Now I get it ...

You see, the people who lost their homes thanks to predatory lenders are the real villains here. Those poor, poor, motgage bankers? Well, they are just the unwitting victims. To which I have to say, Sadly, No!

Eulogies ...

To Rudy's campaign. Leave it to the Rude One:

...

Rudy has lost in a hand of Florida Hold 'Em, the all-in bet where he was dealt a pair of aces and the flop, the turn, and the river were all fives, sevens, and jacks. Watching Rudy's stunning swan dive turn into one of the worst belly flops in recent political history has been marvelous. Dancing on his grave? Ask the firefighters, the cops, and the 9/11 families. That shit's fuckin' priceless.

Definitions ...

Bipartisanship:

...

But more importantly, "bipartisanship" is already rampant in Washington, not rare. And, in almost every significant case, what "bipartisanship" means in Washington is that enough Democrats join with all of the Republicans to endorse and enact into law Republican policies, with which most Democratic voters disagree. That's how so-called "bipartisanship" manifests in almost every case.

...

Click on the link for some stark examples.

Bush Issues Signing Statement On Defense Act, Waiving Ban On Permanent Bases In Iraq

Think Progress, links and comments at site:

Even though he forced Congress to change its original bill, Bush’s signature yesterday came with a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law “could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations.” CQ reports on the provisions Bush plans to disregard:

One such provision sets up a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistleblowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents. And a fourth bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and for any action that exercises U.S. control over Iraq’s oil money.

The bastard simply wants us to stay there until we get the oil and all our money is in the hands of his cronies with no recourse under law. He should be impeached and imprisoned today, but I think the best we can hope for is 1.20.09

Turn On, Tune In, Enter Your Pin Number

AP via Raw Story

The city that popularized the fast food drive-thru has a new innovation: 24-hour medical marijuana vending machines.

There's somewhat more to it than that, but I know one thing: I want to own the one in front of Fixer's house. It'll be a lot of work refilling it twice a day, but I'll clean up!

By the Numbers

John Cory

While the high school heathers of the press corps rush to generate in-depth analysis of the hairstyle and cleavage of candidates or who looks presidential as opposed to who acts presidential, the real issues get shuttled aside in polls and punditry and primary politico-image management.

At some point there will be one of those staged affairs where they take questions from the audience, the everyday folk - the voters. So let me step up to the microphone and ask a question:

When does 9/11 + 935 = 3,391?

When lies kill.

Nine hundred thirty-five false statements (lies) moved this nation into a war that has resulted in 3,391 deaths so far.

There have been 30,000 troops wounded in action; 39,000 have been diagnosed with PTSD; 84,000 vets suffer a mental health disorder; 229,000 veterans have sought VA care, and 1.4 million troops (active duty and reserves) have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan so far. Estimates run between $350 billion to $700 billion needed for lifetime care and benefits for veterans.

A CBS study of 45 states over the past 12 years reveals disturbing and tragic patterns of suffering veterans, whether Korean Conflict, Vietnam War or the newer versions, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005 alone, there were 6,256 veteran suicides. That's 120 every week, or an average of 17 suicides every day.

The Bush administration has no waiting period to go to war, only waiting lines that take months to treat veterans and provide the health care they need. It is an amazing irony that Bush has presided over the longest delays and waiting periods for veterans in VA history, and yet he has generated more veterans faster than most any other administration. As the Democratic Policy Committee pointed out in 2004: "During Bush's four years in office, the average millionaire has received a tax break of $123,000. In contrast, President Bush has broken all previous records for fees paid by veterans - proposing to collect $1.3 billion from veterans themselves in 2005, a 478 percent increase during his time in office."

I know this issue about veterans care won't poll well for the presidential primaries or even for television debates. After all, how many debates and candidate talks even acknowledge the war, let alone its aftermath?

I care so much because I've known the madness of war and the insanity of returning only to be told to wait or ignored or having to fight tooth and nail for a friend who needed the VA and couldn't get in and took his life. I know what it is to feel like a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle but all the pieces are olive drab or sky blue and no matter how hard I tried to make them fit, I kept ending up with a thousand little tiles that had no rhyme or reason or shape. I know the smell of lonely rain and empty streets that hang between there and yesterday on the border of here and now.

So let the politicians blather and blab. Give me a vet on a midnight afternoon who needs my ear for a while and we'll wait until they gather us up and then we'll step up to the microphone and ask:

If one tear is too many and a thousand not enough, what will it take?

It will take more than lip service from politicians. Don't hold your breath.

Abortion and the Earth

Excellent 'must read' article about the history of abortion, population growth, male domination, what is going to happen in the not-too-distant future, and what can possibly be done about it, by Kelpie Wilson.

The moral arguments about abortion rarely consider the physical limits of the planet, but if they did, and if abortion were put into the context of the long history of human attempts to avoid starvation by regulating population growth, we might come to a different conclusion about what "pro-life" really means.

For the first 100,000 years of our existence, the human population consisted of a couple of million hunter-gatherers scattered across the planet. Studies of modern hunter-gatherers, like the Kalahari San, show that women had long intervals of four to five years between births and produced an average of four children each. Only two children typically survived to reproduce themselves, leading to a stable population.

The curious thing is that this was not a pro-life law code. It was about male control over females. Men claimed for themselves the prerogative to kill any young infants that they wanted to or to sell their children or their wives into slavery. In particular, the new law allowed them to choose to raise more males who could fight as soldiers in armies. This initiation of male reproductive choice in the ancient agricultural civilizations of the Bronze Age is what set patriarchy on its current trajectory of empire, war and the ultimate conquest of the Earth itself that is killing our planet.

At the end of the day, the most fundamental issue is growth. We live in a culture and an economic system that promotes growth as the ultimate and greatest good. On a finite planet, this amounts to suicide. Growth was good for a certain time. At the beginning of the Industrial Age, it was good to grow our capacity, but with oil - the prime mover of that Industrial Age - running out and also causing grave life-threatening, species-threatening, world-threatening problems of global warming and toxic pollution, growth is no longer good, especially growth in the quantity of goods and the quantity of people.

Of course, none of Ms. Wilson's solutions can be implemented until God fixes stupid. Barring that unlikely scenario, the planet itself can and will reduce the human population, and it will not be a voluntary program.

I have a friend here in town who has six kids. I used to get laughs by saying he'd damn near literally fucked himself out of a place to sit at the dinner table. It's not so funny any more.

Early Morning Jokes(?)

Tony Peyser

John McCain defeated Mitt Romney in Florida's primary. Conservative seniors in the Sunshine State haven't been this excited since the introduction of fruit-flavored Metamucil.

Old folks will always vote for a good big shit.

The House is moving quickly on a $150 billion plan to jump-start the economy. Instead of calling this a rebate, wouldn't a better title be ... gift card?

Yeah, like a mugger givin' you part of of your money back so you can go his bail. If you're dumb enough to go for it, have no doubt that once he's out of trouble he'll mug you again.

So long, Rudy ...

Don't let it hit ya in the ass:

...

Perhaps a simpler dynamic was at work: The more that Republican voters saw of him, the less they wanted to vote for him.

...

I want a job ...

On The View. I think I could hold my own better than this one and get paid for looking down Joy Behar's shirt and schmoozing with Whoopi. Beats fixing cars for a living.

Did you think Enron ...

Was the only one? Now we get to the crux of the biscuit in the 'subprime' mess. Heh ... They'll soon find the same crap that happened behind the scenes Enron is going on at the big banks and brokerages. Pass the popcorn. I wonder if anybody I know will end up doing 2 1/2 to 5 at Danbury?

Bush's Delusions Die in Gaza

Good article at Spiegel Online International:

The mass jailbreak of Gazans into Egypt revealed the bankruptcy of both Israel's policy of collective punishment and Bush's attempt to make Mideast peace.

If it were just a matter of morality, we could ignore the agony of Gaza. After all, we countenance immoral actions all over the world. But this isn't a matter only of morality, but of national security. For we are seen by the Arab-Muslim world as Israel's co-jailers -- and ultimately, we are. We support and pay for Israel's occupation. If we were to demand that that occupation stop, sooner or later Israel would be forced to comply (my em). The people in the region know this, and they are deeply angry and frustrated, and as a result some of them are driven to fight us. There is no troop surge big enough to defeat the jihadis and anti-American militants our Middle East policies are breeding.

We need to get rid of the end-times loonies that place Israel above all before any good can happen over there.

Om...

Bush v Fact

What his nibs said in his BSOTU, v Fact at Think Progress.

A Republican Congressman — who appeared to be Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) — greeted Bush on his way up to the podium and planted a gentle kiss on the President’s cheek.

Is Shays in the Mafia? I hope so! Video if you must.

Bush said: “Over the past 7 years, we have increased funding for veterans by more than 95 percent. As we increase funding, we must also reform our veterans system to meet the needs of a new war and a new generation.”

FACT — 1.8 MILLION VETERANS LACK HEALTH INSURANCE: “The new study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, estimated that in 2004 nearly 1.8 million veterans were uninsured and unable to get care in veterans’ facilities.”

Bush said: “American troops are shifting from leading operations, to partnering with Iraqi forces, and, eventually, to a protective overwatch mission.”

FACT — IRAQIS ANTICIPATE TAKING CONTROL OF SECURITY BY 2018:
Iraqi defense minister Abdul Qadir “that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.”

Oh fucking swell.

Much more.

One Bush Left Behind

This is so good! Greg Palast.

Here’s your question, class:

In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20.

Here’s your second question. The President also demanded that Congress extend his tax cuts. The cost: $4.3 trillion over ten years. The big recipients are millionaires. And the number of millionaires happens, not coincidentally, to equal the number of poor kids, roughly 15 million of them. OK class: what is the cost of the tax cut per millionaire? That’s right, Richie, $287,000 apiece.

Mr. Bush said, “In neighborhoods across our country, there are boys and girls with dreams. And a decent education is their only hope of achieving them.”

So how much educational dreaming will $20 buy?

Not much, what with all the richies tryin' to snatch the Jackson out of the kids' hands.

If you can’t buy a book nor pay tuition with a sawbuck, what exactly can a poor kid buy with $20 in urban America? The Palast Investigative Team donned baseball caps and big pants and discovered we could obtain what local citizens call a “rock” of crack cocaine. For $20, we were guaranteed we could fulfill any kid’s dream for at least 15 minutes.

Now we could see the incontrovertible logic in what appeared to be quixotic ravings by the President about free trade with Colombia, Pell Grant for Kids and the surge in Iraq. In Iraq, General Petraeus tells us we must continue to feed in troops for another ten years. There is no way the military can recruit these freedom fighters unless our lower income youth are high, hooked and desperate. Don’t say, ‘crack vials,’ they’re, ‘Democracy Rocks’!

Of course, there’s an effective alternative to Mr. Bush’s plan – which won’t cost a penny more. Simply turn it upside down. Let’s give each millionaire in America a $20 bill, and every poor child $287,000.

And, there’s an added benefit to this alternative. Had we turned Mr. Bush and his plan upside down, he could have spoken to Congress from his heart.

The whistling of his ass-music is drowning everything else out anyway, whichever end he speaks from.

McCain's 100 Years War

Buchanan: McCain win would mean war with Iran

"More wars" could prove to be the oddest of all presidential campaign slogans. Especially if it works.

"That's one of the things that makes me very nervous about him," Buchanan went on. "There's no doubt John McCain is going to be a war president. ... His whole career is wrapped up in the military, national security. He's in Putin's face, he's threatening the Iranians, we're going to be in Iraq a hundred years."

There I go again, nodding my head at Buchanan's words. Either he's getting smarter or I'm getting old...

Best case scenario: McCain gets nomination, drops dead 5 November, just before election day. That way, even if he gets elected he can't start any more senseless wars. Added benefits: His inauguration speech will be short and the White House won't smell any worse than it does now.

Traffic Jam on the Highway to Hell

Oooh! This one made me tingle! Sheila Samples in the Atlanta Free Press. Hmmm. Free Press. What a concept...

"When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
- Thomas Jefferson

Evil never runs its course. With each success, it grows stronger, more ghastly and, like Dick Cheney, emerges a bit more from the shadows. Never doubt for a minute that these unfeeling creatures are not evil. They are incapable of compassion, of empathy, of mercy. Their eyes are on the prize of One World rule, and they will have it in spite of — or as a result of — all the chaos and carnage it takes to achieve it. There are no "Imps of the Perverse" among them who will be so overcome with guilt they will break from the pack and run through the populace shrieking, "We're guilty! We did it! We are murderers!"

Cheney and his destructive little sidekick, George Bush, have brazenly committed treasonous acts — left piles of corpses in their wake since the 2000 election coup. If there is a God, they are bound straight for Hell. But they are not alone. They're protected by a merciless axis of courts, congressional conspirators and corporate media who cover up their crimes by issuing a steady barrage of terror threats and a relentless fog of twisted disinformation.

Our government is nothing but a Good Ol' Boys and Girls club, with judges, journalists, legislators and administration jesters whooping it up while pillaging the Treasury, ignoring the cries of their victims, turning a blind eye to millions of slaughtered and displaced innocents, and sending thousands of their own citizens to their deaths. They have mauled, raped and obstructed Justice until that once noble Lady is no longer recognizable.

We can no longer stand on the sidelines waiting for the evil to subside. They must go — all of them — starting at the top with the impeachment of the mad Cheney and Bush and continuing through both houses of Congress where all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are up for election this year.

We've had enough. We not only agree with Vonnegut, but with Lee Iacocca, who pulls no punches in his April 2007 book, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" Iacocca asks, "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course.' Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!"

Yes. Throw the bums out and watch them scatter. And when they do, there will be a traffic jam on the highway to Hell.

Om...*

*Due to 'the first being last' in this forum, see this post.

The Psychopath's "State of the Union": Disguising America's Deep Humiliation

Walter C. Uhler blisters him some chimp ass:

I won't be watching President Bush's "State of the Union" speech tonight. And I'll studiously avoid reading about it tomorrow. Not because Bush is a lame duck - thank God for that. But, because he a megalomaniac and a pathological lair.

You know how it works. Whether it's your friend, relative or acquaintance; whenever you've reached the conclusion that he/she is an inveterate liar, you simply stop listening to him/her, because he/she has lost all credibility and respect.

Actually, Bush never had my respect. Instead, I marveled over how a punk child of privilege could drink and bluff his way through mediocrity and failure - whether it be in college, the Texas Air National Guard, private enterprise (oil, baseball) or as governor of Texas - and still emerge with the belief that "God wants me to be President."

Then he gets down to business. You should only go read.

"Probably final"?!

William Rivers Pitt on the 'SOTU drinking game':

George W. Bush's State of the Union (SOTU) speeches have been the basis for a new kind of drinking game for several years now, basically because the things have always needed some kind of actual substance from somewhere, and because it was a good way to dull the pain of it all. The rules: 1. When he says the word "terra" or "terra-ists," take a drink. 2. When he says "tax cuts," take a drink. 3. When he says "Iraq," take a drink. 4. When he says "nook-yuh-lerr," take a drink and a shot and a good swift kick to the head. Et cetera.

But that's just one night out of the year. Reality has proven to be far more alcoholic in nature. For seven years now, the whole phenomenon of this government has been one long drinking game played out each and every day. The rules of this game? 1. Say the words, "George W. Bush is in charge of the country." 2. Turn off the TV. 3. Just drink.

Sounds familiar, right? Just about everyone has played that game a time or two by now. We have endured seven Bush SOTU speeches as of last night. Seven years worth of lies, carnage, greed, disgrace, failure, ignominy, calamity heaped upon calamity heaped upon calamity for more than two thousand five hundred days now, with three hundred and fifty seven more days still to go.

Seven speeches. Seven years.

No more.

Take your drink. Take your shot. Don't forget your kick to the head: Each and every single one of those comprehensively-debunked claims can still be found on the White House web site.

We have to put up with this man and his people for less than a year, or so most people believe. A story on today's Washington Post front page by Michael Abramowitz, however, reeled off a laundry list of pre-speech challenges for Bush that was capped by this line: "That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight."

"Probably final"?

"Probably final"?!

Drink.

It had fuckin' well better be his 'final'. 1.20.09 is getting to be a sacred number to me, a mantra of the end of the nightmare. It had better happen as scheduled.

Om onetwennyohnine. Om...

Update:

From the WaPo Politics Hour:

(A question from) Washington: Today's front page story on the president's speech tonight states that this will be Bush's "seventh and probably final" State of the Union address. Is there a coup in the works, or is that an error?

...

Peter Baker: Here's the story I was just mentioning. We say "probably final" because in the past, presidents used to give a lame-duck State of the Union address on their way out of office. That hasn't been common in the past few decades, but there's nothing to say he couldn't do that if he chose. We've asked the White House about this and they say they think it's probably his last one too, though they didn't rule anything out entirely.

The reason I took Pitt's piece the way I did is because I don't rule anything out from that prick either.

Om...

Quote of the Day

Scott at LGM:

... liberals who expect a secret socially liberal McCain to emerge from behind a mask of 0% NARAL ratings, votes for Robert Bork, support for complete bans on abortion, etc. are people you definitely want to invite to your next poker game.

...

Off to the shop ...

A week off ...

And I still have no idea who to vote for in the NY primary on 'Super Duper-Most Excellent-Holy Shit-Tsunami-Tuesday".

One thing that keeps popping into my head as I think about it, the one issue that always comes back to nag at me, is 'do I want another Clinton in the White House?' Not that I have a problem with the way Bill ran the show, nor do I think Hillary is unqualified mind you, but the old equation keeps coming back to me. We've had 12 years of House Bush sandwiching 8 years of Clinton, potentially 16 years if Hillary wins.

Am I the only one who feels like we're living in a monarchy?

Maybe it's time for a whole new fresh look at America? The thing about Obama that nags at me too, is that he seems a little too close to God. Hopefully, he reads his scriptures differently than the Rethug Jesus freaks.

I'll probably make up my mind as I stand in the voting booth next week.

Why couldn't Edwards have done better? He's the one I actually have the confidence in to do what is necessary to bring this nation back from the precipice Bush has us perched on. I just hope he'll be able to work in the new administration, regardless of who wins.

So much for fair. If shit were fair, we wouldn't have had to put up with Preznit Drooly McJackhole for the last 7 years. One good thing though (and it will be confirmed this evening), is watching Rudy's slow-motion crash and burn on the Rethug side. Our good pal, UL:

Thrice married serial adulterer and America's 9-11 Mayor's Florida firewall strategy has vaulted him down to fourth place, behind Huckafucknut - and clinging [to] a single-digit lead over fast closing nemesis Ron Paul.

...

Been a long time coming.