A blast from the past

Light to no blogging today. I got an old pal coming over that I haven't seen in about twenty years. He's in Reno to meet his daughter's fiance. She's at UNR. Last time I saw her, she was a babe in arms. Gulp. Tempus flat fuckin' fugits don't it?

Anyway, when Mrs. G heard about this, I got my orders, something to the effect of "get this fuckin' pigsty cleaned up!" So, good husband that I am, that's what I'm up to today.

I'll leave ya with this from Tony Peyser:

And finally: the percent of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq war. An army spokesman emphatically insisted, "I is not so sure that all the fact is right in this reports."

So what's new? Sounds like my recruiter...

Later.

Update:

Arnie and Vivian aren't coming 'til tomorrow. They're going to Virginia City today. In my impish way I reminded them that while they're walkin' around up there to keep in mind that there's nothing for 2000 feet beneath them except rotting timbers...

I'm just done cleaning the guest bathroom. I think I'd rather chip all the paint off USS Ronald Reagan. Not only would it probably be less work, I'd get a warm glow from smackin' him her repeatedly with the chippin' hammer.

Who killed Heath Ledger?

Because his death was the perfect distraction to clear any real news off the networks' schedules. How much you wanna bet the WH does a document dump tonight? How much you wanna bet the Jesus freaks are gonna say it was god's punishment for him being in 'that queer cowboy movie'?

God bless Auntie Beeb.

Arrivederci, Baghdad

Or, it's the Army's problem now:

Sarcastic irony in the Air Force. Who could have guessed?

Hey, when you're sitting in a bar, hangin' wit da ladies, back in a rear area while the grunts are sitting in a hole getting shot at, whaddaya 'spect, bro?

But in all seriousness, Brother Lurch has a good post up about the Corps leaving Iraq to operate in Afghanistan, leaving the Army to continue the occupation.

...

Only cynical people would claim that the Marines wanted to get out from under a situation (Iraq) that has been a complete failure, and especially to get out of Anbar before it blows up. I’m sure the Commandant and his staff felt they could contribute something significant to the fight in Afghanistan.

...

Which they can. Afghanistan has the potential to turn into the dismal failure Iraq has, as troops have been directed away from the real problem spot to fight the Chimp's vanity war in Iraq.

Being just back from Europe, public opinion (anecdotal) is clearly against getting involved (or further involved) in anything American when it comes to foreign adventures, at least until we have a new President. We won't see any more European troops over there for a year at least. If anyone can make a difference in Afghanistan, it's the Marines, though Lurch finds the political corollary to moving the Marine force from Iraq to Afghanistan:

...

This will make the proposed complete failure in Iraq the fault of the Army, and not the republicans and Mr Bu$h.

Of course, because the Republicans are "The Party of National Security". If the Army would fight the war the way the leadership wanted ...

...

By the end of 2005, Rice's opposition to any opening to the Sunni leadership in Iraq became almost obsessive, according to currently serving senior military officers. In one incident, now notorious in military circles, Rice "just went completely crazy" when she learned that a marine colonel had dispatched combat helicopters to help a "a Sunni sheikh" in Fallujah fight what the sheikh called an "imminent al-Qaeda threat".

...

What, sarcastic irony from the Air Force?

From the Department of No-Fucking-Shit:

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses." [my em]

...

Unfortunately, you won't see this from 'the most trusted name in news'. The Chimp spread it on and the media ate it up. "Saddam = WMD, Saddam = 9/11, Saddam = Mushroom Cloud".

4000 US troops dead, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, a trillion dollars lost in the Big Catbox, and the price of gas at record levels. Mission Accomplished.

Note to news media: The next time some dumbass tells you he has a big cock, make him take it out and show it to you, you gullible motherfuckers.

Great thanks to Arkades for the link.

Question

Is it just me, or is Haloscan sucking wet monkey ass today?

Iraq - Pentagon v White House

[A big Brain welcome to Crooks and Liars readers. - F]

Probably won't see this in any American 'media', but you can at Asia Times:

n part, the roots of the disagreement between the Pentagon and White House over what is really happening in Iraq is historical. Senior military officers contend that the seeming fall-off in in-country violence not only has nothing to do with the increase in US force levels, but that the dampening of the insurgency that took hold last summer could have and would have taken place much earlier, within months of America's April 2003 occupation of Baghdad.

Moreover, these officers contend, the insurgency might not have put down roots in the country after the fall of Baghdad if it had not been for the White House and State Department - which undermined military efforts to strike deals with a number of Iraq's most disaffected tribal leaders. These officers point out that the first contact between high-level Pentagon officials and the nascent insurgency took place in Amman, Jordan, in August of 2003 - but senior Bush administration officials killed the talks.

I like this next part:

By the end of 2005, Rice's opposition to any opening to the Sunni leadership in Iraq became almost obsessive, according to currently serving senior military officers. In one incident, now notorious in military circles, Rice "just went completely crazy" when she learned that a marine colonel had dispatched combat helicopters to help a "a Sunni sheikh" in Fallujah fight what the sheikh called an "imminent al-Qaeda threat".

As a senior Pentagon official now relates: "The Sunni leader literally picked up the telephone one day and called the ranking colonel at the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF)and pleaded with him, 'I need help and I need it now. Al-Qaeda is killing my tribe'." The marine colonel in question was John Coleman, the chief of staff to the same unit that had gone into Fallujah to fight the insurgency after the killing of four US security contractors in April of 2004.

"Rice was just enraged with Coleman and with the marines," a senior Pentagon officials say. "She said, 'you have to stop all of that right now and you can't do it unless you have State Department permission and the permission of the Iraqi government'. Well, the marines weren't about to do that. They were taking a lot of casualties and they were fed up. And they just concluded that it was their war and not hers," a senior Pentagon civilian recently noted. "So they just ignored her and went ahead anyway.

Good for my Marines!

Here's the money shot. Literally:

A senior Iraqi observer with ties to the tribal network confirms this view: "The Janabis in the south have strong links to those in the north, tribal links, but you should know some are motivated by sectarian concerns and some are simply extremists." The question remains, of course: what happens when the American money dries up? "The answer to that question is simple," this Iraqi says. And then he laughs: "When the money goes, they go."

Ever since this administration lied us into this immoral, criminal, unnecessary war for oil, they've done their best to ensure our defeat. They're going to get their wish. Given the way they've gone about this deal, from doing the wrong thing to doing the thing wrong, there has never been a chance of any other outcome.

Best to leave now and quit throwing blood and money down a shithole.

B Actor Bites Big One. Buh-bye.

NYT

CORAL BEACH, Fla. — Fred D. Thompson, the former senator of Tennessee, dropped out of the Republican race for president today.

There's more on his reasons in the piece, but who cares?

I prefer to think that a poll in South Carolina, AKA an 'election', showed that even southerners don't want another lazy unqualified actor as president, even if he is white and from the South.

So the Repug field eases on down to what I said a long time ago - McCain's gonna be the nominee. I guess I should go rifle my way through about five thousand or so posts and find it, but I'm just as lazy as Thompson.

The Jewish Messiah, A Novel

After reading this review, I don't want to pass this one up!

Xavier is undaunted. He has found his people and his calling: "He had to comfort the Jews." He falls madly in love with blithe Awromele, who arranges an "illegal circumcision" so that Xavier can fully claim his "Jewishness." The mohel, or circumciser, turns out to be nearly blind and, in gory slapstick scenes, botches the operation. After dragging his mauled self home, Xavier nearly dies, thanks to his wacko mother's refusal to help him. When she and her dimwitted boyfriend, who lusts after Xavier, finally bring the mutilated teenager to the hospital, it's too late to save his left testicle. But no matter, Xavier keeps it in a jar and names it King David. He also becomes famous as the good people of Basel rise up and punish the poor schlub of a mohel in an anti-Semitic frenzy. Xavier takes up painting -- creating portraits of his neurotic, coldhearted mother holding his testicle -- and fantasizes about how he and Awromele can run away together and proceed with their project to translate "Mein Kampf" into Yiddish.

How d'ya say 'ouch' in Yiddish? Oy...

'Recycling' keeps Bush and Cheney out of jail. They hope.

Roanoke.com

The White House didn't deliberately destroy e-mails it was supposed to keep, insisted spokesman Tony Fratto. The e-mails were inadvertently destroyed when the tapes storing them were overwritten.

The White House, not known for its environmental consciousness, was simply recycling the backup tapes, he said.

Yeah, right, and my ass sucks buttermilk too.

Never mind at least two federal statutes that require the preservation of presidential communications, including e-mails.

The Bush White House, after all, has never considered itself bound by the law.

Laws requiring preservation of White House communication are designed to ensure a more complete and accurate retelling of history.

That appears to be exactly what the Bush White House has been striving mightily to prevent.

These e-mails may never be able to be recovered. But Congress should conduct a full investigation to ensure that future administrations realize the law cannot be ignored without consequence.

The hell with future administrations! This administration is the one that needs to be in prison.

You’re Going Straight to Hell!

Go see the video and read the 'comments'! Liquid alert! At Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.

Betty and Jesus have just recorded their first music video — “You’re Going Straight to Hell!” This splendid song was written almost as much as a clarion call to those about to make a much-deserved descent as it was to provide a fabulous occasion to gloat.

A coupla sample comments:

My fellow prunes here at Mossy Oaks Maximum Security Christian Retirement Center loved your new video! Most of them feel they are already in hell, so going to the real deal would be a step up.

I imagine for Ann Coulter it will be sitting in a no-smoking room for eternity with a carton of Marlboros, a picture of Brad Pitt nude, and various other things she’s not allowed to suck on.

A Righteous Response from America’s Best Christian:

As an American Christian, I am called on by the Lord Jesus to always be on the lookout for new ways to wring a few more dollars out of His holy name. As such, I appreciate your suggestion, dear.

I couldn't make this shit up, but I'm glad someone is!

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Bush Proposes Economic Stimulus Package
Money will help people pay for car they're living in.

Large families will benefit from the tax loan. For $800 they can buy three more roomy Yugos.

BUSH OBSERVES LOCAL CUSTOMS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Shown (left to right): holding hands; exchanging kisses; beheading jaywalker.

White House Takes Lead in Recycling
Sets good example by erasing then reusing all computer tapes of emails sent between October, 2003 and October, 2005.

Research: Christopher Columbus Brought Syphilis Back to Europe
In exchange for Christianity.

Sounds about right...

Bushenomics: Loot America

Excellent article at The Smirking Chimp. A 'recommended read'.

One way to think of what the administration has done, is as a leveraged buyout. That's when someone buys a company, using the company itself as the collateral for the loan used to purchase it, usually at very high interest, then pays off the interest by cutting the work force and salaries, selling outsets and even breaking up the company.

It's good for the guy who makes the deal, skims the cream off the top and gets rich. (The company that Mitt Romney got rich working for specialized in doing that.) It's good for the lenders, who get a good return (if the buyer is able to squeeze enough money out of his purchase), but it's bad for the work force, bad for the company, and, if no one comes along to replace it, bad for the business as a whole.

We've experienced a leveraged buyout of the national economy.

On raising taxes:

On the wealthy. And on corporations. That's not class warfare. That's simple practicality.

After your first $20,000, how much of the next 20 do you need, to live, thrive and survive? Damn near all of it. After your first 20 million, now much of the next 20 million do you need? Not a nickel.

The rich will whine, writhe and scream that they won't do business, they'll be driven out of business, that business will collapse. Bullshit. If they dislike keeping 20 or 30 or 40 cents of each dollar of profit so much that they won't take the dollar, someone will come along who gladly will. That's how markets work.

The last time we switched from the nonsense of worshiping unmitigated greed, disguised as free marketeering, it took a market crash and the Great Depression to move us out of our public relations-manufactured delusions and make us understand that when we all do well the rich get richer too, so let's start with the common good.

Based on the dialogue as it stands now, we will go with tinkering and twaddle, doing more of what doesn't work. And only if the whole things collapses will we address the real problems.

Pretty common sensical. Please go read.

Maggie

Click to make her pooch up

This is our new pup, Maggie, that we picked up on Sunday from Golden Gate Springer Rescue in Fremont CA. She's 2-3 years old and was surrendered by her previous owner, referred to by her foster mom, Cheryl, as a "so-called breeder". Sounds like a brood mare at a puppy mill, so I'm glad she's out of that situation. She's had one litter, we think.

Maggie's a little skittish right now, and doesn't want to try anything new, like getting in the pickup or climbing the steps to my house, but once Big Strong Daddy (me) applies a little 'oomph' the first time, then she's OK.

She's got a very sweet disposition, and doesn't appear to have an ounce of alpha in her. She and Tami are getting along good, although Tami's eyes are maybe a shade greener right now from not being the only one getting attention lavished on her. They get along OK, and I'm sure that will pass quickly.

Maggie is long of body and leg, and lean of figure. I'll bet she can run real fast, although we're not letting her run off leash for a few days. Everybody's in an adjustment period right now, but I think it will pass quickly and get settled down.

Me'n Mrs. G are very happy with her.

Remember: Until There Are None, Adopt One.

Bush pardons himself from war crimes

Comments here. I hope #7 is right.

Ownership society ...

After 7 years of Bush, now everybody owns a piece of Big Shitpile. Good thing we got us that there MBA Preznit. Hold on to your hats when the market opens today. It's gonna get ugly.

Update:

Digby:

...

I'm thinking that calling for making the Bush tax cuts permanent isn't going to cut it.

Off to work ...

'Boombox' sounds off. Wrong again!

NewsHounds

While Defending Confederate Flag, Coulter Claimed, “The Majority Of Military Bases In This Country Are Named After Confederate Officers (Such As) Eisenhower, Nimitz”

Just when you think FOX News couldn’t be any more blatantly bigoted, they pull another doozy. On Friday night’s (1/18/08) Hannity & Colmes, the producers chose an all-white panel that included a tipsy-looking Ann Coulter to discuss the use of the Confederate flag in South Carolina. “Boombox” Coulter enunciated her words clearly enough to understand but she spouted a ridiculous set of whoppers, including a claim that General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Chester Nimitz, each of whom was born after the Civil War ended, were Confederate officers with military bases named after them. With video.

Now THAT is historically preposterous and ridiculous. The Civil War took place from 1861-1865. Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890. Chester Nimitz was born in 1885. I could find no military bases named after either of them.

NOTE: I'm no fan of Dick Morris but for once I thought he said a great thing. In another segment of the show, he made a point of saying that the Confederate flag is to African Americans what the swastika is to Jews and that just as the Germans don't put a swastika on their buildings to celebrate their history, the south should not use the Confederate flag.

Morris is absolutely correct, perhaps for the first time. Also, I think I invented a new word for Coultergeist. Is anyone offended by the word 'nutcunt'?

Speaking as an ol' Jarhead, neither were Generals LeJeune and Pendleton Confederate officers.

There is none so blind as he who will not see*

A Slate piece about Bush not always getting the intelligence reports he 'wants':

According to The Bush Tragedy, a new book by Slate's Jacob Weisberg, Bush suffers from a similar inability to distinguish between what he wants to see and what is there to be seen. This is nicely captured in an anecdote about a painting (that's it to the left of above this text; click to enlarge) that Bush put up in his office when he was governor of Texas. Weisberg writes:

In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: "I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves." Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.

Bush subsequently took the painting to Washington, hung it in the Oval Office, and continued to tell the painting's inspiring story, adding embellishments:

He came to believe that the picture depicted the circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century. In other words, the cowboy who looked like Bush was a missionary of his own denomination.

Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled "The Slipper Tongue," published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: "Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught."

I'm glad Bush mis-identifies himself with the rider. He got the 'horse thief' part metaphorically right. In the interest of sport, I recommend he get a short head start. One step. Get a rope.

*"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. The proverb has been traced back in English to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse quoted (above). In 1738, it was used by Jonathan Swift in his 'Polite Conversation,' and is first attested in the United States in the 1713 'Works of Thomas Chalkley'..."

Debunking the Reagan Myth

Paul Krugman on Reaganomics, AKA 'it'll trickle down if you're downstairs in the outhouse':

This is, in short, a time when progressives ought to be driving home the idea that the right’s ideas don’t work, and never have.

It’s not just a matter of what happens in the next election. Mr. Clinton won his elections, but — as Mr. Obama correctly pointed out — he didn’t change America’s trajectory the way Reagan did. Why?

Well, I’d say that the great failure of the Clinton administration — more important even than its failure to achieve health care reform, though the two failures were closely related — was the fact that it didn’t change the narrative, a fact demonstrated by the way Republicans are still claiming to be the next Ronald Reagan.

Now progressives have been granted a second chance to argue that Reaganism is fundamentally wrong: once again, the vast majority of Americans think that the country is on the wrong track. But they won’t be able to make that argument if their political leaders, whatever they meant to convey, seem to be saying that Reagan had it right.

Yeah, that baffles me.

More 'Support the troops, my ass'

Military Times

Retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks was paid $100,000 — out of donations made to wounded veterans — for allowing his name to be used on fundraising appeals by a charity that has come under increasing scrutiny for the way it handles its money.

Ya shoulda hocked that big Medal of Freedom the Chimp gave ya, Franks. By the pound. The medal's worthless.

Lawmakers pushed Chapin and two executives of fundraising companies on the question of whether solicitations should disclose information about the percentage of donations that a group spends on fundraising.

“If we disclose, we’d be out of business,” Chapin said.

“Your words are wonderful, because if the public knew, they wouldn’t donate,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Amen.

Did they make granny do 'the McChicken'?

Local 6 (Orlando FL)

A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald's drive-thru, because police say she wouldn't pull her car forward.

Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer's orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window.

Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food.

Note to Self: If ever in Orlando, God should only forbid, don't get between a cop and his junk food. What an asshole. I hope they laugh him off the force.