Men at work

Shakes has this up, which made me think (you're welcome for the straight line):

Bush may be the president a thin majority of Americans would most like to have a beer with, but he doesn't want to have a beer with them. Time reports he and his closest cronies have never been especially fond of Tom DeLay's, uh, earthiness: "He may have had an unmatched grip on the House and Washington lobbyists, but DeLay is not the kind of guy - in background and temperament - the President feels comfortable with. Of the former exterminator, a Republican close to the President's inner circle says, 'They have always seen him as beneath them, more blue collar. He's seen as a useful servant, not someone you would want to vacation with.'"

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You know, say what we will about DeLay but he knows what it's like to work for a living. Unlike Preznit Brush Clearer who has yet to put in an honest day's work in his life. For the Chimp to look down his nose at the Bug Man is laughable. Not saying much, but DeLay is twice the man Bush is. At least DeLay worked for what he achieved (rightly or wrongly), not had it all handed to him. It's why Bush is uncomfortable around DeLay, and others like him. He feels inadequate to an exterminator and all 'working men'.

And just another thought, for a couple guys who did their best to avoid military service, Bush and Cheney do love dressing up in military gear, don't they? You make the connection, I'll just say this; dressing up in green clothes doesn't make you a soldier.

Caveats

Or, I's be da King:

When George Bush signed the defense appropriation bill containing John McCain's amendment removing torture and other human rights violations from the official repertoire of the armed forces, he added his own little amendment: "Unless I say otherwise." The vehicle through which he reserved the option to break the law is called a bill-signing statement, and as Knight Ridder's Ron Hutcheson revealed on Friday, the McCain bill was far from the first victim of the practice: Bush has used it some 500 times since taking office. [Link via Atrios]

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Like Gord says: "...The Republicans must be crushed, torn to shreds like the Third Reich..."

The entire Republican Party is a criminal enterprise and should be put out of business. In my book, they're worse than Hamas in Palestine and Sinn Fein in Ireland. At least those organizations look after their own people.

"Jist back up to this hyar stump, Honeybun..."

From MediaGirl:

"Pro-life" legislator likens women to cows

When Rep. Gordon Howie, R-Rapid City, mentioned cows and women in the same breaths at the Chamber of Commerce pre-legislative crackerbarrel last week, it didn't sit well with some of the folks who were there.

"We place value on life in South Dakota, and even with a mother cow, as soon as you can demonstrate she is pregnant, an even higher value is placed just because she is pregnant," Howie said.

No, he says it like he means it. I'm sure he believes women are more valuable than cows. But his meaning comes through loud and clear: Women are heifers and the government is the rancher.

Moo.

Watch out after 'the change', gals. You might end up as hamburger.

The Wiretappers That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Daddy Frank on wiretapping, secrecy, the presidential power grab, and blame-shifting.

That the White House's over-the-top outrage about the Times scoop is a smokescreen contrived to cover up something else is only confirmed by Dick Cheney's disingenuousness. In last week's oration at a right-wing think tank, he defended warrant-free wiretapping by saying it could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Really? Not with this administration in charge. On 9/10 the N.S.A. (lawfully) intercepted messages in Arabic saying, "The match is about to begin," and, "Tomorrow is zero hour." You know the rest. Like all the chatter our government picked up during the president's excellent brush-clearing Crawford vacation of 2001, it was relegated to manana; the N.S.A. didn't rouse itself to translate those warnings until 9/12.

Given that the reporters on the Times story, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, wrote that nearly a dozen current and former officials had served as their sources, there may be more leaks to come, and not just to The Times. Sooner or later we'll find out what the White House is really so defensive about.

If the Bush administration did indeed eavesdrop on American journalists and political opponents (Ms. Amanpour's husband, Jamie Rubin, was a foreign policy adviser to the Kerry campaign), it's deja Watergate all over again. But even now we can see that there's another, simpler - and distinctly Bushian - motive at play here, hiding in plain sight.

That motive is not, as many liberals would have it, a simple ideological crusade to gut the Bill of Rights. Real conservatives, after all, are opposed to Big Brother; even the staunch Bush ally Grover Norquist has criticized the N.S.A.'s overreaching. The highest priority for the Karl Rove-driven presidency is instead to preserve its own power at all costs. With this gang, political victory and the propaganda needed to secure it always trump principles, even conservative principles, let alone the truth. Whenever the White House most vociferously attacks the press, you can be sure its No. 1 motive is to deflect attention from embarrassing revelations about its incompetence and failures.

Much more. A good Sunday read, and it's free.

The Battle for Florida

Not that I know anything about the mechanics of the voting process and statistical analysis makes my eyes roll back in my head, but Susie directs us to a sober interview with a guy who actually does study the stuff. He makes some good observations:

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Unfortunately, the history of democracy is that leadership philosophy is eroded as the competition between elites becomes more intense. That's what happened with Athenian democracy; that's what happened in the Roman Republic. So you look at our system today; you see our elites doing it, and you know we're in big trouble. It's in my lifetime that this has happened, that elites have begun to put winning ahead everything else, ahead of truth and country.

When Watergate was prosecuted, there were Republicans in Congress that were after Nixon. They thought what he was doing was unconscionable, and today that's not the case. Today, Democrats stick with Democrats, and Republicans stick with Republicans. They don't care what their party leaders have done. Just in my lifetime, I've seen this civic culture go from something that's respectful of democracy to something that is manipulative of it. The problem is if you let this go uncorrected, the Democrats are going to do something worse later, and then the Republicans. It's just an arms race almost, and it will just tend to degenerate.

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More fun

'How to become a Republican' via Julien.

More lies

From Mustang Bobby. Heh.

Screwing the seniors

The Medicare Drug Plan is working so well:

We have come to the end of the first week under Bush's medicare drug plan. I'm sure you remember this plan, it's the one that DeLay strong-armed through the house. It's also the same plan that allows the pharmaceuticals to charge the higest prices to seniors, negotiations for lower prices will not and cannot take place. It is the Bush administrations way of killing off the eldery. And what has happened this first week hopefully will change very quickly.

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Impeachment rally

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A bill of indictment will be delivered to the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 at 1:30PM charging the President of the United States and other named individuals in his administration with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Go see Ed for details.

Distinguished Marines Commemorative Stamps

Several years ago, I got a bunch of signatures on a petition to put Chesty Puller on a stamp. It finally happened. His stamp, along with three others, was issued on 10 November 2005. I tried to get them at my local post office but they never got them. I went to Reno the other day and the gal at the 'big city' Post Office had a drawer full of them. Click the links for a picture of the stamps and a bio of each of these distinguished Marines:

GySgt."Manila John" Basilone - Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal, KIA on Iwo Jima.

SgtMaj. Dan Daly - Famous for the phrase "Come on you sonsabitches! Ya wanta live forever?" at Belleau Wood in WWI.

LtGen. John A. LeJeune - Considered the father of the modern Marine Corps. His Birthday Message of 1921 is still read aloud on Marine Corps Birthday.

BGen. Lewis B. Puller - What can I say? Good night, Chesty, wherever you are.

I put the enlisted men first because that's what good officers do.

Buy some stamps too. Don't worry - they're self-stick. I checked before I bought 'em. It makes me a little queasy to think of turnin' Marines over and lickin' 'em! Shouldn't bother you squids though! (wink)

Let Us Prey...

Joe Conason on DeLay, Abramoff, the religious right, and what the Bible says about bribery.

Jack Abramoff and his deeply religious right-wing cronies express their "biblical worldview" by swindling Indian tribes and bribing legislators. Verily, mysterious are the ways of the Lord.

Worth a read.

The Dark Side...

...of beer, that is. Read and enjoy in the LATimes.

Ultra AP

No, not a jazzed-up news agency, this refers to a new armored vehicle under development by some former NASCAR engineers along with the Office of Naval Research and others. Interesting, and long overdue.

We need this to replace the aging Humvees. They are twenty years old and over their gross weight with the addition of 5000 pounds of armor. They accelerate
like a granny in a crosswalk, and their top speed is about the same. They average a breakdown every 300 miles. Due to the weight, they blow a lot of tires. Yeah, like I'd sure wanta put on the spare in Fallujah. Not. This info is from the 2/05 Car & Driver, but I couldn't link to it.

FYI

Relating to my post about being overworked, I give you The Captains.

Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment

Mother Jones

The Pentagon spends $1 billion a day. So why do US soldiers have such shoddy combat supplies?

Reports from the Army's Natick Soldier Center and its Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and the Marine's Systems Command Liaison Team in Iraq, all from 2002 and 2003, tell us, for example, troops' "dislikes," including uniforms that rip easily, eyewear that fogs up and fits poorly under helmets, and boots that blister, crack, and burst, and are "poor for movement," or as in one soldier's e-mail are "truly awful and also painful."

Troops buy some equipment with their own money, usually because Government Issue performs poorly. Such items include gloves, socks, flashlights, padding for backpacks, "CamelBak" hydration systems, and weapons cleaning equipment. Banal items? Perhaps to us back home, but certainly not for Soldiers fighting in the winter mountains of Afghanistan and the desert heat of Iraq, doing whatever it takes to keep their bodies and their weapons working.

Yes, but Halliburton is doing quite well, thank you.

Go read. This one'll piss ya off.

YESSS!

NYTimes

Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay on Saturday abandoned his bid to remain as House majority leader, clearing the way for leadership elections among Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal.

They say you meet the same people on your way down as you did on the way up. This is his second step. Note to the Bug Man: make sure your flyswatter is clean and oiled.

Clueless

What the fuck passes for leadership at the Pentagon? I mean, I realize they blew it in Iraq, but by golly, I figured it was a matter of numbers (force strengths vs. number of insurgents). It seems they had no fucking plan at all.

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.

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Link via DR.

The difference between conservatives

The Chimp probably thought he had an ally in 'Old Europe' when the Germans elected the conservative Angela Merkel as their new Chancellor. Heh, they ain't a bunch of wingnuts like they are here. They've been there and done that, so to speak:

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Just days before she is due to visit the United States for the first time since becoming German chancellor, Angela Merkel has come out with heavy criticism of US tactics in the fight against terrorism, specifically calling for the US to close its Guantanamo Bay prison camp and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.

Merkel, in an interview the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday, said: "An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term. Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners."

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When it comes to the 'War on Terror', we are way out of the mainstream.

Thanks to AVA for the link.

Streamlining

I'm stretched too thin.

Critical thinking

A great post I came across on An Athiest Soldier:

Wilson Kolb suggested the following:

You should do a posting about whether or not the military is one big nest of Republicans, other than a few scattered people like yourself. I'm curious as to whether the whole thing is as redneck as we've all been led to believe by the rightwingnut milblogs. Are the soliders really THAT propagandized?

My Answer:

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