The 'Terrorist Army' ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. watch list of terrorism suspects has passed 1 million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said on Monday the number was far too high to be effective.

...

President George W. Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watchlists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI, through a Terrorist Screening Center.

Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration "no-fly" or "selectee" lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.

...

Personally, I'm surprised Mrs. F and I aren't on the list. We leave the country twice a year for two weeks at a clip and our passports fill up with entry/exit stamps before they expire. Thank God for Republican ineptitude or we'd get jacked up constantly.

The 'War on Terra' and the birth of 'Homeland Security' are just two more ways the Republicans pay off their donors. The Rethugs have done a great job of turning the U.S. government into a vehicle to allow the rich to get richer. "Government contracts" and "federal funding" are merely different names for "food stamps" and "welfare checks" for the wealthy at the expense of those who really need it. The spectre of terrorism enables no-bid contracts and little oversight. An ongoing war, half a world away, allows them to do it with little to no scrutiny.

The Republicans rail against 'social programs' yet have built one for themselves. In the 21st Century, the U.S. government works for the rich. 'Terror' and 'Security' are merely phrases designed to force the rest of us into going along with it 'for our own good'. The Iraq Occupation makes certain we'll have enough enemies so they can keep up the illusion, same with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is not in the interest of Big Business to end them. Without the threat of Death looming around every corner, Americans wouldn't let them get away with it.

Without big, bad enemies, there would be no need for the 'military-industrial complex', no need for 'Homeland Security', no need for the fear and paranoia that allows the government to waste our money on programs that are wasteful at best and totally ineffective at worst.

As my commanding officer said to me a little over 25 years ago: "Son, pray we always have the Soviet Union and the Communists to demonize. I'd hate to see what they'd do if they had to find another enemy to justify their existence."

It meant little to a 20 year old kid at the time but today I can appreciate what the Colonel was trying to tell me. I find it very hard to believe that if the threat the Soviet Union (let us remember, the Soviets had thousands of nuclear warheads pointed at us that could reach the continental U.S. in minutes) posed did not force us into this postmodern nightmare at the height of the Cold War, a couple guys in a cave can do it today. I can't believe we could extract intelligence agents and operators from behind the Iron Curtain 30 years ago, yet can't seem to locate and kill Osama bin Laden and his posse.

I posit that it is not in Wealthy America's interest to do so.

Great thanks to Mr. Petulant for the link.

Quote of the Day

The Rude Pundit:

...

Sweet jesus, it's so easy to just blithely go on with our lives, pushing the knowledge of what's right aside and telling ourselves, until we maybe even believe it, "I'm happy, I'm content, and nothing's to be gained by tearing shit apart." Except we know that the only way to go forward is to tear it apart and see what's left to build.

Indeed. It's time for some pain in order to make America be America again.

And by the way, it's Bastille Day. Maybe it's time for us to have one of them too ...

The stench of hypocrisy 18

The Misfit adds to the list:

... Yes indeed, another virulently anti-gay Republican politician is busted while having sex with another person of the same sex. This particular asswipe was outed by his own wife, who found him in the marital bed with one of his assistants.

...

As always, I ain't the one who gives a shit what two consenting adults do, but those who live in glass houses shouldn't get stoned.

On the cartoon ...

You know, the New Yorker one of Obama and his wife.

My two cents:

They have a right to print anything they want. It's still America ... mostly. That said, it's not funny and it's not thought-provoking. Satire? Maybe but it's a reach. It's certainly in bad taste. Big deal. The Rethugs have done worse.

There are bigger things to worry about than a magazine trying to drum up readership.

Don't call our shit 'Bush'!

Folks in Frisco are defending their shit plant from being named after Bush!

Think Progress

What we didn’t expect was that most of the opposition was coming from people who didn’t want to name anything. They just wanted to forget about the past eight years and move on or they felt that this is a facility that does something really quite useful and it would be inappropriate to put his name on it. […] If you get to the point where people are defending the sewage plant, that’s a sign that things have not gone so well.

Earlier in the segment, McConnell noted the logic behind the name change idea: A wastewater treatment plant’s “job is to clean up a mess and so in that respect we think it symbolizes what the country is going to embark on as [Bush] leaves office.”

Audio and many comments.

Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In

WASHINGTON—A panel of top business leaders testified before Congress about the worsening recession Monday, demanding the government provide Americans with a new irresponsible and largely illusory economic bubble in which to invest.

"What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution."

The current economic woes, brought on by the collapse of the so-called "housing bubble," are considered the worst to hit investors since the equally untenable dot-com bubble burst in 2001. According to investment experts, now that the option of making millions of dollars in a short time with imaginary profits from bad real-estate deals has disappeared, the need for another spontaneous make-believe source of wealth has never been more urgent.

"The U.S. economy cannot survive on sound investments alone," Carlisle added.

[...] "At this point, bubbles are the only thing keeping us afloat."

And Bush is popping them with his tongue...*

I suspect a little satire here, but not much.

*Fart/bathtub reference.

Ah, to dream...

Click to embiggen

Can we start a pool to see which one will cheat the hangman like Goering did?

As Oil Firms Seek Drilling Access, Exports Set Record

CNBC with a 'recommended read'.

While the U.S. oil industry wants access to more federal lands to help reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, U.S.-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.

The surge in exports appears to contradict the pleas from the U.S. oil industry and the Bush administration for Congress to open more offshore waters and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

"We can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country," President Bush told reporters this week. "We have got the opportunity to find more crude oil here at home."

U.S. consumers are paying record prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, which the Bush administration blames in part on tight supplies.

While the administration argues that more supplies would help to bring down prices, U.S exports of diesel fuel in April averaged 387,000 barrels per day, up almost seven-fold from 59,000 barrels a day in the same month a year earlier.

It isn't for our benefit Bush wants to open up new drilling. It's so his oil cronies will have more to sell everywhere. And for healthier currencies than the dollar.

We will, of course, continue to be screwed and Bush will continue to lie and blame the Democrats.

Yes, we have to change our energy consumption habits. Yes, we must develop other sources of energy. Yes, we need to get rid of oil men in power so we can get a sane energy policy.

And yes, we will continue to pay through the nose. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Moral waivers ...

Or, Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel. Via Avedon, the Army is taking anyone they can get:

...

A yearlong examination of military and civilian records by The Sacramento Bee involving hundreds of troops who entered the services since the Iraq war began identified 120 cases of people whose backgrounds should have raised the suspicions of military recruiters, including felony convitions and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems.

Of those, 70 later were involved in controversial or criminal incidents in Iraq.

...

The 70 were among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services, entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds previously would have barred them from serving.

...

That's it. Take violent, anti-social offenders, hand them a rifle, and tell 'em it's okay to kill brown folks. And we wonder when shit like Abu Graib happens, or when they come home and commit violent crimes against American citizens.

These clowns shouldn't be allowed to possess a BB gun, let alone be put in a war zone, and is a testament to how badly the situation in Iraq has crippled our military. The latest line from the White House this weekend is that there will be "a drawdown" of troops from Iraq, but that's only to send them to Afghanistan because we don't have the reserves to fill in the gaps (though Afghanistan was treated like the red-headed step-child from Day One) our half-assed commitment created.

Cdr. Huber:

... The Bush spin machine was quick to declare that the administration is considering increasing the pace of the pullout from Iraq (as if they were actually considering "pulling out" in the first place), not as a reaction to Maliki's invitation to pack sand, or because the force is collapsing from the deployment tempo, but because the extra troops are needed in Afghanistan.

...

The real moral waiver came when the U.S. Congress gave these assholes carte blanche to start this war and continue to fund it into its sixth year. Unfortunately, the way things are going, any grip we get on Morality is a long time coming. As long as insane foreign policy is considered mainstream, we will continue to field a military made up of convicts, gang bangers, and low lifes. Atrocities will continue and American credibility will continue to circle the bowl.

John McCain wants to stay in Iraq forever? Answer me this. Where is he gonna get the troops? Or is he just gonna empty out the prisons?

Cross-posted at API.

The reason why ...

You should vote for Barry regardless of his moron FISA vote:

...

The Senate has shown they will confirm a doorstop if the president wants them to. There are no Teddy Kennedy's who will lead the charge against another Bork. This is one reason why I'll vote for Obama enthusiastically. A President McCain will throw the wingnut zealots the most reactionary, federalist society hack he can find, like bloody bloody meat to a piranha tank. He doesn't care about anything but paying off his rich friends and making war. Whatever our problems might be with Obama we know that he won't do that.

...

That goes especially for the Hillary people who are still holding a grudge (though I believe the number of Hillary supporters who'll vote for McCain is a lot less than the media makes it out to be).

Where's Waldo Turdblossom?

Following up on Friday's post, Rove has been found. Check it out at NotionsCapital.

Karl Rove is roving the beaches of the Crimea, not the committee rooms of Congress. Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times reached the former White House Senior Svengali by cell phone in the Eastern European resort to ask for his reaction to the death of Tony Snow.

Ukraine does not have an extradition treaty with the US, according to the Congressional Research Service, and ”Contempt of Congress” may not be a crime in the Crimea. At least we don’t have to worry about Mr. Rove obtaining undue influence over the Crimean president — there isn’t one. The Head of State of Crimea is the President of Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko).

Karl may be checking out the employment possibilities, thinking his particular Machiavellian talent would be well suited to their kind of politics. I hope he gets the job. What he doesn't know about politics in that region is that they're likely to kill him. I hope he likes soup.

Running

In my never ending effort to bring you the finest examples of the kind of music I like, I look at dozens of videos every weekend. It's a damn dirty job I tell you, but for you I'm glad to make the sacrifice (cough).

I'm about the same age as most of my favorites so I gotta admit it's fun, and sometimes a little terrifying, to go see some of the videos from way back when we were all young, and see how they've evolved over the years. Of course, the clothes and hair styles which were way cool back then, make me cringe today.

I got hung up big time watching one of my favorite singer/songwriter/musicians, Chris Hillman. Starting off with The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers and several other groups you've never heard of, he went on to The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and The Desert Rose Band heard in this video. He and long-time pard Herb Pedersen have several albums as well, including one of my favorites, Bakersfield Bound. Mr. Hillman does bluegrass, country, California country, country rock, and the Bakersfield sound. Fuck it, he can do anything! And, oh yeah, back in the '70s I worked on his Triumph motorcycle at a shop I worked at in Encino CA. Enjoy.

And by the way, if ya hit some of the links and keep seeing the same names comin' up, the SoCal country-rock scene wasn't all that big even though it had a hell of an impact.

Tony Snow dead ...

Montag:

A first rate liar for a bunch of second rate crooks who want to make America a third world country. Your family will miss you.

That about says it. See ya in Hell, mofo.

A 'Hall of Fame' I can get behind...

I watched Desert Dreamers the other night on PBS. I spent a lot of time in the Mojave when I was younger and it was closer. Lotta characters out there.

One of the characters they profiled in amongst the hermits and religious whackjobs was Dixie Evans, who was billed as "The Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque" and now runs "Exotic World* - The Strippers Hall of Fame".

Heeeere's Dixie! Showing how a girl gets ahead in Hollywood...



*Since Desert Dreamers was made, Dixie has closed up shop and moved to Lost Wages. I don't know the details, but in my opinion it's a tossup between the 'moral values' crowd or a real estate deal, or one used to swindle her out of the other.

Saturday whorage

Saturday means another chapter of Birthright is up at The Practical Press.

The reason I'm late today is I've been doing the taping on the entry foyer.

Leave us your links in comments.

Country Music is actually alive and well. If you know where to look.

One of the things that bugs me about Corporate Country Music is that they'll put up videos at YouTube but you can't swipe 'em for your own blog to share with your readers. It's like, "Watch it all ya want, but don't take it out of the room. Go buy it."

One of the things I like about the lesser-known (read as: no radio airplay) real country artists is they'll put up their vids and ask you to share 'em in the hope you'll go buy one of their albums.

This video was posted yesterday by TashianMusic. These folks have been around since about forever. Go see how Barry got started. Heh.

Barry and Holly Tashian (site, bio) are introduced by Vince Gill and perform "I Dreamed Of An Old Love Affair". Barry is formerly of Barry and the Remains and Emmylou Harris' Hot Band.

Barry and Holly Tashian

Heckuva job, Chimp-o

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Hear, hear!

Jude at First Draft is outraged and with every right to be:

So. North by East decides to make a list of the fifty most-influential female bloggers. And our own Scout and Athenae don't make the list? That's bullshit!

And Michelle Malkin at number five? ...

Few bloggers (male or female) have done the job Scout has, bringing news of the tragedy and subsequent government failure in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and I've learned more about the newspaper business from Athenae than I ever thought I would.

Bullshit indeed!

Saturday whorage later. Got a buncha running around and carpentry to do.

"...the abuse constituted war crimes..."

Watch this if you missed it.

Was ist los?

I'm hoping my people live up to their reputation and give the Chimp the finger:

There's been an interesting twist in the ongoing behind-the-scenes discussions over whether Barack Obama will deliver a speech on July 24th at Berlin's historically-charged Brandenburg Gate.

A new report in the German press says that Bush administration officials are unhappy with the idea and privately said as much to representatives of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

...

I can't believe the Frau Merkel will let will let Bush dictate policy to Berlin.

Great thanks to Maru for the link.