"He started it! He hit me back!"

Pissed-off Patricia nails Israel/Lebanon and our non-response:

Let's say you have a nine year old son and I have one too. We are neighbors. We look outside and see our kids fighting. They are hitting one another with big pieces of lumber and both are bleeding. Which do we do first? Do we try to figure out a way to keep them from fighting in the future, as they continue to beat the hell out of one another? Or do we stop the fight, get the kids cleaned up, see to their wounds, and then work on a way to stop them from fighting in the future?

Too right-thinking and logical for overcompensating pencil-dicked power-mad imperialists and fundies to deal with.

Bush walks right into Castro's trap

Fixer touched on this in his post yesterday:

A word of warning to the Chimp and the neocons. Don't think, because Fidel is ailing, you can dick around in Cuba. You don't need an Iraq 90 miles off our coast.

David Sirota, obviously a daily reader of The Brain, follows up:

Open today's New York Times, and you will see that the Bush administration is now publicly bragging that once Castro dies, America is planning for a full-on take over of Cuba. In one story, we find out that "Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, made it clear on Tuesday that the United States would take an active role in shaping events on the island if the Cuban leader dies." That is the kind of declaration easily interpreted/spun by anti-democratic forces in Cuba as no-holds-barred diplomat-ese for the very imperialism Castro has been warning his people about for the last half century.

In another story, we discover that the administration is now announcing that if Castro dies, "the United States would also send special monitors and advisers to Cuba in the weeks after a full transition began." In the wake of the Vietnam War, which infamously started out with U.S. military "advisers," again - this is clearly fodder that could be easily spun to confirm Castro's own message. And it is especially stupid and destructive to our long-term goals/credibitlity when, at the same time our government is haughtily strutting around making these proclamations, the White House is also saying "it viewed attempts by Venezuela or other countries to influence the transition in Cuba as unwarranted intervention."

The same thing goes in the situation with Cuba. The stupidest thing American officials can do is publicly walk into Castro's portrayal of our ambitions. By doing that, we are confirming the negative suspicions that many Cubans must have, considering they've been hearing about it over and over and over again for the last 50 years.

I think I can safely say that whatever Bush does will be wrong, and that we and the Cubans will pay for it for years.

If it was up to me, I'd drop the embargo, permit and encourage travel and trade, help 'em out with a little humanitarian aid should they require such a thing in a workers' paradise (rolls eyes), and let Cuba decide its own future for itself without foisting any Chalabi-type exiles off on 'em for his own gain at our expense. Fuck a buncha Republican votes in Florida.

No-fucking-shit.

...

Since the Vietnam War era, it has been common to say that wars are begun by powerful men whose sons stay home, while the sons of men and women with calluses on their hands and dirt under their nails cross oceans to fight, and perhaps to die.

...

A White House aide, who requested anonymity because his information was preliminary, said Wednesday that he knew of no top Bush administration official who had a relative who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...

This didn't surprise anyone, did it? Off to get the Mrs. from the train.

NYT via Dave Johnson.

Interesting statistic ...

More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll. [my em]

...

I could believe they looked the other way.

Link via George.

And just a note: The Mrs. and I are heading up to Boston early tomorrow morning for a wedding tomorrow afternoon. I seriously doubt I'm taking a laptop because we're heading home early Saturday. So if I don't post over the next 14 hours, I'll see you sometime Saturday evening. Gord's in charge. Listen to the old man.

The Indian and the White Guy made me do it

I got this joke from Williams and Ree years ago. For some reason, it's runnin' around in my head, and my demons tell me I'll never get it to go back in its hole if I don't tell it, so here goes:

Q: Whaddya call an old English drummer and Daniel Boone's friend playin' a word game in an obscure African dialect?

A: Ringo and Mingo play Mandingo lingo Bingo.

Thanks. I feel better now.

The Sins of Condibel

I hate to admit it, but this picture of Condi got me hot! Those lips! That scowl!

Rummy UA*

Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he essentially was too busy to testify at a public hearing on the Iraq war, raising a new furor on Capitol Hill over the three-year-old conflict.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters Wednesday, Rumsfeld said he thought it was enough for him to attend a private briefing with the entire Senate on Thursday. Citing his crowded calendar, he declined the Senate Armed Services Committee's request to testify publicly on Thursday morning.

Come November, they won't be requests and I'd like to see him try anddecline a subpœna, the arrogant prick. A bench warrant, a ride in the back seat of a Crown Vic sittin' on his hands, and a coupla nights in the stony lonesome won't hurt him, but it'll make me feel good.

Rumsfeld also offered an explanation for why as many as two-thirds of the Army's brigades and many National Guard units are rated not ready for combat. He said the Pentagon is wrestling with standards that would best describe the condition of the units. And he noted that highly experienced units coming home from Iraq leave a lot of equipment behind, and as a result are considered not combat ready.

"The Army today is vastly better than it was two, four, six or eight years ago," he said. "It has much more equipment, much better equipment, and it's better trained and more experienced."

I don't know whether he's senile, in denial, living in a parallel universe, scared of spending the rest of his life in jail, or E) all of the above, but he's definitely as wrong as he possibly can be. All the spin in the world can't cover up his failures.

If he actually believes any of his own bullshit, he's off his rocker. Maybe he's a sociopath for whom lying is just the normal means to an end. It's everybody else's fault for not believing him.

He needs to be removed from office NOW and held accountable for his egregious mishandling and subsequent destruction of the military, his roles in the bungled occupation of Iraq as well as in the decision to criminally invade and occupy Iraq in the first place. He's not the only culpable one by a long shot, but he's one of the big ones.

*UA = Unauthorized Absence. The Marine Corps equivalent of AWOL, for which you go to the brig.

Update:

I guess Rummy showed up anyway. Wonkette:

Defense Secretary's Senate Testimony Equal Parts Smug, Delusional

Developing.

Update II:

Here's a 9:53 video of Sen. Clinton laying out Rumsfeld's pathetic record and his responses.

Nowhere did I hear him answer her actual question, which was, "Why should we believe your assurances now?"

Mel's dual diagnosis

I'm sorry about this. I know I told you I'd keep the Mel Gibson shit to a minimum but this was too good not to share. From Bill Maher, whom I don't like a lot of the time either.

[...] Yes, liquor releases demons, but I want to know why the demon in Mel Gibson is hatred of the Jews to begin with (I know, the father). Why, when Mels's id is released, its about the Jews fucking everything up, just like it was with Hitler. Except Mel Gibson, when his id is in check, I believe, really knows how wrong that is, and how stupid. He, I believe, at least fights with himself about this.

But he'll never win as long as he's so religious, because, I hate to tell you, the disease isn't alcoholism, the disease is religion.

Alcohol and religion have their place, but abuse of either one can fuck you up. What the results of an abusive amount of both of them might be staggers the imagination, but it can't be good, as Gibson seems to be proving.

As a heroin addict I once knew said when comparing alcohol and heroin, and which I think applies to the misuse of religion as well: "Same soup, different bowl." I take that to mean that the "disease" is addiction whatever the substance: you know it's wrong to use it the way you do, but you do it anyway.

Perhaps we need to come up with a word that describes religious extremists in socially negative terms, along the lines of 'wino' or 'junkie', and then get them off the street and into treatment. For their own protection and, more importantly, ours. It's too bad they don't stagger and piss themselves and pass out in public, or commit burglaries and stickups for money to support their hatred and intolerance, so we could identify them easier.

Maher concludes:

And Mel, let me remind you: The Jews have not started all the wars in the world. But they have greenlit all the movies.

Heh.

Yellow Elephants in CT

From Kos hisself.

Look who's getting organized on behalf of Joe Lieberman:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:52:09 -0400
From: "[windows-1252] College Republicans"
Reply-To: College Republicans
To: collegerepublicans@PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Unconventional Primary Campaign Opportunity (LIEBERMAN)

People interested in campaigning for Lieberman in the Democratic Primary will have lodging accommodations paid for (by his campaign), as well as food and transportation.

Lieberman's campaign will be offerind lodging accommodations and food for College Republicans.

If that ain't the last nail in his coffin, there ain't one! Ooops! Bad analogy, but I'm right again: persons of the Hebrew persuasion don't have nails in their coffins. So sue me! He's toast.

Say what you will ...

I know I'm supposed to be a tough guy and all, but one of my favorite websites is Cute Overload. I have to stop there at least once a day and smile.

AOB's Rule # 5.

Get well soon

Regardless of his politics, ya gotta respect Fidel for giving the finger to 8 or 9 U.S. Presidents and living to tell about it. I hope he lives long enough to give the Chimp the finger once more.

A word of warning to the Chimp and the neocons. Don't think, because Fidel is ailing, you can dick around in Cuba. You don't need an Iraq 90 miles off our coast.

Texas goes first

connecticut should have its statehood taken away from it.

Wingnuts.

You know you suck when...

An Air Force weenie puts up this sign and doesn't get in trouble for it.

Hopefully the last...

There's a Hell of a lot more important shit than this going on, but here's MoDo on Mel Gibson via Voxefx:

"Moreover, it is the elders' considered view that whereas alcoholism may require a process of recovery, anti-Semitism is a more intractable and less chic failing. This was not a moment of insanity, even if Gibson is insane. His hatred of Jews was plain in his movie and in his twisted defense of it, which was made when he was sober under the influence of his primitive world view. Perhaps he thinks that all he needs to do is spend a few months in AA - Anti-Semites Anonymous - and find some celebrity sponsor and run for absolution to Larry Zeiger, I mean Larry King, where he can say with perfect sincerity that the Holocaust was a terrible thing and gut yontif.

"But the elders have instructed Larry to be strict with the uncircumcised offender. He is to appear only opposite 'American Idol' and in the company of David Gest.

"We understand that Gibson cannot do it alone. But why do we have to do it with him? We would find it hard to be in a room with him unless, of course, he wants to count some money with us. Why doesn't he turn to the vast number of his Christian brothers and sisters who show no trace of anything resembling his disgusting prejudice?

"Mad Max is making Max mad, and Murray, and Irving, and Mort, and Marty, and Abe. But we're not completely heartless. If he wants to do Shylock at dinner theater, fine. If he agrees to fill his swimming pool with Kabbalah water, fine."

I don't give a rat's ass about Gibson. This might hurt him a little in the movie biz or public opinion for a while, but he's richer than Crœsus so who cares? It's not really going to hurt him, but if it makes him take stock of himself it might even help him. So what? What's one crazy bastard more or less in the overall scheme of things if he has no political power?

An unfortunate side effect of the 1st Amendment is that obnoxious assholes are allowed to spout despicable damfool bullshit. He's free to say what he wants. He can take the consequences, too.

This crap is enough to give a guy religion, any religion, just so he can pray, "Please, dear God, make this nonsense go away."

Any and all of the attention paid to the constant meaningless shenanigans of celebrities is somewhat akin to the "bread and circuses" prior to the downfall of Rome. We got more important stuff, such as the downfall of the United States under Bush, to concern ourselves with, and we better get to it as a nation and stay on it. Save the side trips 'til we're safe from the likes of him.

"If I lose the primary, I'll run in Cuba"

"Heavy G's Smartass Monday Wednesday" seems to be on a roll. I have plenty of help from The Satirical Political Report.

[Given the overlapping developments of troublesome polls in Connecticut, and the sudden illness of Fidel Castro, Senator Joe Lieberman announced today that if he fails to beat Ned Lamont in next week's Democratic primary, he intends to run for the position of El Commandante in Cuba.

Lieberman emphasized that he would look forward to running under Cuba's electoral system, where he wouldn't be subjected to the type of degrading primary challenges that a three-term U.S. Senator has to put up with.

Senator Lieberman also discounted any problems created by cultural differences, saying that as an orthodox Jew, he would have no problem growing a Castro-like beard.

"Besides," Lieberman added, "the Cuban and Jewish people have a lot in common; they both prefer Florida to their home countries."

Lieberman, anticipating the worst-case scenario in the Connecticut primary, also went out of his way to praise Cuban culture, asserting "that unlike some former President who shall go nameless, Cubans know what to do with a good cigar."

In related news, President Bush, sick of trying to clean up his own messes, cited the developments in Cuba as a precedent for handing power over to brother Jeb. However, this met with strong objections from a bi-partisan majority in Congress, who expressed a preference that Bush be succeeded by Raul Castro.

Finally, asked about the scenario of a Jew getting embroiled in the politics of a Latin communist dictatorship, Woody Allen was quoted as saying that it was absolutely "Bananas."]

I about went "bananas" trying to pick a quote from that for you, so I didn't.

Bush and the "Lord of the Flies"

A BuzzFlash editorial

Okay, we are back to our primary theory about the Bushevik Neo-Con one-party government: if you pile failure on failure, they believe it will add up to success.

It's kind of (as we implied yesterday) like sweeping up the dung of an elephant (how appropriate) and hoping that if you get the pile high enough, it will turn into mouth-watering fudge.

Yum! Please, Sir, may I have another?

Of course, behind every man who believes that he has God like powers, there is a Beelzebub (Satan's assistant) pulling the strings. Dick Cheney, you can come out of the bunker now.

"According to the renowned 16th century occultist Johannes Wierus, Beelzebub is the chief lieutenant of Lucifer, the Emperor of Hell, and presides over the Order of the Fly." (Wikipedia)

And, of course, flies feed off of dung.

From 'Comments':

There once was a Bush King of Dung,
who spewed forth much crap from his tongue;
When he opened his mouth,
shit would spew and fall south,
whence his praises by fools would be sung.

I worked with an old gentleman once who wouldn't say 'shit' if he'd had a mouth full of it. One day he got frustrated with something and couldn't quite express it. The boss gave him some advice that I will pass on: "Say 'shit', Clarence. It helps."

A 26 Count Indictment? Whee!

TPM Muckraker

The Bush administration may have broken over two dozen federal laws and regulations -- some of them multiple times -- according to an unreleased report from the House Judiciary Committee Democrats.

The document, an update to the Democrats' December 2005 report, "A Constitution in Crisis," will be released later this week, according to knowledgeable sources. It is several hundred pages long, with over a thousand footnotes.

In earlier days such a report would be easily ignored. But with the looming possibility of Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives in November, Conyers' charges pose a potentially serious threat to the Bush administration. After all, it takes only a simple majority vote in the House to impeach a sitting president.

On their face, the laundry list of alleged wrongs form a natural basis for impeachment proceedings -- but Conyers has insisted he has no intention of rushing to impeach. No, a slow walk to possible impeachment (preferably down a path that includes months of hearings) is more what the would-be chairman envisions, he has said.

My call to the White House was not immediately returned.

My instinctive reaction is, "Get a rope!". It's too bad we can only hang the sonofabitch once. Upon reflection, it'll be more fun to roast him slowly on a spit rather than toss him into the fire, but we need to get him out of his stolen office yesterday.

I hope this gets legs and goes somewhere - forward, not into the bin.

9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes

Vanity Fair or Truthout

How did the U.S. Air Force respond on 9/11? Could it have shot down United 93, as conspiracy theorists claim? Obtaining 30 hours of never-before-released tapes from the control room of NORAD's Northeast headquarters, the author reconstructs the chaotic military history of that day - and the Pentagon's apparent attempt to cover it up.

Quite long, but well worth a read.

Related, from today's WaPo:

9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon

For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington.

In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.

This stuff is taking a long time to come out, but come out it surely must. The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine.

Note to Justice: Speed it up. Us Olde Fartes (Lctp*) would like it to happen in our lifetimes, thank you very much.

*Lurch coined that phrase.

Meetings ...

I was kidding Gord in the comments of his post yesterday on the combat readiness, or the lack thereof, of a good percentage of army units.

F: Didn't I tell you I'd be fixing Humvees in Kuwait?

G: Fixer, after you fix it, you're likely to be stickin' out the top of it with Ma Deuce in yer hands.

F: With my luck, probably.

G: On the bright side, I may be the one feedin' ya ammo. Every cloud has a silver lining!

I've been saying that a Draft is just around the corner since I started this blog, only half kidding when I said my boss Harry (another Vietnam vet like Gord), Gord, and I are gonna be sharing a tent or a barracks room in the Middle East one day.

With the state of the Army today, should another conflict arise (or a major escalation in the Mid East, which seems closer on the horizon than ever), a Draft is a serious possibility. With the problems Gord points out, and the fact recruiting quotas aren't being met, and the caliber of people they are accepting, I don't see how it can not happen. Well, there's one way, but I don't think even the Chimp is stupid or desperate enough to use nukes or another form of WMD on the region.

Remember that in November, you folks who use a conventional voting machine. Those of you who will be using touch-screen well ... it doesn't matter. Think about your high school or college age kid carrying a rifle in Iraq (or Iran or Syria), or riding in a Bradley or Humvee, a target for any moron with an RPG or AK. This election might just well be the difference between a Draft and bringing our troops home and starting to heal our reputation in the world. Face it:

Everybody. Hates. Us.

And if we expand this folly, we will only lose more credibility, blood, and treasure. Get them out of Congress in November, the lives of your children and the fate of Planet Earth (the only home we have, by the way) depend on it.

Tell me again ...

How glorious war is:

...

The Lebanese soldiers were trying take down the names of all who had died, but I found a man with a clipboard who had taken down 40 names, and he said that they weren't accurate, because some of the children were blown into bits and they couldn't fit them together accurately and there might be -- they couldn't put the right head on the right body, and therefore they might not be able to have an accurate list of the dead. But he was doing his best in the circumstances of war to maintain the bureaucracy of government.

...