Finally! One about Me 'n Fixer!

From Jaime O'Neill:

Because most of the fighting now being done requires far less marching than was once needed, it is only reasonable to propose that perhaps we have arrived at a time in the history of human struggle when the old people can do the fighting.

This guy has never been in the service. It ain't the marching that hurts. It's the running and the hills with a full load. Even at eighteen, I loved those fuckin' Camp Pendleton hills, and they loved fuckin' me! I see his point though: march long enough, you'll get to a hill and have to run up it.

Tapping that pool of warriors should be easy. Aging males are easily the most gung-ho of all warriors.

From Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove right on down to the guys who write letters to the editors of the nation's newspapers, the fiercest warriors are men over 50, men with expanding waistlines and receding hairlines who would tear the enemy a new one if only they could get up off the sofa in less than three tries.

Besides, many of these older men work out regularly and eat sensibly. The popular wisdom now has it that 60 is the new 40, and 40 is surely young enough to serve in the military.

Guys like Rep. Tom DeLay, for instance, look to be in fine shape and would make good soldiers, I'm sure.

Tom DeLay and me in the same fire team? Sign my aging white ass up! D'ya think they'd notice if the Squad Automatic Weapon bullet holes in him were in the shape of my initials? That there's two belts worth?

So, because these males are really, really angry, why not give them an outlet for all that anger, and soon, while they can still see to fire their weapons?

Yet another social benefit of my proposal is to be found in the potential for saving vast sums of money that would otherwise go toward health care for these aging males.

This is sounding like win-win!

An additional advantage to my proposal is that it would get these men out of the house. As it is, far too many of them, especially those who have retired early, are annoying their wives, are constantly underfoot and are often in the way.

Mrs. G says it's win-win too! She's so supportive.

As an aging man myself, I would readily join the ranks of the aging army, but I think my skills are more valuable here at home, thinking up ideas for victory like the aforementioned proposal.

I think that's the whole problem with war. Old men get pissed off and send young men to fight the stupid wars they start. Maybe if the old farts had to go fight 'em, they'd wise up.

Anyway, go read the whole thing. It's a hoot!

Gotta quit checkin' stuff out late at night. My senses are dulled from the day. I'll post anything!

What's in a name...

Donna Gillespie in the EssEffChron:

It's time for the pro-choice movement to change its name. "Pro choice" is not a slogan to conjure a drumbeat summoning people to march for human rights. "Choice" brings up images of entitlement, of having the leisure to choose. You choose ice cream flavors. Or whether to buy the Prada shoes or the Hermes bag when you can't afford them both.

I propose that we choose a name that resonates with our highest values: "Equal justice for women." "Reproductive rights for all women." "Reproductive justice for women." Or perhaps "full civil rights for women." Whatever term in settled on, it should be something that carries a moral force. We should be saying it with all the passion with which people once said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Yes, it's that kind of issue. The best answer, when anyone asks you if you're for "abortion on demand" is: "Certainly. I'm also for human rights on demand."

Conversely, those who believe in full human rights for women must stop allowing anti-abortion groups to disguise their intentions behind the label "pro-life." I propose that we start calling them what they are -- advocates of forced birth. (my bold)

Let's face it: To force an unwilling woman to give birth is a barbarous act. This is the dark side of the anti-abortion movement that its proponents don't want the public to closely examine. At a recent anti-abortion march here in San Francisco, I saw a baffling placard proclaiming: "Women deserve better than abortion." What, exactly, would that "better" be? For the woman whose birth control has failed her to be put under house arrest for the first six months of her pregnancy, to assure that others' will is done and not hers? We should condemn this with the same righteous fury with which we condemn spousal abuse and rape.

I think she's got a good point. Names and image are all about marketing. The truth doesn't necessarily sell as well as a lie, as we all know from watching the Bush administration at work. I like the term "wingnut whackjobs", f'rinstance, but it may not have broad appeal even though it's the truth.

Mein Kampf

A very big hat tip to Glen.

Bend Over, Marine

This one totally pisses me off. From OhioNewsNow:

AUSTIN, Texas A decorated Marine doesn't qualify as a Texas resident any more because of the time he spent serving in Iraq.

That's what Carl Basham says officials told him when he tried to enroll in Austin Community College.

He's registered to vote in Texas, has a Texas driver's license and does his banking there. But he says officials told him that's not enough to qualify him for the lower tuition Texas residents pay.

That means he'd have to pay around 26-hundred dollars a semester in tuition, instead of about 500 dollars.

Basham did two tours of duty in Iraq.

Officials at the college will only say Basham didn't meet state requirements. They say privacy laws prevent discussing his case.

Those rotten sonsabitches. Go do your duty as you see it, and your reward for risking your ass is a financial penalty for being out of state? Motherfucker!

Why Bush Won't Talk To Cindy

Marjorie Cohn at Truthout:

Why didn't Bush simply invite Cindy in for tea when she arrived in Crawford? In a brief, personal meeting with Cindy, Bush could have defused a situation that has become a profound embarrassment for him, and could derail his political agenda.

Bush didn't talk with Cindy because he can't answer her question. There is no answer to Cindy's question. There is no noble cause that Cindy's son died fighting for. And Bush knows it.

If Bush were to give an honest answer to Cindy Sheehan's question, it would be that her son died to help his country spread US hegemony throughout the Middle East.

But Bush has no intention of ever pulling out of Iraq. The US is building the largest CIA station in the world in Baghdad. And Halliburton is busily constructing 14 permanent US military bases in Iraq.

George Bush knows that he cannot answer Cindy Sheehan's question. There is no noble cause for his war on Iraq.

Bush has got his ass in a crack over this war, and knows that it's starting to cave in. It's all PR now. Any success in the wake of his disastrous decisions depends on an ignorant, cowed press and public, and Mrs. Sheehan's efforts are starting to bring attention to it and convince other anti-war folks that they can come out of the closet and speak up.

I'll be glad to see his hiney out of the vise and his neck in a noose.

Maybe Earth Sucks

Astounding new revelations from The Onion:

KANSAS CITY, KS - As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

The ECFR, in conjunction with the Christian Coalition and other Christian conservative action groups, is calling for public-school curriculums to give equal time to the Intelligent Falling theory. They insist they are not asking that the theory of gravity be banned from schools, but only that students be offered both sides of the issue "so they can make an informed decision."

"We just want the best possible education for Kansas' kids," Burdett said.

"Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity,'" Burdett said. "And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus."

Much more. Go read. Be sure to fasten your seat belt so you don't bounce off the ceiling when God repeals the "law" of gravity.

Gay President

From Jessika:

[. . .]

James Buchanan, our only unmarried President was homosexual. In fact, he wasn't very far in the closet. For many years in Washington, while he was serving as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate, he lived with William Rufus King the Democratic Senator from Alabama. The two men were inseparable, in fact, folks referred to them as "The Siamese Twins".

[. . .]

Seems we've regressed mightily in the last century and a half.

DSM/American side

I've been remiss in not posting this. Hope the Sister can forgive me:

Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001

Washington, D.C., August 17, 2005: Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

[. . .]

Insanity and World War 3

Great article at Lew Rockwell.com via Melanie:

With every poll showing majorities of Americans both fed up with Bush's war against Iraq and convinced that Bush's invasion of Iraq has made Americans less safe, the White House moron proposes to start another war by attacking Iran. VP Cheney has already ordered the US Strategic Command to come up with plans to strike Iran with tactical nuclear weapons.

[. . .]

The only check on Bush is the lack of US troops. Bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, US commanders are stating that a third rotation of our exhausted and demoralized troops in Iraq can be avoided only by troop withdrawals by next spring.

[. . .]

Gentle reader, do you realize the danger of having a president so disconnected from reality that he plots to attack Iran - a country three times the size of Iraq - when he lacks sufficient forces to occupy Baghdad and to protect the road from Baghdad to the airport? [my emphasis]

[. . .]

There's more. We are living in Bizarro World.

In the Land of the Stupid

Via the lovely Pudentilla at Skippy's:

Only about half of this year's high school graduates have the reading skills they need to succeed in college, and even fewer are prepared for college-level science and math courses, according to a yearly report from ACT, which produces one of the nation's leading college admissions tests.

The report, based on scores of the 2005 high school graduates who took the exam, some 1.2 million students in all, also found that fewer than one in four met the college-readiness benchmarks in all four subjects tested: reading comprehension, English, math and science. [NYT]

[. . .]

Remember when everybody used to tell Polish jokes? Now they're gonna tell American jokes.

Gaza

All I have to say is this. It's their land, get out.

Paradigm shift

FT.com:

Growing public dissatisfaction with both the war in Iraq and US relations with the Muslim world could soon lead the American public to demand a change of course by the administration, according to a new poll of foreign policy attitudes.

[. . .]

That combination of strong public opinion and the belief that the government is responsible for addressing it makes the Iraq war "the foreign policy issue that most clearly appears to have reached a tipping point", said Daniel Yankelovich, a pollster and chairman of Public Agenda, a nonprofit research group that conducted the poll.

[. . .]

"If the war in Iraq lingers, the standoff with Tehran lasts, and relations with Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria remain troubled, the next reading of [the index] could well reveal that the vague apprehension the American public now feels has crystallised into a demand for changes in US foreign policy," he said.

[. . .]

Unbelievably, or maybe not, it took us 5 years to reach this point. Maybe now, most Americans won't fall for the next distraction coming out of 1600.

Deepindahearta, Texas

This is just so good:

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- Anti-war demonstrators led by the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq will move their campsite closer to President Bush's Texas ranch.

The new site, offered by a sympathetic landowner, is just a mile from Bush's Crawford home.

The landowner is a relative of Larry Mattlage, the local rancher who fired shots into the air Sunday, saying he was preparing for "dove season," said Sheehan, the aggrieved mother.

"This just shows me that the universe is blessing our efforts out here at Camp Casey," she said late Tuesday, referring to the camp named after her 24-year-old son.

[. . .]

Even Chimpy's neighbors are turning on him. Good . . . damn good. Outstanding even. Hat tip to our esteemed colleague and fellow New Yorker Glen.

RudePundit Does Stand-up

From the NYTimes. Thanks, Sis.

Mr. Papa's ruling metaphor is always some form of aggressive to abusive sex. Do you remember that 1970's country hit, "Take This Job and Shove It?" Replace the word "job" with everything from weapons of mass destruction to false information, target someone like Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rove or Mr. Limbaugh, and tell them what to do with it.

The Rude Pundit is a child of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Hunter S. Thompson. Bruce and Richard Pryor were masters of stand-up comedy as political theater. Mr. Thompson was a master of journalism as performance art.

If you know their work you know that in the right hands, fantasy and obscenity are cathartic. They attack hypocrisy, because hypocrisy lulls us. Fantasy charms us and obscenity shocks us.

Sorry I missed it. I hope there's a CD soon.

Fox and the Virgin Mary

This is a 'Liquids Alert'. Swallow or spit before clicking here.

You vill do it, and you vill like it!

My mother's words still ring in my head. That's what I'd hear every time I became . . . difficult. When I read this, I hear those words again.

Pickled Cuckoo Bananas

I must direct you to Mr. H.

The General is Inspired!

Jesus General has come up with a great idea [Link added - F-man]:

Yellow Caucus


Mailed to 15 congresspeople* who are under 42 years old and support the war.

Dear Representative [Name],

Our nation is at war at a time when our military is suffering from a manpower crisis. Recently, the Department of Defense asked Congress to relieve the shortage of recruits by raising the enlistment age to 42.

You voted to support this war and have defended it at every turn. Now it's time for you to do more. The President needs you to champion the recruitment bill in Congress, and the nation needs you to sign up for infantry duty once the bill passes.

Your service in the military will not go unnoticed. If anything, it will enhance your image with voters and your colleagues--think about all the kind things you've said about veterans like John Kerry and Max Cleland over the last few years. Certainly, your peers will honor you in a similar way if you return. If you don't make it back, you can at least rest assured that your family will receive the same treatment as Casey Sheehan's mother.

You've sent thousands of our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers to destroy Saddam's weapons of mass destruction...to bring freedom to the people of Iraq...to establish an Islamist theocracy in Iraq. Now it's time for you to answer your nation's call and join them. It's the right thing to do. It's the decent thing to do.

"Mommy, Why Does Gas Cost So Much?"

Peter of Lone Tree over at Blondsense has come across a fascinating website, IAGS (Institute for the Analysis of Global Security), which has a page listing all of the attacks on Iraq's oil pipelines since we "liberated" that country. It's both informative, and depressing at the same time. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for the map.

For me personally, the most fascinating part of this page was the last sentence on it:

"Saudi Arabia, which has demonstrated its willingness to use its vast oil reserves as a foreign policy tool, has not acted to aid U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq.

Gee, why am I not shocked.

"Supporting" Our Troops

From Daily Kos, and WOAI.com:

Roadside Crosses Memorializing Fallen Soldiers Mowed Down by Pickup

Even pro-Bush demonstrators on Saturday showed respect for the roadside memorial set up by Cindy Sheehan and others honoring those soldier who have died in Iraq.

But one jackass last night evidently had to show them Libruls what kind of "man" he was. Here's a sucker's bet: I bet he never served.

Crawford is Getting Creative

Via Newsday:

Bush neighbors to seek court order


Some residents of the corn and cattle town of Crawford, Texas, are expressing resentment as hundreds of anti-war protesters descend upon President George W. Bush's adopted hometown.

After nine days of watching as one woman's protest has grown into a national event, dozens of the farmers and ranchers neighboring Bush's 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch plan to petition a county court in nearby Waco, according to one, Pete Martinka. They want to prevent anyone from parking or stopping within two miles of the makeshift campsite erected by Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville, Calif., woman whose son, Casey, was killed in the war in Iraq.

"She's pitching tents on private property," said Martinka, who lives on a 104-acre ranch near the Bush property.

Sheehan, 48, has become an icon for a revived anti-war movement and her so-called Camp Casey outside the Bush ranch has become a small village. Her demonstration now includes a procession of TV satellite trucks, political operatives and public relations professionals. There are rallies and folk songs.

"People are very fed up," said another neighbor, Sgt. Vernon Harrison, 42, a National Guard nurse who returned from Iraq in February.

Sheehan's son Casey, 24, died in an ambush in Baghdad's Sadr City in April 2004. She said she will stick with her vigil as long as Bush is at the ranch. She said she still wants a face-to-face meeting with the president to seek answers about the war and to demand that U.S. troops in Iraq be brought home. Bush met with Sheehan last year during a visit with relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Low-key, anti-war events continued at Camp Casey, about a mile from the gates of the Bush ranch. Early Sunday, about the time a prayer service was to begin, a neighbor, sheep farmer Larry Mattlage, fired at least one shotgun blast into the air. Sheriff's deputies and the Secret Service rushed to the scene. Mattlage told authorities he was firing at doves, preparing for hunting season that begins Sept. 1 in Texas. He wasn't charged because he fired a gun on his private property, according to the McLennan County Sheriff's Department.


Looks like Texas "justice" is gearing up.

With a hat tip to Americablog.

Washington Post Backs Down

Someone woke up at the Washington Post and realized what a big mistake they were about to make.

From Editor & Publisher:

'Wash Post' Cuts Ties to Pentagon Event After Protests

The Washington Post announced tonight that it will cease its co-sponsorship of the Pentagon-organized Freedom Walk next month. The paper's involvement had drawn heat from within and outside the paper, with a guild committee today calling for the link to end.

The newspaper told the Department of Defense that it was pulling back on its offer of free ads for the event -- a march up the mall ending with a concert by pro-war country singer Clint Black.

"As it appears that this event could become politicized, The Post has decided to honor the Washington area victims of 9/11 by making a contribution directly to the Pentagon Memorial Fund," said Eric Grant, a Post spokesman. "It is The Post's practice to avoid activities that might lead readers to question the objectivity of The Post's news coverage."


Well we already question your "objectivity", genius. But at least now your newspaper will have to work at being a little less obvious about it.

Bubbles 2

My man Dave:

[. . .]

Desperate sellers lower prices. They need that money, and they are afraid prices will go even lower in a hurry. So they'll make deals to sell their property. Others will see that the ones holding out for any decent price are losing their shirts, and lower their prices even faster.

Do you see where this goes? It's called a "panic."

[. . .]

The housing bubble is about to burst, gas prices are at an all time high and going higher daily, and the Iraq situation is going from bad to worse. Ya think the economy is far behind? As the article Dave linked to says:

. . .

This is a story from the Great Depression ... except it is happening right now in Dayton, Ohio.

. . .

Again it's Ohio. A new state slogan: "Fuck us dry and we keep coming back for more."

What would Jesus say?

It seems the folks in Jesusland are getting more unChristian-like by the day. Travis:

[. . .]

You hear that all you South Carolina poor people? You're going to have to stop being so frivolous and thoughtless about your health care choices. I mean, that chemo treatment you're getting--did you even shop around? I'll bet you didn't. I'll bet you just accepted the first offer that came your way. I hear Wal-mart is cutting back prices on cancer treatments. And those emergency room visits. A bit excessive don't you think? Every time there's a serious injury, you just rush into the hospital without stopping to think first whether you could staunch the flow of blood with some household item.

[. . .]

Isn't SC the place where all the Christians want to go and then secede from the Union? To them I say, have at it. Can't wait until it's time to cut you all loose.

VJ-Day Bay Melee

From the EssEff Chron comes this account of VJ-Day on its sixtieth anniversary.

Today is the 60th anniversary of a terrible day in San Francisco's history -- a victory riot that left 11 dead, 1,000 injured and the city's reputation besmirched.

"It was the deadliest riot in the city's history," said Kevin Mullen, a retired deputy chief of police who has written extensively about crime in San Francisco.

The riot, which followed the Japanese surrender announcement by a day, was mostly confined to downtown San Francisco and involved thousands of drunken soldiers and sailors, most of them teenagers, who smashed store windows, attacked women, halted all traffic, wrecked Muni streetcars -- 30 of them were disabled, and one Muni worker was killed. The rioters took over Market Street and refused to leave until military and civilian police drove them away long after nightfall following hours of chaos.

When the war was over, there was a huge sense of relief. The Army military police and the Navy shore patrol and the San Francisco police got official orders: "Let the people do anything within reason,'' The Chronicle reported, "and keep property damage down.''

The first day -- V-J Day -- was like a pleasant round of drinks, a nice feeling. The second day was different.

"If you pull all restraints off and add liquor, that's what happens," said Mullen, the former deputy police chief. "Everybody went nuts. These were not veterans, they were young people who hadn't been in the war. They were not warriors," he said.

They hadn't seen the war, and now they didn't have to. There would be no invasion of Japan, no long casualty lists. These young men would not see combat. So they got drunk. They were all drunk, the reporter Delaplane wrote. One in four, he thought, was "falling down drunk."

Mullen blames the police for what happened. They were not prepared, he said. They had no plan. The result was a riot and many dead people.

A month later, San Francisco held a big parade on Market Street, led by General Jonathan Wainwright, the hero of Corrigedor. Half a million people came to see the real war veterans. There was no trouble.

Since most of those servicemen were getting ready to ship out for the invasion of Japan, scheduled for November, with one million casualties predicted, it's hard to blame them for cuttin' loose. I'd never heard of this before, so I thought I'd share.

My way or the highway

Mustang Bobby:

[. . .]

It never ceases to amaze me how these so-called "conservatives" think that they're both entitled to rule the world and whine about being the victim if they can't have everything exactly the way they see it through their perverted lens of theology, capitalism-on-crack, and fear-mongering.

[. . .]

An excellent post on 'Just-Us Sunday II'. Once again, 'activist judges' are only good if they rule in the Christo-Fascists' favor.

Dog Days in Bumfuck

Billmon's got a good take on Mrs. Sheehan, Hanoi Jane, the wingnut dilemma, and Bush's French-style five week vacation.

It's as good an explanation as any, I guess, although to me the expression "dog days" has always called up images of rabid canines, their muzzles dripping with foam and blood from their own self-inflicted bites, writhing in crazed torment under the blazing sun while their virus-riddled brains gradually turn to mush inside their narrow, wolfish skulls.

Which, more-or-less by coincidence, appears to be the effect that Cindy Sheehan is currently having on conservatives. Except for the gradual part.

In fact, if Cindy really is a front woman for the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, as the wing nuts now claim, then you'd almost have to conclude that Bush was in on the planning, too. Hauling the entire White House press corps down to Bumfuck, Texas, so they can spend the better part of August playing cowchip bingo, was a move that seems, in hindsight, almost custom-designed to generate massive media coverage of Cindy's protest. In Washington, she'd be just another face in Lafayette Square (the designated "free speech zone" in front of the White House.) In Crawford, she's the only thing making news within a 500-mile radius. That seems like an awfully high political price to pay to move Bush and his imperial retinue from one volcanic pit of heat and humidity to another for five weeks.

The machine can try to demonize Cindy Sheehan. But it can't demonize those questions -- not any more, not when so many others are asking them. Here in the dog days of August, it appears the rabid curs of the authoritarian right have finally met their match, in the form of a middle-aged woman in a sunhat, holding in her hand the metaphorical equivalent of a rolled-up newspaper for wacking bad little GOP doggies (and presidents) on the nose.

Be sure to read this one. It's a hoot, and brings up some stuff about the anti-war sentiment/movement that I hadn't previously considered.

U.S. Marine opens fire outside Mass. nightclub

We can thank George, Dick and Rummy for this story. I'm worried that there's going to be an entire generation messed up thanks to their greed.

From Reuters:
U.S. Marine opens fire outside Mass. nightclub

BOSTON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A decorated U.S. Marine, who had been treated for post-war stress since serving in Iraq, opened fire outside a Massachusetts nightclub, wounding two people, Boston media reported on Monday.

Daniel B. Cotnoir will be arraigned on Monday on charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and assault with intent to murder after the incident early on Saturday in the city of Lawrence, The Boston Globe said.

Cotnoir had complained to police after a crowd of nearly 30 people gathered outside a nightclub and restaurant near his apartment. After someone hurled a bottle that shattered his bedroom window, Cotnoir fired "a warning shot," the newspaper said.

The bullet hit a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man.

"He shot into what he thought was a safe area, but there was some ricochet effects that Mr. Cotnoir never intended," his lawyer, Robert F. Kelley, was quoted as saying.

"It was a military-type response to a threatening situation that was civilian in nature."

Cotnoir, a sergeant awarded the 2005 Marine of the Year by the Marine Corps Times, has been struggling psychologically since returning from Iraq in 2004, Kelley said.

Police were not immediately available to comment.

Sibel Edmonds

The fact that there are no investigations - I will give you an analogy, okay? Say if we decided to have a "war on drugs," but said in the beginning, "right, we're only going to go after the young black guys on the street level." Hey, we already have tens of thousands of them in our jails anyway, why not a few more? But we decided never to go after the middle levels, let alone the top levels . . .

It's like this with the so-called war on terror. We go for the Attas and Hamdis - but never touch the guys on the top.

[. . .]

His Highness directs us to an interview with her at Antiwar.com. The King also has some good links, print, audio, and video.

Blinded by the Right

Pauly has the last installment of an excellent series he's been writing for about a week now (give or take). Read them all:

And conservatives have only themselves to blame. Yeah, yeah, the GOP controls all three branches of the federal government -- that you can probably blame on liberals. But what's conservative about the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress? One, Teaxs greedhead Tom DeLay makes the late spendthrift extraordinaire Tip O'Neill look like a skinflint (no mean feat there, take it from a Bay State native); two, the federal government is larger and more overbearing now than it's ever been (whatever happened to shrinking the government to the point that it could be drowned in a bathtub, otherwise known as the Norquist Doctrine?); three, there's nothing fiscally responsible about cutting taxes while waging war in Iraq (which, I believe, is the first time in America's history that that's happened -- the war profiteering is nothing new, but it's still evil, and in this case profoundly insulting); and four, Social Security may be liberal in its implementation, but it's conservative in its effect -- it helps to preserve a decent standard of living for old people that they deserve anyway (what the hell is conservative, never mind laudable, about altering Social Security in such a way as to risk throwing our senior citizens out in the cold?). This Republican administration and this Republican Congress don't practice conservatism. They practice radicalism. They're neither better than nor different from the Bolsheviks who took over Russia in the early half of the last century.

[. . .]

The self-proclaimed 'bird brain' is far more insightful than he lets on.

Cindy Sheehan, Bill Mitchell and the Lost Boys

This covers another side of Cindy Sheehan's story, and those who have come from all over the country to show their support. From Editor & Publisher:

Cindy Sheehan, Bill Mitchell and the Lost Boys

Reading some of the ample coverage of the Cindy Sheehan protest at the Bush ranch this week, I was shocked to discover that a man I know, who also lost a son in Iraq, had flown to her side. But that wasn't the only surprise.

By Greg Mitchell

(August 11, 2005) -- With the U.S. death toll in Iraq approaching 2,000, and a like number of grieving families, what were the odds that the one father I know personally in that mournful position would end up at Cindy Sheehan's side in Crawford, Texas, this week?

Since he's been protesting the war before it began -- and before he lost his son -- I probably shouldn't have been so surprised.

Yesterday, visiting the Web site of the Lone Star Iconoclast (better known as "George Bush's hometown paper") in Crawford, I came across a firsthand account of a visit by the publisher and editor of that paper, W. Leon Smith, to the Sheehan encampment. She is the woman now famous for demanding to meet with the president to find out from him why her son had to die in Iraq last year, and for what.

Smith, on his suddenly-popular Web site, recounted in Q&A form his interview that day with a man who had also lost a son in Iraq, and had flown in from California to stand with Sheehan.

Lo and behold, the interview subject was none other than Bill Mitchell (no relation), who I interviewed on several occasions last year, and have kept in contact with ever since via e-mail. There was even a picture of the two men chatting, so I finally got to see what Bill looks like: thin, fair, with a moustache.

I'd read a fair amount about Sheehan, and knew Bill's story very well, but still I was shocked when I read in the interview that Mitchell's son Mike had died on the same day, April 4, 2004, as Sheehan's son Casey -- and in the same Sadr City incident.

Read the rest HERE.

Ol' "Gimlet Eye" Speaks...

I direct you all to "War Is A Racket" by Gen. Smedley D. Butler USMC.

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

It's long. Read it all.

One Mother's Stand

Go read everything on Cindy's Page at Truthout.

Today was George Bush's accountability moment, and he lost. Two young ladies from San Diego drove all night to get to the rally and they had to leave tonight to get back home. One of them said: "Wow, we can drive all the way from San Diego just to meet you and he can't even come down to the end of his driveway to meet with you."

George Bush: you work for me. I pay your salary. Come out and talk to me. Anyway, I have a feeling you are about to be fired!!!

It's basically Mrs. Sheehan's chronicle of events from 5 August up to date. Good background stuff from her point of view.

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

Go read Frank Rich's Op-Ed.

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

As if the right-wing pundit crackup isn't unsettling enough, Mr. Bush's top war strategists, starting with Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, have of late tried to rebrand the war in Iraq as what the defense secretary calls "a global struggle against violent extremism." A struggle is what you have with your landlord. When the war's uber-managers start using euphemisms for a conflict this lethal, it's a clear sign that the battle to keep the Iraq war afloat with the American public is lost.

"Right-wing pundit crack-up". Now, that's a crack-up! Ha!

The priority now is less to save Jessica Lynch (or Iraqi democracy) than to save Rick Santorum and every other endangered Republican facing voters in November 2006.

Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.

I know this isn't too helpful but Anybody But Bush is at least a starting point. Somewhere along the line, a little accountability (read "revenge") is necessary. I'll vote for the first sonofabitch (ladies included) who promises to indict the Bush cabal.

Coming Home

Florida National Guardsman John Crawford describes his adjustment to civilian life upon his return from Iraq.

Even the best laid plans go awry, and that is what happened with me. While many in my platoon had relatively easy transitions, I found myself within days kept from homelessness only by the hospitality of a friend with a sofa. It was like being at a party and going to the restroom for 15 months and then trying to rejoin the conversation. Everyone and everything had changed without asking me first.

War stories end when the battle is over or when the soldier comes home. That's one way to tell it's a story. In real life, there are no moments amid smoldering hilltops for tranquil introspection. When the war is over, you pick up your gear, walk down the hill and back into the world, where people smile, congratulate you, and secretly hope you won't be a burden on society now that you've done the dirty work they shun.

I wonder how many returning GIs' lives are shattered that don't write it down.

Scapegoating

John via Digby, the new Repub talking points:

In the medium and long term, what happens in Iraq is up to the Iraqis. It is certainly possible that they might forfeit what the Bush administration and America's armed forces have given them: a chance at freedom and the opportunity to live in peace with their neighbors. But if the Iraqis fail, it won't be because liberals stampeded the United States into abandoning them. - Assrocket [my emphasis]

Yeah, far be it for me to forfeit a thorough assfucking.

Mercenaries

I have zero use for anyone who willingly goes into a war zone to make a profit, whether they be private soldiers or truck drivers. Turns my stomach when I think our government is supporting these assholes. I'll go to war in a second to defend my country, but selling your allegiances is abhorrent to me. Read Steve Gillard.

Truth

From Joe Biden (D-MBNA) on Press the Meat.

"The American people are smarter than their leaders."

No fucking shit.

Fatalities in Iraq

If anyone still thinks the insurgency is getting more "desparate", and that we are finally "turning a corner", then check out this flash movie.

With a hat tip to Prairie Weather.

While I'm at it

Yesterday I went after the administration and our military leadership. Today I want the enablers. You know who you are. You're journalists; not all journalists, but those who have sold your souls and sold out your profession to enrich yourselves. You're lowlife scum, for you are supposed to be our last line of defense. The Founding Fathers wanted . . . no, needed a free press to ensure the future of the wonderful experiment known as the United States of America.

As you all have seen over the past five (some would say thirty-five) years, the built in checks and balances can be bypassed to the point of allowing a dictator to take control of the nation. Do you not think men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams knew this might happen? They saw it first hand, at a time when tyrants were the rule rather than the exception. They knew that no matter how many safeguards they put on paper, the freedoms the press enjoyed were the most important.

Those freedoms assure the public knowlege of their elected representatives doings, whether they have lost their focus, become swayed by wealth and power to look to their own interests ahead of their constituents'. Your responsibility is to warn us before they got too powerful and too corrupt so we could vote them out. That is your responsibility and you own this as much as Bush owns Iraq. You, in the White House press corps, the TV news executives, you have sold that responsibility, your souls, to the Republican machine.

The Founders were counting on you, we were counting on you, and you abdicated your Constitutional responsibility. Thanks to you, the Bush administration was given another four years to destroy this nation. Had you done your fucking jobs, he would have been shown for the liar, thief, and con man he is long before he could have sent troops to Iraq. Had you done your fucking jobs, he never would have been President in the first place. Whether through apathy or outright greed, you allowed this to happen.

You allowed the Republican machine to drag Clinton down over nothing but a blowjob and you allowed Bush to commit his crimes against the United States and humanity as a whole. You should be ashamed and you should be held up to ridicule for the rest of your damnable lives. You should never be allowed to work as journalists again. Much as I'd rather see you all in front of a firing squad, charged with treason, writing for the National Enquirer or some other rag to scratch out a meager living is a much better fate for you. No TV pundit gigs, no book deals, no nationally syndicated columns, just reporting on the dirt farmer in Kansas whose daughter was impregnated by aliens.

For the likes of Rupert Murdoch (and anyone who works for Fox News), Rush Lintball, Michael Savage, and the others who are nothing but paid employees of the Republican National Committee in one form or another, you deserve to be strung up from the same trees as your patrons.

And a special note to the editors of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal: The writing is on the wall and when the Bush Era is finally over, you will be too. Of all of the news organizations to buy into the conservative line, you should be the most ashamed of them all. You've taken the reputations of America's flagship papers and wiped your collective ass with it.

Dad . . .

[NYT] LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

[. . .]

The endgame for American involvement in Iraq will be of a piece with the rest of this sorry history. "It makes no sense for the commander in chief to put out a timetable" for withdrawal, Mr. Bush declared on the same day that 14 of those Ohio troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha. But even as he spoke, the war's actual commander, Gen. George Casey, had already publicly set a timetable for "some fairly substantial reductions" to start next spring. Officially this calendar is tied to the next round of Iraqi elections, but it's quite another election this administration has in mind. The priority now is less to save Jessica Lynch (or Iraqi democracy) than to save Rick Santorum and every other endangered Republican facing voters in November 2006. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Now it's all about saving their collective ass. If any good will come out of Iraq, it'll be that the Republican machine will be crippled for a decade . . . if we're lucky. (Hat tip: Jillian)

Digby Has an Interesting Thought

From Hullabaloo:

I've been thinking for a while that we might be seeing the beginning of a new trend in American politics --- the anti-military right. Rush is calling marines "pukes," veterans are being called cowards and fakers, disabled vets are mocked for not having the right wounds or getting them in the right way, GOP hags are wearing cute little "purple heart" bandaids on their cheeks. People are selling busts of the president using his lack of combat experience as a selling point saying outright that physical courage is no longer particularly worthy of conservative approbation. Being a veteran buys you no credibility and no respect in today's Real Murika.

This is how they transform Chickenhawkery into a badge of courage.

Go Read

THE BAD MAGICIAN VISITS A TREE TWO MILES FROM A PARTICULAR RANCH IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS

I like this guy.

Nope, No Politics Here

A fascinating story from Editor & Publisher:

'Wash Post' Hit For Sponsorship Of 'Freedom' March

The Washington Post has no plans to withdraw its co-sponsorship of a controversial Sept. 11 memorial walk being organized by the Department of Defense, according to Publisher Bo Jones. But, he said the paper would pull out if the event turns out to be some kind of pro-war or political march.

"This was part of the memorial of the 9/11 victims and an effort for veterans past and present and that is it," Jones said about the "Freedom Walk" slated for Sept. 11. "This has nothing to do with politics or the war or support of any political position."

Still, Jones added that the paper would withdraw support, which consists of providing public service advertising space in the paper, if the event turns partisan. "If I turns out to be a political event, we would disassociate ourselves from it," he said.

....But Rick Weiss, a Post science reporter and co-chair of the Washington Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, noted the hypocrisy of the paper's involvement, since it bars reporters from participating in partisan events. "It is dismaying, to say the least, that I can be fired for participating in a peace march while my employer feels free to co-sponsor an event that so blatantly beats the drum of war," Weiss stated.

Weiss stressed that the guild had not taken a position on the issue, but planned to consider it during a leadership meeting on Monday.

John Pike, who has been a defense analyst in Washington for 25 years and runs GlobalSecurity.org, told Knight Ridder, referring to the Pentagon rally, "I've never heard of such a thing." Others worried that it would re-kindle attempts to link 9/11 to the war in Iraq. Read the full story HERE.

This Should Make You Feel All Warm and Fuzzy

Group hopes to 'put the fear of God' in ACLU
Coalition working to educate churches, mobilize believers nationwide

The man behind an online effort to rein in the American Civil Liberties Union is taking his campaign to America's churches, hoping to mobilize millions of believers into taking a stand against the legal organization.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Nedd Kareiva's StopThe ACLU.org is dedicated to ending the ACLU's legal victories - from limiting activities of the Boy Scouts to promoting same-sex marriage.

The website exists for one purpose, Kareiva says - "to mobilize millions of God-fearing, patriotic Americans to stand up to the ACLU agenda, and consigning it to the ash heap of history (or exporting it to Communist regions)."

Now, the activist has begun a mailing campaign "to recruit pastors, church leaders and congregations to expose them to the ACLU's agenda. Just as the ACLU has 400,000 members, according to a recent article in the National Journal and another in the Washington Times, we are shooting for 1 million Stop the ACLU members," Kareiva writes.

On the website, Kareiva asks supporters to help him mail letters to churches across the nation. The form letter asks leaders and members "to visit the website and catch a vision of what we are doing." Read the full story HERE.

Oy gevult

And these people are lecturing me about my moral values?

"I don't link to traitors."

Atrios certainly doesn't need me to stand up for him, but you bet your ass I'll defend Cindy Sheehan. I followed a link from Atrios and found this loser. This is why I don't go to wingnut sites at all. Makes me want to strangle somebody.

Update: 19:20:

More wingnuttia via Atrios. Do you believe this shit?

[. . .]

Obviously Sheehan's son, I forget his name at the moment, didn't die on purpose, and he may well have have had no control over the circumstances that let [sic] to his death.

BUT.

In war, there are no excuses. You find a way to stay alive, whatever it takes - if you're a good soldier. Sheehan's son didn't do that. He paid the price. but he als[o] failed the mission and let down his buddies.

[. . .]

So every soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who comes home in a bodybag is a failure? What are the wounded, 'partial failures' or just 'below average'? These are the people our kids are 'failing' for.

Disclaimer

I've received a couple emails from people asking if I'm worried about coming afoul of Homeland Security or the FBI calling for an overthrow of Chimpy Inc. My answer:

No.

Somebody want to bust me for speaking my mind, come get me. I'll have the 6 o'clock news waiting when you come to pick me up. I know far too many lawyers to go quietly; I'll have my say as you drag me off to Gitmo. As President Empty Sack, who isn't half the man I am, says, "Bring 'em on."

Update: 16:40:

The reason I'm so manic about this today is because they released 15 hours of FDNY radio archive from Sept 11th yesterday. Once again I held my wife in my arms as she relived that day, debris and bodies falling from the Towers as she tried to make it to safety, seeing the carnage wrought by these terrorists. A lot of tears were shed yet again and now, 4 years later, the memories of these poor people have been corrupted by these criminals in Washington for personal gain, wealth, and popularity.

Party on 9/11

As you know, it's been all over Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!) lately. Rummy's throwing a party to commemorate the deaths of 3000 of my friends and neighbors in Washington on Sept. 11. All I can say is that they're damn lucky they're not doing this in NYC. They'd have to deal with me. Motherfuckers. Eccentricity:

[. . .]

Well, I suppose that indirectly 9/11 has given them the upper hand like they haven't had for ages, but really! In principle, it's like celebrating the torching of the White House during the War of 1812 or the slaughter in Lawrence during the Civil War.

[. . .]

The Neocons might be rich, but they have all the class of guests on the Jerry Springer Show. They've got some inbred country music moron (probably Lee Greenwood) playing and I'm sure there will be a military parade of some sort, probably will look a lot like this:



Nothing like bringing your poll numbers up by marching across the graves of innocent Americans. Give me one good reason why the members of the Bush administration and the Republican members of Congress should not be strung up from the light poles on the Mall.

Allow me to be the first to call for an overthrow (armed or otherwise) of the government of the United States of America. Today, at 0630 on Saturday, 13 August 2005, I raise the flag of revolution against the 21st Century 'King' George and our so-called 'elected representatives'. You are all culpable for enabling this administration to destroy the nation I love. I want you all out; Democrat, Republican, Independent, and I want a new system put in place. One that does not pander to the folks with the most money.

Update: 14:55:

The inbred country music moron will be Clint Black. My apologies to Lee Greenwood. (Thanks to the Poorman)

Roll dem bones, niner come eleven

BradBlog has a whiff of a disturbing not-quite-a-conspiracy-yet theory, tying Mohammad Atta to Abramoff and thus to DeLay and Republicans, in my little pea brain anyway.

On September 26, 2001, Associated Press writer Vickie Chachere reported that FBI agents probing Atta's connections had turned their attention to SunCruz casinos -- then owned by Abramoff:

SunCruz Casinos has turned over photographs and other documents to FBI investigators after employees said they recognized some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks as customers... Names on the passenger list from a Sept. 5 cruise matched those of some of the hijackers...

Since Abramoff used SunCruz to provide services to Republicans (we may safely presume that the Super Bowl junket wasn't the only occasion), I'd very much like to see that September 5, 2001 passenger manifest. Who was on the boat with the terrorists?

The Toronto Star of September 20, 2002 reported that members of al Qaida were arrested in Buffalo, New York, for participation in a money laundering scheme centered at the Casino Niagara.

We have excellent reason to suspect that a similar scheme prompted Mohammed Atta to hop aboard Jack Abramoff's SunCruz ship.

If -- and based on the current state of evidence, we must stress the word "if" -- if further evidence links Mohammed Atta to G.O.P.-friendly shady operators, then many lingering questions may find an answer. Among those questions: Why was the ABLE DANGER team told to steer clear of Atta?

If the 9/11 killers were in any way associated with Abramoff, DeLay, or the Republicans, there is going to be a literal, well-deserved bloodbath. I'd like to see more investigation of this.

Ugh

ABC News had a segment on this morning about Intelligent Design. The thing that got me was a statistic saying 45% of the American people believe God spat man on this Earth, fully formed, about 10,000 years ago. Nearly half of us. I'm sorry, I'm all for religious tolerance (I come from a long line of Roman Catholics) and respecting others' beliefs, but it is difficult to believe half of us are that stupid.

So, today shit changes. From now on, if anybody uses the word 'God' or 'the Good Lord' or any other euphimism to support their position, I'm gonna walk away. I refuse to argue with people who can't tell the difference between belief and scientific fact.

You are a bunch of fucking idiots, a waste of my good air, and deserve everything this administration will do to you. I am ashamed to call you my fellow Americans. In my book, you're the people who should be rounded up and put in camps, not to be tortured but to be educated. And you shouldn't be let out until you understand how the world really works. Because of you stupid motherfuckers, the nation you claim to love so much is going down the tubes.

And a special note to the people of Ohio, who seem to be the dumbest of the lot. Your young people are dying at an astounding rate in Iraq (more than any state in the union), I saw some of your sons' funerals on the news this morning, and most of you still support the criminals in the White House and this illegal war. Wake up, you stupid motherfuckers, because you're going from a national disgrace to national laughingstock. You're being used and you don't even realize it, morons.

When I read of the stupidity of my fellow Americans, it just makes me want to pack it in and move to Europe. You morons make me ashamed to be an American and I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that would happen.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna.

Feel The Water Gettin' Warmer, Tommy Boy?

Since this doesn't directly involve or indict DeLay, I will only do the Modified Dance of Joy, i.e. with my pants on. From AP:

MIAMI - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy casino boats.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, charges that Abramoff and an associate, 36-year-old New York businessman Adam Kidan, used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million to finance the deal for SunCruz Casinos.

Abramoff and Kidan are charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Each count carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

I think I know how you can get some of that time knocked off, Jackie me boy. The Federal prosecutor will no doubt run the plan by you. Sing loud when he tells you to.

More Cindy

Stolen from Grandpa Eddie:



Go read his post too.

Decency vs. Evil

R.J. Eskow at Night Light with a thoughtful piece on Mrs. Sheehan and the Evil she faces in our name:

Sound extreme? Maybe that's just because after so many years of radical conservatism (or pseudo-conservatism serving a class-warfare agenda), we've forgotten what decency looks like.

I doubt that Bush and his cabal have ever known decency, except as a weakness to be exploited in their bloodlust for power and wealth, and to Hell with everyone else.

Smearing Cindy

Here's an article at News Hounds, and another at Crooks and Liars, about Bill O'Ratturd's attempt to smear Mrs. Sheehan by trying to intimidate another Gold Star Mom, Mrs. Kesterson, into saying her son Eric died for a noble cause.

Also, track a lie through the wingnut media at Media Matters.

Shameless Local Promotion

I was reading the Los Angeles Times this morning, like I do every morning, and discovered that we grow stuff here besides Movie Stars!

Here's an article about the Kiwi, Prune, Egg, Garlic, Clam, Artichoke, Lemon, and Avocado Capitals. Horseradish and some others are mentioned as well, but nothing about the popular edible Cactus. Maybe that's in the Spanish language edition.

We also grow a very popular Herb that some say is our #1 cash crop. The National Park Service isn't very happy about the location of some of the big farms, either, but:

Oddly enough, public outcry has been remarkably muted.

Enjoy.

Motivations

My colleague BaltimoreLenore takes a look at Cindy and Casey Sheehan over at her blog.

Sacrifices

Mark Shields via C & L:

[. . .]

As of this writing, 1,827 Americans have been killed in Iraq -- 1,686 of those deaths have occurred since President George W. Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner proclaiming, "Mission Accomplished."

Military service in wartime is not a "job." Recruitment in peacetime mostly emphasizes the benefits of valuable training, college tuition, self-improvement, pay and adventure. Combat and casualties are not part of the pitch.

Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of enlistees come from the lower-middle-class and blue-collar families. The affluent stand above and apart from military service, especially from the enlisted ranks -- the privates and the sergeants, from whose ranks have come more than 90 percent of the casualties and fatalities. This class exemption from service and from sacrifice produces an ethical failure that a democratic and moral people cannot tolerate.

Moral logic tells us that when the nation legally goes to war, it is everybody's war and it must be everybody's risk. But the elite of the country seeks to make war little more than a spectator sport.

Citizens on the home front who do not have loved ones in the service are asked to pay no price, to bear no burden. The Bush administration does not even ask us to pick up the cost of the war, already in the hundreds of billions. That burden will be borne instead by our children. We, patriots, will keep our tax cuts. Do our leaders think so little of us that they are afraid to ask us to make any real sacrifice? [my emphasis]

[. . .]

They know support for the war would evaporate if the Chimp asked Jesuslanders to sacrifice. Their sons and daughters are one thing, because they're all going to Valhalla after they are killed in combat, but by golly, don't take their SUVs away from them.

Liberal Intolerance

Sometimes I get lucky and find somebody who says what I think better than I ever could. This one is 99.9+%. Nothing's perfect. By Mark Morford in the EssEffChron:

I get this a lot: Hey Mark, you nefarious and perverted liberal commie tofu-hugging sex-drunk San Francisco medical experiment gone wrong from the land of fruits and nuts (or some iteration thereof -- so cute, my hate mail can be), hey, I notice you love to ridicule those creepy Christian megachurches and you enjoy spanking wide-eyed Mormons and tweaking the litigious nipples of the cult of Scientology and you recoil at toxic Bush policy like a vegetarian recoils at undercooked veal.

And I can tell you think Dick Cheney is pretty much the devil in a defibrillator and that America is so desperately on the wrong track it might as well be North Korea, and you clearly tend to wince in savage karmic pain when looking down the rusty barrel of a welfare-happy red state and I just have one slightly nasty and pointed and cliched question for you -- Here it is: Where is your supposed progressive openness? Your liberal generosity of spirit? I thought you Lefties were all mushy and passive and live-and-let-live?

In other words, where is that famous so-called tolerance I thought all you wimpy libs were supposed to possess like some sort of gentle polyamorous smiling hug for the world?

I liked this one so much I wanted to save it. Please read the rest Below the Fold.

It's all about the fucking

I don't read wingnut shit. It gets me homicidal. But John Lombard does. He reads Ben Shapiro's book (why I have no idea) and finds out it's all about the fucking . . . and school vouchers:

[. . .]

It offends Ben that people should be able to fuck without consequences. It strikes at the core of his moral being that these tarts should be able to get away with it. He wants to stamp out free fucking, he wants to put an end to this affront to his understanding of the moral order of the universe.

[. . .]

Isn't it amazing that all the bullshit still comes down to guys who are worried about the length of their pricks and and their obsession with making all the rest of us who aren't pay for it?

Actions Have Consequences...HooHah! Do They Ever!

Fixer did a post on safe driving the other day at The Fixer & Gordon. Well, here's one that I found at A Mockingbird's Medley on what can happen to you if you're asleep at the switch and cop an attitude about it. As Mimus Pauly says, listen and learn...

Caution! Swallow your drink and set the rest of it down a safe distance away first!

Bend over . . . once more

The insightful CN Todd:

Bad news for America's peasants and wage slaves today as corporate airline giant Delta announces it just cannot figure out how to make money any more. Not to worry, though, since Delta asked its peasant labor to take a $1 billion wage and benefit cut last year when faced with a similar crisis. Analysts predict that the airline may simply ask workers to take home even less.

[. . .]

Shut up, you assholes. Be glad you have a job. It's amazing the shit they get away with, never mind Halliburton, the double standard, everything, and the sheeple just go along with it. Bush is pissing on them, telling them it's raining, and they hold their heads to the sky and stick out their tongues. Good links over there too.

A Mom on Cindy

Don't miss this really good rant by An Angry Old Broad.

GWB is a pussy

That's what the Chemist says and I agree.

[. . .]

And here's where he shows himself to be nothing more than a cowering little pussy: he won't even come out and face her [Cindy Sheehan]. He's her employee, right? He should face her.

[. . .]

I got no problems with cowards, as long as they act like cowards and everyone can see that. I got a problem with cowards who talk a big line but do nothing to back it up when push comes to shove. Cowards like that get people killed.

I got one of them who comes to the shop. All big talk, 'rah-rah bomb Iraq', 'rah-rah kill 'em all', 'they deserve to be tortured', shit like that. But look at this asshole crosseyed and he runs like a squealing little pig. He wouldn't come to the shop for a month because he was scared after reading a rant I wrote here giving Bush a warning. He was scared the guys in black Crown Victorias would come to get me and he didn't want to get swept up in the raid. The next time I saw him on the street, I spit on his shoes. Figured I'd give him an excuse to take a poke at me. Puh, he ran away. Fucking asshole.

Posting

My posting will be limited the next week and a half. Usually, we close the shop down for the middle 2 weeks in August, but this year we all had different vacation plans. This week and next, Indian is up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, camping with Mrs. Indian. As most of you know, I'm semi-retired and I work from 7 to 1. Leaves my afternoons free for blogging (among other things). This week and next though, I'll be working late to take up the Indian's slack. So bear with me and I'll be back in full rant mode as soon as Ol' Blanket Ass gets back.

Bush Vows To End U.S. Oil Dependence

This just in from The Onion:

WASHINGTON, DC - President Bush unveiled an aggressive initiative Monday that would make the U.S. free of petroleum dependence by the year 4920, less than three millennia from now.

Responding to reporters' questions, Bush admitted that our progeny could face challenges in pursuit of the goal, such as the earth's degrading orbit and eventual destruction of the moon by tidal force, or the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

"Our distant relations will have some hard work to do," Bush said. "But hard work is what built this nation, and I have every faith that they will succeed."

The proclamation comes on the heels of Bush's plans to pay off the national debt by the early 6300s, and win the war on terror by 7450.

I feel a lot better now. Gives me something to live for.

Sticker Shock over Shell Shock

From Truthout, on the VA's unconscionable treatment of Veterans:

The US government is reviewing 72,000 cases in which veterans have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, claiming that misdiagnosis and fraud have inflated the numbers. Outraged vets say the plan is a callous attempt to cut the costs of an increasingly expensive war.

To outraged veterans groups, the review smacks of a convenient way to cut costs during an increasingly expensive war and reflects a reluctance by the department to take PTSD seriously. "The V.A. hopes to trim costs for existing war veterans and recently returning war veterans by targeting PTSD," says Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans advocacy organization in Silver Spring, Md. "This is a desperate and despicable move by an administration caught without a plan, the money, or the staff to care for our nation's wounded warriors."

What that boils down to, says Robinson, is that veterans caught in the V.A. review are going to have to prove they were hurt all over again. "If you had a claim granted during this time period, you better get out your [military records] and start calling your buddies for evidence of your combat exposure," he says.

Every month in the VFW magazine there are personal ads from Vets of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam seeking old service buddies to help them establish VA claims. I think the VA has caught up with Spanish-American War and WWI claims, because there aren't many ads from those Vets. I'm sure the VA hopes to catch up on claims from later conflicts in the same manner.

In June, the V.A. issued an order that would have made it more difficult to grant veterans 100 percent disability for PTSD by requiring further review of those cases before granting payments. It was rescinded a week later in the face of intense criticism from veterans groups, who wanted equal scrutiny on cases where the department decided to deny a PTSD claim.

"There are a lot of people out there who want to make some changes on the backs of veterans," says Smithson. "This is a really scary time."

A grateful nation speaks: "You did what we wanted you to do. We used you 'til you were useless to us. You suffered terribly. You should be very proud of your service and hold your head high. Now fuck off."

Reefer Madness

AlterNet's DrugReporter has a good article on The War On Some Drugs' continuing misdirection against marijuana. Many good, and some really stupid, comments as well.

"We're seeing an increasing number of organizations from all sides of the political spectrum starting to question these policies," explains Mirkin. "We've had reports just in the last six months or so from the Sentencing Project, which tends to be on the left side of the political spectrum, as well as the American Enterprise Institute and Citizens Against Government Waste, who are much more on the conservative side. But they are all essentially saying the same thing: This doesn't make sense. We're pouring money down a rat hole and very possibly doing more harm than good."

We could end all the anti-weed efforts in a New York minute if Sara Lee, HoHos, and Krispy Kreme would kick down some campaign contributions. Their stock would be through the roof with legalized pot.

Home, Home Out Of On The Range...

Wonkette chimes in on Mrs. Sheehan's sun-filled Summer vacation:

Does anybody remember why it is that Bush went to Crawford for four weeks? Scott McClellan brushed off detractors with this folksy argument:

Spending time outside of Washington always gives the president a fresh perspective of what's on the minds of the American people. It's a time, really, for him to shed the coat and tie and meet with folks out in the heartland and hear what's on their minds.

Hey, that's funny, there's someone just outside the ranch who'd love see him!

I think the "folks" Bush meets with "out in the heartland" are the same big contributors and other assorted snakes that he meets with in DC. Apparently, ordinary citizens (Mrs. Sheehan is anything but ordinary!) aren't allowed within five miles of Der Fuhrer His Majesty. I think he's scared of his adoring public, let alone the traitors who disagree with him, and is staying out of rifle range.

If you've got a few minutes, Technorati has one or two more articles on Mrs. Sheehan's situation.

Martial Law

Forget the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, the Pentagon already has plans to use the military in case of domestic terrorist attack.

From Newshounds (August 9th):
"Don't Let a Little Thing Like "The Law" Get in the Way

Here's a little tidbit from yesterday's (8/8) FNL that should make everyone sit up & pay attention.

At 12:03pm (EDT) Greg Kelly reported on the US military planning a "domestic military response" in case of a terror attack in the US. Kelly said such duties could include "crowd control" & coping with the aftermath of a WMD attack. He also noted that the Pentagon is in a "delicate position" because they are "by law prevented from" doing this, but the Pentagon believes it "could be used on orders from" POTUS & it "may have to take charge of" certain crisis duties."
[Bold emphasis mine - BaltLen]

And from the Washington Post-via Truthout (august 8th):
War Plans Drafted to Counter Terror Attacks in US

" Colorado Springs - The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers who drafted the plans.

...The Pentagon's new homeland defense strategy, issued in June, emphasized in boldface type that "domestic security is primarily a civilian law enforcement function." Still, it noted the possibility that ground troops might be sent into action on U.S. soil to counter security threats and deal with major emergencies. "
[Bold emphasis mine again - BaltLen]

Does everyone feel comfy now?

More Cindy

At her Kos Diary:

. . . Why do the right wing media so assiduously scrutinize the words of a grief filled mother and ignore the words of a lying president?

[. . .]

Go read it all. Thanks to the Roo for the link.

Last throes

WASHINGTON - Anticipating a new burst of insurgent violence, the Pentagon plans to expand the U.S. force in Iraq to improve security for a planned October referendum and a December election.

Although much public attention has been focused recently on the prospect of reducing U.S. forces next spring and summer, defense officials foresee the likelihood of first increasing troop levels.

[. . .]

"The units that are there have been told to expect that," he said. "It's possible that your planned rotation dates back to the U.S. will be affected by the need to keep a higher level for a longer period of time. They understand that."

[. . .]

Pack your wrenches, Gord. You and I are gonna be fixing Humvees soon.

How'd you like to be a local commander and have tell your people their tours have been extended again? About now, I'd be sleeping with one eye open. (Hat tip: The Farmer)

We Can't Make It Here Any More...

Good lyric posted by Dread Pirate Roberts.

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

And much more.

Threats

Kos via DemVet:

Cindy Sheehan phoned me from Texas a few minutes ago to say that she's been informed that beginning Thursday, she and her companions will be considered a threat to national security and will be arrested. Coincidentally, Thursday is the day that Rice and Rumsfeld visit the ranch, and Friday is a fundraiser event for the haves and the have mores. Cindy said that she and others plan to be arrested.

All of you who've been saying Bush and his henchmen aren't Nazis can go fuck yourselves.

Steamy, Sweaty Testosterone in Brown Shirts...

Rick Mercier opines in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star:

SOMEBODY PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who saw the coverage of the Boy Scout Jamboree arena show Sunday night and thought: Yikes, that's a bit too much like some of the scary weirdness that torments me in my sleep.

I mean, isn't there something nightmarish about our misleader swooping down on a steaming pit of sweat and testosterone and whipping a throng of brown-shirted youths into a nationalistic frenzy?

And what's not surreal about the author of an unnecessary, costly, and wholly counterproductive war claiming that his policies are "laying the foundations of peace for decades to come"?

The extravaganza featuring our commander in chief felt especially creepy coming on the heels of a weeklong effort by the military to turn the jamboree into one big recruitment fair.

But I guess it's fitting that this president would be flown in to wrap up the recruiting blitz. It's thanks to him that the military is in such desperate need of warm bodies.

And there's always more democracy-spreading to be done. It's no secret that some of the ideologues who whisper in the president's ear subscribe to the notion that "everyone wants to go to Baghdad - real men want to go to Tehran."

Likewise, when Bush said Americans could count on the Eagle Scout who runs the Pentagon to "be prepared," everyone was obliged to overlook the fact that U.S. forces were anything but prepared as they headed into combat in Iraq. Thanks to the Eagle Scout, there weren't enough troops, or enough armored vehicles, or enough dependable flak jackets. Thousands of dead and maimed Americans are the result of his preparations.

Some of these Boy Scouts are eleven years old. They've raised the enlistment age almost to the point where I've got a choice of being a Soldier or a Wal-Mart greeter. I wonder when they'll feel the need to lower it, perhaps offering High School scholarships as a recruiting aid?

New Democrats in the Making

From the Binghamton(NY) Press & Sun Bulletin, quoting Paul Hackett of Ohio:

At the same time, he spoke of Marines and soldiers still in Iraq as "young Democrats in the making." If he's right about that, then Bush and Cheney and the rest of those neocon liars who raved about weapons of mass destruction and a "cakewalk" invasion are going to find themselves in trouble if and when those young fighters come home.

Hackett also said he is ready to return to Iraq if called upon, which appeared to confound Goodman. She apparently doesn't understand Marines.

As for Schmidt, she is fortunate that the election was held the day before rather than the day after those 14 Ohio Marines died in Iraq.

But how many more of those brave men and women need to die before an indifferent public wakes up and demands a workable end to what's happening there, and not just empty slogans coming from an empty head.

In my opinion, the only way the deaths of our troops will not have been in vain is if they piss Americans off enough that Republicans and Neo-conmen will never, ever, take over this country again.

It was bound to happen sooner or later...

From Editor & Publisher:

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and in what newspapers in Kentucky are calling a first, one American has killed another in a dispute over the Iraq war.

It happened at Floyd County flea market on Thursday, when two friends, who were firearms vendors there, drew guns after quarreling about the war. Douglas Moore, 65, of Martin, who backs the war, shot and killed Harold Wayne Smith, 56, of Manchester, who opposed it, according to investigators.

Moore was released without being charged after he convinced police he had acted in self-defense. A grand jury may yet hear evidence in the case.

I wonder if they'd have released the anti-war guy if he had prevailed?

This quickly escalated into an argument, then to a scuffle, and finally both men drew pistols outside a snack shed. The dead man was apparently just a little slower in firing (my bold). Witnesses said he stood for about five seconds before toppling on the walkway.

The moral of this story is crystal clear: The first one to clear leather and fire wins. Work on your fast draw.

Piece of shit

------------------------------------------------------
MSNBC Breaking News
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NASA postpones shuttle landing. -
Discovery astronauts ordered to delay landing until Tuesday due to weather concerns.

Well they're postponing the landing because there are clouds in the area. Let's see, it can't get wet, it can't take a hit from a piece of foam, it regularly loses said foam, and you're sending it into space? I wouldn't go around the block in it if it were a car. Tell me why we should risk the lives of our best and brightest in a piece of shit like this? I'd rather travel to the space station in a '56 Buick, shot out of a cannon.

ANWR and the Energy Bill

John is on the ramifications of the Repubs' Energy Bill:

[. . .]

If it were really about reducing our dependency on foreign oil, we'd be a hell of a lot more serious about reducing our dependency on oil, period. For instance, there wouldn't even be a debate about making SUVs more efficient, because they already would have been.

Unfortunately, the reality is that this Administration has long opposed efforts to curtail our consumption of oil. A recent example is another provision left out of the Energy Bill:

[. . .]

Peter Jennings

1938 - 2005

Happy trails, my man. They don't make 'em like you anymore.

Good God

My man Dave:

I swear this is for real. The wingnuts are blaming the Clintons for the leak of a CIA agent's identity . . .

Words fail me . . .

This Monkey's Kung Fu is Very Strong...

Go see what Kung Fu Monkey has to say about the president and unintelligent design. Recommended.

I'm not going to rehash the whole ridiculousness of Intelligent Design, or as it's more commonly known: "Creationism Trying to Look Serious By, Say, Squinting -- Like Denise Richards Playing the Nuclear Weapons Expert In That Bond Movie". My pal Orac has all the necessary links. If you don't understand that there's absolutely no contradiction between believing in God and evolution, then frankly I'm not going to waste the time trying to jam a rhetorical screwdriver into your pineal gland's butterfly valve and crank up the air flow. Nor will I trot out another version of I Miss Republicans, although I suspect that a fair number of people out there are pretty rattled, as it's become the number one entry page to this blog over the last day.

That's sort of in the middle of a terrific rant. Don't miss it.

Down, Down, Down, In A Burnin' Ring O' Fire

Go see Newsweek's latest poll numbers. Bush keeps dropping. I'll be happy when he drops through the gallows floor.

The myths of Hiroshima

This editorial in the LATimes knocks some big holes in the mythology surrounding the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.

Americans were also told that use of the bombs "led to the immediate surrender of Japan and made unnecessary the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands." But it's not that straightforward. As Tsuyoshi Hasegawa has shown definitively in his new book, "Racing the Enemy" - and many other historians have long argued - it was the Soviet Union's entry into the Pacific war on Aug. 8, two days after the Hiroshima bombing, that provided the final "shock" that led to Japan's capitulation. (my bold)

The bomb was dropped, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, said in November 1945, on "an essentially defeated enemy." President Truman and his closest advisor, Secretary of State James Byrnes, quite plainly used it primarily to prevent the Soviets from sharing in the occupation of Japan. And they used it on Aug. 6 even though they had agreed among themselves as they returned home from the Potsdam Conference on Aug. 3 that the Japanese were looking for peace.

There are other reasons we used the bomb, but you have to look kinda deep (foreign documentaries on The History Channel at 3AM) to find 'em:

Justification for the $2,000,000,000 (with a "B") expense.

Plain old-fashioned Revenge, served hot.

Because we could.

Not to justify it, but kindly remember that the Japs killed more civilians at Nanking with bullets and bayonets than were killed with the two A-bombs, not to mention their atrocities elsewhere.

I think it's fortunate for Germany that they surrendered before the bomb was ready, although we may not have used it on them because they didn't sneak-attack us, and they're white. They certainly committed atrocities that dwarfed Japan's.

It points to competence, your honor

This via Roger Ailes the Good:

A White House council on volunteerism said Friday it's taking another look at how the President's Call to Service Award -- accompanied by a laudatory letter from President Bush -- was issued to Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a California Death Row inmate who has written a series of books warning young people against the gang life.

A spokesman for the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation said that neither the council nor Bush had any way of knowing that the person they were honoring was a condemned multiple murderer. [my emphasis]

[. . .]

Personally, if the guy is trying to redeem his worthless ass by helping kids from Death Row, more power to him. But this shows the kind of idiots who are running the show at 1600. I'm sure it would only have taken a Google search to figure out what this guy was about. It's the same way they planned for Iraq. Chimpy Inc has brought superficiality to an art form.

Update: 12:50:

I did a Google search just to see. Here's his homepage.

Go get him

I love this woman. Reminds me of my mom . . . only younger . . . and still alive.

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- The angry mother [Cindy Sheehan] of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in Iraq.

[. . .]

She said she decided to come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a noble cause and that the mission must be completed.

"I want to ask the president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Last week, you said my son died for a noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is?"

[. . .]

My mom was a tough broad too, and refused to take shit from anybody. I'm glad at least one news service covered this.

Via Cabana Boy.

This is what we're dealing with

Me a year ago (give or take):

[. . .]

You know, I write spy novels and some science fiction. The reason I bring this up is not to peddle books, but to make an observation. Bush & Co's actions sound like the plot of a fucking spy novel. It's as if they're taking literary license with the war, the way I would when I ask my audience to suspend their belief in the flow of time and the details. (If writers didn't, novels would be SO long and boring, and filled with minutiae, that no one would want to read them.) But wars don't proceed like novels do. The president is not an omnipotent being, like a writer, who can mold the world so the outcome is in his favor. War, and running a country, involves minutiae on a biblical scale and all the details have to be addressed BEFORE war is declared. It's as if Bush thinks the world works like a TV show or a pulp fiction novel.

Newsweek [link over there] via Attaturk today:

...the White House can at least feel reassured by FX itself, which is part of the Fox TV empire. One of the favorite shows among White House aides has been "24," the Kiefer Sutherland counterterrorism cliffhanger drama. White House aides regularly swap stories about their favorite Sutherland shoot-outs with foreign agents, terrorists and generally bad guys. "Over There" may be a different beast, but it probably appeals to the same crowd. [my emphasis]

Running a country is NOT a fucking TV show, you idiots.