And just so we don't forget ...

I don't know how Holden can pore over transcripts of the Chimp's speeches but he does, for our benefit, so we can never forget we really do have a moron running this country.

Getting it ...

It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups. [my em]

...

It seems the only people who don't get it are the brainwashed and those whose future employment and status depends on the Republicans clinging to power.

To Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi: Fuck that "clean bill" shit. Send the Chimp another war funding bill with the timelines for withdrawal intact. The American people are on your side. Fuck those pundits who say you're committing political suicide. They've been wrong about everything else in the past 6 years. The American people would support you if you sent the FBI to drag Bush and Cheney from the White House and put them in irons.

Quote of the Day

“Lacking a national health system, "the U. S. occupies last place among the major industrialized countries ... in child mortality, life expectancy, and visits to the doctor," although it probably leads the world in politicians who talk about "family values."” —Paul Kennedy

A tip of the Jersey cap to David Michael Green for the quote.

R.

One Day You’re Gonna Wake Up, America.

By David Michael Green

One day you’re gonna wake up in a hostile world where your country no longer has any friends. There will be governments of other countries – former long-standing allies – that cannot afford to have anything to do with you, lest their publics angrily remove them from office for collaborating with a country as hated as yours. Nor will those governments trust yours anyway.

Full text here - Definitely worth taking the time to read. Riveting.

R.

Verbatim Quotes from Republicans when Clinton was Prez

The Young Turks tamp a buncha Repuglicant bullshit into a nice brick. Go see, but you won't be a bit surprised at any of the quotes. Or the Repugs who have conveniently disavowed any memory of saying said quotes.

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy." -- Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."-- Governor George W. Bush (R)-TX

The last one gets me the most

According to these hypocrites, Clinton did all the wrong things, but the exact same things are fine now. IOKIYAR.

The Real Iraq-Vietnam Connection

American Prospect

The key similarity between the two wars is how they profoundly eroded the American people's trust in their government and leaders.

My 'trust in their government and leaders' began to erode in late '63 and has been down to about nothing for many years. The Current Occupation of the White House has scattered the dust of trust to the winds. Here's why:

"The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me as I look back," Bush told Russert in 2004 (my em), "was it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions, and it is lessons that any president must learn, and that is to the set the goal and the objective and allow the military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective. And those are essential lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War."

They're lessons Bush never learned and is ignoring anyway. Bald-faced lying, the sheerest incompetence, his political agenda, any one or all three or add anything you choose. Choosing to be wrong on purpose just because he would like it to be right is worse than no excuse.

Americans may not think Iraq is Vietnam, but they are now convinced that it, too, is a political war.

Well, good for them. No rocket scientists, they. It has been obvious since day one.

In order to see even the obvious, one must take one's head out of one's ass and look around, even a little. That blinding light they now see shining on Bush the criminal has been there all along.

Nunsense

San Antonio Express-News

It's a David versus Goliath battle heating up in the Hill Country - a group of nuns from Boerne is taking a stand against Wal-Mart.

The corporate giant reportedly labeled the nuns a security threat after they raised questions about Wal-Mart's business practices.

Wal-Mart better be on the alert. From a radio intercept:

"Sister Bertrille, Sister Bertrille, this is Jesus Bride 6. Request air strike. Co-ordinates follow..."

Put me in, Coach, I'm ready to lie

Froomkin

Back on March 5, several top Justice Department officials were summoned for an emergency meeting at the White House. On the agenda: Going over "what we are going to say" about why eight U.S. attorneys had been summarily fired.

The truth simply won't do. It's got a liberal bias and thus is not Repuglicant policy. Besides, the truth would put 'em all in jail. So would lying. Win-win!

That meeting was about getting their story straight, or "you lie and I'll swear to it". Hopefully, they'll all lie and get caught at it.

When it comes to folks who are going to "refuse" to appear when subpœna'd, the same thing should happen as if you or I failed to respond to an official summons: bench warrants are issued, arrests are made, and the witnesses appear in jailhouse orange, in irons and chained to the floor.

"...a circular firing squad of the war’s enablers"

Daddy Frank climbs CondiLIEzza's frame over her reluctance to answer questions about why Bush started his Criminal War, and takes others to task as well:

This would be a Three Stooges routine were there only three stooges.

A good read, but one of Pottersville's commenters, from Oz no less, nails it:

I'm looking forward to the day when the REAL reasons for the conquest of the Babylon Oil Colony are admitted. I.E. "We did it to get an American military base right smack in the middle of the oil pool. Not just to control Iraq's oil for ourselves, but so we have tanks close enough to roll into Saudi Arabia if someone deposes the monarchs. Or if they decide to deal with China and cut us off. Ditto for Iran. And we want to be able to squash anyone who thinks about messing with our buddies in Israel. We did it to show that we're the big dogs on the planet and we will kill anyone who gets in our way."

That's the real reason for the invasion. Pure Machiavellian geopolitics. No one will admit it until after the game is lost, though. Then it will be "See why we did that great attack? We could have been in such a great position. But YOU DEMOCRATS made us get out, and that's why we have no gasoline at the pumps. This economic disaster is YOUR FAULT."

I doubt the Repugs would ever admit that as their reason for this stupid war, but I have no doubt at all who they will blame for their preordained failure.

Does he even know that there's a war going on . . .

. . . that he started?



Is he even aware that there are people dying virtually every hour in Iraq and that their deaths are at his hands? Does he give a shit? I know the answers to all 3, I'm sure you do too.

A tip of my Jersey cap to http://derstandard.at (Austrian news site - in German) for the image.

R.

Stuff ...

Undergrads are idiots but Jimmy Carter's the man.

Ed calls out the Rethug Hate Machine.

'Stay the Course' begets more bastard children.

I's in ur womb, guardin' ur tubes.

The Right Number; Avedon Carol pointed me to this new way to look at comics.

I wonder ...

If this will have the same success as Conservapedia?

...

But YouTube, which is owned by Google, has also been a favorite target of conservatives, who accuse the site of a liberal bias.

...

Railing against YouTube, two Republican White House veterans have launched QubeTV as a conservative alternative.

...

What these idiots don't get is that reality is neither Conservative or Liberal, it just is. If you think it has a Liberal bias, maybe you've lost your grip.

Bullies

I never liked that stupid show he was on, but I love Steven Weber's writing:

...

And the character of a nation corresponds directly to its popular heroes, its personality gauged like that of an inmate under psychiatric observation. Given this admittedly simplistic theory, there can be only one conclusion as to what values America now embodies and what form our national spokesperson takes: a snot-nosed yuppie with a big freakin' chip on his shoulder. Forget the "aw, shucks ma'am, it was nothing" archetype. He is now a boisterous, text-messaging fathead in a sports bar, his rosacea flaring at any mention of the word "turban". And though he is not without experience and has ambition galore, his open-up-a-can-of-whup-ass temperament trumps any wisdom and humility he might have picked up along the way to where he is now.

...

Just as some here paint all the French as 'surrender monkeys', a lot of people around the world look at all Americans as obnoxious bullies. As a person who enjoys traveling the world, this is quite troubling ...

God who?

As I've said a million times here, I don't give a shit who, what, or how you worship, as long as you don't proselytize to me and don't try to make your beliefs government policy. I don't believe in God, at least not in the form of some guy sitting up there, keeping score of whether I'm fucking around on my wife or kicking my dog (I don't, in either case, but I only think it counts to hypocritical guys in funny hats and dresses).

That said, being it's America and all, how come the Jesus freaks are all pissed off over a documentary about people who don't believe?

Conservative Christians are criticizing a plan by Public Broadcasting Service stations to begin showing later this week a three-part television documentary series on atheism, calling it "demagogic and propagandistic."

...

Janice Crouse, director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute for the conservative group Concerned Women for America, told Cybercast News Service that "airing the program gives credibility and cohesiveness to individuals who seek to undermine the beliefs and values on which democracy and the American dream are founded."

...

Let me say, I'll put my 'atheistic' values up against those of any 'Conservative Christian' any day. I'm willing to bet large amounts that in practice, I'm far more moral, tolerant (okay, so maybe there could be an argument in this case), and compassionate. In other words, Jesus would probably like me more than them.

Sorry folks, if your religion is so strong and you're so convinced of its 'rightness', a single TV show shouldn't do your cause any harm. I get the feeling though, that most Americans would probably see God more the way I do than the Jesus freaks do.

I don't want to undermine anyone's religion. If worshipping your god gives you peace, more power to ya. My family on both sides is devoutly Roman Catholic (two of my aunts are missionaries; nuns in Brazil), and I know some of the good works the Catholic Church has done (the town that is my ancestral home in Germany could not have been rebuilt after WW2 without the partnership between my grandfather, who was the mayor at the time, and the local church), but part of being tolerant is allowing others their own peace.

I've been called 'the Devil on Earth', a 'heathen', an 'infidel', and a whole host of names by people who were supposedly 'godly', let alone how the American Conservative Christians have painted all 'non-believers' over the years which, I think, has done more to undermine their religion than anything a buncha atheists could do to an institution 2000 years old.

And, as I said, this is still America. If the Congress can invoke the Lord before their sessions, I have the right not to.

Great thanks to C & L for the links.

People who work ...

This post at PSoTD caught my eye because we have friends in the restaurant business. The folks who serve you so well work hard. Think twice before you break their balls.

No comment necessary

Pic courtesy of Watertiger.

As most regulars know, I'm half German. The other half is British. I know that look ...

For the whore of it ...

Chapter 6 of my novel The Fourth Estate is up at The Practical Press.

And don't forget to vote in the Tiebreaker Runoff for The Practical Press Awards 2006! Voting closes tonight.

Summations

The Rude One sums up the Rethug debate succinctly:

... Nancy Reagan must have loved the sight of all ten of these creepy old men fucking her husband's skull, passing it around to each other to see who could fuck that skull harder. Of course, it was far better than Reagan's skull deserved ...

Thank you, Brainers

Me 'n Mrs. G really like our music, as regular Brainiacs will know. We collected records and albums independently for 15 years and then combined our collections 33 years ago and have added LPs, 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs ever since. We also have quite a few 45s and some reel-to-reel stuff too.

A while back, I got a Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog from the catalog department at the Post Office, aka 'wastebasket'. Mrs. G spotted a turntable that would download into the computer from vinyl and from thence we could make CDs. We had never heard of such a thing before. Since it looks like CDs are going to be around for a while, and since we have many, many LPs that are never ever going to come out on CD, she wanted one. They also had a setup that puts the vinyl in the top and the CD in the bottom and records direct, but Mrs. G has a plan to build another component system like we had years ago, so she went this route. The one in the catalog didn't have much info, so rather than buy a pig in a poke, I put out a cry for help in the Brain. There's a lot of knowledge out there, and a beautiful willingness to take a few moments to share.

You guys came through like the Champions you are! I put Mrs. G on the scent from your input and told her to pick out the one she wanted. Like I had to tell her that!

She opted for the Audio-Technica AT-PL120S. I ordered it today. In a 'perfect storm' of serendipity, the thing was marked down from $279.00 to $178.97, and offered free shipping today only, which would have been $21.00. When I ordered it, I was offered another $30 off if I'd get an Amazon.com credit card, for which I was approved in the time it took to go get a coffee refill. From the kitchen, not at Fourbucks.

I had assumed the turntable was marked down because it was an older model, as that's quite common in our rapidly advancing world of technology, although when I went to the A-T site I was informed that this model is "Not available in your world area and/or language." Hmmm. Makes ya wonder, but these days instructions come in about ten languages, so I'm not worried about that. Yes, when I get something new my feminine side comes out and I read the directions.

Anyway, the thing's on the way, and at half price too! Win-win!

I can't wait to blare my music at top volume out of the pickup! The world will love "Da Yoopers" any my vast collection of steam calliope music! The kids down the block are gonna effin' pay for rattlin' my windows...

Thank you guys for your help.

But you're not getting off that easy! Now I need a machine that can record DVDs off of videotapes. I got a sneakin' hunch I better not ask for one that makes DVDs from my old Super-8 home movies...

Suggestions are welcome. Keep 'em clean. Well, on second thought...go for original and funny!

Stick. Boom. Wipe.

Cursor

Listening to Deputy Attorney General James Comey explain how fired prosecutors had been "smeared," is described on NPR as "like watching him calmly, quietly slide a knife between Attorney General Gonzales' ribs and twist," as Murray Waas reports that the number two official at the DOJ may face obstruction of justice charges.

I like the 'knife in the ribs' part, but he shoulda used a bayonet. Easier to get out. Just pull the trigger.