Freeloading Socialists...

Glenn Greenwald on the neocons' attack on the retired Generals who are criticizing Rummy and Bush's War:

These Generals -- to whom Hanson refers contemptuously as "Pensioned Army and Marine generals" (those freeloading socialists) -- aren't speaking out because they love their country, are concerned for its well-being under this administration or because they believe anything they are saying. Nope - they're just trying to hawk books and make money, and are acting unethically while they do it. These Generals who are criticizing the administration are just dishonest hacks who ought to be ignored and shunned. As always, Hanson plays around with military glory from the past and wonders why nobody except him and a few others are as noble or brave as those men were:

Criticisms of the Administration come "right around publication date." That's because nobody really finds genuine fault with the Administration. They're just all trying to sell books. Anyone who criticizes the Administration has bad motives, places their own interest over their country, and is undermining our war effort for selfish reasons. Including these "Generals." The great war hero Hanson sees right through them.

These Generals need to just shut up because people like them are the reason that we are losing:

Attacking the motives -- not the arguments or judgments, but the motives -- of a bunch of retired Generals, all because they expressed criticism of the administration's war efforts, gives you a pretty good idea of how these Bush supporters are feeling. Desperate and scared. That must be the feeling inside the White House, too -- everyone is abandoning them, criticizing them, blaming them. They look and feel weak, impotent, and small. And they definitely are going to do something about that.

The weaker and more stigmatized Bush becomes, the greater could be the likelihood of some spiteful, bitter, strength-seeking military offensive. Few things seem more unstable and dangerous than an isolated, unpopular, bitter, failed, frustrated President, sitting in the White House recalling the glory days when war and military might caused him to feel so good and strong.

Greenwald quotes Victor "Raisins" Hanson and Jonah Goldberg, two right-wing war heroes if there ever were any. They know, of course, that those Generals only spent thirty-some years of their lives in harm's way as a ruse to sell books and get on TV. What a pair of ball-less dipshits!

As far as Bush feeling "so good and strong", making criminal war is a truly sick, twisted way of working on your self-esteem.

Yeah...now...

Where were ya in '04, ya bastids? Steve Soto:

How bad is it for Bush now? Kerry would beat him by ten points if the election were re-run, according to a new poll. After you factor in the likely voter advantage that the GOP usually gets, it would result in Kerry winning by about 3-4 points, which given the closeness of several states in 2004, and what we now know about Ohio means that Kerry would take the Electoral College as well. Note that among registered voters, Democrats have a 14-point advantage in the 2006 generic ballot. It all comes down to turnout folks.

...

This explains a lot...

I just got this by e-mail from Mrs. G and thought I'd share:

[Mujibar was trying to get a job in India. The Personnel Manager said, "Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one. Unless you pass it you cannot qualify for this job." Mujibar said, "I am ready." The manager said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink and Green."

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister manager, I am ready."

The manager said, "Go ahead."

Mujibar said, "The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, 'Yellow, this is Mujibar.'"

Mujibar now works as a technician at a call center for computer problems.

No doubt you have spoken to him.]

I have, but he was in Texas.

...so batty it's an instant classic

Molly Ivins makes an interesting point about Bush's "leaks", disinformation, lies and selective declassification:

The only thing new here is the news that George W. Bush probably knew a couple of days before he talked about them in public that the Defense Intelligence Agency had found they were not mobile weapons labs.

OK, given everything we already know about the lies before the war, this is not particularly startling - although I do think it's long past time we stopped referring to the campaign of disinformation and false information that we were fed as anything but lies. No, the startling and funny part of the "mobile weapons lab" lie is the administration's defense of it, which is so batty it's an instant classic.

According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, the DIA report debunking the "weapons labs" is "a complex intelligence white paper and it's ... one derived from highly classified information (and) takes a substantial amount of time to coordinate and to run through a declassification process."

If I understand what McClellan is saying, Bush leaked bad information from a classified intelligence report because there wasn't enough time for the contradictory DIA report to go through a declassification process. All of which would make more sense if we hadn't just gone through this Valerie Plame episode, in which the White House says if the president leaked it, then it's legal to leak it. No problem, the president can declassify at will, they said. I don't know about you, but none of it is becoming clearer for me. Does anyone understand yet why we had to bomb Iran?

When it's politically convenient to leak a portion of a document out of context, that's what he does. When it's politically convenient to ignore information he knows about and lie, that's what he does. In any case, he lies pretty much all the time.

Don't worry, Molly. It's starting to become clearer to more and more Americans. It's not much clearer to those of us who knew about Bush all along, but the details - aka 'proof' - are starting to trickle down to folks who loved being swindled, conned, and lied to by that asshole as long as they thought he was 'their' man who would undo the Godless liberal heathen place the country has become and protect them from the monsters he told them were under their beds. When they learn the extent of the Bush/Republican con, they're gonna be pissed, probably more for being shown up in public as fools than for swallowing the bullshit in the first place, but that's OK.

When they realize, as they may be starting to do, that the Culture of Corruption is stealing from them, and their kids are the ones being killed for the Imperial pipe dreams of War Criminals, maybe they'll out with the pitchforks and scythes and go put a few heads on fence posts in D.C. I'd turn on Fox News to watch that just to see how they'd spin it as a Repub positive.

Lie down...

...with mangy old dogs; wake up with God knows what...

Booze and whores...revisited

About a year ago, I wrote that some of my (and my boss Harry's) most oft-repeated war stories involved booze and whores. Harry even has a saying, "wars are won on booze and whores". He says that's the reason we can't win in a war with an Islamic country. Well...that's Harry and I love him regardless. That said, the old man might not be that far off the mark. I stole this from Patrick Dog, an email Colonel Dog [his dad and my kind of officer] sent to him:

The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators.

However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the USS Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping." Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn.

Then she headed home.

The USS Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February, 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water.

GO NAVY!

I guess that's why Harry's the boss...heh...

NO FREE PASSES!

Jane:

...But I am intrinsically, tempermentally and constitutionally opposed to allowing Newt Gingrich and other architects of war to evade responsibility for their actions and give themselves political cover by handing them a "free pass" for their zealous efforts to land us in the middle of this quagmire.

Newt Gingrich does not equal Hillary Clinton. He does not equal John Kerry and he sure as hell doesn't equal Jack Murtha. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent piece up at Alternet today about Newt's history in branding anyone who opposed the Bush Administration and/or the war as traitors giving aid and comfort to the enemy:

...

Spot on, darlin'. It should be Repub = Warmonger. If Newt would have come out and said he was wrong all his life and now embraced Democratic/Progressive principles, maybe I'd give him the benefit of a hearing. But all these Rethugs and Neocons who've changed their spots over the past few weeks have only done it for political expediency. Fuck them all; get 'em all out. For guys like Newt, shut the fuck up.

Perspective

Shows you where we stand in the big scheme of things. Go here and scroll right...and scroll right...and scroll right...and... Feel a bit insignificant now? Still think God keeps score?

Great thanks to PZ Myers.

Didja know?

There's a War on Easter.

Hat tip: Pam

Hey!!!!!

I drive 60 miles a day to work and back. I just paid $3.00/gal for regular to fill up my Ranger. My ass is sore from the reaming already and it ain't even Memorial Day.

GOP Hall of Shame

No comment necessary.

Thanks: Maru

What will happen

Or, Our Headlong Run into Complete Idiocy. Billmon:

...

Idiots, of course, don't need a reason to be idiots. But to the extent there is a rational excuse for treating a nuclear strike on Iran as the journalistic equivalent of a seasonal story about people washing their cars, it must be the cynical conviction that the Cheneyites aren't serious - they're just doing their little Gen. Jack Ripper impression to let the Iranians know they really mean business.

This may seem plausible - that is, if you were in a catatonic stupor throughout 2002 and the early months of 2003 (which is just another way of saying: if you were a member in good standing of the corporate media elite.) But the rest of us have learned that when Dick Cheney starts muttering about precious bodily fluids, you'd better pay attention. He really does mean business, and when Dick Cheney means business, bombs are likely to start falling sooner rather than later.

...

I've been trying to picture what the world might look like the day after a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran, but I'm essentially drawing a blank. There simply isn't a precedent for the world's dominant superpower turning into a rogue state - much less a rogue state willing to wage nuclear war against potential, even hypothetical, security threats. At that point, we'd truly be through the looking glass.

...

For most Americans, then, the initial impact of war with Iran could play out in the same theatre of the absurd as the first Gulf War and the opening phases of the Iraq invasion - that is to say, on their living room TVs. And if there's one place where a nuclear first strike could be made to appear almost normal, or even a good thing, it's on the boob tube.

After all, the corporate media complex has already shown a remarkable willingness to ignore or rationalize conduct that once would have been considered grossly illegal, if not outright war crimes. And the right-wing propaganda machine is happy to paint any atrocity as another glorious success in the battle for democracy (that is, when it's not trying to deny it ever happened.) Why should we expect something as transitory as a nuclear strike to change the pattern?

...

I've had the feeling the nuking of Iran is a done deal. At least since they started the same saber-rattling we saw in the run up to Iraq. It will happen, probably before Election Day. The bright side is, I was lucky enough to enjoy a carefree childhood. The kids growing up now will have the specter of retaliation hanging over their heads. And you know, if we release the nuclear genie, retaliation will come, and it will probably make 9/11 look like a walk in the park.

Hat tip: Atrios

Update:

Our pal Lurch has an excellent analysis of the intrigue behind this.

Dear Shitforbrains Mr. Bush,

Since supporting the war for you means sending other peoples' children to die in your fuckup in the desert, let me show you how the Prince of Wales does it:

Prince Harry graduates from Sandhurst this morning as a commissioned officer in the Army.

The 21-year-old third in line to the throne will be watched by his grandparents the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, his father the Prince of Wales, stepmother the Duchess of Cornwall and brother Prince William as he marches in the military college's Sovereign's Parade.

...

He has chosen to train in the Blues and Royals' armoured reconnaissance unit, meaning he could see action in war zones.

The Blues and Royals have been deployed in almost every major Army operation of the past two decades, including the Falklands, both Gulf wars, Bosnia and Kosovo. [my em]

...

I'm sure we'll be seeing Jenna and not-Jenna at a local D.C. recruiting office any day now.

So, are ya?

You know every American presidential hopeful asks the question, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" If you asked the people of Iraq, they would say no:

BASRA, 11 April (IRIN) - As a result of water-borne diseases and a lack of medical supplies, infants born in the southern city of Basra are subject to abnormally high mortality rates, say officials of an international NGO devoted to child health issues.

"For weeks, there were no I.V. fluids available in the hospitals of Basra," said Marie Fernandez, spokeswoman for European aid agency Saving Children from War. "As a consequence, many children, mainly under five-years old, died after suffering from extreme cases of diarrhoea."

...

Many doctors in the area say that the local health situation has deteriorated markedly since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. "The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, pointed out. "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them." [my em]

...

Great thanks to Holden.

You call that a hardon?

Pfizer is worried. Not enough men think they have a problem in bed, so Pfizer plans on launching a second campaign to make them understand that they just don't have what it takes.

The problem for Pfizer is Viagra's sagging sales; the problem for men, according to Pfizer, is impotence. But many men just don't seem to get it. So now they'll be educated about this serious condition--again.

...

If the Mrs. ain't complaining, I don't need Big Pharma telling me I got a problem in order to sell more pills. Now, if they could devise a remote for the damn thing...

[chirp, chirp]

Ten-hut!

[chirp, chirp]

Back to the Mets game.

Heh...I kill me.

Messicans worth $100. Each!

Radio Ink

As reported in the Mohave Daily News, Talk host Brian James of KFYI Phoenix suggested recently on the air that a solution to the immigration problem in Arizona would be to kill illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Two local officials feel those remarks may have intensified racial tensions in the state and they expressed that concern in a letter sent Friday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Brian James, who's a fill-in talk show host with KFYI, said, "What we'll do is randomly pick one night every week where we will kill whoever crosses the border. Step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun."

He said he would be "happy to sit there with my high-powered rifle and my night scope" and kill people as the cross the border. He also suggested that the National Guard shoot illegal immigrants and receive "$100 a head."

That guy better not be surprised when he gets a cuchillo stuck up his ass. Having dinner out might be problematic as well.

If that slimy little prick still has a job, I hope the FCC yanks that station's license. I also hope Phoenix radio advertisers do the right thing and stop lining hateful pockets by yanking their ads. We got enough problems without dirtbags like that stirring up talk of murder as a solution to anything.

Even as much as I hate certain people in this administration, I don't advocate out-and-out murder. Steel cage death match, sure. That's fair. The sight of me in a speedo (they'd think they were about to be mowed down by Fujiyama!) with my war face on would make any of 'em drop a load, if not kill 'em outright from fright or strike 'em blind from the reflection, but it's their choice to be there.

Ain't Just Whistling Dixie

AlterNet

What if the South had won the Civil War? Kevin Wilmott's sly mockumentary imagines an America that is very different from today's -- or is it?

Those are the questions addressed by "CSA: The Confederate States of America," currently showing in theaters around the country. The film presents an alternative history in which the nation that emerges from the Civil War becomes, by the 21st century, an exclusively Christian imperialist power, run by and for prosperous white men and regarded by most of the world as a bizarre aberration. In other words, "CSA" is a work of fiction that's uncomfortably real.

Broadcast on a present-day "Confederate Television Channel 6," the program is accompanied by racist commercials that you just might see if you lived in a full-blown consumer society in which, as one politician puts it, "a new generation of young Americans is excited about owning Negroes."

Could I have Queen Latifah? Oops, still thinkin' about porn...

Of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, "CSA's" true-grey Confederate historian (played by Rupert Pate) says, "By the grace of God, we obtained a weapon that put the entire foreign world of coloreds in their place." Nor was much fictionalizing needed in describing the war on native Americans and their culture; events are depicted almost exactly as they occurred.

In the CSA of the 1980s, a national Family Values Initiative recommends that owners read to their servants the notorious New Testament directive, "Slaves, obey your masters with fear and trembling," a passage that is still cited with approval in some religious circles in the real USA.

Next time they want to secede, soon I hope, let's just let 'em. If there's any doubt in your mind about that, read this. Then we can build a wall...

This article is today's "must read". I think the film is a "must see" as well.

Oy!...Oy!..Oyoyoyoooooy...

Ya can learn stuff from these internets ya never knew existed! Hebrew porn? It boggles the mind...

From Ynet News

A group of ultra-orthodox hackers, shocked by the obscenity of some porn sites, has launched an internet campaign in a bid to cause such sites to crash. The hackers, already named at some internet forums the "ultra-orthodox sex commando," or the "ultra-orthodox electronic underground," focus their efforts at this point on Hebrew sites.

Those who tried logging in to the site found instead a photo of the Lubavitch Rabbi with the text: "We, the religious-net group, hacked into this site and erased all obscenities. The other sites we plan on bringing down are listed below."

They post a picture of Lubavitch Rabbi. That by itself would make me unhand the object of my affection!

Marines Ban Polyester Clothing In Iraq

From Military.com

Camp Taqaddum, Iraq - Under direction of Marine Corps commanders in Iraq, wearing synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon has been prohibited while conducting operations off of forward operating bases and camps.

The ban on popular clothing from companies like Under Armour, CoolMax and Nike comes in the wake of concerns that a substantial burn risk is associated with wearing clothing made with these synthetic materials.

When exposed to extreme heat and flames, clothing containing some synthetic materials like polyester will melt and can fuse to the skin. This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns, said Navy Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon.

As a motorcyclist, I've known for many years not to wear nylon or other plastic synthetics next to my skin for exactly the same reason: If I fling the model up the road, God should only forbid, these materials get hot while you're sliding down the pavement and greatly exacerbate road rash. That's why riders wear leather, which abrades without added heat and protects them.

One would think that our military genii would know that things like bullets and shrapnel, let alone an explosive blast or fuel fire, are very, very hot and melt plastic. I'm surprised they ever let them wear stuff like that at all.

Petrodollar, NO!, Petroeuro, SI!

An interesting article in The Republic of East Vancouver about the real reason to control the Middle East. I'll bet a petroeuro you can guess!

US sabre-rattling at Iran has less to do with global security and everything to do with keeping the US dollar the medium of exchange in oil markets

By now we've grown accustomed to hearing about the confluence of clandestine motives for America's invasion and occupation of Iraq. Even many of the administration's staunchest supporters openly acknowledge that Saddam was a dog without teeth and that this ongoing war has a lot more to do with controlling the flow of oil and capital in the Middle East (not to mention buffering Israel against Iran) than preventing a nuclear attack on America. There are many indications, however, that Hussein did indeed pose a very grave threat to the US - it just wasn't a military one.

Fast-forward to the present. Now Iran is opening an oil bourse (a fancy word for "commodities exchange") in which oil will be sold in euros rather than dollars. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has also committed to the petroeuro. Both of these countries have recently cemented tight relationships with China, the world's number two oil importer. Of course, these gestures alone wouldn't likely bring Uncle Sam to his knees. But they're more than just a slap to the face and may be the beginning of a slippery slope that threatens to end the dollar's hegemony over world trade.

If America attacks Iran, it will be, among other reasons, to preempt the emergence of a multipolar, more democratic, world economy.

It looks like the rest of the world is figuring out how to gang up on us to try to bring us to our knees. Not that it wasn't inevitable or even that we may richly (ha!) deserve it, but I'm sure having Bush on the throne sped it up.

Don't worry. The world still needs us. For a while. We buy all their shit. Read the article.

The Chimp has to use the threat of "monsters under our bed" to get us to go along with his crimes because the average person just goes to sleep over economic stuff, which we're pretty ignorant about anyway, and doesn't get too worked up over it.

Besides, we got more bombs than brains. Especially in the White House. Making coherent policy is too much like work for this bunch. Their idea of politics is "Rule world, get check".

Plus, they're so insulated from reality they don't realize that threatening people doesn't scare 'em as much as it pisses 'em off, and makes 'em even more likely to smack us in the back of the head with a 2x4 the first chance they get. That's always worked for me as a last resort with bullies.

Totally unrelated but narcotically brilliant, I think we could end, even reverse, illegal immigration in one swell foop by going to the petropeso. Ha! Let's see how Mexico likes it when we flood them in our millions looking for higher paying jobs!