2005 Beltway Dictionary

Ausgezeichnet! Sie wollen viel spass haben.*

*Don't ask, I'm tired and it just came out in German. Go there and have a laugh. I'm gonna fall asleep watching the Series.

Public opinion

Via Lurch:

LONDON (Reuters) - Forty-five percent of Iraqis believe attacks on U.S. and British troops are justified, according to a secret poll said to have been commissioned by British defense leaders and cited by The Sunday Telegraph. [my em]

[. . .]

So, almost half of 'em believe they are fighting a war against us. How do the powers-that-be think they can even make a dent in the insurgency? If the Shi'ia, Sunni, and the Kurds don't start fighting amongst themselves, they just might turn their full attention to us. If the generals think our troops have their hands full now . . . It's time to bring our people home.

Wolcott on Scooter

Scooter . . . heh*:

[. . .]

It's not enough that you've been implicated in the Valerie Plame investigation, already indicted in the media's mind, but now you're being oiled and seasoned for ritual sacrifice by your former friends and associates in the White House, people you've trusted, people who share your convictions and zeal, but now avert their eyes or tense their smiles in the presence of a dead man walking. There's the gang plank, keep moving, say hello to the sharks.

[. . .]

*Permalink is down. I'll change it when it's fixed.

Hitler Youth

Incredible.

Nano-Nano

Using the parts inside a single molecule, scientists have constructed the world's smallest car. It has a chassis, axles and a pivoting suspension. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece.

[. . .]

This is the next big thing in the health care industry and also the vehicle to build infrastructure in inhospitable climates. Just an aside, nanomachines can also be used as a weapon as I illustrated in Technocracy. Nanotechnology is the next frontier. I feel like I did when I was young, watching the Apollo missions to the Moon. Oh the possibilities . . .

Great thanks to the Renegade

The Fall of the American Empire

The British Empire, which was based on economy, failed in the end. The Imperialistic American Empire...which is based on politics, power, and military might...shall too go the way of the British Empire and fail, for politics and power last only so long.

[. . .]

Go see Ed.

Programming note

Frank Rich will be on Press the Meat tomorrow. As they say over at PSoTD:

Frank Rich, while you're on Meet the Press talking about the Fitzgerald investigation, can you ask Timmeh the hard questions about his involvement in the Plame case?

Now back to your regularly scheduled activities.

Fitz vs. Starr

Joe Conason (worth it to watch the ad and get the day pass):

[. . .]

The comparisons between Fitzgerald and Starr sound especially bizarre coming from pundits who failed to criticize the Whitewater prosecution back when their dissent might have mattered. In Slate, for instance, Jacob Weisberg accuses Fitzgerald of "Ken Starr-style foolishness" that may lead to "creative crap charges" -- presumably meaning indictments for perjury, conspiracy or obstruction of justice. And New York Times columnist John Tierney retrospectively criticizes the weakness of Starr's case against Bill Clinton.

My recollection is that Weisberg -- and others like him who now complain so bitterly about Fitzgerald -- voiced few criticisms of Starr or the Whitewater investigation. My additional recollection is that many of these same writers felt we simply must learn the "truth" about the ancient Arkansas land deal, even though it had nothing whatsoever to do with Clinton's presidency, national security or weapons of mass destruction, and therefore Starr's unpleasant methods, such as indicting various people on "creative crap charges" that had nothing to do with Whitewater, had to be accepted. [my em]

[. . .]

Hat tip: Tom

War Crimes

On Monday, October 17th Gail Davidson and Howard Rubin along with Jason Gratl and Micheal Vonn representing B.C. Civil Liberties stepped into courtroom 55 of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver with the hopes of lifting the publication ban which, since December of 2004 August, has kept the case out of the public eye. After a relatively short session of 45 minutes they emerged successful. "I don't know that I would call it a victory quite yet," said Ms. Davidson, "but it is at least a step in the right direction. People deserve to know what is happening here."

What is happening is that Ms. Davidson and Lawyers Against the War have laid charges against George Bush Jr; accusing him of aiding, abetting, and counseling the commission of torture. This charge is based on the abuses of the prisoners held at the U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Abu-Ghraib, Iraq including Canadian minor Omar Khadr, who has been held in Cuba since 2001. [my em]

[. . .]

That's going on in Canada. There are charges pending in Germany as well. Can't wait until indictments are sworn here too.

Hat tip: Cathie

Lest we forget . . .

While this blog is primarily concerned with national politics, occasionally I like to throw something up to remind us all what goes on in places where the U.S. has very little 'national interest'.

FIFTEEN months after the United Nations' Security Council issued an ultimatum to the government of Sudan to clean up its act in Darfur or face action, shocking new evidence of atrocities is emerging. Various governments have labelled the campaign of murder and forced displacement in Darfur as genocide and the UN last year described Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Yet according to the UN's own situation reports and accounts of investigations by African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces, the black African farmers targeted in the initial wave of violence continue to face the daily threat of violence.

[. . .]

Aid agencies say that without security in the region, they are powerless to help those most in need. Oxfam operates in 16 camps in Darfur but is currently unable to reach five because it is too dangerous to use the roads.

[. . .]

Unfortunately, ladies and germs, the health of Africa is in our national interest. For a bunch of folks who yell and scream about morality, our neglect of the Dark Continent is one of the most immoral positions we can hold.

We've used every excuse in the book to invade Iraq, a place that was relatively peaceful and no threat to us in the least (no, I'm not absolving Saddam of any of his sins, but sanctions were working, as Hans Blix and the U.N. proved three years ago). One line of bullshit passed by the Bushites was we were liberating the Iraqis from tyranny. What about the Sudanese? These people are dying wholesale at the hands of tyrants and we sit back and do nothing. A tenth of the expenditures in Iraq would probably be sufficient to keep the peace there and affect 'regime change', something sorely needed; a situation which should have been resolved long before we entertained any thought of invading Iraq.

And just a note to those folks who say we spend too much money on other nations. The U.S. spends a paltry .04% of our GDP on foreign aid. The international standard is .07%.

Thanks to Coalition for Darfur

Get over yourselves

Rude Pundit:

[. . .]

See, the Rude Pundit has said before, "freedom of religion" is also "freedom from religion." In other words, on your own fuckin' time, you can worship your Jesuses (whatever flavor of Christ you worship), you can be Allah-rific, you can pretend you understand the Kabbalah, you can get all nekkid and dance around yer goddess fire. There's your freedom. Enjoy. But you start to tell me shit like "I won't fill it. It's my right not to fill it" when it's your fuckin' job to fill my prescription? Then you (and any company that supports you) is engaging in a discriminatory practice as sure as a Denny's refusing to seat black people.

And until they open up "Scrips Fer Jesus" stores where God's druggists can do his will, just shut the fuck up, suck it up, and gimme my drugs.

[. . .]

Eccentricity:

[. . .]

Since Target is now hiring pharmacists who can refuse to do their jobs, I guess Target will have to live without the custom of those who prefer a competent staff instead of a moralistic one. I hope your next quarter reflects the thought that perhaps it would have been better to serve your customers than to hire those whose little feelings get in the way of doing the job.

[. . .]

I do a buncha shit at work every day that I don't like, but that's life. The day it gets to the point I feel I have to refuse to do my job is the day I find another one. Get over yourselves, you idiots, or get another job.

For the Holidays

I figured I'd spruce the place up. We'll go back to the old look after the holidays.

Better

Far better than that smiling happy idiot one.

Thanks be to Maru

Goes for me too

The Angry Old Broad is . . . angry . . . again. Heh!

[. . .]

Tell ya what pal,when Rush Limbaugh shuts up,when FOX news goes out of business,and when the cabal of criminals running the country are all in prison or rendered completely powerless,then,MAYBE I'll shut the fuck up...

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna says her pal Harry Hound has a great post up about priorities and how dogs should order their lives.

Yes, massa, I's be grateful.

Pam and Steve Gillard have posts up. Seems blacks should be grateful for slavery because that 'peculiar institution' was responsible for bringing them here, according to some wingnut black preacher. I mean, they could still be in Africa after all, right? Who'd want to live there? As I've said many times, I put black conservatives in the same boat I put gay conservatives. The name of the boat is Collaborators and it should be towed out to the target range.

Update:

Oliver Willis adds.

FYI

Stolen fully from Atrios:

Just on CNN - new Gallup poll has 45% saying country better off if Congress controlled by Dems, and 32% Republicans.

Bill Schneider helpfully pointed out that the last time Republicans had such shitty numbers was during impeachment. [my ems]

Incompetence

Oh. My. God.

Hangings

Da Yelladog:

[. . .]

The hangings were carried out during the early morning hours of October 16, 1946 in a small gymnasium erected in the prison's courtyard. Three gallows filled the room - two to be used alternatively as each condemned man was dispatched and the third to act as a spare. The executions were briskly conducted - the entire procedure lasted just over 3 1/2 hours.

I want that to be a chapter in our history too. Real soon. His post is about that slime Ralph Reed, who should also be swinging at the end of a rope.

Gee, whatever happened to....

The American Prospect

The Fitzgerald probe reminds us: Whatever happened to Pat Roberts' Phase II intelligence report?

A second problem for Rockefeller: An internal staff memo urging him to call for an independent investigation of the administration's use of Iraq intelligence was leaked to FOX News' Sean Hannity in November 2003. The resulting mini-furor that erupted in the right-wing media has contributed to Rockefeller's reluctance to act.

But the main reason he has been inhibited is that previous public comments he made apparently caused the Pentagon to abruptly stop cooperating with the investigation. At the July 2004 press conference occasioned by the release of the Phase I report, Rockefeller asserted that certain activities of members of the office of then-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, including a secret Rome meeting with the Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, might have been "unlawful." At that point, Feith's office simply stopped cooperating with the investigation, and Roberts hasn't compelled Feith or his staff to comply. "[The Defense Department] got very skittish about volunteering as they had been up to that point," an SSCI staffer told the Prospect. "They got all lawyered up. Roberts' position, and [the Defense Department's], has been either 'show us what you're talking about' or 'withdraw the statement and we'll continue our cooperation with you.' Rockefeller wouldn't do either."

Accountability may yet arrive. With press-time reports that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was homing in on a group of top White House aides for playing a role in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame to the media (in an effort to retaliate against her husband for exposing the White House's hyping of dubious Iraq intelligence) perhaps the courts will take up where Congress has failed.

And when the courts are done with that, maybe they should look at Republican Senators and Representatives under the RICO act for conspiring to ruin our country.