Headline of the Day

Kyrgyzstan: 83 Candidates Register for Presidential Elections

I can hardly wait for their televised "debates". Those guys "debate" with AK-47s. Maybe the Repugs'll learn how to do that...

Did Osama Win?

Today's 'must read'. Andrew Sullivan.

Bin Laden hoped to provoke a civilizational war between Islam and the West. And we took the bait.

We need to understand that 9/11 worked. It worked as a tactic to induce American self-destruction, even if it failed spectacularly as a strategy to advance Al Qaeda—and its heretical message of suicidal warfare—across the globe. [...]

[...] This handful of fanatics was supposedly a greater threat than the Nazis and the Soviets. And so much of our inherited moral wisdom—such as the absolute stricture against torture and the ideal of habeas corpus—were tossed aside. Dick Cheney, the man elected vice president as a calming father figure, became the most terrified of them all. And so we joined him in fearing that Al Qaeda was on the cusp of arming itself with WMDs that could be used to end our civilization.

Bin Laden and his henchmen failed, in other words. But our own fear won. Fear stopped us, overwhelmed us, as our ra-tion-al-ity deserted us. Yes, it was understandable, given what we endured that September morning. But we need to admit that our response was close to fatal. A bankrupted America that tortured innocents and disregarded its own Constitution is barely recognizable as America.

A few fanatics with boxcutters may have brought the buildings down but it only took one neocon coward to bring the country down.

After 10 years ...

You would think, at the least, we could prevent attacks in the capitol of Afghanistan.

Rockets are being fired at the US embassy in Kabul, say police in Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed responsibliity and says the attackers are armed with rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s and suicide vests.

...

How in Hell are we supposed to "win" out in the provinces when we can't secure Kabul? How much more time, and American lives, do we need to waste trying?

If, after a decade, we haven't pacified that shithole, we're never gonna do it.

Your mission today is to protect Cheney...

Mind-boggling...

Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day’s fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it.

The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft.

Except her own plane. So that was the plan.
...

“We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Penney recalls of her charge that day. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”

There is talk that Flight 93 actually was shot down, but I don't believe a goddam thing that sonofabitch says. I don't know, of course, but the first ones sent to do it, this pilot and her C.O., didn't do it. Maybe Amelia Earhart did it.

Also see Prison Planet on this.

A Dud From ‘Darth’

Book review by John Dean. A good and quick read by a guy who knows about about malfeasance and criminality in High Places.

When I saw Dick Cheney dressed as Darth Vader to promote his new memoir, making a joke of his horrific behavior as vice president, all I could think about was how that video might play at his war crimes trial, if he ever were to undergo one. The prospect is not as farfetched as it might seem, particularly in light of his latest round of boasting about approving the use of “water-boarding” and other so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” From time to time I check in with acquaintances who are experts in international law and war crimes. They have long told me that Dick Cheney cannot risk leaving the United States, for there are a number of highly respected prosecutors in other countries who will not hesitate to charge him for his war crimes if they get the opportunity.

[...] Thus, nowhere does he acknowledge, not to mention provide any arguments to counter, the fact that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida’s goal had been to bleed and bankrupt the United States. Reading this memoir, I had the feeling that Cheney has been sucker-punched by our enemy, but has yet to realize it. Money never seems a problem to the writer of this book; rather, he takes it for granted. He is simply blinded by his arrogance and worldview.

A conservative authoritarian asshole with too much power granted him by his weakling chimp.

Headline of the Day

Newborn La Niña: An Illustrated Guide

Go see this.

The magical world of voodoo ‘economists’

Steven Pearlstein

If you came up with a bumper sticker that pulls together the platform of this year’s crop of Republican presidential candidates, it would have to be:

Repeal the 20th century. Vote GOP.

It’s not just the 21st century they want to turn the clock back on — health-care reform, global warming and the financial regulations passed in the wake of the recent financial crises and accounting scandals.

These folks are actually talking about repealing the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, created in 1970s.

Etc., etc.

What’s next — repeal of quantum physics?

Well yeah. Science, you know. A communist, or worse liberal, attack on the Bible and our God-given right to be ignorant!

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

9/11 Tapes Reveal Military Ignored Cheney’s Order to Shoot Down All Civilian Planes
And throw all Democrats in internment camps.

U.S. Has Lost $60 Billion to Waste, Fraud in Iraq, Afghanistan
School Lunch Program will be defunded to make up those losses.

Perry: No Remorse for Executing Innocent Man
Says it will deter other innocent people.

Research: Conservatives Have Larger Fear Center in Brains, Liberals Larger Decision-Making Center
Unfortunately, decisions liberals make are to compromise with hysterical conservatives.

Vocabulary Builders

chutzpah n., when the Governor of Texas cuts funding 75% for volunteer fire departments, then demands federal disaster relief to fight wildfires, while calling for cuts in government spending.

Working for the State ...

That's what I'll be doing for the next month, starting today. I'll be sitting on a New York State grand jury, earning $40/day. Light blogging today because I have to be at the state court house in Riverhead (45 mile trip) by 9 this morning. I'll be at one of 3 state courts on Long Island, Riverhead, Hauppauge, or Central Islip. I'm hoping for either Hauppauge or CI because from either one it's a 3 minute drive home for lunch.

More regular blogging tomorrow, once I figure out a routine.

Lunchtime Update:

Yay, I got Central Islip.

The most touching tribute ...

To what happened on 9/11 yesterday, was the minute of silence before every European football (soccer) game in England and on the continent. I saw quite a few American flags in the stands, especially in England, but even in France (at the Paris-Saint Germain v. Stade Brestois 29 match), even after all the mocking they've taken after that tragic day ("freedom fries", "surrender monkeys", etc. though we quickly forget we probably wouldn't have our independence without the French).

That said, there's the American Plan:

...

This Sunday, the NFL season opens in earnest on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the league, like John Boehner finding an abandoned pack of unfiltered smokes, just can’t control itself. Teams will be going all out to commemorate that horrific day ten years ago when nearly 3,000 people were killed in DC, Pennsylvania and New York City. If you think this anniversary should be remembered with somber soft voices and an air of dignity, you are going to want to keep your distance from NFL Sunday or you will lose your lunch.

...

In all the scurrying to make sure “9/11 NFL Sunday” is a day to remember, one name is strikingly absent from the press release trumpeting the day’s events: Pat Tillman. After 9/11, Tillman took the extraordinary step of leaving the NFL to join the Army Rangers. His experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan pushed him to question the official rational for the “Global War on Terror.” He read antiwar authors. He told friends that he felt the war in Iraq was “f—in’ illegal.” Then he died at the hands of his fellow Rangers in an instance of what was deemed “friendly fire.” The Pentagon and the Bush administration hid this reality from Pat Tillman’s family. The NFL, for its part, inaugurated a USO center at Bagram Airfield in Pat Tillman’s name without hinting at the complicated realities of either Tillman’s service or his betrayal at the hands of those he trusted. The NFL’s failure to highlight Tillman in this Sunday’s 9/11 tributes is in some ways a relief, but it also reads like an act of cowardice. His story is a polarizing one that Roger Goodell wants to avoid on this day of “unity.”

...

We spent the afternoon with friends who were also touched by that day.

Great thanks to GP for the link.

After 10 years, WHY?

Marines from Bravo Company 1/6 Marines move to ambush a group of retreating Taliban fighters as their previous request for an air strike was denied.
...

Marines are from B Co., 1st Bn, 6th Mar. Rgt, 2nd Mar. Div., 2nd MEF.

Thanks to keithwong1411.

Red Meat Slam Dance

Will Durst

A full complement of Republican presidential candidates gathered for the battle royale at the Ronald Reagan Library in Seamy (Simi) Valley, California. And though he was only there in spirit, the Great Communicator could easily have supplied the power for the entire proceedings had the networks harnessed him spinning in his grave like a rotisserie chicken in the middle of a power surge.

The 8 challengers for his mantle didn't just break the Gipper's 11th Commandment, "Thou shall not speak ill of other Republicans," they stomped on it with football cleats and shoved it down a sewer grate with a broken rake handle. It was a red meat, power-tie slam dance with operatic overtones.

Eyes on the prize, Newt Gingrich cautioned panel mates to keep the attacks focused on Obama, while castigating the media for trapping them in this internecine warfare. The rest of the contingent affectionately dismissed his admonition the way a group of Oakland Raider tailgaters would an elderly aunt wandering into a discussion on blitz protection. Newt Gingrich - the soul of reason. Something has gone horribly awry.

Durst has a little to say about each of the nutjobs in turn. And Huntsman.

But there's plenty of time. This was just the premier stop for the traveling abattoir. There are dozens of chances for continued bloodletting until either Perry or Romney drops from the death of 1000 cuts, or they take each other out in a murder- suicide pact. While Team Obama roots for Perry from the sidelines the same way Jimmy Carter cheered on Bonzo's sidekick back in 80. Be careful what you wish for.

Murder-suicide would be good. The difference is, Reagan may have been sane. A Bachmann-Paul candidacy would not, but it'd be fun to watch.

Been there, done that...

The Daily Mail

It's a situation many can sympathise with - having one too many and attempting physical feats you'd never consider while sober.

But in this case the shamed boozy culprit was not human, but a moose who had become stuck several feet off the ground in an apple tree.

The inebriated creature managed to trap itself amongst the branches of the tree in Gothenburg after apparently becoming drunk while eating fermented apples.
...

Boozing mooses are not uncommon in Scandinavia...

Must be the socialism.

The Years of Shame

Paul Krugman

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

It would help a lot to lock up some of the perpetrators of the post-atrocity atrocities that took the nation down.

My greatest hope ...

10 years after September 11th, is that we finally begin to learn from the mistakes we've made over the past decade. I want to be as proud of my country again as I was of my fellow New Yorkers (one especially) 10 years ago.

See you all tomorrow.

Stop or I'll sue ...

Now this is the Jesus I'm talking about:

Jesus Christ filed a lawsuit today in the New York Supreme Court against the Republican National Committee for what he is calling "egregious misrepresentation of his statements and image."

...

[Mr. Christ's attorney:] Our client isn’t telling the GOP what their agenda should be, he simply wants them to stop using his name when their actions contradict everything he stood for.

If the GOP would like to continue using his name they have to start making a significant effort to help the poor and the sick, instead of the rich, and start promoting a more peaceful agenda."

...

I admire Mr. Christ's restraint, as opposed to having his daddy do some smiting, though it would be more entertaining than a dry civil suit. Heh ...

Thanks to our friend Montag for the link.

'Credible Threats' Made to US Government

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) September 10,2011 – The Department of Homeland Security said today that it was studying several "credible threats" made to the United States government in a two-hour broadcast Wednesday night from a location believed to be the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

Homeland Security spokesman Harland Dorinson said that the Department did not want to alarm the American people, "but whenever you have a group of individuals threatening to dismantle the US government piece by piece, it has to be taken seriously."
...

While stopping short of saying that the speakers were engaged in some sort of jihad, Mr. Dorinson did note that a tone of religious extremism dominated the video.

"One speaker in particular, seemed bent on rolling back the advances of science and plunging America back into the Dark Ages," he said.

But the most terrifying moment in the tape came when that same speaker received thunderous applause from the audience after threatening to execute people.

"We're posting pictures of this individual on our website," Mr. Dorinson said. "Hopefully he will be captured before he can carry out any of his plans."

Dead or alive.

On the 9/11 Memorial

I have heard "9/11" in some way, shape, or form Every. Single. Day. for the last 10 years, more when Giuliani is running for something.

How about a fucking DAY OFF from it instead?

First Repuglican Discovered!

The background:

Kos

This week in Republican science... same as every other week in Republican science, really. Since experts can't be trusted, science journals are propaganda, and evidence is not, you know, evidence. That's why we'd like to bring you segment 1323 of our ongoing series "chipped stone tools, why they will never replace traditional pointy sticks."
...

The announcement this week of the remarkable hominid fossils found in South Africa, brought us a refined picture of our family tree.

John Timmer at ars Technica admits worries about the GOP hatred for knowledge.

Personally, I wouldn't vote for a candidate who rejects science and expertise, and as a voter, I'd like to have a viable choice between two qualified candidates. At the moment, it's looking like I won't.

What would the world be like if we had two parties living in reality, offering policies based on reason? Maybe another few million years of evolution will get us there.

Don't bet on it. The money shot:

Based on the most complete hand specimen ever found, Au. sediba had an extra-long thumb and powerful fingers, which it could have used to make tools despite still having a small ape-like brain.

The first Repuglican? I rest my case.

The question remains: did Jesus bury this specimen and the dinosaurs and dig the Grand Canyon all by himself 6000 years ago or did he have help?

I'd like answers too ...

Via Avedon, "The 10 unanswered questions of 9/11."

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but there are far too many inconsistencies in all the post-event investigations. I don't know about anybody else, but if I ever find out that someone let 9/11 happen, or it was orchestrated from within, I'm gonna get my pound of flesh.