Reaching out to minorities

Click to Stuff Shirt even more...

Black Republicans ...

It still seems like two mutually exclusive terms but there are some. I think I saw all 5 of them on CNN this weekend, laying down cover for the Republican frontrunners in the upcoming Presidential election.

Now, far be it for me to speak about the black experience. Totally unqualified. But to see them uncomfortably covering for racists and a racist political party is something to behold. Trust me, I know bigots when I see 'em.

J.C. Watts, who must qualify as one of the dumbest mofos who ever walked the face of the earth, was tongue-tied when asked if the Rethugs were racist by not attending the debates the other night and bowing out of the Univision event.

There's a pretty woman as well, who they put on as a counterpoint to Donna Brazile if Ol' J.C. ain't available. It was something too see her put out the 'these are Presidential candidates and have very busy schedules' talking point. You could see she didn't believe it either. There was also the 'well, blacks usually vote Dem anyway so why bother' meme that was pushed around as well. To me, that says the black (or any other ethnic group's) vote doesn't matter. There's something wrong when politicians turn away votes. Digby has some thoughts on that magic.

I guess you can find self-haters everywhere, look at all the closeted (and not-so-closeted) gay Republicans, but I still have to wonder what can make people defend those who would deprive them of their rights and ignore things important to such a large constituency.

While I would love to see a color blind society emerge in this country, the sad fact is we're a long way from it. Whether it pertains to black or Hispanic issues (or issues important to any other ethnic group) the Republicans have ignored the situation or been outright hostile to it. Until we have a truly color blind society, race issues matter and when a political party openly disregards them, it says they do not care about a large percentage of Americans.

Now, I give a damn what anybody believes or who they vote for, but were my concerns ignored by my affiliated party (hello, Dems? Iraq? Corruption?), and a majority of the members are openly hostile to me, I'm going to go somewhere else to have my needs addressed. I left the Republican Party 20 years ago, when the Jesus freaks began their takeover because that's another one of their things. There is little tolerance for anyone not 'Christian' and it's quite plain the Republicans don't want to know about folks who have no 'faith' or ascribe to the 'wrong' one.

So, I'm back to my original question. What can make people defend those who would oppress them (in the worst case) and ignore them (in the best)? What can make people defend the usurpation of civil rights when they will be the first to lose theirs? What can make people defend the corruption when their people have been ripped off more than the rest of us? What can make someone defend a war where their people make up the highest percentage of casualties? What can make people defend a political party whose base is made up of people who think theirs should 'know their place'?

I just don't get it.

Quote of the Day

MoDo

Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar. But then, without nepotism, W. would be pumping gas in Midland — and not out of the ground.

Phony Soldiers

Army Of Dude responds to Limpbaugh and posts photos of some of the phonies he served with in Iraq.

[...] As the war kept on, so did I. I waited for a little over a year to get my results back: I would finally be able to join despite the surgery I had two years prior. As Rush found after dropping out of his first year of college at Southeast Missouri State University in 1969-1970, he found himself on draft status. Nothing that a claim of an old football injury or a boil on the ass can take care of, though! The medical deferment he was referring to was a pilonidal cyst, which apparently is a clump of severely ingrown hairs. That barred him from enlistment, and I'm sure he was ecstatic. After all, there was a war on. Here's a first hand account of the surgery that was done to correct it. She claims that in eight weeks, it was perfectly healed. Rush is willing to sacrifice the lives of Americans in Iraq but not his own ass (literally) in a simple surgery. I waited a year to get in, and he didn't try. Boy, do I really give an effort at being a phony soldier!

Speaking of phony soldiers, I wanted to show Rush a few that I know:

Go see. I particularly liked the one of the guy tugging on the wire to lead him to an IED! Grunts ain't no smarter today than they used to be...

Note to Rush (good name for a doper, huh?): You got out of service during Vietnam because of an easily repairable pimple on your ass. Fitting, indeed, because you ain't a pimple on the ass of a 17-year-old recruit stepping off the bus at boot camp today, let alone the Vets you call phony soldiers, you yellow son of a bitch.

I don't blame anybody who didn't want to go to Vietnam or doesn't want to go to Iraq, but it's the height of hypocrisy and arrogance to find a cheap-ass phony way out of the one and then forty years later call serving soldiers 'phonies' for not agreeing with you when you're wrong.

Oh no!

Dad's got the camera ...



Shayna's annoyed because I'll be starting (as if I don't have enough shit on my plate) the remodel of the Living Room/Dining Room soon. She's used to construction but always manages to get something dropped on her or get paint (or some other substance) on her anyway.

Update:

Where we hide the bodies ...

Saturday whorage

The first couple chapters of my novel Thirty Days at Zeta are up at The Practical Press.

As always, pimp your own in comments.

Nature's gentle reminder...

Click to embiggen

Got plenty of nuts stored up?

And what did you wake up to this morning?

Blackwater caused many Marine casualties

Hammerin' Hank's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform faults Blackwater for the Fallujah ambush that left four mercs as hangin' crispy critters and ultimately caused the deaths and woundings of many Marines in the first and second battles of Fallujah in '04.

The details of the events leading to the incident are disturbing, revealing an unprepared and disorderly organization operating in a hostile environment. Mistake apparently compounded mistake. [...]

And from Left I on the News:

Blackwater USA triggered a major battle in the Iraq war in 2004 by sending an unprepared team of guards into an insurgent stronghold, a move that led to their horrific deaths and a violent response by U.S. forces, says a congressional investigation released Thursday.

Not only are these un-oversighted mercs trigger-happy and not accountable for their actions, they're also incompetent. I believe in the magic of superior firepower as much as any Marine, but planning is basic and necessary to try to minimize casualties.

Recently I read No True Glory by Bing West, that detailed the two battles for Fallujah that were precipitated by the dumb-ass mercs. I highly recommend this book. The Marines had just about cleaned the city out when they were called off by Baghdad and Washington for political reasons, which let the insurgents re-arm and solidify so that the Jarheads had to go back in a few months later and do it all over again.

I don't give a shit if the mercs get their asses in a crack and get them blown off. They know the score and they get a lot of money to do what they do. They're making a pile by making a failed policy fail even more. Fuck them.

What I do give a shit about is that regular ol' underpaid actual soldiers and Marines had to go in and get their asses blown away in response to the stupid mercs' actions.

Why didn't big brave Blackwater go into Fallujah and avenge their own? Because they might get shot back at instead of just blowing away unarmed people?

It's a lot more complicated than that, but the mercs pretty much asked to get blown away, and they did. The Marine offensive was a political response from on high, sort of telling the insurgents, "You can't do that to the employees of big Repuglicant contributors without repercussions. We got real fighting men who'll see to that!"

Deep Dick Dark Secrets

Salt Lake Tribune

Vice President Dick Cheney will speak to a super-secret, conservative policy group in Utah on Friday during his second trip to the state this year.

"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before [or] after a meeting,'' a list of rules obtained by The Times showed. The group did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

The 'elite' meeting to fuck the rest of us over, as usual.

I hope the 'secret location' leaks out. We could call in a fire mission and get 'em all with one round while they're all bunched up. Ah, to dream...

The war on voting rights continues

Glenn W. Smith with today's 'must read' on easy credit cards and difficult voter registration:

Posner is an outspoken advocate for "elite democracy." Issues are too complex for Americans to deal with, and so it is necessary that key decisions be made by a select few. Voting, Posner says, is good to have as a possible corrective on elites if they should get carried away with their power. But it is not important, Posner says, that many Americans participate in American political life.

These power-mad right-wingers, so different from the individualistic, Barry Goldwater conservatives of old, really do believe themselves to be our anointed strict fathers. No other authority approaches their own, at home or abroad. That is why attacks on voting rights are not so different from the Bush doctrine of pre-emption. No other world leader is Bush's equal; therefore in the eyes of these elites, we are not one of many sovereign nations, we are the only sovereign nation. With regard to voting rights, since we are supposed to do what we are told by our authoritarian leaders, how could it matter to us whether or not we have unobstructed access to the ballot box?

We are no longer sovereign individuals. That term is reserved for the conservative elite, just as the term sovereign nation is reserved for only one country, the country these elite believe they embody and rule.

I suppose it is easier to believe that attacks on voting rights are just partisan squabbling, that Bush is just another conservative, that an imagined ever-swinging pendulum will swing back one day. That democracy can thrive without an effort, like the moon circling the earth.

There is no pendulum. There is only us. And if we don't save democracy, no one will. God help us if the Supreme Court should agree with Posner that barriers to the ballot box are no big deal. They've already stolen one election from us. Now they have the opportunity to steal all future elections in a single ruling.

They for damn sure will if we let them.

The great American hypocrisy tour

Mark Morford's in rare form today! Don't miss it!

Larry Craig's bathroom stall! Haggard's meth hotel! See all the sites of GOP shame. Fun for kids!

[...] Love the idea of a crazy road trip across our fine 'n' scandalous land, one in which you get a real taste of just what kind of crow the local politicos get to eat for breakfast?

Well, search no more, good patriot. Your adventure travel package has arrived.

But who cares? Because it's the latest craze in domestic tourism, specially designed for happy cynics and satirists and fatalists and contrarians and atheists and liberals alike, all you savvy fans of "The Daily Show" and DailyKos and the New Republic and the Nation and pretty much anyone who finds delight in learning of yet another bitter BushCo conservative caught with his hands in the tacky polyester pants of his fellow countrymen. Best of all, it's totally free!*

(*Note: does not include additional costs of food, gas, oil, environmental devastation, condoms, souvenir baggies of crystal meth, cocaine, Viagra, hookers, STD meds, or the sad and savage toll on any happy or optimistic outlook you may have deluded yourself into believing actually exists on this planet.)

Itinerary follows.

(*Note: snorting of meth not allowed on tour bus, unless you're really quiet and do it in the back. That means you, Mr. Romney.)

Please note, the options listed here are merely the beginning. Call us in advance, and we will happily customize your trip to your exact specifications. Feel free to mix and match your desired tour stops from our enormous master list of suspected/convicted Republican pedophiles, adulterers, drug users, johns, felons, bribers, sodomizers, deviants, closeted homosexuals, and deadbeat dads who have besotted the "family values" party for the past, well, pretty much forever.

To hell with Hawaii and Disneyland this year, and take the kids on a trip of a lifetime. What are you waiting for? Book your vacation before Christmas and get a free framed copy of the marriage license confirming Jerry Falwell's secret gay marriage to Pat Robertson! Call now!

Well, not exactly my dream vacation (or 'cruise' you might say. Heh.), but definitely a hoot to read about. It's hard to imagine having enough vacation time to see all the sites (sights?) of hypocritical Repug 'doings', so this may appeal more to retired folks.

Condemnation much?

Iraq vet and Dem Rep Patrick Murphy on Rush Lintball from TPM:

"Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do. I served proudly, so did two of my fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne who spoke out and died just weeks ago. Generations of American veterans have worn the uniform with pride and we know it is no contradiction to serve your country and still disagree with the Bush-civilian leadership that mismanaged this war."

Any resolutions coming down the pike to condemn this asshole's verbal diarrhea? Yeah, thought so.

For those of you who don't know (understandable because I try to avoid Lintball's wet verbal shits too), ol' Rush declared soldiers who speak against the war to be "phony soldiers".

I wonder if Armed Forces Radio will continue to allow him to broadcast to the troops in Iraq? Does the Pentagon allow this nitwit who never served disrespect a goodly portion of the people in uniform over there, gallantly serving? Will the same people who were "outraged" by the "attack" on Gen. Petraeus be just as outraged by the disrespect of the grunts?

It would seem to me the "phony soldiers" are the ones who are making a hundred grand a year to indiscriminately kill innocent Iraqi civilians, hampering what little opportunity our guys have to maybe bring about peace.

The "phony soldiers" are those like our President, who feels compelled to dress up in military garb when he uses the troops a props but couldn't put up when it counted. When he wore the uniform, he couldn't wait to get out of it, even though he served stateside and would never see combat, not in a front line unit during Vietnam.

The "phony soldiers" are the ones sitting behind their computers, of enlistment age and able-bodied, cheering for war with no intention of ever serving even though some their friends and neighbors are on their fourth tour of the meatgrinder.

The "phony soldiers" are the flag officers who put their careers and egos ahead of the people in the trenches. The ones who went along with whatever Bush wanted, who sat back when they knew what the consequences of attacking Iraq would be. Cheney knew it in '92, Bush 41 knew it before the balloon went up on Gulf 1, and you can't tell me the admirals and generals didn't know in '02 when we began this folly.

So, dear congresspeople and senators, do we condemn Rush Limbaugh for disrespecting the troops or do we let him slide because, well you know, those soldiers who would stand up and criticize are ... phony.

Your Republican ticket

Playing to the base in '08. Heh ...

Pic courtesy of Dr. Attaturk.

Much as I bitch about the Dems ...

They are still head and shoulders above the Rethugs. Shakes:

This would be one example of why, despite our many legitimate grievances with the Democrats, there is still an essential difference between the two parties. The Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act would never have passed (or probably even been brought up for a vote) under Republican leadership.

...

Defense stocks hit new highs

Boston Herald

Defense stocks on Wednesday hit new highs as Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested an extra $42 billion in funding from Congress to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

The AMEX Defense Index, which tracks 14 major defense company stocks, rose 14.25 to a high of 1,686.72 in afternoon trading. Since last year, the index has risen roughly 47 percent, outperforming the broader S&P 500 index, which has climbed nearly 15 percent over the same period.

Although the anticipated request for more funding does not come as a surprise to Wall Street, the Pentagon’s message nevertheless reinforces the idea that defense spending will remain high in the near-term, said Myles Walton, a CIBC World Market Corp. analyst.

The Military/Industrial Complex is doing well. The rich are getting richer from the war crimes paid for with our grandchildren's money. Mission accomplished. Bastards.

Can't Win with 'Em, Can't Go To War without 'Em

The Brookings Institution has a report on outsourcing security to private military 'contractors'. Good read.

The use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq. Even worse, it has created a dependency syndrome on the private marketplace that not merely creates critical vulnerabilities, but shows all the signs of the last downward spirals of an addiction. If we judge by what has happened in Iraq, when it comes to private military contractors and counterinsurgency, the U.S. has locked itself into a vicious cycle. It can't win with them, but can't go to war without them.

The study explores how the current use of private military contractors:

Several.

Inflames popular opinion against, rather than for, the American mission through operational practices that ignore the fundamental lessons of counterinsurgency. As one set of contractors described. "Our mission is to protect the principal at all costs. If that means pissing off the Iraqis, too bad."

Weakened American efforts in the "war of ideas" both inside Iraq and beyond. As one Iraqi government official explained even before the recent shootings. "They are part of the reason for all the hatred that is directed at Americans, because people don't know them as Blackwater, they know them only as Americans. They are planting hatred, because of these irresponsible acts."

Shorter: The mercs are hurting rather than helping the situation, not that there's much that can help anyway. No oversight, no accountability, no enforcement, not subject to any law. and at terrific expense.

Who was the fuckin' idiot that started this shit, anyway? My guess is Bremer and Rumsfeld. It's still Bush's fault.

Never Coming Home

Someone ought to tie Bush to a chair and run this for him in an endless loop:

Iraq War: Love and Personal Loss

A slide show of photographs. You won’t come away with dry eyes.

JG.

Cross posted at: Jersey Guy

Checkpoints ...

Trudeau gets it.

Click to embiggen.

This probably looks familiar to the Vietnam guys too.

Vets' care ...

Or the lack thereof. X finds that, even after all the Walter Reed hubbub, vets' care, you know, the guys who gave limbs, minds, and other body parts for this country, is still severely lacking.

...

The AP reports that staff shortages mean that nearly half of returning wounded veterans who are eligible for treatment don't receive any. Delays of 177 days or more for disability payments still persist. And the continued lack of a viable system for transferring medical records from facility to facility means further delays in treatment.

...

Now the Chimp wants another $190bln to continue what is nothing more than a delaying action. How many more lives for this war that should have been defunded this past spring? How much more money to this war that does nothing but kill and maim Americans who can't even get timely care after making the ultimate sacrifices for this uncaring administration? Is there anyone in a position of power who can say 'enough is enough'? Seems like there ain't.

Supportin' the troops. Yeah, right ...

Burning the troops

Click to Surge