Bush as Clouseau

p m carpenter's commentary on the situation in Basra:

Maybe Dick only meant to say that Basra is in the last throes of things going pretty well, because the less tendentious view is that the city is imploding from "the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors."

That, anyway, is how the International Crisis Group looks at it. And given Mr. Cheney's rather chronic case of the wrongs, I believe I'll go with the ICG.

Up to a point, that is. Because in addition to its above assessment of mayhem and carnage, the ICG, as reported by the Washington Post, "described Iran, Britain and the United States as equally confused about what is happening in Basra."

Now hold it right there. Other nations may possess more resources, others more history, and still others more cultural traditions; but when it comes to confusion, the Bush administration bows to no country.

The administration's obliviousness to Basra's deteriorating situation reminds me of Inspector Clouseau's analytical powers -- especially the classic scene in which the unobservant detective devotes all his attention to berating a posturing blind man for packing around an "unlicensed minkey," while the cohorts of the imposter -- who's actually a look-out man -- are robbing the nearby bank.

And it's not just Basra, for its implications elsewhere are devastating: "The current U.S. security operation to 'clear, hold and build' in Baghdad and its surroundings is almost a replica of Operation Sinbad, which British and Iraqi forces conducted in Basra from September 2006 to March of this year with a mission of 'clear, hold and civil reconstruction.'"

Hence our continued presence is merely a waiting game for the bad guys -- a farce being played out with deadly predictability. As one U.S. intelligence official candidly framed it: "The British have basically been defeated in the south."

And this comes after the Brits' oft-touted "victory" in the south, which we'll soon be told we're achieving in Baghdad.

I guess the Brits figured out they were assigned to the part of Iraq without any oil and decided to leave before they had to admit defeat.

Defeat for Cheney and Bush will be if we have to leave without a lock on the oil. They will gladly kill thousands more U.S. troops in their heroic effort for Big Oil's bottom line.

Rove's Diary

Go see "Rove's Diary" at The Crisis Papers:

Impeachment "off the table"? Thank you, Madame Speaker. You've just let us pass Go as often as we like, collect the $200 each time, and hang onto a permanent Get Out of Jail card. Thank God! Even just the existence of an impeachment panel -- since it's pretty certain the Senate would not convict -- would derail many of our initiatives, forcing us to devote most of our time and energy on playing defense, not our strongest suit.

Dems are clueless about how to stop us. They're used to playing by the rules, getting along to go along, compromising to get things done, democratic niceties, etc. But we don't operate that way. That way lies namby-pamby, always worrying about who not to offend. You think like that and your agenda gets bogged down in the reality-world.

It's much more effective to rev up the old rammer, hit 'em and hit 'em hard, grab what we can get, full-scale smashmouth politics, call their bluff, demonize them, cut 'em off at the knees, rub their noses in their powerlessness, find their weak points and go for the jugular, take their strong points and demolish them. You'd think after six years, the hapless Dems would have figured all this out by now, but they still stand there like deer in the middle of the road, mesmerized by the headlights of our power and ruthlessness. God, I love this job!

In short, we're good to go for another 16 months. And, if things somehow go spinning out of control and it looks like we may be facing political or criminal jeopardy or a landslide defeat of the GOP at the polls, some "imminent" act of terror might "require" us to declare martial law, postpone the election, and rule by decree for awhile. Let them suck on that one!

We'll probably have to engineer a replacement for al-Maliki, who is to governance what a fish is to a bicycle. Petraeus, who is dependent on our favors, will give us six more months after September -- he'll report that there is some good "progress" on the ground and the new Iraqi government "deserves a chance" to succeed -- and we'll try to get six or eight more months after that to take us through the election campaign. Petraeus then can join al-Maliki among the fall-guys when the war is lost. Joining the scapegoat list will be the Democrats, of course, who didn't "support the troops" and thus stabbed our war effort in the back. Certainly, we in the Bush Administration are not going to be caught anywhere near that humiliating defeat.

Domestically, we'll consolidate our power base inside the government and take care of our enemies outside, if you get my drift. The Dems certainly have helped give us the enormous police powers that make our job such fun. We're always two steps ahead of them, and, surprisingly, they haven't put two and two together as to why we always know how to block their next move.

Gotta run. I'm rehearsing another rap number for a You Tube ad against the Democrats. It's called "Lie Back and Enjoy It, Bee-itch."

Parody and satire are never very far from the truth. Grrr.

A Question About Vietnam

There's a story about Vietnam that I wonder about. I figure Vietnam War Vets would be the people to ask,seeing as how they were there and stuff.

The story goes that anti war protests in America are what actually ended the war.

I'm not sure I totally buy that. Let me explain.

In April of 1975,I was about to turn 15,so I was not old enough to really know much more than I saw on the news about the War itself. I had cousins who served and later knew a guy who did two tours there. ALL of them came home FUBAR. Heroin and meth addicted,Agent Oranged,PTSD,you name a mess,these guys had it.

One of my cousins told me once that he thought it was kind of arrogant that war protestors thought the powers that be actually gave a fuck about their protesting. The PTB had shown they were perfectly willing to use guns at Kent State and tanks rolled through Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973(against poor indians with limited fire power). If the protestors had really been that powerful ,my cousin argued,the government would have brought that shit to a halt ASAP. (Instead the feds sowed paranoia and distrust within the anti war movement-as well as within the American Indian Movement,civil rights groups,etc-via COINTELPRO. These actions caused the implosion of many groups,but that's a whole other topic).

So,I throw this one out to vets for discussion. Protesting ended the War In Vietnam,true or false?

I'll be late but ...

[A big tip o' the Brain to Salon and Sideshow readers.]

I can't let this slide. From a good article about Bush's base*, I lift this quote from a bigot homophobe Bush supporter:

...

"The Democrats keep complaining and whining about intrusion or privacy and all that," Heiser said. "If we didn't have that, then the terrorists would be blowing us up. The stuff he's done is what's protected us. Every big city in this country is pretty much liberal, but guess where the terrorists are going to hit first? They're going to hit the big cities. That's what I think is so funny about the Democrats."

...

Listen to me. This is a prime example of cowardice in action. An example of "I'm so scared I'm shaking in my boots and I'll give up my freedom, my rights, and most of all my dignity to feel safe" mentality. How much you wanna bet this guy is all "rah-rah, kill the ragheads" to his buddies at the circle jerk golf course? Heh, a 'raghead' ever looked at him cross-eyed, he'd probably shit himself.

Look, this stupid shit is what got us into this mess after 9/11. Everybody, including our leaders, were scared shitless and let Bush/Cheney do anything they wanted "to keep us safe". See post below.

And by the way? Were I a terrorist planning to do something to have the biggest effect on the U.S. I tell you what I would do. One beautiful September day, just after school is back in session, schoolhouses all across the American 'heartland' would start blowing up. You think I'd try something in a place where NYPD Hercules teams come out of the woodwork with more firepower than a Marine infantry squad? Puh ...

Bush has his base so snowed it's incredible. Cowards with beer muscles who are convinced they're protecting the 'liberal' cities from harm. Assholes like this are what got us into this ungodly clusterfuck to begin with.

And a side note to W. Thomas Smith: Go fuck yourself.

Oy, gotta go ...

*Great thanks to AMERICAblog

I'll protect myself, thank you ...

Shakes Kathy [oops!] on the 'Daddy State':

...

I, for one, do not want to be "protected" by renouncing my constitutionally guaranteed right to speak freely and to dissent when I feel that dissent is called for. I don't want to be "protected" by a government whose idea of "protection" is stripping me of the expectation that I can make phone calls, write letters and e-mails, and pursue my interests and concerns without said government breathing down my neck and watching everything I do and say. I don't want to be "protected" by people for whom "protecting" me means treating me like an irresponsible child who cannot be trusted with important information.

...

Off to work ...

The Fear of Fear Itself

A pretty good NYTimes editorial:

It was appalling to watch over the last few days as Congress — now led by Democrats — caved in to yet another unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush’s powers, this time to spy on Americans in violation of basic constitutional rights. Many of the 16 Democrats in the Senate and 41 in the House who voted for the bill said that they had acted in the name of national security, but the only security at play was their job security.

But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats — especially their feckless Senate leaders — plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.

But the problem with Congress last week was that Democrats were afraid to explain to Americans why the White House bill was so bad and so unnecessary — despite what the White House was claiming. There are good answers, if Democrats are willing to address voters as adults. To start, they should explain that — even if it were a good idea, and it’s not — the government does not have the capability to sort through billions of bits of electronic communication. And the larger question: why, six years after 9/11, is this sort of fishing expedition the supposed first line of defense in the war on terrorism?

Mr. Bush’s incessant fear-mongering — and the Democrats’ refusal to challenge him — has had one notable success. The only issue on which Americans say that they trust Republicans more than Democrats is terrorism. At least those Americans are afraid of terrorists. The Democrats who voted for this bill, and others like it over the last few years, show only fear of Republicans.

The Democratic majority has made strides on other issues like children’s health insurance against White House opposition. As important as these measures are, they do not excuse the Democrats from remedying the damage Mr. Bush has done to civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. That is their most important duty.

Please read the rest.

"Let them eat cake!"

TPM Cafe on the royal arrogance of this administration:

Washington Post reporter, Glenn Kessler, has just published a new biography of Condoleeza Rice. According to news reports, there is an anecdote in the book that perhaps best expresses the way the Bush Administration overall feels about workers--and about their own exhalted right to rule.

According to Rice's best friend, Stanford University's Prof. Coit Blacker, when our Secretary of State was on a shopping trip to purchase some jewelry and the saleswoman brought her earringt that she didn't deem worthy of her salary (paid for by us, the taxpayers), Rice snapped "Let's get one thing straight. You're behind the counter because you have to work for the minimum wage. I'm on this side because I make considerably more."

This, of course, from an Administration official who is part of a gang that had to be force fed a federal minimum wage raise. Let's hope she shows a bit more respect for the foreign leaders with whom she negotiates than she apparently does for the milliions of workers who pay her salary and who can't afford to call out a salesperson or be so rude.

I hope she is reminded very soon, graphically and finally in the first person, of what befell the first Marie Antoinette:

...she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793, for the crime of treason.

Saul Friedman also weighs in on the non-diplomat Rice:

...I can’t think of a single thing she’s accomplished on her watch. And it’s time for the press to catch on.

A good thought, but if the press were to 'catch on', they might have to say something about it. Fat chance.

'Good - I still have my head....'

Can you imagine if this were to occur in any of our cities, day after day after day?

Good, I still have my two hands and they still working properly, and what else?, oh, i still have my two legs working, I still have my head stuck to my neck, my two eyes working,my mouth and nose, no blood on my white T-shirt but why do I have this terrible pain in my ears? oh now I know why. the reason of this pain in my ears is the explosion. it just happened two or three seconds ago. It is 8,10 am when I was in the mini bus coming to work. A loud sound. OMG, its an explosion

Quote of the Day

“These are the Pretendocrats (another listener suggestion) - they pretend to fight the Bush administration, while actually doing squat.”

—Cenk Uygur at Huffington Post

JG.

Family shit ...

Mrs. F's mom has taken a turn for the worse, healthwise, after battling cancer (of various forms) for 40 years. The docs at Sloan-Kettering aren't hopeful and we're setting up hospice care so we can get her home from the hospital.

Blogging on my part will be sporadic for the next couple weeks until we get everything squared away. I'd be appreciative if folks with the keys to this joint leave a post now and then. Listen to Gord and I'll be dropping in from time to time. Sorry this is so sudden but we're it up to me, I'd arrange a different outcome. If I had that kind of power, the Chimp would have been hit with a lightning bolt long ago.

And just this. I can't say enough about the staff at Sloan, after seeing what they've done for both my mother-in-law over the years, and Mrs. F last year. They are truly the best. As close to miracle workers as there can be.

"Duuude - burn one in there..."

Ya can't make up shit like this:

The top spot in a Congressional softball league belongs to drug reform advocates who are "busting the stoners-as-slackers stereotype," Roll Call reports.

The "One Hitters," took over the No. 1 spot in the Congressional Softball League last week, and the team fielded by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and NORML holds a 13-3 record in the league comprised of lobbyists, Capitol Hill aides and interest group employees.

"Kris Krane, executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and the softball team’s captain, chalks up its success to the five years the team has been playing together — and a little extra motivation that comes from trying to dispel the myth that folks who want marijuana legalized are all munchie-craving, lava-lamp-gazing losers," reports Roll Call's Heard on the Hill gossip column.

This is the One Hitters' fifth year in the intramural softball league, and the team previously made headlines when the Office of National Drug Control Policy refused to face them on the field two years ago.

“Everyone knows that ONDCP backed out because they were scared of losing to us on the field, much the same way they are afraid to debate us because their policies fail in the court of public opinion,” said center fielder David Guard, who is associate director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network. “We have an open challenge to the Drug Czar to play or debate anytime, anywhere.”

The team's next game is Tuesday against the "No Talent AZ Clowns," whose players come from the offices of Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl.

The last paragraph was the frosting on the cake!

Nice picture of a cola de zorro at the site, too.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Wal-Mart to Carry Faith-Based Bible Action Figures
Shown: Samson sodomizing Goliath.

Slight Chance of Victory in Iraq, Say Generals
Slightly better chance of Dick Cheney running through halls of Congress in a diaper, they add.

Consumer Confidence Index Soars
Many feel collapse of Western Civilization will create some excellent bargains.

REMINDER
If we stop shopping, the terrorists win.

Iraqi Soccer Champions Will Get $10,000 Each From Grateful Government
Enough to flee country.

I hope they send the team member who didn't go back to Iraq a check.

Dems: BOP

Click to embiggen

Quote of the Day

“There comes a time when giving in to the demolition of constitutional protections can no longer be considered a matter of being weak or unthinking. Rather it must be considered complicity.”

—Meteor Blades at Daily Kos

JG.

That's about right ...

From JB at Balkinization, a look at what our future holds:

...

Do not be mistaken: We are not hurtling toward the Gulag or anything that we have seen before. It will be nothing so dramatic as that. Rather, we are slowly inching, through each act of fear mongering and fecklessness, pandering and political compromise, toward a world in which Americans have increasingly little say over how they are actually governed, and increasingly little control over how the government collects information on them to regulate and control them. Slowly, secretly and imperceptibly, the mechanisms of government surveillance are being freed from methods of political control and accountability; and the liberties of ordinary citizens are being surgically removed under a potent anesthesia concocted from propaganda, fear, ignorance and apathy.

...

Disgusted, I'm going to work. Happy fucking Monday ...

Quote of the Day

Steven D:

Congress is officially irrelevant.

All you need to know ...

About the FISA 'compromise' the Dem dupes gave the Chimp. Larisa:

...

Make NO mistake, we are in serious peril when an Attorney General who has subverted the Constitution per request of his boss, lied, obstructed justice, and defended torture, is now in full authority to declare who is going to be a target of warrant-less surveillance. You may not see this as seriously as I do, but then again, you have not lived under a dictatorship to know the difference. Mostly though, the people who failed most, are the citizens of this country - who should have taken to the streets and shut down all commerce, all traffic, and disengaged from the machine of government. You did not shut it down. You did not even try. You waited as your hopes were put entirely in the hands of cowards. [my em]

...

Sadly, she is correct. Sadly, we are too comfortable. Sadly, we most probably deserve what befalls us in the future until enough of those comforts are taken from us. Maybe then we'll take our nation back. Maybe not. Maybe, like an addict, we have to hit bottom before we see the light. There's still a long way to fall.

Traveling creationist shows!

Oh Christ! As if we didn't have enough problems with our own creationist nuts! Meet the Foundation for Scientific Research (Science Research Foundation).

On a recent afternoon inside Istanbul's busiest subway station, a young man beckoned commuters into a subterranean "fossil exhibit" full of skulls and insects dating back millions of years.

But this was no mainstream scientific display. One colorful poster advertised the "myth" of the evolution of the horse. Another, displaying a flying pterodactyl, denounced the evolution of birds as "fake."

The display is one of many traveling shows put on by the Foundation for Scientific Research, an Islamic creationist group that has become a household name in Turkey. Now, the groups says it is distributing its books – published in 59 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, and Polish – to 80 countries.

Really?

Hillary:

Asked whether she would agree with that, Clinton said, "I don't think, based on my 35 years of fighting for what I believe in, anybody seriously believes I'm going to be influenced by a lobbyist or a particular interest."

Well, I do. I believe that every politician can be bought, the only determining factor being the price for turning their backs on their principles (if they have any to begin with).

No one should be allowed access to a candidate based on contributions. I don't care if they're lobbying for a 'good' cause or 'bad' one. Good and bad in this case is extremely subjective and I don't trust our elected officials to be able to tell the difference. Not when money is involved I don't.

Lobbying groups should go the way of the dinosaurs.

Let me elaborate.

If a group feels the need to inform a senator or congressperson about a particular issue, the meeting should be taking place in a government office, with the minutes recorded either on video or paper. Lobbying groups should not be able to donate to a campaign or give a rep any gifts. The situation has gotten way out of hand and any politician who endorses it is using it to their own benefit.

Those who should be replaced ...

The 16 senators* who voted to give the Chimp what he wanted in the FISA bill:

Evan Bayh (Indiana);
Tom Carper (Delaware);
Bob Casey (Pennsylvania);
Kent Conrad (North Dakota);
Dianne Feinstein (California);
Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i);
Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota);
Nancy Mary Landrieu (Louisiana);
Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas);
Claire McCaskill (Missouri);
Barbara Mikulski (Maryland);
Bill Nelson (Florida);
Ben Nelson (Nebraska);
Mark Pryor (Arkansas);
Ken Salazar (Colorado);
Jim Webb (Virginia).

You all suck and I will be supporting your opponents in the Dem primaries in your respective states.

*Via Greenwald.