Holocaust Denial, American Style

Marc Weisbrot on Iraqi casualties:

Of course, acknowledging the holocaust in Iraq might change the debate over the war. While Iraqi lives do not count for much in US politics, recognizing that a mass slaughter of this magnitude is taking place could lead to more questions about how this horrible situation came to be. Right now a convenient myth dominates the discussion: the fall of Saddam Hussein simply unleashed a civil war that was waiting to happen, and the violence is all due to Iraqis' inherent hatred of each other.

In fact, there is considerable evidence that the occupation itself – including the strategy of the occupying forces – has played a large role in escalating the violence to holocaust proportions. It is in the nature of such an occupation, where the vast majority of the people are opposed to the occupation and according to polls believe it is right to try and kill the occupiers, to pit one ethnic group against another. This was clear when Shiite troops were sent into Sunni Fallujah in 2004; it is obvious in the nature of the death-squad government, where officials from the highest levels of the Interior Ministry to the lowest ranking police officers – all trained and supported by the US military – have carried out a violent, sectarian mission of "ethnic cleansing." (The largest proportion of the killings in Iraq are from gunfire and executions, not from car bombs). It has become even more obvious in recent months as the United States is now arming both sides of the civil war, including Sunni militias in Anbar province as well as the Shiite government militias.

Is Washington responsible for a holocaust in Iraq? That is the question that almost everyone here wants to avoid. So the holocaust is denied.

Do the right thing, George, like the last Holocaustmeister - kill yourself and have Dana Perino pour gasoline on your corpse and light it. She'll know how to spin it so you'll come off looking more like an ideological moron than the war criminal you are - it'll be Clinton's and the Librul Media's fault. Just do it.

Blessed is the Full Plate

I get enough to eat, and so do you. More than we need to simply survive. Some folks don't. It's unconscionable in the richest land of plenty in the world. Anna Quindlen with today's 'must read':

One of the most majestic dining rooms in New York City is in the Church of the Holy Apostles. After the landmark building was nearly destroyed by fire in 1990, the Episcopal parish made the decision not to replace the pews so that the nave could become a place of various uses. There are traditional Sunday services, of course, and the gay and lesbian synagogue on Friday evenings. And every weekday more than a thousand people eat lunch at round tables beneath 12-foot stained-glass windows and a priceless Dutch pipe organ.

"You can't get more Biblical than feeding the hungry," says the Rev. William Greenlaw, the rector.

[...] But poverty is not a subject that's been discussed much by the current administration, who were wild to bring freedom to the Iraqis but not bread to the South Bronx. "Hunger is hard for us as a nation to admit," says Clyde Kuemmerle, who oversees the volunteers at Holy Apostles. "That makes it hard to talk about and impossible to run on."

[...] An agriculture bill that would have increased aid and the food-stamp allotment has been knocking around Congress, where no one ever goes hungry (my em and no shit!- G). Donations from a federal program that buys excess crops from farmers and gives them to food banks has shrunk alarmingly. [...]

This place is a blessing, and an outrage. "We call these people our guests," says the rector. "They are the children of God." That's real God talk. The political arena has been lousy with the talk-show variety in recent years: worrying about whether children could pray in school instead of whether they'd eaten before they got there, obsessing about the beginning of life instead of the end of poverty, concerned with private behavior instead of public generosity.

There's a miracle in which an enormous crowd comes to hear Jesus and he feeds them all by turning a bit of bread and fish into enough to serve the multitudes. The truth is that America is so rich that political leaders could actually produce some variant of that miracle if they had the will. And, I suppose, if they thought there were votes in it. Enough with the pious sanctimony about gay marriage and abortion. If elected officials want to bring God talk into public life, let it be the bedrock stuff, about charity and mercy and the least of our brethren. Instead of the performance art of the presidential debate, the candidates should come to Holy Apostles and do what good people, people of faith, do there every day—feed the hungry, comfort the weary, soothe the afflicted. And wipe down the tables after each seating. Here's a prayer for every politician: pasta, collard greens, bread, cling peaches. Amen.

Folks are going hungry in this country because there's no profit or votes in feeding them, so the pols don't want to see them and don't want us to see them. Everything's fine, go to the mall in your SUV, don't worry about a thing, consume, consume, consume, after all we're the richest country ever, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, Bush, mainly. The easiest way to be right 90+% of the time is to blame Bush for anything and everything that goes wrong. The impending recession he's started by borrowing us into the poorhouse, and the spending cuts on programs that work - government isn't supposed to work, so when it does, cut it off at the knees until it doesn't so you can prove it doesn't work - along with runaway corporate greed promoted as policy, is going to make a lot more hungry people a little ways down the road. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Over the years, I've participated in various food giveaway programs as volunteer labor. It's amazing the number of folks who show up, and who depend on the generosity of others to get enough to eat. It doesn't matter why. The point is, there are folks going hungry in our great nation. I applaud the churches and local organizations who help get food to those in need, but they need more help from the Feds than they're getting now. A damn fine use of tax money, and a 'moral value' to boot.

They can also use a little help from the rest of us too. Particularly at this time of year, there's usually a big barrel at the supermarket to donate food for the needy. Doesn't have to be fancy stuff, just edible. When the supermarket brand of spaghetti & meatballs or mac'n cheese or whatever goes on sale, spend an extra buck and toss a can or box in there. Someone may get a meal who otherwise wouldn't.

So we are ...

Using the 'Korea Model':

BAGHDAD - Iraq's government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.

...

The Iraqi officials said that under the proposed formula, Iraq would get full responsibility for internal security and U.S. troops would relocate to bases outside the cities. Iraqi officials foresee a long-term presence of about 50,000 U.S. troops, down from the current figure of more than 160,000.

...

So we will have permanent bases in Iraq and, like Korea, a tour in Iraq will become a regular rotation. I just have one question.

In Korea, U.S. forces (in theory) are arrayed toward an invasion from the country to the north, a sovereign nation and declared enemy. (In reality, U.S. forces in South Korea are nothing more than a speed bump, hopefully slowing down the North Korean onslaught until troops can be deployed from Japan and other places.) There is a border (the DMZ) and the NKPA understands crossing said border will trigger a war, period.

Click to embiggen ... a lot. Pic from here.

So, now that we've looked at 'The Korean Situation for Dummies', let's see what Iraq has in common with that.

Nothing proven, though CENTCOM's latest bogeyman is Iran. Somehow I don't see over a million Iranian infantry massing along the border, nor are they moving a million artillery pieces to their frontier with Iraq.

Syria, well maybe. We pin everything we can't pin on Iran on Syria though they too are not mobilizing their military to the border.

Saudi Arabia, you mean the place where most of the Jihadists come from? Whose ruling family, a monarchy, are regular business partners of the Bush family? Whose land sits on the world's largest oil deposits? The Saudis are our friends, don'tcha know.

So what kind of security will the 50,000 remaining U.S. troops be providing? Remember the line: "Iraq would get full responsibility for internal security and U.S. troops would relocate to bases outside the cities." The violence in Iraq is mainly sectarian, a civil war, Blue and Gray, under the purview of 'internal security' as it were. So I ask again, what will U.S. troops be there for?

Spencer Ackerman* puts a point on it:

... Make no mistake: this is Nouri al-Maliki offering the U.S. a permanent presence in return for guaranteeing the security of his government. (Would-be PM Ayad Allawi can't make President Bush a counteroffer as good as that.) In exchange for a platform for the indefinite projection of American power throughout the Middle East, the Bush Administration probably considers protection for Maliki and his coterie to be a small price to pay ...

I'll refine it a bit more.

If al-Maliki remains in power (thanks to the U.S. military) he might be more amicable to allowing foreign ownership of Iraqi oil fields. Bush and Cheney failed in their first attempt, seizing the oil under the auspices of removing a brutal dictator. To salvage the mess, it seems they are prepared to support a puppet government who will legislate the oil fields to us (Halliburton, KBR, et al) in return for security.

All this does is let us buy (the price being a permanent U.S. presence as what would essentially be a 'palace guard') what we couldn't take by force. A rule as you vote next year: Don't vote for anyone who advocates a continued presence in Iraq.

And if we are going to look for some commonality to this mess in the annals of history, we only have to look right next door, to Iran. You see, we've done this before and all it's accomplished is to make everything in the region far more complicated.

We're supposed to learn from our mistakes, not make them over and over again.

Off to the shop ...

*TPM link thanks to Steve Benen.

Bad, Worse, Worst and Beyond

Go read William Rivers Pitt on the real peril our nation faces. Hint: a clue may be found in the phrase "...all enemies, foreign and domestic...".

That is a fair sampling of Worst, but only for openers, because this file is the biggest of the three by orders of magnitude, fairly bursting with names and events that sound in the reading of them like a roll-call of doom and nightmare, for that is precisely what they are.

Worst was as terrible as it could get, or so it was believed, until now, until the creation of a new fourth category became unavoidably necessary. The bewildering and terrifying fact of the matter is Worst has been fully and completely trumped by the times, relegated to silver-medal status and the lower podium. The grim reality of this brave new deranged world is the nation is now swarming with so many new and different horrors, which were upon us in one brief and ravaging eyeblink of time. It went beyond Worst just that fast.

As such, the new category is titled Beyond.

Beyond, for starters, is the fact nearly every American citizen stands surrounded by a confluence of mortal perils that threaten to completely unravel and eviscerate their country. Nearly every American will be severely and painfully affected should these dangers turn lethal ... and yet hardly anyone in America actually knows this. Almost nobody understands or recognizes the cocked and loaded gun pressed against their collective head, even as the trigger is slowly yet steadily squeezed and there are live rounds sitting in the chamber waiting for the hammer to drop.

One of those bullets is named George, just like his father, and he is an unimaginably dangerous fellow.[...]

That oughta set the hook. Go read.

He closes with:

This barely scratches the surface of the situation as a whole, and that fact alone is pretty much Beyond even Beyond all by itself. If the national economy doesn't collapse before springtime now that debt has again become a bad thing and the dollar is turning into pudding, if Pakistan doesn't fall apart and lose control of its nuclear weaponry, if Iraq and Afghanistan magically stop being lost causes, and if George and Dick actually decide to obey the law and leave office next year, there will only be fifty more disasters left sitting on our national plate.

Only fifty? Boy, that would just be wild, almost like a vacation, really. It's good to have something to look forward to. I guess.

I guess. It's amazing to think that it's now optimistic to foresee only fifty disasters left behind by the Bush Cartel. Yeesh.

Ron Paul Picks Up Hookers

Monday is usually my day to post even more humor and snark than usual and sometimes pretty straight news fills the bill, like this report from Raw Story:

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, an underdog Texas congressman with a libertarian streak, has picked up an endorsement from a Nevada brothel owner.

Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite BunnyRanch near Carson City, said he was so impressed after hearing Paul at a campaign stop in Reno last week that he decided to raise money for him.

"I'll get all the (working girls) together, and we can raise him some money," Hof told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I'll put up a collection box outside the door. They can drop in $1, $5 contributions."

It's only fitting. I'm sure Repugs are amongst the largest, er, contributors, yeah, that's the word, to the BunnyRanch's bottom line seeing as how it's about 5 miles due east from the Nevada State House on the only road out of Carson City that goes in that direction. I'm quite certain that illegal brothels elsewhere prosper from Repugs as well.

One of the gals endorsing Paul goes by the handle "Air Force Amy". One can only assume she's a FUNdie...sorry. You can see her, most of her in fact, at the BunnyRanch link. Oh what the heck, here. Maybe work safe if you work in the back room of an automotive garage or motorcycle shop.

Quote of the Day

Under the following headline at SPR:

GOP Candidates Refuse To Campaign On 'Black Friday'

"In the great tradition of our party's Southern strategy, we're waiting for the 'White Sale' in January."

Need new sheets to wear to inspire 'the base' for the primaries, do they?

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

CHAVEZ, AHMADINEJAD MEET IN TEHRAN
At Piss Off Bush Summit.

Sponge, meet keyboard...

Iraq: Majority of Foreign Fighters From Libya, Saudi Arabia
And United States.

U.S. Reviewing Aid to Pakistan
Musharraf may need additonal funds to suppress opponents of martial law.

Book: Former Press Secretary McClellan Admits He Lied for President
White House disparages “absurd allegations of admitted liar.”

That may be the best take on WH CYA spin tactics I've seen in a while - "He lied for us because that was his job and we told him to, so that makes him a liar, so how can you believe anything he says?"

Wall Street Bonuses Set Record
Things haven't been this good since 1929.

Fetish ...

I always thought it was a repressed homosexual tendency, to be so turned on by phallic symbols such as rifles, but my only qualification is an 11th Grade sociology class. Egalia seems a bit surprised by Fred 'Wish my cock was that big and still worked' Thompson's autoerotic fantasy:

At a campaign stop in South Carolina, Freddie Thompson said "a day in paradise" is a day spent with rifles, shotguns and pistols.

...

I'm not.

I know a buncha guys with guns, NRA (the gun owner's Hustler* magazine) members all, and I see the look in their eyes when they're showing off one of their prized possessions. It's the same look I used to get (back when I was single) when a beautiful woman would break down and agree to make love to me. Serious, when I see a buncha gun nuts get together, I go looking for a raincoat because the spooge'll be sailing as soon as the circle jerk breaks out.

Guns are tools, just like hammers and wrenches. I'm just wondering if these are the same guys who go to Home Depot or Lowe's, buy a buncha tools on impulse, and never fix a damn thing around their homes. You know who you are, I hear your wives bitching about you all the time when they drop the car off for service. "Hey, Fixer? You got a lotta tools, how do I get my husband to fix the faucet?" Hire a plumber, lady.

Same thing with guns. They're used for self-defense or hunting for food. How many of them would throw their guns down and run away if somebody started shooting back?

Guys like these, from 'Fearless' Freddie Thompson on down, should grow up and get a life. As Mrs. F says to old guys in little red sports cars accompanied by a young woman half their age: "Sorry to hear about your dick."

Just imagine what Freddie would do as president with all the 'really good' guns the military has.

Off to work ...

*Not at work or in front of the kiddies.

Shaddap!

You know, I normally don't pay any attention to that idiot David 'Bobo' Brooks because I have a low tolerance for stupid. Sometime this weekend, while I was dazed thanks to all the fucking turkey I've eaten, he came out with a little tidbit about how everybody loves McCain:

... Independents actually do like him, Democrats actually do like him, which is helpful if you’re going to run in a general election ...

Personally, I think St. John should be institutionalized at worst, relegated to chasing moths at night by the porch light at the least, but that's just me. JasonC has the best quote I heard all weekend:

Bitch, please. McCain is a pandering asshole, who pissed any remaining dignity he had left long ago. No one is buying your horseshit, David. Go away.

I'd only add "and take McCain with you".

Patriotism

Pic and link thanks to bluegal.

Responses to Rethug talking points (more at the link):

...

"Aw you liberals just hate America."

No. We love democracy and we want to return it to America.
You want a presidential dictator.
We love liberty and we want to return it to America.
You want to tap our phones.
We love equality and we want to return it to America.
You think some people are better than others.
We love honesty and we want to return it to America.
You love lobbyists and corruption.

...

Thanksgiving Road Pix

Dennis Kucinich is not alone! Seen at a gas stop in Lathrop, California:



Somebody should teach these folks the rudimentary art of maneuvering in a gas station. Maybe that's as close as their GPS could get them...

Can recycling go too far? Seen in a roadside rest area at Gold Run, California:

Clicking makes these pix positively huge!

Only in California!

Supporting the Troops ...

Not hardly:

Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.

The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.

...

Maybe if you told your sniveling little rugrats the reason these vets lost their limbs and explained to them the 'moral value' of compassion and sacrifice ... Ah, why do I bother explaining terms conservatives have no capacity to understand?

The good news is, this happened in Britain and not here, though I wouldn't put it past some of our self-centered assholes either.

Thanks to Cookie Jill for the link.

Writing, meet wall ...

SYDNEY, Australia - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

...

Let's hope the majority of Americans wake up next year the same way the Aussies did this year.

...

[PM-elect] Rudd said he would withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said all the troops will stay as long as needed.

...

Our Favorite Right-Wing Nut Job

Go read Matt Taibbi on Huckabee.

...I caught myself thinking: Hey, this guy doesn't seem like a total dickhead. I can almost see him as president. . . .

Then I woke up and did some homework that changed my mind. But I confess: It took a little while. Huckabee is that good.

But Huckabee is also something else: full-blown nuts, a Christian goofball of the highest order. He believes the Earth may be only 6,000 years old, angrily rejects the evidence that human beings evolved from "primates" and thinks America wouldn't need so much Mexican labor if we allowed every aborted ­fetus to grow up and enter the workforce. To top it off, Huckabee also left behind a record of ethical missteps in the swamp of ­Arkansas politics that make White­water seem like a jaywalking ticket.

All of which begs the question: If this religious zealot's rise represents the end of corporate dominance of the Republican Party, is that a good thing? Or is the real thing even worse than the fraud?

Phony christians v. a batshit crazy fundie zealot who's convinced he's a real one? As President? Give me the phony every time!

Saturday whorage

As I wake from the tryptophan haze I've been in over the past few days, I realize it's Saturday and time for another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta at The Practical Press.

Also, today is the Mrs. and my 17th wedding anniversary and we'll be celebrating tonight. Best decision I ever made, asking that girl to marry me.

As always, if you got something for us to see, leave a link in comments.

But they're doing God's work!

So what if godless Commies make our crosses, it's not like we're paying or feeding them:

NEW YORK - A labor rights group alleged Tuesday that crucifixes sold in religious gift shops in the U.S. are produced under "horrific" conditions in a Chinese factory with more than 15-hour work days and inadequate food.

...

Gotta love them 'moral values'.

Big tip o' the Brain Bucket to our pal UL for the link.

Thanksgiving

You know, I bitch a lot about this country, and I have plans of retiring in Europe, but I'm always thankful to be born an American and live in this great nation. Yeah, it's fucked up now and we probably won't get the damage done in the last 7 years fixed until long after I've left the scene, but America has been good to me and I'm deeply thankful for the opportunities I've had.

I've lived in many different parts of the world and seen desperate poverty, sickness, and hopelessness and I've always marveled at the roll of the dice that allowed me to be born here. Since I was born, I've taken decent medical care, a decent education, and opportunities to get ahead as a given. Yes, all those things could be better here, but they could be nonexistent as they are in many places in this world.

I am thankful for the military we have, and I've had the honor to serve with, for they are not mounting a coup every few years. I am thankful for the political system we have, though it could be better, for in many places I'd have been executed for what I've written here or for supporting the candidates I have.

I'm thankful for the America that beckoned both my parents here from foreign shores, for that same America reached out to my wife's grandparents and welcomed them all. I am thankful to all the immigrants who've added threads to the American tapestry, creating a nation more diverse than any other. I'm thankful to be part of this unique social experiment.

Yes, the Constitution is tattered and the American Dream has been put out of reach for many more people, but this is still America and we can fix it if we want to. As Michael Douglas said in The American President, "America is hard work", but it's worth the effort. It is gratifying to see that hard work come to fruition, no matter how small the victory.

I'm thankful that we, my fellow bloggers here and our compatriots around Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!), are capable of inducing change; regular folks from all walks of life making their voices heard. We've proven it and I'm thankful we're here to keep an eye on the criminals who've taken over for the time being. I'm thankful we're making the American people aware of what is really going on and the people are listening.

We will get this nation back on track, one day, and I'm thankful we're able to play a small part in it.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, ladies and gentlemen.

On this day

Thanks. You have done everything you're supposed to do and then some. It's not your fault you have been so horribly used. Some day, some way, we'll get the bastards who did this to you.

Pulling it off ...

I've been up Harry Reid's ass lately (rightly so) but I gotta hand it to him. There won't be any recess appointment this Thanksgiving.

Just to put a period on a story we were following last week, Senate Dems really are going to have pro-forma sessions over the next couple of weeks in order to prevent the president from making any recess appointments.

...

More of this, please. And a very Happy Thanksgiving to the senators staying in town:

...

Kudos to Sens. Webb, Dorgan, and Reed. Gold stars, all around, especially to Dorgan, who’s going to go to Capitol Hill the day after Thanksgiving.

...

The 'Grand Old Perverts' ...

Via Shakes, oh golly gee, another bible-thumping conservative has drug it in the dirt:

The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her.

...

And this guy's had a lot of practice too:

...

In truth, this is not the first — or even the second — sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair.

...

After all these sex scandals among the clergy, I'll never look at a 'man of the cloth' the same way again.