Post Sharon

Ariel Sharon's stroke last night changed the face of Israeli politics in an instant. The Head Heeb has an excellent essay up on the effects of the sudden power vacuum created when Sharon went down.

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And then there's the potential spillover to the other election - the one in the Palestinian Authority. Israeli and Palestinian politics have been inextricably intertwined for years, and never more so than now. Sharon's disability is bound to affect the Palestinian electoral balance; the only question is how. The Palestinians might view the situation as a political opening - they remember Sharon less for the Gaza withdrawal than for the settlements and Sabra-Shatila, and a conciliatory centrist like Olmert or an unknown quantity like Livni might carry less emotional baggage and spur the hope of a return to negotiations. In that event, Fatah might benefit at the polls. On the other hand, if the Palestinian electorate sees a moment of Israeli weakness, or if it looks like Kadima is collapsing and Netanyahu is gaining the upper hand, then the spoils might go to Hamas.

So there we have it - a single stroke has created a multitude of unknown quantities. Two weeks from now, Israel might still be in a three-way race between Avoda, Likud and an only-somewhat-weakened Kadima, or it might be facing an uncertain Peretz-Bibi battle with the center fading and political fragmentation returning with a vengeance. The mercurial Palestinian electorate, for its part, could swing toward either moderation or radicalism. The one thing in which there will be some guarantee of continuity is the caretaker government, where Olmert's experience and moderation will provide the country with a steady hand. But that is the only blessing that Israel can count on tonight.

For those who say Israeli politics doesn't affect us, think again. As my man Lurch says, with Bush in office, the mission of the U.S. is to protect Israel to the last man. Believe it.

No such thing...

...as global warming. This via Bob Harris:

AUSTRALIA is being pressed to come to the rescue of drowning Pacific islands which face a homeless crisis due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.

With predictions sea levels could rise by up to 32 centimetres by 2050, a number of Pacific islands could be rendered uninhabitable within a decade.

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As Bob says:

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It must be nice to be a U.S. "conservative" and live in a dreamworld where this simply isn't happening.

"60% of what you say is crap!"

Go watch Letterman v. O'Lielly at Crooks and Liars. Listen for how O'R pronounces MI-6. Yeesh.

Confessions of a Bush hater

Via Maru, an excellent post at Pensito Review:

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The president's incompetentce is compounded by his blindness to it. He lacks the mental discipline to undertake analysis or introspection, which renders him befeft of the fundamental tools required to take corrective action when he makes mistakes.

Basic communications skills are another minimum requirement for the presidency in the TV age. But this president is hands down the worst public speaker in modern politics. His speechifying style is bizarre. The ... staccato ... way he ... talks ... grinds on the brain of the listener. He sounds like Capt. James T. Kirk doing a hillbilly accent with a mouth full of marbles.

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...the sailor, home from the sea...

A little sea time got that old squid Dem Vet refreshed and re-fired. Just go read 'til your eyes hurt. A sample about "Preznit Tinpot Commissar":

Other than the fact that he either skipped, slept or was hung-over or stoned during High School civics, he just never seems to get the part where he's not the King. I guess he figures that all his political capital will help him bully congress into submission.

Whining is particularly unattractive in grown men. But then, alot of what makes Bunnypants such a loser is unattractive, so what's another negative? Such a fucking loser. I wonder how much "buyers remorse" there really is?

We'll find out in November, and that'll be here sooner than we think. A whining Penis-With-Ears will make a great campaign commercial...

I hope they put that one on during the Superbowl!

Mine disaster, Abramoff, intertwined at their roots...

Attytood connects these seemingly disparate stories as being the fruit of the poisonous Republican tree.

Don't look past the big picture. The roots of the horrific events underneath the earth in timeworn West Virginia, and the scandal on the tony sidewalks of Washington's K Street, are as deeply intertwined as those aspens out west, maybe more so. It's a connection that can be summed up in three simple words:

Republicans gone wild.

But until people make that connection between the corruption on one end of the American political pipeline and the human misery on the other end, these problems will linger in the air like toxic coal dust.

After you read this, I'll bet your resolve to get rid of these bastards multiplies by an order of magnitude. Mine did.

My 'Enemies List'

Pic courtesy of Brains and Eggs. Click to embiggen.

The CIA couldn't throw a beer party in a brewery...

LATimes:

In a clumsy effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the CIA in 2004 intentionally handed Tehran some top-secret bomb designs laced with a hidden flaw that U.S. officials hoped would doom any weapon made from them, according to a new book about the U.S. intelligence agency.

But the Iranians were tipped to the scheme by the Russian defector hired by the CIA to deliver the plans and may have gleaned scientific information useful for designing a bomb, writes New York Times reporter James Risen in "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration."

And just to be fair (chortle!):

The CIA added its own criticism Tuesday, saying the book contains "serious inaccuracies."

And then:

David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the IAEA, agreed with the other expert that the plans could have shaved many years off Iran's nuclear effort.

"I wouldn't call it a colossal failure" by the CIA, said Albright, now president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. "But I don't quite understand the purpose of it, why you would want to hand something like this to the Iranians. It's unlikely to work."

According to the book, the CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear effort came on the heels of another massive intelligence failure, in which a CIA officer mistakenly sent an Iranian agent a trove of information that could help identify nearly every one of the spy agency's undercover operatives in Iran.

The Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian authorities. They used it to dismantle the CIA's spy network inside the country and arrest or possibly kill an unknown number of U.S. agents, the book says.

Lemme see if I get the gist of this. They gave Iran bomb plans, flawed ones to be sure, but bomb plans. They hired one of those oh-so-trustworthy Russians to deliver them who then snitched them off, and then they gave away the names of our agents to an Iranian double agent. That about cover it?

I think if Fixer had come up with a plot line like that, he would have thrown it out as being too unbelievably far fetched. If truth is stranger than fiction, I think the CIA is stranger than truth.

It seems the CIA's best qualities are stupidity and incompetence. Throw in a little high-level obsequiousness to Bush and Cheney and you've got a real witches' brew of national disaster.

I think it's high time to can Goss and upper management, and promote some mid-level guys who can kick some ass restructure the Agency just a little, you know, so it doesn't step on its dick all the time. Or disband it.

Update:

BuzzFlash has more on Mr. Risen's book.

Well, this is a book that is causing an enormous stir, even though the public and reviewers haven't even seen it yet. The right wing is already trashing it from here to eternity on the Internet -- and these bimbos haven't seen a copy, not a one! So you know it's hot.

It's a testament to how far the NYT has sunk that it was forced to pop a story about criminal behavior in the White House because a book by one of its own reporters was going to beat it to the punch. That's pathetic.

I betcha it'll sell like hotcakes.

Tell the Senate: Investigate illegal wiretapping before the Alito hearings.

Here's a letter at Working For Change that you should sign.

[cough] Heh [cough, cough]

Rhode Island became yesterday the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana...

Read.

Why yes, officer, I'm treating for glaucoma prophylactically.

When mama's happy...

...Everybody's happy. I learned this a long time ago, and I don't mean kissing your woman's ass. I mean treating a woman with respect and as an equal. When you shit on a woman (especially one who hasn't been beaten into submission, literally or figuratively), you can expect a load of shit to come back at ya. To wit:

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What many people didn't realize at the time, however, is that during the Powell interview Miller was upset because her fiancee, Michael Scanlon, had broken off their engagement, two of Miller's former State Department co-workers said. While still engaged to Miller, Scanlon had started an affair with a manicurist and broke up with Miller because he planned to marry the other woman, three of Scanlon's former associates at DeLay's office said. They added that the two had numerous public arguments.

But Miller had something on Scanlon. He confided in her all of his dealings with Abramoff, former colleagues said. She saw his emails and knew the intimate details of his lobbying work-work which is now the center of a criminal fraud investigation. After the breakup, Miller went to the FBI and told them everything about Scanlon's dealings with Abramoff, her coworkers added. [my em]

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Heh...All it takes is one wronged woman to bring down an Empire.

Great thanks to Dave.

Why

John explains why Lardass has become a Republican suck boy (see Gord's post below):

Hardball's Chris Matthews, FOX's Tony Snow and Britt Hume helped raise money for shady Abramoff charity

Also a handy chart of who got what.

Power Bottom

Go read James Wolcott's take on Lardass. Ha!

More popcorn

It's all coming down:

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Also of interest: Steven Griles, former number two at the Dept. of the Interior; Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT); Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and his wife, Julie; two of DeLay's former top deputies, Edwin A. Buckham and Tony C. Rudy; and DeLay's wife, Christine. Also in the crosshairs are Tony Rudy's wife Lisa and Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA).

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Is that the sound of hammers in the distance? I believe I hear them building the gallows.

Just a reminder

Pic stolen from Rowhouse Logic.

Tempus fugit...

Obituary in the LATimes

Candy Barr, 70; 1950s Stripper and Stag Film Star Personified the Joy and Danger of Sex

Barr developed her trademark costume - 10-gallon hat, pasties, "scanty panties," a pair of six-shooters and cowboy boots (my em) - and quickly became a favorite with fraternity boys, Dallas crime figures, businessmen and political leaders, who booked her for stag parties.

From men of a certain age (ahem!) who got their first inklings of sexual pleasure with that picture held proudly aloft in one hand, a reverent moment of silence.

Vaya con Dios, Candy.

Meme addiction

Neil deals with it.

Freeping Murtha

The lovely and courageous Pam documents the wingnuts freaking out over Murtha's statement he wouldn't volunteer for military service if he were of age today.

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"Same here. Defeatists in war nauseate me. If he doesn't support the goal of bringing freedom to Iraq, then he should come out and say so. But to just sit there and whine that it can't be done while there are young men literally dying to achieve it, and still pretend that he's on their side, is just contemptible."

"Murtha probably wouldn't have joined back then either if he was the person then that he is now. If he thinks Iraq is wrong, then Vietnam must've been far worse."

"Knowing Marines, my uncle was a marine in the pacific in WWII, I can say with great knowledge that this man would be rejected by the Marines today. He wouldn't have to worry about enlisting."

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These clowns ain't fit to lick the sweat off John Murtha's balls.

Impeach, Then Stuff Him...

Katrina Vanden Heuvel has a good article about the current and rising discussion of impeachment for the Criminal-in-Chief in The Nation. It's encouraging, and you should go read.

I found this under "Comments" and simply had to share:

[HOLIDAY RECIPE FOR LAME DUCK

Choose from the following foul:

Dead or sitting duck, big turkey, or chicken-hawk

(Guts will already have been removed from chicken-hawk, so stuffing may proceed immediately)

Remove backbone, but bind the bird with Duck Tape in hostage posture to give structure and an impression of unity.

For an unexpected taste sensation, marinate the bird-brain in alcohol

forming it into a pretend head-shape,

placing where the head would ordinarily be.

Expect brain to shrink further in the heat.

Pluck bird, and feather the nests of the already wealthy and well-connected.

Create a stuffing of Rummy Rice and selected nuts.

Simmer in a cup of extra virgin 10-40 oil.

Then bake in white phosphorus (if unavailable, substitute napalm).

Line and press stuffing into every open pocket.

Turn heat setting to intolerable.

Place bird on rack and torture out of sight until skin falls off the bone or until Constitutional lawyers stop you.

Skewer the wings together. Once bird is done, remove the left wing completely and discard.

For flambe or blackened bird, toss in an I.E.D.

Cover duck, or duck and cover, as you wish.

Offer the bird to members of the press when they start to ask real questions.

Invite lobbyists to dinner first, and save them the most tender flesh.

Serve lying repeatedly on a bed of Saudi sand, and present with straight face and talking points.

When all have gathered, prey over the community.

Follow the same recipe for Cooked Goose, but invite a few grunts on their third military tours for a last supper.

Send carcass and leftovers (if any) to New Orleans for a homeland gumbo or stew.]

I hope Bush et al can use this recipe to make crow edible in '06.

Greed kills

Heh...

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Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. (my [Jane's] emphasis)

Enough with the docile repetition of "well you know Democrats are implicated in this too." They're not. The shameless perpetuation of GOP talking points in the guise of news by major media outlets is an embarrassment.

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I'll have my popcorn with extra butter please.

Update:

Alternate Universe (no relation) has a helpful chart.