Thought for the day

Learning how to become a politician in the Republican party is like your daughter learning how to play the piano in a whorehouse. She might succeed, but...

The Terrorists and Big Corpora Have Won

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Tailgating is banned at the Super Bowl

"The parking lot and traffic flow will look a lot different than it will during normal season games," McCarthy said. "We're going to have a security perimeter so we can screen people coming in." Among the items banned: containers of any type, coolers of any size, backpacks, bottles, banners, noisemakers and horns.

All of which will no doubt be available inside the stadium at exorbitant prices.

If they want to park near the stadium, ticket holders should buy special permits in advance. They range in price from $60 to $325 per vehicle. [...]

Much of the stadium's usual parking area will be used to host the 1-million-square foot "NFL Experience," billed as an interactive football theme park and party. On Super Sunday, it will only be open to ticket holders. It costs $15 for adults and $10 for children younger than 12.

"That's not tailgating; that's corporate sales," said Ray Bridges, a Colts fan with tickets to the game.

Considering what he's already spent, Bridges said, it's a bit much to be told that he won't be allowed to barbecue his own bratwurst before kickoff.

"I understand they want to get their concession sales, but...when you are paying two, three, $4,000 for a ticket, for them to say you can't bring in a grill, I just don't understand the thinking," he said.

Rich folks who can afford those prices have the help do that, Mr. Bridges, no doubt at minimum wage, and are served in their sky boxes.

Big Corpora has used 'security' as an excuse, to their great profit, to deny the game to the average person. Reg'lar folks will have to have their I.Q. lowered at home.

I haven't watched a football game in fifty years. I see no reason to start now.

Whoring the blog ...

Or blogging the whore. It's Saturday and that means I'm blogwhoring the next chapter of my novel The Captains at The Practical Press.

Update:

Kenneth Quinnell, the most excellent owner of The Practical Press, is doing his second annual awards show, the Practical Press Awards 2006. A few regular readers here at the Brain are up for awards and it's a good chance for you to sample some of the original fiction, poetry, short stories, and music from the many talented contributors. Vote for your favorites if you so desire.

Where's the outrage?

I mean, really. Hillary and Edwards speak of invading Iran as a possible option and everybody else I know thinks it's a foregone conclusion. Nobody seems too pissed off about it. Let me rephrase. Nobody in a position to do anything about it seems too pissed off.

Nobody seems pissed off about the fact we're seeing and hearing the same things we did in '02, when the Chimp and his gargoyles began priming the pump for the Iraq War. The Mighty Wurlitzer is cranking again, inflating the gasbags for a full-court propaganda dirge to get the American people thinking Iranian Marines are just about ready for an amphibious assault on both coasts, simultaneously, with nuclear bullets, Kamikaze squads, and HERF guns. Oh my!

I mean, look at the crap coming out of Iraq. That 'false flag' operation in Karbala was traced to Iraqi generals (lord knows who was pulling the strings there), and the massacre this week outside Najaf (which looks more and more like retribution in a tribal squabble), were both attributed to the Iranians initially. Does anybody not believe this was thrown out there to see if it will stick?

Another indicator of what's coming down the pike is all the wingnuts I know are already worked into a froth not seen since the Chimp began rattling his sabre towards Iraq. I asked one guy, "what if we attack and Iran closes down the Straits of Hormuz? What are we gonna do for oil?" He said "fuck them, it's our oil." They're ready to go ... well ... they're ready for your kid to go.

McCain is ready. Lieberman is ready. McConnell is ready too. They don't want discussion of the Iraq War or the consequences to America. And they will go along with whatever the Chimp says and does.

Listen to me. Invading Iran will damage our nation beyond repair, maybe even destroy it. Do you think we will survive $10/gal gasoline and home heating oil? Do you think, if things got that bad, your neighbor would hesitate killing you for yours if it came to a choice of his children freezing or not? Are you ready for Mad Max come to America? You think it could never happen here?

Why? You think Americans are above that? I've got news for you. If things get bad here, we'll be killing each other in the streets they way they do in Baghdad. If we don't get these idiots out of the White House soon, the transition from the American Century to the American Interregnum will be short and horrible.

No shit ...

The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq is out. Guess what it says about the 'surge', among other things?

The Scum Also Rises

Matt Taibbi does a good piece in the wake of the Obama/Madrassa/Clinton bullshit on how the 'media' liars' crap sticks long after it's been debunked. Today's 'must read'.

Now we're seeing the same thing with the Obama story; it is lingering, even after it has been totally discredited. Emboldened by a generation that has refused to punish their libelous behavior, these guys now just take whatever "facts" they like and run with them. Hannity is one culprit. Michael Savage, a spineless little fuckhead who should be torn apart by hyenas, responded to the debunking of the Obama story by telling his listeners that Obama "will not reply" to the original Insight report, a blatant lie. He added, for good measure, that "assuming the world is still here" after a Clinton-Obama administration, Obama would then run for president with "Saddam Hussein's younger grandson" as his running mate.

The very fact that the liars are allowed to continue their trade unpunished is a sort of endorsement of their original versions of the "truth." I have absolutely no doubt that many Americans believe deep down in their gullible hearts that if people like Hannity and Limbaugh were really liars, they would be pulled off the air, or punished for some reason. They see that a Michael Savage can be yanked from a lucrative job for gay-bashing, but there appears to be no punishment at all for unchecked, intentional lying, which is at least as serious an offense for a journalist.

If the press is serious about saving itself as a social institution, it has to start policing its own business. We all have to encourage the likes of Barack Obama to hire the meanest lawyers on the planet and to file the hairiest lawsuits imaginable against the Hannitys, Gibsons, and Savages of the world. We have to impress upon the victims of these broadsides that choosing to ignore that style of libel is a betrayal of the public trust and an act of political cowardice that the rest of us end up paying for in spades. That's the ugly truth: Until one of those monsters goes down in a fireball of punitive litigation, we are all fucked. And it's not going to happen anytime soon.

All those assholes need to be sued until all their millions are in the bank accounts of the trial lawyers they despise, and they're livin' under bridges like the loathesome trolls they are.

"Please, Mr. Petraeus, I don' wanna go..."*

Kevin Drum

THE BATTLE OF BAGHDAD....If Tom Lasseter is to be believed -- and I think he is -- the junior officers leading our troops are not sanguine about our prospects in Baghdad. They think that Muqtada al-Sadr's militia has so thoroughly infiltrated the Iraqi army and police force that they're the ones who mostly benefit from our training:

"Half of them are JAM. They'll wave at us during the day and shoot at us during the night," said 1st Lt. Dan Quinn, a platoon leader in the Army's 1st Infantry Division, using the initials of the militia's Arabic name, Jaish al Mahdi. "People (in America) think it's bad, but that we control the city. That's not the way it is. They control it, and they let us drive around. It's hostile territory."

...."All the Shiites have to do is tell everyone to lay low, wait for the Americans to leave, then when they leave you have a target list and within a day they'll kill every Sunni leader in the country. It'll be called the 'Day of Death' or something like that," said 1st Lt. Alain Etienne, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y. "They say, 'Wait, and we will be victorious.' That's what they preach. And it will be their victory."

.... After U.S. units pounded al-Sadr's men in August 2004, the cleric apparently decided that instead of facing American tanks, he'd use the Americans' plans to build Iraqi security forces to rebuild his own militia.

....His recruits began flooding into the Iraqi army and police, receiving training, uniforms and equipment either directly from the U.S. military or from the American-backed Iraqi Defense Ministry.

You know, everything I've heard suggests that Gen. David Petraeus is a terrific officer in all respects. And yet, there's something that's been niggling in the back of my mind for a while: namely that in August 2004, when al-Sadr was hatching this plan, Petraeus was the guy in charge of creating and overseeing the training program for the Iraqi army and police. In other words, he was the guy who was being suckered. Now he's in charge of the whole operation. Is anybody else bothered by this?

George Armstrong Custer was a "terrific" officer too. If "Moqtada al-Sadr" translates into English as "Crazy Horse", I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

*See Lyrics.

Bush Busted For DWI

Official Lies Over Najaf Battle Exposed

Following up on Fixer's post about the recent "battle" at Najaf, IPS reports:

Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.

Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.

Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.

Ahmed, a member of the al-Khazali tribe said "our two tribes have a strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is against the belief of all Muslims, and so we announced an alliance with Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did not make our Iranian dominated government happy."

Iraq's national security advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaii said just 15 minutes after the MNS announcement that hundreds of Arab fighters had been killed, and that many had been arrested. Rubaii claimed there were Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Afghans.

But Governor Khalil's office backed away from its initial claims after the dead turned out to be local Shia Iraqis. Iraqi security officials continue to contradict their own statements. Most officials now say that the dead were Shia extremists supported by foreign powers.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a pattern of announcing it is fighting terrorists, like its backers in Washington. Many Iraqis in the south now accuse Baghdad of calling them terrorists simply because they refuse to collaborate with the Iranian dominated government.

True? Who knows? Disturbing? Yes.

Read the rest. It paints the terrible picture that our air assets are being used to commit political murder.

Fraud, Waste, and Abuse

I managed to get myself a commendation from the Strategic Air Command while holding one of the 3 desk jobs I've ever had. I had injured my back on the flightline and was on restricted duty, attached to the supply squadron, checking out tools and supplies to the maintenenance folks and making sure they brought them back in one piece (I was stark raving nuts after a month, homicidal after 6 weeks, and returned to duty).

My commendation was for noticing and documenting serious overcharging of the Air Force for basic supplies, rivets, tools, ass wipes; back in the day of the $700 toilet seats. I was bored and started digging through files to pass the time, go figure. The contractors who were ripping us off were declared 'off-limits' (their military contracts were revoked and forbidden from doing business with the military or military personnel in the future) and I was given a thousand dollar bonus (to an E-4 in 1985, that was a nice chunk o' change) for saving Uncle Sam millions. Had I found this, they'd have made me Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or at least Chief of Supply. Could you imagine me as a two or three star? Ha! I shudder at the thought. But do you think Blackwater, Dyncorp, Halliburton, or KBR will ever be declared 'off-limits'?

...

I suppose it comes as no surprise to learn that funds distributed by the anti-Democratic Party to its largest campaign donors were abused and mismanaged, but the expanse of waste and fraud is truly amazing.

...

Good Golly, How We'll Miss Molly

Arianna on Molly Ivins

"Molly had the most amazing sense of humor. Let's face, the girl was laugh out loud funny. But funny with a purpose. She really understood how to use satire as a political weapon in the tradition of Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift.

And on top of that, unlike so many of the smart-assed satirists of our day, she was a woman. A classy lady with a pair of brass cojones. For any fan of nerve, humor, and spunk, it was impossible not to adore her."

Impeachment - Observation and Prediction

Reading the blogs, and I read waaay too many, and following the main-stream and not so main-stream press, it has become apparent that the drumbeat for impeachment, actually for a double impeachment is growing louder on a daily basis. I predict that over the next 4 to 6 weeks the drumbeat will become so loud that it will no longer be able to be ignored and 2 impeachments will be very much "on the table". May it be done swiftly.

R.

Boom!

Pic thanks to Atrios.

Let those two twits go and chalk it up to a good exercise for your emergency response people. Good lord.

Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect

Bob Geiger. This one'll piss ya off even worse than you are right now.

Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 -- not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.

The young Marine was wounded twice in battle but returned home to rebuild his life and to cope with the things he had seen, things he had done and friends he had lost. But, by the time he was discharged from the Marines in late 2005, he was deeply troubled with images of combat and violence that he could not get out of his mind.

According to Minnesota press reports, Schulze went to the Veterans Administration (VA) center in Minneapolis on December 14, 2006, met with a psychiatrist and was told that he could only be admitted for treatment four months later, in March.

On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number 26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for help.

On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it -- he was going to kill himself. His family called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

"He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war," his father, Jim Schulze, a Vietnam Veteran, said of Jonathan.

Go read the rest.

When this kid told the VA that he was feeling suicidal, they shoulda grabbed his young ass and put him in a facility on a 3-day mental hold and gotten him counseling, drugs, whatever, RIGHT FUCKIN' NOW. If he'da been in jail, say for drunk driving, and said that, the jail would've done something like that. At minimum, they'd have put him where he couldn't hurt himself and kept watch until a pro could talk to him.

Cases like Jon Schulze go to the head of the line. Period.

The VA? Apparently not. Absolutely unconscionable and unacceptable. They are complicit in his demise.

This will not be the only time we hear something like this. I fear many more like it are on the way.

Moral Obligation to the World to Impeach

Progressive Daily Beacon

With each ticking of the clock, every beating of the heart, and the passing of one day into the next; the reality grows clearer, into a focus so sharp that staring directly into its truth threatens to burn the eyes. The reality is that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are a clear and present danger not only to global stability, but to the very survival of humanity.

Dangerous as the new Mid-East reality is now, the administration's desire to attack Iran is nothing less than sheer insanity. And yet, with each passing hour Mister Bush and Cheney are building a falsified Iraq-like intelligence dossier on Iran. When they're ready - whether the American people want to or not; regardless of the madness to ensue; only because they want to and can; and no matter the danger posed to the people of the region and the world, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will attack Iran.

In normal times and under normal circumstances the Democratic Party's "go slow" and "feed the administration and Republicans enough rope to hang themselves" political approach would be acceptable, if not quite commendable. However, these are not normal times. Mister Bush and Mister Cheney pose a clear and present danger not only to the United States, but, too, the entire world. America's Congress has an obligation, a moral duty to the world to act now and to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Anything less would make them an accomplice to the madness.

With each ticking of the clock, every beating of the heart, and the passing of one day to the next - the reality grows clearer...the President and Vice-President must be impeached.

Whatever the means, peacefully like impeachment, or whatever, they need to be removed from office and hidden under a prison NOW. While we've still got a world.

Iran Clock Is Ticking

Robert Parry. Today's 'must read'.

While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush's war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran.

Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.

But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region - and for a propaganda blitz to stir up some pro-war sentiment at home.

The propaganda blitz is well under way. Hope and pray it doesn't work. Iraq was wrong, but this is far worse.

The immediate question, however, is what, if anything, can Congress and the American people do to head off Bush's expanded war strategy.

But Bush and his neoconservative legal advisers have made clear that they see virtually no limits to Bush's "plenary" powers as Commander in Chief at a time of war. In their view, Bush is free to take military actions abroad and to waive legal and constitutional constraints at home because the United States has been deemed part of the "battlefield."

Nothing short of a direct congressional prohibition on war with Iran and a serious threat of impeachment would seem likely to give Bush more than a moment's pause. But congressional Republicans would surely obstruct such measures and Bush might well veto any law that was passed.

Still, unless Congress escalates the confrontation with the President - and does so quickly - it may be too late to stop what could become a very dangerous escalation.

To Congress, the American people, military commanders, God (a regular reader of the Brain, according to his IP), and to anybody and everybody anywhere: STOP THIS MADMAN SONOFABITCH, WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Remembering Molly Ivins

John Nichols at The Nation. Also in toto and without comment Below the Fold.

The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. The nation's mostly widely syndicated progressive columnist, who died January 31 at age 62 after a long battle with what she referred to as a "scorching case of cancer," adored the activists she celebrated from the time in the late 1960s when she created her own "Movements for Social Change" beat at the old Minneapolis Tribune and started making heroes of "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."

It mattered, a lot, that Molly was writing for papers around the country during the Bush interregnum. She explained to disbelieving Minnesotans and Mainers that, yes, these men really were as mean, as self-serving and as delusional as they seemed. The book that Molly and her pal Lou Dubose wrote about their homeboy-in-chief, Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (Random House, 2000), was the essential exposé of the man the Supreme Court elected President. And Ivins's columns tore away any pretense of civility or citizenship erected by the likes of Karl Rove.

She also told them, even when she was battling cancer and Karl Rove, that they should relish the lucky break of their consciences and their conflicts. Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

Update:

Also please see The Texas Observer.

Airpower in NYC

Mrs. F emailed me (she's in PA on business and I'm home sick) some great pics from this year's air show on Long Island and in NYC and I put some up here. If you want copies of the whole set (13 pix), email me and I'll forward 'em to ya.

And is it me, or is the 'New' Blogger the same shit sandwich the 'Old' Blogger was, only with a different wrapper? New and improved, mah ais!

Mazeltov!

John Edwards couldn't have made a better choice. Since Blogger (which sucks wet monkey ass) wouldn't let me go to Shakes' place this morning, I stole this from Pam en toto:

It's like a big Edwards 2008 locomotive is going through the bloggrrlsphere, and it has now picked up Melissa McEwan, well-known to most of you as Shakespeare's Sister.

Go bloggrrrl!

She's on board as Netroots Coordinator, so she'll be working with Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte (my earlier post here).

You can't say that they aren't a savvy crew over there at Team Edwards, because they are scooping up the big guns on the almost-A list. Both Melissa and Amanda bring large, politically engaged and active readers that will be receptive with the Edwards message. A lot of that is due to Elizabeth Edwards, who is well-versed and ever-present in the blogosphere.

It will be interesting to see what kind of pressure this puts on the other candidates to recruit well-known voices from the netroots, and what editorial effect that will have on blogs (Amanda and Melissa will continue to write on their respective outposts while working on the campaign). This is certainly generating more buzz on the blogs than developments at Hillaryland.

2008 is certainly going to be more interesting -- and more confusing -- than 2004, as these worlds collide.

You've made us proud*, darlin'.

*Shakes began her blogging life as a regular commenter here and it's like watching your little sister find success. She deserves it and much more.

Take a pill ...

The big freak out in Boston yesterday? Well those guys put a buncha those things in NYC too. You folks up there might wanna lay off the coffee. Just sayin'.