taken care of," said Ronald Conley, national commander of the 2.8-million member, Indianapolis-based American Legion. "To change the rules on them when they get back is wrong."

[. . .]

And while I'm all pissed off, I come across this. Fucking bunch of users. Like my partner says, Bush looks at our troops as cannon fodder and deck apes, nothing more, and if they can't fight anymore, we don't want to know about 'em. I'm sorry, but I was more than willing to put my ass on the line for this country, still am, but if I'm fucked up in the process, you'd better give me the care I need.

1963

Xpat.org via Sadly, No!:

"If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." --Michigan State Representative John Pappageorge (R), July 16, 2004 (Detroit is 88 percent black in a predominantly white state)

[. . .]

It's more visible in Philadelphia than anywhere else as of tonight, where the Bush campaign staff attempted a last-minute drive to shuffle around polling places in Philadelphia--again, a predominantly black city in a predominantly white state. The Bush team argued that they wanted to relocate 63 polling places because they allegedly lack sufficient handicapped access, and because of "intimidation." Said Matt Robb, the Republican leader of the 48th ward in South Philadelphia, "It's predominantly, 100 percent black. I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back." Another gem of a Republican said they were trying to change polling places in black neighborhoods because "The black neighborhoods are the ones that do the funny stuff. What are you supposed to do?"

[. . .]

Yeah, you know dem niggas, they's all troublemakers.

What the fuck is going on around here? Have we entered a time warp and been transported back 40 years? I am SO pissed off right now, I feel like going out and kicking my annoying neighbor's ass. This is criminal and you know the responsibility goes right to the top. Bush and his cronies need to do some jail time after they're out of the White House.

The American President

Mrs. F and I love that movie. So when Bob Harris made the reference, it got my attention:

Bob Rumson: Vote For Me Or Die! Die! Die!

Suppression

It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.

"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."

[. . .]

From the L.A. Times via The Talent Show.

If I were an 'undecided voter' (ha!), I would certainly want to know who screwed the pooch in the months leading up to 9/11 and who still has a job three years later. I wish, since the Agency has had it with the White House (if the rumors can be believed), they would leak this report before Election Day. Probably the best way cut Bush's legs out from under him at this point.

Update: 15:05

From L.A. Times via Kos:

WASHINGTON -- The ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee have asked the CIA to turn over an internal report on whether agency employees should be held accountable for intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, congressional officials said Tuesday.

[. . .]

Ya think these bastids will show some balls and demand the fucking report before Election Day?

U.S. Gets Silver In Iraq

From The Onion:

BAGHDAD—After 19 months of struggle in Iraq, U.S. military officials conceded a loss to Iraqi insurgents Monday, but said America can be proud of finishing "a very strong second."

"After that strong start, I really thought that we were going to take it home," Bremer said. "I'd say we can chalk this loss up to a combination of Iraq's home-field advantage and a poor second-half U.S. game plan."

Loyal fans of the U.S. are still coming to terms with the loss, a rarity for an organization that won undisputed world championships in the '10s and '40s, but has not always played its best on hostile ground in recent years.

Added Carruthers: "You'd think they hadn't even scouted their opponent beforehand, let alone beaten them soundly the last time they squared off. Someone should lose his job over this."

"But remember that this was just one war," Rumsfeld added. "We'll get 'em next time."

I think we need new owners and a new coach.

Brrrr

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military's medical corps.

In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care professionals, whose lives could be disrupted. (NYT)

[. . .]

Docs and nurses now, old forward air controllers next year. I'm a-waitin' for my draft card. You laugh? Read:

[. . .]

Under the plan, Mr. Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with the Selective Service. From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

The bright side is that they'll have to fix my hip to get me combat-ready.

Gore Dumps On Bush

Again, it's about time. If he could have spoken this plainly in 2000, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today. Go read this speech by Al Gore on MoveOnPAC:

Most of the problems he has caused for this country stem not from his belief in God, but from his belief in the infallibility of the right-wing Republican ideology that exalts the interests of the wealthy and of large corporations over the interests of the American people. Love of power for its own sake is the original sin of this presidency

The essential cruelty of Bush’s game is that he takes an astonishingly selfish and greedy collection of economic and political proposals then cloaks it with a phony moral authority, thus misleading many Americans who have a deep and genuine desire to do good in the world. And in the process he convinces them to lend unquestioning support for proposals that actually hurt their families and their communities. Bush has stolen the symbolism and body language of religion and used it to disguise the most radical effort in American history to take what rightfully belongs to the citizenry of America and give as much as possible to the already wealthy and privileged, who look at his agenda and say, as Dick Cheney said to Paul O’Neill, “this is our due.”

The central elements of Bush’s political – as opposed to religious -- belief system are plain to see: The “public interest” is a dangerous myth according to Bush’s ideology – a fiction created by the hated “liberals” who use the notion of “public interest” as an excuse to take away from the wealthy and powerful what they believe is their due.

It is clear that President Bush has absolute faith in a rigid, right-wing ideology. He ignores the warnings of his experts. He forbids any dissent and never tests his assumptions against the best available evidence. He is arrogantly out of touch with reality. He refuses to ever admit mistakes. Which means that as long as he is our President, we are doomed to repeat them. It is beyond incompetence. It is recklessness that risks the safety and security of the American people

We also have learned in today’s Washington Post that at the same time Bush was falsely asserting to the American people that he was providing all the equipment and supplies their commanders needed, the top military commander in Iraq was pleading desperately for a response to his repeated request for more equipment, such as body armor, to protect his troops. And that the Army units under his command were “struggling just to maintain…relatively low readiness rates.”

But for the Bush team, it is all part of the same pattern. Lie, intimidate, bully, suppress the truth, present lobbyists memos as the gospel truth and collect money for the next campaign.

The same dangerous dynamic has led Bush to reject the recommendations of anti-terrorism experts to increase domestic security, which are opposed by large contributors in the chemical industry, the hazardous materials industry and the nuclear industry. Even though his own Coast Guard recommends increased port security, he has chosen instead to rely on information provided to him by the commercial interests managing the ports who do not want the expense and inconvenience of implementing new security measures.

The same insularity and zeal that makes them effective at smashmouth politics makes them terrible at governing. The Bush-Cheney administration is a rarity in American history. It is simultaneously dishonest and incompetent.

Massive incompetence? Endemic corruption? Official justification for torture? Wholesale abuse of civil liberties? Arrogance masquerading as principle? These are new, unfamiliar and unpleasant realities for America. We hardly recognize our country when we look in the mirror of what Jefferson called, “the opinion of mankind.” How could we have come to this point?

He has ducked accountability by the press with his obsessive secrecy and refusal to conduct the public’s business openly. There is now only one center of power left in our constitution capable of at long last holding George W. Bush accountable, and it is the voters.

Whoo-eee! Yes, I said "speech". Long, it was, and I read every word. Gore touched on every evil act that Bush has done. Well, not everything. He didn't have all day, but he got to a lot of them. There are a lot of summations out these days about Bush's criminal career in office and this is a good one. If you have a few minutes, go read it.

Finding excerpts to post was a lot like riding a desert race on a fast motorcycle: I just hit the high spots, and tried not to crash. Did a couple tank-slappers, tho'.

I think the last quote says it all.

More College Daze

There is so much good, serious, anti-Bush shit starting to fly around the ether today (about time, I'd say) that I'm having a hard time deciding what to post, so I did the only logical thing: I chickened out. Here is more nonsense from Steve Harvey of the LATimes:

I mentioned that when a college opened in Camarillo, it was named Cal State University Channel Islands, though, of course, Camarillo is on the mainland. Rumor has it that school officials were afraid that the initials of a Cal State University Camarillo — CSUC — would draw unintended laughs. So now the school is CSUCI.The result? Marvin Petal notes that it's known to locals as Cal Sushi.

School daze (cont.): Continuing the discussion of school nicknames, Margo Kline writes that at that good-times school, UC Santa Barbara, "the initials UCSB are said by some of the rowdier students to stand for 'U Can Study Buzzed.' " (Kline points out that the school does have six Nobel Prize winners, so not everyone is partying.)

At happy-go-lucky UC Santa Cruz, meanwhile, student Dori Daniels says the joke is that the initials stand for Uncle Charlie's Summer Camp.

Hopefully, I'll be back later with some real stuff. If the coffee holds out.

Inconsistencies and incongruities

Jeff points up a relevant one:

[. . .]

In many states, the moment a 16 or 17 years old commits a crime, it suddenly changes thier status from "helpless, innocent, little baby" to an "villianous adult." In other words, if you have sex with a 17 year old girl on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, you are a major felon taking advantage of an innocent young person. If she robs a convenience store on the way home, she's an hardened adult.


[. . .]

Go read.