CBS shitcans Batiste

Think Progress

CBS Fires Batiste For Anti-Bush Advocacy, Hires Bush Aide To Engage In Pro-Bush Advocacy

In a recent VoteVets ad, Gen. John Batiste says, "I left the Army in protest in order to speak out." Now, CBS has punished him for speaking out. Last night, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported, "General John Batiste loses his CBS job after appearing in an advertisement critical of the president."

See the ad here.

CBS News spokeswoman Sandy Genelius spoke to ThinkProgress this morning and confirmed that Batiste's consulting contract has been canceled due to his participation in the VoteVets ad. Genelius said Batiste "inadvertently violated our standards" and therefore "we and the General mutually agreed to end his consultants' arrangement with CBS News."

While CBS claims it will not tolerate consultants engaging in outside advocacy, it apparently has no problem paying a former White House communications director to engage in the Bush administration's advocacy on air. While being billed as CBS News' "political consultant," Nicolle Wallace has propagated talking points advanced by her old colleagues in the White House communications office. [...]

It's apparently only advocacy when you're opposing Bush. Americans United notes that it took two weeks for CBS to fire Don Imus for racial slurs, but two days to fire Batiste for speaking up on Iraq.

General Batiste appears to be a fine man, who resigned from the Army in order to speak out. He's not a flaming lefty, even though it might seem so to CBS. He told the truth about Bush putting us in peril with his criminal war and occupation, and the truth has a decidedly liberal bias. He did sorta call Bush a liar, and rightly so, but his main point was to exhort Congress to "act now to protect our fighting men and women".

Apparently, you can't speak out while in the uniform of CBS either. I guess the exercise of free speech in the suggestion of "protecting our fighting men and women" while drawing attention to Bush's failed strategery is not corporate policy.

Or did Turdblossom have a casual little chat with Chairman Redstone about SEC and IRS audits and 'suggest' Batiste's replacement?

Scarcer than usual

Out of town (Cologne) on business until the 20th. Should have a connection in the hotel, but not certain how good. I will try to get a few posts off, but probably not before Thursday. Have fun all.

R.

In Iowa, they're finding out ...

What we already knew in NY. The great TRex:

...

Unless Emperor Rudy can count on running into you on the polo pitch or at some swank $5,000-a-plate funder, you're just dirt underfoot, another neck to step on as he makes his grasping, elitist way from imposing a police state in New York City to trying to impose one on the whole country.

No wonder he's the front runner for the GOP nomination. He's the veritable embodiment of Republican Values. Place the priorities of millionaires and mega-corporations first, fill all available jobs with your cronies, no matter how corrupt and incompetent they are, and display a breathtaking indifference to real American values like liberty, freedom, and equal justice under the law. Oh, and make a lot of noise about "family values" while leading a private life that would make Caligula look like a Brownie Scout.

...

Go to Harlem, go to East New York, and go to the subway steam grates on Manhattan's sidewalks and ask those folks how it was under Rudy's administration. Ask the cops what the term 'Giuliani Time' means. Better yet, and less expensive (if you don't live within the 5 Boroughs), watch this:

Pet food update

More great cartoons and links at Sumo's place.

Get. The. Fuck. Out.

Not only do the American people (70% of us anyway) want us out of Iraq, so do the fucking Iraqis. Let's go.

Who plotted what at Fort Dix?

CJRDaily

It's hard for the press not to run with stories of possible domestic terrorism, and for good reason -- it's serious and scary business. That said, not all plots are created equal, and lumping them all together into one grab bag of thwarted domestic terrorism cases is something reporters should avoid, especially given some of the absurd plots that have been uncovered over the last couple years. This is not to say that all leads shouldn't be investigated -- they should -- or that anyone discovered in any stage of planning an attack shouldn't be scooped up -- they should-- but we've seen a couple of cases in the last few years be blown way out of proportion, and that makes us wonder what the Fort Dix story will become.

The Bush administration's Justice Department has a vested interest in portraying every "plot" it busts as the next 9/11, regardless of how embryonic or feeble. It serves as a distraction from the administration's failures in Iraq and elsewhere, it perpetuates the state of fear that has served this White House well in recent years, and it justifies the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy. Journalists, meanwhile, are at a decided disadvantage when trying to determine the seriousness -- or lack thereof -- of the threat, because the government holds all the cards. That's why a healthy dose of skepticism -- given this administration's track record with truth -- is crucial to the press's handling of stories like Fort Dix. These would-be terrorists in New Jersey should be taken seriously, at least until we have reason to believe they shouldn't. We're only a couple of days into this story, but it's never too early to watch for the hype, and watch for how the press either runs with it, or turns a skeptical eye.

Good advice. Some FBI 'informants' turn out to be 'instigators' who set these guys up. Look, if someone offers you explosives, guns, and bus fare to go something bad, be a little skeptical.

I've got a feeling that none of the arrested groups of 'plotters' could ever have pulled any of this shit off anyway. It's probably good that they're off the street for a while, but federal law enforcement could probably do better if it expended more effort to go after some of the people who are plotting things they can pull off and aren't stupid about it, instead of going for flashy 'Terrorist Plot Foiled!' headlines to make it look like they're really helping.

The buck stops elsewhere

Go read The Old Ay-rab.

President Bush still has to learn "the buck stops here" when it comes to presidential decisions.

The "decider" and commander-in-chief seems to be trying to pass the buck, particularly if the war in Iraq implodes and he has to bring troops home from his disastrous invasion of Iraq.

The president is counting on Gen. David Petraeus - the top military commander in Iraq - and Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki to take the fall if his troop "surge" fails.

Bush is a long way from that mirage even with an expected Pentagon buildup of U.S. troops to 160,000 by midsummer.

But White House spokesman Tony Snow rejected any suggestion that Petraeus' comments pointed to September as a deadline. The president was not accepting any troop withdrawal date, Snow insisted.

More ominous is a report Wednesday by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius that an unnamed Saudi source said Bush told the Saudis that he will not withdraw from Iraq during his presidency.

If true, that's more in line with speculation that Bush wants to run out the clock and pass the war on to his successor at the White House.

However, it's not far-fetched to believe that Republicans will wake up and see their reelection chances flame out if Bush continues the war until 2008.

Soon after the war started and all the false rationales justifying the invasion were falling like 10 pins, Ari Fleischer - Bush's first press secretary - stepped up to the podium in the White House pressroom and picked the battleground, declaring: "Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism." And al-Qaida took him at his word.

The mantra for Bush's new strategy in the war is called "the way forward." But if Americans have any say, it should be "the way out."

Unfortunately, our 'say' may have to wait until 11/07 unless Congress can pound some sense into the Chimp or throw his ass out.

Anyway, not a bad summation by that dear old broad. Her phone number is at the bottom of the article. I wonder if she'd like to go out...

Powell's Chief of Staff Proposes Impeachment

AfterDowningStreet

On Thursday, May 10, 2007, Lawrence Wilkerson, speaking on National Public Radio, proposed impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Here's the audio. (Click 'listen', upper left - G)

Wilkerson said in early comments on the show: "This administration doesn't know how to effect accountability in my opinion." But he did not raise the possibility of impeachment until after a member of the audience had phoned in.

The first caller who was put on the air demanded an investigation of the lies that launched the war, and asked for accountability "all the way up." In response to Adelman's claims that history would hold people accountable, the caller said "I would love to have a job where, worst case scenario, my historical record is flawed."

That hit home for me. As a motorcycle mechanic, I have held hundreds of people's lives in my hands. I've had customers die through their own actions or those of others, but never because I did something wrong or left something undone, thank you Lord. 'Accountability' had nothing to do with it, really. It's a moral imperative not to put folks in more danger than they're already in out there among the blind, deaf, and dumb cage drivers. And speaking of 'historical records', I sent something to my septic tank this morning that will have a better 'legacy' than Bush and Cheney put together.

After an interruption, Wilkerson continued: "The language in that article, the language in those two or three lines about impeachment is nice and precise – it's high crimes and misdemeanors. You compare Bill Clinton's peccadilloes for which he was impeached to George Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors or Dick Cheney's high crimes and misdemeanors, and I think they pale in significance."

Ashbrook asked for some examples of such high crimes and misdemeanors, and Wilkerson replied: "I think that the caller was right. I think we went into this war for specious reasons. I think we went into this war not too much unlike the way we went into the Spanish American War with the Hearst press essentially goading the American people and the leadership into war. That was a different time in a different culture, in a different America. We're in a very different place today and I think we essentially got goaded into the war through some of the same means."

Same means, yes, but this time it was for oil and hegemony instead of selling newspapers. Another difference is that, however wrong it may have been, The Spanish-American War lasted only 113 days and we won, not X amount of years of loss of blood and treasure and Bush lost.

Impeach Cheney, then Bush. First the organ grinder, then the monkey.

Chuck E. Cheese Legislation

Welcome to Pottersville

Years ago when the kids were small we'd take them to Chuck E. Cheese in Natick, MA. It was there that I learned an invaluable tip on parenting.

My wife would dole out two or three dollars in tokens to each of the three kids and they'd invariably pester us for more every ten or fifteen minutes. So I asked her why she didn't give them more tokens at a time and she said, "So they'll keep checking in."

Isn't this basically what Congress has been reduced to doing with George W. Bush with the war funding bill? We're giving George his hundred billion in video game tokens for that kewl Iraq War arcade game ("Oil Wars", I think it's called) to which he's been addicted for the last four plus years on the condition that he not get into any more mischief. In other words, from here on in, he has to earn his war. There was even a House resolution briefly kicked around that Bush gets his mad money like a monthly stipend in which he had to show significant benchmarks, which is even more perfect for my analogy.

Overall, what Congress is going through with George Bush is getting to be exactly what Mrs. JP is currently going through with her parents, what so many middle-aged people go through when their parents get too incompetent to care for themselves or fall ill- the once-subordinate child, by necessity, becomes the parent.

Our kids never complained about having tokens doled out to them in dribs and drabs and my in-laws aren't complaining about being relieved of the burdens of home maintenance by their only child.

But Bush is complaining about being held to non-existent "rigid and artificial deadline(s) for American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq". You know, like the one that said we'd be out of Iraq six to eight weeks, tops, after the 2003 invasion. Because Bush knows how incompetent his war's being run. He knows that the Iraqi parliament barely surpasses his own Congress in terms of skepticism and distrust.

Because he knows that benchmarks, even suggestions of them, will automatically set up for failure not the troops but him.

He's already failed and he knows it. He just can't and won't admit it. He'll try and keep his War Crimes going until a (hopefully) sane President pulls the plug on the Iraq clusterfuck and then blame him/her/?. That's his M.O.

Here's a great thought:

Any dog breeder will tell you that when two dogs copulate, the female determines the length of the time of procreation. The male's penis is, literally, caught by the female's vagina and he is not going to get out until she's damned good and ready.

Bush has really screwed the pooch on this one and the bitch isn't letting him go just yet.

A bucket of cold water is way too rude to use on dogs to break a tie, but I think it's entirely appropriate to use on Bush.

Thank you, Jurassicpork.

Bye-bye, 'George'

Will Durst

Even though this honorable moniker stands as a symbol of our country's birthing struggle due to the father of our nation wrestling its honor from the crazed clutches of King George III, parents must be having second, third and no thoughts whatsoever about naming their kids George lest it be seen as a tacit approval of the ways and means of the current administration. Hell, I bet the names Mothra, Dweezil, and Philomena get better placement in the baby name books than George and/or Georgette over the next couple of decades. Wouldn't be surprised to hear Prince George, British Columbia attempts to change its handle to Margaritaville.

He goes on to say that 'George' may soon join 'Adolf' and 'Attila' on the list of names folks don't name their kids any more. Not just because of Bush either, but mostly. For some reason, he left out 'Cain' and 'Ananais'. Must not be religious.

Funny shit. Please go read the rest.

Woodshed Time for the Chimp

Truthout, video from Keith Olbermann and two articles:

In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.

'Pleaded'? They need to grab him by the stackin' swivel and shake him like a rat. The first words out of their mouths should be "listen up, asshole".

One said "My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President." The president responded, "I don't want to pass this off to another president. I don't want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president," underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.

Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts.

There's the rub. I'm glad these Repugs finally had a 'moment of prayer' with Bush, but it pisses me off a little. They didn't go to see him because this criminal war is all wrong or because he has run it so badly that it has wrecked the military, divided the country, spent us into the poorhouse for generations, wrecked our standing all over the world, and shed oceans of blood unnecessarily.

Basically, they told him to let the generals do his lying for him because they're afraid they won't get re-elected. They don't deserve to be re-elected and I hope they aren't. This is a welcome thing they did and I hope it has an effect, but it's years too late.

I hope the Repugs in Congress come to the realization that their best chance for re-election lies in impeaching Bush and Cheney and stopping this imperialistic occupation. It wouldn't hurt if they strung up a buncha neocons, neither.

Quote of the Day

“I'm worried about over committing our military around the world. I want to be judicious in its use. You mentioned Haiti. I wouldn't have sent troops to Haiti. I didn't think it was a mission worthwhile. It was a nation building mission. And it was not very successful. It cost us a couple billions of dollars and I'm not sure democracy is any better off in Haiti than it was before.... I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be. We can help. And maybe it's just our difference in government, the way we view government. I mean I want to empower people. I want to help people help themselves, not have government tell people what to do. I just don't think it's the role of the United States to walk into a country and say, we do it this way, so should you.”
—Texas Governor George W. Bush during his campaign for President in 2000.

A doff of the Jersey cap to Marty Kaplan at HuffPo for that gem.

R.

See yas ...

Don't let the door hit ya in the ass, Tony. Blair stayed around far longer than I thought he would, about 2 years longer. Just goes to show, the Brits are almost as fucked up as we are (granted, their profile in the Iraq mess is smaller than ours).

I can say, cynical as I am about politicians, that Tony Blair was a big disappointment. After seeing how he worked so well with Clinton, I thought he might have had a moderating effect on the Chimp back in '02, when he was rattling the sabre for war with Iraq. At least, he might have not held hands with our moron whilst Bush and the Neocons marched gleefully into Hell. I really didn't figure the Brits would go with us, talk about misplaced hope.

Oh well, Tony, you marched right along with them. You had a responsibility as the 'level-headed big brother', to our people who share a closer bond with you than with any other and to the world, for your history is a thesis on the rise and fall of Empire and you should have learned from the experience. If you would have marginalized Bush early on, maybe so many would not be suffering now.

Please fade into obscurity.

Tip o' the Brain to Cookie Jill at Skippy's.

Listening

Didn't the Chimp say he'd listen to his commanders?



Major General John Batiste

Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the vid.

Quote of the Day

Tristero at Digby's:

...

The situation is now so godawful, so completely coo-coo, and so totally out of control that future historians will shake their heads in amazement trying to figure out why, by the spring of '07, the US politicians and the public haven't demanded the immediate removal of the Bush administration from office and their incarceration in the Hague to stand trial.

We live in very strange times.

I been shaking my head since 2000.

Heh ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The queen had the last laugh. Dispensing with protocol briefly at the formal dinner she hosted for President Bush, Queen Elizabeth said, "I wonder whether I should start this toast by saying, 'When I was here in 1776.'"

...

Link via Watertiger.

Naming names and 'suicide'

Xymphora

D. C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey claims that a former University of Maryland professor named Brandy Britton worked for her. Britton committed 'suicide' just before her prostitution trial, even though she likely would not have received any time. Her client might even have been Cheney (my em), who was living in northern Virginia at the time.

I note that, predictably, the brilliant defense strategy of her civil attorney of blackmailing the courts by threatening to name names – a strategy which would either have worked or resulted in the D. C. Madam committing 'suicide' – will almost certainly be dropped. Even though she is indigent and needs a court-appointed attorney, she ends up with a prominent lawyer who, if you can believe it (and I sure can!), has represented both Aldrich H. Ames and Robert P. Hanssen, and was part of the defense team that represented . . . Monica Lewinsky! Isn't it funny how the court never ends up appointing a lawyer like this for your average crack cocaine possession? The judge won't even let the impolite civil attorney sit in the criminal court!

Actually, it comes as no surprise to me that any decent prostitute would commit 'suicide' after having sex with The Devil.

It will be interesting to see how they spin the D.C. Madam's car exploding into orbit into a 'suicide'.

Many links at the site.

Suck a snail, watch the fun...

My Favorite Irish Redhead on the French erlection:

Beauty has been chased off by the Beast.

Cartoonists have depicted the tough guy - who bullies rivals, betrays mentors and calls young troublemakers in low-income housing in the Paris suburbs "scum" - as a gargoyle, Dracula, an evil sorcerer and a devil.

The imagery of the presidential duel tapped into mythic Gothic tales of France, like "Beauty and the Beast," "The Phantom of the Opera," and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Sarko wrote in his political book "Testimony" that France "is not a museum" and "must find the energy" to succeed. In his acceptance speech, he said he would "rehabilitate" work, and an adviser promised he would be "a presidential entrepreneur." (Just as soon as he comes back from his yachting vacation.)

One expatriate friend of mine observed that the French are not lazy, they just want a leisurely lunch.

At a Paris flea market on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the vendors did not eat fast food or takeout at lunchtime. They set up tables with tablecloths, china and crystal and joined other vendors to dine on whole roasted chicken, fresh salad, bread and wine. And some would not interrupt their meal even for shoppers who wanted to buy their wares.

It will be fascinating to watch Sarko try to discipline the French, and change their psychology about work. Or will they discipline him, burrowing into their Camembert cocoon, chasing him away as he did Sego?

The mood here was best summed up with a take on an old Bette Davis line. Jean d'Ormesson, a commentator in Le Figaro, advised: "Fasten your seatbelts. This will be quite a ride."

I'm no expert on France. I leave that to Fixer. I've only been there once, if you count an hour at the Nice airport as 'being in France'. All I really know about the French is that they used to make truly terrible motorcycles. A friend of mine had a Peugeot once, and the exhaust smelled like a garlic and red wine burp. But only on the rare occasions when it ran, of course.

It'll be fun to watch all this. From a safe distance.

First Annual Molly Ivins Award to Keith Olbermann

AAN

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) announced today that MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann is the winner of its first annual Molly Ivins Award. Olbermann's achievement will be recognized in a ceremony to be held this afternoon in New York City.

The award was recently named in honor of Ms. Ivins, who served as co-editor of AAN member Texas Observer early in her muckraking career, and who died of breast cancer on January 31, at the age of 62. It is intended to recognize a journalist or media figure who's reporting or commentary has had a profound impact on the public's understanding of vital national issues, and who's work embodies the spirit of Ivins' courageous legacy.

Said AAN President and Memphis Flyer publisher Kenneth Neill. "Keith Olbermann speaks truth to power with wit and style, just as Molly did."

"I'm utterly honored," said Olbermann, "largely because I'd still like to be Molly Ivins when I grow up."

Don't we all. Ms. Ivins was a 'one-off special', as us bike guys say. I'm glad the Alt Newsweekly folks named an award after her. Congrats, KO. Keep up the good work.

A plan to 'keep terrorists from following us home'

Think Progress

Last night on Hannity and Colmes, right-wing pundit Dick Morris also claimed that we need to keep U.S. troops in Iraq so that terrorists don't come to the United States. But he argued that we need to put "Americans right within their [terrorists'] arms' reach" so that they have the opportunity to "kill Americans" there. He added that therefore, "they don't have to come to Wall Street to kill Americans. They don't have to knock down the Trade Center. They can do it around the corner, and convenience is a big factor when you're a terrorist." Watch it:

Swell. Our guys are just cannon fodder so the terrists don't have to come here and kill Americans. Might disrupt the cash flow. Sometimes I wish they would. Repuglicants should be clearly marked as preferred targets. We've got too many of them anyway.

What. An. Asshole.