Several years ago, I got a bunch of signatures on a petition to put Chesty Puller on a stamp. It finally happened. His stamp, along with three others, was issued on 10 November 2005. I tried to get them at my local post office but they never got them. I went to Reno the other day and the gal at the 'big city' Post Office had a drawer full of them. Click the links for a picture of the stamps and a bio of each of these distinguished Marines:
GySgt."Manila John" Basilone - Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal, KIA on Iwo Jima.
SgtMaj. Dan Daly - Famous for the phrase "Come on you sonsabitches! Ya wanta live forever?" at Belleau Wood in WWI.
LtGen. John A. LeJeune - Considered the father of the modern Marine Corps. His Birthday Message of 1921 is still read aloud on Marine Corps Birthday.
BGen. Lewis B. Puller - What can I say? Good night, Chesty, wherever you are.
I put the enlisted men first because that's what good officers do.
Buy some stamps too. Don't worry - they're self-stick. I checked before I bought 'em. It makes me a little queasy to think of turnin' Marines over and lickin' 'em! Shouldn't bother you squids though! (wink)
Saturday, January 7, 2006
Let Us Prey...
Joe Conason on DeLay, Abramoff, the religious right, and what the Bible says about bribery.
Worth a read.
Jack Abramoff and his deeply religious right-wing cronies express their "biblical worldview" by swindling Indian tribes and bribing legislators. Verily, mysterious are the ways of the Lord.
Worth a read.
Ultra AP
No, not a jazzed-up news agency, this refers to a new armored vehicle under development by some former NASCAR engineers along with the Office of Naval Research and others. Interesting, and long overdue.
We need this to replace the aging Humvees. They are twenty years old and over their gross weight with the addition of 5000 pounds of armor. They accelerate
like a granny in a crosswalk, and their top speed is about the same. They average a breakdown every 300 miles. Due to the weight, they blow a lot of tires. Yeah, like I'd sure wanta put on the spare in Fallujah. Not. This info is from the 2/05 Car & Driver, but I couldn't link to it.
We need this to replace the aging Humvees. They are twenty years old and over their gross weight with the addition of 5000 pounds of armor. They accelerate
like a granny in a crosswalk, and their top speed is about the same. They average a breakdown every 300 miles. Due to the weight, they blow a lot of tires. Yeah, like I'd sure wanta put on the spare in Fallujah. Not. This info is from the 2/05 Car & Driver, but I couldn't link to it.
Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment
Mother Jones
Yes, but Halliburton is doing quite well, thank you.
Go read. This one'll piss ya off.
The Pentagon spends $1 billion a day. So why do US soldiers have such shoddy combat supplies?
Reports from the Army's Natick Soldier Center and its Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and the Marine's Systems Command Liaison Team in Iraq, all from 2002 and 2003, tell us, for example, troops' "dislikes," including uniforms that rip easily, eyewear that fogs up and fits poorly under helmets, and boots that blister, crack, and burst, and are "poor for movement," or as in one soldier's e-mail are "truly awful and also painful."
Troops buy some equipment with their own money, usually because Government Issue performs poorly. Such items include gloves, socks, flashlights, padding for backpacks, "CamelBak" hydration systems, and weapons cleaning equipment. Banal items? Perhaps to us back home, but certainly not for Soldiers fighting in the winter mountains of Afghanistan and the desert heat of Iraq, doing whatever it takes to keep their bodies and their weapons working.
Yes, but Halliburton is doing quite well, thank you.
Go read. This one'll piss ya off.
YESSS!
NYTimes
They say you meet the same people on your way down as you did on the way up. This is his second step. Note to the Bug Man: make sure your flyswatter is clean and oiled.
Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay on Saturday abandoned his bid to remain as House majority leader, clearing the way for leadership elections among Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal.
They say you meet the same people on your way down as you did on the way up. This is his second step. Note to the Bug Man: make sure your flyswatter is clean and oiled.
Clueless
What the fuck passes for leadership at the Pentagon? I mean, I realize they blew it in Iraq, but by golly, I figured it was a matter of numbers (force strengths vs. number of insurgents). It seems they had no fucking plan at all.
WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.
...
Link via DR.
The difference between conservatives
The Chimp probably thought he had an ally in 'Old Europe' when the Germans elected the conservative Angela Merkel as their new Chancellor. Heh, they ain't a bunch of wingnuts like they are here. They've been there and done that, so to speak:
When it comes to the 'War on Terror', we are way out of the mainstream.
...
Just days before she is due to visit the United States for the first time since becoming German chancellor, Angela Merkel has come out with heavy criticism of US tactics in the fight against terrorism, specifically calling for the US to close its Guantanamo Bay prison camp and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.
Merkel, in an interview the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday, said: "An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term. Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners."
...
When it comes to the 'War on Terror', we are way out of the mainstream.
Thanks to AVA for the link.
Critical thinking
A great post I came across on An Athiest Soldier:
Wilson Kolb suggested the following:
You should do a posting about whether or not the military is one big nest of Republicans, other than a few scattered people like yourself. I'm curious as to whether the whole thing is as redneck as we've all been led to believe by the rightwingnut milblogs. Are the soliders really THAT propagandized?
My Answer:
...
Friday, January 6, 2006
Shitting their pants
Ha-ha!
And where she stops, nobody knows...
Update:
And since we're talking about congressweasels:
They don't know where to run first.
Washington's power players have always bragged about being well-wired, but for disgraced former congressman Duke Cunningham, "wired" wasn't just a figure of speech. In a week when legislators are focused on the question of who else might be brought down by ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's cooperation with prosecutors as he seeks lenient sentencing over his two federal guilty pleas this week, sources tell TIME that in a separate investigation, ex-Rep. Cunningham wore a wire to help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping his own plea.
...
The identity of those with whom the San Diego congressman met while wearing the wire remains unclear, and is the source of furious - and nervous - speculation by congressional Republicans... [my em]
And where she stops, nobody knows...
Thanks to Susie for the link.
Update:
And since we're talking about congressweasels:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About two dozen Republicans have promised to sign a petition calling for elections to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay as majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, aides said on Friday.
...
They don't know where to run first.
Wal-Mart again...
This one takes the fucking cake for cultural insensitivity, or blatant racism, or both. From the EssEffChron:
I got nothing against a little ethnic humor. I know jokes that could get me killed if I lost my mind and told 'em where they could hurt people's feelings. This one's no joke, and it ain't funny.
It's a little too pat to be an 'accident', seems to me. Some computer clerk is probably laughin' his scrawny white ass off at his 'porch monkey' gag.
I got a good gag for ya: find this prick and drop him off in Oakland. Or Harlem. Better yet, CAFKIA's house. We'll see just how funny it is to those guys.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a "Planet of the Apes" DVD to films about famous black Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Wal-Mart said Thursday it had removed what it called the "offensive combinations" from a walmart.com page advertising a boxed DVD set, "Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series."
Under a "similar items" section, the DVD set's page linked shoppers to four films about the lives of King, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner. Wal-Mart later altered the page to link with television show DVDs.
I got nothing against a little ethnic humor. I know jokes that could get me killed if I lost my mind and told 'em where they could hurt people's feelings. This one's no joke, and it ain't funny.
It's a little too pat to be an 'accident', seems to me. Some computer clerk is probably laughin' his scrawny white ass off at his 'porch monkey' gag.
I got a good gag for ya: find this prick and drop him off in Oakland. Or Harlem. Better yet, CAFKIA's house. We'll see just how funny it is to those guys.
It's not just the NSA, folks...
The Tacoma News Tribune has some disturbing news:
Yeah, right. We know how much respect this government has for the law. I feel a lot better now.
I think Bush musta found Nixon's playbook under the stairs. Damn good place to hide booze.
As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service (my em) collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states
"The bottom line is that we have never used this information," said John Lipold, an IRS spokesman. "There are strict laws in place that forbid it."
Yeah, right. We know how much respect this government has for the law. I feel a lot better now.
Murray said she learned about the problem from the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelly. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.
"This agency should not have that type of information," Murray said in a telephone interview from Seattle. "No one should question whether they are being audited because of party affiliation."
Kelly said Thursday that several IRS employees had complained to the union about the practice. She said IRS officials weren't even aware of it until she wrote them in late December.
"We think Congress should suspend IRS plans to use private collections agencies until these questions have been resolved," she said.
According to Murray's office, the 20 states in which the IRS collected party affiliation information were Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
I think Bush musta found Nixon's playbook under the stairs. Damn good place to hide booze.
More on Amanpour spying
Americablog has a report on CNN picking up the report of spying on Christiane Amanpour.
Hey, NSA, I'll save ya money and grief: Lemme spy on her for ya. There's something about politically savvy, intelligent, international beauties with more balls than a pachinko parlor that floats my boat. A pair of binoculars and a ladder is all the high-tech I'd need!
Hey, NSA, I'll save ya money and grief: Lemme spy on her for ya. There's something about politically savvy, intelligent, international beauties with more balls than a pachinko parlor that floats my boat. A pair of binoculars and a ladder is all the high-tech I'd need!
Robertson off his game...
Swiped this from Bottomfeeder, an aptly named blog if there ever was one:
Click the links. This one will make your day. My face turned blue from laughing, so I'm going to suck oxygen now.
Is Pat Robertson Losing It?
It may have sounded like vintage Pat Robertson, when the ABC Family cable network star and founder of the Christian Coalition suggested that God smote Ariel Sharon in divine retribution for "dividing God's land."
In fact, this latest outburst shows us that the Rev. Pat is seriously off his game. How else to explain his failure to link Sharon's catastrophic stroke with the rampant scourge of interspecies marriage in the Holy Land?
However, it's good to know that someone had his back on this vital issue.
Click the links. This one will make your day. My face turned blue from laughing, so I'm going to suck oxygen now.
So what's "Crazy Howie" up to these days?
Via Kos, an update on Howard Dean's efforts to rebuild the Democrats.
Ha! Fat chance! Go read. Here's a taste:
It sounds to me like he's doing a methodical job of building up the grass roots network of grunts necessary to get Dems elected. This is good.
Now all we need is a message. Dean is leaving that to others. That's OK, but they better get on the stick.
The National Journal's subscription-only Hotline has a good piece on what Dean has accomplished. The sort of piece you won't see in the WaPo or other publications too busy pushing the "Dean is insane and ineffective" storyline.
With permission from the publication, here it is in whole:
Ha! Fat chance! Go read. Here's a taste:
Dean's defenders say he's making good on his pledge. The DNC has trained 136 new organizers and sent them to 30 states, and by the end of 3/06, party officials say every state's precinct training program will be up and running. In WV, the party now employs four full-time organizers. Recalcitrant county chairs are warming to their presence; one small county that had zero precinct captains in 2004 has twelve today.
"That may not seem like a huge step," says Parag Mehta, the DNC's director of training, "but in that party of West Virginia, where Democrats were afraid to put up yard signs for fear of being taunted, suddenly, there's a Democratic presence."
It sounds to me like he's doing a methodical job of building up the grass roots network of grunts necessary to get Dems elected. This is good.
Now all we need is a message. Dean is leaving that to others. That's OK, but they better get on the stick.
Show and tell
We all know this was pure theatre and nothing more, don't we?
They could have at least made it look good and blown an hour or so.
...
But if it was a bipartisan consultation, as advertised by the White House, it was a brief one. Mr. Bush allowed 5 to 10 minutes this morning for interchange with the group - which included three veterans of another difficult war, the one in Vietnam: Robert S. McNamara, Melvin R. Laird and James R. Schlesinger. Then the entire group was herded the Oval Office for what he called a "family picture." [my em]
...
They could have at least made it look good and blown an hour or so.
Is it me?
Or is the Blogger word verification for comments getting a bit out of hand. Soon I'll be typing the whole alphabet before I can post a comment on somebody's blog.
Friday Cattle Dog Blogging
Princess Shayna waits for the toy she tossed upward to return to Earth.
Thursday, January 5, 2006
It gets better
Didn't that lying little prick Snot McClellan say Bush only met Abramoff in passing, at a couple parties on the Jewish holidays? Um, no:
So, a crook lobbyist attends WH staff meetings? Hmmm...makes ya think, don't it?
...
Q Any update on the Abramoff visits to the White House beyond the three parties that he attended?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I indicated yesterday that I think there were some -- a few staff-level meetings. But, no, I'm making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that. And I'll get that to you, hopefully very soon. [my em]
...
So, a crook lobbyist attends WH staff meetings? Hmmm...makes ya think, don't it?
Thanks to Maru for the link.
Fightin' words
This is what I like to see. Dems with balls.
My colleague at Democrats.com, Bob Fertik, never one to shy away from a fight, has called Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman out and challenged him to a public debate on the merits of impeaching George W. Bush.
...
Cold showers?
California is proudly leading the way again. Like a family man who screws himself out of a place at the dinner table, so is California screwing its way to disastrous overpopulation. What to do, what to do? From the EssEffChron:
I think when kids get taught that 'abstinence only' shit, they know they're being fed a line, and ignore it. Tell 'em the truth and they'll listen, if just for a refreshing change from business as usual.
As Californians proliferate with rabbit-like efficiency, the state's residents are surprisingly of one mind about how to deal with overpopulation. Whether they're liberal Democrats or evangelical Christians, they favor sex education and access by the young to birth control.
In an endeavor that gives new meaning to the term phone sex, researchers spent two weeks last month calling about 2,500 people around California, asking them about things such as contraceptives, abortion, teen pregnancy, morning-after pills -- and even politics.
"I was most surprised by the fact that most Californians don't fully appreciate the role of births in population growth," Baldassare said. "One other thing that struck me is the broad consensus for programs that promote birth control and sex education -- support across racial and ethnic and regional and political categories to make birth control accessible and available."
The single greatest contributor to the state's population increase is births to residents -- almost half in recent years have been to immigrant women. There have been about 500,000 births annually in California in the 2000s, and the rate is projected to stay at that level, or rise above it, for the next decade.
Those who know something about sex or young people, or both, have their own thoughts on how to remedy overpopulation.
"Break the egg!" said Jane Tollini, who produced the most prolific captive penguin colony in the world during her years at the San Francisco Zoo. "Make an omelet."
When she realized the subject was people rather than seabirds, Tollini said, "I don't know -- cold showers?"
"We've already seen a huge change in society locally with condom use," he said. "When they teach that if you don't use condoms you're going to die, or you'll get pregnant and your life will be ruined, it is effective.
"If you don't teach that, kids can't make an informed decision. Kids are smart -- they're smart, but they're ignorant."
I think when kids get taught that 'abstinence only' shit, they know they're being fed a line, and ignore it. Tell 'em the truth and they'll listen, if just for a refreshing change from business as usual.
The false god of ideology
It's a little unsettling to have to be reminded of this by a German. From an editorial in the LATimes:
Danke, Helmuth.
He reminded me that fear and rigid ideology are the enemies of freedom. "Democratic capitalism can sometimes leave people feeling extremely insecure," he said. "But freedom and democracy are always more important than the temptation to have more security." Particularly in these days, he thought, Americans need to remember that.
Danke, Helmuth.
Just another phony christian...
Local news from KOCO, Okie City:
I don't care if the guy wants to stick his dick in a woodchipper, and I'm not a huge fan of the cops setting up John stings. I'm a supporter of legalized prostitution, but that's for another time.
What this article shows, on the surface, is just one more example of a supposed christian saying one thing and doing another. I think we're kinda used to that. No big deal, other than it's fun when they get caught at it.
What gets me is the last sentence of the quote. Therein lies the real hypocrisy. It shows the true nature of the phony christians.
What's a "man of God" doing riding around in a '05 Mercedes? If he were truly a "shepherd to his flock" he'd be driving a ten-year-old pickup* filled with food and clothing for the less fortunate among God's children, purchased with the money he gave the M-B salesman. Apparently, he doesn't have any "less fortunate" parishioners of his own if they donated enough to get that ride, but I'm sure he could find some.
I don't think much of the Southern Baptist Convention either. Money, power, subjugation of women, homobigotry, and political influence ain't really in line with the Beatitudes. Buncha fuckin' phony poseur con men.
When these guys finally appear at the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter hands 'em an asbestos thong, grins, and points to the elevator, maybe they'll get the message.
*
An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said.
Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.
Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said.
I don't care if the guy wants to stick his dick in a woodchipper, and I'm not a huge fan of the cops setting up John stings. I'm a supporter of legalized prostitution, but that's for another time.
What this article shows, on the surface, is just one more example of a supposed christian saying one thing and doing another. I think we're kinda used to that. No big deal, other than it's fun when they get caught at it.
What gets me is the last sentence of the quote. Therein lies the real hypocrisy. It shows the true nature of the phony christians.
What's a "man of God" doing riding around in a '05 Mercedes? If he were truly a "shepherd to his flock" he'd be driving a ten-year-old pickup* filled with food and clothing for the less fortunate among God's children, purchased with the money he gave the M-B salesman. Apparently, he doesn't have any "less fortunate" parishioners of his own if they donated enough to get that ride, but I'm sure he could find some.
I don't think much of the Southern Baptist Convention either. Money, power, subjugation of women, homobigotry, and political influence ain't really in line with the Beatitudes. Buncha fuckin' phony poseur con men.
When these guys finally appear at the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter hands 'em an asbestos thong, grins, and points to the elevator, maybe they'll get the message.
*
Just as an aside, my local pastor, Father Francisco, drives a Subaru that truly demonstrates the power of prayer. That old rattletrap has every mechanic in town praying for it. Ha!
This is Seriously F-upped
Bus line debuts tour of stricken city
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - An international bus line launched tours of devastated sections of New Orleans on Wednesday, amid controversy over whether so-called disaster tourism would help, hurt or humiliate the hurricane-ravaged city.
Two sold-out Gray Line tour busses slowly prowled along the city's broken levees, through its rubble-strewn streets and past the heavily damaged Superdome where desperate residents took shelter when Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29 and most of the city flooded in the aftermath.
Plans for the "Hurricane Katrina - America's Worst Catastrophe" tour, at $35 per person, prompted debate over whether it is appropriate or exploitative to turn devastation into a tourist attraction.
Gray Line, which runs more than 150 tours around the world, plans to donate $3 of each New Orleans ticket to charity. The three-hour tour will run once a day, Wednesday through Sunday.
"Gray Line thought long and hard before making the decision to send this tour out,"
Yo jackasses:
Stay home and donate the $35 to a charity - you'll sleep better at night. And as for the ghouls masquerading as Gray Line employees? Obviously you didn't think at all except about lining your pockets.
Duh
The WH is spying on journalists and the corporate press is in their pocket.
How much you wanna bet we find they've been spying on the Democrats, namely the Kerry campaign last year? It's just conjecture on my part, so far, but I feel comfortable making the prediction.
Update:
More via Jane.
...Mitchell: You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?
Risen: No, no I hadn't heard that.
Now the second question and its answer have been deleted. Which of course just strengthens the rumors that Amanpour might have been spied on.
How much you wanna bet we find they've been spying on the Democrats, namely the Kerry campaign last year? It's just conjecture on my part, so far, but I feel comfortable making the prediction.
Update:
More via Jane.
Post Sharon
Ariel Sharon's stroke last night changed the face of Israeli politics in an instant. The Head Heeb has an excellent essay up on the effects of the sudden power vacuum created when Sharon went down.
For those who say Israeli politics doesn't affect us, think again. As my man Lurch says, with Bush in office, the mission of the U.S. is to protect Israel to the last man. Believe it.
...
And then there's the potential spillover to the other election - the one in the Palestinian Authority. Israeli and Palestinian politics have been inextricably intertwined for years, and never more so than now. Sharon's disability is bound to affect the Palestinian electoral balance; the only question is how. The Palestinians might view the situation as a political opening - they remember Sharon less for the Gaza withdrawal than for the settlements and Sabra-Shatila, and a conciliatory centrist like Olmert or an unknown quantity like Livni might carry less emotional baggage and spur the hope of a return to negotiations. In that event, Fatah might benefit at the polls. On the other hand, if the Palestinian electorate sees a moment of Israeli weakness, or if it looks like Kadima is collapsing and Netanyahu is gaining the upper hand, then the spoils might go to Hamas.
So there we have it - a single stroke has created a multitude of unknown quantities. Two weeks from now, Israel might still be in a three-way race between Avoda, Likud and an only-somewhat-weakened Kadima, or it might be facing an uncertain Peretz-Bibi battle with the center fading and political fragmentation returning with a vengeance. The mercurial Palestinian electorate, for its part, could swing toward either moderation or radicalism. The one thing in which there will be some guarantee of continuity is the caretaker government, where Olmert's experience and moderation will provide the country with a steady hand. But that is the only blessing that Israel can count on tonight.
For those who say Israeli politics doesn't affect us, think again. As my man Lurch says, with Bush in office, the mission of the U.S. is to protect Israel to the last man. Believe it.
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
No such thing...
...as global warming. This via Bob Harris:
As Bob says:
AUSTRALIA is being pressed to come to the rescue of drowning Pacific islands which face a homeless crisis due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.
With predictions sea levels could rise by up to 32 centimetres by 2050, a number of Pacific islands could be rendered uninhabitable within a decade.
...
As Bob says:
...
It must be nice to be a U.S. "conservative" and live in a dreamworld where this simply isn't happening.
"60% of what you say is crap!"
Go watch Letterman v. O'Lielly at Crooks and Liars. Listen for how O'R pronounces MI-6. Yeesh.
Confessions of a Bush hater
Via Maru, an excellent post at Pensito Review:
...
The president's incompetentce is compounded by his blindness to it. He lacks the mental discipline to undertake analysis or introspection, which renders him befeft of the fundamental tools required to take corrective action when he makes mistakes.
Basic communications skills are another minimum requirement for the presidency in the TV age. But this president is hands down the worst public speaker in modern politics. His speechifying style is bizarre. The ... staccato ... way he ... talks ... grinds on the brain of the listener. He sounds like Capt. James T. Kirk doing a hillbilly accent with a mouth full of marbles.
...
...the sailor, home from the sea...
A little sea time got that old squid Dem Vet refreshed and re-fired. Just go read 'til your eyes hurt. A sample about "Preznit Tinpot Commissar":
I hope they put that one on during the Superbowl!
Other than the fact that he either skipped, slept or was hung-over or stoned during High School civics, he just never seems to get the part where he's not the King. I guess he figures that all his political capital will help him bully congress into submission.
Whining is particularly unattractive in grown men. But then, alot of what makes Bunnypants such a loser is unattractive, so what's another negative? Such a fucking loser. I wonder how much "buyers remorse" there really is?
We'll find out in November, and that'll be here sooner than we think. A whining Penis-With-Ears will make a great campaign commercial...
I hope they put that one on during the Superbowl!
Mine disaster, Abramoff, intertwined at their roots...
Attytood connects these seemingly disparate stories as being the fruit of the poisonous Republican tree.
After you read this, I'll bet your resolve to get rid of these bastards multiplies by an order of magnitude. Mine did.
Don't look past the big picture. The roots of the horrific events underneath the earth in timeworn West Virginia, and the scandal on the tony sidewalks of Washington's K Street, are as deeply intertwined as those aspens out west, maybe more so. It's a connection that can be summed up in three simple words:
Republicans gone wild.
But until people make that connection between the corruption on one end of the American political pipeline and the human misery on the other end, these problems will linger in the air like toxic coal dust.
After you read this, I'll bet your resolve to get rid of these bastards multiplies by an order of magnitude. Mine did.
The CIA couldn't throw a beer party in a brewery...
LATimes:
And just to be fair (chortle!):
And then:
Lemme see if I get the gist of this. They gave Iran bomb plans, flawed ones to be sure, but bomb plans. They hired one of those oh-so-trustworthy Russians to deliver them who then snitched them off, and then they gave away the names of our agents to an Iranian double agent. That about cover it?
I think if Fixer had come up with a plot line like that, he would have thrown it out as being too unbelievably far fetched. If truth is stranger than fiction, I think the CIA is stranger than truth.
It seems the CIA's best qualities are stupidity and incompetence. Throw in a little high-level obsequiousness to Bush and Cheney and you've got a real witches' brew of national disaster.
I think it's high time to can Goss and upper management, and promote some mid-level guys who cankick some ass restructure the Agency just a little, you know, so it doesn't step on its dick all the time. Or disband it.
Update:
BuzzFlash has more on Mr. Risen's book.
I betcha it'll sell like hotcakes.
In a clumsy effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the CIA in 2004 intentionally handed Tehran some top-secret bomb designs laced with a hidden flaw that U.S. officials hoped would doom any weapon made from them, according to a new book about the U.S. intelligence agency.
But the Iranians were tipped to the scheme by the Russian defector hired by the CIA to deliver the plans and may have gleaned scientific information useful for designing a bomb, writes New York Times reporter James Risen in "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration."
And just to be fair (chortle!):
The CIA added its own criticism Tuesday, saying the book contains "serious inaccuracies."
And then:
David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the IAEA, agreed with the other expert that the plans could have shaved many years off Iran's nuclear effort.
"I wouldn't call it a colossal failure" by the CIA, said Albright, now president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. "But I don't quite understand the purpose of it, why you would want to hand something like this to the Iranians. It's unlikely to work."
According to the book, the CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear effort came on the heels of another massive intelligence failure, in which a CIA officer mistakenly sent an Iranian agent a trove of information that could help identify nearly every one of the spy agency's undercover operatives in Iran.
The Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian authorities. They used it to dismantle the CIA's spy network inside the country and arrest or possibly kill an unknown number of U.S. agents, the book says.
Lemme see if I get the gist of this. They gave Iran bomb plans, flawed ones to be sure, but bomb plans. They hired one of those oh-so-trustworthy Russians to deliver them who then snitched them off, and then they gave away the names of our agents to an Iranian double agent. That about cover it?
I think if Fixer had come up with a plot line like that, he would have thrown it out as being too unbelievably far fetched. If truth is stranger than fiction, I think the CIA is stranger than truth.
It seems the CIA's best qualities are stupidity and incompetence. Throw in a little high-level obsequiousness to Bush and Cheney and you've got a real witches' brew of national disaster.
I think it's high time to can Goss and upper management, and promote some mid-level guys who can
Update:
BuzzFlash has more on Mr. Risen's book.
Well, this is a book that is causing an enormous stir, even though the public and reviewers haven't even seen it yet. The right wing is already trashing it from here to eternity on the Internet -- and these bimbos haven't seen a copy, not a one! So you know it's hot.
It's a testament to how far the NYT has sunk that it was forced to pop a story about criminal behavior in the White House because a book by one of its own reporters was going to beat it to the punch. That's pathetic.
I betcha it'll sell like hotcakes.
Tell the Senate: Investigate illegal wiretapping before the Alito hearings.
Here's a letter at Working For Change that you should sign.
[cough] Heh [cough, cough]
Rhode Island became yesterday the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana...
Read.
Why yes, officer, I'm treating for glaucoma prophylactically.
When mama's happy...
...Everybody's happy. I learned this a long time ago, and I don't mean kissing your woman's ass. I mean treating a woman with respect and as an equal. When you shit on a woman (especially one who hasn't been beaten into submission, literally or figuratively), you can expect a load of shit to come back at ya. To wit:
Heh...All it takes is one wronged woman to bring down an Empire.
...
What many people didn't realize at the time, however, is that during the Powell interview Miller was upset because her fiancee, Michael Scanlon, had broken off their engagement, two of Miller's former State Department co-workers said. While still engaged to Miller, Scanlon had started an affair with a manicurist and broke up with Miller because he planned to marry the other woman, three of Scanlon's former associates at DeLay's office said. They added that the two had numerous public arguments.
But Miller had something on Scanlon. He confided in her all of his dealings with Abramoff, former colleagues said. She saw his emails and knew the intimate details of his lobbying work-work which is now the center of a criminal fraud investigation. After the breakup, Miller went to the FBI and told them everything about Scanlon's dealings with Abramoff, her coworkers added. [my em]
...
Heh...All it takes is one wronged woman to bring down an Empire.
Great thanks to Dave.
Why
John explains why Lardass has become a Republican suck boy (see Gord's post below):
Also a handy chart of who got what.
Hardball's Chris Matthews, FOX's Tony Snow and Britt Hume helped raise money for shady Abramoff charity
Also a handy chart of who got what.
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
More popcorn
It's all coming down:
Is that the sound of hammers in the distance? I believe I hear them building the gallows.
...
Also of interest: Steven Griles, former number two at the Dept. of the Interior; Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT); Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and his wife, Julie; two of DeLay's former top deputies, Edwin A. Buckham and Tony C. Rudy; and DeLay's wife, Christine. Also in the crosshairs are Tony Rudy's wife Lisa and Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA).
...
Is that the sound of hammers in the distance? I believe I hear them building the gallows.
Tempus fugit...
Obituary in the LATimes
From men of a certain age (ahem!) who got their first inklings of sexual pleasure with that picture held proudly aloft in one hand, a reverent moment of silence.
Vaya con Dios, Candy.
Candy Barr, 70; 1950s Stripper and Stag Film Star Personified the Joy and Danger of Sex
Barr developed her trademark costume - 10-gallon hat, pasties, "scanty panties," a pair of six-shooters and cowboy boots (my em) - and quickly became a favorite with fraternity boys, Dallas crime figures, businessmen and political leaders, who booked her for stag parties.
From men of a certain age (ahem!) who got their first inklings of sexual pleasure with that picture held proudly aloft in one hand, a reverent moment of silence.
Vaya con Dios, Candy.
Freeping Murtha
The lovely and courageous Pam documents the wingnuts freaking out over Murtha's statement he wouldn't volunteer for military service if he were of age today.
These clowns ain't fit to lick the sweat off John Murtha's balls.
...
"Same here. Defeatists in war nauseate me. If he doesn't support the goal of bringing freedom to Iraq, then he should come out and say so. But to just sit there and whine that it can't be done while there are young men literally dying to achieve it, and still pretend that he's on their side, is just contemptible."
"Murtha probably wouldn't have joined back then either if he was the person then that he is now. If he thinks Iraq is wrong, then Vietnam must've been far worse."
"Knowing Marines, my uncle was a marine in the pacific in WWII, I can say with great knowledge that this man would be rejected by the Marines today. He wouldn't have to worry about enlisting."
...
These clowns ain't fit to lick the sweat off John Murtha's balls.
Impeach, Then Stuff Him...
Katrina Vanden Heuvel has a good article about the current and rising discussion of impeachment for the Criminal-in-Chief in The Nation. It's encouraging, and you should go read.
I found this under "Comments" and simply had to share:
[HOLIDAY RECIPE FOR LAME DUCK
Choose from the following foul:
Dead or sitting duck, big turkey, or chicken-hawk
(Guts will already have been removed from chicken-hawk, so stuffing may proceed immediately)
Remove backbone, but bind the bird with Duck Tape in hostage posture to give structure and an impression of unity.
For an unexpected taste sensation, marinate the bird-brain in alcohol
forming it into a pretend head-shape,
placing where the head would ordinarily be.
Expect brain to shrink further in the heat.
Pluck bird, and feather the nests of the already wealthy and well-connected.
Create a stuffing of Rummy Rice and selected nuts.
Simmer in a cup of extra virgin 10-40 oil.
Then bake in white phosphorus (if unavailable, substitute napalm).
Line and press stuffing into every open pocket.
Turn heat setting to intolerable.
Place bird on rack and torture out of sight until skin falls off the bone or until Constitutional lawyers stop you.
Skewer the wings together. Once bird is done, remove the left wing completely and discard.
For flambe or blackened bird, toss in an I.E.D.
Cover duck, or duck and cover, as you wish.
Offer the bird to members of the press when they start to ask real questions.
Invite lobbyists to dinner first, and save them the most tender flesh.
Serve lying repeatedly on a bed of Saudi sand, and present with straight face and talking points.
When all have gathered, prey over the community.
Follow the same recipe for Cooked Goose, but invite a few grunts on their third military tours for a last supper.
Send carcass and leftovers (if any) to New Orleans for a homeland gumbo or stew.]
I hope Bush et al can use this recipe to make crow edible in '06.
I found this under "Comments" and simply had to share:
[HOLIDAY RECIPE FOR LAME DUCK
Choose from the following foul:
Dead or sitting duck, big turkey, or chicken-hawk
(Guts will already have been removed from chicken-hawk, so stuffing may proceed immediately)
Remove backbone, but bind the bird with Duck Tape in hostage posture to give structure and an impression of unity.
For an unexpected taste sensation, marinate the bird-brain in alcohol
forming it into a pretend head-shape,
placing where the head would ordinarily be.
Expect brain to shrink further in the heat.
Pluck bird, and feather the nests of the already wealthy and well-connected.
Create a stuffing of Rummy Rice and selected nuts.
Simmer in a cup of extra virgin 10-40 oil.
Then bake in white phosphorus (if unavailable, substitute napalm).
Line and press stuffing into every open pocket.
Turn heat setting to intolerable.
Place bird on rack and torture out of sight until skin falls off the bone or until Constitutional lawyers stop you.
Skewer the wings together. Once bird is done, remove the left wing completely and discard.
For flambe or blackened bird, toss in an I.E.D.
Cover duck, or duck and cover, as you wish.
Offer the bird to members of the press when they start to ask real questions.
Invite lobbyists to dinner first, and save them the most tender flesh.
Serve lying repeatedly on a bed of Saudi sand, and present with straight face and talking points.
When all have gathered, prey over the community.
Follow the same recipe for Cooked Goose, but invite a few grunts on their third military tours for a last supper.
Send carcass and leftovers (if any) to New Orleans for a homeland gumbo or stew.]
I hope Bush et al can use this recipe to make crow edible in '06.
Greed kills
Heh...
I'll have my popcorn with extra butter please.
Update:
Alternate Universe (no relation) has a helpful chart.
...Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. (my [Jane's] emphasis)
Enough with the docile repetition of "well you know Democrats are implicated in this too." They're not. The shameless perpetuation of GOP talking points in the guise of news by major media outlets is an embarrassment.
...
I'll have my popcorn with extra butter please.
Update:
Alternate Universe (no relation) has a helpful chart.
Katrina, 4 months Later
The Rude Pundit is posting a series on his visit to New Orleans this past week. Go read.
Insights into Osama
Vanity Fair has an excerpt from a book by Peter L. Bergen:
The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader
Essam Deraz, an Egyptian writer and filmmaker, covered the battle of Jaji: They picked the site at Jaji because it was on the front lines. In '87, it was a very important battle. The Arab group fought against Russian commandos. Not more than 50 or 60 young Arabs, 21, 22 [years old]. Most of them students at the universities. [Bin Laden] fought in this battle like a private. The Russian bombing went on for one week. It was clear now he'd be the leader. I was near him in the battle-many months-and he was really brave. That's why he got respect from Afghans and Arabs.
Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani air-force officer who fought alongside bin Laden: I participated in the Jaji battle. I was introduced to [bin Laden]. First of all he's not a genius. He was 30 when I met him. He prayed a lot, always smiling. As a personality I never thought he would make a place in history-he is not charismatic. He is not very intelligent, but he is the most dedicated and self-sacrificing person, to a degree that is unparalleled.
Just a Little Blurb
Remember how Iraqi oil exports were going to help finance the post-war reconstruction effort? Well here's a teeny little story about it buried in the international section of the Scotsman:
Nope, nothing wrong here.
Iraqi oil exports hit a low
IRAQI oil exports have hit their lowest level since the war according to the latest figures.
Iraq exported 1.1 million barrels per day of oil in December, a senior oil ministry official said - less than any month since exports resumed in mid-2003 and about half the level seen during sanctions under Saddam Hussein.
Sabotage is damaging plants and blocking investment, keeping exports at a fraction of targets officials say should be met if Iraq's vast reserves are to provide its people with prosperity and stability.
Nope, nothing wrong here.
Where's Waldo?
read this slowly and carefully... your objective - find every waldo hidden in this picture...
Prof. Marcus makes some points about Homeland Security funding.
Yeah, why?
Jaye at Blondie's asks a question:
That's what bugs me most (aside from the normal civil rights worries). With this administration's penchant for PR, why haven't all (or any) of these folks they've been 'monitoring' been drug before the cameras in irons? Look at what we heard about the 'Lakawanna Six', about the 'Paintball Seven', Jose Padilla, and that nut in Ohio who thought he could take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch. All the noecons were dancing around like the Rockettes when those arrests became public. Don't you think Bush, with all his cowboy bravado, would have pointed to something to prove his illegal data mining was indeed "protectin' the 'murican people"; especially at a time when he desperately needs a PR coup?
Because, as I hope we will find out sooner rather than later, this illegal wiretap had nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with politics. The ghost of Richard Milhous is definitely haunting 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
...(Since the wire taps are allegedly on phone conversations between terrorist and American citizens, why aren't these terrorist part of the world wide round up against terror lead by Sheriff Bush?)...
That's what bugs me most (aside from the normal civil rights worries). With this administration's penchant for PR, why haven't all (or any) of these folks they've been 'monitoring' been drug before the cameras in irons? Look at what we heard about the 'Lakawanna Six', about the 'Paintball Seven', Jose Padilla, and that nut in Ohio who thought he could take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch. All the noecons were dancing around like the Rockettes when those arrests became public. Don't you think Bush, with all his cowboy bravado, would have pointed to something to prove his illegal data mining was indeed "protectin' the 'murican people"; especially at a time when he desperately needs a PR coup?
Because, as I hope we will find out sooner rather than later, this illegal wiretap had nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with politics. The ghost of Richard Milhous is definitely haunting 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Monday, January 2, 2006
Definitions
Ang reads the dictionary:
...
WhoreMain Entry: whore
1 : a woman who engages in sexual acts for money : PROSTITUTE; also : a promiscuous or immoral woman
2 : a male who engages in sexual acts for money
3 : a venal or unscrupulous person
...
More bullshit
I wonder how their followers feel about this?
If my spiritual leader sold out his principles to the Americans, I'd probably want to run him out of town. Hearts and minds indeed.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.
...
If my spiritual leader sold out his principles to the Americans, I'd probably want to run him out of town. Hearts and minds indeed.
Housekeeping
I've finally begun moving the blogrolls to Blogrolling. I have the 'Big Brass Alliance' and 'Liberal Coalition' already moved. Do me a favor, if you see something I fucked up with your blog link, or anybody else's links, please drop me an email and let me know. There are about 600 links so far and I don't have the motivation to check them all.
Oy, finally finished swapping links and updating things. My eyeballs are gonna fall out of my head.
The kid who went to Iraq #2
He finally made it home (I'd hate to be him now, I know what my folks would have done to me), but I hear all the talking heads, from the O'Brien Sisters (Soledad and Miles) to the GMA JV (Snow, Wier), saying how this isn't the way to do journalism. Guess what, idiots, he has better journalistic instincts than most of you pussies who hide in the Green Zone or sit in New York and Atlanta. One day, he'll probably have your job.
Losers
I never go to wingnut sites. Couldn't give a shit 'how the other half lives'. One of the few rules here at the Brain is I don't allow links to any right-wing sites. And I've said it a million times, I don't know how a lovely lady like Pam goes there for her 'Freeper Quotes' installments at the Blend, and still keep her lunch down.
That said, I was visiting the General this morning and I come across a post with pics of some of the 101st Keyboard Kommandos. To borrow a quote from my pal Jay, "are you effin' kidding me?"
What a buncha losers. They think their rifles make up for their deficiencies, judging by the way they hold 'em. Sorry to hear about your penises, guys (A favorite saying of Mrs. F's to men going through mid-life crises). Just an aside, don't look like any of these guys have seen their pricks in a long time.
Do they think they're soldiers? Do they think they're men because they shoot a Koran full of holes, stab it with a bayonet, and then set it alight? Real brave bunch they are. Just the guys I'd want to share a fighting hole with, if we could all fit in one. Yeesh, but this is what passes for 'men' on the right; same kinda 'men' who run the government. Fat clowns with too much time on their hands. Buncha chickenshits. It'd be something if they took all that fancy hardware and brought it to Iraq, maybe shoot at a few 'Hajis' instead of a defenseless holy book. Oh...sorry...I forgot...the 'Hajis' shoot back; don't they?
I wouldn't let one of these idiots carry my rifle. Losers.
That said, I was visiting the General this morning and I come across a post with pics of some of the 101st Keyboard Kommandos. To borrow a quote from my pal Jay, "are you effin' kidding me?"
What a buncha losers. They think their rifles make up for their deficiencies, judging by the way they hold 'em. Sorry to hear about your penises, guys (A favorite saying of Mrs. F's to men going through mid-life crises). Just an aside, don't look like any of these guys have seen their pricks in a long time.
Do they think they're soldiers? Do they think they're men because they shoot a Koran full of holes, stab it with a bayonet, and then set it alight? Real brave bunch they are. Just the guys I'd want to share a fighting hole with, if we could all fit in one. Yeesh, but this is what passes for 'men' on the right; same kinda 'men' who run the government. Fat clowns with too much time on their hands. Buncha chickenshits. It'd be something if they took all that fancy hardware and brought it to Iraq, maybe shoot at a few 'Hajis' instead of a defenseless holy book. Oh...sorry...I forgot...the 'Hajis' shoot back; don't they?
I wouldn't let one of these idiots carry my rifle. Losers.
My best decision
16 years ago today, Mrs. F and I went on our first date. Asking her out was the best decision I ever made.
American Manifesto
From our pal Badtux:
...
2. Real Americans know that real men don't hit first. Hitting first is the mark of a coward or a bully. A real man doesn't go in and beat the shit out of other folks just because those other folks might, at some time in the future, somehow be a threat. Those of you who still support going in and beating the shit out of Iraq and the Iraqi people for the audacity of not sucking George W. Bush's dick aren't real Americans, you're just a bunch of cowards and bullies not fit to lick Benjamin Franklin's petrified dick...
Sunday, January 1, 2006
Shit looking for a fan
Norbizness has a compendium of things just waiting to come apart. At the front end, it looks like 2006 is gonna be worse for the Republicans than 2005.
Thought Police
[WaPo]Information captured by the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas has been passed on to other government agencies, which cross-check the information with tips and information collected in other databases, current and former administration officials said.
...
At least one of those organizations, the DIA, has used NSA information as the basis for carrying out surveillance of people in the country suspected of posing a threat, according to two sources. A DIA spokesman said the agency does not conduct such domestic surveillance but would not comment further. Spokesmen for the FBI, the CIA and the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, declined to comment on the use of NSA data. [my em]
...
To me, the word 'threat' has a very subjective meaning nowadays. Jane has a lot more to say on this.
More than corruption #2
Dave's got more on this. Looks like the old enemy is at it again:
Links aplenty.
Not one to toot my own horn, but I called this years ago. Anybody who's read my books, specifically Plain Sight, The Fourth Estate Lightning Crashes, and Technocracy knows my feelings about foreign corporate influence on the U.S. political system.
When I put up this post asking if maybe the "conservative movement" Republicans were really dupes of the Russians or the Chinese, I sure didn't expect to get my answer a few hours later.
...
It seems that everyone in the world understood that the Republican leadership was on the take. Do ya think maybe foreign intelligence services might have also known? Do ya think that maybe some of the really, really strange things these right-wing clucks have been doing to the country might maybe have been the result of a few (or more) million dollars changing hands? I suspect this is only the very first on foreign influence of the so-called "conservative movement."
...
Links aplenty.
Not one to toot my own horn, but I called this years ago. Anybody who's read my books, specifically Plain Sight, The Fourth Estate Lightning Crashes, and Technocracy knows my feelings about foreign corporate influence on the U.S. political system.
Happy New Year
Hope our fellow bloggers and readers have a happy and healthy New Year. We go into this new year more hopeful and optimistic for our cause than we did last year. Looking back at last year's post, I knew we had the potential for success:
Yes, we will. All the best.
...
Not many reflections on the Old Year. I like looking toward the possibilities of the future. We took a hit in November, but hopefully we'll learn and hit back in the mid-terms and beyond. We'll do better.
...
Yes, we will. All the best.
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