Heh ...

Even the Nazi bastid won't meet with the Chimp.

Touch Of Grey

This is dedicated to Bush and Cheney. I'll be "Grateful" when they're "Dead".

War Crimes Investigation Ahead?

Let's hope. From the NYT:

Reacting to an ABC News report that “Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft” “discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency,” The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder says, “it remains one of those hidden secrets in Washington that a Democratic Justice Department is going to be very interested in figuring out whether there’s a case to be made that senior Bush Administration officials were guilty of war crimes.”

“Stories like these from ABC News,” Ambinder predicts, “will be as relevant a year from now as they are right now, perhaps even more so.”

Not only will it still be relevant, it will be easier to do once these war criminals are out from behind Bush's skirt AKA the now spurious and then non-existent claim of 'executive privilege'. It ain't called 'the long arm of the law' for nothing.

Some say the Dems won't pursue it out of fear of being seen to politicize the issue for their own partisan agenda. Turnabout is fair play, and we're talkin' about making an example out of WAR CRIMINALS to prevent them from being perpetrated in our name ever again.

I'm down wit' a little plain ol' payback as well, but that's just me.

Progressive Media's Next Mainstream Star

Good article about Rachel Maddow's well deserved rising popularity at AlterNet.

This quick-witted woman has shattered another glass ceiling and is taking her rightful place in the traditional boys' club of big-time politics.

[...] With her own rising radio show on Air America, coupled with regular appearances on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann program, where she is often, oddly and excellently paired with Patrick Buchanan, this self-described "35-year-old, liberal, lesbian girl-who-looks-like-a-man" is on the brink of becoming progressive media's next mainstream breakout star. One significant measure of Maddow's new-found favor: the decision by MSNBC, effective next week, to hire her as a regular panelist on its newest nightly campaign program Race for the White House -- and to allow Air America to simulcast the 6 p.m. nightly program as the first hour of its own nightly Rachel Maddow show.

I'm a huge fan of this gal. She deserves whatever she can get, and we'll all be the better for it. Enjoy.

Lyin' can be good ...

Jonny Lang - Lie to Me

Another reason ...

We're gonna be in Iraq a while longer:

...

According to the most recent reports of their personal finances, 151 current members of Congress had between $78.7 million and $195.5 million invested in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. In all, these companies received more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the budget watchdog group OMB Watch.

In 2004, the first full year after the Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers—both hawks and doves—had between $74.9 million and $161.3 million invested in companies under contract with the Department of Defense. [my em]

...

And you wonder why Congress has been toothless, even with a Dem majority. Be nice if our representatives put our interest before theirs for once.

Great thanks to Avedon for the link.

Saturday whorage

Back in the swing of things. Another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

Also, the crazy Jarhead (and our dear friend) Deuddersun has put a blog together of which I am proud to be a member of. The American Patriot Institute (see left sidebar) now has a home and all of the member veterans are contributors. Give 'em a look.

And cruise tips from Mrs. F over at our travel blog.

Anything you think we should know about? Leave your links in 'comments'.

See what I missed ...

Going into the military instead of college (not that it was my choice, heh ...):

PAHRUMP, Nev. - Nicki Amouri hands her camera to a friend, throws her arm over another and smiles wide as she leans in for a shot with the monument her class came to visit. It's a typical field trip memento — except that Amouri is in a brothel. The monument is a fluffy, queen-sized bed in a Western-themed party room reserved for VIPs and big spenders.

Amouri was one of a dozen Randolph College students who toured the Chicken Ranch, a legal bordello in the desert 60 miles outside Las Vegas. Thursday's class trip, which included seminars from the working girls, capped a course on American consumption and "the ideas that consume us."

...

Gotta love that higher education though the Air Force had a similar 'program'.

Quote of the Day - Zwei

From Raw Story via Capt. Fogg:

... "With each new revelation, it is beginning to look like the torture operation was managed and directed out of the White House," ACLU legislative director Caroline Fredrickson said ...

Listen, twits ...

Creature points up something that's been making me want to pull what little hair I have left right out:

I don't have a lot of time to flesh this thought out, but the other day I was sitting around a table with important folks at my job and John McCain came up. Much to my dismay the consensus was that, at a minimum, John McCain was a "principled" man (the same couldn't be said about Hillary, and they were unsure about Obama).

I wanted to scream, but the setting didn't allow. I did manage to mention McCain's free media pass and how he's been wrong about almost everything.

...

I too don't get how supposedly intelligent people still buy into the McCain myth. Didn't you idiots learn from that moron we have there now? Do you want more of this know-nothing, do-nothing horseshit? Come on, folks, get a grip. This also goes for Hil and Barack supporters who vow not to vote for the other. I'm gonna come and slap each and every one of you who votes for McCain instead of the Dem. Twits.

Protesting an O'Reilly Emmy

Boston's wingnuts are out of their fuckin' minds. Oh, sorry, that goes without saying.

TVNewser

Bill O'Reilly is set to receive a local Emmy award in Boston next month. But he won't, if a former fellow tabloid talker gets his way. According to the Boston Herald, Barry Nolan says O'Reilly is "a mental case," and doesn't deserve the award.

No shit. What he deserves is a ball gag and duct tape.

And it gets better. Nolan claims he will still attend the May 10 ceremony and, since his wife is out of town, he's invited Keith Olbermann as his date.

This oughta be good! Heh.

House greets new member

Think Progress

Yesterday, Jackie Speier was sworn in as Congress’s newest Democratic member from California, succeeding the deceased Tom Lantos. During her opening speech, Speier was loudly booed by House conservatives when she began speaking about Iraq. “The process to bring the troops home must begin immediately,” she said. “The President wants to stay the course, and a man who wants to replace him suggests we could be in Iraq for 100 years.” Watch it:

Hell of an opening speech, lady! Good on ya and fuck the Repugs.

MyDD has more on Speier.

Bleach Alert!

Naked German seniors star in post-9/11 Verdi opera

How to win the Iraq war debate against your dumb friends

I won that debate by tellin' 'em to take a hike. I like to hang around with folks who are only about as dumb as me. Dumber'n that is a waste of oxygen.

Scholars & Rogues

2) I’ve heard people say that being against Bush or Petraeus or the war in Iraq is equivalent to being against the troops. That’s like if I knew someone who repeatedly sent brave puppies out into traffic. I called that person an asshole for abusing the puppies and abusing their power. Then you accused me of being anti-puppy.

7) Lastly, President Bush is like a colorblind child with a Rubik’s Cube.

I think he's more like a kid with a box of matches in a fireworks factory. Unlike the colorblind kid with the Rubik's Cube, he knows exactly what he's doing.

It takes one to catch one

The other day, I called on the old hippies in Berzerkely to try and get John Yoo canned from UCB. Silly me, forgetting that demonstrations have to be so massive they slow the economy to a crawl to do any good, and Bush has already done that.

Some lawyers agree that Yoo should go:

A national lawyer's group is calling for former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo to be dismissed from his position at the University of California, Berkeley, Law School.

Yoo, who authored several controversial memos critics say authorized torture of suspected terrorists, is unfit to continue at the law school, know as Boalt Hall, according to the National Lawyers Guild.

"John Yoo's complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act," said National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.

A press release from the Guild, which was founded in 1937 as a human rights bar organization, says Yoo's memos violate US law and establish an over-broad view of presidential powers.

I think it might stand a better chance of working if we set a lawyer to catch a lawyer, but I'd like to hear something out of the American Bar Association as a whole. Yoo's actions make the few lawyers with a conscience cringe at what this clown has done to the law with his Bush-serving memos.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has invited Yoo to testify about his preparation of the controversial memos.

I hope he shows up in the same condition I've been 'invited' to court a coupla times - orange clothes and stainless steel bling from wrists to ankles. Keeps ya humble.

Note to Conyers: Don't forget to have him bring his shredder basket. We want our Constitution back.

All you need to know ...

About the BPetraeus/Crockof shiter testimony from Walt:

...

Well, Shitfire and Sweet Zombie Jesus, folks, I have "great potential" to be elected Pope - and I'm neither a priest nor a Catholic. These apparatchiks and their slimy enablers in the press keep telling us this, but they can't articulate a specific victory goal beyond nebulous shit like a "free Iraq."

...

The last paragraph of the post is a must.

Off to the shop. Thank god it's Friday. I'm not used to working. Heh ...

Moral, Family, Christian Values ...

Our pal UL:

In a typical display of time honored hypocrisy, God's Old Party, perennial defenders of wholesome Christian family values, has lobbied for extended bar hours during its five-day circle jerk in St. Paul later this summer.

...

Thing is, with all this extended drinking by the Rethugs at their convention, we'll probably get a spate of news stories documenting their bad behavior. Entertaining if nothing else.

These are the folks who have a problem with anyone else having fun, but can force a state to change their laws so they can have theirs. Imagine how they'd whine if the Dems pulled something like this.

Maybe, if they work on it, they can force states to do away with 'dry counties'.

Quote of the Day

Maru:

The popular war preznit has regained his footing... oh, I'm sorry, Mr Broder, make that "Bush's approval rating has dropped to 'Easter Bunny believer' and 'UFO abduction survivor' adherent levels."

...

What do you know ...

About John McCain? If you think he's a 'maverick' or a 'straight-talker', Nunya's got a list for ya to read:

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
4 times against it


2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
100 years in Iraq
Bomb Iran

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
More CCain hypocrisy

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
voting record

...

Ain't happening ...

For all of us who hope Chimp & Co. will face some sort of justice for their crimes, you can just about forget it:

...

And putting aside the purely legal obstacles to a prosecution for war crimes, there's also the political cost. Why would an Obama or Clinton Administration waste precious political capital early on with a politically divisive prosecution of former government officials? One can imagine the screaming of countless pundits arguing that the Democrats were trying to criminalize political disagreements about foreign policy. Such a prosecution would make politics extremely bitter and derail any chance for bipartisan cooperation on almost any significant issue. Obama or Clinton would rather get a health care bill passed, deal with the economy, or try to solve the Iraq mess, than have the first several years of their Administrations consumed by a prosecution for war crimes by officials in the Bush Administration.

...

Sounds about right to me.