It's About Damn Time...

Pelosi seeks global warming committee


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) sought to create a special committee Thursday in an effort to jump-start long-delayed government efforts to deal with global warming and produce a bill by Independence Day.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said the committee would hold hearings and recommend legislation on how to reduce greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide generated by fossil fuels, that most scientists blame for a gradual warming of the earth's climate.

"I promise to do everything in my power to achieve energy independence ... and to stop global warming," Pelosi said.

Pelosi set a goal of the Fourth of July for finishing a global warming bill that would "truly declare our energy independence."

The committee will be led by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who shares Pelosi's goals, said a Democratic leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity because Pelosi had yet to announce her choice.

Actual bill-drafting duties will be left to committees that have a say in the matter. That could be several because global climate change could affect virtually everything.

Pelosi's move increases the likelihood that Democrats will propose far tougher constraints on greenhouse gas pollution than the Bush administration wants. She also has outflanked for now — and angered — a few Democrats who head important House committees.

Idiots

Heh ... I love it when Michael Stickings gets mad. Off to work ...

Dems are failures ...

I'm peeing myself laughing. I'll let Oliver Willis tell it:

As my readers can easily tell, I have and will enjoy the hell out of watching the GOP deal with being in the minority (and will enjoy it even more when the Democrats recapture the White House). Today's bit of fun is Patrick Ruffini declaring that the Democrats hundred hours is a failure because they accomplished their stated goals in 42 hours.

...

Fairness ...

I've been saying this for years (don't have enough room on the page to link to all my posts on this subject), and the wonderful TRex says it far better than I ever could:

As you might expect (and as Taylor pointed out earlier) the Wingnut crowd is not reacting well to the notion of the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. I don't know why anyone's surprised. The Right Wing's whole stock in trade is peddling mendacious bullshit to the masses, so naturally the concept of media reform to them is like throwing water on the Wicked Witch of the West. ("MEEEELLLL-ting! MEELLLLLLL-ting! Oh, what a world! All my beautiful WICKEDNESS...MELLLLL-tiiiiiiiiiiing...!")

...

You can see the results of this kind of thinking played out on a grand scale in Iraq, Afghanistan, and New Orleans these days. And frankly, that's not particularly pretty. Pox News and the Right Wing robber barons it enables on a daily basis are taking full advantage of one of the salient truths of Hermann Goering and the Nazi party:

...

If a network or program touts itself as 'news', they should be forced to tell the truth or be held accountable. Roger Ailes and the News Corp bunch should be doing jail time, or at least be sued into bankruptcy or non-existence. This is still America and we all have the right of free-speech, but a supposedly objective news organization spreading outright lies, supposition, and propaganda disguised in the veil of truth should be held accountable for the damage they do and the crimes they abet. The airwaves belong to us or have you forgotten that?

Our news media (not just Fox, but the others in varying degrees), thanks to the 'corporate' nature of the business nowadays, will not police themselves. Most news divisions at the networks are now under control of their entertainment divisions. When the news is forced to 'get ratings' to justify their existence, this mess is what you get. A good chunk of Americans don't even believe what they see on network news shows anymore. They come to us now.

It's also time for a crackdown on churches (and other congregations who enjoy tax exempt status) that are also de facto propaganda arms of the American Right. It's time for them to pay their fare share to support the war they helped get us into. Not only that, I want jail time for the preachers who exploit their position to control their ignorant, gullible flocks and meddle in affairs of state.

And we, as a people are gullible. We are lazy and greedy. Do you think you'd get all those African email schemes cluttering up your Inbox if we weren't? Do you think all these get-rich-quick schemes you see on late-night TV would proliferate? Do you think we would have elected the Chimp twice if Americans would ask as many questions and dig for the truth the way lefty bloggers do? Do you think anyone would have agreed to the Chimp's tax cuts (how's that $300 woking out for ya now) if they didn't believe the bullshit that it will 'all trickle down'? The middle class is disappearing and the gullible public is hastening the fall; their own fall.

Very soon, we'll all have to pay more taxes. It's a fact of life in order to pay this nation's obligations. If you're greedy and ignorant enough to believe we don't have to, or can defer them forever, you'd better get a grip soon because the new reality, the real reality, is gonna come as a shock. Times are a-changing. The Republicans and their henchmen (the preachers and corporate news) told you what you wanted to hear and you didn't question it. Well, I hope you had fun swimming in your denial for the past 6 years but the bills are coming due.

Whether it be higher taxes, loss of stature in the world community, and maybe even attacks on our homeland, we'll be paying soon enough. It's refreshing to see so many of you open your eyes in the past year ... finally, but as we move back to reality, you're going to be confronted with some painful truths. The spin meisters of the Right Wing Noise Machine will be out in force, to cast blame anywhere but the place it belongs. Hopefully, you people will keep your eyes open when the shit hits the fan and remember who got us into this mess in the first place.

The same people who do not want reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine.

Casting Call ...

[This'll be on top for a couple days. New posts begin below ~ F.]

So, I've been debating this for a while now, since I got back from vacation in October anyway. I've let on how crazy my real world life has been lately and I've been wondering how I'm going to blog with even more coming down the pike, namely beginning contruction on the house in a couple weeks (I do all the work myself) and finishing a book I've been trying to write for 10 years that's now 6 months late (writing novels and blogging don't mix, due to the fact I haven't written anything worth a damn, novel-wise, for the 2 1/2 years since I started blogging, though I've tried). That, plus today the Angry Old Broad informed me she will be taking an indeterminate leave of absence to deal with family matters, brings me to the point where I'll need to make an addition to the team here at the Brain.

Since I started this blog, I've approached people whom I've wanted to come aboard and begged asked them. I harassed approached people whose work I was familiar with and thought would add a unique flavor to a blog run by a couple of crusty old vets (some a bit older and crustier than others ... heh). This time I'm gonna do it a little differently.

I'm gonna open it up to you folks, readers and fellow bloggers alike. I'm looking for somebody* who can post several times a day, preferably with a military background (but not a requirement) and a political tilt (well maybe more of a steep incline) to the left (if you're already a blogger, send me your URL so we can check out your stuff). I'm looking for somebody to take up my slack while I get my more pressing shit done over the next few months and remain a permanent member of the team once I (and hopefully AOB) return.

If you're interested in joining the staff here at the Brain or have any questions, email me; Gord and I will discuss it and get back to you. I'll leave this up top for a few days. I'm looking to do the hiatus thing by the end of January so I'd like to get this squared away before then.

I'd also like to take this time to thank the Angry Old Broad for her contribution to the Brain and pray she'll return when she gets everything squared away. She's our 'mom' and our conscience. We love ya, honey. The door is always open and we'll keep your chair warm.

*The Alternate Brain is an equal opportunity blog. We don't give a shit if you're a man, woman, red, black, white, brown, green, gay, straight, bi, transgender, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Spaghetti Monster worshipper. Well, if you're a Rethug you're going to the back of the bus, but other than that ...

No talking!

Seems the Iranians wanted to help us straighten out the mess in Iraq:

Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.

Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.

...

But heaven forbid we actually made a friend over there. You never know when another enemy might come in handy to distract the American public, like now. A diplomatic initiative like this one could form a basis for understanding between two hostile nations. But understanding is the last thing this administration wants.

Great thanks to Larisa Alexandrovna for the link.

Growing a set

Sen Pat Leahy of Vermont:

Leahy: "We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held and he'd be investigated. We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured."

C & L has the video, of course, and they also have Feingold reaming Alberto 'Abu Ghraib' Gonzalez .060 over:

Feingold: Oh, well it's nice that you didn't have us "in your mind" when making those accusations, but given that you and the President were running around the country accusing people of opposing eavesdropping on terrorists in the middle of an election, the fact that you didn't have Congressional Democrats in "mind" isn't significant. Your intent was to make people think that anyone who opposed the "TSP" did not want to eavesdrop on terrorists, even though that was false. No Democrats oppose eavesdropping on terrorists.

Like Gord says, pass the popcorn.

"...all we can change is the speed of our defeat."

Antiwar.com

One way to look at the situation in Iraq is to try to identify variables, elements that could change. Without change, the war is likely to end with troops having to fight their way out, if they can*.

The military situation in Iraq is not a variable. All that can change is the speed of our defeat. Some actions might slow it, although the time for such actions, such as adopting an "ink blot" strategy instead of "capture or kill," passed long ago.

Other actions could speed our defeat, an attack on Iran chief among them. It now looks as if the Bush administration may have realized that an out-of-the-blue, Pearl Harbor-style air and missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities is politically infeasible. Instead, the White House will order a series of small "border incidents," pinpricks similar to last week's raid on an Iranian mission in Kurdistan, intended to provoke Iranian retaliation. That retaliation will then be presented as an Iranian attack on forces, with the air raids on Iranian nuclear targets called "retaliation." Fabricated border incidents have a long history as casus belli; perhaps the Bushies can dress some German soldiers up in Polish uniforms*.

As Bush made clear in last Wednesday's speech, his policies are not a variable. He will pursue the neocons' dreams all the way to Hell, where they originated.

In fact, we have already failed. The war in Iraq was lost long ago. In terms of the administration's objective of a "democratic Iraq," which Bush re-stated in his Wednesday speech, it was lost before the first bomb fell, because it was unattainable no matter what we did. Now, not even the minimal objective of restoring an Iraqi state is attainable, at least until Iraq's many-sided, Fourth Generation civil war sorts itself out, and probably not then. Events in Iraq are simply beyond our control; the forces our invasion and destruction of the Iraqi state unleashed far overpower any army we can deploy to Iraq, surge or no surge.

Once Democrats accept and announce that Congress cannot lose a war that is already lost, they will have the freedom of action they need to get us out. Polls suggest the public will go along; most Americans now realize the war is lost, regardless of what President Bush may say or do.

Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, put it best. According to the January 5 Washington Post, he said in an interview,

"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost. ... Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy - literally, not figuratively."

I believe Senator Biden is correct; I said the same thing in an earlier column. If the question the Democrats put to the American people is, should we allow thousands more American kids to get wounded or killed so the Bush administration can put our withdrawal off until it is out of office, the public's answer will be clear. Killing our kids for national objectives is one thing; doing so for political advantage is something else.

The key variable thus comes down to this: do the Democrats in Congress have the courage and the communication skills to level with the people about why the war in Iraq is continuing after we have lost it? If not, they will have proven themselves as unfit to govern as the Republican majorities they replaced.

Note to Congress: it's time to shit or get off the pot.

*Just a note: I'm not going to go back and look up the references, but it's nice to see things I've said, original or not, in the big blogs.

"...due to your barren, fruitless womb..."

Watch Jon Stewart volunteer to take one for the team. He's a better man than I am...

This is just gettin' too fuckin' crazy...

Joe Conason

Should the United States attack Iran, which side would the Iraqi government support? The answer to that simple question is far from clear, despite the thousands of lives and billions of dollars we have sacrificed to support the ruling coalition in Baghdad. While the Bush administration seeks to isolate and even overthrow the Iranian regime as well as its Syrian ally, its partners in Iraq are establishing closer relationships with both.

Indeed, the most powerful elements of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political coalition regularly collude with the Iranian intelligence apparatus - which the Bush administration has accused of arming the insurgents and terrorists who are attacking our forces, committing sectarian atrocities and undermining the new Iraqi democracy. The Maliki government has resumed diplomatic relations with Syria, signed a billion-dollar aid agreement with Iran and encouraged the expansion of Iranian consulates and border stations.

Friendship with Iran and Syria is endorsed not only by Shiite fundamentalists such as Moqtada al-Sadr, the Mahdi Army warlord, and his rival Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, chief of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq - but also by President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Kurdish leaders who believe in secular democracy and actually like the United States.

So in Iraq, the friends of our enemies are . . . our best and only friends.

That lethal contradiction is among the many reasons why the president's plan to send more troops to Iraq won't achieve his objectives - and why the basic framework of his policy is fundamentally flawed.

Nothing proposed by President Bush in his "new way forward" speech solves this conundrum. Instead, he and his aides pretend that the Middle East is now divided between "reformers and responsible leaders" in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, versus Iran and Syria. So said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Jan. 11, when she declared that the president's escalation represents a "regional strategy."

She was wrong, as usual.

There is no such simple divide in the Middle East. Even Israel has been secretly negotiating with the Syrians through third parties over the past two years, as revealed by the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz. For the United States to rule out discussion with the Iranians or the Syrians - while the Iraqis exchange diplomats and sign agreements with those governments - is not a regional strategy. It is merely the residue of strategic failure.

When you can't tell which side is which, or where the goalposts are, or how many balls are in play, or what the object of the game is, or what the rules are, it's time to leave the game. Especially if a glimmer shines through your little pea brain that everybody else is gangin' up on you and you're losing because you were stupid enough to get in the game in the first place.

Duelling Puppeteers

Pensito Review

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki responded yesterday to criticism of him and his government by Pres. Bush and Sec. of State Condolezza Rice, saying that their grim assessments were giving aid and comfort to terrorists:

Commenting on a recent statement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he said, "Rice is expressing her own point of view if she thinks that the [Iraqi] government is on borrowed time," humorously suggesting that it might be the Bush administration that is on borrowed time.

Here's a news flash for ya: they're both on borrowed time. Payback is comin' due.

The question this raises is whether Maliki is being told to act defiant toward his puppet masters in order to create an illusion of independence, or whether the puppet is truly cutting his strings.

Our neocon/big biz puppet is vying for control of his puppet with al Sadr. Eventually, and not far off, Maliki's strings will be cut and Iraq will be passed to local control with or without Maliki.

Bush might be able to postpone this until he is out of office at great expense of American blood and treasure, but he can't stop it. It's all about his ego now.

Swastika less four right angles...

From a book review at Buzzflash:

In a 2004 article that served as the basis for his new book pulling the fire alarm on thuggish Christian fascism, Chris Hedges recalled:

"Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told us that when we were his age, he was then close to 80, we would all be fighting the 'Christian fascists.'

The warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible.

...All debates with the Christian Right are useless. We cannot reach this movement. It does not want a dialogue. It cares nothing for rational thought and discussion. It is not mollified because John Kerry prays or Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School. These naive attempts to reach out to a movement bent on our destruction, to prove to them that we too have "values," would be humorous if the stakes were not so deadly. They hate us. They hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the Constitution. Our opinions do not count.

This movement will not stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian church intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at home and rear children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is considered murder, the press and the schools promote "positive" Christian values, the federal government is gutted, war becomes our primary form of communication with the rest of the world and recalcitrant non-believers see their flesh eviscerated at the sound of the Messiah's voice.

This is not fiction.

One of the most striking conclusions we drew from "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America" is that it offers some indirect insight into the inexplicable political survival of George W. Bush.

The world that Hedges enters and depicts is run by white Christian males who reach pinnacles of religious and political power through the use of fear. They see themselves as warriors for Christ. Male authority and apocalyptic violence are integral to the Christian fundamentalist movement.

George W. Bush couldn't be a better role model, could he?

Amen.

Expecting to fail

Here's some more psychobabble about the Chimp by a coupla folks with letters behind their names. Here's the last little bit:

In the recent maneuvering toward the "new strategy" in Iraq, we have witnessed a great pretense of normal decision-making. But the president clearly made up his mind almost as soon as the "surge" alternative appeared, and apparently moved to cow others, including his new secretary of defense Robert Gates (his father's man) in the process. "Success" is the only alternative for him. "Failure" and disintegration of Iraq is unthinkable because it would be synonymous with his own internal disintegration.

As his decisions go awry, he exudes a troubling, uncanny aura of certitude (though some find it reassuring). He seems to expect to feel despised and alone (and probably has always felt that), as he has always secretly expected to fail. That expectation of failure leads to sloppy, risky, incompetent decisions, which in turn compel him to swerve from his fears of incompetence.

At this point, the president seems to have entered a place in his psyche where he is discounting all external criticism and unpopularity, and fixing stubbornly on his illusion of vindication, because he's still "The Decider," who can just keep deciding until he gets to success. It's hard not to feel something heroic in this position - but it's a recipe for bad, if not catastrophic, decisions.

Psychologically, President Bush has received support for so long because many have thought of him as "one of us." Most of us feel inadequate in some way, and watching him we can feel his inadequacies and sense his uncertainties, so we admire him for "pulling it off." His model tells us, "If you act like you're confident and competent, then you are." We are the culture that values the power of positive thinking and seeks assertiveness training. We believe that the right attitude can sometimes be more important than brains or hard work. He's bullied us, too. We don't dare to really confront the scale of his incompetent behavior, because then we would have to face what it means to have such an incompetent and psychologically disabled decision-maker as our president. It raises everyone's uncertainty. And that is, in fact, happening now.

Better late than never, I suppose. I've known about this pathetic little wimp since he ran in 2000 thanks to Molly Ivins and others, but I guess folks can't be bothered with substance, just style, when it's just a minor matter like deciding who's going to be the most powerful man in the world.

Damn near enough voters had him nailed down to keep him out, but he had a set of enablers that got him in anyway. He also had an opponent that was his own worst enemy when it came to campaigning.

If it hadn't been for 9/11, he might have gotten away with the charade long enough to get through his one term without doing irreversible damage to the nation, but such was not to be.

I don't much care that Bush is unhinged. A lot of us are, no big deal. Point is, his condition has gotten bad enough that he's a clear and present danger to us all.

He is good at setting himself up to fail. He's had a lifetime of practice. Things aren't going his way, as they shouldn't, and he's bound and determined to see the United States of America go down with him rather than admit colossal mistakes.

I don't care if the sonofabitch is in denial. I don't care if he sees what he's doing plainly and is forging on regardless, which is probably worse than denial. This is not about his self-esteem. It's about the future of the WORLD and he's blowing it big time.

Head first or feet first, straitjacket or handcuffs, Bush has to go.

Nothing to see here, move along ...

Joe Galloway* of McClatchy:

President Bush was asked in an interview this week why our military and their families are bearing all the sacrifices of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His response was telling.

The American people are sacrificing, too, Bush said. Their peace of mind is disturbed by the images of carnage they see on their televisions.

...

The educator-in-chief said that it's been his view all along that the American people need to keep living their lives without making sacrifices while 25,000 of their sons and daughters have been killed or wounded in combat in the last five years.

...

Our volunteer military is working just fine, Bush said. It can continue to shoulder the entire weight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the wars that have ground the Army and the Marine Corps beyond the breaking point.

...

Our troops and our military are now in deep trouble. Many of our soldiers and Marines are now pulling their third or fourth combat tours.

Those tours are being extended beyond the normal 12 months and the troops' time at home for family and training is being reduced from the promised and badly needed 12 months, all in order to man Bush's "surge" or escalation or augmentation in Iraq. And now Defense Secretary Gates has conceded that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, too. [emphases mine]

...

My peace of mind is disturbed every time I see the Chimp on TV.

Another year of this mess and we won't have an Army or Marine Corps to defend us, and conscription will be necessary. The Idiot-in-Chief is whistling past the graveyard, hoping to dump the entire mess in the next President's lap but I don't think it can wait that long, no matter how deeply in denial the Chimp seems.

I don't know how these guys have kept it together this long and it doesn't look like there's an end in sight. Wait. You're gonna start seeing the nasty shit that went on in Vietnam, more innocents killed as more and more troops lose their perspective, more fragging incidents as guys who begin to feel their only way out of Iraq will be in a "transport tube"; some gung ho, green, 2nd Looie gets in one of these guys' grille area at the wrong time he's gonna be on the wrong end of "friendly fire".

This is a mess and the "Bush/McCain Surge" will only make it worse for both sides. It's why I'm so annoyed that we're running the presidential race already. I don't care about Hillary's motives for signing on to blocking the surge as long as she's on board. I'll worry about folks running for President next year. I want the troops home and out of that meatgrinder this year. I'm proud of the Rethugs who crossed the line too, regardless of their motives. Chuck Hagel, Sam Brownback, Norm Coleman, Snowe, Voinovich, and the rest, good on yas. I don't care why, I'm just glad you did.

I'm glad you're all starting to see we are not only breaking our armed forces in Iraq, we're breaking our nation. Time for the rest of you to step up too. Remember what you were whining about 2 weeks ago? Bipartisanship? This is how it works.

*Tip o' the Brain to Dr. Attaturk (Podiatrist to the Stars) for the link.

Maybe the Iranians wouldn't be so dangerous ...

If we didn't arm the motherfuckers. Being that we're gonna invade 'em soon, you think the morons at the Pentagram might not want to outfit the enemy:

WASHINGTON - Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon.

In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts did make it to Iran.

...

Mrs. F couldn't find me an RPG on Ebay last year (I have issues with the ice cream man). She shoulda gone directly to the Pentagon. Idiots. Incompetents. Criminals.

For, Against, For, Against

Seems a lot of us have been going back through our archives lately, establishing their bona fides they were against the war since the beginning of time (at least since they started blogging). Know what? If you're on our side, I'll stipulate you're anti-war. Okay? Can we move on to more important shit now?

Aaaaarrrggghh!

Shaddap! I don't want to hear about Presidential candidates already. The primaries are a year away, for crying out loud.

5 minutes to midnight ...

This is comforting:

Global warming, a new factor being used by U.S. scientists in their "doomsday" predictions, has helped push the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight - two minutes closer to Zero Hour than before.

This is the first time that the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, a universally recognized indictor of the world's vulnerability to the threat of nuclear weapons, has moved since 2002.

...

Thank you, Mr. Bush.

Draft Karl Rove's Son

Yeah, like that'll happen. When we're dodging gravitationally induced descending aviating porcine excreta. Bill Robinson lays out the case for all supporters of the present imperialistic pipe dream.

Our president calls Karl Rove his "architect." The powers that be genuflect to him in a way unprecedented. But if this genius has had anything to do with the defining act of the Bush II administration, surely he is, as they say, "in it... to win it." Well I say, if you wanna surge baby, put your money where your mouth is.

Send your son.

Shouldn't there be some gesture of authenticity in this latest round of bloody cheerleading? Where's the conviction that this escalation-- I mean, "surge"-- can triumph? I know, I know, we can't send the Bush twins, they're drunk. And Condi has no offspring to offer up. She's married to her, um, job. But Karl Rove, the man all too happy to take credit for the Decider-in-Chief, has the perfect candidate to show us what he really believes in. Why not send Andrew? He's not exactly curing cancer. Last I heard, he was volunteering for the Governor of Texas. And we all know where that can lead.

Maybe Karl doesn't want to risk losing another family member. It's understandable. His mother killed herself, his gay father left the family. Maybe he wants Andrew to follow his own example: In December 1969, Karl's number was drawn for the Vietnam War draft. Yet, on February 17, 1970, he was deferred because he enrolled at the University of Utah. Even though he quickly withdrew from classes, he maintained the deferment until Dec. 14, 1971. Maybe it all runs in the family.

Still, one can't help but wonder... how can Karl Rove deny his son the chance to march in the victory parade-- after the surge-- when the troops return triumphant? That, truly, will be an unbelievable day.

Oh, Bill - how quaint. The scions of the rich and politically influential are groomed from birth to ascend to positions where they can send the less fortunate off to die so they can maintain their grip on power and wealth. Go themselves? Heavens, no! They are the chosen. By themselves. That's what the peasants are for.

Swift boating Scott Ritter

You remember Scott Ritter, the Marine-turned-arms inspector? You remember how he was running around with his hair on fire before the Iraq War and subsequent occupation, saying that Saddam didn't have WMDs? Glenn Greenwald looks at how everybody demonized him, Dem and Rethug alike, and the press dutifully following along:

...

Ritter's extremely prescient warnings were all but ignored in the mainstream American press, except when television panels were convened to smear his character and attack his credibility.

On January 26, 2003, Wolf Blitzer held a panel discussion on CNN to discuss Ritter's war opposition. Ritter was not present, but Peter Beinert, the pro-war Editor of The New Republic, and Jonah Goldberg, the pro-war pundit from National Review, were invited to urge the invasion of Iraq, mock Ritter's anti-war arguments, and smear him with a series of personal attacks.

...

Ritter was 'righter' than anybody from the get go and the spineless Dems and 'news' media never gave his views any objective thought, going out of their way to show him as a traitor. They were all engorged, waving it around after 9/11, seeing Bush as the 'Great Warrior'. Heh ... there's a laugh. All the 'adults' and 'manly men' who'd never stared into the business end of an enemy rifle wanting it as badly as that new red Corvette in the dealership window. Yeah, thanks for thinking with the wrong head, you assholes. 4 years on, your flaccid little pricks still ain't any bigger and we're 3000 lives in the hole with a half-trillion bucks up in smoke.

You know, I'd love to draft all these guys who 'fight with their keyboards' and make them public information officers at the company level in Iraq. If they manage to keep their heads, literally and figuratively, I wonder if they'd still be parroting Rethug and WH talking points? And why aren't these assholes in Iraq anyway? The war is going badly, the Army and Marines need more volunteers. If they believe in it so much, now's the time to trade keyboard for rifle. Aren't you patriots? Your country needs you to keep up morale over there and remind the troops what they're fighting for. 4 years on, what are we fighting for anyway?

I'm sure the families of the dead thank you for your commitment to the cause.