And now for famous gameshow moments!

"That would be in the butt, Bob"

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Hey, Mr. Austria-talkin' guy

Bong, gut!

(AP Photo/Rudi Blaha)

Bad Poets Society

One really needs to check marginal Corner contributor (how's that for Resume fodder?) Tim Graham and see if a rabid squirrel hasn't taken him down.

Something tells me that Graham's knowledge of poetry goes about as far as things that rhyme with Nantucket...

Nostalgia

September 2004:

And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. And the people of Afghanistan are now free. (Applause.) In other words when you say something as President you better make it clear so everybody understands what you’re saying, and you better mean what you say.

June 2006:

The United States military is quietly carrying out the largest military offensive in Afghanistan since U.S. troops invaded the country in 2001.

"The Taliban has made a comeback, and we have the next 90 days to crush them," said a senior U.S. military official.

The offensive, "Operation Mountain Thrust," involves almost 11,000 U.S. troops and is focused on four southern Afghanistan provinces.

Ninety days is half a Friedman Unit (an F.U.)

Are there more No. 20s? or More No. 3s?

I think there are more Number Three's, but while I had always thought that we were told Moussaoui was the 20th highjacker, now ...just after we found out George Bush wanted to tortured "da crazy man"...and we have a new Manager of the Applebee's Franchise of Terrorism in Iraq...we get suddenly get new video of the purported new Number Twenty.

Where have we heard this before?

Ron Suskind reports in his new book that the Bush Administration did actually "intentionally" send a missile into the Al Jazeera bureau in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Some of you may recall this incident in November 2001:

Al-Jazeera confirmed later that it was a US missile that destroyed the building and damaged the homes of some employees.

Al-Jazeera presenter
The station has been viewed with suspicion in the West for its access to the Taleban
"The situation is very critical," Mr Jasim told the BBC from the channel's offices in Doha.

"This office has been known by everybody, the American airplanes know the location of the office, they know we are broadcasting from there," he said.

Naturally, the White House denies this.

But, showing their usual inability to engage in putting past events together into current revalations, the American Press fails to note, what I a mere non-journalist, non-ethical blogger noticed immediately -- that not only was this alleged and suspected at the time it occurred -- but that Bush and throwing missiles into Al Jazeera offices is a pattern.

Nov. 30, 2005 - A British government crackdown on government leaks may have backfired by calling world attention to an ultrasensitive secret memo whose alleged contents have embarrassed President George W. Bush and strained relations between London and Washington. The document allegedly recounts a threat last year by Bush to bomb the head office of the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera...

The UK Government quickly cracked down on releasing this document -- a sort of Downing Street Memos II.

Oh, and as commentor Bliekker reminded me, they also bombed the Al Jazeera office in Baghdad early on in the Iraq invasion, killing a correspondent.

Once again the American Press does a good job of not asking the difficult questions.

Let the "personal" attacks without addressing the substance of Suskind's allegations commence.

House full o' wankers

The GOP cannot even be petty, without being extreeeeeeee petty, as the Daily Show found out regarding the Congressional Softball League.

Not to go all John Amato or anything, but this is particularly funny and depressing at the same time.

Not being reported in the United States

Will anyone interview former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage about this in 'Murica? Because they did in Australia:

THE level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.

"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."

Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.

And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

Rings True

Sounds like I'll have to buy the One-Percent Solution -- who can really be surprised by this little nugget?

We've known for years now that George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." We've known for almost as long that Bush went fishing afterward.

What we didn't know is what happened in between the briefing and the fishing, and now Suskind is here to tell us. Bush listened to the briefing, Suskind says, then told the CIA briefer: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Now watch this drive!

My god, my god!

Who the fuck is this monster in the White House?

I know it seems rather late in the day to ask this question, but...

"I said he was important," Bush reportedly told Tenet at one of their daily meetings. "You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" "No sir, Mr. President," Tenet replied. Bush "was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?" Interrogators did their best to find out, Suskind reports. They strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, which reproduces the agony of drowning. They threatened him with certain death. They withheld medication. They bombarded him with deafening noise and harsh lights, depriving him of sleep. Under that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety -- against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, "thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each . . . target." And so, Suskind writes, "the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered."

They TORTURED an insane person to MAKE George W. Bush look good.

Good luck explaining that one to Jesus Dubya!

Not too busy to notice an idiot

It's been a busy week for Atta J. Turk and next week may be busier. What will my real job demanding attention, and my musical adaptation "Seven Guys for Seven Brothers" ready to hit off-broadway (is Des Moines considered off-Broadway?).

Nevertheless, I could not help but notice this bit of wankitude:

The War [Michael Ledeen]
Here's a story that probably won't make the evening news because of the bad news in the last graph:

Coalition Kills 15 Terrorists, Detains 3, Captures Senior Leader American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2006 - Coalition forces in Iraq killed 15 terrorists and detained six other suspects and a senior terrorist leader during raids yesterday and today near Baqubah, military officials reported today...

... Several women and children were present at the raid sites, officials said. None was harmed, and all were returned to their homes once the troops ensured the area was secure, they added.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)

I mean, what's the point of reporting that women and children were treated well by our troops?
Posted at 1:29 PM

You know Mickey, far be it from me to be just another "sucker", but I sort of expect "American" troops to take those steps, I'm not so war-loving that I expect it to NOT be news when American troops inadvertently kill women and children.

Hopeless Patriot that I am.

In a stunning development

No bad news is being discussed at "Moron Junction".

But Star Trek sure is.

Meanwhile, the man who got his job because of mommy (as opposed to JPod who got his job because of daddy); the man who manages a money losing operation that can only fund "Editor Chow" for K-Lo by begging for money...

...brags about being invited to review how Slate runs their operation.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your Republican business model at full flower.

Poor Dick

All that lactose intolerance and no one around to pull his finger.


(AFP/File/Jim Watson)

Break a Leg Robert Zoellick

He's leaving government and resuming his successful career as a television character actor.


What a life to work with Bush AND Shatner!

Look Happy!

(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

No, I said, look happy -- not UN-happy. Now, Look happy!


(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

No! Now, work with me here. Imagine a world of peace and tranquility where all people get along with each other and all are prosperous.


(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
Uh-oh, I think I made him stroke out.

Typical

We can't recruit translators because they may have visited places that speak arabic or farsi thereby making them, according to our even incompetent Administration, potential terroristically inclined 'Murica-haters.

So began an exasperating odyssey for Kopp, one that highlights a flaw in the way linguists are recruited by agencies that lead the war on terror. Over the next 14 months, he was courted by government bureaus desperate for his skills—including the CIA, NSA and State Department—only to be turned down over what clearance investigators apparently deemed a security red flag: the fact that he spent long years overseas and has family abroad (Kopp's parents still live in Jerusalem, as do his in-laws). Kopp's plight is not unique. Lawyers and lawmakers who deal in the matter say that long after 9/11, the security-clearance system is still stacked against some of the best linguists—those who learn their language natively. "The system inhibits individuals who, on their own initiative, traveled to the region, learned the language and want to contribute to the U.S. security effort," says Rebecca Givner-Forbes, an analyst at the Terrorism Research Center, a for-profit, nonpartisan think tank in Arlington, Va.

This is stupid, moronic, naive provincialism.

No wonder it's Bush Administration policy.

Iran is sooooooo gonna pay

Rice warns North Korea on missile test

I do believe

We've finally found us some young Republican offspring that make Jenna & Not-Jenna Bush look like Rhodes Scholars in comparison.

Brian Bilbray's Hard-Workin' Kids:


Bilbray represents Duke Cunningham's old district, he just barely edged Francine Busby in a special election.

As opposed to Special Export.

Josh Marshall sums it about right

On the earlier point about the brutish intellectual stupidity of using the Battle of the Bulge in any comparison to the current Bush policy of same fucking thing every fucking day.

Snow's point isn't just historically silly, it's morally obtuse and cynical. It shows as much contempt for the public as the White House seems to have for our soldiers in the field. For the United States, the situation in Iraq is close to unprecedented in the last century in terms of the duration of time an American president has left a war policy on autopilot while more and more evidence comes in that it's simply not working. Even in Vietnam, for all the mistakes the US made there, Richard Nixon kept escalating the conflict. There's at least some strategic movement on the policy brain scan. I'm not saying that's preferable. And I don't want to get into an argument about bombing Cambodia. But it is at least different from letting a flawed policy grind through money and men for three years because you don't have the moral courage to rethink it or adjust course. It's denial elevated to the level of high principle.

EXACTLY!!

What does it all Mean?

Yesterday I was reading some throw-away quote from Bush about how capitalism and individualism are always good and anything that gets in their way is always bad and I stopped to think about that for a moment.

First, I am not a fan of absolutes. I find that fundamentalism (especially of the religious and economic varieties) are serious problems and normally do more harm than good to the human community.

And I also think that people may mean different things with their use of the word 'individualism'. Surely Bush realizes that he did not become President (setting aside for a moment the many questions about both elections) because of his individual action and initiative. It took many people (deluded, evil, and otherwise) to move him to where he is today. Some sorts of individualism are totally invidious and horrid, for example, the Bush and Cheney machine that lies, cheats, and attacks based on their beliefs -- real or perceived.

I would like to think that many of us completely agree that economic individualism generally leads to some pretty nasty outcomes. Just ask folks who used to live in various bays in Alaska. Some of that oil is never coming off. And collectivism when not done by the state (the soviets, for example) can be a pretty good thing when the actions are based on what is good for all of us (especially the least among us).

This worship of aesthetic individualism and the notion of being an independent thinker (some people refer to that as individualism) can be good things in my book, when they take into account the consequences for others. I am pretty certain though, that when Bush spoke about individualism and capitalism he really did not mean either. Think of what real competition in the marketplace would do to the price of gas? Some companies seeing an opening could arrange to provide gas at consistently lower prices than the current oligopoly.

Of course, those oil companies that are benefiting are doing everything they can to stop other companies from entering the market. That is not capitalism. Individualistic certainly. Simple down and dirty capitalism, sorry but no -- it is not.

So perhaps there is much more disagreement as it may at first appear in regards to words like 'individualism'... People mean different things when they use that word. And to think that the republicans made fun of Clinton for parceling out meaning. And wrap themselves up in the language and imagery of community, values, and all that other horse hooey. Sheesh. I wonder what they really mean by all those words?

Because we have to wonder in an era where 'truth' becomes shattered -- one moment the Bush regimes are talking about mushroom clouds with regards to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and then the next claiming to have never made such direct connections (or in some few cases ever having made the statements) -- what do the words really mean?

In the end, we have to live with the result.