Happy Birthday

She's watched over us for 120 years, through good and bad. Happy Birthday, darlin'.

And just an aside: Blogger sucks wet monkey ass this morning. You get what you pay for.

Brown slams Doolittle's lack of service

Following up on Fixer's post just below this one, Congressional candidate Charlie Brown (CA-04) musta read Dem Vet and the Brain. NY Daily News:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Democratic Vietnam veteran running for Congress lashed out at his Republican opponent Friday after a series of Republican-financed attacks questioning his support for U.S. troops.

In a rare display of anger, retired Air Force Maj. Charlie Brown called Republican Rep. John Doolittle a coward who is "hiding behind the flag" and slammed him for failing to serve in Vietnam.

"While I was being shot at in Vietnam, John Doolittle was practicing his tennis game at (the University of California) Santa Cruz," Brown said during a news conference as he was surrounded by fellow veterans.

"He is not who he says he is," Robinson said. "He says he is supportive of our troops, but he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with left-wing activists at a rally sponsored by (the women's peace and social justice group) Code Pink. We think it's important for the public to know that."

Robinson did not directly address Brown's claims about Doolittle's military service record.

No shit. Tennis, anyone?

The accusation stems from Brown's appearance in January at an "Out of Iraq" forum in Sacramento, during which Penn and Sheehan were surprise guests.

"Code Pink" and "Out Of Iraq", huh? Sounds like Brown supports the troops, and Doolittle supports Bush's criminal war.

Jo Fish and Fixer are right: you Veteran candidates need to slam the dogshit out of your opponents without military service who support these war criminals and their cowardly crimes - incompetent ones at that. What the Hell, just my 2¢, but slam Vets who support this failed war and occupation for not knowing any better.

Charlie Brown for Congress

Quote of the Day

Jo Fish:

It's finally time for Jim Webb and the other veterans who have served honorably and valiantly, whether it was counting blivets or winning the Navy Cross to finally start pointing out the fact that their opponents who avoided Military Service are fucking loathsome human beings, and one of the reasons is that they (the opponent) avoided Military Service, usually with every fiber of their being. (See: Five Deferments Dick)

Baby pix

Since Gord put up his baby picture, I felt obligated. The Jarheads have better uniforms. And by the way, this was taken close to 27 years ago.

Update I:

I was digging around and found this one, taken about 4 years later, just after I arrived in SAC. That's a B-52D, by the way, which is now on static display at Peterson AFB, Colorado.



Update II:

Another baby Jarhead. Our brother Bulldog. This is turning into a thing.

'Brothels, Sex Kittens, Pedophilia?'

I rarely disagree with Maureen Dowd, but:

Republicans panicking is not a pretty sight.

Wrongamundo, my fiery-tressed vixen! It's beautiful! 'Tis a joyful sight, like watching bullies slap each other around instead of you.

Or not so pretty, like watching all the self-proclaimed he-men tossing the women and children overboard to get a place on the lifeboat.

It's your call, but I'm laughin' my ass off.

Candidates around the country have been race-baiting, gay-baiting, Michael J. Fox-baiting and Hispanic-baiting. But now it has come to this: Republicans are novel-baiting.

Still trying to recover his balance, after slipping on a macaca and admitting he was a Jewish bubba, one criticized for using racist language, displaying a Confederate flag at home and keeping a hangman's noose at his old law office, Senator George Allen of Virginia unleashed a vicious attack on Jim Webb Thursday night. He called him a fiction writer.

"You called me a what? Pistols at dawn, sir!"

"Senator Macacawitz" makes stuff up too, but he obviously doesn't grasp the fine distinction between literature and self-serving lies.

The Republicans' usual trick - having Dick Cheney terrify women into thinking that terrorists will kill their children if they vote for girly Democrats - isn't flying this year, so now the G.O.P. is resorting to more personal, and goofy, attacks.

Senator Allen may be able to hurt Mr. Webb, especially if he prints up all the steamy quotes on fliers and puts them on the windshields of Virginia churchgoers on Sunday.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fought back yesterday by putting out excerpts from G.O.P. pulp fiction. "Brothels, sex kittens, pedophilia?" they began their sampling of Republican scribblers, including Lynne Cheney, Newt Gingrich and Scooter Libby.

The Democrats also turned up a romance novel by Susan Combs, a Republican candidate for Texas comptroller. Ms. Combs wrote "A Perfect Match" about "a freckle-faced brunette," a cryptologist from the National Security Agency who falls for her "gray-eyed bodyguard" with his "powerful, strong arms" and his erotic pistol-cleaning technique. She desired him to "fill the aching void at her center" where a "deep heaviness throbbed in her belly."

It's what the Democrats' candidate, Jim Webb, would diplomatically call "a horny woman's dream."

All across the world, from the halls of power to caves in Afghanistan, there is rolling-on-the-floor, laugh-'til-your-sides-hurt glee at the desperate childish antics of the power-seekers in The Last Superpower.

It's just another entertaining American cultural export, folks, like Michael Jackson or Madonna, only a lot more pathetic.

Makes ya proud to be an American, huh?

Good for Gord

Looks like his resident Rethug has been smeared by the Abramoff taint.

Hat tip to Maru.

Interesting

MM brings up an interesting point. Is it time for another Kennedy in the White House?

You make enemies ...

Peter King Watch, J's wonderful blog documenting the follies, ineptitude, and corruption of Long Island's last surviving Republican rep, has ruffled some feathers. Some Kool-Aid drinking genius has created Mejias Watch [No link, you can get there via PKW. We don't link to Rethug idiots here at the Brain, in case you don't know. It's the only rule I have. ~ F]. I'll quote the twit though, in reference to the Newsday article I mentioned yesterday:

... Whether this was committed by the GOP or by Mejias's own people to stir up more negative publicity against the Congressman, it's revolting and undermines democracy...

I agree with him that "it's revolting and undermines democracy". Let me say, with the utmost clarity and for the record, that I have met and spoken with Dave Mejias and I know he would not use his mother in such a way. I wouldn't put my integrity, credibility, and reputation on the line for him as I have if I thought he were capable of it. Period.

Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

On novels ...

Being a moderately successful author, I guess I should put in my two cents on the issue of James Webb's sexually explicit scenes in his novels.

Here it is: So-fucking-what. It's a story, idiots.

I've dealt with gay sex, S&M sex, and a host of other proclivities that aren't my cup of tea, but my characters participate in. Do these people think sex is performed in the missionary position only, by everyone? How boring would a novel be if every character had heterosexual sex, or 'non-deviant' sex?

Or do they feel explicit sex scenes have no place in a novel?

Jim Webb writes about the military experience. As one who lived it, I've been privy to things that would probably offend most people, but that's the way it is. If you're going to set a scene, you have to show just what is going on. A buncha GIs blowing off steam in a strip joint in some Third World toilet are gonna see some strange shit (I've seen stuff I wouldn't share here or in mixed company and I'm sure the other GIs who stop here have stories of their own). For the novel to be authentic, these experiences have to be recounted for the reader to understand the situation.

I do it in Special Operations, fiction but partly autobiographical, many scenes taking place in a strip joint in Osan and an underground gay bar in Taegu, South Korea. I use ethnic slurs and language that would also offend most people, but that's the way it is. It's not what I do in life, but you can't write a scene of a conversation between two redneck assholes and make them PC at the same time. If I wrote Cletus and Jimmy Joe speaking with anger toward 'Afro-Americans' instead of 'niggers', my readers would laugh at me. When I wrote a scene between two gay men in love, unleashing their passion after having to put up with the 'dont ask, don't tell' policy of the military when they're not alone, I had to give details of their lovemaking; the reader needs it to understand the depths of the love between them. I write about characters' infidelity to their significant others, yet I don't cheat on my wife.

But the bottom line is this. It's fiction. Jim Webb's books are fiction. And authors of fiction do not necessarily engage in the behavior they write about. I'm sure the Rethugs understand this, though hypocrites like Lynne Cheney yell and scream. Turnabout would demand I believe she has her face in another woman's lap on a regular basis. Fuck 'em. After I post this, I'm going to Amazon and buy all of Jim's books and hopefully he'll return the favor. Heh ...

Virginians, vote for Jim Webb because George Allen uses the word 'nigger' all the time, and he means it.

King-sized scandal

Seems Peter King's son is a lobbyist. Seems he made money thanks to his daddy's influence. Seems daddy lied about it.

Political Cortex

Peter King Watch (here and here)

From the Mejias campaign via email:

...

An article in yesterday's Newsday ("King's son works for defense lobbying firm"), details that Sean King is a Vice President at Park Strategies, and that "Park Strategies has lucrative contracts with many big businesses to lobby on defense and homeland security spending." The article quotes Peter King as saying "[Sean King] has no clients that deal with my office." NOT TRUE. This video shows Sean King in Taiwan touting his clients, Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications, both firms that receive Homeland Security contracts.

...

Read the entire email here.

See ya, Petey ...

Dave for America

Dave's ActBlue page

It's time to end the Rethug Welfare System.

Tonkin II

Could happen. Commander Huber thinks about it:

...

Say you're in command of a U.S. Navy missile destroyer steaming in international waters off the coast of Iran or North Korea or wherever conducting blockade operations. Tensions between the U.S. and the target country are high. It's the middle of the night. You have no fixed wing or helicopter air cover. A group of three surface contacts in formation pop up on the edge of your radar horizon, coming from the direction of a known enemy port that harbors patrol boats and steaming straight toward you at flank speed. Given that innocent merchant ships don't leave port in formation at flank speed, you know these three ships have to be military patrol boats. Given the range of modern surface-to-surface weapons, you know you're already within range of theirs. You can also reasonably assume it's a given that they have you targeted; otherwise they wouldn't be steaming straight toward you at flank speed. And given the capabilities of modern surface-to-surface missiles versus your missile defense systems, it's a given that if they shoot off a volley of six or more missiles at your ship, one or more of them will hit it.

How long do you wait before you decide it's "necessary" to do it to them before they do it to you, and your ship, and the 200 plus members of your crew?

And what measure of "proportionality" does it take to do what's necessary short of whacking the patrol boats with your own surface-to-surface missiles?

...

And then you've got war with Iran.

Shameless blogwhoring

Goodbye, old friend ...

Second coming

And I'm not talking about multiple orgasms. The Jesus freaks are pissed at Chimpy because his policies are delaying Armageddon. Hey, if you wanna go that badly, gimmie a box of .30 caliber and stand up against that wall over there. Happy to oblige; like tossing the skimmer in the gene pool*.

*Leave me alone, I am German after all. Heh ...

It ain't who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes...

Go see "A sign of things to come in November" at Weazl's Revenge.

Here in California, our Secretary of State has ordered all precincts to offer the option of paper ballots.

Be sure to keep up with the latest in voting crimes at Bradblog.

Dave

Dave Mejias' new campaign commercial.


Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

Update:

Peter King's henchmen have been fucking with Dave's mom:

"Vandals took a large sign for congressional candidate David Mejias from his mother's lawn in Farmingdale Wednesday night and then plastered Elsa Mejias' car with bumper stickers for incumbent Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), according to Nassau County police. Mejias, a Nassau County legislator from North Massapequa, said, "I've been in some pretty brutal campaigns but this is ridiculous."

Lowlife bastids.

W to US: Go Cheney Yourself

I just put this up because I like it. From HuffPo:

At his press conference today [Wednesday], President Bush rallied his remaining base -- those scattered cult members who can always be counted on to agree with whatever he says. To all other Americans, his message is: It's my way, or the die-way.

If you missed the broadcast, here's the gist of it:

I'm the decider.

Except for deciding how many troops we have in Iraq, in which case, General Casey is the decider.

Except for deciding what benchmarks the Iraqis have to meet, in which case, Prime Minister al-Maliki is the decider.

Except for deciding what "getting the job done" in Iraq means, in which case, Muqtada al-Sadr and Osama Bin Laden are the deciders.

Except for deciding if it's "stay the course," or "strategy for victory," in which case Karl is the decider.

I'm looking forward to the Baker-Hamilton report. If it agrees with my strategy for victory and getting the job done, I will read it. I call this attitude "flexibility."

There's a big difference between timetables and "timetables." When I talk about them, they're good. When Democrats talk about them, what they're saying is, the terrorists should have a caliphate from Spain to Indonesia.

Some people in Washington say we're not at war. Those people are enabling cold-blooded killers. I do not question these people's patriotism, just their IQ. I will not say who they are.

If I personally did not believe that we will achieve victory in Iraq, then I would not keep your loved ones in Iraq. So the thing I want you to remember as you go to the polls is that whether American kids die in Iraq or come home to America depends totally and completely on what I, George W. Bush, personally believe.

Taxes! Taxes! Democrats are going to raise your taxes!

Ain't it the truth?

12 charged in voter scandal

Orange County CA makes the news again! From the OCRegister:

Felony charges were filed this week against 12 signature gatherers accused of registering Orange County voters as Republicans without their consent - part of a criminal probe into voter flipping.

An Orange County Register investigation in April found that more than 100 people who thought they were signing petitions to cure breast cancer and punish child molesters were duped into registering as Republicans. The signature gatherers were part of an Orange County Republican registration drive that paid up to $10 for each "convert," especially in the heated state 34th Senate District.

News of the arrest warrants brought applause from a local Republican Party battered by scandal, most recently the investigation into a threatening letter sent to Hispanic voters by congressional candidate Tan Nguyen.

Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh said his group was hurt by signature gatherers who took money for phony registrations.

"May they rot in jail for stealing from us and disenfranchising voters," Baugh said.

"Especially since they got caught and we haven't been yet," he didn't say.

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro said he hoped the arrests and Baugh's cooperation in the Tan investigation "are indicative of a new effort by local Republican Party leaders to protect the rights of all Orange County voters."

Barbaro, however, also charged that the voter-registration fraud and the threatening letter had their genesis in a local GOP that in the past was accused of allowing such misdeeds to go unpunished.

Complaints of voter flipping in Orange County shone a light on the world of signature gatherers, most of whom move from one petition drive to another. A Register investigation found that some workers had criminal records for such things as prostitution and child molestation.

Susan O'Hare, 58, of Anaheim was among the voters flipped to the Republican Party without her knowledge. O'Hare thought she was signing a petition against pedophiles before she got a taped telephone message from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"This is appalling, and I am glad they found someone to pay for it," she said Thursday. "What I really want to know is: Who is behind the whole thing?"

Court records show that independent contractor Daniel Alwin Ricca has been accused of defrauding O'Hare. Ricca was hired by then Newport Beach-based Tom Bader & Associates, which in turn was hired by the Orange County Republican Party.

Bader said Thursday that he had no control over the antics of street-level petition gatherers.

Horseshit.

"There's always the possibility somebody will try to do this," he said. "We're hoping these people never get to work in this field again."

Yeah, right. At least not for two years.

This shit goes on all over the country. I'm glad some Repugs finally got caught at it.

Why Republicans Are Running from Bush At Election Time

A little light 'must' reading from Josh Holland.

So-called "principled" conservatives -- the faux libertarian voices of the Big Business elite that's always been the real base of the Republican Party -- are in full flight from the flaming wreck the Bush administration has become.

But make no mistake: Underlying their dissent lies a massive deceit. Read between the lines, and you'll find that what really motivates them is a desperate attempt to save modern "conservatism" itself from going down with this administration. All of the libertarian rhetoric about limited government has always been a grand fraud; truly limited government is an anachronism. Perhaps it was appropriate in a time when small stakeholders toiled away in an agricultural economy, but it's simply impossible to govern a complex, modern, populous society like ours without a lot of staff.

The Big Lie -- the deceit that's won them so many elections -- is that they can offer government that's just as big, but Americans won't ever have to pay for it. All the services you want and half the taxes! Eat ice-cream all day long and never put on a pound! Who wouldn't vote for such a utopian crock?

But psychosis can be treated. And that's why so many "principled" paleoconservatives are running away from Bush like the Roadrunner from Wiley Coyote: His excesses threaten to expose the fact that the whole ideology's a sham -- that the wizard's dead and there's a little man behind that curtain.

Make no mistake: Those "principled" conservatives don't hate Bush for his spending, they hate him because he is them -- the only kind of conservative who can win an election, a Republican peddling big government and low taxes without blinking. And if Americans get a clue that modern conservatism is nothing but a bunch of economic lies gilded with some bogus "family values" and softened with a bit of morphine for the terror junkies, he can bring the whole fetid house of cards down with him.

There is much, much more in between the quotes. Please go read the rest.

The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn't Want You To See

Think Progress

NBC is refusing to air an ad for the new Dixie Chicks documentary, "Shut Up & Sing." Variety reports, "NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing that it 'cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.'"

Harvey Weinstein, who is distributing the movie, issued the following statement:

"It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is profoundly un-American."

ThinkProgress has obtained the ad NBC doesn't want you to see. Watch it:

By all means go watch it. There are also two clips at the movie site above, and you can see the actual movie trailer at YouTube as well.

I differ from the Chicks a little: I feel for them, but I'm glad that sonofabitch is from Texas and not from someplace worthwhile.

You go, girls. There are a lot of us out here who aren't ready to make nice.

This sounds too good to be true

But I hope it is. From HuffPo:

GOP Offered Blanket Plea Bargain Agreement

Attention Republicans in the Federal Government: Provide state's evidence now and guarantee yourself a reduced sentence!

This is a one-time only offer. Void as of November 7, 2006.

All prison terms from subpoenas or arrest warrants delivered beginning November 7, 2006 will be for the maximum as required by law.

Protect yourself today. First-come, first-rewarded.

This is not a gimmick! This is a real legal agreement, certified by the National Democratic Party under the official auspices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice (pending) and United States Joint Houses of Congress (pending)

Why are the Democratic Party and combined United States law enforcement agencies making such an offer? There must be a catch.

No! There is no catch. This is patriotism, good citizenship and democracy in action, to protect the beloved U.S. Constitution and your own federal government.

This offer can be made because you are not the focus of any inquiry. You may even be able to avoid prison time completely, if your evidence is strong enough. And even if you do have to serve jail time...it will be at drastically reduced sentences!!

Because you are not the focus of any inquiry.

Act NOW while you still have habeas corpus rights. Remember, law enforcement agencies can wiretap you without warrants, so your chances of avoiding arrest by rogue government bureaus have already been drastically reduced. Act NOW to protect yourself.

Do yourself a favor. Do your family a favor. Do your country a favor. Protect the United States Constitution. And guarantee yourself a reduced sentence!

Offer valid from sea to shining sea.

Expires November 7, 2006.

Now we're talkin'! Damn, I hope this is on the level, but it might be a gag. If it is, it's not funny.