Saturday, April 8, 2006
Hey...
I added her to the blogroll when I heard about it. A little animosity in Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!)?
Good sense
For all you folks who are scared of the big, bad Iranians, the guy in the fancy suit has some reality for ya.
Lessons
My lovely neighbor Blondie has a very insightful post on a subject I know glaringly little about. I'm stealing something I think everyone should see, and draw conclusions from, sans comment from me:
Rabbi Hillel was reportedly asked by someone to explain Judaism while standing on one foot. Hillel replied "What you find hateful, do not do to another. This is the essence of the Law. Everything else is commentary." Talmud, Shabbat 3id
"Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state." Analects 12:2, Confucianism
"Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." Udana-Varga 5,1, Buddhism
"This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you." Mahabharata 5,1517, Hinduism
"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." Sunnah, Islam
"Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss." Tai Shang Kan Yin P'ien, Taoism
"That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself." Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5, Zoroastrianism
Royal Bushes
Maureen Dowd on Leaks from the Top. Via Tennessee Guerilla Women.
Not lethal for them, so they don't care who gets killed. They're just the 'help' anyway. What are they compared to the Royal Will ofAllah God? Plenty more where they came from.
Scooter is a "good Judas," as it turns out, just as Judas himself was, according to a 1,700-year-old Christian manuscript found in the Egyptian desert that asserts that Jesus wanted Judas to betray him, so he entrusted his disciple with special intelligence.
Since President Bush seems to see his mission in Iraq as part of God's plan, he must have assumed that getting Scooter Libby to leak parts of a classified document on Iraq to rebut Joe Wilson's charge about a juiced-up casus belli was part of God's plan.
If W. wants the information out, it's good for the country to make it public. If W. doesn't want the information out, it's bad for the country to make it public. L'etat, c'est moi.
That's how we got mired in the Iraq war in the first place. The administration ruthlessly held back classified information that contradicted its bogus case for war, and leaked classified information that supported it.
The Bushies keep trying to manipulate reality, but reality bites back. That's not only crass politics. It's lethal politics. L'etat, c'est mess.
Not lethal for them, so they don't care who gets killed. They're just the 'help' anyway. What are they compared to the Royal Will of
'Breakthrough' Discovery...
In an impish mood (me as well as them), I present:
Sometimes I get the feeling that our limbs are getting shorter as our gills re-emerge, as we head across the shore toward the breakers...
In a dramatic new study published in a leading scientific journal, paleontologists have concluded that the GOP is living proof that the theories of both evolution, and intelligent design, have been totally discredited.
After studying Fossils and Neanderthals like Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay, the Report concludes that the Republicans, who seem to be constantly swimming in the muck, have regressed to the point that a new theory of "Devolution" has to be seriously considered.
As one of the leading authors of the study put it: "From the Emancipation Proclamation to Willie Horton, from Teddy Roosevelt's environmental policies to Bush's 'Clean Skies’ and 'Healthy Forests,' well, you make the call."
The Report's Conclusion succinctly summarizes the backward slide of the GOP:
Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt?
That's really far-flung
It's now the Party...of Elephant Dung
However, a footnote to the Report speculates that a proposed study of the Democrats might yield yet additional proof of "devolution," as evidenced by their lack of a spine.
Sometimes I get the feeling that our limbs are getting shorter as our gills re-emerge, as we head across the shore toward the breakers...
This Ain't 1864, Bush Ain't Lincoln, We Ain't Winnin'
From the War Nerd
Yeah, and the best grapefruit always seems to be on the bottom of the pile, too.
War Nerd also has a few things to say about Fresno's wingnut raisin farmer and his comparisons of Iraq to our Civil War and others, for all you Victor Davis Hanson fans out there.
Not too long - a good light Saturday read.
To anybody with any sense, it's been obvious since day one that Iraq was going to be the biggest catastrophe since Nam. But when the cheerleaders start defecting, that's when you know the game's lost. It's like one of the girls at the bottom of the pyramid walking off while the head cheerleader is wobbling at the top of the pile -- kinda ruins the whole stunt.
Yeah, and the best grapefruit always seems to be on the bottom of the pile, too.
War Nerd also has a few things to say about Fresno's wingnut raisin farmer and his comparisons of Iraq to our Civil War and others, for all you Victor Davis Hanson fans out there.
That's Vic for you -- he can't stick with one bad historical parallel, he's got to stick in another. So he tells us that the Iraq war is just like the Civil War just before the capture of Atlanta, AND Korea after we'd been pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter.
Not too long - a good light Saturday read.
Declassification
Digby's been all over this thing and one question he asks sums it up nicely:
Word.
If it was a legitimate disclosure of sensitive information in the public interest, why didn't the president just call a press conference? Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?
Word.
Friday, April 7, 2006
Incredible
Radical Russ does it so much better than I could so here's just a little bit:
The full story. Wingnuttia at its best.
The patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, are in great peril. On April 17th, they will be visited by a presence so dark, so deadly, that it may be Evil Incarnate. Seriously ill patients will be exposed to a force so dedicated to death and destruction, a force that compels the feebleminded into blind obedience to fantastic notions so counter to reality and so offensive to decency and good that we must all band together and pray for the deliverance of these good people from the clutches of this malevolent force!
No, no, Dick Cheney's not going to Minnesota. I'm talking about the highest teacher in Buddhism, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama...
The full story. Wingnuttia at its best.
The post 9/11 mindset
The correct post 9/11 mindset. Jeff Huber has it:
Americans should get it too. Time to start thinking rationally about our actual needs and requirements.
...
Mister Bush has become fond of saying, "We can no longer hope that oceans protect us from harm." As with so much of what Bush says, that statement is largely bunk.
Yes, terrorists can sneak into this country, hijack airplanes, and drive them into skyscrapers. But that was as true in 1948 as it is now. Rogue nations like Iran or North Korea may someday be able to strike American cities with nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the Soviets became capable of doing that during the Eisenhower administration.
But no one can muster sufficient ground forces to invade and occupy America, and even if they could, they couldn't muster enough maritime or air transportation to bring a force that size across the oceans. Even if they could muster that kind of transoceanic transportation, we could easily sink it or shoot it down before it got halfway here.
...
Americans should get it too. Time to start thinking rationally about our actual needs and requirements.
Friday Cattle Dog Blogging
Princess Shayna was heard to say, "it must suck to be Snot McClellan today."
A First Amendment moment...
Yesterday, at one of Bush's bullshitapaloozas in Charlotte, a guy named Harry Taylor laid into him. Video and a transcriot at Think Progress.
Thanks, Mr. Taylor, for showing some sack at one of these phony "unscripted" bullshit sessions amongst delusional Bush supporters. Bush has it coming, and much more besides.
I'd love to be able to do something like that, but since I probably couldn't keep it together that well in Bush's presence, I'm glad I'm not going to get to. His handlers wouldn't let me within a country mile of the Great Poobah. I'm a little too direct. My dream is to get him by the stackin' swivel, shake him hard and tell him what I think of him and what he's done in no uncertain (or printable) terms. I'd pour it on like it was the one-time deal it most certainly would be. Fuck civility in the presence of evil.
Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are -
THE PRESIDENT: I'm not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what's your question?
Q Okay, I don't have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I - in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and -
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec - let him speak.
Q And I would hope - I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I'm saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.
Thanks, Mr. Taylor, for showing some sack at one of these phony "unscripted" bullshit sessions amongst delusional Bush supporters. Bush has it coming, and much more besides.
I'd love to be able to do something like that, but since I probably couldn't keep it together that well in Bush's presence, I'm glad I'm not going to get to. His handlers wouldn't let me within a country mile of the Great Poobah. I'm a little too direct. My dream is to get him by the stackin' swivel, shake him hard and tell him what I think of him and what he's done in no uncertain (or printable) terms. I'd pour it on like it was the one-time deal it most certainly would be. Fuck civility in the presence of evil.
Daily pedophile
Another rat. Fucking amazing. From Skippy:
a high-ranking defense department it official has been arrested and indicted on child pornography charges.
charles lynch, director of the defense information systems agency's internet protocol version 6 transition program, was arrested march 8 and indicted in the u.s. district court for the eastern district of virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.
...
GOP Afflicted With New Disease
I steal this post from The Ostroy Report without comment, as none is needed:
News from The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is circulating the 'Net Friday stating that the Republican Party has contracted a new virulent strain of a sexually transmitted disease called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him)", which is contracted through dangerous and high risk partisan greed, cronyism and corruption. Several GOP leaders previously or currently running for re-election have been politically crippled by this debilitating condition, including Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Rick Santorum, John Boehner and Duke Cunningham. Other high-ranking ReTHUGlicans including Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice seem to have contracted a version of the dreaded illness as well.
Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include:
-Anti-social personality disorders
-Delusions of grandeur with messianic overtones
-Extreme cognitive dissonance
-Inability to incorporate new information
-Pronounced xenophobia and paranoia
-Inability to accept responsibility for own actions
-Cowardice masked by misplaced bravado
-Uncontrolled facial smirking
-Ignorance of geography and history
-Tendencies towards evangelical theocracy
-Categorical all-or-nothing behavior
Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this
destructive disease originated only a few years ago
from a bush found in Texas.
Real men
"I got pushed. I got hit. I got a sign wadded up in my face and my hat pulled down over my eyes," said Marsha Rovai, 69, a supporter of Nick Lampson. "They just did it to be nasty."
...
You indtimidated, menaced, and assaulted a 70 year old woman? And you call yourselves men? You call yourselves human? I'm sorry but at this point in time, if you tell me you're a Republican, I'll tell you you're a criminal; directly or indirectly, you are culpable.
Amateurs
Was over at Holden's and he has some quotes from the Chimp:
There is no 'old doctrine of warfare'. There is no 'new doctrine'. The whole idea behind war is to kill as many of the enemy's people and destroy enough of his infrastructure until he is forced to surrender. That's it. Any other method of warfighting aside from a total, all out effort, is not war. It's some bastardized plan that won't work. You see how well the Chimp's 'new doctrine' is working. And just an aside, I don't believe for one minute Bush cares a damn about the innocents, just the oil fields.
That's the reason you don't go to war until, or unless, it's absolutely necessary. Stupid shit like what we're doing in Iraq won't work because you don't go to war if you have a problem with killing innocents. If you do, you don't go to war.
Look at Iraq. Even as we went in there with the 'spare the innocents' mindset, look at how many innocent folks, hard-working Iraqis, have been killed by American troops. War is dirty, messy, and innocents die at an alarming rate (it's not an occasional thing and tens of thousands have died).It should not be entered into on a whim or for reasons other than national defense.
What we have done in Iraq amounts to war crimes and we are all responsible. This nation was sold a vision of war that only happens on TV and in cheesy novels (heh) and most of us put our money down too easily. I think we should mount webcams on all U.S. military vehicles in Iraq and stream the video, like the cops' dashboard cams. If the American people saw the real deal, they wouldn't be so quick to follow some rhinestone cowboy into such an ill-planned attempt at imperialism. This is what you get with amateurs at the helm.
After the war -- and by the way, it ended with an old doctrine of warfare, which is, destroy as many innocent people as you can to get the guilty to surrender. That's changed, by the way, with the precision nature of our military, and the way we're structured, and the way our troops think, is we now target the guilty and spare the innocent. That's another subject if you got a question.
There is no 'old doctrine of warfare'. There is no 'new doctrine'. The whole idea behind war is to kill as many of the enemy's people and destroy enough of his infrastructure until he is forced to surrender. That's it. Any other method of warfighting aside from a total, all out effort, is not war. It's some bastardized plan that won't work. You see how well the Chimp's 'new doctrine' is working. And just an aside, I don't believe for one minute Bush cares a damn about the innocents, just the oil fields.
That's the reason you don't go to war until, or unless, it's absolutely necessary. Stupid shit like what we're doing in Iraq won't work because you don't go to war if you have a problem with killing innocents. If you do, you don't go to war.
Look at Iraq. Even as we went in there with the 'spare the innocents' mindset, look at how many innocent folks, hard-working Iraqis, have been killed by American troops. War is dirty, messy, and innocents die at an alarming rate (it's not an occasional thing and tens of thousands have died).It should not be entered into on a whim or for reasons other than national defense.
What we have done in Iraq amounts to war crimes and we are all responsible. This nation was sold a vision of war that only happens on TV and in cheesy novels (heh) and most of us put our money down too easily. I think we should mount webcams on all U.S. military vehicles in Iraq and stream the video, like the cops' dashboard cams. If the American people saw the real deal, they wouldn't be so quick to follow some rhinestone cowboy into such an ill-planned attempt at imperialism. This is what you get with amateurs at the helm.
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Another big Fuck You
To all the creationists, intelligent designers, and others who take the Bible literally:
Just shut the fuck up.
A newfound beast with swim fins and a head like a crocodile fills an evolutionary gap between fish and four-legged land animals.
The creature had gills, a fish-like jaw, and scales. But its mobile neck let it lift its head above water, and it could support its own weight on thick ribs and wrist-like bones. It may have even trudged across mudflats in the manner of four-legged animals, called tetrapods.
"I would say it's a key transitional form in the fish-to-land animal transition," said study co-author Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago. "It has features of both fish and tetrapods - we call it a 'fishapod.'"
Fish push-ups. [my em]
...
Just shut the fuck up.
Thanks: Shakes.
The daily DHS pedophile*
A third DHS employee now appears to have criminal sexual tendencies involving children.
For a Dateline NBC segment on sex predators, Southern California police set up a sting: A decoy pretended to be a 12- or 13-year old online at home, alone. Sex predators found the decoy on the Internet and arranged to meet. When they showed up, the police arrested them.
Caught in the net was Michael Burks, 30, a former La Verne, Calif. police officer who was a DHS "agent," according to a Jan. 14 Los Angeles Times article (not online).
...
What to say? Even the Catholics are shaking their heads.
*This might become a daily feature if they ever start investigating DHS.
FrankenPAC
Al Franken is a huge favorite of mine. He has the ability to cut through the crap with great civility and humor, yet slice right to the bone. Here's his new Midwest Values PAC.
Just in case he posts something above it, here's his opening speech at a Hebrew dinner where he faced off against Ann Coulter.
You'll read. Enjoy.
Speaking of the skank Coulter - if beauty is only skin deep, let's skin her. Maybe we'll find some beauty. Frankly, I doubt it, but it's worth a try.
Just in case he posts something above it, here's his opening speech at a Hebrew dinner where he faced off against Ann Coulter.
And I'd like to answer the question that I actually get asked the most when I do an event for a Jewish organization. Yes, I had enough to eat.
You'll read. Enjoy.
Speaking of the skank Coulter - if beauty is only skin deep, let's skin her. Maybe we'll find some beauty. Frankly, I doubt it, but it's worth a try.
Treason at the Top
Murray Waas is turning into a leading journalist in the War on Bush. Shit, it's easy - all he has to do is tell the truth.
They hang traitors, don't they? Hell, if they'll just please hang Bush, Cheney, et alia fer lyin' or stealing sheep or somthin', I'll forgive 'em the treason. Leave that for the history books. As long as they hang.
Update:
From Emboldened:
It'd save us all a lot of time and trouble if he'd hang himself as well.
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to disclose the contents of a highly classified intelligence assessment to the media to defend the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, according to papers filed in federal court on Wednesday by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case.
Libby "further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE," the court papers said. Libby "testified that the Vice President had advised [Libby] that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose relevant portions of the NIE."
One former senior government official said that both the president and Cheney, in directing Libby to disclose classified information to defend the administration's case to go to war with Iraq and in formally declassifying portions of the NIE later, were misusing the classification process for political reasons.
One former senior official said: "They [the leakers] might have tipped people to our eavesdropping capacities, and other serious sources and methods issues. But to what end? The information was never presented to the public because it was bunk in the first place."
They hang traitors, don't they? Hell, if they'll just please hang Bush, Cheney, et alia fer lyin' or stealing sheep or somthin', I'll forgive 'em the treason. Leave that for the history books. As long as they hang.
Update:
From Emboldened:
There you have it. Bush is now officially implicated in the chain of events that led to the outing of a CIA agent for political reasons. No one has proved that Bush ordered Plame's name released, but this story demonstrates how casual he was with classified information when it came to spreading his false justifications for war. If the uranium story was so important to Bush, imagine how angry he must have been at Wilson:
Of course I'm being overly optimistic when it comes to this Administration's accountability, but if Bush isn't going to fire himself maybe he'll extend himself the same lifeline that he did to Libby and allow himself to resign.
It'd save us all a lot of time and trouble if he'd hang himself as well.
Nowhere near humble enough
Robert Parry on some members of the media who first supported Bush's War, but are now backing off only because he bungled it, not because it was just plain wrong to begin with.
Much of the media was complicit in the crime. They should answer for it in a tribunal along with Bush and his neo-con henchmen. They don't have to go to jail with him: I'd be happy as a clam if they all just take Goering's way out.
"Those of us who once advocated this war [in Iraq] are humbled," Cohen wrote in a column on April 4. "It's not just that we grossly underestimated the enemy. We vastly overestimated the Bush administration."
Yet, even the tactical retreats by "humbled" pro-war columnists like Cohen have focused on U.S. incompetence in waging the war, not any outrage over the illegality and immorality of invading a country that wasn't threatening the United States.
By failing to expand the criticism of Bush beyond success or failure, the mainstream U.S. news media implicitly embraces Bush's assertion of a special American right to attack wherever and whenever the President says.
It's still out of bounds to discuss how the Iraq invasion violated the Nuremberg principle against aggressive war and the United Nations Charter, which bars attacking another country except in cases of self-defense or with the approval of the U.N. Security Council.
Indeed, in the mainstream U.S. press, there's a smirking attitude whenever international law is mentioned, much like the contempt expressed by President Bush in his quip, "International law? I better call my lawyer."
Yet there is a strong argument that the United States should begin facing up to how Bush's actions violated the rules laid down by the Nuremberg Tribunals, which held that aggressive war was an offense so severe that it justified execution (my em).
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who represented the United States at Nuremberg, stated, too, that the principle did not only apply to Adolf Hitler's henchmen, but to all nations, including World War II's victorious powers.
"Let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a useful purpose, it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment," Jackson said.
This failure of the U.S. press corps to address legal and moral issues raised by Bush's Iraq War also reflects a refusal by the news media to hold leading American journalists accountable for their part in the tragedy.
Much of the media was complicit in the crime. They should answer for it in a tribunal along with Bush and his neo-con henchmen. They don't have to go to jail with him: I'd be happy as a clam if they all just take Goering's way out.
Question of the Day
Brought to us by our pal Jo Fish:
Yeah, just like everybody who was at Woodstock in '69.
...I wonder if in 20 years anyone will admit having voted for these idiots, thieves, pedophiles and felons?...
Yeah, just like everybody who was at Woodstock in '69.
Late
I didn't write about the 'big John Kerry statement on Iraq' because...well...maybe he should have come up with it during the '04 campaign two years ago. That's one of the reasons I want him to stay out of the '08 Presidential race. Two years late and a couple bucks short is not what I want in a President. Note to John, see: Feingold, Russ; Gore, Albert; Clark, Wesley. If you won't stand up for your honor when it counts, see: Swift Boaters, how will you stand up for ours when push comes to shove?
Fundies
Driftglass:
Driftglass goes on to cite the article in WaPo that I did the other day and then finishes up with the unassailable truth:
Unfortunately, when you compare christian fundies with the Taliban or the Nazis, people's eyes glaze over. "Oh, that couldn't happen here," they say and I say horseshit, look at South Dakota. If these people had their way, our women would be wearing burkhas and walking 10 feet behind their men. Certain books and lines of thought would be banned.
I thought I wouldn't have to deal with these Jesus freak assholes when I left the Republican Party. Tell me again how these people gained credibility in the most advanced nation in the world? When I was young, we used to laugh at them. I beieve back then, their biggest goal was preparing for the Second Coming. For a long time, I thought devout christians were multi-orgasmic (now I know the concept of 'orgasm' doesn't even enter their thought processes). Go back to the little world you inhabited when I was a kid and stay out of governance. Idiots.
...
If you don't voluntarily slot it [Brokeback Mountain] into a DVD player and voluntarily set aside a couple of hours to watch it, it has no more power to work it's Terrible, Nancification Mojo on you or your weak-willed whelplings -- or inflame the tender sensibilities of your morally stunted God -- than a lost episode of "The Prisoner" in an abandoned Chevy at the bottom of a mine shaft, or a pornographic mosaic under a heap of Atlantean rubble on the ocean floor.
How is it that the same human atavisms who whip themselves into rabid, ass-biting berserkers at the thought of someone, somewhere buying a copy of "Brokeback Mountain" in a Wal-Mart bargain bin...can also believe that they can make History, Cosmology, Chemistry, Archeology, Paleontology, Biology, Reason, Physics and Causality vanish in a burst of phuqutard willpower if they just close their potato-bug eyes and Wish Reeeeeal Hard?
...
They are a vicious, dangerous cult that has declared war on The Enlightenment, and sworn blood-oaths that Science, Tolerance and Reason are to be treated as enemy combatants in that war: traitors to Heaven to be tortured, but never trusted.
...
Driftglass goes on to cite the article in WaPo that I did the other day and then finishes up with the unassailable truth:
...
It doesn't matter what we say or what we do, or how reasonable we are or how much of the middle ground we cede to them in the cause of the commonweal[th] and keeping the peace in the family: Hate and fear is not what they feel, it's who they are. They're are on one, long, mean Blood-o-the-Lamb drunk, and no matter how often they are appeased, they will always find another excuse for rage.
For another pogrom.
Another purge.
Another bonfire.
I have no wish to try to reason with this filth any longer, Mr. Dennett. They have been steadily, unblinkingly goose-stepping towards the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with torches in hand for 30 year[s] and have been crystal-clear about their intentions.
...
Unfortunately, when you compare christian fundies with the Taliban or the Nazis, people's eyes glaze over. "Oh, that couldn't happen here," they say and I say horseshit, look at South Dakota. If these people had their way, our women would be wearing burkhas and walking 10 feet behind their men. Certain books and lines of thought would be banned.
I thought I wouldn't have to deal with these Jesus freak assholes when I left the Republican Party. Tell me again how these people gained credibility in the most advanced nation in the world? When I was young, we used to laugh at them. I beieve back then, their biggest goal was preparing for the Second Coming. For a long time, I thought devout christians were multi-orgasmic (now I know the concept of 'orgasm' doesn't even enter their thought processes). Go back to the little world you inhabited when I was a kid and stay out of governance. Idiots.
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Rules are for proles
Government agencies that use private information services for law enforcement, counterterrorism and other investigations often do not follow federal rules to protect Americans' privacy, according to a report yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.
The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and two other agencies examined by the GAO spent about $30 million last year on companies that maintain billions of electronic files about adults' current and past addresses, family members and associates, buying habits, personal finances, listed and unlisted phone numbers, and much more.
...
It highlights a difficult truth about the government's increasing reliance on information services: By outsourcing the building of rich dossiers, the government is sidestepping checks on surveillance approved in the wake of domestic spy scandals involving the FBI, Army and other agencies in the 1960s and 1970s.
...
And I wonder why I get so much junk mail. I thought the Rethugs were all aboout less government meddling? But they have a problem with big government too, right? I swear, if the Dems blow it in Fall, I'm moving to Europe.
Via memeorandum.
Fellatio
Lardass deepthroating DeLay. I've heard him call himself a journalist.
Matthews is another piece of shit who should swing.
...
MATTHEWS: ...and Hillary was a know-it-all.
DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all
[...]
MATTHEWS: Thanks. I owe you one. I owe you two -- today and last night.
DELAY: No you don't.
MATTHEWS: No, I do.
DELAY: I appreciate it.
...
Matthews is another piece of shit who should swing.
Josef* would be proud
Not that it surprises me in the least, but it's nice to know we were right.
How many more knowingly did this administration's bidding? When the war crimes trials start, the board of Viacom should be in the dock along with the Chimp, Cheney, Rummy, and the rest.
WASHINGTON - In a disturbing turn of events for an administration already plagued by sagging poll numbers and waning support for the Iraq war, Friday's revelation that the Bush Administration issued direct guidelines for programming to media outlets is troubling even die-hard conservatives.
Late Friday a series of memos between senior Bush Administration officials and management at Viacom, Inc. were leaked calling for the media giant to focus on stories and programming choices that "reinforce the Administration's positions" and to "ignore and/or discredit points of view in opposition to the Bush Administration's foreign policy objectives for the purposes of National Security."
Democrats and key civil rights figures were quick to comment on this latest chapter of alleged government malfeasance. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer issued a statement calling for a congressional inquiry. "This is it. This is a smoking gun. For years we've been saying that liberal and moderate points of view aren't being accurately reflected in the media and this proves our point. The Bush Administration is clearly out of touch with the American people, and Viacom should be ashamed."
...
How many more knowingly did this administration's bidding? When the war crimes trials start, the board of Viacom should be in the dock along with the Chimp, Cheney, Rummy, and the rest.
*Goebbels that is. Hat tip: Maru.
Afternoon pedophile
And the hits keep coming:
The Bush administration, liars, theives, and sexual deviates.
As I noted earlier, a senior Homeland Security Department law enforcement agent was busted last October for exposing himself to a girl in the food court of a mall.
Next to the recent arrest of DHS spokesman Brian Doyle on child sex charges, this was just one more reason to take Operation Predator away from DHS, I said. "Predator" is the agency's program to bust child sex criminals.
Now we discover -- that law enforcement agent, Frank Figueroa, used to run Operation Predator.
...
The Bush administration, liars, theives, and sexual deviates.
Great thanks to AMERICAblog for the tip.
Moral values and security
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday at his Maryland home on charges he used his computer in an attempt to seduce a child and transmitted harmful materials to a minor, according to the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office
...
Why is it always the Repukes, wingnuts, and Jesus freaks who get caught in sex crimes stings? Please, please don't lecture me about morals anymore. I've got more morals in my little finger than all these guys put together.
...
Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."
As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said. [my em]
...
And now let me ask another question and preface it by saying, when I was in the military, especially those of us with a security clearance, we were constantly being reminded that our enemies (the Soviets back then) would attempt use our 'questionable sexual dalliances' to extort secrets and information from us and we should stay away from relationships (and anything else) that could compromise us. I wonder, just say, if an 'enemy' would use this man's 'proclivities' to blackmail him to give up DHS info? I thought the Repukes were the party of 'security'?
Just sayin'...
Update:
Taylor Marsh sees things along the same lines.
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Dear Bug Tom,
Tom, you're through. If I warned you once I warned you an infinite number of times, you do not emulate Me. You do not take My name in vain. You do not presume to speak my Commandments. Who do you think you are: Charlton Heston?
Another thing Tom - I'm sick and tired of the prayers.
...
God's pissed.
Search terms
For those who got to the Brain using the following search terms:
"Nightmares and the brain"
"Kick grandma"
"Wives to fuck in Altus, Oklahoma"
"Extremely macho elf"
Hope you weren't disappointed. Heh...
Update:
And while I'm going over site stats, a big welcome to the regular readers at the U.S. Senate (I won't disclose your office domains; wouldn't want to test the employment waters, would we?). At least somebody over there is listening.
"Nightmares and the brain"
"Kick grandma"
"Wives to fuck in Altus, Oklahoma"
"Extremely macho elf"
Hope you weren't disappointed. Heh...
Update:
And while I'm going over site stats, a big welcome to the regular readers at the U.S. Senate (I won't disclose your office domains; wouldn't want to test the employment waters, would we?). At least somebody over there is listening.
Feingold [hearts] gays
Pam:
Ahem, ladies and germs, this is what leadership is all about. This is what I want to see in a man who could be President.
...
Big Kahuna Dem spine located -- are you listening, jellyfish Dem leadership? Russ Feingold is not afraid of wrath of the fundies; he's not bobbing and weaving in an attempt to avoid discussing civil equality. He was asked about his position on this while at a Kenosha County listening session over the weekend in in Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, and he declared his firm support.
...
Ahem, ladies and germs, this is what leadership is all about. This is what I want to see in a man who could be President.
Welcome to the 20th Century
I'm not being snarky. I'm happy as hell to see this:
Vote your asses off, ladies. All the best.
Kuwait - Women made history in Kuwait on Tuesday by voting and running for office for the first time in a local by-election after the conservative, US-allied Gulf state granted them suffrage last year.
Polls opened at 8am for the vote to fill a single seat in the 16-member Municipal Council. The rest of the members were elected or appointed last year.
"Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for for more than 40 years," Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female candidates, told Reuters at a polling station in Salwa suburb.
...
Vote your asses off, ladies. All the best.
A tip of the yarmulke to The Head Heeb.
???
Tomorrow, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
Plamegate Update
Mr. Fitzgerald is being pretty quiet these days, but the wheels of justice are slowly, inexorably grinding away. Truthout:
Maybe it's just me, but I see a world of irony in that last sentence! Here's the money shot, folks:
I feel the blood draining from my brain...
The special counsel appointed in late December 2003 to investigate the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson found out the identity of the Bush administration official who disclosed her undercover status to syndicated columnist Robert Novak just two months after the probe began.
That month, Justice Department investigators working on the leak case approached a senior official in the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney who had been identified by witnesses as having played a major role in the Plame Wilson leak.
The senior official decided to cooperate with the investigation and told Fitzgerald that Libby and Rove spoke to reporters about Plame Wilson, the attorneys said.
The official has been identified by attorneys and four current and former White House officials as John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton.
Hannah worked with Libby on the issue of weapons of mass destruction as part of an informal team known as the "White House Iraq Group." Hannah told friends last year that he was worried he might be implicated by the investigation, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Libby was indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators related to his role in the leak. Hannah was named Cheney's national security adviser the day Libby was indicted.
Maybe it's just me, but I see a world of irony in that last sentence! Here's the money shot, folks:
Rove told FBI investigators on five occasions and testified twice before a grand jury that he distributed damaging information about Plame to the Republican National Committee, outside political consultants and the media after Novak had disclosed her identity, according to the attorneys who are familiar with Rove's testimony.
However, Rove was actually a source for Novak and another reporter who wrote about Plame Wilson but failed to disclose that fact in nearly a dozen times he was questioned about his role in the leak.
Sources said that Fitzgerald is now preparing the paperwork to present to a grand jury outlining the charges against Rove in hopes of securing an indictment.
I feel the blood draining from my brain...
Sex tourism thriving in Bible Belt
Reuters
It's all about "moral values", ain't it? Talkin' about 'em, that is.
I wonder how he felt, poppin' wood and holding out a teddy bear, when he met the little girl?
I think they should post the johns' names and photos in their hometown paper, and on the dayroom wall of the jail they go to. Let the incarcerated parents of young children know about it. They'll deal with it.
Only rap concerts? Do I detect a tinge of racism here?
Sometimes, "DUH!" just ain't enough.
ATLANTA (Reuters) - In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door.
A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport.
None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage sex.
It took place in Atlanta, the buckle of the U.S. Bible Belt, where the world's busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.
"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia.
It's all about "moral values", ain't it? Talkin' about 'em, that is.
Another man drove from North Georgia, with a bag containing a teddy bear, a love note and condoms, snorting methamphetamine on the way.
I wonder how he felt, poppin' wood and holding out a teddy bear, when he met the little girl?
He expected a 13-year-old girl, but instead found Heather Lackey, a corporal with the Peachtree City Police Department.
I think they should post the johns' names and photos in their hometown paper, and on the dayroom wall of the jail they go to. Let the incarcerated parents of young children know about it. They'll deal with it.
The sex slaves are trafficked in and out of cities to supply sporting events, conventions or rap concerts.
Only rap concerts? Do I detect a tinge of racism here?
"This is a place where you can buy, sell or rent kids. It must be stopped."
Sometimes, "DUH!" just ain't enough.
DeLay will resign
AP
I just had to put that one in there. It took a long time to get all the coffee and Danish out of my keyboard!
If it was up to me, Security would have escorted him out of the building instantly.
This is good news. He is probably the worst, most powerful, criminal bastard to ever grace Congress' tainted halls. That takes some doing. Good riddance. The Republic will be more secure without him.
A word to our Texas friends: Elect Lampson, and make sure DeLay gets locked up.
Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader
Tom DeLay said Tuesday he is resigning from Congress in the face of a tough re-election race, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.
Bush said the Republican Party won't suffer from DeLay's decision to resign from Congress. "My own judgment is that our party will continue to succeed because we are the party of ideas."
I just had to put that one in there. It took a long time to get all the coffee and Danish out of my keyboard!
DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said he would make his resignation effective sometime before mid-June but contingent on the congressional calendar.
If it was up to me, Security would have escorted him out of the building instantly.
This is good news. He is probably the worst, most powerful, criminal bastard to ever grace Congress' tainted halls. That takes some doing. Good riddance. The Republic will be more secure without him.
A word to our Texas friends: Elect Lampson, and make sure DeLay gets locked up.
"Welcome! Kneel!"
Will Durst on immigration, illegal and otherwise:
Heh. It ain't just you at all, Will.
You ask me, the term "guest worker" is a bit of an oxymoron. Another way of saying, "Welcome! Kneel!"
I got to be honest. I fail to understand the fear here. "You let all these Mexicans in, they're going to take all those fruit-picking jobs I've dreamed of all my life. Working outdoors, sleeping in my car, fighting with dogs for food. Just like camping, only different." I do understand this is an emotional subject, not always rooted in what you call your logic. A couple of years ago, I was in Billings, Mont., and actually saw rednecks hassle some Native Americans: "Go back to where you came from." Talk about unclear on the concept.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free." That's not just an archaic inscription on a big green lady, that's a philosophical summons to heroism. The United States of America that we know and love. A country in which we're all immigrants. And when you look at the big picture, with California as a former part of Mexico, in essence, they are going back to where they came from. Maybe its we Anglos who should be carrying the green cards. Who wouldn't just love to take a bullhorn into the Capitol Rotunda, yell "migra," and watch Congress scatter? OK. Just me.
Heh. It ain't just you at all, Will.
On this day
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn.
A big 'Fuck You'
To all those fucking Jesus freaks out there who have problems with stem cell research, FUCK YOU.
Let me add another fuck you while I'm at it. This is why I say religion has no place in government. Religion only stifles innovation and if these scientists would be able to use embryonic stem cells, we'd be farther along by now.
Let me put this in language you idiots can understand. God gave us complex brains and a determination to discover because he wants us to do shit like this. Get out of the way of real science and keep your faith-based bullshit where it belongs; in church and your own homes. Morons.
April 3, 2006 - The news is being hailed as a medical milestone: Several years after receiving new bladders engineered entirely in a laboratory, seven young patients are all still healthy.
...
How it works: Atala and his team of researchers first remove a portion of the child's damaged bladder and single out cells that will turn into muscle cells and epithelial cells, or cells that line the bladder wall. These groups of cells are then grown in a laboratory culture to make enough cells to mold onto a "scaffold" of biodegradable material that resembles the size and thickness of a normal bladder sac.
...
The neo-bladder is just one of many different forms of tissue engineering currently being explored. Bone and skin regeneration already exists, and in the future, parts of or entire complex organs like the heart may even be replicated in a laboratory. [my ems]
...
Let me add another fuck you while I'm at it. This is why I say religion has no place in government. Religion only stifles innovation and if these scientists would be able to use embryonic stem cells, we'd be farther along by now.
Let me put this in language you idiots can understand. God gave us complex brains and a determination to discover because he wants us to do shit like this. Get out of the way of real science and keep your faith-based bullshit where it belongs; in church and your own homes. Morons.
Monday, April 3, 2006
Without DeLay!
WaPo 25 minutes ago:
I may suffer for it tomorrow, but tonight - the Dance of Joy!!!
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies Monday night he will step down from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.
I may suffer for it tomorrow, but tonight - the Dance of Joy!!!
So long, Snotty
Seems Snot and Snow are out. PSoTD called it:
Just like Andy Card, it won't make a difference, 'cept we might get a better liar at the daily press briefings. Swapping a couple yes-men for two more won't change anything.
...Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John Snow could be next in a shake-up in the Bush administration, according to White House and GOP sources...
Just like Andy Card, it won't make a difference, 'cept we might get a better liar at the daily press briefings. Swapping a couple yes-men for two more won't change anything.
Livin' large
Via Holden. What's worse than a 'tax and spend Democrat'?
WASHINGTON - Federal spending is outstripping economic growth at a rate unseen in more than half a century, provoking some conservatives to complain that government under Republican control has gotten too big.
The federal government is currently spending 20.8 cents of every $1 the economy generates, up from 18.5 cents in 2001, White House budget documents show. That's the most rapid growth during one administration since Franklin Roosevelt.
...
John and Jerry
Paul Krugman on McCain and Falwell, via Peking Duck:
No shit.
Just to be clear: this is a free country, and Mr. Falwell has a right to say what he thinks, even if his views include the belief that other people, by saying what they think, brought down God's wrath on America. By the same token, any political party has a right to include Mr. Falwell and his supporters, just as any politician has a right to make a political alliance with Mr. Falwell.
But if you choose to make common cause with religious extremists, you are accepting some responsibility for their extremism. By welcoming Mr. Falwell and people like him as members of their party, Republicans are saying that it's O.K. - not necessarily correct, but O.K. - to declare that 9/11 was America's punishment for its tolerance of abortion and homosexuality, that Islam is a terrorist religion, and that Jews can't go to heaven. And voters should judge the Republican Party accordingly.
No shit.
Time to bail, but...
Juan Cole on the deteriorating situation in Iraq.
Much more and many good comments.
It gives me a great idea! If we can re-direct all our illegal immigrants to Iraq...Win-win!
Spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Immigration Sattar Nawruz maintains that 1,000 Iraqis are being displaced from their homes every day, and that 40,000 have been displaced since the bombing of the Askariyah Shrine in Samarra on Feb. 22. That is a rate of 365,000 a year, or a million persons displaced over three years if it is kept up. I initially greeted these enormous figures with some skepticism, but I'm beginning to think that there is something to them, and that a sea change has occurred in Iraq, which has moved further toward full-scale civil war.
Just what we need in this situation -- more Iraqis than ever are packing heat. And, , the FT reprints an LA Times piece by Megan Stack saying, they are forming ever more neighborhood militias to counter the Shiite ones. I saw this sort of thing happen in Lebanon in the mid-1970s. The subsequent fighting went on for a decade and a half.
Peter N. Kirstein argues for a complete and total and immediate US withdrawal from Iraq. That would be fine with me, but only if somebody can help provice stability to the place. It isn't just going to be all right. Iraq is not Vietnam, where there was a clear nationalist-Communist force that was relatively popular and could take over everywhere. It is more like Lebanon or the Balkans. Nor is it like Vietnam in the sense that its falling apart would have few international consequences. The neighbors could be drawn into a new regional war (a proxy war between Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran is possible). And if the oil installations and pipelines in the Gulf started being bombed, the world economy could go into a tailspin. I do agree with Kirstein that Cheney's nightmare of a terrorist al-Qaeda mini-state in Anbar province is impossible. Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan would not put up with it, and they are powerful enough to put paid to any such thing in their neighborhood
Much more and many good comments.
It gives me a great idea! If we can re-direct all our illegal immigrants to Iraq...Win-win!
Jill Carroll
I wasn't going to say anything (because everyone else has) but the Rude One bears repeating:
That's about right.
You know what's fuckin' funny? Thinking about what, say, Jonah Goldberg would have done with a gun in his face after being kidnapped from the streets of Baghdad after he just saw his translator shot dead. That pissant little bitch would have shit himself and begged to be filmed blowing the lead kidnapper, pausing only to shout into the camera, "I loves me some mujahideen cock; now please rape my Jew ass, Osama." For, indeed, it seems that for Goldberg, John Podhoretz, and other scumsucking reactionaries, Carroll would not be a traitor to America only if she had ripped off her veil and yelled, "Lick my clit, you stinky Allah-fuckers" before she was wasted. Then she'd've been a hero and we could make up wonderful, splendiferous lies about her.
...
That's about right.
"We'll get some lions and feed them..."
Bill Maher goes off on Scapegoats and the "War on Christianity" at C & L. I might have to get HBO!
Heh...
Telegraph (UK)
Careful - wouldn't wanta 'rubber' the wrong way!
He said it. Jack Straw really did say it.
There he was standing before some 200 dignitaries in Blackburn, the cameras were rolling and Condoleezza "Condi" Rice was listening attentively.
As he introduced his guest, the Foreign Secretary held up a copy of a local newspaper and read out the headline: "Condom...er, Condi Comes to the Centre of the World".
Careful - wouldn't wanta 'rubber' the wrong way!
Where's that 'good news'?
Iraq is becoming a country that America should be ashamed to support, let alone occupy. The nation as a whole is sliding closer to open civil war. In its capital, thugs kidnap and torture innocent civilians with impunity, then murder them for their religious beliefs. The rights of women are evaporating. The head of the government is the ally of a radical anti-American cleric who leads a powerful private militia that is behind much of the sectarian terror.
...
Can you smell the freedom? Can you see the democracy happening?
...
It was chilling to read Edward Wong's interview with the Iraqi prime minister in The Times last week, during which Mr. Jaafari sat in the palace where he now makes his home, complained about the Americans and predicted that the sectarian militias that are currently terrorizing Iraqi civilians could be incorporated into the army and police. The stories about innocent homeowners and storekeepers who are dragged from their screaming families and killed by those same militias are heartbreaking, as is the thought that the United States, in its hubris, helped bring all this to pass.
...
Too bad the Times couldn't put out an editorial like this before the '04 Elections. That damned liberal media.
Good thing we tossed Saddam out though, wasn't it? I mean things are so much better, right? Look at all the shit we're doing over there:
BAGHDAD -- A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.
...
We sure live up to our promises. At this point, how anyone can support what we're doing in Iraq is beyond me.
Great thanks to Maru for the NYT link and memeorandum for the WaPo link.
A little late
For the lightbulb to go on:
I could have told you that close to 15 years ago, when I left the Republican Party for just that reason. That's when 'Newt and the Boys' started talking 'moral and family values', code words for the Jesus freaks, letting them know he's their boy.
These guys would bring back slavery now if they could. The GOP is the party of racists and thieves.
Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.
...
I could have told you that close to 15 years ago, when I left the Republican Party for just that reason. That's when 'Newt and the Boys' started talking 'moral and family values', code words for the Jesus freaks, letting them know he's their boy.
...
Over a quarter-century of Bush presidencies and vice presidencies, the Republican Party has slowly become the vehicle of all three interests -- a fusion of petroleum-defined national security; a crusading, simplistic Christianity; and a reckless credit-feeding financial complex. The three are increasingly allied in commitment to Republican politics. On the most important front, I am beginning to think that the Southern-dominated, biblically driven Washington GOP represents a rogue coalition, like the Southern, proslavery politics that controlled Washington until Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860.
...
These guys would bring back slavery now if they could. The GOP is the party of racists and thieves.
Sunday, April 2, 2006
The Cleeks Trippon Nippon
Mr. and Mrs. Cleek are in Japan for their tenth anniversary present to themselves. They are posting some excellent photos and descriptions of their trip. It's quite long, with a few more days to go. Don't miss it!!
Gen. Zinni
Zinni: ...I heard the case being built to go to war right away- I was hearing a depiction of the intelligence that didn't fit what I knew. There was no solid proof that I ever saw that Saddam had WMD....
C&L of course.
April Two'll
From The Satirical Political Report
Sorry I'm a day late.
For those of you who may have missed it, the news program "Lou Dobbs Tonight" suddenly went "dark" last week, after the Immigration and Naturalization Service burst into the studio and arrested his cameraman.
Also, as part of the ongoing immigration debate, Congress gave tentative approval to a "Guess? Workers' Program," in recognition of the reality that the Government doesn't have a faith-based prayer of keeping track of who's coming and who's going.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia charged today that she was asked to take a screening test for Sickle Cell Anemia - just because she's black.
And finally, on Meet The Press today, Tim Russert confronted John McCain with conclusive documentary evidence establishing that the Arizona Senator used to be sane.
Sorry I'm a day late.
Strangle that censure baby...
Inside Rove's Diary:
Go read the rest. It's probably not very far off his actual wording.
In short, we've got to win in November (Memo to Self: Be sure to call our friends over at Diebold and Sequoia), which is why we've got to squash Russboy's censure resolution real quick before it gains any traction. Thank God the Demoncrats are such jellyfish, backing away from Feingold as quickly as they can swim. If we can make the public think it's just a few weird liberals and pro-terrorist bloggers behind censure, we're home free.
But if the public fails to take that bait, the Dems' censure ploy might tempt more GOP moderates and conservatives to jump ship, and censure might even lead to impeachment. I say strangle this little sucker right now in its crib; don't even take the risk it might grow up.
But if none of that works, there's no way I'm going into the slammer. Even though it will smell to high heaven, Bushboy will simply have to pardon us pre-emptively and stop the case in its tracks. Poppy Bush did it with Cap Weinberger in Iran-Contra and got away with it, so why not Dim Son?
Sure, the Demoncrats will yell and scream, but what the hell can they do about it if they remain in the minority and the mainstream media remains pretty much in our control? The Dems are quite aware of our political and criminal liability in so many areas, but they don't have the legislative tools, or the balls, to try to stop us.
Go read the rest. It's probably not very far off his actual wording.
McKinney...again
[Note:I was gonna put this in 'comments' on my original post but it got long.]
I wrote yesterday:
Ah, but I have to rebut myself:
So, the cops should have known McKinney on sight, probably more than any other Member of Congress. She still shouldn't have whacked the cop, but reading this, it looks like the cop was either stupid or trying to fuck with her (that wouldn't be unheard of).
My bad.
But then it begs the question, why is the DCPD taking particular pleasure in messing with this woman? Because she's black, a woman, a black woman, a Dem, or a pain in the ass who's a bit eccentric? Or was this just a case of a cop not getting the memo (although a 13 year history makes that unlikely)? I don't know but I would like to. I'd like to hear what the cops say about it besides this:
I wrote yesterday:
...She should have worn proper identification and there would have been no problem. There are 435 members of Congress and the police can't be expected to know them all on sight. If wearing a pin was all that was needed or, in lieu of that, her being asked for ID (which I believe the cop was trying to do), this situation never would have arisen...
Ah, but I have to rebut myself:
In August 1993, during her first term in office, a Capitol Hill police officer tried to prevent her from bypassing a metal detector, as members of Congress are allowed to do. For years afterward, The Hill reports, the Capitol Police pinned a picture of McKinney to an office wall, warning officers to learn her face because she refuses to wear her member's pin. (And because officers are innately suspicious of a black woman with braided hair and gold shoes.) Five years later, she blasted White House security after guards thought her 23-year-old white aide was the congresswoman. [my em]
So, the cops should have known McKinney on sight, probably more than any other Member of Congress. She still shouldn't have whacked the cop, but reading this, it looks like the cop was either stupid or trying to fuck with her (that wouldn't be unheard of).
My bad.
But then it begs the question, why is the DCPD taking particular pleasure in messing with this woman? Because she's black, a woman, a black woman, a Dem, or a pain in the ass who's a bit eccentric? Or was this just a case of a cop not getting the memo (although a 13 year history makes that unlikely)? I don't know but I would like to. I'd like to hear what the cops say about it besides this:
...
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said only that senior officials have been made aware of the incident and are investigating.
...
Done deal?
The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran.
A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran.
It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme. [my em]
...
So, Blair and Bush are doing the same things they did before Iraq began. If this comes off, nothing will be safe anymore. 'Endless war' will become a reality and we will see a terrorism problem unequaled previously. How much you wanna bet this happens before Election Day?
Thanks to pessimist for the link.
Friday Sunday Cattle Dog Blogging
Just because I got this pic of my two girls. As you can see, the Mrs. is doing much better.
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