He understands...

Gilliard does anyway:

Generals are like other people, except with a finely tuned sense of risk assessment. The idea that it's six generals calling for Rumsfeld to quit is comical. Asshats like Powerline and Red State don't know shit about this subject. They know what they are told and little more.

...

Despite liberal fears of the Republican nature of the US officer corps, the reality is that it hardly any different than any other large group of executives. What sets them apart is that to reach general, you have to have at least a masters, and a doctorate doesn't hurt. Which means that they are the most educated group of executives in the US.

And many of them have degrees from Georgetown Foriegn Service, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Harvard, the same as their peers in State and DOD. So when they talk about policy, it it's from education.

But what they are is apolitical. Most may vote one way or the other, but they don't seek any role in American politics. For generals to attack a sitting SecDef means they think there is a crisis in the military and it will harm its future capabilities. Because speaking out about civilian leadership is something the Army itself doesn't tolerate. Douglas McArthur, Edwin Walker and John Singlaub all lost their jobs by attacking the civilian leadership.

...

The right, which doesn't know dick about this, think it's a few generals. It isn't. This is the opinion of the magament class of the Army and Marines, they're just using retirees to make the point that active duty soldiers can't. But this will only get worse. Rumors of resignations are in the air and if that happens, Bush will be forced into a hole. You do not want your generals threatening the civilian staff, but when you have an incompetent SecDef, you can't watch people die and the army being destroyed.

...

This is the way it is, precisely what the 'pundits' and 'warbloggers' don't get. The fact the generals are speaking out at all is a big thing. Take the time to read the whole article, especially those who haven't experienced military service, and you'll see what we vets did as soon as General Zinni started critcizing this misbegotten war.

Update:

Pauly treats this well too, a must-read.

Parody trolls

We don't have troll problems here at the Brain thanks to our strict, and Draconian, spam and troll policy*. It's nice when you're ex-Special Forces, people believe you actually will** hunt them down and rip their tonsils out through their assholes. Anyway, Brad R. has a new kind of troll; one who's...well...I'll let Brad tell you:

I've concluded that Gary Ruppert must be a parody troll. No actual right-winger could really be this stupid:

Link here and here.

*See left sidebar.
**I really will hunt you down and rip your tonsils out via your rectum if you spam or troll this site.

Blogging and the 'MSM'

The lovely Maryscott O'Connor is the subject of a WaPo piece. I don't think the writer got her, or Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!). Lurch sums it up well:

...I can't help think that the story was a bit of a hatchet job, since those of us on the oxygen-breathing side of the internet understand that WaPo is now, ideologically, an wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Rage happens. We are creatures of emotion. The trappings of civilization fall from us easily and we become the wild beasts we once were, millions of years ago. I see that as a deplorable thing, but I've felt the red heat of rage myself, and understand how little civilized we really are. I think Mary Scott O'Connor's writings stem from a deep well of disgust, anguish and anger at what has been done to destroy our nation, our society. Those who despise America the institution are in charge right now, and work every day to separate us into small, easily manipulated groups and factions.

...

I think most of us do this because we're pissed off at what has happened to the nation we love. I sure as hell didn't go into blogging for some fan-love of an ideology. I'm here because I'm fucking pissed and I can vent to folks who understand and maybe educate those who are mis- or under-informed. Most of the folks in the 'media' think we, like the right side of blogtopia, are merely drones, repeating the line of the Kommissars. Hello, McFly? We're the ones with the pitchforks, torches, and the noose.

Saturday Cartoons

As usual at Bob Geiger's. This one sorta fits for me:

But seriously

Think all this nuke talk is just the Chimp's idea of 'diplomacy' in action? Just saber-rattling without substance? Lindsay Beyerstein went to see Sy Hersh at Columbia yesterday:

...

The natural temptation is to assume that Bush isn't serious. After all, no rational person would be serious about what Bush's minions are hinting at. And yet, as Hersh knows only too well, Bush has gone ahead and done things no reasonable person would do.

...

Coup d'etat

At this point in time, after 5 years of "Presidentin' for Dummies", one is tempted to say, as Gord and I both have, 'it would be nice if 2nd Marines would storm the White House and Capitol and run all the bums out'. Start from scratch and rebuild the nation closer to the Founders' idea of what should be, with 230 years of hindsight. Thing is, the military is just like the Germans; you can't trust 'em with too much power. The reason I'm thinking about it is thanks to this post at Smirking Chimp. A good read and interesting line of thought. Personally, I wouldn't support the idea of the generals rising up against the civilian government. It would set too dangerous a precedent.

Thanks to Jersey Cynic for pointing it out.

Update:

Case in point: Germans with too much power.

"Liberal" media

Joe Klein is a dick. We've all known it for a while now and we all know he showed his ass the other day. Our esteemed colleague, guitar maven, and all around good guy RJ Eskow pulls no punches:

Here's what's wrong with the American press: It's Friday and Joe Klein still has a job. Klein has pathetically attempted to defend himself in HuffPo from the wave of outrage over his recent remark about progressive Democrats - that is, that there is a "hate America tendency of the [Democratic Party's] left wing." Somehow Klein thinks it's less offensive that he said "left wing" instead of "liberal wing" (I guess because his job title at TIME is still "liberal columnist.")

It's a vile and baseless comment. As one who might be considered a member of that "left" wing, I'm deeply offended. Anyone who wants to stand in front of this country-music-playing American and challenge his love for the United States is going to get his ass kicked - Klein included.

(And, Dear Joe: Why is it that Michael Moore's distress over US foreign policy is proof that he 'hates America' - but Grover Norquist's desire to drown its government in a bathtub isn't?) [my em]

...

Hear, hear. [raising coffee cup] Fuck all these so-called 'liberal' assholes in the press. They're spineless, dilettante morons at best, paid propagandists for the GOP at worst (I'm leaning toward the former rather than the latter in Klein's case). You want fair and balanced? Put guys like RJ up there instead of Klein. You'd get real liberal/progressive commentary, and good writing to boot, instead of Rethug-lite, Beltway cocktail party banter. Oh, that's right, that's what the corporate media wants.

You're doing a heck of a job, Rummy

WASHINGTON, April 14 - President Bush strongly defended Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today, despite calls from retired generals that he step down, and said Mr. Rumsfeld's leadership is vital for the United States.

"Earlier today I spoke with Don Rumsfeld about ongoing military operations in the global war on terror," the president said. "I reiterated my strong support for his leadership during this historic and challenging time for our nation."

...

I love watching the Chimp squirm. His entire Presidency is built with Iraq as its foundation. If he cans Rummy, he'll be admitting defeat.

Great thanks to The Burned Over District for the link.

OIC

They're Clinton's generals. [slaps forehead] Silly me.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Dad! I hate that camera!



Almost got it!



Heh, got away just in time.

Very good

A very good post that all should read:

...

Now that I've been out of my blogging gig for a while, my anger wheel has been jolted far to the left and when I reread that extraordinarily perceptive passage by Taibbi, I actually felt kind of sorry for the subjects. They're scared is all. They're scared of a lot of things because they need to be scared of a lot of things. They lack purpose without things relentlessly scaring the shit out of them. And in order to distract the media from the fact that they're more juiced up on fear than love for their country, they constantly try to frame liberals - who in their minds still wear patchouli, listen to Jefferson Airplane and love the fuck out of Jane Fonda - of being the cowards because, um, we're "anti-war" (what fucked up times we live in where being "anti-war" is a "bad thing") and we aren't 100% freaked out that gay people, Mexicans, Arabs and the Dixie Chicks are roaming free in our streets.

You see, in reality, us "cowardly" liberals aren't afraid of much of anything. Disgusted, sure. We're plenty disgusted with a lot of things going on in America and the world today, and rightfully so, but our repulsion isn't fueled by fear. It's fueled by hope for better days in America, a concept so antithetical to the rightists' junked-out need for a constant influx of "bogeymen" (they've been trained well), that they aren't able to process the notion that we don't hate our country, we just take great, full-throated exception to how it's being run by them. Or, more to the point, run into the ground by them. [my em]

...

Exactly.

To be a Republican

One of Mrs. F's oldest and closest friends, Kathy, (who also knows her way around heavy machine guns by the way) sent this to the house last night.

Things you have to believe to be a Republican today.....

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and yet our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but intelligent design should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is a solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Friends don't let friends vote Republican.

By the way, her son entered West Point this past fall. Hopefully, Iraq will be a bad memory by the time he graduates.

It's official: Spring is here!

How do I know, you ask? It was 55 degrees today, the warmest day of the year so far? A light flannel shirt was almost too warm in the blazing Sun at midday? Those are good indicators, yes, but, no.

The reason I know it is o-fish-ully Spring is Toni's moped magically appeared in my driveway in a cloud of Merlot fumes! See the backstory here and here.

I love the change of seasons!

On war

From the Generals:

"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. ~ Robert E. Lee - Class of 1829

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell." ~ William T. Sherman - Class of 1840

"Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead." ~ Omar N. Bradley - Class of 1915

To all those who consider, or enter into, war so glibly: Go fuck yourselves. Quotes taken from the West Pont Graduates Against the War website. Great thanks to the Angry Old Broad for steering me there.

So what does it mean...

When a computer with an IP address in the "Army Information Systems Command-Pentagon" stops by your site from a Google search for "Rumsfeld criticized"? Heh, damn right he was.

Freeloading Socialists...

Glenn Greenwald on the neocons' attack on the retired Generals who are criticizing Rummy and Bush's War:

These Generals -- to whom Hanson refers contemptuously as "Pensioned Army and Marine generals" (those freeloading socialists) -- aren't speaking out because they love their country, are concerned for its well-being under this administration or because they believe anything they are saying. Nope - they're just trying to hawk books and make money, and are acting unethically while they do it. These Generals who are criticizing the administration are just dishonest hacks who ought to be ignored and shunned. As always, Hanson plays around with military glory from the past and wonders why nobody except him and a few others are as noble or brave as those men were:

Criticisms of the Administration come "right around publication date." That's because nobody really finds genuine fault with the Administration. They're just all trying to sell books. Anyone who criticizes the Administration has bad motives, places their own interest over their country, and is undermining our war effort for selfish reasons. Including these "Generals." The great war hero Hanson sees right through them.

These Generals need to just shut up because people like them are the reason that we are losing:

Attacking the motives -- not the arguments or judgments, but the motives -- of a bunch of retired Generals, all because they expressed criticism of the administration's war efforts, gives you a pretty good idea of how these Bush supporters are feeling. Desperate and scared. That must be the feeling inside the White House, too -- everyone is abandoning them, criticizing them, blaming them. They look and feel weak, impotent, and small. And they definitely are going to do something about that.

The weaker and more stigmatized Bush becomes, the greater could be the likelihood of some spiteful, bitter, strength-seeking military offensive. Few things seem more unstable and dangerous than an isolated, unpopular, bitter, failed, frustrated President, sitting in the White House recalling the glory days when war and military might caused him to feel so good and strong.

Greenwald quotes Victor "Raisins" Hanson and Jonah Goldberg, two right-wing war heroes if there ever were any. They know, of course, that those Generals only spent thirty-some years of their lives in harm's way as a ruse to sell books and get on TV. What a pair of ball-less dipshits!

As far as Bush feeling "so good and strong", making criminal war is a truly sick, twisted way of working on your self-esteem.

Yeah...now...

Where were ya in '04, ya bastids? Steve Soto:

How bad is it for Bush now? Kerry would beat him by ten points if the election were re-run, according to a new poll. After you factor in the likely voter advantage that the GOP usually gets, it would result in Kerry winning by about 3-4 points, which given the closeness of several states in 2004, and what we now know about Ohio means that Kerry would take the Electoral College as well. Note that among registered voters, Democrats have a 14-point advantage in the 2006 generic ballot. It all comes down to turnout folks.

...

This explains a lot...

I just got this by e-mail from Mrs. G and thought I'd share:

[Mujibar was trying to get a job in India. The Personnel Manager said, "Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except one. Unless you pass it you cannot qualify for this job." Mujibar said, "I am ready." The manager said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow, Pink and Green."

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister manager, I am ready."

The manager said, "Go ahead."

Mujibar said, "The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, 'Yellow, this is Mujibar.'"

Mujibar now works as a technician at a call center for computer problems.

No doubt you have spoken to him.]

I have, but he was in Texas.

...so batty it's an instant classic

Molly Ivins makes an interesting point about Bush's "leaks", disinformation, lies and selective declassification:

The only thing new here is the news that George W. Bush probably knew a couple of days before he talked about them in public that the Defense Intelligence Agency had found they were not mobile weapons labs.

OK, given everything we already know about the lies before the war, this is not particularly startling - although I do think it's long past time we stopped referring to the campaign of disinformation and false information that we were fed as anything but lies. No, the startling and funny part of the "mobile weapons lab" lie is the administration's defense of it, which is so batty it's an instant classic.

According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, the DIA report debunking the "weapons labs" is "a complex intelligence white paper and it's ... one derived from highly classified information (and) takes a substantial amount of time to coordinate and to run through a declassification process."

If I understand what McClellan is saying, Bush leaked bad information from a classified intelligence report because there wasn't enough time for the contradictory DIA report to go through a declassification process. All of which would make more sense if we hadn't just gone through this Valerie Plame episode, in which the White House says if the president leaked it, then it's legal to leak it. No problem, the president can declassify at will, they said. I don't know about you, but none of it is becoming clearer for me. Does anyone understand yet why we had to bomb Iran?

When it's politically convenient to leak a portion of a document out of context, that's what he does. When it's politically convenient to ignore information he knows about and lie, that's what he does. In any case, he lies pretty much all the time.

Don't worry, Molly. It's starting to become clearer to more and more Americans. It's not much clearer to those of us who knew about Bush all along, but the details - aka 'proof' - are starting to trickle down to folks who loved being swindled, conned, and lied to by that asshole as long as they thought he was 'their' man who would undo the Godless liberal heathen place the country has become and protect them from the monsters he told them were under their beds. When they learn the extent of the Bush/Republican con, they're gonna be pissed, probably more for being shown up in public as fools than for swallowing the bullshit in the first place, but that's OK.

When they realize, as they may be starting to do, that the Culture of Corruption is stealing from them, and their kids are the ones being killed for the Imperial pipe dreams of War Criminals, maybe they'll out with the pitchforks and scythes and go put a few heads on fence posts in D.C. I'd turn on Fox News to watch that just to see how they'd spin it as a Repub positive.

Lie down...

...with mangy old dogs; wake up with God knows what...

Booze and whores...revisited

About a year ago, I wrote that some of my (and my boss Harry's) most oft-repeated war stories involved booze and whores. Harry even has a saying, "wars are won on booze and whores". He says that's the reason we can't win in a war with an Islamic country. Well...that's Harry and I love him regardless. That said, the old man might not be that far off the mark. I stole this from Patrick Dog, an email Colonel Dog [his dad and my kind of officer] sent to him:

The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators.

However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the USS Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping." Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn.

Then she headed home.

The USS Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February, 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water.

GO NAVY!

I guess that's why Harry's the boss...heh...

NO FREE PASSES!

Jane:

...But I am intrinsically, tempermentally and constitutionally opposed to allowing Newt Gingrich and other architects of war to evade responsibility for their actions and give themselves political cover by handing them a "free pass" for their zealous efforts to land us in the middle of this quagmire.

Newt Gingrich does not equal Hillary Clinton. He does not equal John Kerry and he sure as hell doesn't equal Jack Murtha. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent piece up at Alternet today about Newt's history in branding anyone who opposed the Bush Administration and/or the war as traitors giving aid and comfort to the enemy:

...

Spot on, darlin'. It should be Repub = Warmonger. If Newt would have come out and said he was wrong all his life and now embraced Democratic/Progressive principles, maybe I'd give him the benefit of a hearing. But all these Rethugs and Neocons who've changed their spots over the past few weeks have only done it for political expediency. Fuck them all; get 'em all out. For guys like Newt, shut the fuck up.

Perspective

Shows you where we stand in the big scheme of things. Go here and scroll right...and scroll right...and scroll right...and... Feel a bit insignificant now? Still think God keeps score?

Great thanks to PZ Myers.

Didja know?

There's a War on Easter.

Hat tip: Pam

Hey!!!!!

I drive 60 miles a day to work and back. I just paid $3.00/gal for regular to fill up my Ranger. My ass is sore from the reaming already and it ain't even Memorial Day.

GOP Hall of Shame

No comment necessary.

Thanks: Maru

What will happen

Or, Our Headlong Run into Complete Idiocy. Billmon:

...

Idiots, of course, don't need a reason to be idiots. But to the extent there is a rational excuse for treating a nuclear strike on Iran as the journalistic equivalent of a seasonal story about people washing their cars, it must be the cynical conviction that the Cheneyites aren't serious - they're just doing their little Gen. Jack Ripper impression to let the Iranians know they really mean business.

This may seem plausible - that is, if you were in a catatonic stupor throughout 2002 and the early months of 2003 (which is just another way of saying: if you were a member in good standing of the corporate media elite.) But the rest of us have learned that when Dick Cheney starts muttering about precious bodily fluids, you'd better pay attention. He really does mean business, and when Dick Cheney means business, bombs are likely to start falling sooner rather than later.

...

I've been trying to picture what the world might look like the day after a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran, but I'm essentially drawing a blank. There simply isn't a precedent for the world's dominant superpower turning into a rogue state - much less a rogue state willing to wage nuclear war against potential, even hypothetical, security threats. At that point, we'd truly be through the looking glass.

...

For most Americans, then, the initial impact of war with Iran could play out in the same theatre of the absurd as the first Gulf War and the opening phases of the Iraq invasion - that is to say, on their living room TVs. And if there's one place where a nuclear first strike could be made to appear almost normal, or even a good thing, it's on the boob tube.

After all, the corporate media complex has already shown a remarkable willingness to ignore or rationalize conduct that once would have been considered grossly illegal, if not outright war crimes. And the right-wing propaganda machine is happy to paint any atrocity as another glorious success in the battle for democracy (that is, when it's not trying to deny it ever happened.) Why should we expect something as transitory as a nuclear strike to change the pattern?

...

I've had the feeling the nuking of Iran is a done deal. At least since they started the same saber-rattling we saw in the run up to Iraq. It will happen, probably before Election Day. The bright side is, I was lucky enough to enjoy a carefree childhood. The kids growing up now will have the specter of retaliation hanging over their heads. And you know, if we release the nuclear genie, retaliation will come, and it will probably make 9/11 look like a walk in the park.

Hat tip: Atrios

Update:

Our pal Lurch has an excellent analysis of the intrigue behind this.

Dear Shitforbrains Mr. Bush,

Since supporting the war for you means sending other peoples' children to die in your fuckup in the desert, let me show you how the Prince of Wales does it:

Prince Harry graduates from Sandhurst this morning as a commissioned officer in the Army.

The 21-year-old third in line to the throne will be watched by his grandparents the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, his father the Prince of Wales, stepmother the Duchess of Cornwall and brother Prince William as he marches in the military college's Sovereign's Parade.

...

He has chosen to train in the Blues and Royals' armoured reconnaissance unit, meaning he could see action in war zones.

The Blues and Royals have been deployed in almost every major Army operation of the past two decades, including the Falklands, both Gulf wars, Bosnia and Kosovo. [my em]

...

I'm sure we'll be seeing Jenna and not-Jenna at a local D.C. recruiting office any day now.

So, are ya?

You know every American presidential hopeful asks the question, "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" If you asked the people of Iraq, they would say no:

BASRA, 11 April (IRIN) - As a result of water-borne diseases and a lack of medical supplies, infants born in the southern city of Basra are subject to abnormally high mortality rates, say officials of an international NGO devoted to child health issues.

"For weeks, there were no I.V. fluids available in the hospitals of Basra," said Marie Fernandez, spokeswoman for European aid agency Saving Children from War. "As a consequence, many children, mainly under five-years old, died after suffering from extreme cases of diarrhoea."

...

Many doctors in the area say that the local health situation has deteriorated markedly since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. "The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 percent compared to the Saddam Hussein era," Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at the Basra Children's Hospital, pointed out. "Children are dying daily, and no one is doing anything to help them." [my em]

...

Great thanks to Holden.

You call that a hardon?

Pfizer is worried. Not enough men think they have a problem in bed, so Pfizer plans on launching a second campaign to make them understand that they just don't have what it takes.

The problem for Pfizer is Viagra's sagging sales; the problem for men, according to Pfizer, is impotence. But many men just don't seem to get it. So now they'll be educated about this serious condition--again.

...

If the Mrs. ain't complaining, I don't need Big Pharma telling me I got a problem in order to sell more pills. Now, if they could devise a remote for the damn thing...

[chirp, chirp]

Ten-hut!

[chirp, chirp]

Back to the Mets game.

Heh...I kill me.

Messicans worth $100. Each!

Radio Ink

As reported in the Mohave Daily News, Talk host Brian James of KFYI Phoenix suggested recently on the air that a solution to the immigration problem in Arizona would be to kill illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Two local officials feel those remarks may have intensified racial tensions in the state and they expressed that concern in a letter sent Friday to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Brian James, who's a fill-in talk show host with KFYI, said, "What we'll do is randomly pick one night every week where we will kill whoever crosses the border. Step over there and you die. You get to decide whether it's your lucky night or not. I think that would be more fun."

He said he would be "happy to sit there with my high-powered rifle and my night scope" and kill people as the cross the border. He also suggested that the National Guard shoot illegal immigrants and receive "$100 a head."

That guy better not be surprised when he gets a cuchillo stuck up his ass. Having dinner out might be problematic as well.

If that slimy little prick still has a job, I hope the FCC yanks that station's license. I also hope Phoenix radio advertisers do the right thing and stop lining hateful pockets by yanking their ads. We got enough problems without dirtbags like that stirring up talk of murder as a solution to anything.

Even as much as I hate certain people in this administration, I don't advocate out-and-out murder. Steel cage death match, sure. That's fair. The sight of me in a speedo (they'd think they were about to be mowed down by Fujiyama!) with my war face on would make any of 'em drop a load, if not kill 'em outright from fright or strike 'em blind from the reflection, but it's their choice to be there.

Ain't Just Whistling Dixie

AlterNet

What if the South had won the Civil War? Kevin Wilmott's sly mockumentary imagines an America that is very different from today's -- or is it?

Those are the questions addressed by "CSA: The Confederate States of America," currently showing in theaters around the country. The film presents an alternative history in which the nation that emerges from the Civil War becomes, by the 21st century, an exclusively Christian imperialist power, run by and for prosperous white men and regarded by most of the world as a bizarre aberration. In other words, "CSA" is a work of fiction that's uncomfortably real.

Broadcast on a present-day "Confederate Television Channel 6," the program is accompanied by racist commercials that you just might see if you lived in a full-blown consumer society in which, as one politician puts it, "a new generation of young Americans is excited about owning Negroes."

Could I have Queen Latifah? Oops, still thinkin' about porn...

Of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, "CSA's" true-grey Confederate historian (played by Rupert Pate) says, "By the grace of God, we obtained a weapon that put the entire foreign world of coloreds in their place." Nor was much fictionalizing needed in describing the war on native Americans and their culture; events are depicted almost exactly as they occurred.

In the CSA of the 1980s, a national Family Values Initiative recommends that owners read to their servants the notorious New Testament directive, "Slaves, obey your masters with fear and trembling," a passage that is still cited with approval in some religious circles in the real USA.

Next time they want to secede, soon I hope, let's just let 'em. If there's any doubt in your mind about that, read this. Then we can build a wall...

This article is today's "must read". I think the film is a "must see" as well.

Oy!...Oy!..Oyoyoyoooooy...

Ya can learn stuff from these internets ya never knew existed! Hebrew porn? It boggles the mind...

From Ynet News

A group of ultra-orthodox hackers, shocked by the obscenity of some porn sites, has launched an internet campaign in a bid to cause such sites to crash. The hackers, already named at some internet forums the "ultra-orthodox sex commando," or the "ultra-orthodox electronic underground," focus their efforts at this point on Hebrew sites.

Those who tried logging in to the site found instead a photo of the Lubavitch Rabbi with the text: "We, the religious-net group, hacked into this site and erased all obscenities. The other sites we plan on bringing down are listed below."

They post a picture of Lubavitch Rabbi. That by itself would make me unhand the object of my affection!

Marines Ban Polyester Clothing In Iraq

From Military.com

Camp Taqaddum, Iraq - Under direction of Marine Corps commanders in Iraq, wearing synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon has been prohibited while conducting operations off of forward operating bases and camps.

The ban on popular clothing from companies like Under Armour, CoolMax and Nike comes in the wake of concerns that a substantial burn risk is associated with wearing clothing made with these synthetic materials.

When exposed to extreme heat and flames, clothing containing some synthetic materials like polyester will melt and can fuse to the skin. This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns, said Navy Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon.

As a motorcyclist, I've known for many years not to wear nylon or other plastic synthetics next to my skin for exactly the same reason: If I fling the model up the road, God should only forbid, these materials get hot while you're sliding down the pavement and greatly exacerbate road rash. That's why riders wear leather, which abrades without added heat and protects them.

One would think that our military genii would know that things like bullets and shrapnel, let alone an explosive blast or fuel fire, are very, very hot and melt plastic. I'm surprised they ever let them wear stuff like that at all.

Petrodollar, NO!, Petroeuro, SI!

An interesting article in The Republic of East Vancouver about the real reason to control the Middle East. I'll bet a petroeuro you can guess!

US sabre-rattling at Iran has less to do with global security and everything to do with keeping the US dollar the medium of exchange in oil markets

By now we've grown accustomed to hearing about the confluence of clandestine motives for America's invasion and occupation of Iraq. Even many of the administration's staunchest supporters openly acknowledge that Saddam was a dog without teeth and that this ongoing war has a lot more to do with controlling the flow of oil and capital in the Middle East (not to mention buffering Israel against Iran) than preventing a nuclear attack on America. There are many indications, however, that Hussein did indeed pose a very grave threat to the US - it just wasn't a military one.

Fast-forward to the present. Now Iran is opening an oil bourse (a fancy word for "commodities exchange") in which oil will be sold in euros rather than dollars. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has also committed to the petroeuro. Both of these countries have recently cemented tight relationships with China, the world's number two oil importer. Of course, these gestures alone wouldn't likely bring Uncle Sam to his knees. But they're more than just a slap to the face and may be the beginning of a slippery slope that threatens to end the dollar's hegemony over world trade.

If America attacks Iran, it will be, among other reasons, to preempt the emergence of a multipolar, more democratic, world economy.

It looks like the rest of the world is figuring out how to gang up on us to try to bring us to our knees. Not that it wasn't inevitable or even that we may richly (ha!) deserve it, but I'm sure having Bush on the throne sped it up.

Don't worry. The world still needs us. For a while. We buy all their shit. Read the article.

The Chimp has to use the threat of "monsters under our bed" to get us to go along with his crimes because the average person just goes to sleep over economic stuff, which we're pretty ignorant about anyway, and doesn't get too worked up over it.

Besides, we got more bombs than brains. Especially in the White House. Making coherent policy is too much like work for this bunch. Their idea of politics is "Rule world, get check".

Plus, they're so insulated from reality they don't realize that threatening people doesn't scare 'em as much as it pisses 'em off, and makes 'em even more likely to smack us in the back of the head with a 2x4 the first chance they get. That's always worked for me as a last resort with bullies.

Totally unrelated but narcotically brilliant, I think we could end, even reverse, illegal immigration in one swell foop by going to the petropeso. Ha! Let's see how Mexico likes it when we flood them in our millions looking for higher paying jobs!

[/crickets]

DURHAM, N.C. - DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.

Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.

No charges have been filed in the case.

...

The allegations have led to the resignation of coach Mike Pressler, the cancellation of the lacrosse season and the suspension of one player from school. [my em]

...

So what about this guy's career? What about the players and their careers, academic and athletic? Just asking; being they'll have to explain it for the rest of their lives. I mean, a lot was said before we had proof of anything, just someone's word that she was attacked by these men. Not saying she wasn't attacked and/or raped (and I'm certainly not saying these guys were chior boys), but those responsible should pay. A lot of harm has been done to innocent people before any evidence came to light. Maybe we should take a deep breath before piling on next time?

[crickets]

Coding

An excellent post by Digby (guesting at Jane's) on the language of the Republicans. Waste some of your boss' money this morning and take the time to read it. It ain't yer grandaddy's "nigger, nigger, nigger" anymore.

...

"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

"And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger."'

...

That's a quote from uber-Rethug Lee Atwater. Ladies and germs, it's time for everyone to realize the Republican Party does not have the best interests of the United States in mind. Their policy, has been since the Civil War, is to make rich, white folks the priveliged class at the expense of all others. It's not just a difference in point of view toward policy, it is a calculated process to bring the United States squarely and permanently under their control.

North El Salvador

That's what we're gonna call South Dakota (and all the other states where the Jesus freaks run wild) soon. Elise:

Ever wonder what a country where abortion was completely outlawed would look like? Well, wonder no more: Jack Hitt profiles El Salvador in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. It's a pretty fucking scary picture:

...

Sanity

Jo Fish, a guy who knows what he's talking about:

...

There is no such thing as a "surgical" airstrike. The only way that they could "surgically" strike against Iran is to commit genocide on a scale never before concieved, because any strike like this would foment a scenario far worse than any Soviets-rolling-into-France scenario ever envisioned by planners during the Cold War.

...

DeLay's K Street buddies want their money back

I'm laughin' so hard I can barely breathe! From The Carpetbagger Report:

An additional impetus for putting off the resignation until now was suggested by John Feehery, a former aide to DeLay and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "He needed to raise money for the defense fund. That was the bottom line," Feehery said. "He wanted to make sure he could take care of himself in the court of law."

In other words, DeLay was raising money from suckers supporters under false pretenses. He asked contributors for financial support, telling them that he needed the money to help with his campaign, when in reality, DeLay knew he'd have to resign and he wanted the donations for his legal defense. DeLay's con is legal, but obviously dishonest.

Another lobbyist who gives to Members on both sides of the aisle said, "It's nauseating to think about" his campaign contribution going to fund DeLay's legal team. "I'm realistic about it. He wouldn't resign for no reason," this lobbyist said, noting that the timing of DeLay's departure came awfully close to the announcement of a plea agreement by his former aide Tony Rudy. "That all this money will go to the legal defense fund, it sickens me," he added. "I have to pay for that?"

Apparently so. As K Street lobbyists should realize by now, sometimes, when you lay with dogs, you get fleas.

I'd worry more about the dogs!

So, your dirty money went for something even dirtier than you figured, huh, lobbyists? DeLay conned you, huh, lobbyists? Didn't get your money's worth, huh, lobbyists? Who cares? You got plenty.

Call the Consumer Hotline and bitch, bitches.

Better yet, go fuck yourselves. In a way, you got exactly what was coming to you. You're lucky. If I was in charge, K Street would get an air strike.

Why now, indeed...

After reading Fixer's post about retired General Newbold's admissions about Iraq, Chris Albritton at Back to Iraq pretty much asks him, "Where were you when we needed you?"

So opposed was he that he resigned his position as director of operations for the Join Chiefs four months before the war ... and then kept his mouth shut until now.

It's a valiant sentiment to support the men and women fighting the war, and his critiques of Condi's statement and Rumsfeld's micromanaging is dead on. But we've heard all this before. Anyone following the war can see it's being run poorly from the big office at the Pentagon and that the civilian leadership has done everything to push blame elsewhere. Again, why now? Why didn't you say something earlier, Lt. Gen. Newbold, once you were retired and could without fear of retaliation? You blame others for timidity or thick-headedness. "A few of the most senior officers actually supported the logic for war. Others were simply intimidated, while still others must have believed that the principle of obedience does not allow for respectful dissent."

Don't lecture us about heroism and constructive roles to play, Lt. Gen. Newbold (Ret.) You could have done something then, and you didn't. You could have been a powerful symbol, even if you would have taken a lot of flak from your old bosses. You say officers swore an oath to the Constitution, not the men appointed above them, yet you betrayed it with your three-year silence. It's been said that for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men to do nothing. Well, you did nothing. You don't get to be considered good now.

In a way, I agree with Mr. Albritton, but at my advanced age I know that "better late than never". Also, had the war been managed properly, and if we had actually won the damn thing, perhaps things would have been different. Probably not - it was criminally wrong to begin with - but maybe.

Perhaps it took three years of not sleeping very well to get LtGen Newbold's conscience to kick in.

Or perhaps it was just time to jump ship. Either way, let's hope many others follow. It's way past time.

Yes He Would

Paul Krugman on Bush's plans to start another criminal war against Iran. Via Donkey O. D.

"But he wouldn't do that." That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn't want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace.

"But he wouldn't do that," say people who think they're being sensible. Given what we now know about the origins of the Iraq war, however, discounting the possibility that Mr. Bush will start another ill-conceived and unnecessary war isn't sensible. It's wishful thinking.

Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it's not just Mr. Bush's legacy that's at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?

The only thing I automatically assume about Bush is that every word that comes out of his pie hole is a fuckin' lie. It hasn't made an ass out of you or me yet.

The sonofabitch has to be stopped from doing this, whatever it takes. Whatever. It. Takes.

Our first dictatorship

Geov Parrish on Herr Bush's lies, leaks, hypocrisy and overall anti-democratic lack of everything remotely resembling moral character.

Bush declares himself above the law -- has the first American dictatorship already arrived?

What. A. Freaking. Hypocrite.

And, as we've come to expect, a liar. Stop the presses. We're so accustomed to the lies of George Bush being uncovered after the fact, we don't even notice any longer.

And they thought Clinton's behavior brought disgrace to the Oval Office.

Bush and the people around him appear to have genuinely believed, for at least the four and a half years since 9-11, that the President by definition is incapable of breaking the law. On his sole authority laws can be ignored, overridden, or changed. Even implicitly. Even retroactively, as when some unappetizing piece of this puzzle inadvertently comes to the public's attention.

Combine this with an administration more intent on secrecy and lack of transparency than any other in U.S. history, and you have a recipe for, well, a dictatorship. Which is exactly what it appears Bush and company believe they are operating in. Oh, of course, in normal times America is a democracy, but these aren't normal times, are they? Why? Because we're at war. Why are we at war? Because the President said so. How long will the war last? Several generations. After that, presumably, the Constitution will be in force again, and Congress and the courts can re-convene if they like.

It is more evident than ever that this President and Vice President need to be impeached. Not because it is or isn't politically expedient; not even because their successors might be any better, or because it will be an advantage for one or another party in 2008. But because this sort of behavior in the most powerful job in the world must be punished, in the clearest possible manner. Justice demands it. Setting an example, to try to prevent similar abuses by future leaders from any party, demands it.

Hear, hear. The sooner the better.

Tip to Democratic candidates: don't mention Impeachment 'til the day after you get the Congress back. Then ram it up Bush and Cheney's ass.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I saw it last night (I'm not big on movies; I wait for them to come on cable). My thoughts: The book was better. More character development. I guess they thought the only people who'd watch the movie were those who've read the Hitchhiker series. If you haven't read the series or at least Guide, don't bother with the movie.

Maryscott

Since I alluded to it yesterday, Gilliard has part of the transcript up. The Dems should take a page out of her playbook on how to deal with the 'pundits'.

...

Maryscott O'Connor: I would expect both parties to impeach George W. Bush, because it's a question of honor and principle.

...

I know 'honor' and 'principle' are alien concepts to politicians, but you all could at least try to fake it.

Another smart Jarhead

Not as smart as my pardner Gordon (he's an officer what do you want?) but getting there:

...After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq - an unnecessary war. Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat - al-Qaeda. I retired from the military four months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent long enough.

...

Here's somebody to lead 2nd Marines up Pennsylvania Ave, Gord.

Thanks to DR for the link.

Resignation's good, but it's not enough

Think Progress

This morning on CNN, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh addressed the uproar at the highest levels of the U.S. military over plans to launch a massive strike against Iran that would include nuclear weapons:

HERSH: I'm saying if this isn't walked back and if the President isn't told that you cannot do it - and once the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, some senior members of the military say to the President, let's get the nuclear option off the table, it will be taken off. He will not defy the military in a formal report. Unless something specific is told to the White House that you've got to drop the dream of a nuclear option, and that's exactly the issue I'm talking about, people have said to me they would resign.

BLITZER: Do you want to name names?

HERSH: Are you kidding?

BLITZER: I'm giving you the opportunity.

HERSH: No. You know why? Because this is a punitive government right now. This is a government that pretty much has its back against the wall, as you've been saying all morning in iraq, and in the military - one thing about our military, they're very loyal to the president, but they're getting to the edge. They're getting to the edge with not only Rumsfeld, but with Cheney and the President.

Resignation in order to not commit an unspeakably horrible crime or to speak out is good, but marching the 2d Marine Division (pick your favorite outfit) down Pennsylvania Avenue to assault and secure the White House and arrest the heads of state would be a lot better.

There's always gonna be some fuckin' Colonel out there who would do anything to be a General, including selling his soul to the neocon devils by following the insane criminal order to nuke Iran.

They're getting it

The real Christians are getting sick and tired of having their name associated with the wingnuts:

...

I was going to say that the UCC sounds incensed by politically conservative, religious-right-style Christians, but I think a better word is "impatient." The UCC has seen their faith misused for partisan and ideological ends; the church's leaders saw a subtle effort to change this dynamic; but discovered things weren't improving quickly enough. Now, they're making an assertive effort to take on their rivals and help make a change.

In addition to the examples mentioned above, the UCC is also pushing back against the IRS for what church officials see as a slanted law-enforcement effort in which liberal churches are threatened for alleged political intervention, while conservative churches are not. Good for the UCC.

...

More at the Carpetbagger.

Hey...

I added her to the blogroll when I heard about it. A little animosity in Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!)?

Good sense

For all you folks who are scared of the big, bad Iranians, the guy in the fancy suit has some reality for ya.

Lessons

My lovely neighbor Blondie has a very insightful post on a subject I know glaringly little about. I'm stealing something I think everyone should see, and draw conclusions from, sans comment from me:

Rabbi Hillel was reportedly asked by someone to explain Judaism while standing on one foot. Hillel replied "What you find hateful, do not do to another. This is the essence of the Law. Everything else is commentary." Talmud, Shabbat 3id

"Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state." Analects 12:2, Confucianism

"Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." Udana-Varga 5,1, Buddhism

"This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you." Mahabharata 5,1517, Hinduism

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." Sunnah, Islam

"Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss." Tai Shang Kan Yin P'ien, Taoism

"That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself." Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5, Zoroastrianism

Royal Bushes

Maureen Dowd on Leaks from the Top. Via Tennessee Guerilla Women.

Scooter is a "good Judas," as it turns out, just as Judas himself was, according to a 1,700-year-old Christian manuscript found in the Egyptian desert that asserts that Jesus wanted Judas to betray him, so he entrusted his disciple with special intelligence.

Since President Bush seems to see his mission in Iraq as part of God's plan, he must have assumed that getting Scooter Libby to leak parts of a classified document on Iraq to rebut Joe Wilson's charge about a juiced-up casus belli was part of God's plan.

If W. wants the information out, it's good for the country to make it public. If W. doesn't want the information out, it's bad for the country to make it public. L'etat, c'est moi.

That's how we got mired in the Iraq war in the first place. The administration ruthlessly held back classified information that contradicted its bogus case for war, and leaked classified information that supported it.

The Bushies keep trying to manipulate reality, but reality bites back. That's not only crass politics. It's lethal politics. L'etat, c'est mess.

Not lethal for them, so they don't care who gets killed. They're just the 'help' anyway. What are they compared to the Royal Will of Allah God? Plenty more where they came from.

"Matzoh, Matzoh Man..."

Don't "Passover" this one! Heh.

'Breakthrough' Discovery...

In an impish mood (me as well as them), I present:

In a dramatic new study published in a leading scientific journal, paleontologists have concluded that the GOP is living proof that the theories of both evolution, and intelligent design, have been totally discredited.

After studying Fossils and Neanderthals like Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay, the Report concludes that the Republicans, who seem to be constantly swimming in the muck, have regressed to the point that a new theory of "Devolution" has to be seriously considered.

As one of the leading authors of the study put it: "From the Emancipation Proclamation to Willie Horton, from Teddy Roosevelt's environmental policies to Bush's 'Clean Skies’ and 'Healthy Forests,' well, you make the call."

The Report's Conclusion succinctly summarizes the backward slide of the GOP:

Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt?

That's really far-flung

It's now the Party...of Elephant Dung

However, a footnote to the Report speculates that a proposed study of the Democrats might yield yet additional proof of "devolution," as evidenced by their lack of a spine.

Sometimes I get the feeling that our limbs are getting shorter as our gills re-emerge, as we head across the shore toward the breakers...

This Ain't 1864, Bush Ain't Lincoln, We Ain't Winnin'

From the War Nerd

To anybody with any sense, it's been obvious since day one that Iraq was going to be the biggest catastrophe since Nam. But when the cheerleaders start defecting, that's when you know the game's lost. It's like one of the girls at the bottom of the pyramid walking off while the head cheerleader is wobbling at the top of the pile -- kinda ruins the whole stunt.

Yeah, and the best grapefruit always seems to be on the bottom of the pile, too.

War Nerd also has a few things to say about Fresno's wingnut raisin farmer and his comparisons of Iraq to our Civil War and others, for all you Victor Davis Hanson fans out there.

That's Vic for you -- he can't stick with one bad historical parallel, he's got to stick in another. So he tells us that the Iraq war is just like the Civil War just before the capture of Atlanta, AND Korea after we'd been pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter.

Not too long - a good light Saturday read.

Well, that's no ordinary rabbit!

Heh...

Declassification

Digby's been all over this thing and one question he asks sums it up nicely:

If it was a legitimate disclosure of sensitive information in the public interest, why didn't the president just call a press conference? Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?

Word.

Saturday Cartoons

More, as usual, at Bob Geiger's place.

Incredible

Radical Russ does it so much better than I could so here's just a little bit:

The patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, are in great peril. On April 17th, they will be visited by a presence so dark, so deadly, that it may be Evil Incarnate. Seriously ill patients will be exposed to a force so dedicated to death and destruction, a force that compels the feebleminded into blind obedience to fantastic notions so counter to reality and so offensive to decency and good that we must all band together and pray for the deliverance of these good people from the clutches of this malevolent force!

No, no, Dick Cheney's not going to Minnesota. I'm talking about the highest teacher in Buddhism, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama...

The full story. Wingnuttia at its best.

The post 9/11 mindset

The correct post 9/11 mindset. Jeff Huber has it:

...


Mister Bush has become fond of saying, "We can no longer hope that oceans protect us from harm." As with so much of what Bush says, that statement is largely bunk.

Yes, terrorists can sneak into this country, hijack airplanes, and drive them into skyscrapers. But that was as true in 1948 as it is now. Rogue nations like Iran or North Korea may someday be able to strike American cities with nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the Soviets became capable of doing that during the Eisenhower administration.

But no one can muster sufficient ground forces to invade and occupy America, and even if they could, they couldn't muster enough maritime or air transportation to bring a force that size across the oceans. Even if they could muster that kind of transoceanic transportation, we could easily sink it or shoot it down before it got halfway here.

...

Americans should get it too. Time to start thinking rationally about our actual needs and requirements.

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Princess Shayna was heard to say, "it must suck to be Snot McClellan today."

A First Amendment moment...

Yesterday, at one of Bush's bullshitapaloozas in Charlotte, a guy named Harry Taylor laid into him. Video and a transcriot at Think Progress.

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are -

THE PRESIDENT: I'm not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what's your question?

Q Okay, I don't have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I - in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and -

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec - let him speak.

Q And I would hope - I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I'm saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

Thanks, Mr. Taylor, for showing some sack at one of these phony "unscripted" bullshit sessions amongst delusional Bush supporters. Bush has it coming, and much more besides.

I'd love to be able to do something like that, but since I probably couldn't keep it together that well in Bush's presence, I'm glad I'm not going to get to. His handlers wouldn't let me within a country mile of the Great Poobah. I'm a little too direct. My dream is to get him by the stackin' swivel, shake him hard and tell him what I think of him and what he's done in no uncertain (or printable) terms. I'd pour it on like it was the one-time deal it most certainly would be. Fuck civility in the presence of evil.

Daily pedophile

Another rat. Fucking amazing. From Skippy:

a high-ranking defense department it official has been arrested and indicted on child pornography charges.

charles lynch, director of the defense information systems agency's internet protocol version 6 transition program, was arrested march 8 and indicted in the u.s. district court for the eastern district of virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.

...

GOP Afflicted With New Disease

I steal this post from The Ostroy Report without comment, as none is needed:

News from The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is circulating the 'Net Friday stating that the Republican Party has contracted a new virulent strain of a sexually transmitted disease called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him)", which is contracted through dangerous and high risk partisan greed, cronyism and corruption. Several GOP leaders previously or currently running for re-election have been politically crippled by this debilitating condition, including Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Rick Santorum, John Boehner and Duke Cunningham. Other high-ranking ReTHUGlicans including Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice seem to have contracted a version of the dreaded illness as well.

Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include:

-Anti-social personality disorders
-Delusions of grandeur with messianic overtones
-Extreme cognitive dissonance
-Inability to incorporate new information
-Pronounced xenophobia and paranoia
-Inability to accept responsibility for own actions
-Cowardice masked by misplaced bravado
-Uncontrolled facial smirking
-Ignorance of geography and history
-Tendencies towards evangelical theocracy
-Categorical all-or-nothing behavior

Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this
destructive disease originated only a few years ago
from a bush found in Texas.

Real men

"I got pushed. I got hit. I got a sign wadded up in my face and my hat pulled down over my eyes," said Marsha Rovai, 69, a supporter of Nick Lampson. "They just did it to be nasty."

...

You indtimidated, menaced, and assaulted a 70 year old woman? And you call yourselves men? You call yourselves human? I'm sorry but at this point in time, if you tell me you're a Republican, I'll tell you you're a criminal; directly or indirectly, you are culpable.

Amateurs

Was over at Holden's and he has some quotes from the Chimp:

After the war -- and by the way, it ended with an old doctrine of warfare, which is, destroy as many innocent people as you can to get the guilty to surrender. That's changed, by the way, with the precision nature of our military, and the way we're structured, and the way our troops think, is we now target the guilty and spare the innocent. That's another subject if you got a question.

There is no 'old doctrine of warfare'. There is no 'new doctrine'. The whole idea behind war is to kill as many of the enemy's people and destroy enough of his infrastructure until he is forced to surrender. That's it. Any other method of warfighting aside from a total, all out effort, is not war. It's some bastardized plan that won't work. You see how well the Chimp's 'new doctrine' is working. And just an aside, I don't believe for one minute Bush cares a damn about the innocents, just the oil fields.

That's the reason you don't go to war until, or unless, it's absolutely necessary. Stupid shit like what we're doing in Iraq won't work because you don't go to war if you have a problem with killing innocents. If you do, you don't go to war.

Look at Iraq. Even as we went in there with the 'spare the innocents' mindset, look at how many innocent folks, hard-working Iraqis, have been killed by American troops. War is dirty, messy, and innocents die at an alarming rate (it's not an occasional thing and tens of thousands have died).It should not be entered into on a whim or for reasons other than national defense.

What we have done in Iraq amounts to war crimes and we are all responsible. This nation was sold a vision of war that only happens on TV and in cheesy novels (heh) and most of us put our money down too easily. I think we should mount webcams on all U.S. military vehicles in Iraq and stream the video, like the cops' dashboard cams. If the American people saw the real deal, they wouldn't be so quick to follow some rhinestone cowboy into such an ill-planned attempt at imperialism. This is what you get with amateurs at the helm.

Another big Fuck You

To all the creationists, intelligent designers, and others who take the Bible literally:

A newfound beast with swim fins and a head like a crocodile fills an evolutionary gap between fish and four-legged land animals.

The creature had gills, a fish-like jaw, and scales. But its mobile neck let it lift its head above water, and it could support its own weight on thick ribs and wrist-like bones. It may have even trudged across mudflats in the manner of four-legged animals, called tetrapods.

"I would say it's a key transitional form in the fish-to-land animal transition," said study co-author Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago. "It has features of both fish and tetrapods - we call it a 'fishapod.'"

Fish push-ups. [my em]

...

Just shut the fuck up.

Thanks: Shakes.

The daily DHS pedophile*

A third DHS employee now appears to have criminal sexual tendencies involving children.

For a Dateline NBC segment on sex predators, Southern California police set up a sting: A decoy pretended to be a 12- or 13-year old online at home, alone. Sex predators found the decoy on the Internet and arranged to meet. When they showed up, the police arrested them.

Caught in the net was Michael Burks, 30, a former La Verne, Calif. police officer who was a DHS "agent," according to a Jan. 14 Los Angeles Times article (not online).

...

What to say? Even the Catholics are shaking their heads.

*This might become a daily feature if they ever start investigating DHS.

FrankenPAC

Al Franken is a huge favorite of mine. He has the ability to cut through the crap with great civility and humor, yet slice right to the bone. Here's his new Midwest Values PAC.

Just in case he posts something above it, here's his opening speech at a Hebrew dinner where he faced off against Ann Coulter.

And I'd like to answer the question that I actually get asked the most when I do an event for a Jewish organization. Yes, I had enough to eat.

You'll read. Enjoy.

Speaking of the skank Coulter - if beauty is only skin deep, let's skin her. Maybe we'll find some beauty. Frankly, I doubt it, but it's worth a try.

Treason at the Top

Murray Waas is turning into a leading journalist in the War on Bush. Shit, it's easy - all he has to do is tell the truth.

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to disclose the contents of a highly classified intelligence assessment to the media to defend the Bush administration's decision to go to war with Iraq, according to papers filed in federal court on Wednesday by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case.

Libby "further testified that he at first advised the Vice President that he could not have this conversation with reporter Miller because of the classified nature of the NIE," the court papers said. Libby "testified that the Vice President had advised [Libby] that the President had authorized [Libby] to disclose relevant portions of the NIE."

One former senior government official said that both the president and Cheney, in directing Libby to disclose classified information to defend the administration's case to go to war with Iraq and in formally declassifying portions of the NIE later, were misusing the classification process for political reasons.

One former senior official said: "They [the leakers] might have tipped people to our eavesdropping capacities, and other serious sources and methods issues. But to what end? The information was never presented to the public because it was bunk in the first place."

They hang traitors, don't they? Hell, if they'll just please hang Bush, Cheney, et alia fer lyin' or stealing sheep or somthin', I'll forgive 'em the treason. Leave that for the history books. As long as they hang.

Update:

From Emboldened:

There you have it. Bush is now officially implicated in the chain of events that led to the outing of a CIA agent for political reasons. No one has proved that Bush ordered Plame's name released, but this story demonstrates how casual he was with classified information when it came to spreading his false justifications for war. If the uranium story was so important to Bush, imagine how angry he must have been at Wilson:

Of course I'm being overly optimistic when it comes to this Administration's accountability, but if Bush isn't going to fire himself maybe he'll extend himself the same lifeline that he did to Libby and allow himself to resign.

It'd save us all a lot of time and trouble if he'd hang himself as well.

Migraphobia

Fiore

Nowhere near humble enough

Robert Parry on some members of the media who first supported Bush's War, but are now backing off only because he bungled it, not because it was just plain wrong to begin with.

"Those of us who once advocated this war [in Iraq] are humbled," Cohen wrote in a column on April 4. "It's not just that we grossly underestimated the enemy. We vastly overestimated the Bush administration."

Yet, even the tactical retreats by "humbled" pro-war columnists like Cohen have focused on U.S. incompetence in waging the war, not any outrage over the illegality and immorality of invading a country that wasn't threatening the United States.

By failing to expand the criticism of Bush beyond success or failure, the mainstream U.S. news media implicitly embraces Bush's assertion of a special American right to attack wherever and whenever the President says.

It's still out of bounds to discuss how the Iraq invasion violated the Nuremberg principle against aggressive war and the United Nations Charter, which bars attacking another country except in cases of self-defense or with the approval of the U.N. Security Council.

Indeed, in the mainstream U.S. press, there's a smirking attitude whenever international law is mentioned, much like the contempt expressed by President Bush in his quip, "International law? I better call my lawyer."

Yet there is a strong argument that the United States should begin facing up to how Bush's actions violated the rules laid down by the Nuremberg Tribunals, which held that aggressive war was an offense so severe that it justified execution (my em).

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who represented the United States at Nuremberg, stated, too, that the principle did not only apply to Adolf Hitler's henchmen, but to all nations, including World War II's victorious powers.

"Let me make clear that while this law is first applied against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a useful purpose, it must condemn aggression by any other nations, including those which sit here now in judgment," Jackson said.

This failure of the U.S. press corps to address legal and moral issues raised by Bush's Iraq War also reflects a refusal by the news media to hold leading American journalists accountable for their part in the tragedy.

Much of the media was complicit in the crime. They should answer for it in a tribunal along with Bush and his neo-con henchmen. They don't have to go to jail with him: I'd be happy as a clam if they all just take Goering's way out.

Question of the Day

Brought to us by our pal Jo Fish:

...I wonder if in 20 years anyone will admit having voted for these idiots, thieves, pedophiles and felons?...

Yeah, just like everybody who was at Woodstock in '69.

Late

I didn't write about the 'big John Kerry statement on Iraq' because...well...maybe he should have come up with it during the '04 campaign two years ago. That's one of the reasons I want him to stay out of the '08 Presidential race. Two years late and a couple bucks short is not what I want in a President. Note to John, see: Feingold, Russ; Gore, Albert; Clark, Wesley. If you won't stand up for your honor when it counts, see: Swift Boaters, how will you stand up for ours when push comes to shove?

Fundies

Driftglass:

...

If you don't voluntarily slot it [Brokeback Mountain] into a DVD player and voluntarily set aside a couple of hours to watch it, it has no more power to work it's Terrible, Nancification Mojo on you or your weak-willed whelplings -- or inflame the tender sensibilities of your morally stunted God -- than a lost episode of "The Prisoner" in an abandoned Chevy at the bottom of a mine shaft, or a pornographic mosaic under a heap of Atlantean rubble on the ocean floor.

How is it that the same human atavisms who whip themselves into rabid, ass-biting berserkers at the thought of someone, somewhere buying a copy of "Brokeback Mountain" in a Wal-Mart bargain bin...can also believe that they can make History, Cosmology, Chemistry, Archeology, Paleontology, Biology, Reason, Physics and Causality vanish in a burst of phuqutard willpower if they just close their potato-bug eyes and Wish Reeeeeal Hard?

...

They are a vicious, dangerous cult that has declared war on The Enlightenment, and sworn blood-oaths that Science, Tolerance and Reason are to be treated as enemy combatants in that war: traitors to Heaven to be tortured, but never trusted.

...

Driftglass goes on to cite the article in WaPo that I did the other day and then finishes up with the unassailable truth:

...

It doesn't matter what we say or what we do, or how reasonable we are or how much of the middle ground we cede to them in the cause of the commonweal[th] and keeping the peace in the family: Hate and fear is not what they feel, it's who they are. They're are on one, long, mean Blood-o-the-Lamb drunk, and no matter how often they are appeased, they will always find another excuse for rage.

For another pogrom.

Another purge.

Another bonfire.

I have no wish to try to reason with this filth any longer, Mr. Dennett. They have been steadily, unblinkingly goose-stepping towards the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with torches in hand for 30 year[s] and have been crystal-clear about their intentions.

...

Unfortunately, when you compare christian fundies with the Taliban or the Nazis, people's eyes glaze over. "Oh, that couldn't happen here," they say and I say horseshit, look at South Dakota. If these people had their way, our women would be wearing burkhas and walking 10 feet behind their men. Certain books and lines of thought would be banned.

I thought I wouldn't have to deal with these Jesus freak assholes when I left the Republican Party. Tell me again how these people gained credibility in the most advanced nation in the world? When I was young, we used to laugh at them. I beieve back then, their biggest goal was preparing for the Second Coming. For a long time, I thought devout christians were multi-orgasmic (now I know the concept of 'orgasm' doesn't even enter their thought processes). Go back to the little world you inhabited when I was a kid and stay out of governance. Idiots.

Cheeseheads

Smart folks.

Rules are for proles

Government agencies that use private information services for law enforcement, counterterrorism and other investigations often do not follow federal rules to protect Americans' privacy, according to a report yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and two other agencies examined by the GAO spent about $30 million last year on companies that maintain billions of electronic files about adults' current and past addresses, family members and associates, buying habits, personal finances, listed and unlisted phone numbers, and much more.

...

It highlights a difficult truth about the government's increasing reliance on information services: By outsourcing the building of rich dossiers, the government is sidestepping checks on surveillance approved in the wake of domestic spy scandals involving the FBI, Army and other agencies in the 1960s and 1970s.

...

And I wonder why I get so much junk mail. I thought the Rethugs were all aboout less government meddling? But they have a problem with big government too, right? I swear, if the Dems blow it in Fall, I'm moving to Europe.

Via memeorandum.

Fellatio

Lardass deepthroating DeLay. I've heard him call himself a journalist.

...

MATTHEWS: ...and Hillary was a know-it-all.

DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all

[...]

MATTHEWS: Thanks. I owe you one. I owe you two -- today and last night.

DELAY: No you don't.

MATTHEWS: No, I do.

DELAY: I appreciate it.

...

Matthews is another piece of shit who should swing.

Katie

CultureGhost says it short and sweet.

Josef* would be proud

Not that it surprises me in the least, but it's nice to know we were right.

WASHINGTON - In a disturbing turn of events for an administration already plagued by sagging poll numbers and waning support for the Iraq war, Friday's revelation that the Bush Administration issued direct guidelines for programming to media outlets is troubling even die-hard conservatives.

Late Friday a series of memos between senior Bush Administration officials and management at Viacom, Inc. were leaked calling for the media giant to focus on stories and programming choices that "reinforce the Administration's positions" and to "ignore and/or discredit points of view in opposition to the Bush Administration's foreign policy objectives for the purposes of National Security."

Democrats and key civil rights figures were quick to comment on this latest chapter of alleged government malfeasance. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer issued a statement calling for a congressional inquiry. "This is it. This is a smoking gun. For years we've been saying that liberal and moderate points of view aren't being accurately reflected in the media and this proves our point. The Bush Administration is clearly out of touch with the American people, and Viacom should be ashamed."

...

How many more knowingly did this administration's bidding? When the war crimes trials start, the board of Viacom should be in the dock along with the Chimp, Cheney, Rummy, and the rest.

*Goebbels that is. Hat tip: Maru.

Afternoon pedophile

And the hits keep coming:

As I noted earlier, a senior Homeland Security Department law enforcement agent was busted last October for exposing himself to a girl in the food court of a mall.

Next to the recent arrest of DHS spokesman Brian Doyle on child sex charges, this was just one more reason to take Operation Predator away from DHS, I said. "Predator" is the agency's program to bust child sex criminals.

Now we discover -- that law enforcement agent, Frank Figueroa, used to run Operation Predator.

...

The Bush administration, liars, theives, and sexual deviates.

Great thanks to AMERICAblog for the tip.

Moral values and security

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday at his Maryland home on charges he used his computer in an attempt to seduce a child and transmitted harmful materials to a minor, according to the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office

...

Why is it always the Repukes, wingnuts, and Jesus freaks who get caught in sex crimes stings? Please, please don't lecture me about morals anymore. I've got more morals in my little finger than all these guys put together.

...

Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."

As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said. [my em]

...

And now let me ask another question and preface it by saying, when I was in the military, especially those of us with a security clearance, we were constantly being reminded that our enemies (the Soviets back then) would attempt use our 'questionable sexual dalliances' to extort secrets and information from us and we should stay away from relationships (and anything else) that could compromise us. I wonder, just say, if an 'enemy' would use this man's 'proclivities' to blackmail him to give up DHS info? I thought the Repukes were the party of 'security'?

Just sayin'...

Update:

Taylor Marsh sees things along the same lines.

Dear Bug Tom,

Tom, you're through. If I warned you once I warned you an infinite number of times, you do not emulate Me. You do not take My name in vain. You do not presume to speak my Commandments. Who do you think you are: Charlton Heston?

Another thing Tom - I'm sick and tired of the prayers.

...

God's pissed.

Search terms

For those who got to the Brain using the following search terms:

"Nightmares and the brain"
"Kick grandma"
"Wives to fuck in Altus, Oklahoma"
"Extremely macho elf"

Hope you weren't disappointed. Heh...

Update:

And while I'm going over site stats, a big welcome to the regular readers at the U.S. Senate (I won't disclose your office domains; wouldn't want to test the employment waters, would we?). At least somebody over there is listening.

Feingold [hearts] gays

Pam:

...

Big Kahuna Dem spine located -- are you listening, jellyfish Dem leadership? Russ Feingold is not afraid of wrath of the fundies; he's not bobbing and weaving in an attempt to avoid discussing civil equality. He was asked about his position on this while at a Kenosha County listening session over the weekend in in Paddock Lake, Wisconsin, and he declared his firm support.

...

Ahem, ladies and germs, this is what leadership is all about. This is what I want to see in a man who could be President.

Welcome to the 20th Century

I'm not being snarky. I'm happy as hell to see this:

Kuwait - Women made history in Kuwait on Tuesday by voting and running for office for the first time in a local by-election after the conservative, US-allied Gulf state granted them suffrage last year.

Polls opened at 8am for the vote to fill a single seat in the 16-member Municipal Council. The rest of the members were elected or appointed last year.

"Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for for more than 40 years," Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female candidates, told Reuters at a polling station in Salwa suburb.

...

Vote your asses off, ladies. All the best.

A tip of the yarmulke to The Head Heeb.

???

Tomorrow, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.