Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF

This one will piss you off. I'm seeing red over it. CBS News:

(CBSNews) WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.

In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.

Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.
...

ATF managers allegedly made a controversial decision: allow most of the weapons on the streets. The idea, they said, was to gather intelligence and see where the guns ended up. Insiders say it's a dangerous tactic called letting the guns, "walk."

One agent called the strategy "insane." Another said: "We were fully aware the guns would probably be moved across the border to drug cartels where they could be used to kill."

On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."

It came back to bite ATF on the ass when one of these guns was used to murder one of their agents. God only knows how many other people have been killed with them.

The idea to let 2500 firearms into the hands of criminals, including AKs and Barretts for Christ's sake, is an idea so fucking wrong and stupid that I couldn't begin to string together adjectives to adequately describe how I feel about the motherfucker(s) who thought this up like it came out of a human brain. 'Insane' does not begin to describe a criminal act like this. If I wasn't pretty used to our government fucking up by the numbers, I'd say it was beyond belief.

This has nothing to do with guns per se. This has to do with a government agency allowing, nay, aiding and abetting violation of every goddam firearms law we have and putting 2500 powerful weapons into the hands of violent sociopaths on both sides of the Mexican border.

Somebody had better fucking swing over this. Right fucking now.

DEA to give monopoly on weed

Raw Story

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposal to reclassify the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana as a Schedule III substance would allow pharmaceutical companies to market the drug while still penalizing common recreational use, according to marijuana law reform advocates.

With its proposal, the DEA is responding to the demands of large pharmaceutical companies, he claimed.

Figures. Big Pharma is using its bought-and-paid-for government to change things so they can make money before we can make using FREE* or independently (aka 'outlaw'**) grown and marketed weed legal.

*It's free if you grow it yourself.
**No Wall St. involvement.

This Never Ending Abortion War

The Rude Pundit

We proud members of the nutzoid conservative Family Research Council's Super-Duper Prayer Team are often called upon to squat and squeeze out a prayer loaf in the most extreme circumstances. [...]

An apt description of what radical phony christianists do, I think.

See, a budget amendment denying federal funding to Planned Parenthood has gotten through the House of Representatives thanks to the combination of zealots, hooligans, and assholes who rule there. It's not that Planned Parenthood uses any federal funds for abortionizing fetuses. No, that's banned. But, you know, if a single red federal cent is used to clean the windows of the clinic, it's pretty much the same thing as stabbing the baby Jesus in his little heart. [...]

So pray we must. Luckily, since we're too stupid to come up with prayers on our own, the SDPT is given the words: "Raise up an army of praying believers through whom You can pull down the spiritual strongholds and end taxpayer subsidies for this death-dealing industry." Do your prayers have the phrase "taxpayer subsidy" in it? No? Then fuck your religion, you goddamn heretic. You probably want women to have "reproductive freedom" and other satanic things. God is weeping, weeping, you fuckers, because women can still "choose" in this country, even if they're raped teenagers.

Yeah, the religious right is doubling down on the abortion bullshit, man. All across the nation, there's some kind of fucktarded competition over which state can come up with the craziest new law, from legalizing the murder of abortion providers to making women have to prove that their miscarriages were not induced (for which Jill Filipovic has the awesomest response).

There are two points to be made here. For the first, this bears repeating:

Yeah, the religious right is doubling down on the abortion bullshit, man. All across the nation, there's some kind of fucktarded competition over which state can come up with the craziest new law...

Not just abortion. Everything. The fuckers get the weakest part (luckily for us) of the Congress and think they're going to ram through batshit crazy ideologically pure (think Aryan) stuff like they did in the halcyon days of pure evil under the Chimp. They have 'til 2012 and then they're gonna get thrown out on their asses again when this nation realizes it fucked up bad putting those clowns even part way in charge.

The second point is about the 'response' link above: NO SHIT - That's the awesomest thing I've ever read about this anti-women issue. The mind boggles at the possibilities. Let's just say 'flooding Congress with responses' takes on a whole new meaning! Heh.

Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.

Paul Krugman makes a smokin' comparison to Madison. Read it.

Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad — specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence.

As many readers may recall, the results were spectacular — in a bad way. Instead of focusing on the urgent problems of a shattered economy and society, which would soon descend into a murderous civil war, those Bush appointees were obsessed with imposing a conservative ideological vision. Indeed, with looters still prowling the streets of Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, the American viceroy, told a Washington Post reporter that one of his top priorities was to “corporatize and privatize state-owned enterprises” — Mr. Bremer’s words, not the reporter’s — and to “wean people from the idea the state supports everything.”

Which brings us to Wisconsin 2011, where the shock doctrine is on full display.

What’s happening in Wisconsin is, instead, a power grab — an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy. And the power grab goes beyond union-busting. The bill in question is 144 pages long, and there are some extraordinary things hidden deep inside.

Nothing good.

If this sounds to you like a perfect setup for cronyism and profiteering — remember those missing billions in Iraq? — you’re not alone. Indeed, there are enough suspicious minds out there that Koch Industries, owned by the billionaire brothers who are playing such a large role in Mr. Walker’s anti-union push, felt compelled to issue a denial that it’s interested in purchasing any of those power plants. Are you reassured?

Oh, sure. I'm reassured that the capitalists and their lackey pols want to own us outright or else. They're bound and determined to get every dollar we have left, come hell or high water.

You could interview my dogs ...

They'd have more to say, but I doubt your camera or microphone would be returned in one piece. Heh ...

Passing us by ...

I hope Arianna is paying this guy at the least:

...

Imagine this: for the first time in history, a movement of Arabs is inspiring Americans in Wisconsin and possibly elsewhere. Right now, in other words, there is something new under the sun and we didn’t invent it. It’s not ours. We’re not -- catch your breath here -- even the good guys. They were the ones calling for freedom and democracy in the streets of Middle Eastern cities, while the U.S. performed another of those indelicate imbalances in favor of the thugs we’ve long supported in the Middle East.

History is now being reshaped in such a way that the previously major events of the latter years of the foreshortened American century -- the Vietnam War, the end of the Cold War, even 9/11 -- may all be dwarfed by this new moment. And yet, inside the Washington echo chamber, new thoughts about such developments dawn slowly. Meanwhile, our beleaguered, confused, disturbed country, with its aging, disintegrating infrastructure, is ever less the model for anyone anywhere (though again you wouldn’t know that here).

Oblivious to events, Washington clearly intends to fight its perpetual wars and garrison its perpetual bases, creating yet more blowback and destabilizing yet more places, until it eats itself alive. This is the definition of all-American decline in an unexpectedly new world. Yes, teeth may be in jugulars, but whose teeth in whose jugulars remains open to speculation, whatever General Petraeus thinks.

...

The "American Century" is over and the world is passing us by. It's a sad epitaph for such an extraordinary place. By the end of this year, we won't even be able to put a man in space anymore.

One day, we'll be nothing more than the punchline of a bad joke.

Must see ...

If you can get BBC, check to see when they air this Our World piece, an interview of this poor innocent bastid* who spent 5 years in Gitmo:

Orla Guerin talks to Saad Iqbal Madni, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay for over five years who remains haunted by his time there.

I'm not naive and I don't take his word verbatim, but what he describes of his treatment at the hands of our people is unconscionable. Bush, Cheney, and the rest of them should be freezing their asses off in some Soviet gulag.

*His background here.

Dude,

I'm willing to buy you any pair of shoes you want if you'd show some fucking leadership*.

*I know, I know, it ain't coming anytime soon.

Sometimes I wonder ...

Why we bother. They're gonna end up killing us all anyway:

A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn—suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!

This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen’s source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.

...

Regulation? We don't need no steenking regulation!

Do me a favor, just let me live long enough to see 60. I can deal with that.

The Department of Dirty Tricks

You know, if the Republicans actually believed what they are doing is good for their states and the nation in general, they wouldn't have to resort to shit like this:

...

Then Kramer called the vote. Within seconds, the digital vote system on the wall announced 51 ayes and 17 nays, and voting was suddenly closed. With a total of 96 members, that got to a majority for the bill but left 28 members who hadn't had a chance yet to vote.

At that point, the Democrats got up, chanting "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and similar exclamations, as the Republicans filed out of the room.

There were many Democrats I spoke to and overheard in the chamber, who said they didn't get a chance to vote, or that they were pushing the "No" button at their desks as hard as they could -- keep in mind that a majority of their 38-member caucus was recorded as casting no votes at all. (Interesting to note there were also four Republicans who voted no -- after having joined every party-line vote against Democratic amendments. Some Dems speculated that the GOP leadership had allowed some Assembly Republicans in marginal districts to skip the vote or vote 'no' on the final tally.)

...

Like thieves in the night.

Pass the popcorn...

America's Finest News Source

Revolutionary New Homophobia Immersion Therapy Involves Lowering Patient Into Tank Of Gays

[...] When asked if there was a risk of subjects getting stuck in the tank of writhing men, Kleineman said the gays would be so oiled up that patients would have no trouble slipping in and out.

They need those tanks in Repug-controlled state houses.

Wrong is Right

By new U.S. citizen Dafna Linzer:

How I Passed My U.S. Citizenship Test: By Keeping the Right Answers to Myself

She details a buncha wrong answers that are required to become a U.S. citizen.

Our CA DMV did that a few years back on the written motorcycle test. One in particular involved which part of the lane should you ride in for maximum safety. The correct answer is either side (but preferably the left) of the oil strip left in the center by cars. Their required answer was right smack in the middle of it, apparently, er, thinking (they shouldn't try) that staying as far away from cars as you can is more important than traction on the freeway or wherever. It isn't. I had read the pamphlet and gritted my teeth and answered it their way.

Operating under the ostensibly 'correct' answer could get you killed. Leave it to bureaucracy to flip stuff like that. In my experience, it's usually been the wrong answer (example: "yo momma knows...") that got my ass kicked. Heh.

At the end of the night, one of the catering staff gathered up the flash cards and as she held them out to me, she revealed that next month she too will take her citizenship test. I was thrilled. I closed my first day as an American citizen by handing them over to her. "Which ones did you say were wrong again?" she asked. "Just give the official answer," I said, "and you'll do fine."

Go along to get along. 'Twas ever thus. Sigh.

Death Panels

Amanda Terkel

Scott Walker's Plan To Take Control Of Medicaid Decisions In Wisconsin

Lemme see if I'm getting this right: the right-wing doesn't want government control of health care decisions. Unless they get to do it.

Why the Obama Era only lasted two years

From the middle of a four-page article by Kevin Drum at MoJo on the ebb and fall of the union movement. A 'recommended read'.

Plutocracy Now: What Wisconsin Is Really About

[...] Still, one striking fact remains: Liberal reform is not a continuous movement powered by mere enthusiasm. Reform eras last only a short time and require extraordinarily intense levels of cultural and political energy to get started. And they require two other things to get started: a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress.

In 2008, fully four decades after our last burst of liberal change, we got that again. But instead of five or six tumultuous years, the surge of liberalism that started in 2008 lasted scarcely 18 months and produced only two legislative changes really worthy of note: health care reform and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. By the summer of 2010 liberals were dispirited, political energy had been co-opted almost entirely by the tea party movement, and in November, Republicans won a crushing victory.

Why? The answer, I think, is that there simply wasn't an institutional base big enough to insist on the kinds of political choices that would have kept the momentum of 2008 alive. [...]

This is, of course, pie in the sky. Organized labor has become a shell of its former self, and the working class doesn't have any institutional muscle in Washington. As a result, the Democratic Party no longer has much real connection to moderate-income voters. And that's hurt nearly everyone.

Disheartening to be sure.

Quote of the day .два

Via BuzzFlash:

"One of the most elemental human rights [is] the right to belong to a free trade union." -- Ronald Reagan

Fucking communist...

"This is not going to be a joy ride..."

From a column by Tom Friedman:

For the last 50 years, America (and Europe and Asia) have treated the Middle East as if it were just a collection of big gas stations: Saudi station, Iran station, Kuwait station, Bahrain station, Egypt station, Libya station, Iraq station, United Arab Emirates station, etc. Our message to the region has been very consistent: “Guys (it was only guys we spoke with), here’s the deal. Keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t bother the Israelis too much and, as far as we’re concerned, you can do whatever you want out back. You can deprive your people of whatever civil rights you like. You can engage in however much corruption you like. You can preach whatever intolerance from your mosques that you like. You can print whatever conspiracy theories about us in your newspapers that you like. You can keep your women as illiterate as you like. You can create whatever vast welfare-state economies, without any innovative capacity, that you like. You can undereducate your youth as much as you like. Just keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t hassle the Jews too much — and you can do whatever you want out back.”

It was that attitude that enabled the Arab world to be insulated from history for the last 50 years — to be ruled for decades by the same kings and dictators. [...]
...

This is the vaunted “stability” all these dictators provided — the stability of societies frozen in time.

18th century? 13th? 7th? Mox nix as long as we can fill up our SUVs with cheap gas. That's just about over. The only 'despotic ruler' the oil companies and their politicians don't like is Obama, and I predict the price of gas will increase due to 'unrest in the Middle East' until at least the 2012 election. It need not go down after that if the OCs think we're used to it.

Madison police chief asks Walker to explain 'troubling' statements

Wisconsin State Journal

Madison Police Chief Noble Wray Thursday asked Gov. Scott Walker to explain his "troubling" and "unsettling" statements captured in a secretly recorded phone conversation that he "thought about" planting troublemakers among the thousands of peaceful demonstrators at the Capitol.

Walker added that it was his "biggest fear" that opposing protesters would clash last Saturday. But in the phone call with what Walker thought was a campaign supporter, the governor did not mention public safety but said such a tactic could backfire on his effort to pass his budget-repair bill.

There you have it. The right-wing agenda trumps public safety every time.

Scott Walker Is America's Asshole

The Rude Pundit has two posts on Wisconsin.

First one:

A Few Lessons Learned Regarding Wisconsin:

1. Remember: elections have consequences, as long as it's a conservative who is elected. Senate Republicans in Washington did not give a flea's fart about the consequences of the 2008 elections in blocking Barack Obama's agenda that he campaigned on and won with. [...]

2. Remember: "compromise" means that you ask nicely if Republicans can use a condom when they fuck you in the ass and then Republicans call you "whore," fuck you without one, and demand that you say you love their cocks.
...

You got that? Scott Walker would rather kick people out of their jobs than allow unions to be able to negotiate. As Rachel Maddow and other have pointed out, this is not about fiscal responsibility. It's about a naked power grab to gut one of the only means by which citizens have a voice.

3. Remember: if the majority Democratic Congress and the Democratic president are protested by the Tea Party, that's just patriots expressing the will of the people against a tyrannical government. However, if the majority Republican assembly in Wisconsin is protested by tens of thousands of workers, that's the slippery slope to anarchy.

To refer to Fixer's/CAFKIA's post: American workers (that's us, folks) are the fucking communists now.

The other one:

Scott Walker Is America's Asshole:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's eyes have the glazed over look of a man who just jacked off to a Facebook album of your niece's fifth birthday party. Actually, that's not accurate because that assumes that Walker would try to hide his proclivities. Indeed, Walker seems more like the kind of guy who'd walk into that party with a Koch Industries dildo in his ass and tell everyone to watch while he yanked it to the musical chairs songs. God help the little girl who is in the last chair. For what else do you say about a governor whose official website has a press release titled "Walker Calls Democrat Legislators Back Into State." You got that? Not "Democratic," but the politicized, insulting "Democrat" as adjective. It's like getting a note from your boss on company stationery that calls you a "cocksucker."

But, seriously, dude? If you're gonna start blaming outside agitators, are you gonna hire African mercenaries to fire on the crowds?

Nah. Closer to home. There's a former Indiana deputy AG who's looking for work who'll do that.

Quote of the Day

Wisconsin State Senator Tim Carpenter in a letter to Gov. Scott Walker:

...

Governor Walker, this tape would make Richard Nixon blush. If the recording and the items discussed by you are indeed your plans, you have no business being in public office in our State, and should resign.

...

Update:

Just thinking, I'd love to be able to listen in on the phone call when the real Koch called after this shit hit the fan. Heh ...

Christ ...

While I was at SW for the post below, I noticed this little nugget that almost slipped by.

One in three Afghan soldiers still leave the army each year, but NATO remains on track to raise the number of security forces to 305,000 by October, an alliance general said Wednesday.

...

The attrition rate among Afghan troops is "not a trend across the army," Caldwell told reporters during a visit to NATO and European Union headquarters in Brussels.

But it is particularly high among battalions facing a fierce Taliban insurgency in southern Afghanistan, the US general said, blaming the attrition in part on weak Afghan leadership. [my em]

...

Ya think? So, by next year you're gonna have to raise another 100K troops to replace the ones who split? And the year after that? And the year after that? Ya see where I'm going here?

We get all these rosy forecasts but still have to throw more troops and money at this war. We have rogue generals running I/Ops against our elected representatives instead of "winning hearts and minds". And, to top it all off, a third of the military recruits for the Afghan Army don't want to fight.

So tell me; how are we ever gonna "win" there, let alone leave?