Awwww

Brother Lurch is polite about it. I, on the other hand, am not. If you kill for money, you are a murderer and an assassin. If you're an American operator who's left the military and your mates to become a mercenary, only to come back to do the same job for 5 times the pay, you're a greedy murderer.

Five Blackwater employees died when the helicopters they were riding in were shot down, apparently by machine gun fire. The bodies were later recovered, some with bullet wounds to the head, which suggests execution. Little else is known at this moment.

...

I have no compassion, no sympathy, no use for mercenaries. And that includes any civilian whose only motivation to enter a war zone is for money. The only reason an American should be fighting for this nation is to defend her. Mercenaries have no honor and no soul. Whether you're executed after your helicopter is shot down or strung up from a bridge in Fallujah, you've earned your fate.

If you can't march on Saturday

Join the March on Washington in spirit:

Hundreds of thousands of Americans will march to their capital city Washington DC on Saturday 27 January. It could be the rebirth of the US peace movement. People round the world - let’s join the march with our own global internet protest! Last week, our ad told decision-makers in Congress how strong world opposition is to Bush’s escalation in Iraq.

This Saturday, Avaaz supporters at the US march will carry banners and country placards announcing how many of us from each nation are joining the marching. Every signature will be counted on the banners! Let’s raise a global voice for a real plan to end this war. Let’s make those numbers big. Time is short. Join the global peace march and tell your friends today!

R.

If you pay your employees $5.15 per hour ...

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Kerry Not Running

From boston.com :

WASHINGTON --Senator John F. Kerry announced today that he will not run in the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year.

I can't say that I'm disappointed.

R.

Banzai Bottle Rocket

Amongst our favorite "famous last words" are "Watch This!"

A tip o' the Brain to The Moderate Man.

Let's do lunch ...

Via Creature, lucky dude.

Housekeeping

I'm gonna be cleaning out the blogrolls over the weekend. Nothing radical, just getting them easier to manage. Generally, if you haven't posted anything on your blog in months you're getting scrubbed. I try to visit every blog in our blogrolls at least once a week and I've noticed more and more have gone dormant. It's one of the reasons I'm cleaning it up, annoying to get to a blog and see the same post for months. If you think your blog falls into that category and you want me to keep it on because you're on some sort of hiatus, drop me an email. Otherwise, see yas! More stuff going on as I get shit cleaned up before I take some time off in a couple weeks.

SOTU Analysis

Drum Major Institute pretty much summed up the domestic issues in the first line of their analysis:

There was little for current and aspiring middle-class Americans in tonight's State of the Union Address.

They go on anyway:

President Bush: We must make Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid fiscally sound.

* "With enough good sense and good will, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid - and save Social Security."

DMI SAYS: "Unfortunately, when President Bush proposes fixing something, it usually means weakening it."

Shorter: Bush could fuck up a junkyard with a rubber hammer.

SOTyoons

Ten pages of SOTU cartoons.

Jim Webb

Fuck the Chimp's State of the Union (the only thing he said worth listening to were two words, 'Madame Speaker'), the good shit was in Jim Webb's response:

...

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

...

With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.

...

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues - those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death - we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

...

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

...

In case you don't recognize it, that's leadership talking. Off to work ...

Quote of the Day

Since we're all about the STFU SOTU today. Maru:

As his poll numbers continue to tank like so many lonely ejaculates from the pasty, shivelled weener of Rush Limpbaugh, Jebus McRetard hopes to "rally" the country over his misguided "plan" of suppl[y]ing more cannon fodder to try to save his so-called legacy.

"We didn't issue you a family ..."

Remember that shit? They'd tell you that when you had some sort of personal shit to do. "We didn't issue you a girlfriend, Sarge," was the one I heard most. I told old Stonewall once that if the Air Force did issue me a woman, I wouldn't have to go chasing the ones off-base, but I digress. That's what went through my head when I read this. "We didn't issue you a family so it's your problem."

Seems the Chimp doesn't think the troops' families need any more 'support'.

Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said.

The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as advocates for wounded service members who have questions or issues related to benefits, financial resources and their successful return to duty or reintegration into civilian life - all forms of support other than medical care.

...

This is the time these folks need help the most, when a lot of them are having to start from scratch, wondering how they're going to make ends meet now that the breadwinner has been seriously injured.

Link via BuzzFlash.

New Bush Approval Rating

28%

To quote The Twit about two minutes ago, "This guy's goin' down faster than Paris Hilton."

Team Libby Throws Karl Rove Under The Bus

TalkLeft

Shorter Version so far: Libby says the White House set him up to take the fall for Karl Rove.

Attorney Theodore Wells, in the opening statements of I. Lewis Libby's perjury trial, said Libby went to Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003 and complained that the White House was subtly blaming him for leaking Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak.

"They're trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb," Wells said, recalling the conversation between Libby and Cheney. "I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected."

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! The fuck you won't!

Liveblogging of the trial at Firedoglake.

Caught in the Crossfire

Caught in the Crossfire: The Untold Story of Falluja

In November 2004, the American military took siege of the ancient city of Falluja, Iraq, a city comparable to the size of Cincinnati, Ohio with a population of at least 250,000. The city of Falluja has now been declared "pacified" and the battle of Falluja has been declared a victory by the American administration. With interviews with the filmmakers, Caught in the Crossfire is an eyewitness account from the only independent journalists to live with the people of Falluja, exposing the devastating humanitarian disaster that is the result of American foreign policy in Iraq.

Just go see.

The Virtual March on Washington

From Bob Fertik at democrats.com:

Dear Friend,

Please join me in protesting the Iraq War through the Virtual March on Washington:
http://democrats.com/outofiraq

It only takes 1 minute - just email your Representatives in Congress:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/90

You will be joining hundreds of thousands of patriotic Americans who are marching against the Iraq War in Washington DC and in cities and towns across America.

State of the Union Preview

State of the Union Speech - the Drinking Game

I couldn't resist. I just saw that somewhere...wow, déjà vu all over again. Will Durst:

What you Need to Play:

# Four taxpayers: One rich white guy wearing a Suit. Cuff links are nice. Two people wearing jeans, one in a blue work shirt, the other in a white shirt. One person wearing clothes rejected by the Salvation Army. (Belt and shoelaces removed.)

# One shot glass per person. Everybody brings their own from home and places it on table. Suit gets first pick for use during game. White shirt picks next, then Blue shirt. Suit takes last shot glass as well, and Rags has to beg a glass from other players when necessary, or drink out of own cupped hands.

# Twenty buck ante for everybody, except Suit who tosses in a quarter.

Various rules follow. Don't worry about no stinkin' rules - ten minutes in you won't remember or be able to follow them. Here's just a couple:

10. If George W smirks during a standing ovation, take turns throwing chips of chili and guacamole at TV. First person to hit Bush's head exempt from drinking three shots of beer.

11. If George W tells a folksy Texas tale with a deeper meaning about not leaving before the job is done, Suit has to drink out of beer-filled hands of Rags, who gets to dry his hands on Suit's jacket.

EXTRAS:

# Anybody who can identify the person giving the Democratic Response doesn't have to watch it.

Jim Webb. Good, I wasn't going to watch the bullshit-o-rama anyway. The speech, I mean. I'll watch Webb's response and all the gasbaggery.

# If George W uses a heartfelt story about one of our brave troops, White gets to kick everybody once. Twice if the brave troop is a woman. Rags gets to kick Suit if Bush reveals the subject of the anecdote is in the audience. Twice if the brave troop is sitting next to an astronaut.

# Suit takes home the $60.25. (Ain't that the Repug way? - G.)

# Leftover beer, chili and guacamole go home with Rags, after he/she is finished washing the dishes.

Have fun. Happy landings.

State of the Union Speeech - the Score Card

I couldn't resist. This is via Angry Black Bitch:

New way forward-way forward-
or any variation on the theme - 3 points

Al Qaeda - 2 points

Fight them there rather than here-or variations on that theme - 2 points

Nuclear in same sentence as Iran - 5 points

Provacative language as relates to Iran - 10 points

Terrorists when referring to insurgents - 2 points

War on terror when referring to Civil War - 3 points

Islamic Fascists-or variations on the theme - 4 points

Afghanistan in the same sentence as victory - 10 points

Afghanistan in the same sentence as "thriving heroin industry" - oh fuck it, what are the odds?

Axis of Evil (if he's dumb enough to go there again) - 100 points

Madame Speaker - Priceless

Full post including her hilarious checklist here

If this were a truly just world . . .

. . . Bush would be punished for his crimes by being put out in the street to fend for himself with no money and no family connections.

R.