I'm already ashamed

Nevada Thunder brings us Bob Herbert's op-ed about our concentration camps secret jails in Romania, Poland, and elsewhere (Financial Times):

Ultimately the whole truth will come out and historians will have their say, and Americans will look in the mirror and be ashamed.

Abraham Lincoln spoke of the "better angels" of our nature. George W. Bush will have none of that. He's set his sights much, much lower.

The latest story from the Dante-esque depths of this administration was front-page news in The Washington Post yesterday. The reporter, Dana Priest, gave us the best glimpse yet of the extent of the secret network of prisons in which the C.I.A. has been hiding and interrogating terror suspects. The network includes a facility at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe.

This is the border along which democracy bleeds into tyranny.

Terrible instances of torture and other forms of abuse of detainees have come to light. The Pentagon has listed the deaths of at least 27 prisoners in American custody as confirmed or suspected criminal homicides.

None of this has given the administration pause. It continues to go out of its way to block a legislative effort by Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, to ban the "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any prisoner in U.S. custody.

Jimmy Carter was on Hardball yesterday. He said he never thought he'd see the day when Congress would argue whether torture is an acceptable policy or not.

Worse stories are still to come - stories of murder, torture and abuse. We'll watch them unfold the way people watch the aftermath of terrible accidents. And then we'll ask, "How could this have happened?"

I'll tell you exactly how it happened: we have criminals in charge of the United States of America. Let's ask how the fuck that happened.

I am not only ashamed of my government for this despicable shit, but as half of me is of Polish descent, I am ashamed of Poland for allowing this to happen. They, perhaps more than any country on the planet, should know the evil of concentration camps.

How Low Will He Go?

Nothing's too far fetched when speaking of Karl Rove. From OpEdNews:

He's America's Joseph Goebbels. As a 21-year old Young Republican in Texas, Karl Rove not only pimped for Richard Nixon's chief political dirty tricks strategist Donald Segretti but soon caught the eye of the incoming Republican National Committee Chairman, George H. W. Bush. Rove's dirty tricks on behalf of Nixon's 1972 campaign catapulted Rove onto the national stage. From his Eagle's Nest in the West Wing of the White House, Rove now directs a formidable political dirty tricks operation and disinformation mill.

Since his formative political years when he tried to paint World War II B-24 pilot and hero George McGovern as a left-wing peacenik through his mid-level career as a planter of disinformation in the media on behalf of Texas and national GOP candidates to his current role as Dubya's "Svengali," Rove has practiced the same style of slash and burn politics as did his Nixonian mentor Segretti.

War of the Flea

From Reuters:

In small steps and without fanfare, the U.S. Army is adapting its training to "the war of the flea," the type of hit-and-run insurgency that is gripping Iraq, where more than 2,000 American military personnel have been killed.

Counterinsurgency training, military experts say, largely vanished from the curriculum of Army schools after the Vietnam War. It began a slow comeback after the Iraq war, which opened with a massive ground and air assault, turned into a protracted conflict of ambushes, bombings and hit-and-run attacks.

...One of the books that will be required reading at the college -- an essential career step for all officers who want to rise above the rank of major -- is a textbook by David Galula which was first published in 1964.

It deals with the central dilemma facing counterinsurgency forces: To break an insurgency you need intelligence about the insurgents from the population. But the population will not talk to counterinsurgency forces unless it feels safe from retribution from the insurgents. It does not feel safe as long as insurgents are active.

In Iraq, assassinations and bomb attacks have killed thousands of people seen as sympathetic to the Americans or working with the government. The Iraqi civilian death toll has topped 50 a day on average for many months.

Crime and lawlessness have added to the perception, reflected in Iraqi opinion polls, that U.S. forces are providing little or no security to Iraqis -- the key condition for winning the hearts and minds of the population.

Galula's book first appeared at about the same time as another treatise on counterinsurgency that is now high on contemporary military reading lists because of Iraq, "War of the Flea" by Robert Taber.

Taber likened guerrillas to fleas and conventional armies to dogs. The dog is always at a disadvantage against the flea -- he has "too much to defend, too small, ubiquitous and agile an enemy to come to grips with. If the war continues long enough ... the dog succumbs to exhaustion and anemia without ever having found anything on which to close its jaws or to rake with its claws."

Jimmy Carter Speaks Up

Via CBS News:

Mr. Carter says the decision to go [to invade Iraq]was made long before 9/11.

"I think it was made long before President Bush was elected president," he says, "and the people that believed that America should be the dominant force in the world, unilaterally, acting militarily if necessary, is another basic change in the principles that have always guided our country and made us great.

"So, going to war without our county being directly threatened is a new policy that's radically changed the basic moral values and ethical standards of the United States of America."

Don't be like him

Rep. Peter King is an asshole. We all know this, but this is uncalled for.

(Massapequa, Long Island - WABC, November 2, 2005) - Police tonight are trying to determine who tried to set off an explosive device at a small shopping complex in Massapequa, very near Congressman Peter King's headquarters on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park.

Eyewitness News reporter N.J. Burkett joins us live from the scene.

Police have sealed off part of a parking lot outside this shopping center. What they have found is a partially exploded pipe bomb outside the door of a brokerage firm that is itself next door to the Long Island headquarters of Congressman Peter King.

So far there are no suspects and the motive is still not clear.

[. . .]

If this was meant to send a message it backfired. While King isn't a favorite here on Long Island, a lot of innocent folks could have gotten hurt and assassination is not the way to bring about change. I just hope it wasn't some idiot on our side. The screeching Republican harpies will get a lot mileage out of it.

Chaplains

I generally enjoyed my military service. Well, except for the 2 years I spent in SAC (Strategic Air Command). I got along well with my fellow enlisteds and officers too, and I'm thankful for the experience and some of the good friendships I'd forged. There was one group I always fell afoul of though, and that was the Chaplain Corps. It started when the Air Force Commander of Chaplains (a 2-star) broke my balls about not attending a 'Christain fellowship' meeting. I told him this:

"General, God and I made a deal a long time ago. I'd stay out of His way and He'd stay out of mine. It's worked out well for both of us so far."

From that day forward, while I was on that base, the chaplains would bug me about my athieism (I'm not an athieist) and how my soul is in danger. I told a few holy men to get away from me before I ripped their arm off and beat them to death with it. These memories were brought back when I read this from Jo Fish:

...I am a servicemember and I'm so sick of the constant proletyzing and the power chaplains have. Last year I went with a buddy to see a chaplain, she had been raped and needed counseling very badly. All he could do was tell her to find comfort in Jesus and not to have anger in her heart...

This does nothing. Find comfort in Jesus, my ass. This woman needs serious help, and her rapist needs to be brought to justice, and telling her to pray will only make the situation worse. Fucking assholes. Note to Jesus freaks and chaplains: Jesus helps those who help themselves.

"Sky Pilot, how high can you fly?"

Neocongate

Good article at AntiWar.com about the Iran/Iraq/Italy/Neocon/White House connecton that got us into Bush's War.

In the run-up to war with Iraq, Iranian intelligence was playing the U.S. like a violin - with the knowledge and full cooperation of certain major (and minor) - players in the U.S. government.

The story of the Niger uranium forgeries - and the cabal that created and circulated them - is about to be exposed, and this is well-suited to illustrate the tragic lesson of how and why we got to where we are today. For a long time, the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee has delayed its promised "phase two" of the investigation into the generation of bogus pre-war intelligence. The indictment of Scooter Libby, and the La Repubblica revelations, have busted the logjam. We may be about to learn how a crude forgery was inserted - by high U.S. government officials - into the U.S. intelligence stream, with the active collusion of the Iranians, the INC, and the intelligence agencies of three major U.S. allies.

While Congress slept, the neocons lied us into war. But the nation and - finally! - our representatives are beginning to wake up.

The Libby indictment is just the beginning. Neocon-gate is big, and getting bigger by the day. Before this is over, we'll have half the staff of the American Enterprise Institute in the dock - and the other half testifying against them.

Please go read. Many, many links.

Cheney's Cheney's Cheney

Uniongrrl brings us Maureen Dowd on the Dick's new henchmen chief-of-staff and national security adviser:

Once Scooter left, many people, including a lot of alarmed conservatives and moderate Republicans, were hoping that W. and Vice would throw open some White House windows to let the air and sun in, and climb out of that incestuous, secretive, vindictive, hallucinatory dark hole they've been bunkered in for five years.

This is not loyalty. This is myopia. Where is a meddling, power-intoxicated first lady when we need one? Maybe the clever Nancy Reagan should have a little talk with Laura Bush tonight at the dinner for Prince Charles and Camilla, and explain to her how to step in and fire overweening officials who are hurting your man.

Vice thumbed his nose yesterday at the notion that he should clean up his creepy laboratory when he promoted two Renfields who are part of the gang that got us into this mess.

Dick Cheney has appointed David Addington as his new chief of staff, an ideologue who is so fanatically secretive, so in love with the shadows, so belligerent and unyielding that he's known around town as the Keyser Soze of the usual suspects. At 48, Mr. Addington is a legend: he's worked his way up the G.O.P. scandal ladder from Iran-contra to Abu Ghraib.

Vice also appointed John Hannah as his national security adviser, a title also held by Scooter. Mr. Addington and Mr. Hannah often battled with the C.I.A. and State as the cabal pushed the case that Saddam was a direct threat to America, sabotaging Colin Powell's reputation when it "helped" with his U.N. speech. Mr. Hannah was the contact for Ahmad Chalabi, who went around the C.I.A. to feed Vice's office the baloney intel and rosy scenarios that suckered the U.S. into war.

Angry at the Scooter scandal, the Addington appointment and the Roberts stonewalling, Senate Democrats did something remarkable yesterday: they dimmed the lights, stamped their feet and shut down the Senate.

Tired of being in the dark, the Democrats put the Republicans in the dark. Childish, perhaps, but effective. Republicans screamed but grudgingly agreed to take a look at where the investigation stands. But even if the Senate starts investigating again, Mr. Addington, now promoted, will have even more authority not to cooperate.

It's the Cheney chain of command.

Fuck with Cheney, willya, huh, Fitzgerald? He'll just drag more of 'em up out of the cold, dank shadows of his basement laboratory of evil. I think he's got plenty of 'em.

Or maybe he's desperate, and these are the only ones who know his dirty secrets that he could find to work for him who wouldn't melt in sunlight.

Either way, they are awful people. I hope the light of day will illuminate what they have done and contribute to the downfall of this criminal cabal that we call, through gritted teeth (OK, gritted gums for me), an administration.

From the Birdbrain-in-Chief...

From The Onion

WASHINGTON, DC - As experts issue increasingly dire warnings of an avian flu epidemic, President Bush signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the mass slaughter of "all bald eagles found anywhere within our borders."

Bush added: "I want these birds rounded up, tied down, and their throats slit."

Executive Order 1342A, which calls for the annihilation of the bald eagle, specifies that each carcass shall be wrapped in a single American flag, doused with gasoline, and burned.

"Bald eagles may not be as imposing as, say, bears or wolves, but they are surprisingly difficult to kill," Hall said. "We can blow them off their perches with air rifles, stun them with ball-peen hammers, or break their wings, beaks, and necks, but still, some survive."

Hall continued: "I'm encouraging officials on the local level to utilize 'certain kill' methods, such as wrapping the eagle in radioactive waste and burying it upside-down in an old-growth forest."

Hall urged Boy Scout troops to join in the effort by ferreting out eagle nests and smashing the eggs underfoot.

The Office Of The White House Counsel, which oversees the usage of all executive-branch insignias, is expected to approve a new eagle-free presidential seal as early as next week.

Why not? The bald eagle, our national symbol, represents freedom. Since that's gettin' less and less, why remind us of it?

Farm News

(Weird Farm News; Oct 01) On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Billy "pitch doctor" Frist of Affrontery was found wandering around in a muddle with his pants around his knees after being kicked squarely in the head by an ornery mule owned by Mr. Harry Reed of Accountability.

[. . .]

Heh. Go see the Farmer.

Handouts

Ed.

Since November is here

I'd like to take this time to remind you to have your car looked over by your local mechanic in preparation for winter (For those who live in LA, Arizona and the like, isn't it time you changed your oil anyway?). One thing I'm especially concerned about, in the areas where winter is a reality, are your tires. Have them looked at before it snows. If there's any doubt, get new ones.

A few links:

My post on tires.

Gord's post on winterizing your vehicle.

Gord's post on getting small engines in shape for the cold weather.

Be ready for winter driving. It could save you money and your life.

Cross-posted at TF&G

Dear Dems

It's been 3 hours since Harry Reid whipped out his huge wiener and beat it against the side of Bill Frist's head, causing him to cry and whine like the little bitch he is. I've just been surfing through our little corner of Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!*), checking the reaction amongst my fellow bloggers.

Dear Democrats,

If you stand up, we'll stand with you. Does anybody think Harry was wrong? Not a one of us so far. We're ready to go. We were ready for this two years ago and would have gone with you then. Look around in cyberspace, Dems. If you'll stand up to the Republicans, show them for what they are, we will stand with you. We did in '04 and we'll do it in '06 if you give us leadership to fight for.

You guys are the ones on the pointy end. Take a hint from the Jarheads and ground pounders in Iraq. You know why the grunts will follow their commanders into Hell? Because they know they're all in it together. You play to win. If you want to win, we'll go with you. If you show us more of what Harry Reid and Henry Waxman and Chuck Schumer have done so far today, we'll storm the gates if you ask us. Just show us you're willing to fight along with us.

Thanks, Harry,

The Fixer

*yes!skippy coined that phrase!

I'm just wild

About Harry!

Update:

Dave has more.

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran*

Go read this one at AntiWar.com. It'll 'splain things and scare the livin' crap outta ya. All I need to quote is the last line:

Bye-bye world, including the United States of America.

We've got exactly the right monsters in charge to do it, too. We gotta get rid of 'em. Soon.

*To the tune of "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys.

Quote of the Day

ReddHedd:

...I don't know about all of you, but I am sick of having to live with a Preznit who acts more like Cartman on South Park than a leader of this great nation...

Impeachment is possible.

From Consortium News

The conventional wisdom - virtually across Washington's political spectrum - is that the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is unthinkable, and without doubt, it would be extremely difficult to engineer.

But a better answer to Americans interested in holding Bush and Cheney accountable is that impeachment is possible - if enough voters want it to happen.

Say, for instance, 75 percent of voters favored impeachment and considered it a decisive issue in how they will cast their ballots. Would politicians facing such a popular groundswell risk their own jobs to save Bush and Cheney?

Or, put differently, what would happen if voters - beginning with state and local elections on Nov. 8 - rejected every Republican on the ballot? Would the public hunger for accountability begin to sink in then?

By standing up now, the American people also could say to the world that when the U.S. political system went awry - when an administration invaded another country under false pretenses and when the White House winked at torture - the people didn't treat such transgressions as business as usual.

Indeed, if impeachment at least is put on the table, the American people could point to how they demanded accountability from those responsible and did all they could to set things right.

Go read this one. Burn it into your brain and work to make it happen.

Timing is very important to Bush and his weasels

E.J. Dionne

Has anyone noticed that the coverup worked?

In his impressive presentation of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby last week, Patrick Fitzgerald expressed the wish that witnesses had testified when subpoenas were issued in August 2004, and "we would have been here in October 2004 instead of October 2005."

Note the significance of the two dates: October 2004, before President Bush was reelected, and October 2005, after the president was reelected. Those dates make clear why Libby threw sand in the eyes of prosecutors, in the special counsel's apt metaphor, and helped drag out the investigation.

Bush and his disciples would like everyone to assume that Libby was some kind of lone operator who, for this one time in his life, abandoned his usual caution. They pray that Libby will be the only official facing legal charges and that political interest in the case will dissipate.

Fitzgerald has made clear that he wants to keep this case going if doing so will bring us closer to the truth. Lawyers not involved in the case suggest that the indictment was written in a way that could encourage Libby, facing up to 30 years in prison, to cooperate in that effort.

But there is a catch. If Libby, through nods and winks, knows that at the end of Bush's term, the president will issue an unconditional pardon, he will have no interest in helping Fitzgerald, and every interest in shutting up. If Bush truly wants the public to know all the facts in the leak case, as he has claimed in the past, he will announce now that he will not pardon Libby. That would let Fitzgerald finish his work unimpeded, and we would all have a chance, at last, to learn how and why this sad affair came to pass.

Dream on, Mr. Dionne. One of Bush's hallmarks is that he will say all kinds of things he's going to do and then just plain not do them. He's a lyin' sack of shit whose word is just plain no damn good. He'll say one thing, mean another, say he's going to do something, do something else, and then blame yet someone else.

The White House, and that includes Bush, I think, 'cuz he's supposed to be in charge, knew all about what was going on in the Traitorgate deal since its inception. Hell, it was them that did it! Of course they knew about it.

They knew damn well their lying us into war would come up as a result of the investigation. They just wanted to put it off 'til their criminal machine safely re-installed them.

Our Pagan ritual

(West Village-WABC, October 31, 2005) - It's one of the most outrageous parades in the country. But Monday night, New York City's Halloween parade is also becoming one of the poignant.

The 2 mile parade in the village, led tonight by a talented 10 year old musician from New Orleans, who lost both his horn and his home to Hurricane Katrina.

[. . .]

There were also costumes from monsters to Metrocards.

If there one theme this year it was New Orleans. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, a collection was taken at the beginning of the parade to help some of the people participating -- some of whom are still homeless.

[. . .]

Hey, Jesus freaks, this is what Halloween is about. FUN! I know you folks are so tight-assed you don't even dance (how can you not dance?) but the Devil wasn't conjured up last night (Lord help his ass if he jumps up in the middle of a New York party), neither did any other 'pagan' shit come out of the sky, ground, or hyperspace. Just a big time party and goodwill to our fellow Americans who also enjoy a good party. Maybe you guys should lighten up? You're missing out on some good shit. I believe even Jesus was in attendance last night.

Give it back to the Russians

Seems like Alaska is milking us dry. Maybe it was 'Seward's Folly' after all. Via Jillian at Skippy's:

Capitol Report has learned about a provision tucked away in the Senate Budget Reconciliation Bill that would direct Medicaid money intended for Katrina affected states (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana) to Alaska.

The Budget Reconciliation package (PDF) contains $71.4 billion in new savings but it also spends $32.4 billion. Portions of that new spending were intended to be Katrina relief funds, but it seems Alaskan interests have once again succeeded in redirecting funds (PDF) to the state which has become famous for its "Bridge to Nowhere."

In addition to providing money for Katrina states, the provision also changes the way Alaska receives federal assistance for its Medicaid services. By changing the federal funding matching percentage for Medicaid in Alaska, the provision will provide an additional $130 million in federal Medicaid funding for Alaska. This additional $130 million is a direct result of tampering with federal matching percentages that results in Alaska being relieved of Medicaid related fiscal burdens that all the other 50 states face.

So, even though dozens of other states will face the same fiscal pressures as Alaska over the next few years, only Alaska is set to receive additional money. [my ems]

[. . .]

Hey, Mr. Putin, I'll sell Alaska back to you . . . cheap. We can't afford them any more.