The United Countries of Baseball

Being a baseball fan, this appeals greatly on many levels.

Pic courtesy of Strange Maps, one of my favorite places on the interwebs. Click to embiggen.

Which reminds me, it's time to plan a drive up to Cooperstown.

I'M IN CHARGE NOW!

Gordon's gone all day, THINK! of the havoc I can wreak!

As if there weren't enough faces in the presidential campaign, I see we can add another name to the list of 'Dumb Fucks running for Prez.' Just take a look; it's mind-numbing! Christ - When. Will. It. End!

Is there any way ...

As a shareholder in Carnival Corporation, that I can keep these assholes off my motherfucking ship in the future?

Just askin'.

IsTHIS What I think It Is?!

From our friends at McClatchy:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:

"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

Reality of the Working Poor vs. Mitt

This is going to be a bit of a raw post.

Go to The Washington Post's, 'The Trail' ("a daily diary of campaign 2008') and watch the video of a waitress at the Red Arrow diner in Manchester, NH, who managed to confront Mitt Romney regarding health care. She became a bit testy while Mitt was rambling on about how he envisioned 'the world looking to the U.S. for health care.' There was something about 'Muslim nations' he threw in as well that I'm not real sure about. At any rate, this working woman has health care. Both she & her husband work. What she illustrates are the costs of their health care. The cost of having insurance, the deductible, the copay for office visits, the copay for medications.

There's a bit more at my place if interested....it's longish so I wasn't sure about posting it here. As I'm not in Mass or anywhere near, I'm really curious about the accuracy of Mitt's claim of this:

We found it cost us more money to be giving free care out at hospitals than to help people buy their own private care,” Romney said, sweating a bit by this point.

Ho-ly shit!

Truth from a lowlife, adulterous, douche bag. Fucking amazing.

Why do we bother?

We busted our butts to get a Dem Congress elected last year and we finally figured the Chimp's bullshit was at an end. Yeah, fat chance:

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

...

This and the fact that idiot Dianne Feinstein voted to confirm another one of the Chimp's activist judges:

...

But Sen. Feinstein had a meeting with Southwick and he assured her that he is "not outside the mainstream." Despite her promise to be "very, very cautious" with Bush's nominees, Feinstein voted with the unanimous GOP to send Southwick's nomination to the Senate for a vote. When she announced her vote, she conceded that she "could be wrong" and that "maybe" she's been wrong before.

...

Why the fuck do we bother? Is there a prerequisite to becoming a politician requiring them to be certified morons? Jesus H. Christ.

Update:

More from Paradox:

...

There is no other way to put it, and I implore with all the earnestness I can muster to our leadership (Party and netroots both) in Chicago and Pelosi’s office: something has gone horribly, horribly wrong in Washington DC, Bush is berserk and the Senate is boogying right along with him on FISA, along with all the horrors inflicted upon the country.

...

I'm starting to think they're all in it together.

[We are honored to welcome Crooks & Liars readers to the Brain.]

The stench of hypocrisy 17

Via Montag:

Tommy Tester, 58, of Bristol, Va., was wearing a skirt when he was arrested last week after allegedly urinating in front of children at a car wash, police said.

...

Update:

A two-fer this morning. Auguste at Pandagon looks at the hypocrisy of Little Michelle.

Weekly Blogwhore

The next chapter of my novel The Fourth Estate is up at The Practical Press.

And a reminder, Thirty Days at Zeta begins in October. Sneak preview here.

I'd vote for him ...

(AP) MANCHESTER, N.J. Police charged the mayor of Lakehurst with possession of marijuana and driving under the influence of the drug.

Police say they stopped Stephen Childers because they smelled what they suspected to be burning marijuana wafting from the 50-year-old's pickup.

An officer was driving behind Childers on Route 70 when the vehicle slowed because of traffic on Wednesday night.

...

Take it from someone who sits in a lot of traffic jams, mayor, use the A/C and keep the windows closed. Heh ...

People over Party

The rest of the Rethugs should take a lesson from Gov. Tim Pawlenty of MN. He's just flushed any chance of being a Rethug VP candidate (something he was positioning himself for until yesterday).

ST. PAUL -- Gov. Tim Pawlenty is willing to reverse his longstanding opposition to a state gas tax increase in the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, a spokesman said Friday.

...

The gas-tax shift is a huge political concession for Pawlenty, who has stood firmly against any state tax increases during his 4 1/4 years in office.

...

I don't think he's turned into a 'white knight' overnight, but you have to hand it to him for putting the welfare of Minnesotans over party loyalty (and his career) in this instance.

Update (Saturday morning):

From D. R. Scott in comments:

Naw.

I'm sorry, but I don't want to give him shit. Fuck him. All he's trying to do his save his ass, because he knows damned well the Democrats are gonna nail him hard for killing the gas tax proposal twice since he's been in office.

I'd be a lot more impressed if people didn't have to die before his miraculous epiphany, y'know?

Quite true.

On nukes ...

This is where it is, bottom line. If you take nukes off the table, you might as well get rid of them. That's it.

Now, I'm not saying we should threaten Mecca or Medina, like that twit Tancredo, or any particular place in any particular nation. What I am saying is that there is no point having a weapon if you're not willing to use it.

It's like the gun weenies who have guns as a penis extension. "I'm gonna protect my [stuff, family, rights] and nobody's gonna take my gun away". I always ask them if they've ever aimed at someone and pulled the trigger. I always ask them if they're capable of doing it. Unless you've been there, you don't know what it takes to point a gun at someone and kill them. If you can't, don't have a gun because if you pull it on someone like me, they're gonna take it away from you and shove it up your ass.

Same with nukes. What the fuck you think kept the Russians from doing whatever the fuck they wanted during the Cold War? What the fuck do you think is keeping Osama or any other terrorist-sponsoring state from facilitating a dirty bomb attack here? Homeland Security? Chertoff and his gut? No, not hardly. Osama, Ahmedinejad, and every other wannabe tinhorn asshole knows that the minute there is a nuclear detonation in the United States, Iran, or whatever state facilitated the attack, would be turned into a smoking, glowing, hole in the ground. Period.

They don't mind sending mentally challenged, hopeless morons to martyr themselves, but they sure ain't willing to give up what they got. No, ladies and germs. Every nation on earth should know we are willing to use whatever is in our arsenal to defend ourselves. Don't like nukes? (For the record, I don't either and think they should be abolished.) Pressure your politicians to outlaw and dismantle them but as long as they're in the inventory, they should never be 'taken off the table'.

Quote of the Day

Peter of Lone Tree:

Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

Hopefully, by then, I'll be impotent, incontinent, and delusional ... better yet, dead.

We're gonna have a Blast tomorrow

Click to increase displacement

There'll likely be no blogging from me tomorrow. Mrs. G bought a brand new motorbike, exactly like the one in the picture, last Sunday (probably not coincidentally also the date of the full Moon), and we have to go to Harley-Davidson/Buell of Fresno tomorrow to collect it. Fresno's about 300 miles from here, so it's gonna be an all-day deal.

We haven't bought a bike since 1983, and Mrs. G hasn't had a new one since her '73 Hodaka Wombat. Now's the time. She works hard and saves her money and she certainly deserves a new toy.

She's had a cool cammed-up hotrod 500 Triumph for 30 years, but lately the seat height and kickstart-only feature haven't been as easy for her to handle as they used to be and it takes away from the fun for her. Please God don't let her see this, but as she's gotten longer in the tooth, she's become somewhat more inseam-challenged. Above all else, motorcycling is fun, so change was in the air.

The bike is a leftover 2006 Buell Blast (Specs here). It's an American-made 500cc single-cylinder job. Mrs. G (and myself) like thumpers for the type of power they make, and besides being way cool lookin', these are light and easy to ride. They have self-starters as well, but what shoved her off the edge for one of these is the seat height of 27.5", with an available seat to lower it to 25.5" (ouch!). After mucho webgazing she found the '06 in a color she liked and from that point on it was Katy bar the door! She asked me if she could get it, to which my carefully thought out measured response was "Hell, yes!", and the deed was done.

My week has been spent sorting out all the details vís-a-vís the dealer, insurance, and making enough room for another sled in a garage full of 'em. All that remains is to remove the tonneau cap off the pickup, since it's considered rude to lay a brand new bike on its side and let it rattle around in a truck bed. Besides which, she'd kill me if I did that, and no jury in the land would convict her. I said I'd take the battery out of it, but to no avail.

We don't do stuff like this every day, and we're both very excited about it.

Might see y'all later, might not, but see ya soon.

Iraq Contractors to Have Hooker-in-Residence

Wonkette

Good news, boys: “Tori” the Escort is going to be in Baghdad’s Green Zone for an extended tour, starting next week! Thanks to the graciousness of the Private Security Company Association of Iraq, Tori from Atlanta will be working out of a secured compound in the green zone, “entertaining all members of the PMC community registered with PSCAI with a few stipulations.” Private contractors are invited to contact her for an appointment.

My apologies but at this time I am unable to plan any meetings w/active duty military. (*The members of PMC community has an exclusive arrangement during this visit*) Kisses ~Tori

Private Contractors are truly the unsung heroes of this glorious war, so we’re thrilled to see their hard work rewarded. Nothing like flying in a hooker an erotic escort to keep that celebrated reconstruction work humming along smoothly!

Tori is well-reviewed (MAN-NEEDS101 gave her a perfect 10 for performance! She should be hired to fucking run security over there with those kind of numbers!) and disease free, so if you happen to be in Baghdad’s International Zone this August, give her a ring!

The article doesn't say who pays, whether the customers or us, but I'll bet it's us in the end. We always get it in the end. If I'm buyin' nookie with my tax money, it should be for the troops.

Healthy pawns?

Paul Krugman on children's health care and hedge fund tax loopholes.

It’s been a good Democrats, bad Democrats kind of week. The bill expanding children’s health insurance that just passed in the House makes you want to stand up and cheer. Reports that Senator Charles Schumer opposes plans to close the hedge fund tax loophole make you want to sit down and cry.

Let’s start with the good news: The House bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says would provide coverage to five million children who would otherwise be uninsured.

The bill is so good that it has Republicans spluttering. “The bill uses children as pawns,” declared Representative Pete Sessions of Texas. Yes, the Democrats are exploiting children — by providing them with health care.

The horror, the horror!

In the spirit of "Happy Friday", I'll skip the part about the rich not having to pay taxes and the pols who love them.

House votes on troop rotation

The Boston Globe

Brushing aside a veto threat, the Democratic-controlled House voted Thursday to give U.S. troops guaranteed time at home between deployments to Iraq.

Bush thinks our troops are cheap, expendable labor who don't deserve a rest, the prick. Besides, he's starting to run out of them.

We'll see where this House vote goes from here.

Federal Agents Searching People at Indianapolis Bus Stops

DailyKos

Welcome to another creeping slide towards the big brother state. On August 2, 2007 over two dozen agents of the TSA setup two checkpoints at bus stops in Indianapolis Indiana and searched passengers who wanted to ride on city buses. Federal agents, including Air Marshals were present and patted people down, looked in bags, and performed "behavior" tests for the stated purpose of finding weapons and people who were a threat to public safety.

Think about that for a minute. TSA agents and Air Marshals - Air Marshals - searching people who wanted to ride a city bus! Yeesh.

Before you think I am joking, let me refer to both the Indianapolis Star report TSA checks IndyGo bus passengers as well as posted first person reports of what happened yesterday and why it effects us all.

UPDATE: Thanks to DailyKos readers, this has been found to be a part of an 18 month old Federal Operation, read more below!

By all means go read. The prospective passengers could decline the search if they knew they could and the brownshirts found a handgun, the description of which is hilarious and also shows up what unprepared, incompetent clowns these agents are.

This isn't funny, however. Our tax dollars are funding illegal searches with no probable cause of average citizens by incompetents with guns and Federal power.

Happy Friday!

Pic thanks to Dr. Attaturk.

Been one of those weeks. TGIF. Off to work ...

Oh yeah, like this is gonna work...

Haaretz

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40 percent of Iraqi oil is produced, and transport it via Mosul, and then across Jordan to Israel. The U.S. telegram included a request for a cost estimate for repairing the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was in use prior to 1948. During the War of Independence, the Iraqis stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into disrepair over the years.

Good luck. That's gonna be like pushing your Honda through the Harley-Davidson dealership to get to the street. What the hell, give it a shot, ya might make it...

Update:

Apparently, this story is a hoax, a mistake, or just plain not so. So, NEVER MIND!

Thanks to two of our readers with all their faculties who pointed this out.

I still like my last line, though.

Minneapolis ain't NOLA

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters Announces $5 Million in Immediate Funding During Visit To Downed I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis

“We are going to make sure that last night’s damage and debris soon become a thing of the past. We will rebuild this bridge and repair this horrible hole in the heart of this community,” Secretary Peters said.

There's a difference in the scale of this disaster vís-a-vís NOLA. While tragic, it may possibly be small enough that even this administration can help without screwing up too badly.

Let us not forget that unlike New Orleans, Minneapolis is full of mostly middle-class white people who are not considered an underclass or systematically prevented from making a good living or voting.

Bush Keeps Israel Close, Saudi Arabia Closer

Robert Scheer, today's 'must read':

Go figure: From the White House comes the news that self-styled anti-terrorism crusader George Bush wants to sell $20 billion in high-tech military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the source of most of the financing, and 15 of the 19 hijackers, for the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. The justification can’t be that this is yet another boondoggle for the military-industrial complex—the big winner in the war on terror—so we are told instead that the Sunni-dominated Saudi kingdom needs this weaponry to withstand a future challenge from those dastardly Shiite fellows in Iran.

Yes, the very same extremists whose surrogates are now, as a consequence of the U.S. invasion, pretending to be the indigenous government of Iraq. Recall that the Shiite militants who rule Tehran, along with the Sunni nuts around Osama bin Laden, were both the sworn enemy of Saddam Hussein. Now both of those forces are the main players, according to the Bush administration, vying for power in “liberated” Iraq, and our president is in the inane position of playing one group of fanatics against the other in the name of securing Iraq as a democratic haven.

While the $20-billion weapons package will no doubt be supported vigorously by lobbyists for a defense industry that stands to make a financial killing from the deal, it is expected to meet opposition in Congress, particularly from those who fear the impact of this new weaponry on the security of Israel. No problem—“senior officials” in the White House assured The New York Times that the Saudi arms package would be balanced with a $30.4-billion military aid package for Israel. Then, of course, some large amount of military “aid,” to the tune of $13 billion, will also have to be extended to Egypt to keep the dictator in Cairo on board.

What a deal! The Saudis pony up billions in cash, American taxpayers come up with an amount more than twice as high to keep the Israelis and Egyptians happy, and U.S. war profiteers, Bush’s most reliable core constituency group, make out like bandits. Hey, it’s only money, and the only real cost might be to folks who get caught in the line of fire of those weapons in wars to come for generations. But not to worry, most of them don’t vote in U.S. elections anyway.

Mr. Scheer is just getting better and better.

Diseased oafs from rotten acorns grow...

Click to embiggen

Arrested Demonstrators Awarded $1 Million

NBC4 (DC, MD, VA)

WASHINGTON -- Protesters arrested during a rally five years ago were awarded $1 million on Wednesday.

In September 2002, 100 people who marched on D.C. to protest the war in Iraq and World Bank policies. They were arrested. They later sued, claiming their arrests were unlawful.

A judge agreed.

Since the incident, the D.C. Council has enacted legislation clarifying that it is legal to parade on the street without a permit.

Constitution 1, Bush 0. 'Bout fuckin' time.

A million bucks split a hundred ways, less lawyer fees of course, ain't shit, but the principle is worth more than money.

The Constitution is the basic, most powerful document in the history of the world, but only if we keep our eyes on the ball and actually try to live by it as the law of the land. Otherwise, it's just 'a goddam piece of paper'. It has taken its lumps over time, particularly at the hands of Bush and his criminal cohort, but it will prevail.

In the meantime, I hope that judge enjoys his upcoming retirement. He stood up for the people's right to assemble and practice free speech, and he might have to pay a price for it.

He might not. This kind of decision on unlawful arrests of folks the Chimp doesn't want to hear seem to be starting to come thick and fast, like they should.

I took an oath once, a long time ago, to protect and defend the Constitution. I don't recall ever recanting on that oath or that there was a time limit when it would run out. I'm glad other people are remembering that they took the same oath. I wish more would.

[A big Brain thank you to Skippy and his readers stopping by. ~ F.]

A seriously bad idea

Yahoo! News

A Republican-backed ballot proposal could split left-leaning California between the Democratic and GOP nominees, tilting the 2008 presidential election in favor of the Republicans.

California awards its cache of 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections — the largest single prize in the nation. But a prominent Republican lawyer wants to put a proposal on the ballot that would award the statewide winner only two electoral votes.

The rest would be distributed to the winning candidate in each of the state's congressional districts. In effect, that would create 53 races, each with one electoral vote up for grabs.

California has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. But the change — if it qualifies for one of two primary ballots next year and is approved by voters — would mean that a Republican would be positioned the following November to snatch 20 or more electoral votes in GOP-leaning districts.

That's a number equal to winning Ohio.

Democratic consultant Chris Lehane called the plan "an effort to rig the system in order to fix the election."

'Fixing the election' is something the Repuglicant crooks are good at, and it's their only chance of gaining anything in California.

Guv'nor Ah-nold thought he could cram his bullshit ideas down our throats by letting us vote on them, and he got his ass handed to him. Since then he's changed for the better.

I don't think this attempt is gonna fly either, even if it gets on the ballot, which I don't think it will. Even if it does, it will go the way of Ah-nold's proposals. The mistake this lawyer is making is trying to do it out in the open. Repugs don't do well in the light of day. They're a lot better at springing crap on us from the shadows with nobody finding out about it 'til it's too late.

When we lose elections because of the electoral system, I'm all for 'one man, one vote'. When we're about to win one because of it, I'm all for the electoral system. The Repugs are righter about 'winning is everything' now than ever before.

What???!!!???

Oh the humanity! No, not because of the needless deaths but because the bridge collapse in MN wasn't terror-related. What a bummer for poor little Michelle:

DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?

Poor baby. Fuck all those poor people and their families who are victims of our crumbling infrastructure, this would have been the perfect excuse to declare Jihad on the entire Muslim world.

Auto-erotica interruptus. Put the vibrator away, Michelle, but don't worry, our Homeland Security Director has a gut feeling something will happen to get you off.

Off to work ...

Dear Ms. Pelosi ...

Larisa writes letters:

I cannot fathom why you would think it wise on any level to grant more power to those who have already so abused it, but since you are bent on enabling the imperial presidency, let me just remind you of something: There is nothing wrong with the FISA law that the impeachment of Dick Cheney cannot resolve. We, the public know this. More importantly, we the press know that giving the President more surveillance power is not only un-Constitutional, it is also a direct and full frontal assault on the press. Or did you actually think that Karl Rove and his new spy toy are going to go looking for Osama bin who?

...

Your compromise with the decider is far too much for this nation to have to tolerate. Allowing any such compromise to even to come to the floor for a vote indicates that you are still of the belief that the administration wants to work with Congress, when in fact, they have nothing but contempt for you. In my opinion, Ms. Pelosi, you giving the Decider even more power to abuse is tantamount to declaring war on the public and the press, something that is impossible to keep silent about. [my em]

...

There are elections every year. Every two years we elect congressional reps. They can be replaced. If the Dems don't understand why they won both houses of Congress last year, I'm sure there are others waiting in the wings who do.

I hope the Dems will remember the Rethugs' battle cry, "elections have consequences". Hopefully, Ms. Pelosi and the rest of her spineless cadre will make the Rethugs face these consequences but as things stand now, it's just 'business as usual'.

Americans are pissed. I encourage all the Dems to watch Jack Cafferty on Wolfie's in the evenings. Listen to the viewer emails he reads. I remember, back a few years, when the majority supported the Chimp and Rethugs. Big difference today. Too bad the Dems don't see it.

And just a note to Ms. Pelosi: Since you live in California, my dear, why don't you stop over at my friend's house and have a look at his new t-shirt? If you still don't get it, I'm sure he'd be happy to explain it to ya over coffee.

Quote of the Day

August J. Pollak:

I'm pretty sure if Al Franken becomes a U.S. Senator, I might have to actually start watching The O'Reilly Factor, if only to see how hilarious O'Reilly is with a recently-developed alcohol problem.

This can't be good ...

...

The Iraqi Accordance Front's withdrawal from the Cabinet leaves only two Sunnis in the 40-member body, undermining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts to pull together rival factions and pass reconciliation laws the U.S. considers benchmarks that could lead to sectarian reconciliation.

...

Well, there goes that whole political reconciliation thing.

So tell me, which Iraq did O'Hanlon and Pollack visit?

Me'n my little red book

The little red book is a 'goddam piece of paper' that will be restored when the action on the T-shirt is accomplished.

I ordered an orange shirt, got this blue one, and who gives a shit? The message is the thing. Yes, I'm wearing shorts, but the camera was blinded by the glare off my manly, incredibly white legs..

You can get these shirts in your choice of colors, well, maybe, at Wavelength Clothing.

Defective De-Fibber

Click to embiggen

From TPM:

One thing we learned last night is that not only is Dick Cheney a big liar, he's also probably lousy at poker. Because the guy has a classic tell. If you watch when he lies to Larry King, he can't make eye contact. Once you know what to look for it's really jarring and obvious.

In today's episode of TPMtv, we give you all the key highlights of last night's fibfest on Larry King Live (special bonus no-eye-contact moment comes toward the end) ...

Go watch The Dick lie his, well, dick off...

When Turkeys Collude

Dear God, it pains me to do this, and I had to hold a revolver to my typing finger to force it to go along, but please go read this column.

The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. High-level U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

This is a huge diplomatic problem, this I know. Turkey is a long-time ally of the United States, even though they don't like us as much as they used to, thank you Bush. The Kurds are the only folks in that whole area who actually do like us a little for getting Saddam's boot off their neck.

There are Kurds in several countries over there. They want their own country, but the other countries, particularly Turkey, don't want them to. I can see both sides of this. Turkey is historically brutal to minorities it doesn't like and would just as soon be rid of. The Kurds want their own state so they can be independent and safe. The land area for this has to come from somewhere, and no nation on earth likes to lose territory.

What to do?

Using our already overstretched military in an active campaign inside Kurdistan against the PKK seems wrongheaded to me, but that's BushCheney for you, the pricks.

Perhaps a better way forward might be to help the Turks with border security while our diplomats, if we still have any, try to convince the Kurds to calm their guerrillas down for a while. We should not take an active role in suppressing a people who want to be independentt.

Oh, I forgot - Bush isn't very good at 'border security'. He's just good at killing people, thinks it's the answer to everything. If they won't shut up, off 'em 'til they do. If they're no good for big business, they're of no importance, just human trash. Kill 'em and be done with 'em. Bastard.

I think that killing the folks who have managed to engineer, through their own efforts, not ours, the only reasonable facsimile of stability in Iraq is just another example of Bush's boneheaded foreign policy blunders, damn his eyes. It's also a real good way to turn yet another bunch of folks against us.

My trigger finger is turning white, and my typing finger is shaking like a leaf, but this time I have to go along with Novak, even thank him for bringing this to light: this move is dangerous and wrong.

Slave wages? Even Better...

I'm kinda on a roll today on the theme of 'exploiting poor Mexican kids'. Sometimes that's the way the tortilla flops...

Newsweek

Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart’s Mexican stores. The retail giant isn’t breaking any laws—but that doesn’t mean the government is happy with the practice.

Wal-Mart is Mexico’s largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico—and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. The company doesn’t try to conceal this practice: its 62 Superama supermarkets display blue signs with white letters that tell shoppers: OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING. The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be “volunteering” their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country’s labor laws. But some officials south of the U.S. border nonetheless view the practice as regrettable, if not downright exploitative. “These kids should receive a salary,” says Labor Undersecretary Patricia Espinosa Torres. “If you ask me, I don’t think these kids should be working, but there are cultural and social circumstances [in Mexico] rooted in poverty and scarcity.”

[...] Although Wal-Mart’s worldwide code of ethics expressly forbids any “associate” from working without compensation, the company’s Mexican subsidiary asserts that the grocery baggers “cannot be considered workers.” The Mexico City government’s top labor official dismisses that contention as so much corporate hogwash. “To my mind, that is not an accurate description because the bagger is providing a service on the store’s premises that benefits the company by serving the customer better,” argues Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince. “In economic terms, Wal-Mart does have the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this represents an injustice.”

Injustice? It's slave labor is what it is. Legal, too. Win-win for Wal-Mart.

As long as this practice is legal and culturally acceptable, Wal-Mart will have no incentive to do the right thing and actually pay people. Look for a lobbying effort to make it legal to do it elsewhere. Like here.

Bottom line - it's the bottom line.

Yo, Mojados - Tio Sam Quieres Ustedes

In These Times

Latino teenagers, including illegal immigrants are being recruited into the military with false promises.

I think everyone who's ever been recruited heard false promises. I never did get the puppy they promised me. This is worse.

[...] He gave the recruiter his address and phone number in Mexico, and the recruiter called him twice a week for the next two years, until he had talked Jesus into convincing his parents to move to California. [...]

Now Jesus is in a cemetery in Escondido, and his parents, who blame each other for his death, are painfully and bitterly divorced. While his mother bears her loss as a private tragedy, Fernando, who has dual Mexican and American citizenship, is working tirelessly to protect other young immigrants from being manipulated by U.S. military recruiters—the way he wishes he had protected his son.

In the Iraq war, citizenship is being used as a recruiting tool aimed specifically at young immigrants, who are told that by enlisting, they will be able to quickly get citizenship for themselves (sometimes true, depending on what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security finds) and their entire families (not true; each family member has to go through a separate application process). Nevertheless, with the political pressures on Latino families growing daily under this administration, many young Latinos are unable to resist the offer, which immigrants’ rights activists see as blatant exploitation of a vulnerable population.

[...] And Torres says he once asked a recruiter, the son of one of his friends, “How can you lie to the kids like that?” The recruiter told him, “Sorry, it’s my job, and I don’t want to go back to Iraq.”

Stock speculates that if the Pentagon is aware of the law, it might be “afraid there would be a political backlash” if the use of immigrant labor for the war were discussed openly. [...]

Shit, the Repug 'base' would probably think it's a grand way to get rid of 'them dayum Meskins'...

Can a recruiting drive in Darfur be far behind?

No vote for you!

[A big Alternate Brain welcome to Sideshow readers.]

Mr. "I'm able-bodied but can't fight in the war I helped start because my family can't be without me" Jonah Goldberg is at it again. This time he's all about denying stupid people the right to vote (doesn't he realize that would disqualify him as well?). Oliver Willis:

...

Golly gee whillikers, Mistah Goldberg, why don't we have tests at the polls here in America? Although, I seem to remember a historical precedent for just such a thing. Why did this noble experiment not continue through until the modern day? Let's go on to the Internets and check it out. Oooh, here we go Mister Goldberg, here's the historical precedent for your idiotic moronic stupid-ass idea the Los Angeles Times printed up in a newspaper they actually sold to people for actual federally-backed U.S. currency:

...

You know, I'm assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) by his last name that he's Jewish. There are a lot of Jewish folks who are enabling this administration. This perplexes me because they are enabling the same thinking that got 6 million of their brethren executed in Nazi Germany.

What will be next, Jonah? Purity tests to determine the percentage of "real American" in one's blood? Ideology tests to determine whether Americans are "thinking properly"?

My forebears did the same thing* to those who claim the Star of David as their icon. Those who failed the tests were taken away to be used as slaves or executed outright. What you propose to do to the poor, to the ethnic, was put into action during the Third Reich. Had they been successful, odds are, you wouldn't have been conceived, let alone make use of your family name to keep from living out a refrigerator box under a bridge.

Do you think the Rethugs would stop with the "illegals"? Do you think they'd stop with the blacks? They could bleach this nation of anyone with color, remove everyone who wasn't a "real American" and then you know who'd they'd blame for their troubles?

You.

And then they'd begin to say what they did in Germany. When they find that no matter how many people you exclude, throw out, or "disappear", things still suck because it's not the people but the policy*, they will have to have someone else to blame.

And then they will come for you.

Jonah's LA Times column should be a warning to all Americans, illustrating what the Republican party is really about. They want Reich, and all the untermenschen to shut up, know their place, or get out. The problem for every American is that the term "untermenschen" is highly subjective.

One man's barbarian is another's oracle. Using Jonah's mindset, everyone is suspect. Everyone should open their eyes and realize the road built by Republicans is the Road to Hell.

*Updated links thanks to Avedon Carol.

That's it!

TRex figures out why the Rethugs are so scared of participating in a YouTube debate. It isn't so much that they are scared of facing the general public's questions (though I'm sure it's a big part of it), it's that they're afraid of letting America see who actually supports them:

...

Let’s get something straight here. The reason the Republicans are running from a YouTube debate has nothing to do with embarrassing themselves and everything to do with the horror that is the Republican base (see video above). Imagine a whole two hour debate composed entirely of questions from men lovingly cradling their assault rifles, matronly polyester-swathed frumps of much avoirdupois braying and squawking about abstinence-only education and the danger of Harry Potter in our schools, angry old men taking a break from standing on their porches shouting, “Get the hell out of my yard!” to stare Mike Gravel-like into the camera and demand to know what the candidates plan to do about “th’ dayumn Mexicans”.

...

They don't want the rest of the country to know what we in Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!) have known for years; that the true Republican base is made up of racists, bigots, fundamentalists, and nutcases.

Horrifying

A video about one of the victims mentioned in Fixer's, "The real failure . . ." post yesterday.

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2007/07/salees-story.html

Simply horrifying. I am livid that this is being done in my name. I am left with one question after viewing that, why would they want to come to the United States?

JG.

That's what happened ...

Swopa figgers out the reason behind Roberts' seizure:

Needlenose's highly unreliable off-the-record sources report that the cause was an inadvertent power surge in Roberts' bionic command-and-control system, following the implantation of a new battery in Dick Cheney's pacemaker over the weekend.

Staff ...

We are pleased here at the Brain to welcome regular commenter Wordsmith to the staff. She also has her own blog Left Side of the Moon, which I suggest you visit regularly.

Welcome aboard, we're honored you accepted. Now get to work. Heh ...

Poodle, lapdog, doesn't matter ...

So, Gordon Brown today proved he's just as big an idiot as Tony Blair:

...

Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has disappointed American and British critics of the war in Iraq by declaring that he believes the West is involved in a "generation-long battle" against radical Islamic terrorism, that he believes the American mission in Iraq is worthwhile, and that he will stand by President Bush in his efforts to promote democracy in Iraq and in the rest of the Middle East.

...

Hello? London? What the fuck is in the water at #10?

Depot caves ...

Home Depot seems to have had a change of heart. They're now unequivocally telling their customers that they will not advertise on Bill O'Reilly's show ...

More detail from Aravosis.

Quote of the Day

Blondie:

"The only difference between Soviet propaganda and US propaganda is that the Soviet people knew it was propaganda."

Heh ...

Since I got Gord laughing, I figured I'd let you in on what goes on during my workday. If you think I'm fucked up here ...

Back after I empty the dog.

Cheney again...

BuzzFlash

NYT Offhandedly Admits VP Ordered The Nighttime Visit To Ashcroft's Hospital Room -- Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser

As far as revealing dark secrets to the public
There's no point now in stalling them:
Dick Cheney has not only been taking shots
But he clearly has been calling them.

So, like, what's new, dawg?

We gotta get that sonofabitch outta there. Then Bush.

There's nothing 'neo' about these Nazis

This one pisses me off. From Creative Loafing

It was just about the most ordinary-looking group of people you could picture. Thirty folks, the personification of middle America, happily networked in a private room at a popular Cheshire Bridge eatery, Taverna Plaka.

A few minutes later, I was accosted by John Weatherman: a lanky, friendly sort in blue jeans who wanted to chat about the media. "Does your Jewish editor, Ken Edelstein, approve of you being at a meeting like this?" Weatherman inquired.

"Yeah, yeah," Dickson replied. "He married a Jewish woman, but he's with us on most things. I'll go over and talk to him. It'll be OK."

The picture now should be coming into focus. This was not a Rotary Club confab, although if you muted the sound and ignored a literature table, that's what the gathering resembled. This was an informal gathering of ... well, some would call them racists and white supremacists. And much of what they have to say justifies the description -- but it's also a message that is often indistinguishable from the language of Ann Coulter, Neal Boortz or Lou Dobbs.

But there were unvarnished attitudes festering not far below the surface. Fields, the ex-Kluxer chiropractor, talked about "not wanting Americans to die in Iraq for the Jews." One of Fields' more famous statements, published in a newspaper he runs (at one time called the Thunderbolt, now dubbed The Truth at Last), was: "Every Jew who holds a position of power or authority must be removed from that position. If this does not work, then we must establish [the] Final Solution!!!"

Yeah, I'd call that "not far" below the surface...

I asked Fromm – who is widely reported to have participated in a celebration of Hitler's birthday – if he is a neo-Nazi. "No," he said. "I am not a follower of Adolf Hitler." I queried if he was a Holocaust denier, to which he replied, "I am skeptical about the official version of World War II."

Fromm's message – which easily could have passed for talk-radio demagoguery – is that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are part of a plot hatched by Communists in the 1920s in Frankfurt, Germany. "These are symbols being shoved down your throat," he said, "symbols of your dispossession. ... The goal is to achieve widespread acceptance of a radical feminist and a crypto-Moslem of mixed parentage."

Sort of sounds like Sean Hannity, doesn't he?

Go read. Save yourself some time and put your fist through the wall first.

Tom Snyder 1936-2007

I remember Tom very well from my L.A. days. A terrific newsman and interviewer with a great sense of humor, he was fun to watch. You can learn more about him at the LATimes.

This was his signature line:

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air," Snyder would tell his viewers.

Another good one bites the dust. Adios, Tom.

D-Day is Off The Table

Rep. Major R. Owens

"There will be no invasion of Normandy. Such an action might distract from the overall war effort."

Impeachment is off the table. Ordinary House Members will not be exposed to the opportunity to become the "Greatest Generation" of legislators.

In June 1944, upon hearing that the Americans would not try to capture Omaha Beach, imagine the joy among the Nazi leaders. At Bertesgarten there would have been the grossest banquet and celebration ever experienced by humankind.

With impeachment "off the table," Carl Rove spends a few hours celebrating every day as he prepares his war plans for the 2008 elections.

Damn good analogy. Please go read the rest.

Delusions of Grandeur. Lucky us...

Click to embiggen

Old fogeys

The reason I'm on this tangent this morning is thanks to Skippy and the post he directed me to:

... As a middle-aged working stiff and family man, I can't say that I always understand this younger cohort that is coming into adulthood, but I do enjoy learning from them ...

My dad once told me Mick and the Stones were just a passing fad. He thought I was completely out of my mind the first time I came home on leave with an earring. He always gave me the "one day you'll grow up and realize how immature that stuff is". Well, that was 30 years ago. Dad's dead, Mick is still making music and bucks, and I still have my earring.

That said, I'm in my dad's position now (I'm 44), looking at the younger generation, and I listen to my friends come out with the "kids today" complaints and I laugh.

... The perception of one's own generation as innately superior has always struck me as funny ...

The kids today, in general for there are idiots and assholes in every demographic, seem like a great bunch, regardless of their tattoos, piercings, iPods, and whatever other shit defines their generation. Remember, our icons? Tie-dye, bell-bottoms, window pane acid? Same shit. They'll grow up and most of them will turn out to be decent, productive, law-abiding members of society.

I see it with Sam, who works with us at the shop, and her friends, who might dress a little fucked up, but are all good, responsible kids.

Read both posts and think about where you were in your teens. The 'kids today' are good kids, smarter and more savvy than we were. Enjoy being with young people instead of looking down your nose at them. You just might learn something.

Off to the shop ...

Yeah, right ...

If you think these two idiots are credible, go read Greenwald.

The real failure ...

Is what has become of the Iraqi people:

LONDON - About 8 million Iraqis — nearly a third of the population — need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies said Monday.

Those Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said the report by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq.

The report said 15 percent of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat, and 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003. It also said 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared with 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.

"Basic services, ruined by years of war and sanctions, cannot meet the needs of the Iraqi people," said Jeremy Hobbs, the director of Oxfam International. "Millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence, either to another part of Iraq or abroad. Many of those are living in dire poverty."

The report said more than 2 million people — mostly women and children — have been displaced within Iraq, and 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan. [my ems]

...

How to we ever begin to apologize to these people?

Tip o' the Brain to Chris @ AMERICAblog.

The hook ...

Comes tomorrow:

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
A group of House Democrats will introduce a resolution calling on the Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will sponsor the measure. It will be dropped in the hopper tomorrow.

It's too early to say whether it will actually get anywhere.

Here's the text of resolution...

RESOLUTION
Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and
misdemeanors.
1 Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary shall
2 investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the
3 House of Representatives to impeach Alberto R. Gonzales,
4 Attorney General of the United States, for high crimes
5 and misdemeanors.

We'll see how many Dems go spineless on us. What might surprise people is how many Rethugs vote for it.

Vets Health Care

Click to embiggen

An Immoral Philosophy

Paul Krugman

So what kind of philosophy says that it’s O.K. to subsidize insurance companies, but not to provide health care to children?

Now, why should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further “federalization” of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It’s not because he thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults.

And there you have the core of Mr. Bush’s philosophy. He wants the public to believe that government is always the problem, never the solution. But it’s hard to convince people that government is always bad when they see it doing good things. So his philosophy says that the government must be prevented from solving problems, even if it can. In fact, the more good a proposed government program would do, the more fiercely it must be opposed.

But it has taken the fight over children’s health insurance to bring the perversity of this philosophy fully into view.

Bush is doing a damn good job of making government not work. Unless you're rich, of course. Then it works for you just fine.

Respect ...

Personally, I don't care what you do with a Koran, Torah, or Bible. To me, they're just fables at the least, at most, guidebooks written by some smart guys to help fledgling civilizations understand the world around them and learn to live together in viable communities. Then again, I wouldn't desecrate one for the sake of doing it, or to be hurtful of someone else. I might not believe the way you do, but I have enough respect for your beliefs not to shit on your icons.

Who knows whether it should be a hate crime or not? There are enough legal beagles around the interwebs to deal with that eye-glazing argument. I do think, though, the act of desecrating another's religious icons is an act of racism and bigotry against an entire group of people.

Throwing a holy book in a toilet is not the act of voicing a particular disagreement with a particular person (as opposed to taking that particular person's head and flushing it a few times), it is a statement against a billion people (or more), most of whom you don't even know. It's the same as saying "I hate niggers" or "I hate spics". It is saying "I not only have a problem with you, but everyone like you."

It is saying "I have no respect for you, your people, or anything you hold dear". You see it is not just a book (personally, I'd get awful pissed if someone put The Complete Isaac Asimov in a toilet) but it is what helps define a group of people and their values. The people who resort to this type of public statement are no better than the KKK burning a cross in front of a black family's house in Mississippi.

Partisanship ...

"Oh those mean Democrats, they're so partisan," the wankers cry. I don't know, maybe I went through the last 6 years in a different space-time continuum but, seems to me, the Rethugs wrote the book on 'partisan'. Digby:

...

The Republicans have been scorched earth, take-no-prisoners radicals for the last two decades and under Bush they took it to unheard of levels. Even today, they are sticking with their leader come hell or high water, the only exception being his half hearted effort to legalize some low wage immigrant labor for his corporate masters, and even that was a suicidal political rush over a cliff, alienating voters who they are desperately going to need in the coming years.

When it comes to "partisanship" the Republicans have turned it into a fetish --- a risky, self destructive form of political autoerotic asphyxiation in which they are willing to risk killing themselves for the sake of the ultimate thrill. It's one of the reasons we are having such a hard time wrapping our minds around how to deal with these people. They are not behaving like decent national leaders, we know that; but they are also not behaving like normal craven politicians. [my em]

...

Maybe the next time the Rethugs try to foist a 'Manchurian Candidate' upon us, all you people who "want to have a beer with him" will remember the last asshole you helped put there.

Can has?

Pic courtesy of Pax Americana via Avedon. Click to embiggen.

Hatch ...

I can't talk about that man without getting apoplectic. Fortunately, our pal Creature watched Little George this morning, just as I did:

Soon after agreeing that "of course" Alberto Gonzales has credibility problems, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), appearing on This Week, made sure his ass-kissing bona fides were still intact

...

I wonder what Rove has on Hatch, maybe caught him dancing or something.

Iraq ...

Good news:

Iraq completed one of sport's great fairytales by beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final on Sunday to provide a rare moment for celebration in their war-torn homeland.

Bad news:

These are the "successes" that the Bushies keep pointing to in Iraq, you know, the schools, the electrical generators, all that good stuff that proves that it's been worth it. Well guess what? A ton of it has been abandoned by the Iraqi government, and is now in shambles.

If you'll notice, everything we touch over there goes to shit.

Question of the Day

Posed by The Last Chance Democracy Cafe:

What should Bush do when he leaves office?

A better question might be "what should Bush do if he leaves office", but I digress...

My answer: eight years of court ordered community service.

What’s your answer?

I think we've had enough of Bush doing things by court order. Like being the Current Occupant of the White House.

My answer?

Swing from the yardarm. Barring that, life without parole in Victorville CA.

Battle of the Big Box Hardware Stores

Home Depot wants us to STFU.

Lowe's gets it.

I spent forty bucks at Lowe's yesterday. Home Depot can go piss up a rope.

The Allstate 400 is on as we speak. I hope Jimmie Johnson blows Smoke's doors off too.

Update:

To be fair to Smoke, he does some really good stuff. He owns Eldora Speedway, and had Cup drivers race dirt late models for the benefit of The Victory Junction Gang Camp, which is a worthwhile project for sick kids by the Petty family. It not only raised money for the camp, it was maybe the best race to watch this year.

Kyle Petty does other stuff for the camp as well.

Home Depot can still dual-suck me'n Fixer's asses.

Bush Fulfills His Grandfather's Dream

The Smirking Chimp expands on the minor little item about Bush's fascist forebear first brought to us by BaltimoreLenore.

Clearly the lack of accountability in Washington, D.C., did not begin with Nancy Pelosi taking Dubya's impeachment off the table, or with Congress' decision to avoid impeachment for President Ronald Reagan (a decision that arguably played a large role in installing Prescott Bush's son George H.W. Bush as president), or with the failure to investigate the apparent deal that George H.W. Bush and others made with Iran to not release American hostages until Reagan was made president, or with the failure to prosecute Richard Nixon after he resigned. Lack of accountability is a proud tradition in our nation's capital. Or maybe I should say our former nation's capital. I don't recognize the place anymore, and I credit that to George W. Bush's efforts to fulfill his grandfather's dream using far subtler and more effective means than a military coup.

Bush the grandson took office through a highly fraudulent election that he nonetheless lost. The Supreme Court blocked a recount of the vote and installed Dubya.

Prescott's grandson proceeded to weaken or eliminate most of the Bill of Rights in the name of protection from a dark foreign enemy. He even tossed out habeas corpus. The grandson of Prescott, that dreamer of the 1930s, established with very little resistance that the U.S. government can kidnap, detain indefinitely on no charge, torture, and murder. The United States under Prescott Bush's grandson adopted policies that heretofore had been considered only Nazi policies, most strikingly the willingness to openly plan and engage in aggressive wars on other nations.

At the same time, Dubya has accomplished a huge transfer of wealth within the United States from the rest of us to the extremely wealthy. He's also effected a major privatization of public operations, including the military. And he's kept tight control over the media.

Dubya has given himself the power to rewrite all laws with signing statements. He's established that intentionally misleading the Congress about the need for a war is not a crime that carries any penalty. He's given himself the right (just as Hitler did) to open anyone's mail. He's created illegal spying programs and then proposed to legalize them. Prescott would be so proud!

The current President Bush has accomplished much more smoothly than his grandfather could have imagined a feat that was one of the goals of Prescott's gang, namely the elimination of Congress.

Go read zee rest. If you do not, ve haff vays of making you...

The 'paper of record' ...

Finally goes on the record:

...

As far as we can tell, there are three possible explanations for Mr. Gonzales’s talk about a dispute over other — unspecified — intelligence activities. One, he lied to Congress. Two, he used a bureaucratic dodge to mislead lawmakers and the public: the spying program was modified after Mr. Ashcroft refused to endorse it, which made it “different” from the one Mr. Bush has acknowledged. The third is that there was more wiretapping than has been disclosed, perhaps even purely domestic wiretapping, and Mr. Gonzales is helping Mr. Bush cover it up.

Democratic lawmakers are asking for a special prosecutor to look into Mr. Gonzales’s words and deeds. Solicitor General Paul Clement has a last chance to show that the Justice Department is still minimally functional by fulfilling that request.

If that does not happen, Congress should impeach Mr. Gonzales.

Now I know this whole wiretap thing can get complicated but I think Brother Lurch has done the best job of making it easy enough so "even a broke down old sergeant understands".

...

No, what’s hidden deep in the heart of this entire scandal is something much more terrible, and that singular cynical observer might remind himself that during G H W Bu$h’s Presidential campaigns of 1988 and 1992, his son George W Bu$h was a staff member, concerning himself with opposition research and “pranks.” He might also remind himself that Karl Rove has limited, if any interest in foreign policy or diplomacy, but is an acknowledged expert in the dirty political campaign. And truly enjoys “pranks.”

...

Quote of the Day

Austin Cline blogging at the General's place:

... Something had to be deeply wrong with conservatism if anyone imagined that the public needed to be told that it was possible to be conservative and compassionate at the same time, or that conservatism was being transformed into an ideology more compassionate than in the past.

Fuck them too ...

As I noted below, the idiots who wanted this war, the clowns who claim to "support the troops", also don't give much of a shit about the lives they destroy in their quest for Oil and Rapture:

Chart shamelessly stolen from Pygalgia.

Being it's so dangerous for those labeled 'collaborators', those who signed up for jobs with the 'coalition', let alone those displaced by our military machinations, you'd think we'd make it easier for them to find refuge here.

Ah, but that's the crux of the biscuit, isn't it? The morons who love this war have no love for people who are not white, English-speaking, or Christian. The Iraqis are nothing but sandniggers and savages and they sure as hell don't want them here. In their racist, bigoted minds, we got enough Mexicans and real niggers here already.

While the troops are just little green plastic men to be played with, the refugees are merely untermenschen, less than human, with no feelings, no lives, no hopes and dreams with which the chickenhawks should be concerned. They're the black shit between the elephant's toes, the slow-moving pygmies who couldn't get out of the leviathan's way. Of no consequence when oil is the prize.

But there are consequences arising from our actions, whether we acknowledge them or not, and those consequences will revisit us regularly for the foreseeable future. We will be paying for our sins in Iraq for a long time.

Definitions ...

From a post at Think Progress via C & L:

“A chickenhawk is someone who ascribes the bravery of soldiers in wartime to themselves because they take a pro-war position.”

Also, read the post and watch the video of a decorated veteran shoving it up Chickenhawk Rep. Michael Turner's (R-Jerk Off) ass.

And on a very related note, our pal CAFKIA turns us on to Rep. Nancy Boyda's retelling of an experience with a wingnut talk show host (video at the link):

...

“And finally, I would just like to share a story. When I was speaking back at home with one of a very right wing conservative talk show hosts and after, thank God, after we were off the air, I said something that I assumed he would agree with and I just said ‘you know, I’m really worried about these guys and gals, but mainly guys, that have gone, that they’ve been redeployed now three and four times’ — he came back to me and said ‘you know what, they should have thought about that before they enlisted, before they signed up.’ He said ‘it’s their fault.’ And I was so upset, I looked at him and I said with all due restraint, and I said no respect, it’s not with all due respect because quite honestly, I have no respect for that opinion, with all due restraint, and I got myself calmed down and left the room. But I am very disappointed, I would hope that General Keane would not say that. But I am very disappointed that, where is he to get up and defend the men and women who have so honorably served our country? Where is he and where is the rest of this military to say this is the right thing to do? With all due respect, this country has to come together and first and foremost deal in the reality of the situation and find a way to come together and put these crazy partisan politics behind us, and come up with a way forward. And maybe that’s where I should stop. And I will yield back my time.” [my em]

...

This is the way chickenhawks think too. They gave the troops the 'opportunity' to perform, by lying us into a war we have no business being in, and if the mission ends in failure, thanks to poor and inept leadership and planning, it's the troops' fault.

Like we say here at the Brain, all the chickenhawks want is cannon fodder and deck apes.