Maryland Retiree's Anti-Bush Buttons Got Him Arrested

ShortNews

74-year-old Alan McConnell was arrested this weekend and charged with trespassing, after police said he was selling "Impeach Him" buttons without permission. McConnell has sold the anti-Bush buttons at a Maryland farmers' market for months.

Officials said that the incident has nothing to do with politics, but that they feared McConnell and his supporters were becoming a safety hazard. As he was being arrested, about 40 McConnell supporters booed and yelled "Free speech!"

His supporters were becoming a safety hazard? Were they farting from all the organic broccoli they bought? WTF?

An excuse to arrest him for saying something about Dear Leader that someone didn't like, that's WTF.

Some of the market vendors say that all the controversy may actually help business. "The excitement has certainly brought a lot more people here, but not all of them are buying," one said. "Hopefully, the protesters today will come tomorrow to buy."

Oh well, so much for "free speech". If it's good for business, the old gent's toast.

On the flip side, the settlement or judgment from his civil suit for false arrest and violation of his civil rights should keep him in organic veggies and big-titted farm girls throughout his Golden Years.

Bush in Free Fall

Robert Scheer

At what point will President Bush finally grasp the enormous disaster that the neoconservatives, from Vice President Dick Cheney on down, have visited upon his presidency? Or, to put it numerically, just how does a president descend from a 92 percent approval rating one month after 9/11—the highest of any president since modern polling began—to the two-thirds disapproval score that has stalked him through the last year, thanks to the Iraq debacle, without getting the message?

It's Bush's fault for buyin' into that crap. Period. Yes, it's the only way they would install him as president and he's paying them off with the utter destruction of our country and rthe Constitution, but he should have known it wasn't going to last. The Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years and made it to twelve. Oh, that's right, history doesn't count.

If the Chimp is going to do any free falling, may I suggest a HANO jump? With an "N". You paratroopers and jumpers'll get that one.

Read the rest of Mr. Scheer's piece. It contains some ironical truth.

SpecPros for Fredo? Let's Hope...

AP

Angry senators suggested a special prosecutor should investigate misconduct at the Justice Department, accusing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday of deceit on the prosecutor firings and President Bush's eavesdropping program.

'Bout fuckin' time. Lights on in yer heads, dipshits, the prick's been lyin' to you since he raised his hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothin' but the truth. His other hand was behind his back with the fingers crossed, so that made lyin' OK, I guess.

Let him lie to a Federal Grand Jury. What's that Fitzgerald kid doin' these days? He's got a pretty good bullshit detector.

Update:

Time magazine, a 'must read':

Specter later circled back to Gonzales on the matter, warning him: "My suggestion to you is you review your testimony to find out if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable," Specter said. The maximum penalty for being caught lying to Congress is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. Specter wryly noted to reporters during a break that there is a jail in the Capitol complex.

"Once again he's making up something to protect himself and creating situations that never happened," Rockefeller said, adding that "based on what I know about it, I'd have to say" Gonzales has committed perjury.

They're calling him a liar right to his face and threatening him with jail. A good start, I'd say.

FIXED "News" is doing its part - in retaliation they labelled Senator Specter a Democrat. Pathetic. They should turn all their pictures of Goebbels to the wall in shame if that's the best they can do.

This is getting so good! Fun to watch, too...

Your Little Bit of History for the Day

Found this over at BoingBoing:

BBC: W's grandpappy planned facist coup of USA

A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

read the rest HERE.

Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?

Jawol, Alles in ordnung:

White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove's deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

...

You know, both the Nazis and Soviets had ideological officers attached to every department of the bureaucracy, including the military. Just sayin ...

Great thanks to Lambert for the link.

Stupid shit ...

I thought our Governor was smarter than this:

Dear Governor Spitzer,

Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver have been fucking up New York for years. Diluting their power and death grip on Albany would do wonders for the state. Given these two old farts' track records of obstructing progress, running the state like their own personal fiefdoms, and, in Bruno's case, being a Republican it should be easy. That means you needn't have resorted to acting like a garden variety Republican thug to do it. Honestly, I don't know what's come over you. Maybe you got a little excited by your 69% mandate last fall. Maybe your bull-in-a-china-shop nature overcame your common sense. Maybe you're not as smart as I think you are. Whatever it is, do us a favor and cut the crap. It's going to be hard enough to recover from the twelve years of George Pataki and six years of George W. Bush without having to defend Democrats who run their operations like Republican goons and give the David Broder's of this world fodder for their "Both sides do it!" shrieking.

...

Idiot.

Not much more to add.

"In the New York Assembly, everyone speaks very loud but no one listens to anyone else. Therefore nothing is accomplished." ~ The Hon. Lewis Morris, delegate from New York to the Continental Congress, 1776.

Sneaks and Slitherers

A lot of us older folks think of Jimmy Breslin when we think of 'old school' Noo Yawkahs. Here he is calling for Impeachment:

The war was there to take his life because George Bush started it with bold-faced lies.

He got this lovely kid killed by lying.

If Bush did this in Queens, he would be in court on Queens Boulevard on a murder charge.

He did it in the White House, and it is appropriate, and mandatory for the good of the nation, that impeachment proceedings be started. You can't live with lies. You can't permit them to be passed on as if it is the thing to do.

The same is desperately needed now. Curious, following the words, an investigator - the mind here sees George Mitchell and Warren Rudman, and you name me better - can slap a hand on the slitherers and sneaks who have kept us in war for five years and who use failing generals to beg for more time and more lives of our young. A final word in September? Two years more, the generals and Bush people say.

Say impeachment and you'll get your troops home.

And in Washington we had this Bush, and it is implausible to have anyone who is this dumb running anything, smirking at his country. He sure doesn't mind copying those people. On his PBS television show the other night, Bill Moyers said he was amazed at Sara Taylor of the White House staff saying that she didn't have to talk to a congressional committee because George Bush had ordered her not to. "I took an oath to uphold the president," she said.

That president had been in charge of a government that kidnapped, tortured, lied, intercepted mail and calls, all in the name of opposing people who are willing to kill themselves right in front of you. You have to get rid of a government like this. Ask anybody in Rosedale, where Le Ron Wilson wanted to live his young life. His grave speaks out that this is an impeachable offense.

There's over 3500 graves of Americans who died in vain because of Bush's lies crying out.

Bush and Cheney have to go.

Please read the rest.

Vets Sue VA

Right from the horse's mouth, so to speak:

Veterans' Civil Rights Case, first of its kind, includes Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Attorney General Gonzales as defendants; focuses on veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts; alleges "unconscionable delays" and other violations of veterans’ constitutional and civil rights

Morrison & Foerster estimates the class size as between 320,000 and 800,000 veterans, by multiplying the number of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (1.6 million) by the estimated percentage of PTSD amongst the returning troops (20% to 50%). The non-profit Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth are among the plaintiffs.

The complaint further alleges that federal government officials have improperly induced many soldiers suffering from PTSD to accept "personality disorder" discharges, precluding veterans from obtaining disability benefits or receiving ongoing medical treatment because the disorder is then classified as a pre-existing condition.

"More than 22,500 soldiers across the armed forces have been suspiciously diagnosed and discharged with 'personality disorder' in the last six years, condemning them to a lifetime of disability without any compensation or access to VA medical care," the complaint states.

The complaint summarizes: "Unless systemic and drastic measures are instituted immediately, the costs to these veterans, their families, and our nation will be incalculable, including broken families, a new generation of unemployed and homeless veterans, increases in drug abuse, increases in alcoholism, and crushing burdens on the health care delivery system and other social services in our communities."

The upshot is that the Vets have finally had to sue the VA to try to get them to do the right thing in a more timely and well-financed manner.

It's an old adage that you get more with "please" and a gun than just with "please". I hope this law firm has some big guns. Asking politely, talking to congressmen, all the other nice systemic bullshit hasn't worked.

I wonder how far the government will let this proceed. I hope to its logical conclusion, which is that we as a nation misused these Vets terribly and we owe it to them to take care of them. It's only right.

Quote of the Day

Will Durst

Bush is pushing this "executive privilege" thing so far, it's only a matter of time before we are told we serve as citizens at the pleasure of the president.

War Crimes

You know, I've seen a lot of shit. I've seen what combat does to a human body in all it's forms. I've inflicted horrible pain and death on others in the course of completing my missions. If I had to kill somebody, that was that. Strictly business*, no animosity toward the person who would most surely kill me if given the chance. I had a job to do. But never, never have I thought about desecrating a corpse. Some of the Rethugs, the Great Compassionate Conservatives, believe it's no big deal to play with some guy's brains after half his head is blown off.

Chris Hedges, in a widely read article in The Nation, describes a photo showing a U.S. soldier "reaching in to scoop out some of [an Iraqi's] brain, looking at the camera and ... smiling."

Aside from it being sick, though war is a sick thing in itself, it is a war crime. But the wingnuts have a different view:

** Technically, as a reader notes below, abusing a corpse in military as well as civilian life is a crime. In this case, I’d apply the legal principle of who cares?

Who cares? I care. I care that the U.S. military has people who are that fucked up. I care that these fucked up people are put in a combat situation, a place they should never be. But I guess when you can't find enough warm bodies, this is what you get.

We all have our internal monsters. It always surprised me how brutal I could be when the situation warranted. When people who are unstable to begin with are put in a combat situation, over and over, we will have crimes like this committed on a regular basis.

Seeing a human body blown apart by the violence of combat should revolt people, not give them the idea to play with what's left. It shows you the conservative mindset in its true colors. It shows that unless you are white and Christian, your life means nothing to them. I wonder what they'd say if pics surfaced of Iraqis doing the same to the body of an American soldier?

*Not to say this is a healthy outlook and my mind has made me pay for it over the years.

Great thanks to Atrios for the link.

Update:

Digby looks at this too:

...

And, by the way, who are we at war with again? Iraq? The country these right wingers insisted that we "liberate?" Are these soldiers only scooping out the brains of foreign terrorists? Or are they insurgent brains? Suni? Shia? Innocent bystanders? It's so hard to tell which brains are suitable for scooping over there. (Or, maybe these keyboard commandos think we should just scoop 'em all and let God sort it out.)

...

Oh, that's why ...

Silly me* [slaps forehead], and I thought it was all the carnage and shit going on:

Success on the ground in Iraq is being overshadowed by spectacular attacks designed to draw attention from good things which are happening there, a U. S. Central Command officer told online journalists and bloggers in a conference call Thursday. [my em]

...

You see, I was distracted by all the shit blowin' up.

...

"The more successful you are, the more spectacular the events," [U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert H.] Holmes said. "The spectacular attacks are what I call attacks using weapons for mass effect. And they're designed, in my mind, to do just that, to create this mass effect for spectacular coverage in the media, to create spectacular terror in the mind of a population, to create chasms in national wills, (and) to create doubt in military forces."

...

So we must be doing really, really good.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Three parked cars exploded within 30 minutes in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 12 people, police said, the deadliest in a series of bombings and shooting attacks nationwide.

...

Yup, makin' progress.

*Link thanks to Maru.

iPhone: NSA iSnoop Device?

Another Day in the Empire with the tinfoil hat scoop on the latest device.

"The essential hardware elements of a (Total Information Awareness)-type spy program are being surreptitiously slipped into 'real world' telecommunications offices," Wired News reported former AT&T technician Mark Klein as writing. According to Klein and a report published by the New York Times, the NSA-AT&T "Orwellian project… is vastly bigger" than previously figured "and was directly authorized by President Bush, as he himself has now admitted, in flagrant violation of specific statutes and constitutional protections for civil liberties." In the meantime, Bush has signed a number of executive orders essentially granting himself the power of a Roman Magister Populi, a dictatorial master over the commoners.

Considering all of this, it makes perfect sense for the Apple iPhone to double as an NSA iSnoop device.

¿Quien sabe? Mrs. G has a cell phone, but I wouldn't have one of the damn things up my ass if I had room for a boxcar.

Harry Potter and the Cauldron of Thumpers

Neiwert

I've been settling into my couch and reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows and rather enjoying it. I'm something of a Potter admirer; the only bumper sticker on my car reads "Republicans for Voldemort". Of course, I don't come close to Mrs. Orcinus, who finished the book within the first day and who reread all six in the series just before the release of No. 7.

In any event, my enjoyment of the books is enhanced by the knowledge that it also drives the fundamentalist right nuts. Ever since the books gained great popularity, they've been on the warpath against Harry Potter, as you can see from the excerpt from Jesus Camp above, in which we see the head of the camp telling children that Potter should be put to death. (Talk about Republicans for Voldemort!)

I, too, have read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the movies, except for the current ones. I'm patient and see no need to be part of the "Ooh! Ooh! Must have NOW!" deal. I like 'em.

Whether you like Potter or not, go see Dave's piece. You'll like that.

Annuit Cœptis

Has anybody but me noticed that in the new masthead art, the soldier's unit patch, worn on his right shoulder to signify combat with that unit, is part of The Great Seal of the United States, right straight off a dollar bill?

An explanation of its symbolism:

[...]

The pyramid signifies strength and duration.

The Eye over it and the motto Annuit Coeptis allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favor of the American cause.

The date 1776 underneath is that of the Declaration of Independence and the words Novus Ordo Seclorum under it signify the beginning of the new American Era, which commences from that date.

All well and good intentions from the Founders, but I think the artist is having a little poke at the administration, using the shoulder patch to signify that this war and occupation are being fought (although unknowingly to the trooper, who is a man of honor) in the service of the almighty dollar.

The Rest Is Marketing

Sidney Blumenthal in the Guardian UK

President Bush tries to sell the latest US intelligence estimate as part of his grand victory narrative. The only things standing in the way are the facts.

Well, he's never let little details like truth, facts, or reality ever get in the way of his message.

One of the more memorable and revealing statements explaining the nature of the Bush administration build-up to the invasion of Iraq was offered in September 2002 by then White House chief of staff Andrew Card. "From a marketing point of view," he said, "you don't introduce new products in August." Five years later, a period longer than the Civil War and World War II, the administration is preparing to present its case for continuing the surge in Iraq. But rather than waiting for September, when General David Petraeus is scheduled to deliver his report, the administration has moved up the marketing to July.

According to intelligence sources, CIA director Michael Hayden has been under attack within the administration from Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives since testifying frankly to the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group that urged a strategic redeployment of US forces and new diplomatic efforts in the region, which were rejected by President Bush. A virtual paralysis is setting in within the intelligence community. Analysts are even anxious about putting their names on their reports. While they are homogenising information, the administration is still unhappy with the result, as it was with the new NIE.

For the embattled president, filled with "self-confidence", the "motives" he doesn't wish critics to examine turn out to be far more utopian than the military success of the surge, as he explained to his conservative interlocutors. "There is such a thing as the universality of freedom. I strongly believe that Muslims desire to be free just like Methodists desire to be free." Beneath the seething chaotic violence, beyond the tribal and religious strife, past the civil war, the Iraqis, according to the president, under their robes are no different from American Methodists. There's nothing more to understand. If only we can prevail, they can be just like us. The rest is marketing.

Marketing. If Bush was a used-car salesman he'd be dead by now, stuffed in the trunk of one of his lemons by irate customers, crushed and sent to China to be reincarnated as something useful, like a can opener.

Update:

I ain't the only one who thinks Bush is a lousy salesman. The last line of a good article:

Come September, he'll learn whether he made or lost that sale.

All he has to do is browbeat and scare his own Repug Congress into anteing up. I hope they're more scared by the thought of not being re-elected if they go along with his bullshit.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Halliburton Charged $110 Million for Food, Housing, Laundry at Bases Which Had Already Closed
Vice President promises thorough investigation.

Huge Ancient Underground Reservoir Discovered Beneath Darfur
But it's water, not oil, so U.S. not interested.

Bush Briefly Transfers Power to Cheney During Colonoscopy
Cheney launches invasion of Iran but suffers mild heart attack and is forced to transfer power to Nancy Pelosi who orders troops out of Iran and Iraq, closes Guantanamo, ends warrantless wiretapping and fires Alberto Gonzales, but Cheney recovers, voids her actions and is about to launch invasion again when Bush comes out of anesthesia and resumes control.

Resumes control? Bush? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sometimes there's unintended humor in irony, I think...

RAND Suggests "We Will Help You" as PR Campaign For U.S. Military Abroad
"We will help you" start your own civil war, "we will help you" give us your oil.

Diaper Ad That Uses Beatles' "All You Need is Love" Infuriates Fans
Most felt "When I'm 64" more appropriate.

Fuck off, you young scallywags. How d'ya think I can sit here all day doing this shit without a break, anyway? Depends...

So lemmie get this straight...

We've sent our military all over the world, wasted close to a trillion dollars 'keeping al-Qaeda on the run', yet the White House says an attack on U.S. soil is imminent?

What I don't get is what the White House is trying to accomplish with this fear-mongering. Do the Chimp and Cheney think the American people will let them stay in office if we are attacked again? Do they think the American people will believe al-Qaeda's ability to attack this nation, 6 years after the declared "War on Terror", is a result of anti-war goups and the Democrats "undermining the troops"?

If there is another al-Qaeda attack in this country, I'm more apt to believe the American people will storm the White House, drag Bush and Cheney out by their ankles, and string 'em up from the nearest tree.

If there is a terror attack in this country, it will be due to the complete and utter failure of the Bush administration. There is no way, after all these years, money, and lives wasted, that al-Qaeda should be able to mount an operation here. If they can it means the Chimp has done as much to protect us as he did for New Orleans.

Personally, I think it's another of their scare tactics, but I can't understand what they stand to gain. Sure, it's just another way to distract us from the congressional hearings into their wrongdoings, but the fact al-Qaeda is resurgent only reinforces the notion of White House incompetence.

This cannot be allowed to stand and we cannot allow ourselves to be cowed by threats, real or fabricated. It's what got us into this mess to begin with.

Clone Feingold

We need 59 more of him. From an email from his office:

On 'Meet the Press' this morning, I announced that I will introduce two censure resolutions aimed at holding President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials responsible for the destructive path down which they've taken our country. It's clear to me, and millions of Americans, that the time has come for accountability – on everything from the disastrous war in Iraq, to refusing, time and time again, to follow the rule of law. Members of Congress can no longer stand by and allow the White House to shred the Constitution, and thumb their noses at the American people.

...

Read more here.

While I don't agree with his stand on impeachment, he's doing more than most of 'em on the Hill.

Quote of the Day

Oliver Wllis via that 'Philadelphia guy':

A long time ago I used to believe that a lot of these people were just talking over my head, their discourse too lofty for a regular guy like myself. But that isn't true. They're just stupid.

I remembered this after watching the Sunday Stupids this morning. And I fail to see what people like about Bob Schieffer. After watching the interview with Harry Reid, I couldn't help but think he could work at Fox Noise.

***

Update:

I can't believe, now, after four years, after all the killing, maiming, and violence, all of the pundits are concerned about carnage if we leave Iraq. Iraq is lost, has been since a couple weeks after we took Baghdad. It will be carnage if we stay, as we've seen, and it'll be carnage if we go. Time to get the troops out of the middle of it. The Iraqis will get it together or kill themselves, but nothing we can do will make a difference anymore. All we're doing there is delaying the inevitable and making the situation worse.

I fear though, that the only way we will get out is when every American realizes this was nothing more than a war for oil and that every life lost, every organ, limb, and mind left behind has been wasted for nothing more than the greed of a few super-rich old white men.

Update II:

And any of these pundits who think Rudy Giuliani can beat Hillary Clinton* in a head-to-head race is blowing smoke out their ass. If they think the rest of the nation will ignore the many New Yorkers who will come forward about all Rudy's abuses and criminality in this city, they don't know squat. Hillary has done more for New York City relating to 9/11 than Rudy could dream of. Besides, there are enough pics and video of Rudy in drag to turn off even the most objective 'values voter'. If Rudy's the Rethug nominee, I predict a lot of Republicans will stay home next Election Day.

*Please do not take this as an endorsement of Hillary for President. I'm miles away from making up my mind.

Update III:

And speaking of pissed-off New Yorkers, Blondie has a look at Jimmy Breslin's call for impeachment.

This, sir, is your war . . .

. . . Take it into your own hands, Mr. Bush, go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligation.

Classic Keith Olbermann, well worth the 7 and a half minutes.



Hat tip to Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast

R.