Immigracion? No! Cheap Labor? Si!

Ever since Fixer's post on immigration, I've been thinking about the subject with an eye towards doing my own. The more I think about the subject, the more complex it becomes and I'm trying to distill my thoughts down to a semblance of coherence. It'll happen forthwith, after this pesky three-day weekend is over. All our readers' comments are very helpful, I would like to add.

In the meantime, read Cynthia Tucker's piece on immigration policy and the lack thereof. This gal has somehow got into my head and used some (but not all) of my best stuff. Via Working For Change.

They're not intended to deal with illegal immigration, either. Not really. To deal effectively with illegal immigration, the GOP would have to crack down on its major patron: business. If a few business executives went to prison for violating federal law, fewer would risk hiring illegal workers. And if Latino workers knew they'd be unlikely to find jobs here, fewer would endanger life and limb trying to get in.

But the fact is that the United States has never had a consistent policy of punishing employers. Indeed, for the past 20 years, the unofficial policy of the federal government has been to accept illegal workers with a wink and a nod.

That's too bad. In addition to national security, there are several good reasons to try to get a handle on illegal immigration. For one thing, illegal immigrants tend to drive down wages for legal laborers. For another, it's exploitative to use undocumented workers for their cheap labor while refusing to give them benefits. It violates America's sense of itself as a land of fair play.

Go read this one.

Stand up!

Oliver Willis:

[. . .]

Ignore the right-wing echo chamber's mindless handwringing about "obstructionists". Even some Republicans don't want the lunatics running the asylum. Stand up for what's right. No to privatizing social security. No to tax evasion laws that saddle our future with debt. Stand the hell up.

A Culture of Secrecy, Lying, and Fear

Since we're on the case of media fellating the lying White House and our accelerating slide into Buscism, here's an article by Charles Lewis of The Center for Public Integrity that you really ought to read and print for reference.

"Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." – George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

Sometimes the persuasion becomes less subtle. For example, when the Center for Public Integrity obtained and prepared to publish online the secret, proposed draft sequel to the USA Patriot Act, known as "Patriot II," we got calls from the U.S. Justice Department beseeching us not to publish.

More Below the Fold

Parallels

Tom Tomorrow:

When I visited the museum at the former Dachau concentration camp, many years ago, there was an exhibit of photographs intended to viscerally illustrate the sheer inhuman brutality of life in the camp. One of these photos showed a prisoner hanging from a tree by his wrists, which were tied or cuffed behind his back--one of the more painful positions into which the human body can be forced, according to the exhibit's accompanying text.

I hadn't thought of that image in several years--until I read this:

An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA (news - web sites) interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture — suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

[. . .]

Tell me again how what we're doing to these people is moral?

Another pass

[. . .]

He [(p)resident C-student] refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

[. . .]

NYT

I guess the Christians are gonna give him a pass on this too.

I'm in a place called Vertigo

[. . .]

So what can Mr. Bush do? Well, he can clear up some confusion about America's basic beliefs. Americans are overtly devout. And yet Europeans, who inhabit a more secular world, give more per capita than Americans to what the Bible calls "the least of these" - the world's poor. The United States is in 22nd place, last in the class of donor nations. (Add private philanthropy and it's up to 15th.) Europeans see the discrepancy, and they smell hypocrisy.

[. . .]

Bono of U2 in the NYT. Link via Melanie.

Blackmail

The citizens of Left Blogstonia (©Rook) are finally getting around to looking at Gannongate the way I did.

[. . .]

The Homeland Security angle: How can someone who is so suceptible to extortion and blackmail get so close to the (p)resident? God knows what he could have been coerced into doing to keep his 'cover'. Why was he included in the distribution of the Plame memo? Who does security checks at the White House? If the Secret Service vetted this guy, the (p)resident better start walking around in body armor and a helmet. They suck.

[. . .]

More below the fold . . .

Saturday Cattle Dog Blogging

Another old pic. Shayna was almost a year old here and in the middle of her color change.

Immigration

This might make me unpopular, but I've never been one for personality contests anyway.

I might sound like a Repubican, but I got a problem with illegal immigration. Since we've been talking about policy, this is one I got a problem with. I know, I know, I should be tolerant, I'm a Dem. Fuck that, know why? IT'S AGAINST THE LAW!

I don't give a shit whether you're from Latin America, China, Europe, the MidEast, I don't give a shit, you broke the fucking law when you entered this nation by subverting the process. Don't get me wrong, I think it's terrible, some of the conditions these poor people have to live under in their home countries, but the law is the law.

[. . .]

More below the fold . . .

Iwo Jima

On 19 February, 1945, U.S. Marines assaulted the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima.

More Below The Fold

Speak State-Approved Truth Or None At All.

From USA Today:

CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."

More Below the Fold

Deja vu . . . all over again

In 1936, Hitler militarized the Rhineland, bordering France. In 1938, Hitler moved his armies into Austria and the Sudetenland.

In 2002, Bush began making noises about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. In 2003, the U.S. invaded. In 2005, Bush is making noises about Iran's Weapons of Mass Destruction.

TBogg.

I've seen that movie too.

Career change?

The Jeff Gannon New Beginnings Career School.

Maher on Free Speech

I'm not a huge fan of Bill Maher, but sometimes he cuts through the shit and says good things in a wry, satirical way, so I listen to him. Go read what he has to say to schoolkids about free speech. From the LATimes.

A new survey found that a majority of high schoolers think newspapers should not be allowed to publish without government approval. And almost one in five said that Americans should be prohibited from expressing unpopular opinions.

Lemme tell you little darlings something: This is my livelihood you're messing with, so either learn the Bill of Rights or you don't deserve Social Security.

Now, I didn't mind being on the losing side of the last election. But as a loser, I guess I have some "unpopular" opinions — and I'd like to keep them. I'd even like to continue to say them right out loud on TV, because if I just get up there every Friday night and spout the Bush administration's approved talking points, that's not freedom or entertainment. It's Fox News.

I think the kids are hearing too much opinion at home and confusing it with the truth they ought to be learning in school. Oh, poor naive, idealistic me.

Grrrrrrrr

I make no secret of the fact I'm a veteran and neither does Gord. We're both proud of our service to this country. I'm sure this will piss him off as much as it does me. Democratic Veteran:

Yo. This one goes out to all my fellow vets. The "Blog of the Year" dissed President Jimmy Carter, a vet and an honorable man. I don't know about you, but I have now become officially as hell sick of right-wing too-busy-to-have-served punks calling me and those I respect, terrorist-loving lefties. What are we going to do about it? Suggestions welcomed.

For my part, I was thinking that we can start by pointing out that those men and women of the Boomer Generation and slightly younger who sat out the Cold War in the comfort of our shadows must be commie-lovers. Yup, Lovers of Lenin all. Otherwise why were they not willing to stand on the walls to keep the heathen commies penned up within their own borders? Why? Because, by using the same logic that they use to conflate us with the likes of such miserable people as Osama, they loved Brother Joe Stalin like a sibling.

[. . .]

. . . That's one reason I served, because of my belief that every American has an equal right to be right and to be wrong. I did not serve to one day turn my country over to loud-mouthed self-absorbed reactionaries who want to dishonor me and those who believe as I do by calling me a traitor for not sharing their worldview . . . [my emphasis]

This is how it happens

Slowly but surely, if you're not watching, the Fascist Nazi Wingnut scum takes over. From John Emerson at Seeing The Forest:

[. . .]

I don’t actually think at all well of Ward Churchill, but I now regret attacking him a week or so ago. He’s just the first of a long list of names that they’re going to go after. They’re smart enough to attack the least appealing individuals first, in a classic salami-slice operation.

If I turn out to be wrong in this, I will be very happy and will let the whole world insult me with impunity.

If he turns out to be wrong in this, I'll stand up against the wall with him. No blindfold, just a cigarette. I think he's dead right and we all should be worried. This shit didn't start with Bush, spat out fully-fledged and ready to go in '99. This began when Bill Clinton was elected in '92. Newt and his boys, and the remnants of the Nixon and Reagan administrations, set out on their Fascist NeoCon takeover of the U.S. government.

More Gannongate

World O'Crap:

But here's one last item from TheConservativeGuy, which you have to love for its retrospective irony:

Taking on liberals 24/7/365 I'M CALLING YOU OUT, TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT!

Long, but very, very good.

Blogger blows again.

Ethical journalists?

I don't know if this LATimes column by David Shaw will contribute anything to our discussion of the media but, hey, knowledge is good.

Indeed, the recently released 2004 edition of Gallup's annual survey of what Americans think of the honesty and ethical standards of various professions found that journalists ranked behind not only nurses, grade school teachers, clergy and judges but behind auto mechanics, state and local officeholders and seven other professions as well (but slightly ahead of business executives, congressmen, lawyers, advertising practitioners and car salesmen). Only slightly more than 20% of poll respondents said they considered journalists to have "high" or "very high" ethical standards.

The article goes on to describe a test given to journalists to ascertain their ethical standards and the results.

Bush Shifts Pension Stance

From today's LATimes:

The president, in an interview published Wednesday in several regional newspapers, left the door open to the idea of raising the cap on wages subject to the Social Security tax as a way to help cover the transition costs of private accounts. Earnings above $90,000 are not subject to tax now.

Let's cut through the shit. Here's my plan: Don't raise the payroll-tax cap. Flat out eliminate it. Do nothing else. Then wait 'til this idiot's out of the White House and see how it's going.

Help Wanted

From Courant.com. Go read. This'll crack you up.

Dear Mr. McClellan:

I am writing you in regard to the now-vacant position of White House press corps plant.

It is my understanding that your previous press corps plant, James D. Guckert - to whom you issued White House press credentials under the name Jeff Gannon - is no longer with the administration.

I realize, of course, that because of the flap over the administration's policy of having conservative columnists on the payroll, it may not be politically feasible to fill Mr. Guckert's position right away. However, when you do begin hiring again, I hope you will consider me.

Again, thank you for your time, sir, and I will be waiting to hear from you.

P.S. The three columns for $1,399 offer is still good while supplies last.

A hireling, a fraud and a prostitute

Here's part of an article in The Guardian about Gannongate. You should read the rest of it. Those Limeys use English like they invented it.

Inserting an agent directly into the White House press corps was a daring operation. Until his exposure, he proved useful for the White House. But the longer-term implication is the Republican effort to sideline an independent press and undermine its legitimacy. "Spin" seems quaint. "In this day and age," said press secretary McClellan, waxing philosophical about the Gannon affair, "when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide or try to pick and choose who is a journalist." It is not that the White House press secretary cannot distinguish who is or is not a journalist; it is that there are no journalists, just the gaming of the system for the concentration of power.

I think the FBI, or some young reporter who'd like to make his bones and who's not afraid of jail or warm climates, should look at Guckert's phone and IP logs to see who's been availing themselves of his other non-journalistic offerings.

Wait for it

I guess I'm playing far-in-advance man, but a few of us here in Left Blogstonia (©Rook) are kicking around an idea about a fascism-oriented blog. No, not promoting it, but documenting the morphing of the American Executive into Hitler and his Henchmen. Stay tuned.

And TCF and the Sister and I have bitten into the 'truth in journalism' [cough] apple and we'll be pushing the issue on our blogs. From the man himself.

In the fourth to last paragraph concluding my post The Great Pretender, TCF made a bold, self-righteous and exasperated pledge to expose the now obvious Conservative grip (bias now an inadequate description), on the Mainstream Media in America. I hoped to also enlist the help of others in this quest, having now an abundance of evidence in hand, and no takers (so far) from The Right willing to contradict it.

Dishonesty

MoDo:

[. . .]

With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with ringers.

At last month's press conference, Jeff Gannon asked Mr. Bush how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." But Bush officials have divorced themselves from reality.

They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.

[. . .]

I love Ms. Dowd, the epitome of what I like in a woman, smart, independent, good looking, like Mrs. F. She nails this squarely on the head, Chimpy Inc's Orwellian experiment that is destroying the country. Imagine it, if you will, a male prostitute (any prostitute) gets a press pass to the White House and Maureen Dowd is denied. If that isn't an indication about how fucked up things are, I don't know what is. Maybe she should try selling her ass on the street in Anacostia? She might get access then.

Stupidity

John at blogenlust:

[. . .]

The assassination of a political leader. The forming of alliances. Where have I heard this one before?

Along with Steve Soto, I can't quite tell on what grounds the Bush Administration is going after Syria for the assassination of Hariri. It seems forced and over the top, and when combined with our recent saber rattling towards Iran, a little unnerving. I'm still not sure whether Bush is audacious and stupid enough to start another war (a much bigger war), or whether he is just ratcheting up the rhetoric. I'm also not very confident that he can do the latter without also starting the former. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Note to John: Yes, he is.

More below the fold . . .

No Fat In Onions, Eh?

With all the talk about juvenile obesity, The Onion kicks in its two cents worth...

With obesity among children rising steadily, health experts say our school's physical education programs are woefully inadequate. What do you think?

"Well, what do people expect? How are today's gym teachers supposed to motivate kids, now that homophobia, verbal harassment, and physical abuse are off limits?"

"I don't want my kids missing out on all that gym class offers. That's why I give them cruel nicknames, make them shower together, and snap them with wet towels."

"You know, sex burns a lot of calories. Teens love sex. I can't see why no one has thought of this before."

Those first two bring back memories. That last one? Great. Two generations of fat kids in the same classroom! That's all we need. Oh, well, it's a Red State thing anyway. But it's our money.

Joining the fun

Michael Hawkins:

Bush would do well to listen to his own words, such as this comment on "Meet the Press" last weekend: "See, free societies are societies that don't develop weapons of mass terror and don't blackmail the world."

He is, of course, incapable of sensing the overwhelming hypocrisy of statements like this, and will, of course, never apply its rationale to his own policy.

[. . .]

The point being, the U.S. (often through its client state, Israel) is determined to retain the lion's share of weapons contracts, and it is willing to play Nuclear Roulette in order to maximize product viability. It GREATLY DESIRES a new global arms race, and is willing to "bungle" its foreign policy in order for the Irans and North Koreas of the world to join in the fun.

Michael's always getting me to look at another angle. And with Chimpy Inc's devotion to the military/industial machine, he probably called it correctly.

Nah . . . really?

Joe-mentum for SECDEF? Oliver Willis (here and here).

Who's in charge here? 2

This is no way to run a war. Via WTF:

WASHINGTON - The last time Dr. Floyd Baker served in the U.S. Army, Harry S. Truman was president, Dinah Shore's "Buttons and Bows" topped the music charts, "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" won an Oscar and the bikini made its debut on American beaches.

[. . .]

"I was honorably discharged in 1948," said Baker, who was drafted in 1946 and left the Army with captain's bars on his shoulders. "I thought the letter belonged to somebody else, knowing when I got in the Army and when I got out. I thought it was a mistake."

[. . .]

Baker's letters may be a simple bureaucratic mistake, but they're also symptomatic of how the U.S. military is struggling to fill its ranks as it's stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq. To help keep its numbers up, the Army recently expanded a little-used program to recall officers and enlisted personnel to serve voluntarily for up to a year.

More than 300 Army retirees from their mid-40s to their late 60s are on active duty through the program, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army personnel spokesman.

[. . .]

When you have to beg the old farts to sign up, something is going seriously wrong. I keep checking the mail for my recall notice.

Vieques? No! Florida? Si!

Speaking as one of the few people you know who has actually spent time on Vieques, a true Caribbean paradise - NOT! -, I direct you to this article from the Institute For Southern Studies:

This is all happening because the Navy lost its testing and practice grounds on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. A popular uprising, including everyone from churches to pop stars to pro athletes, eventually forced the Navy to leave, after they had occupied much of the island for nearly fifty years. Now they need to shift testing to sites in the U.S., where the prime candidates include a series of locations in Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, where live bombing exercises will take place at three ranges in the panhandle and central Florida.

I heartily concur. I think one of the best uses of my tax money (the South gets it anyway) would be for bombing and gunnery ranges in the South. My preference would be smack dab in the middle of the state capitols (BDA would be easier, wink wink), but I'll take what I can get. Go read. Lotsa links.

update and shameless self-promotion. Go read My Poem Below The Fold.

9/11 Cover-Up

Robert Scheer writes on AlterNet:

Would George W. Bush have been re-elected president if the public understood how much responsibility his administration bears for allowing the 9/11 attacks to succeed?

And let's be clear: The failure to fully disclose what is known about the 9/11 tragedy is not some minor bureaucratic transgression. Not since the Soviets first detonated an atomic bomb more than half a century ago has a single event so affected decision-making in this country, yet the main questions as to how and why it happened remain mostly unanswered.

More below the fold...

The stench of hypocrisy 3

David at 42:

Writing for the right-wing media advocacy group, Accuracy in Media, Cliff Kincaid dismissed the controversy as "laughable," insisting Guckert's only "crimes" were "that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats." And at Power Line, the conservative outpost that wrote relentlessly about CBS's troubles with its Bush National Guard story last year, the site has confessed bewilderment about the Guckert controversy. "I can't figure out what the story is," wrote one of Power Line's contributors . . .

More below the fold . . .

What They Really Mean ...

Norman Solomon, AlterNet, has come up with some "What they said/What they really mean" entries. Here's a taste, then go read:

* Bush said: "Americans were still barred by law from hotels and restaurants, made to drink from separate water fountains, forced to sit in the back of a bus – all because of the color of their skin. We need to teach them about the heroes of the civil rights movement, who by their courage and dignity forced America to confront the central defect of our founding."

What he meant: "Back in the '50s and '60s, a lot of the mentors of the right-wing politicians I'm now tight with were fighting against desegregation and vilifying the civil rights movement as a sinister force for judicial activism that threatened to undermine the sacred covenant of states' rights. Well, times have changed. Fortunately, the old power base of the Dixiecrats in Congress has been transformed into the country's most solid bedrock of Republican power. Blacks can use those water fountains, but we'll keep slashing social programs and skewing the tax structures so my rich pals can get richer while lots of people will stay near the bottom of the economic ladder. And I'm not just whistling Dixie."

This is a genre rife with irony. I welcome readers' submissions. Here's one of mine:

What they say: We're pro-life because it's God's way.

What they really mean: Your womb is ours 'til the brat draws its first breath, then fuck both of you.

See how easy it is?

The week that was

Bubba:

And that's just a random week in the first month of Bush's second term. We're on the Doom Train with the Masters of Disaster at the throttle. They are drunk on power and determined to run America off the tracks. And nobody seems to care, or really even notice.

[. . .]

Mutual Assured Destruction

From Kevin T. Kieth at Lean Left:

Republican Senators have been threatening for a year or more to “go nuclear” on the Democrats if the Democrats inist on exercising advice and consent on Bush’s extremist judicial nominations. The Democrats need to counter with nuclear deterrence - a policy of Mutual Assured Destruction. It’s worked in the past. It can work now.

[. . .]

How can the Democrats respond? Clearly, the balance of power must be maintained, but the Democrats must come up with a response that ups the ante for the Republicans as well. Here’s my suggestion: threaten to retaliate.

Eventually, the Democrats will return to majority status in the Senate. It may be a bare majority, but the Republicans have demonstrated that simple majority power can be wielded tyrannically. The Democrats must do so.

[. . .]

Go read the whole post. An idea to slap Frist's weenie into his watchpocket. Unless the Repubs have some reason to believe the balance of power in the congress won't tip to the Democrats' side . . . ever.

Blogger

Too bad it's free, because then I can't bitch so loudly about how it SUCKS WET MONKEY ASS!!!!

More whores

Kevin Hayden asks the same questions I do:

[. . .]

This is not the Washington Post that had the courage to go after the Watergate story. It would rather focus on the frustration Democratic lawmakers have getting serious matters investigated.

[. . .]

Meanwhile, back at the White House, they’re busy defending their working relationship with a ‘reporter’ who appears to be a male hooker. Maybe it really does depend in this insane government on whose whistle’s getting blown.

But the Washington Post used to be a credible news organization that could at least find the important parts of a story that matter to people outside the beltway. What caused them to think that corruption was boredom and made them choose the life of whoredom?

Have they been paid off? Or are they just lusty advocates for the buggering of Americans? Has the medium become the massage? [my emphasis]

[. . .]

They write

Pudentilla:

Dear Senator,

Did President Bush know that "Jeff Gannon" was a prostitute using a false name when he called on him at his most recent news conference?

[. . .]

Sincerely,

Pudentilla

I urge you to do the same.

Missile Defense

Stole it from the Ghost:



It's worth $100 bil, right? It's your money.

The Pledge

The pledge:

TCF asked me to take this pledge together with other residents of Left Blogstonia (©Rook). I've been remiss about not getting to it sooner.

From this point on, I hope to enlist the help of others in firmly establishing the perception, then the belief that there now exists a clear and dominant Conservative bias throughout the Mainstream Media in this country. We will demand evidence to the contrary, while having at the ready, a large quantity of data indicting those who have enabled the injurious incompetence of the present administration, and hold them equally accountable for the damage.

I am honored that he asked and happy to agree. He is absolutely right. The So-Called Liberal Media (SCLM ©Corrente) should now be referred to as the Lying Right Wing Media (LRWM ©Corrente). They built the meme of the Liberal Mainstream Media (© Instashithead) and it's time for us to tear it down. Join TCF and me in taking the pledge. In my lingo: Fuck their ass until they choke.

Update:

Credit: MSM = Murdoch Seduced Media (©TCF)

Getting the Purple Finger

While I was browsing The Nation, I found this one by Naomi Klein.

The election results are in: Iraqis voted overwhelmingly to throw out the US-installed government of Iyad Allawi, who refused to ask the United States to leave. A decisive majority voted for the United Iraqi Alliance; the second plank in the UIA platform calls for "a timetable for the withdrawal of the multinational forces from Iraq."

So what's the prize? An end to occupation, as the voters demanded? Don't be silly--the US government won't submit to any "artificial timetable." Jobs for everyone, as the UIA promised? You can't vote for socialist nonsense like that. No, they get Geraldo Rivera's tears ("I felt like such a sap"), Laura Bush's motherly pride ("It was so moving for the President and me to watch people come out with purple fingers") and Betsy Hart's sincere apology for ever doubting them ("Wow--do I stand corrected").

And that should be enough. Because if it weren't for the invasion, Iraqis would not even have the freedom to vote for their liberation, and then to have that vote completely ignored. And that's the real prize: the freedom to be occupied. Wow--do I stand corrected.

I wish we had the freedom to tell Bush to "get out". Oh, that's right, we do, only we blew it.

Maybe the Iraqis will have better luck with it.

Republican Dictionary

Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, via AlterNet has come up with these jewels:

Or as we like to say in Republican Dictionary land:

PERSONAL RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS, n. Chinese Communist Party loans.

ACCOUNTABILITY, n. Buck? What buck? (Martin Richard, Belgrade, Mont.)

BI-PARTISANSHIP, adj. When Democrats compromise. (Justin Rezzonico, Keene, N.H.)

CHECKS & BALANCES, pl. n. An antiquated concept of the Founding Fathers that impedes autocratic efficiency; see also REFORM. (Robert B. Fuld, Unionville, Conn.)

There's more. Go read.

Gannongate

AMERICAblog has more. This is getting good.

Update: 16:45:

Via Shakespeare's Sister. Raw Story has something related. And you wonder how Gannon got his creds?

Update: 17:00:

Pam:

Anyone in the White House satisfied? The rallying cry should be "It's the client list, stupid." How could this unqualified "reporter"/hooker gain regular access to the briefing room? Remember, this loser sat only a few rows from Chimpy at times. What is going on and who is pulling the strings?

And just a note: I've had the news on since 14:00 Eastern and I have yet to hear a whisper about this. In-fucking-credible.

Pissed Off

I just did a big long post about Bush lying about Iraq and the Middle East in general and it vanished. Fuck it. Go read this.

[Found it - F-man]

Labor relations

From Labor Blog (here and here) via Skippy:

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges that it violated child labor laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire. As part of the agreement, revealed yesterday after it was secretly signed in January, the Labor Department agreed "to give Wal-Mart 15 days' notice before the Labor Department investigates any other 'wage and hour' accusations, like failure to pay minimum wage or overtime."

[. . .]

The Occupational Safety and Health Act prohibits inspectors from warning employers about planned inspections, but no such provisions exist in many other labor laws.

Once again, an example of how the rules only apply to the proles.

Editing policy

I guess, since I've been bitching about journalistic ethics lately (and not to imply that I'm a journalist in any sense of the word, but I try to be an ethical man), I felt I should say something about the editorial policies here at the Brain. As I said, I don't fancy myself a journalist, but people do depend on us for information.

Here goes:

As I administer this blog, I sorta get to make the rules. I don't have many. I don't censor my partners, even if they have a problem with me, or take exception with something I write. This is still America and I value their opinions, even if they are conflicted with mine. That's why they're here.

Second, we all make mistakes, we're human. If someone makes one here, I expect them to own up to it, not hide it, nor delete it. Edits are only done in the case of typos. If a retraction or apology is required, I expect it to be given, in the light of day, not covered up.

Truth and Principle. I've built a reputation for honesty and integrity as an auto mechanic, no small feat, and I plan on keeping it as shiny as possible in any endeavor I undertake.

And I'd like that all the posts here have something to do with progressive politics or the state of the nation, but we all cross that line regularly. No big deal.

That's it.

My favorite holiday

Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday. It's because I love women. I'm a romantic and I think women are God's greatest creation, and this is the day where I get to show it. I try to show the Mrs. that I love her regularly, but Valentine's is the best. It's how we fell in love with Paris; I surprised her with the trip there one year for Valentine's Day and it became 'our city'. There's nothing like being in love and being in Paris at the same time.

So, in keeping with tradition, I wish my partner KR a Happy Valentine's Day, and also to all my fellow bloggers of the female persuasion. I hope you all have a guy (partner) who's in love with you as I am with the Mrs.

Lemons

So you think the Dems should become more moderate? Move to the center? Puh! Wolcott:

. . . Bipartisanship has gotten Democrats nowhere for four years, has earned them nothing more than a fine spittle of contempt falling like a constant drizzle. They should let a smile be their umbrella as they enjoy the spectacle of House and Senate Republicans promoting Social Security privatization as if they'd been ordered by their commander in chief to suck lemons.

The 600lb. gorilla

I was watching Little George this morning (like I do every Sunday) and it was good to see Sam Donaldson again. I'd give a testicle to see him back at the White House, but I'm sure Snot "Lyin Sucka" McClellan wouldn't credential him in any case. He's no 'Jeff "Jerk-Off" Gannon'.

More below the fold . . .

Seeds

------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC Breaking News
------------------------------------------------------

Shiite-led list wins big in Iraq elections, results show -
Figures released Sunday by Iraq's election commission show a Shiite-led list won 4.075 million votes, Kurds 2.175 million and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list 1.168 million, The Associated Press reports.

Now, does anybody else see the fuel, the catalyst, and the spark for a continuing Sunni insurgency? Does anybody else see the groundwork for civil war being laid?

Update: 14:00:

Juan Cole and Kevin Drum.

Google search

As you'll see, I added a Google search box in the sidebar. I did this mostly for me (and my partners) because the volume of posts in our archives (3200+) is getting too big for me to keep in my head (don't ask), and the Blogger search on the 'edit' page sucks wet monkey ass (©Maru). Feel free to use it as well.

1000 bars

In one year. An admirable goal. My bachelor party consisted of my friends dragging me through every bar on Jericho Turnpike from the Queens line to New Hyde Park Road. 15 years later, my liver still doesn't let me forget. Blondie and Glen probably know the area and they can tell you it was no small feat. Via RUFNKM.

It's up to you now

TCF:

You see, that’s what tends to happen when Howard Dean’s message is not filtered through Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert and Cokie Roberts. This was not the Party establishment’s failure in making the unappealing case against installing just ‘another Northeastern Liberal’, it was Dean’s triumph in proving anyone propagating such Republican ‘talking points’ has no damn business running the Democratic Party.

That’s all behind us now. And, here’s where it’s important for TCF to make clear to his readers that the future of the Democratic Party does depend upon you.

[. . .]

Presiding over the healthy coffers of the Party, dictating and directing 50 state organizations, and more importantly, not having to concern himself with the pervading, skewed ‘Conventional Wisdom’ of the Beltway, Dean is free to make an impact out where it counts.

[. . .]

And us, the residents of Left Blogstonia (©Rook). It's up to us to get the message out, unfiltered, and to push the progressive agenda that Chairman Dean should lay out soon enough. Hopefully, we'll see some housecleaning at DNC as well.

Not perfect but . . .

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas promised on Saturday to maintain a de facto truce and, in a major policy change, not to retaliate immediately for any Israeli violence while it weighs Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's ceasefire with Israel.

[. . .]

This is good news. While Hamas still isn't embracing the ceasefire, the guns are quiet for now.

Really?

NYT:

Iraqi Insurgents Step Up Attacks After Elections

I thought the violence would wind down after the election? (palm slaps forehead) I guess they didn't change the excuse for this month yet.

Yeah!!!!!

Atrios:

Dean's In

If you're happy with that choice, reward good behavior.

For the record: I'm happy with the choice. We've set up a blogosphere-wide donation page, so show your support.

I'm happy.

And for the record: Blogger sucks wet monkey ass* again.

Update: 19:50:

Ezra makes a rational argument why you should be happy too.

*The words 'wet monkey ass' courtesy of Maru.

Divine qualifications

Looks like you have the right to worship as you choose...as long as it's "Almighty God". I wonder if North Carolina really considers Buhiddism unconstitutional?

[. . .]

Did you know that in some states, a belief in God is a requirement to hold public office? Rob's Blog.

Insanity

Vietnam flashback via RelentlesslyOptimistic:

The number two Pentagon official said reducing American casualties in Iraq was more important than bringing US troops back home -- and pointed to the rising Iraqi death toll as evidence this strategy was working.

"I'm more concerned about bringing down our casualties than bringing down our numbers," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview with PBS television's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" program. "And it is worth saying that since June 1, there have been more Iraqi police and military killed in action than Americans." [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Details.

We had to destroy the country in order to save it. Is there anyone who's not criminally insane over at the Pentagram?

Talking Points

Gillard has a bunch of 'em:

. . .See, there's a double standard here: anything the little racists say is cool. Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry can run the upscale race and reason rag known as the NRO and no one will ask if they go too far.

[. . .]

More below the fold . . .

Saturday Cattle Dog Blogging

The Princess in the yard. (Old pic)

Another good chuckle

If it weren't probably true. Rising Hegemon.

Get Kinky, Texas

As you have no doubt heard, Kinky Friedman, entertainer, raconteur, and mystery writer, is running for governor of Texas in an attempt to unseat Rick "Kneel In Awe At The Power Of My Hair" Perry and bring some sanity and spirituality to a corrupt state.

As leader of "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys", he is noted for such songs as "Asshole From El Paso" (I'm proud to be an asshole from El Paso) and lotsa others. He has churned out carefully crafted 18 mystery novels as well.

I have been a fan for thirty years since my buddy Steve of Storz Performance turned me on to him. Shameless plug for Steve.

Go visit Kinky's site. Click around. Be sure to visit his store. Here's a quote:

I'm a Jew, I'll hire good people.

“If elected, I would ask Willie Nelson to be the head of the Texas Rangers and Laura Bush to take charge of education in the state. I'd ask my Palestinian hairdresser, Farouk Shami, to be Texas ' ambassador to Israel . We've worked together to create Farouk & Friedman olive oil. The oil comes from the Holy land and all of the profits go to benefit Israeli and Palestinian children.”

C'mon, Texas, do the right thing for once. You owe us big time.

Straight from Kinky: "May the God of your choice bless you."

College Republicans

Republicans, in contrast to the Nazis, who actually trained the Hitler Jugend in military skills, appear to be interested only in teaching the “Red” Jugend how to exploit the serving men and women of the U.S. military.

[. . .]

Pudentilla's been on these assholes for the last three days (here, here, and here). It opened my eyes a little more.

Bumperstickers

Go see RJ over at Night Light.

Make your own.

Gannon Implicated In Valerie Plame Leak

This shit just keeps getting better and better. From Kos:

This diary condenses the huge and detailed timeline laid out in the previous diary "Plame leak timeline II".

It lays the case for the leak of the classified 2002 CIA memo to Gannon.

This article is way long, but if you are interested, go read. You owe it to yourself.

In conclusion:

Jeff Gannon was planted by the administration to disseminate their talking points unfettered by any journalism ethics or investigation shortly after the Iraq war, when the failure to find WMDs was becoming apparent. He became incredibly useful in L'Affaire Plame to continue to push the dual stories that a) Plame's name was already common knowledge and therefore `outing' her was not a crime and b) to continue to help discredit the CIA and Wilson.

Based on the evidence, I believe the 2002 CIA memo was leaked to Gannon when Novak became unusable and when the `mainstream' reporters with CIA contacts were not pushing the WH's preferred story line. They needed cover, and they got it.

These assholes are starting to trip all over their little dicks. We may need dual twelve-ropers. Whee!

Update: Democrats Want Investigation of Reporter Using Fake Name. NYTimes article.

The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.

Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Ms. Slaughter, said: "This is a guy who could not get credentialed by the House or the Senate press galleries, and yet managed to get into the White House and question the president" and have access to a top-secret document.

Incompetent tyrants

Jesse rants:

[. . .]

Guess what? When Democrats threaten their members to keep them in line, they're doing what they need to do to push forward their ideas. If Arlen Specter hadn't been threatened with what was essentially career destruction; if Tom DeLay wasn't called "The Hammer"; if Republicans didn't break Congressional rules left and right to make sure Democrats never ever win; if Social Security privatization wasn't a combination of some of the worst policy ideas ever proposed; if the Republican leadership wasn't a series of increasingly incompetent tyrants who would just as soon declare you a traitor as use you for a photo-op, then maybe this wouldn't be necessary.

[. . .]

The Media Should Be Ashamed Of Itself

Eric Alterman, in The Nation, blasts the media for it's unconscionable complicity in the crimes and malfeasance of the Bush administration.

The United States government is currently run by a group of people for whom verifiable truth holds no particular privilege over ideologically inspired nonsense. For members of the mainstream media, trying to maintain a sense of self-importance and solemnity and to keep the wing nuts from crowing for more scalps, this requires a series of stratagems to keep up the scripted charade, no matter how foolish it makes them look or feel while doing so.

The easiest of these stratagems is simply to stack the coverage with political partisans and give them free rein to spout GOP propaganda. That's what the cable news networks do, as Media Matters for America demonstrated. Consistent with cable inauguration coverage, for example, MSNBC offered viewers of its State of the Union commentary eleven right-wing pundits and just two Democrats or liberals in response.

The standard for this kind of contentless coverage is set, per usual, by the reporting of the New York Times. If the lead reporter of the newspaper of record can ditch the substance part, well then, so can everybody else. Reporter Todd Purdum marveled at Bush's "penchant for thinking big, or speaking grandly." He then referred to Bush's "first State of the Union address three years ago...he stunned the world with his denunciation of Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an 'axis of evil,' and his warning that he would 'not wait on events while dangers gather.'" Purdum failed to note what was obvious to any "reality based" observer: that the "axis" idea was logically incoherent, and the arguments vis-à-vis Iraq were based on evidence later deemed imaginary. Instead, Purdum explained that Bush "has long since proved both the extent, and the limits, of his ability to match his actions to his words," which is an awfully nice way of saying that the man is full of it.

It's hard to know in a post-truth society what anything means anymore, except more nonsense and lies, dutifully reported.

No Below The Fold on this one. I want you to go read the whole thing.

The Right whines that they are "victims" of the MSM. Yeah, right. Bush&Co. are "victims" of the biggest blow job in history. The American people are the real victims.

The Rapture Index

Jon Carroll of the Ess Eff Chronicle has a good take on a subject that has a lot of the phony christians all a-dither. I left out some, so go read.

Let us consider the Rapture Index. This is a real thing prepared by serious people. If it makes you laugh, you have not gotten the memo. You probably have not read any of the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series, the best-selling books in America today.

Those Left Behind are those who did not experience the Rapture, which is an instant in time when all the truly holy people are taken directly to heaven, leaving their clothes in small neat piles behind them. The rest of the ungodly losers are left to deal with natural disasters and wars and the armies of the Antichrist, after which they die in various colorful ways while the ranks of the saved watch with compassion tempered with an understandable sense of satisfaction.

Rejoice, my brethren (and sisteren), for, yea verily, there is ever-so-much more Below The Fold.

A national embarrassment

Via 12thharmonic from the Herald-Sun:

EIGHT months before the September 11 attacks the White House's then counterterrorism adviser urged then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to hold a high-level meeting on the al-Qaeda network, according to a memo made public today.

"We urgently need such a principals-level review on the al-Qaeda network," then White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke wrote in the January 25, 2001 memo.

Mr Clarke, who left the White House in 2003, made headlines in the heat of the US presidential campaign last year when he accused the Bush White House of having ignored al-Qaeda's threats before September 11.

Mr Clarke testified before inquiry panels and in a book that Rice, his boss at the time, had been warned of the threat. Rice is now US Secretary of State.

However, Ms Rice wrote in a March 22, 2004 column in The Washington Post that "No al-Qaeda threat was turned over to the new administration".

[. . .]

So Condi lied. Duh.

[. . .]

The report by the 9/11 commission that investigated the suicide airliner attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon detailed 52 such warnings given to FAA leaders from April to Sept. 10, 2001, about the radical Islamic terrorist group and its leader, Osama bin Laden. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

The Bush administration is a collection of mass murderers and con men. A criminal enterprise if I ever saw one. I wonder if some District Attorney with nothing to lose would indict them all under the RICO Act. Kos has detail and documents.

A national disgrace

Truthout via RDF:

[. . .]

A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs -- until illness struck.

As part of a research study at Harvard University, our researchers interviewed 1,771 Americans in bankruptcy courts across the country. To our surprise, half said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy. So each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.

But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.

[. . .]

Now, I've lived in Europe long enough to see the good and bad of socialized medicine, and I'm not advocating it for this country, but something's gotta be done. The health care system in this country has to be revamped or we're gonna have a huge social crisis as treatments (new drugs and equipment) get more expensive every year. The profit equation has to be taken out or no one but the rich will be able to afford health care. With the good jobs steadily moving offshore and what's left turning into a Wal-Mart nation, too many people are being left behind. Those who have nothing will end up on public assistance and those who have will be wiped out thanks to inadequate coverage. This is a much more immediate problem than Social Security and it would be nice if our lawmakers realized that while they take campaign donations from Big Pharma and Wal-Mart.

Charles and Camilla

All I'll say is good for 'em. They were meant to be together from the get go. I hope they're happy.

Arrgh, Matey! Reefer The Poop! Poop The Reefer!

This one is too good to pass up. From Dana Larsen via AlterNet.

Popeye is one of the world's most well-known and beloved animated characters. Since his creation, the pipe-puffing Popeye has become a global phenomenon, with millions of kids heartily munching on spinach in the hopes that it will make them as strong as the legendary sailor-man.

Yet is the spinach which gives Popeye his super-strength really a metaphor for another magical herb? Have children around the world been adoring a hero who is really a heavy consumer of the forbidden weed – marijuana?

No Below The Fold on this one. Just go read. It'll make your day. I hope Dobson doesn't find out about this one.

Free Speech v. The Neighbors

This news article appeared on KCRA in Sacramento:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Nestled in a quiet Sacramento neighborhood is a very loud political statement that is testing the very foundation of the right to free speech.

Hanging from a house in Land Park, a soldier's uniform in a noose dangles from a rooftop. The words "your tax dollars at work" are scrolled across the chest.

In a community full of patriotism, this view of the war in Iraq has not gone unnoticed.

More Below The Fold.

Vorsicht, die Untermenschen kommen*

[. . .]

White men should "run, not walk" to wed "racially conscious" white women and avoid being out-bred by non-whites. Latinos are "rising to take this country away from those who made it," the "Euroamericans." Muslims are "human hyenas" who "smell blood" and are "closing in" on their "weakened prey," meaning "the white race." Blacks, Coombs sneers, are "saintly victims who can do no wrong." Black solidarity and non-white immigration are imposing "racial revolution and decomposition" in America.

Coombs describes herself as just "a freelance writer in Crofton, Maryland." But this is one writer who's a bit more well-positioned than she lets on.

Marian Kester Coombs is married to Francis Booth Coombs, managing editor of the hard-right newspaper The Washington Times. Fran Coombs has published at least 35 of his wife's news and opinion pieces for his paper, although his relationship to her is not acknowledged in her Times bylines.

[. . .]

From the Southern Poverty Law Center via Atrios.

Another part of the White House propaganda arm. Ms. Coombs also writes for other outstanding publications.

[. . .]

Most of Marian Coombs' especially inflammatory writings have appeared in white supremacist venues such as The Occidental Quarterly, which ran her glowing review of a book on "racially conscious" whites by Robert S. Griffin, a member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. But the Times has published its share. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

The defense rests, your honor.

Update: Below the fold . . .

*Caution, here come the subhumans.

Vietniraq?

Go read the words to this Tom Lehrer song. They are as apropos today as they were in 1965. Via Are You Effin' Kiddin' Me?.

For might makes right,
And till they've seen the light,
They've got to be protected,
All their rights respected,
Till somebody we like can be elected.

I've been a Lehrer fan since the '50s , ever since I heard his lyric, "God made yer eyes/ to plagiarize!"

Amerika Erwache*

I couldn't resist. Stolen from the General.

*America Awaken, from the Nazi propaganda machine's 'Deutschland Erwache' campaign from the mid-30s.

No shit

------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC Breaking News
------------------------------------------------------

North Korea acknowledges it has nuclear weapons -
North Korea's government publicly acknowledged for the first time Thursday that it has nuclear arms, and said it is suspending participation in six-country talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

I coulda told ya this 20 years ago, though it was classified then. That's why I was so pissed off about this WMD snipe hunt in Iraq. We knew the NKs had nukes all along. So what's the Chimp in Chief gonna do now? Part of the 'axis of evil' admits to having nukes. Are we gona bomb them into next week? Are we gonna get boots on the ground? Nah and the NKs know it. In fact, they're giving Bush the finger in a Castroesque show of defiance:

[. . .]

“We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks,” the North said Thursday.

North Korea said it came to its decision because “the U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in (North Korea) at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick.”

[. . .]

Inept assholes. That's what is running our government.

Toot, Toot

Since I'm just screwing around today and blowing Me n' Fixer's collective horn (not easy when you're blushing at all the attention), here's one from the world's newest bush kangaroo:

Gordon of The Alternate Brain is the auspicious protege of an extremely demented muse -- I can prove it...

Good Lord, why can't I write like that?!

"READ THIS, TOO" UPDATE: I finally gathered enough courage to post my first entry under skippy. Can't seem to get a handle on that blockquote thing, though (like I said a few days ago, I hate blockquote -- hate it!)...

posted by Mimus Pauly

Hang in there, Pauly. It's a giant step for a small marsupial.

From Each According To His Abilities....

Shakey Sis made this comment after a post about Bill O'Leilly:

Oh, Lordy, me too. Whenever I see a picture of his fat Irish head, I just want to whack it with a shovel.

Figuratively, of course.

I'll leave the literal ass-whuppin' to Gordon and The Fixer. They'd no doubt be happy to alternate his brain for him.
Shakespeare's Sister

Hey, F-Man! They like us! They really, really like us!

The Ministry of Propaganda

Yup, I start ranting about the Nazis and something else happens to make me believe there will be jackbooted Thought Police in the streets before this is over. I am so glad this was exposed. From the website of another reality-based New Yorker:

More below the fold . . .

And while we're at it

Since my post seemed to strike a chord with people (I wonder why that is), and since I'm always telling folks that I'm waiting for my draft notice to come any day (I tell my boss that he and I are gonna be working in a motor pool in Kuwait), I thought I'd relay this little story.

More below the fold . . .

Reality-based budget

Not!!!! Glen at A Brooklyn Bridge points out a few things in Bush's new budget:

[. . .]

It assumes that all discretionary spending outside of military and domestic security - everything from paperclips to space shuttles - will be frozen for the next five years.

[. . .]

It includes no spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006. Those costs are now running about $5 billion a month and are likely to continue at some level in the 2006 fiscal year and beyond.

[. . .]

Discretionary spending frozen . . . for 5 years . . . Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! We're talking about the U.S. Congress here right? Well, I needed a good laugh before dealing with the traffic on the Long Island Expressway.

Cautious optimism

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt - In a crucial step heralded as a fresh start to peacemaking, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas promised Tuesday to halt all acts of violence and agreed to meet again soon to tackle the tougher issues that for decades have blocked the road to peace.

[. . .]

Hamas isn't completely on board and the radical Jews are . . . well . . . the radical Jews, but this is still good news.

Doing nothing

Via 12thharmonic:

…The question for the citizen is simply this; when is it no longer acceptable to “do nothing”?

[. . .]

The calculated savaging of civil liberties and the stunning assault on human rights proves without any doubt the President has abandoned any pretense of honoring his sworn obligation to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. . . [my emphasis]

They learned it in the schools

I remember my mother telling me about the year (August 1936) she returned to school after summer break to find Hitler's picture hanging in every classroom. She came home that day and told her mother (my grandmother), who dutifully marched up to the school with my mom the next morning. The conversation with the headmaster went something like this:

More below the fold . . .

More Truths

If you have not read Juan Cole's essay tearing Jonah Goldberg a new one, as linked to in Fixer's post, do so now and come back after.

Wasn't that good? I wish people would do that kind of shit on TV so the Retard Right who support this war might see it. I liked this e-mail to Goldberg by the father of a Marine:

Dear Mr. Goldberg,

Here's a compromise to your dilemma as to whether to get your ass into the killing zone (more accurately, the be killed, be shot, or be blown up zone). Go to the nearest Veterans Hospital you can find, go up to some soldier or Marine who lost a limb in Iraq because his reserve or National Guard unit wasn't equipped with body armor or armored vehicles, and explain to him why we had to go to war in Iraq on March 20, 2003, and why we couldn't (a) wait to see if actual evidence of WMD's ever surfaced, and (b) wait until our military was properly equipped for the war.

By the way, I'm one of those parents who had to go shopping at home to send essential items to my son's Marine Corps Reserve Unit. And I, like most intelligent people with more than an ounce of common sense, knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was no military threat to the U.S. from Iraq, imminent or otherwise, when this war was launched.

Jim Finkelstein

Unfortunately, there are too many clowns like Goldberg who blindly support this criminal intimidation administration and not enough guys like Cole. Actually, there are plenty of them, but it's the wrong guys who get the mainstream access.

Hard-Core Moral Values

ABC News has this on hard-core porn distributors and who they donate money to. It should come as no surprise.

While its previous owners considered adult entertainment "immoral," Adelphia Communications Corp., the country's fifth-largest cable television provider, last week became the first to offer hard-core adult films on pay-per-view to its subscribers.

While the corporations generate millions in profits from providing adult content, their political contributions are often given to those elected, in no small part, because of their stance on "moral values."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Comcast Cable has given millions in political donations since 1998. The national Republican Party committees are its biggest organizational recipient, with donations totaling $851,000. President Bush is its biggest individual recipient with $109,000 in donations (my emphasis).

Adelphia has given $166,000 to Republican committees, $17,000 to conservative Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., and $12,000 to Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., one of the most conservative members of the Senate.

Conservative activist Donna Rice Hughes, president of the anti-porn group Enough Is Enough, calls these corporations "white-collar pornographers." She says politicians who espouse "family values" should refuse their donations.

Refuse donations? Are you out of your mind, lady? These are Republicans!

I don't care what folks watch. None of my business. That's not the problem. The problem is high level hypocrisy, and it is rampant and widespread among those who deign to tell us what our 'moral values' should be.

Yowzah, Cap'n Georgie, Sir

The Black Commentator has this article on why so-called 'Black leaders' are supporting Bush's moral values' at the expense of their own people's best interests.

The corporate-Republican onslaught against the Black Political Consensus, conceived in the war rooms of rightwing think tanks a decade ago, is in full fury. Massively financed by, first private, and now public dollars, the campaign to create the perception of an alternative, conservative Black “leadership” is on the march in all regions of the nation, sowing confusion and alarm among authentic African American political formations. As expected, the corporate media certified that the 22 bought-and-paid-for ministers and corporate front persons showcased at the White House last week were, indeed, “Black leaders.”

Today, Republicans offer corrupt ministers billions on condition that they dramatically break from the historical Black Political Consensus and, hopefully, crack the fragile Democratic coalition. The homosexual “threat” is a smokescreen for treachery. For every outraged Black preacher howling that he’s giving up on the Democrats because of the gays, there is a check or the promise of a check.

And maybe a visit to the White House.

Un-PC, and please forgive me, but everybody knows dat dem darkies want to go see if the massa's house really has gold toilets.

Truths

Just adding this before I go out the door. Juan Cole slaps Doughboy Goldberg around some more (good for the weasel bastid), but the paragraph that got me was this:

[. . .]

I don't think there is anything at all unpatriotic about a young man opposing a war and declining to enlist. But a young man (and this applies to W. and Cheney too) who mouths off strongly about the desirability of a war is a coward and a hypocrite if he does not go to fight it.

[. . .]

This should be one of Life's underlying truths. Maybe we wouldn't have so many wars.

Noise

Sister directed me here in 'comments'. You should read it too.

Evil

[. . .]

As good liberals, we want to believe in human perfectibility; sometimes, I think, because we want so much to make things right, we believe that anything can be made right. But I'm afraid human nature, as revealed through history, is against us (the Holocaust; Pol Pot; the Irish potato famine, "Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees"). That's our problem of evil: we want to believe that evil is not real.

But conservatives—or should I say "conservatives"—believe so strongly that they are good, that they fall into the trap of believing that only others can be evil ("evil doers"). In fact, Christianity teaches that evil is an inherent part of the human condition; all of us are capable of; this is called original sin. That is the conservative's problem of evil: They want to believe that evil is only real in others (compare Winger Projection Syndrome.)

[. . .]

An outstanding essay by Lambert at Corrente. Go read while I'm at work.

I know it's early

But I'm happy:

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians will announce a formal cease-fire to halt four years of bloodshed when their leaders meet for a landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday, both sides said on Monday.

Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the highest-level meeting between the sides since a Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000.

[. . .]

The best I'll let myself hope for is that they stop killing each other. Things have taken an interesting turn since the Palestinian elections and it looks like Abbas is serious about keeping the factions under control. Let's hope Hamas actually does want what's best for their people as they've been saying for as long as I can remember.

Free Press

That's a laugh. From Matt Yglesias:

Yet another in a depressing continuing series. Josh Marshall notes that the Republican National Committee is now threatening legal action against media outlets and independent advocacy groups who criticize the president. The RNC, as I trust I needn't point out, is, at this point, rather intimately connected to the state apparatus of this fine nation of ours. Now to be fair, in Russia they prefer to silence critics with legal action unrelated to the substance of the criticism. Trying to make use of libel and slander laws to shield political leaders from criticism is more the sort of thing you see in Singapore or Jordan. Still, the basic point should, I think, be clear. But libertarians need no longer worry about President Bush -- after all, all of this is being done for the sake of gutting Social Security!

[. . .]

And you know there are judges out there who'll rule in favor of these idiots. Don't say I didn't warn ya. Repeat after me, "Deutschland űber Alles!"

Fuck. . . support the troops

NYT:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 - President Bush's budget would more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care, administration officials said Sunday.

[. . .]

Veterans groups attacked the proposals. Richard B. Fuller, legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said: "The proposed increase in health spending is not sufficient at a time when the number of patients is increasing and there has been a huge increase in health care costs. It will not cover the need. The enrollment fee is a health care tax, designed to raise revenue and to discourage people from enrolling."

Mr. Fuller added that the budget would force veterans hospitals and clinics to limit services. "We are already seeing an increase in waiting lists, even for some Iraq veterans," he said.

[. . .]

That's Chimpy Inc.'s approach to everything. Use 'em up, throw 'em away.

...And You Get Your Own Humvee, Too!

No little flu bug is going to prevent me from bringing you the latest news that you can't live without. The NY Daily News has two stories on female G.I. mud wrestling in Iraq. Here and here.

In front of a cheering male audience, two young women wearing only bras and panties throw themselves into a mud-filled plastic kiddie pool and roll around in a wild wrestling match.

A young blond lifts her T-shirt to expose her breasts. A brunette turns her back to the camera and exposes her thong undies.

Photos of a wild Oct. 30 party at the camp show women soldiers baring their breasts to male onlookers, and other female G.I.s clad only in bras and panties wrestling and cavorting in a mud-filled plastic pool as men cheer, leer and snap pictures.

It looks like the Army is trying new ways to stimulate recruitment, nez pas?

Get well soon

Ol' Gord is under the weather with the flu. Hope you feel better soon, pardner.

Perceptions

Kevin Drum:

THE SOCIAL SECURITY CON GAME....If there's any single area where conservatives have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, it's in convincing the populace that government sucks. Sure, they got a great kickstart from Vietnam and Watergate, but it was decades of railing against waste and fraud and incompetence that finally won the day for them. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Ain't it the truth. That's what I don't get about the average Joe Republican. He's one of those guys who's supposed to hate big government, hate deficit spending, hate nation-building. Yet, with all that, he voted for Bush and is proud of it. How the average Republican guy on the street (as opposed to the ones feeding at the government trough) can convince himself to look the other way as Chimpy runs up the deficit, increases the size of the federal government to record levels, and undertakes this nation-building folly in Iraq is incomprehensible to me. How can 51% of this country refuse to see the obvious? Quoting the Sister: . . .

More below the fold . . .

[I'm trying something here with the 'More below the fold' link. Part of my quest to make the Brain easier to read. I'm gonna try keep the size of the posts on the front page small, so readers can scan over more posts without having to scroll forever to get through the long posts to see what's below. I'm only gonna post the first paragraph of really long posts here and link to the rest. This is just in the testing phase. If it works out well, I'll get my partners in on it too. As always, comments are solicited. BTW comments to the posts will stay on this page - the F-man]

'Tort reform'

From DavidNYC blogging at Kos:

In a little-noticed move this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted, by a 13-5 margin, to approve the purposefully mis-named "Class Action Fairness Act" (PDF). (Three Democrats joined all ten Republicans.) What does this bill do, and why is it so harmful?

The CAFA requires that most class-action lawsuits be brought in federal, rather than state, court. On first blush, this might sound like a good idea: If you've got a truly national case with lots of plaintiffs from around the country, then your intuition might tell you the suit should proceed in federal court. And that's precisely what the bill's sponsors want you to believe.

The problem is this: The federal courts are already over-burdened and under-funded. This bill would force cases from fifty different state systems - which can better share the burden - into one jammed-up federal system. The delays for class actions would be enormous - long enough, quite probably, to serve as a deterrent to bringing worthy claims.

[. . .]

Yup, think 'Clear Skies', 'Healthy Forests', and 'No Child Left Behind'.

Oy gevult

Rummy's making the rounds of the talking heads this morning. Seen the war criminal on Little George and Russert. Now, I've known my share of bullshit artists, pretty good at it myself, but I have never seen anybody talk a line like he does. Yeesh.

Note: Watch MTP and sit through Rummy's shit for the first 30 minutes just to see the interview with Teddy Kennedy afterward. He's got some good ideas.

Update: 15:45:

Blondie dissects the war criminal.

So true

From the General:

[. . .]

It's amazing how much things have changed. Four years ago, a man couldn't admit to his love for violence. Now, we have pastors who tell us to watch gladiator movies because "God designed men to be dangerous," Marine generals who joyfully proclaim their love for shooting brown people, and sixteen-year old Christian columnists who defend them.

[. . .]

Now I'm a dangerous dude, fuck with me and find out, but I don't like throwing somebody a beating. Haven't done it in over 15 years, closer to 20. I don't like violence, I've seen too much of it. Unfortunately, those who get off on it are now in positions of power and it's fucking scary.

The Constitution

Another good one via Encino Man:

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years...

...and we're not using it anymore.