OUR Lover-ly So Called Liberal Media

Remember this Headline:

SANDY BURGER STUFFED DOCUMENTS IN HIS PANTS AND SOCKS...

...WHAT HATH THIS TRAITOROUS MAN DONE TO BETRAY OUR NATION?...FLASH THE SIREN MATT, LAUNCH A FULL SCALE INVESTIGATION SAYS DENNY HASTERT, "HE HAS IMPUGNED THE INTEGRITY OF LOYAL, HEFTY, AMERICANS"

A week later, page six retractions, quietly done. Now that the Talking Point had been inextribly and loudly thrown out there for all it was worth, the SCLM demurrely exonerates the guy.

Say?

What is this on "fucking" PAGE A17 of the Washington Post?

Investigators Concluded Shelby Leaked MessageJustice Dept. Declined To Prosecute Case

By Allan Lengel and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 5, 2004; Page A17

Federal investigators concluded that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) divulged classified intercepted messages to the media when he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Specifically, Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed to FBI investigators that Shelby verbally divulged the information to him during a June 19, 2002, interview, minutes after Shelby's committee had been given the information in a classified briefing, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case.

Cameron did not air the material. Moments after Shelby spoke with Cameron, he met with CNN reporter Dana Bash, and about half an hour after that, CNN broadcast the material, the sources said. CNN cited "two congressional sources" in its report.

Say is this on the CNN.com front page, like Burger was for a few days?

NOPE.

How about FoxNews where it got the big-ol' headlines for three days or so.

NEIN!

Well, at lease they are EQUALLY fair and balanced.

Sharks vs. Jets...

There will never to me be a story as ironically humorous as the fact that while Bush and Kerry invaded the small, but quintessentially American City of Davenport, Iowa three bank robberies occurred.

Oh well, a portrait of small sections of this place Kerry likes to call "America" and Bush likes to call "Cheney's Bitch".


There he is, Mister 'Murica


"Damned Baby-Evil Doer". Moments after this photo was taken, the Secret Service wrestled the baby to the ground.


"Settle down Damian."


Well, off to kill Charlie.


The Department of Homeland Security would like to tell the American people, enjoy your Freedom...or else.


"Look, we mean it! Enjoy your freedom or I'll kick your liberal, Kerry-supportin', soft on evil-doin' terrorists ass."


President Bush, ponders where the "ear" is on this thing.


President Bush makes a suprise address at GITMO. Haven't those poor people been tortured enough?


While waiting for the girls with the "big knobs" to pop out of the field, the Preznit forgets that Hee-Haw has been off the air for some time.


What is with this guy and his fear of grass?


Kerry shows off his Plan for America.


Bush reveals HIS plan for 'Murica, so bend over!

History Repeating Itself...What will we Become?

While I'm on a turn of the last century Russia kick, here is an illustration from history and how we should prevent its happening (yes, I'm sure on a less violent, but still repressive scale) at the end of this month. Thanks to Steve Gillard for pointing this article (hidden within the HTML) out.

Father George Gapon founded the Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers, an officially sanctioned and police-sponsored organization designed to diverge unrest away from revolutionary activities. In late December, there was a strike at Putilov plant. Sympathy strikes in other parts of the city raised the number of strikers above 80,000. By January 8, the city had no electricity and no newspapers. All public areas were declared closed. Father Gapon organized a peaceful 'workers' procession' to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to the Czar that Sunday. He was warned not to act. Troops had been deployed around the Winter Palace and at other key points. An unconcerned Tsar left the city on January 8 for Tsarskoe Selo.

On the appointed Sunday, striking workers and their families gathered at six points in the city. Clutching religious icons and singing hymns, they proceeded towards the Winter Palace without police interference. The army pickets near the palace fired warning shots, and then fired directly into the crowds to disperse them. Gapon was fired upon near the Narva Gate. Around forty people surrounding him were killed, but he was uninjured.

Estimates of the number killed are uncertain. Anti-government sources claimed over 4,000 dead; moderate estimates still average around 1,000 killed or wounded, both from shots and trampled during the panic. As reports spread across the city, there was instant disorder and looting. Gapon's Assembly was closed down that day, and he quickly left Russia. Returning in October, he was assassinated by the esers.

It is believed that this event sparked the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Click the story to find the modern day version of what I fear is the road to history repeating itself.

The first amendment is at risk, these are not Al Qaeda, they are not out to harm the President, they are out to send a message.

The joke of the "Protestors Coop" in Boston, the stiffling of dissenters in New York by putting them as far away as possible from the RNC is an outrage. It's repression on a mass scale. The public at large doesn't like protestors, it is disdainful of them, so its not exactly a powerful constituency for those in power to protect. Rather, it is a matter of principle. But principles without dollar signs are the hardest to maintain unless we as a populace demand a line be drawn. Not a line to prevent dissent, but a line at attempts to squash it, whether with the billy club or the ordinance, the lines are drawing ever narrower with our consent.

Stand up for your rights people, even those you wish not to personally exercise.

Our else we might as well put in the Romanovs.

Katherine Harris In History

Its not often that a marginally successful person gets to have more than one big lie moment in their life. Those are usually reserved for the fully successful people.

Of course, Katherine Harris managed to declare the man who belonged to her Party, President (and the brother of the Governor of her state) -- of course it helped to throw out the votes of about 20,000 black people, but you know if you cannot lie big, why lie at all?

Now Ms. Harris, for some reason pulled this whopper out of her ass while, in all places, Carmel, Indiana:

She told the audience that while in the Midwest recently, the mayor told her about a plot in Carmel and how a man of Middle Eastern heritage had been arrested and hundreds of pounds of explosives were found in his home.

"He had plans to blow up the area's entire power grid," she said, according to the newspaper.

Naturally, this was a complete and utter lie.

Of course Katherine Harris used to look like this:


Now she looks like this:


Clearly honesty (and vaseline on lenses) is her policy.

There has been a Ms. Harris quite often in history -- and amazingly enough, there's always been a "CNN's Kelli Arena" to interview them.

Kiev, 1906

KELLI: Judy, sources have confirmed that they have obtained detailed records, a "master plan" is what they told me of the "vast Jewish international conspiracy comprised of both bankers and the drinkers of children's blood". These individuals are determined to undermine the stability of the international order, as well as the Romanov Government itself. This is that book right here in my hand. With me is Deputy Director of Motherland Security, Katerina Harrisova. Madame Harrisova can you update us on the situation?

KH: Yes, Kelly, this morning I was talking to the Mayor of Smolensk, and he informed me that the international zionists were planning on destroying the city's large beet deposits, which, as you know, power the peasant grid throughout the Southern corridor of the country. Obviously, this is a very dangerous situation.

JUDY: Kelli? Kelli, this is Judy Woodrovskiya here in St. Petersburg. Kelli, some of the critics of the Romanov government, in particular known-international criminal Howard Deanovich assert that this information seems suspicious and just like last year when the Romanov Government was in trouble, they assert there is danger from Jews. Deanovich has claimed that this "master plan" as you call it was actually written nearly a decade ago and that the evidence within it is not credible. Can the two of you discuss that for a moment.

KELLI: Sure, Judi Alhuntswifeovich. I can tell you that my sources within the Romanov Administration were asked by me about that and those insider responses say that: First, the information is more recent than that and that plans for attacking various produce storage bins and Christian Orphanages were found upon notes in a Torah upon the Battleship Potemkin in the last several months. However, they said they could tell me no more than that for matters of Orthodox Security. Ms. Harrisova can you tell us any more?

KH: Well Kelli, the Department of Motherland Security DOES NOT PLAY POLITICS! The statements of Mr. Deanovich are clearly an attempt to coddle these Jewish Swine and ignore the fact that but for the Holy Blessing of God upon our most righteous and blessed Czar Nicholas, such evidence would never be uncovered. The finding and use of these documents and their availability to the public is an indication of how great and benevolent a leader our blessed Czar is, while Dr. Deanovich would coddle these Jews and refuse to take offensive against them through sham trials and pogroms. Why does Dr. Deanovich hate the blood libel? Thanks to the Leadership of the Czar, the RUSSIAN PEOPLE ARE SAFER, even though the Jewish Cabal is more dangerous than ever!

KELLI: Ms. Harrisova, have you at the Motherland Security Department made any changes or recommendations to the people?

KH: Yes, Kelli Makeitupoutofyourassovich, we at the Motherland Security Department have declared Condition оранжевый [Ed: Orange-ovich] and as you know that means that we go on the OFFENSIVE and encourage our citizens to get out their pitchforks and torches and march upon the Jewish Community of your choice and do what you can to diminish this threat. Oh, and don't break the nice stuff.

KELLI: Thank you Ms. Harrisova, back to you, Judy Mygodlookatyourturkeyneckovich.

Useless = FBI?

This story highlights how the insular nature of the Bush administration become the way of doing business in government. Sad.

Another F.B.I. Employee Blows Whistle on Agency
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - As a veteran agent chasing home-grown terrorist suspects for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mike German always had a knack for worming his way into places few other agents could go.

In the early 1990's, he infiltrated a group of white supremacist skinheads plotting to blow up a black church in Los Angeles. A few years later, he joined a militia in Washington State that talked of attacking government buildings. Known to his fellow militia members as Rock, he tricked them into handcuffing themselves in a supposed training exercise so the authorities could arrest them.

So in early 2002, when Mr. German got word that a group of Americans might be plotting support for an overseas Islamic terrorist group, he proposed to his bosses what he thought was an obvious plan: go undercover and infiltrate the group.

But Mr. German says F.B.I. officials sat on his request, botched the investigation, falsified documents to discredit their own sources, then froze him out and made him a "pariah." He left the bureau in mid-June after 16 years and is now going public for the first time - the latest in a string of F.B.I. whistle-blowers who claim they were retaliated against after voicing concerns about how management problems had impeded terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"What's so frustrating for me," Mr. German said in an interview, a copy of the Sept. 11 commission report at his side, "is that what I hear the F.B.I. saying every day on TV when I get home, about how it's remaking itself to fight terrorism, is not the reality of what I saw every day in the field."

Mr. German refused to discuss details of the 2002 terrorism investigation, saying the information was classified.

But officials with knowledge of the case said the investigation took place in the Tampa, Fla., area and centered on an informant's tip about a meeting between suspected associates of a domestic militia-type group and a major but unidentified Islamic terrorist organization, who were considering joining forces. A tape recording of the meeting appeared to lend credence to the report, one official said.

Law enforcement officials have become increasingly concerned that militant domestic groups could seek to collaborate with foreign-based terrorist groups like Al Qaeda because of a shared hatred of the American government. This has become a particular concern in prisons.

The Tampa case is not known to have produced any arrests. But Mr. German, in an April 29 letter to several members of Congress, warned that "the investigations involved in my complaint concern very active terrorist groups that currently pose significant threats to national security."

He also wrote, "Opportunities to initiate proactive investigations that might prevent terrorist acts before they occur, which is purported to be the F.B.I.'s number one priority, continue to be lost, yet no one is held accountable."

The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating Mr. German's case, reviewing both how the F.B.I. handled his complaints and whether he was retaliated against as a result, an official there said.

Donna Spiser, an F.B.I. spokeswoman, said that the bureau "thoroughly investigates all allegations of wrongdoing," but that it could not comment on Mr. German's case because of the continuing investigation.

Some law enforcement officials remain somewhat skeptical of Mr. German's claims. But several prominent senators who have been privately briefed on the case in recent weeks said they were troubled by what they learned.

"Retaliating against F.B.I. agents and employees who point out problems or raise concerns seems to be becoming the rule, not the exception," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. He noted that Robert S. Mueller III, acting director of the bureau, "has said many times that whistle-blower retaliation is unacceptable, yet it looks like some F.B.I. bureaucrats haven't gotten the message."

The F.B.I. has wrestled with accusations from a number of employees who said they were discouraged from voicing concerns, including Coleen Rowley, the Minneapolis agent who protested the handling of the Zacarias Moussaoui terror case in August 2001. In a report disclosed just last week, the inspector general found that complaints by an F.B.I. linguist, Sibel Edmonds, about the bureau's slipshod translation of terrorism intelligence, played a part in her dismissal in 2002.

In Mr. German's case, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that "when an F.B.I. agent with a distinguished record questions whether terrorism leads are being followed, the F.B.I. needs to listen." He said Mr. German's complaints "reflect the kind of insularity the 9/11 commission identified as a major management failing in the F.B.I.'s antiterrorism work."

Indeed, Mr. German's assertions echo concerns raised about the F.B.I. in the commission's report.

The commission said that while the bureau had made progress in overhauling
counterterrorism operations, its investigation "also found gaps between some
of the announced reforms and the reality in the field." One concern was that
the F.B.I.'s 56 field offices still retain the power to reallocate agents
and resources to local concerns that may diverge from national security.

Mr. German's account of what he considers undue restraint in pursuing
terrorism leads may give pause to civil libertarians who have accused the
F.B.I. of rushing to judgment and using overly aggressive tactics in some
terror cases.

At the same time, however, his assertions raise questions about whether the
bureau has fixed some of the bureaucratic problems that stymied terrorism
investigations before the Sept. 11 attacks, and his perspective could add
grist to the debate over restructuring intelligence operations.

Mr. German, in his letter to lawmakers, cited "a continuing failure in the
F.B.I.'s counterterrorism program," which he said was "not the result of a
lack of intelligence, but a lack of action."

Officials said Mr. German also complained internally about a second case in
the Portland, Ore., area in 2002 in which he said he was blocked from going
undercover to pursue a domestic terrorism lead. That case was also thought
to center on a militia group suspected of plotting violence.

In the Tampa case, officials said Mr. German complained that F.B.I.
officials had mishandled evidence concerning a suspected domestic terrorist
group and failed to act for months on his request in early 2002 to conduct
an undercover operation. That failure, he said, allowed the investigation to
"die on the vine."

While Mr. German would not confirm the location of the investigation, he
said in an interview at the office of his Washington lawyer, Lynne Bernabei,
that his problems intensified after he complained about the management of
the case in September 2002. He said F.B.I. officials whom he would not name
backdated documents in the case, falsified evidence and falsely discredited
witnesses in an apparent effort to justify their approach to the
investigation. He cited institutional inertia, even after Sept. 11.

"Trying to get approval for an operation like this is a bureaucratic
nightmare at the F.B.I.," he said.

Mr. German said that beginning in late 2002, he took his concerns to his supervisors at the F.B.I. and to officials at headquarters in Washington, including Mr. Mueller himself, in an e-mail message that he said went unanswered. He also went to the Justice Department's inspector general and, frustrated by what he saw as a languishing investigation, brought his concerns this spring to several members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission.

In the meantime, Mr. German said, his career at the F.B.I. stalled, despite what he said was an "unblemished" record and an award for his work in the Los Angeles skinhead case.

Soon after raising his complaints about the 2002 terrorism investigation, he was removed from the case. And, he said, F.B.I. officials wrongly accused him of conducting unauthorized travel, stopped using him to train agents in "proactive techniques" and shut him out of important domestic terrorism assignments.

"The phone just stopped ringing, and I became a persona non grata," he said.
"Because I wouldn't let this go away, I became the problem."

For now, he has no job and is uncertain about his future.

"My entire career has been ruined, all because I thought I was doing the right thing here," he said.

A little humor to lighten the dark mood

I woke up today in bad mood so forgive me. Things look so dark and dire, an electoral choice between not-so-bad-but-not-really-anyone's-first-choice and horseman of the apocalypse! What can the parties offer us, a castrate with brains vs a sado-macho-hyper-testosteroned-buffoon who can't read the big words....in his coloring book. (God whispers them into his ear I am sure.)

For those of you who check alternative/foreign press/know folks that are/have been in Iraq, the conditions on ground in Iraq are much worse than reported on FoxCNN and company. We know the economy sucks in reality and is getting worse for the majority. The gas station near my house jumped from 1.82 to 2.11 overnight. Geez, can it get worse...

So this morning I went shopping (with what little money I had left after gassing up the car) and while waiting in the check out line I noticed the World Weekly Report or something like that. Now besides some usual right-wing nonsense, what did I find out but that half the hookers in the U.S. are space aliens from Sirius B, not real women....in fact, anatomically they are like Barbie. But they implant memories into their Johns that it was great sex. Meanwhile they are getting information about the United States to push forward their nefarious plans.

What can such an advanced civilization find out from Johns that is not on the Internet or easily hacked? I am not sure but consider this any civilization that can send hookers to this planet and make men think they had a good time, should be able to acquire information from all known computers.

But it was a good laugh and it took my mind off more bleak realities. Now the question I have is: does sex that is only a mental implant from an alien hooker count as adultery in a divorce case? Just asking.

Torture at GITMO -- Oh, those Bush Administration Pranksters

Alright, freely admitted, the Independent is a liberal newspaper -- and it makes no bones about it. But it is hardly a Murdochian broad-street Rag, like the Sun or its American Equivalent, the NY Post, essentially a boobless Sun. In short, its a credible paper.

However, this article is well-sourced and disturbing and involves clear charges of the blatant illegal torture at a facility exclusively run by Americans, in particular Major General Miller.

Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to Abu Ghraib-style torture and sexual humiliation in which they were stripped naked, forced to sodomise one another and taunted by naked female American soldiers, according to a new report.

Some of the abuse has been captured on videotape.

GULP!

Those prisoners with the most conservative Muslim backgrounds were the most likely to be subjected to sexual humiliation and abuse while those from westernised backgrounds were more likely to suffer solitary confinement and physical mistreatment.

A great there was a method to the debauchery.

"There was a clear policy to try to force people to abandon their religious faith," says one extract of the report, obtained by The Independent.

Oh, so General Boykin was involved.

One factor which links Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib is Gen Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the Cuban prison who left to take charge of Abu Ghraib in August last year. Mr Miller reportedly told his staff in Iraq that his intention was to turn the prison into an intelligence hub and "Gitmoize" the operation (Guantanamo is known in the US as Gitmo).

The allegations in the report match those made by other released prisoners. This week the French newspaper Libération detailed claims by two French men who said they had been physically and sexually abused, urinated on and refused medical treatment. And in a sworn statement yesterday, Tarek Dergoul, another Briton, said he had been beaten, tied up "like a beast", sprayed with pepper gun and had his head forced down the toilet. He claimed the brutality was recorded on video. The Foreign Office said yesterday no allegations of ill-treatment had been passed to British officials when they visited inmates.

Well that's a sweet story.

And now supporting the Independent is the BBC.

Wake up media. The legit UK press is schooling you.

Holy Mother of All that is Stupid

Even I, who have some insight into who is a crank professor and who is not, am stupified at this one from InstaDummy.



Either Glenn Reynolds is a wack-ass gun nutjob, Theodore Bilbo-type (the most racist hobbit of all time); or the dumbest lawschool professor in the universe (and I hear the law profs at the unaccredited "Mindfuck U." on Rigel VI are incredibly stupid).

I join Atrios and Steve Gillard and other far more popular blogs than Attaturk's, in being completely fucking amazed.

Instamoron has earned that moniker for some time now, but this? I think Gillard's outrage sums up my thoughts.

In Memory of HESIOD: The "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" canard, Once Again, GOP Agent Matty Boy flogs another tired and dead theory

Closeted Fedora Fetishist Drudgey Poo's powers of scandal-mongering are weakening. But he still tries and sadly too many whores on broadcast media read his stories, or, if you are the FoxNews Morning Crew rely upon his stories.

The strategy for the right-wing nutjobs is not so much the veracity, but that it get talked about enough to not matter what the truth is. Just a few examples:

-- Clinton's trooper gate;
-- Clinton killed Vince Foster, or had him killed;
-- Pro-Life Democrat Bob Casey was banned from speaking at the Demo. Convention;
-- Kerry's "affair" with Alexandra Polier;
-- Sandy Berger's "Magical" pants.

All of these things were, or have been, shown or proved to be false and blatantly so, but for many of them the legend (and sadly the repetition of them in Freeperland and the profit remains -- explaining the profits of a Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Ann Coulter, etc.)

But the newest one to get thrown out there is one that was first tried more then 30 years ago, again five months ago, and repeated now. From the people that brought you the first two items on the list comes the return of the Swift Boat Veterans (laughably) for Truth with a book about Kerry's service...having NEVER served with him.

The Head of this Joke Crew is John O'Neil. Let's make the past prologue and restate what I wrote on this blog back on April 21, 2004.

A Reminder of Who the Bitterman Is

In the next day or two regarding Kerry the name John O'Neill will be heard.

He will express outrage about the statements Kerry has made about American Troops in Vietnam committing atrocities (a statement Kerry has admitted was too far today).

Well O'Neill will emerge and more than likely will not reveal a couple of things -- and not have them revealed for Kerry.

First, he did not serve with Kerry, but came TWO MONTHS after Kerry left Vietnam.

Second, he and Kerry debated in 1971 on Dick Cavett, and Kerry frankly wiped the floor (intellectually) with the guy ON THE SAME ISSUE. O'Neill was put on the Cavett show through the machincations of the Nixon White House (how non-partisan). O'Neill strongly claimed we were winning the war too (In 1971!!).

As the Houston Chronicle reported about three weeks ago:

President Nixon and top aide Charles Colson had taken a keen interest in O'Neill as part of their effort to discredit Kerry and the anti-war movement, according to memos and tapes in the National Archives. A clean-cut Naval Academy graduate, O'Neill was viewed by Nixon's team as an effective messenger against Kerry, who was causing the administration headaches as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

O'Neill, Nixon, and future felon Charles Colson in the White House 1971.

When he says he is just now coming forward...apparently "just now" means 34 YEARS.

Mr. O'Neill is now a lawyer in Houston at a large law firm and claims to be an independent (my ass!). One of his fellow partners is Margaret Wilson. Ms. Wilson was General Counsel to George W. Bush 1998-2000 and Deputy General Counsel in the Bush Commerce Department 2001-2002.

Mr. O'Neill & Ms. Wilson's firm can be found here.
That's how laughable Mr. O'Neill's coming forward now is.

UPDATE:

Lest there be any doubt on this. There ARE atrocities committed in almost any war of more than short duration (and even those too, of course). There are allegations of atrocities this very moment in Iraq that will be sifted through. Certainly Americans remember the My Lai Massacre and one Lt. Calley do they not? Certainly Colin Powell would like us to forget certain aspects of it.

Sometimes the atrocities are singular, unfortunately sometimes they are systemic, and sometimes they are societal (The Holocaust for example). There is little doubt that the United States was involved, in systemic atrocities in Vietnam. That does not mean that ALL soldiers who served in Vietnam are war criminals, but to deny war crimes were committed is blindingly insane.

Don't just rely on me, of course. Look no further than the recent series that won a Pulitzer Prize this year on that very subject, war crimes by the American Military in Vietnam. You can find the series here.

Is it shameful. Yes. But without admitting to crimes and errors we are due to repeat them.

BACK TO THE NOW:

If these Rovian right wingers really want to push this, go ahead, though it is the result of an old, old grudge made anew.

But if comparing military records is what these folks want to fight about, remember Karl, your boy has some percolating problems far worse. If you want to know about them, go here, I think you'll be able to read the headlines.

Freely Imperial:

Remember how Safiar and the other righties went on and on ... and on... about the UN "Oil for Food" Program?

Well, looks like what is good to accuse the goose of, is definitely good for the Bush Administration's corporate buddies to gander at...and take.

Holy Strained Metaphor!

The Bush Plan for Iraqi money, make sure that you take that money out, and give it to your American Company buddies so it doesn't stay there.

Brilliant! That sounds like the old Spanish form of imperialism. That sure worked out great for them. Add to that we have our very own Cardinal Torquemada Ashcroft and we are all set.

From today's Washington Post:

First, set up the lie,

For the first 14 months of the occupation, officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority provided little detailed information about the Iraqi money, from oil sales and other sources, that it spent on reconstruction contracts. They have said that it was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people and that most of the contracts paid from Iraqi money went to Iraqi companies. But the CPA never released information about specific contracts and the identities of companies that won them, citing security concerns, so it has been impossible to know whether these promises were kept.

Then, execute the lie:

The CPA has said it has awarded about 2,000 contracts with Iraqi money. Its inspector general compiled records for the major contracts, which it defined as those worth $5 million or more each. Analysis of those and other records shows that 19 of 37 major contracts funded by Iraqi money went to U.S. companies and at least 85 percent of the total $2.26 billion was obligated to U.S. companies. The contracts that went to U.S. firms may be worth several hundred million more once the work is completed.

Oh, Simone Ledeen how could you? Hillary should have given you the finger! Apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it. And of course nothing spells "Imperialism" like putting the children of idealogues overseas to carry out the policy of the Chimperor.

And what is the story of Iraqi corruption without the obligatory notice that Halliburton was involved?

Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton, was paid $1.66 billion from the Iraqi money, primarily to cover the cost of importing fuel from Kuwait. The job was tacked on to a no-bid contract that was the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel.

Surely, the Iraqis had no problem with this right, including our buddies?

Even Iraqi officials who served in the government while the CPA was in charge complained they had little say in the use of their own country's money. Mohammed Aboush, who was a director general in the oil ministry during the occupation, said he and other Iraqi officials were not consulted about expanding the KBR contract. But he said he informed his American "advisers" at the CPA that the Iraqis felt KBR's performance had been inadequate and that he'd prefer that another company take over its work.

Aboush said that he was ignored and that he believes the decision to go with KBR was political. "I am old enough to know the Americans and their interests and they are not always the same interests as the Iraqi interests," he said.

Oops.

Wrap Your Mind Around Pickles

Considering how AWFUL the press is and how they have essentially stood back thinking "they cannot really be that incompetent and that vile can they?" I am now officially stupified at this Laura Bush statement:

First lady Laura Bush thinks the news media is increasingly filled with opinions instead of facts, and suggested Tuesday that journalists are contributing to the polarization of the country.

"I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America," she said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."

"I think that a lot of times the media sensationalize or magnify things that aren't -that really shouldn't be," she said.

"I do think there's a big move away from actual reporting, trying to report facts," the first lady said. "It's in newspapers and everything you read - that a lot more is opinion."

And naturally, Laura stated this on the embodiment of quality, non-partisan press -- FoxNews' "The O'Reilly Factor".

Bush goon squad backfires

Short Memo to Karl Rove

Sending out groups of goons with bull horns and air horns to disrupt Kerry while requiring extensive security at Bush and Cheney events is looking a little desperate. Better focus on the faux terrorist attack that Bush will stop in time to make the emotional appeal during the GOP convention in NYC.

By the way, chanting four more years is open to a great deal of interpretation as Teresa Heinz Kerry points out ("four more years of hell").

I am sure that after Bush and Cheney lose the election (again) that a man with your skills could easily get a job. Just practice over and over, "Would you like fries with that." Oh yeah, remember to smile too.

Immigration

In preparation for the arguments of the right-wing (most notably Dan Stein in todays USA Today), I have been developing a position on illegal immigration, an issue which inevitably comes up during presidential elections. Depending on your region of the U.S., this may or may not be a major issue -- however regardless of where you live, it is a national issue among politicians and has many demographic and cultural implications for the future, including issues regarding terrorism and border security, etc.

Here are a few of my preliminary thoughts:

Legal immigration is what helped form American society. As the great Bill Murray said in one of his films, our ancestors were kicked out of every respectable country in Europe! (points for naming the film) Of course the reasons for immigration are far more complex. Most scholars who study immigration are familiar with the push-pulls migration, etc...

Illegal immigration to the U.S. also occurred during the early 1900's but was often overlooked because those immigrants had the "right look." You all know what I am saying here.

Political problems associated with illegal immigration include starting life in a new country as a criminal, vulnerabilities to extortion, to organized crime, to economic exploitation by employers, and to lack of political representation, therefore being an illegal immigrant does not automatically lead to sucking the teat of the welfare state (as the nut-wing would have us believe, especially Michael Savage).

Social problems associated with illegal immigration include questionable rights to education, social services, voting, property, and even to driver's licenses and other common privileges of citizenship. Other issues include the willingness or unwillingness of new immigrants to become citizens and to participate in American civic and cultural traditions, language barriers, etc. Again, this leads to many challenges. What does scapegoating or racism do to help any of us? Does blaming really help us deal with any of these problems?

Another important issue relates to just how long immigrants stay in the U.S. Many only stay for a few years, despite the stereotype that they stay forever.

And finally, the role of the U.S. in creating poverty in Latin America, thereby creating pressures on people to move here for reasons of sheer survivial -- that is important to examine when all the politicans want to do is to blame illegal immigrants. We must help disabuse people of the notion that a supposedly "generous" USA is being exploited by the immigrants!

Here is Stein's article:

USA TODAY
August 2, 2004
Plans aren't in U.S. interest
Dan Stein

Today's debate: Illegal immigrants

Opposing view: Bush, Kerry immigration 'reforms' would badly harm the middle class.

Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., have unveiled remarkably similar immigration "reform" proposals that will essentially eliminate limits on the number of people settling in the USA. The Republican and Democratic plans are premised on two erroneous beliefs: Illegal immigration cannot be stopped, so we might as well let just about anybody who wants to come here do so legally. And virtually open immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens is the key to winning the growing Hispanic vote.

Both plans -- which include amnesty for up to 10 million illegal aliens, substantial increases in legal immigration, which already exceeds 1 million a year, and massive new guest-worker programs -- would signal the death knell of the middle class in America. Labor markets, public school systems and public health care, already overwhelmed by the impact of mass illegal and legal immigration, would be devastated by the proposals of the two presidential contenders.

Job growth in America, which has been robust in the past several months, as the Bush campaign repeatedly stresses, has failed to keep pace with the increase in the labor supply, as the Kerry campaign is quick to point out. As some 1.5 million new immigrants settle legally and illegally each year, immigration is a key reason we find job growth does not equal lower unemployment, and why the middle class is working harder and longer with less to show for it.

Similarly, no matter how much local communities around the country invest in new schools and teachers, because of mass immigration, they cannot keep ahead of the influx of new students. The immigration plans being proposed also would add people to the ranks of the 44 million who lack health insurance and further increase the number of jobs that don't offer coverage.

What all Americans -- including Latinos -- want is an immigration policy that puts the interests of the American people ahead of the special interests that see the policy as a pipeline for low-wage labor or a means to build a political constituency. And the recent release of the 9/11 Commission's report reminds us that our lax immigration laws continue to threaten homeland security.

Unfortunately, in "Hispandering" for votes in battleground states, both Bush and Kerry have lost sight of the interests of the middle class and the security of our country.

I believe I've Found Chimpy's Secret

We all remember this picture, even if Karl Rove wishes we did not.



Well now we know the secret behind the codpiece. Go here to discover Chimpy's Secret.

Lord Help Me

Did I just see Judith "the Mattress" Miller on Hardball defending the terror alert as being non-political?

Wow, she has bigger balls than Ann Coulter.

Set Your Watches

According to Newsday, the tar-er-rist will hit 'murica on about the day Bush gives his acceptance speech to the GOP Convention.

More financial institutions than previously disclosed may be at risk of attack, and an al-Qaida operative has told British intelligence that the group's target date is early September, intelligence sources said yesterday.

The operative, described as "credible" by British intelligence, told his debriefers that the attack would take place "60 days before the presidential election" on Nov. 2, according to a former senior National Security Council official. On Sept. 2 President George W. Bush is expected to address the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.

How's your cloak?

And your dagger?

Because this smells of Rovian political theatre to Attaturk -- that THESE particular dates would be leaked to the waiting gob of the so-called liberal media.

Suddenly, a FOILED terrorist attack on September 2, 2004, allows President Bush to strike to the podium at Madison Square Garden, square his shoulders, stick out his chin and proclaim he is keeping the nation safe from tar'er.

Also tends to keep those protests numbers down, and/or marginalize them to make them look like they do not love their country [like wingers need incentive -- but moderates do].

Doesn't seem far-fetched anymore does it?

May I add, damn them for making me think like this. I am not big on conspiracies (Oswald acted alone dammit, we DID land on the moon, etc.) but their actions spell out full-well why even non-tinfoil-hatters feel this way after a while.

Let's go to the Transcripts Mr. Ridge

Today:

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."

Two Days Ago, August 1, 2004:

"But we must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the President's leadership in the war against terror. The reports that have led to this alert are the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan. Such operations and partnerships give us insight into the enemy so we can better target our defensive measures here and away from home."

Go READ Billmon

A takedown of the Amazing COINCIDENCE of the Orange ALERT Warning and the rest of the series of events by the Bush Administration that leaves only one conclusion.

Bush uses the War on Terror ONLY as a political device, not out of a sense of doing what is right by the Country -- unless one accepts the "Cult of Personality" being right.

Sickening.

Oh, and HOLY JOE can kiss my ass on this one.

So Far between 4 and 7 Dead Soldiers in Iraq Today

And though I am not home, I am willing to bet that the Hacking case is getting more coverage.

Once again, that is sad. But once again, the media coverage over this killing of a white pregnant woman eclipses all other coverage of deaths for folks making the ultimate sacrifice for their country in substantial part because of a clusterfuck of a decision by the President of the United States.

And which one gets the most coverage?

Any other questions about just how bad the so-called liberal media is?

Trying to Understand

Lately while watching the increasing nastiness among Republicans and Bush supporters (and this is not even getting into the right-wing and nut-wing pundits and talking headsters who are simply angry at everything, such as Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and to a lesser extent Rush Limbaugh), I have been trying to understand what motivates such animosity and vitriol against the Democrats and especially Kerry. Could it be that American politics has reached a crossroads where if you are not on our team, we must hate you?

Its not simply a matter of "we hate the left-wing because they have done such trememdous damage to this country", because how can any normal and rational person believe that the left has ever truly had significant political power in this country. No successful and influential socialist, Marxist, or anarchist parties have taken over and created policy or captured the presidency. No major structural or economic change has been from an effort to advance socialism and the like. The arguments -- if we can be honest and reflective for a moment -- have always been within a fairly obvious range of opinions, economic policies, and social principles. Even the War on Poverty or Roosevelt's alphabet soup were within a limited range of political ideas. And who were the ones to initiate the actions of FDR during the Great Depression? Industrialists like Ford who demanded that Roosevelt do something before their was revolution in the streets.

So all of this meanspiritedness directed toward the Democrats and Kerry (not to mention Bill Clinton who dared to upset the "We are amazing Reagan revolution" and that is why he was hated, I mean how dare he interfere with the Republican jugernault that was remaking America and the world with the Republican hegemony AND he was from the unwashed masses, how gauche) -- this meanspiritedness seems to be about not just winning elected office but of creating a new reality, a new paradigm where the other team must be vanquished. And how do you do this? You turn them into villains (whether true or not does not matter), you make them your enemies, you turn them into all that is unholy and decadent. Perception matters more than reality here.

And what do you do with villains? You do not negotiate, right? You do not discuss the nature of your differences. You eliminate the opposition by any methods at your disposal. You destroy them. This is Lee Atwater politics run amok. This is the beginning of the end for the American political culture. Think about it, where does politics go from here? What middle ground is left? Apathy will rule among those who are not involved in the attack side or the defending side. People without great ability will become elected officials because nuance and policy consideration will not matter, only winning.

And the rest of us, will only lose.

Minneapolis Most literate city?

A new study claims that Minneapolis, Minnesota is the most literate city in the US. I just don't know if I could take the cold. Of course, is it the most literate because it is so cold? What else you going to do in that cold?

A new study takes that principle a step further, ranking the USA's "most literate" cities not by how many residents can read, but by various measures of how many do. And by those measures, Minneapolis is the most literate, El Paso, the least.

The study examines the extent to which residents of the USA's largest 79 cities behave in literate ways - such as buying newspapers and books or checking materials out of the library.

Crazy Horowitz

Oh my. I don't even know where to start with this guy. I've seen Horowitz spew his "I used to be a leftist radical in the 60's, but then I saw the glorious light of fascist right wing ideology and never looked back" vitriol before, but this new enterprise of his takes the cake. Watch it if you can stomach it.

Then click on the Horowitz/Anti-Chomsky link to watch his interview/call in segment in RealPlayer format. It's a hoot.

Hey, We're Alive!!! An Orange Tinged Day in Pictures

I thought of using three or four year old pictures in today's photo captioning guide to current events, but that would be wrong. Wrong, like using fear as a tool to keep you in power and using terrorist warnings to make a campaing stump speech for the President.

But we all know those last two things wouldn't happen, so I won't use those old pictures, as a liberal democrat I have standards.


Illinois Republicans will hold a raffle to determine which of these individuals will lose to Barak Obama. Personally, given Obama's closeness to a name the GOP will use as a juvenile play on words, I vote for the Indian-American Sikh guy. Down in Southern Illinois it will make some of their voters' minds blow up like a scene out of "Scanners".


Upon hearing that John Kerry drew crowds of over 20,000 in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jerry Ford fell down.

That joke was sponsored by the "Remember the '70s" Foundation.


George Bush ponders the question of, "Hey, who is that guy on your right?"


Tom, I was Larry last time. I want to be Mo for once.


Oh, great, "Schemp" showed up.


Seven Brides for Seven Mullahs.


The New Musical "Best little Whorehouse in St. Peters" is not expected to have a long run.


That's right ladies. Dick Cheney...in jeans.


Not everyone can handle the raw sexuality of Dick Cheney in jeans. Look at those delighted grandchildren.


Bush/Cheney 2004 continues to pursue the youth vote.


Oh my god! Are they really sending out DICK "go fuck yourself" Cheney to campaign for a guy named JOHN SWALLOW?


And then I managed to knock Lynne up and voila, I don't have to go to Vietnam. Ha Ha Ha.

My Fellow Americans

I know that Wolf and Judy, Laurie, and the whole Fox Mornin' Gang o' Four have you all confused and I can understand this.

It is true that in 2000 many of you had difficulty picking who to vote for as each candidate had the same number of letters.

This time, remember the guy above, has 5 letters in his name. 1 2 3 4 5.

While the guy below, who is the current President appointed for your convenience, has 4 letters. 1 2 3 4.


I strongly suggest you vote for the guy with 5 letters.

Thank you and God Bless America as we are clearly going to need it based on your ability to read.

Why Not Try a "Test Pattern" Chachi?

Finding that paying a washed up Snark seven figures is "old n' busted" and that a viewing audience comprised of his family and panelists is not working, the Dennis Miller Show is making a third, or fourth, revision as it plays out the string of his contract.

And the first order of business? Less politics as usual.

"I'm not a wonk," Miller told the Daily News during a jaunt to New York. "I don't want to talk about politics [the whole time]..."

And the reason for the change?

"He goes with his instincts," added Meyers. "And sometimes it's his political instinct and sometimes it's his comedic instinct. We're looking for a good mix."

I'm guessing the "survival" instinct is at work here.

May I suggest more silly outfits and props?

Nice Can O' Worms you Opened there

Excuse me for a moment while I try to summon up all the reverence and respect the current President of the United States deserves.

Look what Chimpy McDumbass has managed to enable in Iraq now.

Iraq's Christian community - one of the oldest in the world - has generally been spared the fear of persecution that has plagued many other such communities in the Middle East as a result of the rise in belligerent Islamic movements.

This is also the first time Christian churches have been targeted since the fall of the Baath regime in April last year.

It raises the question of whether the attacks are the work of known Iraqi insurgents and whether they could represent a new tactic by these groups, who are waging war on the multinational troops and the interim government under the banner of Islam.

The power vacuum created by the fall of Saddam Hussein last year saw the emergence of various Islamist groups...

Their aim is to enforce an Islamic code of behaviour, which includes a ban on alcohol and the promotion of the Islamic dress code, ie the veil for women.

These groups share this agenda with other Islamists operating in the Middle East.

Ultimately, they hope to create a society ruled by Islamic Sharia law.

Sharia has been made a quite possible outcome for Iraq thanks to the Bush Administration's criminal failure to consider the question of what to do after the inevitable defeat of Saddam.

Alternative Universe II

At a hastily called news conference on Elba, the Emperor Napolean stated that if he had it to do over again, he would still have invaded Russia.

Tom Ridge: Security Alert Update from CNN Headquarters

I'm sure it is not political. In the spirit of this, I present...

CNN through in a "not so" alternative Universe:

JUDY WOODRUFF: While crazed liberal democrat Howard Dean, who belongs to the same party as flip-flopper John Kerry, goes on and on without any evidence that we are not all going to die, new terrorist information has come into us at CNN. Our super-superior-super sleuth Kelli Arena has more.

KELLI ARENA: Judy, after fluttering my eyes and showing off my new shoes to sources at the justice department, I have been provided with phone numbers, a hundred dollars cash, a french-maids outfit, and these written talking points that I will now read verbatim. Judy, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security have learned that the following terrorist acts against the United States are being planned.

North Vietnamese insurgents are apparently planning to attack American Naval Ships in the Gulf of Tonkin off the Vietnamese coast.

Concerns have also been exclusively provided to me that Secretaries Ashcroft and Ridge are deeply concerned of the actions of the Barbary Pirates off the coast of North Africa in the Mediterranean.

My sources stress that this information is based on the most updated and creditible information and the nation is placed on Orange Alert until this threat lifts.

One last item of interest Judy, my sources tell me that American intelligence continues to collect new information on the whereabouts of terrorist mastermind Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli and may be within years of locating him.

Further, this recent intelligence is the direct result of actions taken by our fearless leader George W. Bush.

Back to you Judy.

How are we doing?

How are Americans doing? Really. We want to know.

A lot of political pundits (and we all value their contributions here in the blogverse) are asking the question of how well Americans are doing. What they are truly asking is how high are their incomes? Its an ok question in the abstract, not something you would ever ask at a dinner party but its different if the pundit is discussing election year slogans, campaigns, or ...oh yeah, the conventions. Apparently, how well (lotsa income) or how poorly (not a lot of income) are going to steer political choices based on an assumption of a Bush-Cheney economic recovery. I can only imagine what those young fascist kids who were banging on the glass doors in Broward County, Florida where thinking just a few years ago: "My dear sweet Jesus, if Al Bore wins I will not be able to do well by making millions in my job with Halliburton!"

But can we think about this question for real. As it has been passed over without much discussion, IRS data shows first-ever consecutive-year drop and a loss of jobs. What does this mean?

I, for one, believe in complete discosure (ok mostly complete disclosure): I am not sure... As we know, there are many more millions at the bottom, and even more among the "working poor" who do not have enough to cover health insurance, feed the kids, pay the bills, and keep their house. Not good.

At the same time, those with little have little to lose in a crass sense of the words. So a lot of people losing a little income (as well as benefits) might not make the headlines as quickly as the few rich people losing a lot of income. This is what gets the Republicans all worked up... class warfare means being mean to Mr. Rich (personally I always liked Motorhead's solution to the problem).

On the other hand, I am amazed that this is the first time in more than fifty years (since 1953 or so) that the aggregate income level in the United States fell. That's just amazing to me. Call me naive, but I would have simply guessed this might have occurred more recently as well (e.g., the end of the Carter years, during the first Bush's administration, etc.).

Lets consider how those in the middle are fairing. Lets say Bob works for a company, Bobco, and he just checked his retirement account. Since the last democratic convention before this year (2000 if memory serves), Bob made $27,800 in contributions. And the value of that contribution today is $29,600. In FOUR YEARS, Bob's contributions have yeilded about 6.5% profit. Divided by four years of republican rule, thats probably about 1% per year.

Also, during the last democratic convention, the DOW average was 10,600. Today it is around 10,100. The NASDAQ has done little better.

As a result of numbers like these, as well as the fact that Bob has not had a pay increase in three years (Bobco must stay competitive you know), and the observation that the REAL costs of living have gone up a lot over four years (the price of milk, the price of gas (ok, lets not go there), the price of health insurance, etc.), I am even more convinced that republicans cannot manage the economy (which the pundits claim the party is expert at doing, not to mention they tout themselves as experts at it).

However, I am not so sure about the democrats either. But judging by a simple analysis of the past few years, republican rule has been much more harmful to the standard of living than were the Clinton years. Indeed, Bob personally prospered during the Clinton years, with pay raises that outpaced inflation. Bob was in college during the Carter years, so we will stop the analogy (although I know things were particularly bad at the end of Carter's term that affected Bob's summer plans).

We do know that the rates of urban unemployment and worker discouragement (dropping out of the labor force) are particularly bad today. Also, we know that there has been a substantial rate of job loss over the past four years, even if we offset those with a consideration of job growth. The net has been truly staggering under
this administration despite its claims that "we are recovering nicely..." The fact is, there is no recovery for the common people in the U.S. (like Bob) The commoners are still suffering economically, even if a few Corporate Giants are prospering (care to name them?).

And in the end, the income pie in American has shrunk for the first time in more than fifty years.... Simply amazing. Payrolls are declining, and the Bush Administration is touting prosperity! I wonder how Bob and the other employees of Bobco are going to vote? Do you think they will listen to the pundits about the economy and this swell recovery?

Florida: We don't need no stinkin' counting...

Apparently the number of serious crimes reported in the city of Weston. Where is Florida you might ask? Why its in Florida (you remember Florida from the last President election -- they did a bang up job counting) nearly doubled in the first six months of this year. In the Pompano Beach area alone reported crime was up by more than half. Oh that can't be good for the residents. However, it was up by nearly that much in North Lauderdale. Huh? What's going on here?

The new figures don't point to a major crime wave in Broward County -- hey that county sounds familiar, where have I heard about that place? -- says the paper of record in the state of the alligator, the Miami Herald.

The Herald reports that the county has dramatically changed the way it handles crime reporting, in response to charges that it had been deliberately under-reporting crimes. Shocking! I can't believe it. Someone in Florida undercounted something important. Alert the news media. Hell, someone should at least call Al Gore or something.

Here is the kicker though, sportsfans: While reported crimes were up, the percentage of cases cleared -- that means they solved them -- plummeted. For instance, the Broward sheriff's office claimed to have cleared 30 percent of serious crimes in Weston for the first six months of this year, down from 62 percent for the same period last year. Oh man, this can't be good, right? I wonder if saying they solved more crimes than they did helped anybody win any elections, you know for Sheriff or something important like that.

I know that I feel a lot better about this year's election. How hard is it to count these things when they are important? I wonder what's in the water in Florida?

Something Chimpy can do

I guess this means that we are supposed to feel safer?

Prison numbers reach new high
July 26, 2004
By Fox Butterfield, New York Times

The number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million, according to a Justice Department report that is being released today.

The total includes people in jail and prison as well as those on probation and parole. This is about 3.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, the report said.

The growth in what the report termed the "correctional population" comes at
a time when the crime rate nationwide has been relatively stable for several years. The report does not address why the number of men and women in jail and prison and on probation and parole has continued to increase. But experts say the most likely reason is the cumulative effect of the tougher sentencing laws passed in the 1990s.

The report found that there were 691,301 people in local and county jails and 1,387,269 in state and federal prisons last year, for a total of 2,078,570. That was an increase of 3.9 percent in the jail population and 2.3 percent in the prison population.

At the same time, there were 4,073,987 Americans on probation at the end of last year, an increase of 1.2 percent from the end of 2002, and 774,588 on parole, up 3.1 percent. The number of women on parole has steadily increased in recent years. Women totaled 13 percent of parolees at the end of 2003, up from 10 percent at the end of 1995.

This increase reflects a slow but steady growth in the number of women being arrested for and convicted of serious crimes.

The 3.1 percent increase in the number of people on parole, the biggest in at least a decade, troubles many police and prosecutors, because they believe that newly released inmates are likely to return to a life of crime and are a major source of violence in some cities, including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Texas led the nation with 534,260 people on probation or parole, followed by California, with 485,039.


Or perhaps we are supposed to feel safer if we have the infrastructure in place. Say, like 911 calls get routed safely in the midwest? What?

A dramatic increase in cell phone calls and too few dispatchers have 911 officials in Indianapolis' Marion County ready to declare their own emergency, says the Indianapolis Star. During the busiest times at the communications center, as many as one of every five callers to 911 is hanging up before a dispatcher can take the call. "That's outrageous," said Marion County Sheriff Maj. Richard Gates. Many missed calls are probably misdials and nonemergencies, but one unanswered emergency is one too many, he said.

Gates requested 25 additional dispatchers, at a cost of $963,000, but the City-County Council rejected that request along with Sheriff Frank Anderson's plea for more road deputies. Budgeted for 63 dispatchers, the call center can't keep the positions filled, Gates said. Communications officials say dispatcher wages are part of the problem. The starting salary is about $24,000, rising to $30,000 after five years.

Now they want to know Race

I have been to meetings at the White House and never had to give my race. Oh, wait, they mean that white house. Well, I never had to give my race to tour the Preznit's white house.

Bush camp solicits race of Star staffer
By C.J. Karamargin
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Star refused to provide the information.

Cheney is scheduled to appear at a rally this afternoon at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president.

"It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted," Hayt said later.

Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the president's re-election campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.

"All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States," he said.

Diaz repeated that answer when asked if it is the practice of the White House to ask for racial information or if the photographer, Mamta Popat, was singled out because of her name. He referred those questions to the U.S. Secret Service, which did not respond to a call from the Star Friday afternoon.

Hayt declined to speculate on whether Popat was racially profiled, but said she is deeply concerned.

"One has to wonder what they were going to do with that information," Hayt said. "Because she has Indian ancestry, were they going to deny her access? I don't know."

Journalists covering the president or vice president must undergo a background check and are required to provide their name, date of birth and Social Security number. The Star provided that information Thursday for Popat and this reporter.

"That's all anybody has been asked to provide," said Hayt, adding that this is the first time in her 26-year career that a journalist's race was made an issue.

Organizer Christine Walton asked for Popat's race in telephone conversations with two other Star editors before she spoke to Hayt. They also refused to provide the information. Walton told Hayt that Popat's race was necessary to allow the Secret Service to distinguish her from someone else who might have the same name.

"It was a very lame excuse," Hayt said.

Popat, a photographer with six years' experience, was on assignment Friday and unaware of the controversy. But she said she was glad the Star refused. "My race shouldn't have anything to do with my job," she said.

Tickets are required for the public to attend the rally, which begins at 12:50 p.m. All tickets were distributed by Friday.

Apparently, I really am Chopped Liver...

And not me alone.

From Talking Points comes the story that the Bushies are going to spend August making fun of Kerry. Further, Josh Marshall talks about how good they are at it.

Republicans are very good at this. And it can be a tool that is deceptively difficult to respond to or combat. Effective mockery is 'sticky', hard to shake off, hard to parry. And it appeals to people's appetite for fun and humor...

This is potent stuff. And Democrats would do well not only to be on their guard but consider applying this approach to the current president, who is more than a bit ripe for such treatment.

Gee, making fun of Bush and his cronies? Of Chimpy McFlightsuit? The Codpieced Crusader?

Whoa, why didn't any of us ever think about such a thing?

...What's wrong with you Al Franken, Michael Moore, Atrios, TBogg, or even us for that matter?

Alright, I'm done with the sarcasm. Sometimes Dr. Marshall needs to realize the tectonic plates are already spinning on sticks.

Not even Good enough for the Label Flip-Flopper

Our Appointed Leader on July 12, 2004:

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

... the American people are safer. (Applause.)

Today, because America has acted, and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer. (Applause.)

But, today:

"We are a nation in danger," Mr. Bush said as he announced his position during an appearance with top administration national security figures in the White House Rose Garden.

Welcome to the Blogworld

The substitute Four Horsemen of the Blogpocalypse, recently seen on Atrios' Eschaton, Athenae, with Holden and Tena and on occasion Pie.

They have started up their own blog as First Draft. They are all fine intelligent folks and soon, if they haven't already, will get more hits than this anonymous blogboys' site.

And I'm not saying this just because they blogrolled us without our begging.

Good luck and go visit.

By the way, if there is somebody out there who links to me that I haven't blogrolled, please let me know at Attaturk2004@yahoo.com. And topless photos are encouraged, um, sorry, thought I was Wonkette for a moment.

No Turkee for Turkey

Ah, I do dearly love the lazy obvious joke stolen wholecloth from a deservedly better known and well, better, site.

Turkey, the nation built by a certain anonymous blogboy's near namesake, has companies which truck goods to Fortress Green Zone in Baghdad.

Well, in an attempt to get hostages released, and avoid hostages in the future, those companies are saying, "count us out".

Turkey's truckers association said Monday it would stop delivering goods to U.S. forces in Iraq, in what appeared to be a direct response to insurgents' brutal, videotaped killing of a Turkish hostage and an attempt to win freedom for two other captives.

A video posted Monday on the Internet showed militants pumping three bullets into the head of a Turkish hostage, identified as Murat Yuce, who was kidnapped in Iraq. It was not clear when the shooting took place. Before he was killed, the man said he worked for the Turkish company Bilintur...

... Soysal said that 200-300 Turkish trucks bring supplies to U.S. forces in Iraq every day.

Couple this with a series of coordinated attacks yesterday against Christian Church's in Iraq and a seemingly limitless supply of bombings and equipment just laying around and things, frankly, aren't looking too good.

I know that Sully the Vacationing dislikes Robert Fisk. There is little doubt that Fisk is, in all cases, a doubter of the priviledged and the powerful, and is in generally jaundiced against all forms of military force.

However, he has also been disconcertingly correct about reporting Iraq the way it is, rather than the way we are told by others that it is. While some don't like his conclusions, few deride his abilities as a reporter. Here is what Fisk states about Iraq.

The war is a fraud. I'm not talking about the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. Nor the links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida which didn't exist. Nor all the other lies upon which we went to war. I'm talking about the new lies.

For just as, before the war, our governments warned us of threats that did not exist, now they hide from us the threats that do exist. Much of Iraq has fallen outside the control of America's puppet government in Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of attacks are made against US troops every month. But unless an American dies, we are not told. This month's death toll of Iraqis in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 - the worst month since the invasion ended. But we are not told...

... Living in Iraq these past few weeks is a weird as well as dangerous experience. I drive down to Najaf. Highway 8 is one of the worst in Iraq. Westerners are murdered there. It is littered with burnt-out police vehicles and American trucks. Every police post for 70 miles has been abandoned. Yet a few hours later, I am sitting in my room in Baghdad watching Tony Blair, grinning in the House of Commons as if he is the hero of a school debating competition; so much for the Butler report.

Indeed, watching any Western television station in Baghdad these days is like tuning in to Planet Mars. Doesn't Blair realise that Iraq is about to implode? Doesn't Bush realise this? The American-appointed "government" controls only parts of Baghdad - and even there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed and assassinated. Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Hilla, Fallujah, Ramadi, all are outside government authority. Iyad Allawi, the "Prime Minister", is little more than mayor of Baghdad. "Some journalists," Blair announces, "almost want there to be a disaster in Iraq." He doesn't get it. The disaster exists now.

When suicide bombers ram their cars into hundreds of recruits outside police stations, how on earth can anyone hold an election next January? Even the National Conference to appoint those who will arrange elections has been twice postponed. And looking back through my notebooks over the past five weeks, I find that not a single Iraqi, not a single American soldier I have spoken to, not a single mercenary - be he American, British or South African - believes that there will be elections in January. All said that Iraq is deteriorating by the day. And most asked why we journalists weren't saying so.

But in Baghdad, I turn on my television and watch Bush telling his Republican supporters that Iraq is improving, that Iraqis support the "coalition", that they support their new US-manufactured government, that the "war on terror" is being won, that Americans are safer. Then I go to an internet site and watch two hooded men hacking off the head of an American in Riyadh, tearing at the vertebrae of an American in Iraq with a knife. Each day, the papers here list another construction company pulling out of the country. And I go down to visit the friendly, tragically sad staff of the Baghdad mortuary and there, each day, are dozens of those Iraqis we supposedly came to liberate, screaming and weeping and cursing as they carry their loved ones on their shoulders in cheap coffins.

Weekend in Pictures, Hope is on the Way...But FEAR is in the Present

As the weekend ends, and FEAR once again is foisted upon the nation by the government of ein volk, ein right, ein Dubya, let us look back at our blip of innocence -- believing that a Homeland Security Director wouldn't give a warning followed by a five minute campaign address.


An embarassment of riches for the gay ol' bachelor.


Tell us again, Mr. Ridge, how are we safer?


Mr. Preznit and Pickles leave church after having prayed for the souls of Jenna and Barbara. "I hope they turn out as nice as the Kerry girls and that young Edwards girl, oh Lord."


Guy on left, finds two more reasons to "stand up" for Kerry!


The NY Post reports that Kerry's crowds are small and unenthusiastic.


FoxNews reports that the NY Post reports that Kerry's crowds are small and unenthusiastic.


John Ashcroft announced new restrictions and applications of the Patriot Act over the Weekend.


New Detainees discover that Tupperware Parties...banned under the Patriot Act according to Ashcroft.


Thank you God for not having our daughters' pictured falling down drunk.


Yes, I know Kerry and Edwards have been mocked for being too familiar, but I do believe that Bush and George Voinovich are jonesing for each other.


Wait a minute, what is Jenna Bush doing at a Kerry/Edwards Rally? And Ben Affleck? I thought she was only into smokin' the doobie with her sister at Ashton Kutcher's place?

Amazing that the SCLM Isn't Covering this Isn't It?

Three weeks ago, when the Senate Intelligence Committee Report came out, an Addendum written by three Conservative Senators attempted to assert that intelligence actually supported attempts by Iraq to purchase Yellow Cake from Niger.

Of course, this was particularly, the thing that Joe Wilson reported there to be insufficient evidence of and which likely did not happen.

Bush used the Yellow Cake Story in February 2003 to support action against Iraq.

In the early Summer of 2003, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece for the NY Times.

Shortly thereafter, in mid-July Robert Novak reported that "Senior Administration Officials" told him that Wilson's wife, a "CIA Operative" had sent Joe Wilson to Nigeria.

It turns out that Valerie Plame, publicly represented for years as a consultant for an Energy company, had actually been using the company for a front and was a CIA Intelligence Operative specializing in investigating and preventing the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In their effort the three Senators addendum (again an Addendum, something which does NOT require a vote of other Senators) asserted that Plame sent Wilson and that the evidence supported the conclusion that Iraq attempted to buy Yellow Cake from Niger.

Well, now we know that the latter, also asserted within the Butler Report, was based upon fraudulent documents. See here.
Fraudulent documents KNOWN at the time to be fraudulent -- hence the CIA saying those "16 words" should not have been in the State of the Union.

Will the Wingers all agog over this recant.

Of course not.

Will the SCLM pay any attention.

I wish.

So Long Suckers....

I'm intruding into the province of SullyWatch, but I cannot help but notice that after BEGGING for money from his readers for the laughable quality of his blog Sully the Craptacular has gone on vacation. What are those dopes who contributed to him paying for? The visual quality of light text upon dark blue background -- "it must be profound, when I go to another site...I'm frickin' blind!"

He took your money and took a goddamned holiday.

SUCKERS!!

Meanwhile, we here ask for NO MONEY, and continue to write this admittedly half-assed blog...while working an another job...and writing bad comedy...all FOR FREE!!
(I suppose we should actually pay the readers...pretend you didn't read that)

Good thing I have a Roth IRA

Like millions of Americans, Attaturk has a variety of income tax favored retirement accounts. Cumulatively these accounts are in the ... well I don't know, trillions?

Like Digby, I think this is a throw it against the wall trial balloon (it is from frickin' Drudge who's batting average gets ever lower) and it reflects two things (again, if true):

(1) Disastrous public policy that sounds like Candy -- as is just as nutritious as an all-candy diet.

and

(2) Regressivity. Yes, that's what we want from the tax system. Hike all your purchases 20% over what you pay now and you get the idea. The rich benefit and the middle class and poor are encouraged NOT TO BUY!

The investment markets will also definitely NOT be happy if this is a serious policy proposal. Investment markets know crap policy when they see it.

VAT's imposed upon a system such as ours, over the current system, is a self-imposed shock policy that is both bad policy short and long term.

My desire to see the GOP permanently marginalized by disastrous policy decisions for generations is quite high...

But I love my country and would rather not see disastrous policy implemented, crazy Patriot that I am.

And MORE trouble coming down the Line -- for Rummy

Wow, sounds like the August 9th edition of Newsweek has a lot of bad news for BushCo. This time with the Commission to investigage abuses of prisoners.

In mid-August, the commission that Schlesinger chairs—handpicked by Rumsfeld from members of his own Defense Policy Board—is expected to issue its final report on abuses by U.S. interrogators stemming from the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. NEWSWEEK has learned the Schlesinger panel is leaning toward the view that failures of command and control at the Pentagon helped create the climate in which the abuses occurred.

The four-member commission's report is still being drafted and its final conclusions are not yet definite. But there is strong sentiment to assign some responsibility up the line to senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, several sources close to the discussions say

Funny, how those fraternity pranks, and handful of bad apples is creeping ever larger, ever higher and becoming less of a fraternity.

Good thing Tom Ridge is coming out to declare an Orange Alert according to CNN.

OK, Inspite of their Awful Poll Analysis, I'm now feeling kindly to Newsweek: Latest PLAME Update

Getting ahead of the curve...though not for long, here is something just up from the coming edition of Newsweek and it could signal something big, very big - or of course it could mean nothing.

Secretary of State Colin Powell recently testified before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA covert officer Valerie Plame, NEWSWEEK has learned. Powell's appearance on July 16 is the latest sign the probe being conducted by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is highly active and broader than has been publicly known. Sources close to the case say prosecutors were interested in discussions Powell had while with President George W. Bush on a trip to Africa in July 2003, just before Plame's identity was leaked to columnist Robert Novak. A senior State Department official confirmed that, while on the trip, Powell had a department intelligence report on whether Iraq had sought uranium from Niger—a claim Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, discounted after a trip to Niger on behalf of the CIA. The report stated that Wilson's wife had attended a meeting at the CIA where the decision was made to send Wilson to Niger, but it did not mention her last name or undercover status. At the time, White House officials were seeking to discredit Wilson, who had become a public critic of the Bush administration. There's no indication Powell is a subject of the probe; the department official said the secretary never talked to Novak about the Plame matter. Still, sources say the decision to question Powell shows the thoroughness with which Fitzgerald is conducting the probe—and that knowledge about Plame was circulated at the highest levels of the administration. Though most lawyers thought the investigation was nearly complete, sources say Fitzgerald has recently recalled witnesses before the grand jury—apparently to ask about issues raised by a new Senate intelligence committee report that seemed to contradict some of Wilson's public statements about Plame's role in his trip to Niger.

Two things. First, this takes things to the highest possible level in regard to the leak -- it may or may not contradict what Bush told Fitzgerald. In addition to the crime remember, there are also issues of a cover up to deal with -- and that was as much what Watergate, or any major scandal was about, as any other.

Second, the issue of Niger and Wilson and the Senate Report dovetails nicely with Josh Marshall finally revealing explicitly the hints of a tectonic plate shift. It involves that the Niger/Uranium/Iraq connection was based on a forgery -- one that apparently was known long ago. These documents are, I believe, relied upon by the "Addendum" (not the actual report but the three-winger Senator addendum) to the Senate Report and the Butler Report. If BushCo knew this, it actually it would seem to me, make Wilson's case even stronger, and the Administration in even MORE trouble.

This, of course, is all tea leaf reading. But unlike many wingers I can admit it.

I guess we'll see down the line.

The UK: Foreign Relations Committee...Thanks to Bush, WORLD MORE DANGEROUS PLACE

The equivalent of the Senate/House Foreign Relations Committee in Great Britain has concluded:

A report by the powerful House Of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has said that American and British military attacks are making the world more dangerous.

It has also said that Britain is losing the war on terror.

War had turned Iraq into a "battleground for al-Qaeda with appalling consequences for the Iraqi people". It may become a "failed state" causing instability throughout the Middle East, the committee warned.

The US-led attack on Afghanistan had "left a fragile state in one of the most sensitive and volatile regions of the world" and the country "could implode with terrible consequences".

On Palestine, it said US and UK support for Israel had left the peace plan, known as the Road Map, "stalled, possibly fatally". Tony Blair had hoped the Iraq crisis would drop down the political agenda after the Hutton Report and Butler Inquiry.

But the 70,000-word report, one of the most critical in recent years, will lead to more questions about his backing for George Bush's military attacks. MPs on the committee heard from expert witnesses who told them claims global terrorism was being rolled back were "optimistic and most certainly incorrect".

The report is a CLEAR indictment of Blair and Bush.

Remember it when the Bushies and the Freepers cry out we are safer, because "we done blowed stuff up", which at heart is their argument.

More Lying -- Back in September 2001, they knew there was NO Iraq-Al Qaeda link

While watching on CNN and watch Bush go negative on Kerry and looking frankly, awful. NICE, that on the last day of July the PRESIDENT goes directly negative, they are AFRAID, and out of any fricking idea. It's terrible campaigning and I've no doubt it comes from Chimpy his own self. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But as a Democrat, I personally appreciate it Mr. Preznit.

Hmm, Hmm.

Now the point, while Newsweek may have completely botched its report on Kerry's bounce post-Convention, it has another story that partly makes up for this glaring error.

The Bush Administration has long pushed the idea of Iraq-Al Qaeda contacts which they have finally stopped pushing that story [not that its stopped their freeped out minions]. To the extent they discuss it they'll say...well there was good reason to think it and we believed it at the time.

No, they did not.

Good ol' Dougy Feith and Paul Wolfowitz are always good for clusterfuckery and they don't disappoint us in this story:

Days after 9/11, a senior Pentagon official lamented the lack of good targets in Afghanistan and proposed instead U.S. military attacks in South America or Southeast Asia as "a surprise to the terrorists," according to a footnote in the recent 9/11 Commission Report. The unsigned top-secret memo, which the panel's report said appears to have been written by Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, is one of several Pentagon documents uncovered by the commission which advance unorthodox ideas for the war on terror. The memo suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq," the panel's report states. U.S. attacks in Latin America and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a way to catch the terrorists off guard when they were expecting an assault on Afghanistan.

Iraq known as long ago as RIGHT AFTER the 9/11 attack to be a non-Al-Qaeda target!

Attacking in South, fricking, America?

If Feith had been around on December 8, 1941 he would have come up with the idea of, "Let's attack the Japanese someplace they don't expect it, like Ireland!".

Morons.

We're Safer...BE AFRAID...We're Safer...BE AFRAID...We're Safer...BE AFRAID

What's that? Democratic Convention go well, Kerry gave a good speech, has bigger crowds...much bigger crowds at his rallies? Kerry's up in the polls (and sorry Newsweek, reading your story makes it clear that Kerry got a sizeable bump from his speech on THURSDAY, read the damned article folks).

How do we handle such matters? What can we do to stem the tide? Sayeth the Kerry/Cheney 2004 crew?

Why use fear, our time tested weapon, which we use weekly. And why not rely on our usual dupes like Kelli Arena.

Karl Rove gives it the thumbs up. Engage.

New intelligence indicates al Qaeda is threatening to attack corporate and financial institutions in New York City, a federal law enforcement official has told CNN.

The official said on Saturday the information suggests "there is a new plan in the works."

There are no details on possible methods of attack, and authorities are aware of no specific time frame.

Although the information has not been corroborated, its source is considered credible, the official said.

...No details...
...No specific time frame...
...Not corroborated...

Let's make sure we release this to keep the lede as Official: Al Qaeda intends to strike in New York.

Not to be too big a tin-foil hatter, but considering the source, the lack of specificity and the timing. This smells of regurgitated fear mongering to try to preserve the Chimp.

Is Al Qaeda trying to his New York again? You bet, but just as much now as before, no more, no less. But let's leak it now. It might deter a few protesters from coming to New York (and you KNOW they are coming); it will pre-occupy the press from covering protesters; and it will make Chimpy McFlightsuit seem all brave by risking his person by giving his acceptance speech in Madison Square Garden on September 2nd [known at the time as THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH].

Fear is ALL they've got.

And as a Democrat, all I need do is remember FDR's Maxim,

"All we have to Fear, is Fear itself."