A glimmer of hope

Good news (maybe) via Maru via MyDD:

Occasionally I get e-mails from Washington folks who work on the Hill claiming to possess juicy insider digs on our public servants and their corporate paymasters. I usually delete said e-mails, as I don't want to be responsible for propagating dirty rumors or false information that can't be corroborated. I'd rather let Judith Miller and the New York Times do that. Nonetheless, in the past 24 hours I have been contacted by three separate congressional Democrats in Washington, and a Justice Department official, first by e-mail and later phone, who all say the same thing: Karl Rove is about to be indicted.

[. . .]

These are all anonymous sources so take it for what it's worth, but it's nice to think about on a sad day.

A Steady Hand at the U.N.

From the WaPo:

UNITED NATIONS -- The face of American power here is a 5-foot-1 woman who can charm foreign envoys even when she is enforcing policies that infuriate them. Anne W. Patterson, the acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, represents a stark contrast to the confrontational John R. Bolton, whom President Bush has nominated to represent the United States at the world body.

Senior U.N. delegates say they value her pragmatism and they are in no hurry to see her replaced by Bolton.

"There are plenty of people who would like to see Bolton delayed indefinitely," one senior U.N. official said. "I haven't heard anyone saying we'd rather work with her than him, but obviously that's implicit."

Patterson has won high marks from her colleagues and staff members, who describe her as a smart manager who listens to advice from her specialists. She has won praise from human rights advocates for her role in implementing one of the largest U.S. foreign assistance programs, Plan Colombia, while serving as ambassador to Colombia.

Patterson has also demonstrated a willingness to compromise, supporting a politically controversial decision to allow the Security Council to grant the International Criminal Court, which the United States opposes, a mandate to investigate war crimes by Sudanese officials in Darfur.

"There is a natural tension between political appointees and career appointees and she absolutely bridged that," said Christopher Burnham, a former senior State Department official who oversees the U.N. department of administration. "I believe so strongly in Anne's talents that I hope that she will either stay on, or that the president will ask her to take on new and important responsibilities in Washington. I think it's important that this administration not lose a woman of such capability."

A smart woman? Imagine that! Listens to advice? Willingness to compromise? Well liked and works well with others? These attributes would seem to be what is called for in a job of this type, trying to work with the rest of the world, but I don't think they're on Bush's list along with loyalty, rock-brained (Sorry, rocks!) ideology, and "staying on (the wrong) message".

Listen up, Georgie: You made a mistake nominating Bolton. Eat it and move on. Do the right thing for once and tell this lady to unpack and stay a while.

Oversight

In my ranting this morning, I forgot to convey my condolences to the people of Great Britain and London in particular. I have so many fond memories of London and her people and I am sorry for your loss. You'll be in our prayers tonight.

So, ladies and germs, what do we do with our leaders who've spent so much money, so many lives, in the wasteful mess that is Iraq? They sure as hell haven't made us any safer, have they? Spain, Moscow, London, all these have happened since 'we have al-Qaeda on the run', since 'Mission Accomplished'. Let's get a grip, folks, and run these assholes out of office before they get us all killed.

Buried in the 24th paragraph...

...of this NYTimes article is the nugget:

In his statement in court, Mr. Cooper did not name Mr. Rove as the source about whom he would now testify, but the person who was briefed on the case said that he was referring to Mr. Rove and that Mr. Cooper's decision came after behind-the-scenes maneuvering by his lawyers and others in the case.

Gee, I'm glad the NYTimes saw fit to squander all that ink on such an insignificant little point. Yeesh.

Interesting Times

By William Rivers Pitt via Truthout:

Many an ancient lord's last words have been, "You can't kill me because I've got magic aaargh." - Terry Pratchett

Maybe ten thousand times in the last few years, someone has stated with profound assurance that the Bush administration is in trouble, that the hammer is coming down, that some form of accountability is in the offing. Maybe ten thousand times, these predictions have turned out to be wrong. Nowadays, it takes a special kind of fool to think this White House can be easily cashiered for its gross violations, lies and flat-out crimes.

But it is getting awfully crowded around here. Bush's numbers are still cratering, the nation has stopped buying into the idea that he is some kind of Great Protector, the Brits are bugging out of the chaos in Iraq, Afghanistan is heating up, the Jesus Brigades on Bush's right flank are preparing to wig out unless they get some kind of Falwell clone onto the court, and one of the journalists used to destroy the career of a CIA operative who worked to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction is cooperating with a prosecutor.

Don't blink this week. You might miss something.

I never blink, but I might miss something during the times some new administration outrage comes out when my eyes roll backwards into my head. It's a reflex.

A Little More Good News...

From The Financial Times.

President George W. Bush is unlikely to seek a recess appointment for John Bolton in the near future, increasing the sense that his nomination for US ambassador to the United Nations is running out of steam.

A senior administration official suggested that a recess appointment (a presidential confirmation of an official while the Senate is in recess) (parentheses added for clarity - Ed.) would antagonise relations with Democrats ahead of what is expected to be a contentious Senate debate over filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

"Perhaps [the Bush administration] is trying to send a signal to [Mr Bolton] that he should withdraw his name," the aide said.

A pinpoint of light on a very dark day.

I think costs are bound to go up...

From Working For Change:

7/7/1863: First military draft by U.S. (exemptions cost $100).

I'll bet exemptions will cost enough in the upcoming draft that, once again, only the rich won't have to go.

Some Good News on a Sad Day

There will be many posts in the blogosphere today about the bombings in London and Smirky McFlightsuit's response, so I thought a feel-good article about an honest-to-goodness honest politician, a real "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" type might be in order.

Donna Frye has been a lone voice for the average San Diegan on San Diego's City Council. She doesn't live in the back pocket of developers and big-business types like her colleagues. And she's not afraid to piss off the powers-that-be or take an unpopular stand. God love her! Last November, she entered the mayoral race as a write-in candidate five weeks before election day against the incumbant mayor and a Republican fat-cat. She ended up in a run-off with incumbant Mayor Dick Murphy and lost only because the local courts said that, while her name was written on more ballots than those cast for Murphy, some voters forgot to check the "other" box. Disgusting.

San Diego is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, and Mayor Murphy didn't have a clue about how to fix it, so he bailed last spring. Now we're having another mayoral election, and surf-shop owner Frye is again on the ballot. She is a true light in the darkness of American politics, and I hope to goodness that she wins.

Ineptitude

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MSNBC Breaking News
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Blasts shut down London train system; injuries reported -
Multiple explosions on central London train lines Thursday morning injured several people, British Transport Police said.

So, we're winning the 'War on Terra', just like we're winning the War on Drugs. That reminds me, I gotta pick up a bag o' cheeb from the Jamaicans today. BTW, London has closed-circuit television cameras all over the place. There should be some serious footage of the explosions by this evening. Another thing, let's hope the NYPD takes a closer look at things than they usually do. I just put my wife on the train to NYC a few minutes ago. Hope this ain't a coordinated attack. Remember (p)resident Dicknose, if my wife gets hurt, you're gonna answer to me.

Another note: Security's real good too, being that all the G8 leaders are in the Kingdom. Way to go, assholes. That little troll Bloomberg says that too when we have dignitaries here. "New York is the safest place in the world with all this security." Yeah, keep believing that, dickheads. The Brits did. Yep, 'after 9/11, everything changed'. Ain't nothing changed.

Prediction: Tony Blair will be unemployed by this time next month.

A worthy goal

ImpeachCentral.com is dedicated to the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for violating the Constitution of the United States.

Go see 'em. Thanks to Froggy for the link. And G.D. gives us this reminder:

. . . Read Federalist No. 65 and then check Article. II. Section. 4. of the US Constitution. Bush and Cheney have committed impeachable offenses of great significance and need to be removed from public office now . . .

Crooks

At the end of the Iraq war, vast sums of money were made available to the US-led provisional authorities, headed by Paul Bremer, to spend on rebuilding the country. By the time Bremer left the post eight months later, $8.8bn of that money had disappeared. Ed Harriman on the extraordinary scandal of Iraq's missing billions

[. . .]

The "financial irregularities" described in audit reports carried out by agencies of the American government and auditors working for the international community collectively give a detailed insight into the mentality of the American occupation authorities and the way they operated. Truckloads of dollars were handed out for which neither they nor the recipients felt they had to be accountable.

[. . .]

There appears to have been good reason for the Americans to stall. At the end of June 2004, the CPA would be disbanded and Bremer would leave Iraq. There was no way the Bush administration would want independent auditors to publish a report into the financial propriety of its Iraqi administration while the CPA was still in existence and Bremer at its head still answerable to the press. So the report was published in July.

The auditors found that the CPA didn't keep accounts of the hundreds of millions of dollars of cash in its vault, had awarded contracts worth billions of dollars to American firms without tender, and had no idea what was happening to the money from the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), which was being spent by the interim Iraqi government ministries. [The Guardian via Rising Hegemon]

[. . .]

Chimpy Inc is not a political administration, it is a criminal organization; crooks, liars, and thieves, nothing more.

Walls

Berlin, Baghdad, what's the difference?

1,000,000

Go see the roo . . . again . . . and again . . . and again . . .

Now watch this drive!

Dear Leader doing 'hard work'.

And speaking of the Chimp in Pictures, Pam has a good one.

One of these days, that asshole's gonna get us in real trouble...

From Sisyphus Shrugged via Are You Effin' Kidding Me?

A regional security alliance dominated by Russia and China yesterday demanded the US and its allies in the "war on terror" name a date for the removal of their military bases from central Asia.

Both Moscow and Beijing have their own energy interests in the region, and have shown signs recently of forging a new anti-US alliance.

Sanobar Shermatova, an Uzbek political analyst based in Moscow, said: "There is a growing feeling in central Asia that the Americans are only a source of instability."

You know, what's interesting about that list is how many great and good friends of Our Fearless Leader are on it.

Practically all of them, as a matter of fact.

They represent more than half of the human beings on earth.

And they control a great deal of our trade.

And they've taken over a great deal of our manufacturing.

And they hold our paper.

And they don't particularly like us, now, do they?

And they've gotten together to do something about it.

And our army is tied down in Iraq serving as a training exercise for every wannabe terrorist in the world with a plane ticket -

which the Saudis have historically been good for, and at $60/barrel they can certainly afford it -

and who have lots and lots of lovely explosives that Mr. Rumsfeld's hand-picked generals let them have in case lots for free.

Oh, and bin Laden definitely isn't in Pakistan.

Again.

Hawks, take a bow. You guys really did change the balance of power in the world.

Still, if your luck holds, you'll end up standing on top of the rubble, which means you win, right?

I got nothin' to add to that.

The pigeon's singing

Let's see what falls out, if anything. Why do I think Chimpy Inc has him so intimidated he'll lie his motherfucking ass off:

WASHINGTON - Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper agreed Wednesday to testify about who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of an undercover CIA operative, while New York Times reporter Judith Miller refused to reveal her source.

[. . .]

Breaking: Judy Kneepads is going to JAIL. See ya's.

Our Georgie

My governor and his whelp:

"With supreme guts and righteousness, President Bush went into Iraq," Gov. Pataki told the Republican National Convention last August. The place erupted with applause. It was all very stirring.

Almost one year later, Pataki's son Teddy is, with supreme guts and righteousness, seeking a three-year law school deferment from the Marines, which last week commissioned the recent Yale grad as a second lieutenant.

[. . .]

If the cause in Iraq is even half as important as the governor has led us to believe, then surely his son is more needed in Fallujah than in some Cambridge lecture hall. If, on the other hand, the governor no longer considers the war important enough to justify his son's immediate contribution, then he should speak up as loudly as he did in the winter of 2003. Which is it, George?

Enjoy being the sphincter-licking whore you are for another year, George. Look in your rearview mirror. See the guy coming up fast? His name is Eliot Spitzer and your ass is gonna be unemployed.

Link via Skippy.

DemVet has more.

Info . . . maybe too much

As most of you know, the Brain was a year old on 4 July. A couple days before, I posted a short history of the blog over the last year. It just occurred to me (thanks to an email from a reader who asked the question) that I never mentioned how I came up with the name.

It's a reference to a wild night in London about 20 years ago. The Colonel (Vietnam vet, search and rescue, and all around stand-up guy) came and got us out of the lockup and asked me how we ended up in the jam. I told him. He said, "you gotta stop thinking with the alternate brain, Sarge." That is all.

'Hard work'

Link via his Highness, the King:

Cindy Sheehan [That would be this Cindy Sheehan - F-man] has already had her heart ripped into a million pieces by the illegal Iraqi war, losing the son she loved more than life itself only five days after he arrived in Baghdad in April 2004.

[. . .]

No one should have to experience such pain, but the cold reality of war is that someone's child actually dies and there are actual parents left living with the hopeless task of trying to cope with the pain.

[. . .]

So when Sheehan received an invitation to meet privately with President Bush at the White House two months after her son died, the least she could have expected was a bit of compassion or a kind word coming from the heart.

But what she encountered was an arrogant man with eyes lacking the slightest bit of compassion, a President totally "detached from humanity" and a man who didn't even bother to remember her son's name when they were first introduced.

Instead of a kind gesture or a warm handshake, Sheehan said she immediately got a taste of Bush arrogance when he entered the room and "in a condescending tone and with a disgusting loud Texas accent," said: "Who we'all honorin' here today?"

[. . .]

"The whole meeting was simply bizarre and disgusting, designed to intimidate instead of providing compassion. He didn't even know our names," said Sheehan. "Finally I got so upset I just looked him in the eye, saying 'I think you can imagine losing someone. You have two daughters. Imagine losing them?' After I said that he just looked at me, looked at me with no feeling or caring in his eyes at all."

Sheehan said what really upset her about the meeting is that Bush appeared to become annoyed and even angry at her daughter Carley, 25, who also attended the White House get-together.

"My daughter said to him directly 'I wish I could bring my loved one back' and he said something like 'so do we.' Later she told me that after he made his remark he gave her one of the filthiest looks she had ever had gotten in her life.

[. . .]

Like I've always said, this administration only 'supports the troops' if they are able-bodied enough to carry a rifle. The only reason the Chimp even deals with the families is for propaganda purposes. Don't forget, (p)resident Stupid McMoron has never attended a GI funeral. Never paid his respects to anyone whose blood stains his hands.

The Social Security Time Bomb

Read what folks are saying, from The Onion:

"This certainly is bad news for the elderly, coming as it does on the heels of the Federal Aging and Ice Floes Act."

"It's good I already have a taste for dog food."

"Everybody relax. We'll be fine as soon as we get our money back from Iraq."

I'm collecting warm clothes and getting a Petsmart discount card.