John Snow, Congratulations You Get to Stay on as Treasury Secretary

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

¿Quien es Mas Macho?

The Preznit, in a blatant display of machismo, proved to the whole world you don't mess with Texas in announcing Wednesday that he is keeping John Snow as Treasury Secretary.

The gauntlet was thrown down last week when an "unnamed official" told the Washington Post that Snow was welcome to stay "provided it was not very long." Bush upped the ante on the unnamed source by keeping Snow in the cabinet despite widespread rumors he would "resign" soon. "That'll show him," Bush was overheard saying.

The grumbling surprised many, despite Snow's apparent ineffectiveness, becasue unlike Snow's predecessor, Paul O'neill who was known for plain talk and honestly expressing his opinions about economic issues both inside and outside the White House,

Snow traversed the country in the months before the election, praising Bush's tax cuts and touting economic growth.

In other words, spouting some old fasioned longhorn manure. And he did it with a straight face.

Snow raised eyebrows, however, when he said in Ohio that the job losses on Bush's watch were a myth. The claim drew heavy fire from Democrats

Snow was valued, in part, becasue while others eyebrows raised in horror at his ludicrous statements, his brow remained fixed in a manic glare reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

More Taxicab Confessions

Minnesota's biggest supplier of anxiety and gag-reflex since Duluth ended the Lutefisk Festival strikes again.

I'm sure that Wal-Mart is most pleased with the comparison too.

Rummy, going over like David Duke at the Apollo

Hmmmm, think they are buying this bullshit?


"I gotta tell ya', sometimes you have to go to war with what you have."


*Crickets*


I think Fred Kaplan sums up the world we can look forward to in the future:

Last month, the day after Bush won re-election, I wrote that he now faced a test. He could rouse himself out of his campaign mode, take a serious look at the world, face up to mistakes he might have made, and do something to correct them—or he could stay mired in fantasy. One sign of which way he was headed would be whether he fired Rumsfeld and his neocon entourage or let them stay. He has now taken that test, and we all see the grim results.

Bush Wants Props to the Higher Father...

I'm so glad to see that the second term is bringing out the rationality of the Bush Administration and that the "adults" are taking over.

White House Plugs 10 Commandments Displays

The Bush administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to allow Ten Commandments displays on government property, adding a federal view on a major church-state case that justices will deal with early next year.

Where on here does it address youthful
experimentation?*





*My legal representative wishes me to state this is a p-a-r-o-d-y.

Quality Media

On CNN this morning, besweatered Carol Costello has four stories of note. I rank them on percentage of airtime given.

1. Britain's Madame Toussaud's Wax Nativity Scene.

2. Someone apparently enforcing the rule that "music should not suck" on pain of death.

3. Martha Stewart's NBC Show (discussed below)

4. A report, literally stated to be "really good news" that thanks to medical advances and body armor fewer soldiers are dying. Silly me, I generally think the good news would be fewer soldiers being put at risk of death or injury in Iraq would be good news, which the actual full-story is that the troops in Iraq are at extreme risk. But I'm such a pie-eyed dreamer.

Quality media news ladies and gentlemen.

Like a Star Trek Episode, one of them must simply grow a goatee!

Long ago, when this blog was still read by 4 people, three of whom were still here by entering the word "rising" on google in search for quality "wood" porn, I wrote a post speculating on something.

Now that a few hundred people stop by here I think it is time to reopen the debate.


Virgin Ben

Big Media Matt

Who is who's alter-ego?

Girls' Prison

I'm pretty sure, that I, Atta J. Turk, when the Patriot Act III ("this time it's personal") is implemented, will experience the "joy" of being a prison bitch. So naturally, I was interested in reading this.

NBC, is apparently finally giving us a porn series.

Martha Stewart will revive her daily homemaking show next September, this time with a live audience, celebrity guests and the help of "The Apprentice" producer Mark Burnett, it was announced Wednesday.

...

Stewart went into prison promising to learn something new every day, Lyne said. "Knowing her, I am convinced that much of it will end up on the show," she said.

I'm guessing she learned how to use a shiv and a new meaning for the term "landing strip", or "the brazilian".

...I'm sorry that was what I was fantasizing that she had learned. My mistake.

Now back to moronic reality.

Get Me Bob Novak on the Phone Stat!!!

Another operative, another scandal.

A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.

The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."

The subject of that reporting has been blacked out by the CIA, and the word "Iraq" does not appear in the heavily redacted version of the legal complaint, but the remaining language and context make clear that the officer's work related to prewar intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

In the lawsuit, the officer asserts that CIA managers retaliated against him for refusing their demands by beginning a counterintelligence investigation of allegations that he had sex with a female asset and by initiating an inspector general's investigation into allegations that he stole money meant to be used to pay human assets.

****ring****

Douchebag of Liberty: "Hello, Bob Novak, behold my lovely teeth."

Douchebag of White House: "Bob, Karl."

DOL: "Yes, master."

DOWH: "You did not hear this from me, but I've got a live one for you."

DOL: "Yes, master."

DOWH: "His name is John Doe and, well, by golly he likes to pinch da' ass, yo"

Those investigations, the lawsuit asserts, were "initiated for the sole purpose of discrediting him and retaliating against him for questioning the integrity of the WMD reporting . . . and for refusing to falsify his intelligence reporting to support the politically mandated conclusion" of matters that are redacted in the lawsuit...

...The unnamed operative is a 23-year officer of Middle Eastern descent who spent much of his career on secret and covert operations to collect intelligence on and interdict weapons of mass destruction, the lawsuit says.

In 2002, the lawsuit says, the CIA officer "attempted to report routine intelligence" from a human asset "but was thwarted by CIA superiors." It goes on to say that he was subsequently approached by a senior desk officer "who insisted that Plaintiff falsify his reporting," and that when he refused, the "management" of the CIA's Counterproliferation Division ordered that he "remove himself from any further 'handling' " of the unnamed asset, who is referred elsewhere in the document as "a highly respected human asset."

DOWH: "Oh, and Bob..."

DOL: ....

DOWH: "Bob?"

DOL: ...

DOWH: "BOB!"

DOL: "Huh?"

DOWH: "Bob, stop flossing and listen to me."

DOL: "Sorry, yes evil one."

DOWH: "The guys an Arab, make sure you add that to your report, and allert the usual suspects, Coulter, Malkin, Krauthammer."

DOL: "But, but, I'm due for a buffering?"

DOWL: "Don't make me call Dr. Christian Szell"

DOL: "Sorry Master, yes, I know the story line now, darky-muslim, traitor inside CIA who likes to have sex with innocent blonde, buxom, Americans. Right?"

DOWH: "Very good. Very good indeed."

If we could start off with a clean slate...

His blog on occasion would be tolerable, not usually, just on occasion.

But Sully has begun a new contest, the Malkin Award. I believe the prize is three and a half years in your own little internment camp. But in any case, the winner uses the most cliches in a utterance.

Now from Sullivan, that takes a lot of balls. Not that Li'l LuLu isn't a synapse killing train-wreck of both logic and style, of course. But for Sully to give out a cliche award, well, I agree with this commenter at Atrios that a good nominee would be this gem:

"The middle part of the country--the great red zone that voted for Bush--is clearly ready for war. The decadent left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead--and may well mount a fifth column." -- Andrew Sullivan, September 16, 2001.

So many other potential nominees, especially in in the Winter/Spring of 2002/2003 when Sully got the vapors.

As ever, SullyWatch is the place to go for all your milky-loaded reference materials (for you neophytes that is only partly a pornographic reference):

If he wants to really have fun and twist the knife, he can and should call it The Maglalang Award.

Of course, as richly deserving as she is of it, two things need to be said here.

One is that Sullivan has to disclose the obvious payback, since Malkin accused him (with some justification in our opinion) of fraud over the summer. Ever since he’s had a very long knife out for her.

Two is, just who the hell is Andrew Sullivan to talk about schoolyard insults himself, he of the infamous “Fifth Column” column? (Readers are invited to sbumit examples for future publication) Maybe the real challenge would be for him to write about Chomsky, Alterman, Moore or someone else at an intellectual and emotional level above the age of eight (and not combined, either).

Okrent--the Ethical Minder of the New York Times

Daniel Okrent, on with Tweety last night had this to say on his job description with the Times:

My role is to criticize whatever I find in “The Times” that merits criticism for violations of ethical standards, for not coming up to levels of journalistic practice that the paper ought to be engaged in. And I get to do it in the pages of the paper. I write a column every other week. It doesn‘t get edited by anybody at the paper. And I‘m free to say what I wish to say about what the paper has done.

Oh really? Remember Atrios writing about this one a while back? Ethical standards indeed.

He also had some not-so-interesting things to say about the paper's liberal bent.

But over the course of a long campaign, I could show you as much counterevidence to the support of one candidate as I could to the other. On the other hand, I do think that “The Times,” and I am speaking only for myself and not for “The Times”—I have to say that—does on some social issues, particularly, if not hue to a liberal line, I think that there is sort of a tendency to support certain positions that are, I think, you know, indicative to the nature of the journalistic class of the city of New York and Washington, where most of the journalists live. And that gets into the paper on a regular basis.

Is he reading the same paper I am (Miller, Bumiller, et al.)?

Otherwise, typical Tweety blather.

And a Voice Could Be Heard From the Residence

Condi, when do they put the crib, the shepards, and the wise men under that big candle?

Overlooked Story

Given recent discussions of additional contracts and support staff in Iraq, I wanted to remind everyone of the kind of work that Halliburton does... I am sure that Dear Leader and Trusty have lots of plans for their friends in the corporate world since they have to repay them for the purchasing of the election.

Retired general backs Halliburton whistleblower

Allegations of racism, sexism at Corps of Engineers

A senior Army contracting officer who had criticized a contract given to Halliburton had been subjected to a racist and sexist work environment, her former supervisor, a retired general, said in an affidavit.

The affidavit by retired Lt. Gen. Joe N. Ballard demonstrated the integrity of Bunnatine Greenhouse, said her attorney, Michael Kohn. Greenhouse, chief contracting officer for the Army Corps of Engineers , has charged that the Army showed favoritism to Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, and that she was frozen out of decisions affecting it.

That work environment "just made it that much more difficult for Ms. Greenhouse to take the action she took. She was under immense pressure to cave in," Kohn said Sunday.

In the affidavit, Ballard said "Ms. Greenhouse's race (African-American) and gender ruffled a lot of feathers in the Corps command and also contributed to the disparate and highly critical treatment she has received."

The affidavit was filed last year as part of a disciplinary proceedings against Greenhouse in which she was exonerated, Kohn said. A copy was obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.

An Army spokesman said the Pentagon's inspector general's office was investigating the Halliburton contracting issue and referred a call seeking comment Sunday to the Defense Department. Spokesman Jim Turner said he wasn't aware of the affidavit and if the inspector general is investigating, the department wouldn't have a comment.

The FBI is investigating Halliburton's no-bid work and has asked Greenhouse's lawyers for an interview with her.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has repeatedly said that the Pentagon showed favoritism to Halliburton, wasting reconstruction funds. The Bush administration has rejected the charges.

In his affidavit, Ballard said Greenhouse strictly followed contracting regulations and maintained high ethical standards in her work, but was subjected to hostility by Corps officials.

"I did not believe that females and minorities are always treated fairly at the corps because of long-standing `good ole boy' mentality by a number of members of the command," he said.

He said at times women and minorities were disciplined for offenses that weren't as serious as those committed by white men.
Kohn said he was unaware of any actions taken by the Corps in response to Ballard's claims of sexism and racism.

Some pictures for Today

I may be no Attaturk but some of these pictures are dying for captions.


"Let's see... 1300, 1301, 1303, 1304... Damn it where was I?"


"Employees don't need no stinkin' health insurance!"


"Why we democrats don't need a plan, why?"


To the embarrassment of the press corps, Bush demonstrates his Iraqi war "cock" walk.


"Cool, I can see myself!"


"Why no, we don't have any black people in the party!"


"Hmmmm, I bet I could take him."


"Yeah, Iraq is over that away."

What Reward for Failure? Four More Years

Rummy, largely running the clusterfuck that is Iraq, regrets not finding WMD and underestimating the power of the insurgency and is still defiant on the issue of troop levels.

Looking back over the past four years, he acknowledged that the two biggest mistakes or misjudgments that had been made - though not necessarily by him - were the failure to discover any prohibited weapons in Iraq ("that's clearly a disappointment") and a lack of intelligence that predicted "the degree of insurgency today."

He remained defiant in the face of critics who say the United States failed to send enough troops to Iraq initially to handle postwar security and, now, to combat the insurgents.

He contended that the decision on troop levels was largely "out of my control," since he was following the advice and requests of his regional commanders, first Gen. Tommy R. Franks and now Gen. John P. Abizaid and Gen. George W. Casey Jr.

Riiiight.

Of course no mention of the torture issue which heats up by the hour. Now the ACLU has, through FOIA requests, found documents showing that Special Forces personnel threatened DOD staffers if they talked about what they saw.

Two Defense Department intelligence officials reported observing brutal treatment of Iraqi insurgents captured in Baghdad last June, several weeks after disclosures of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison there created a worldwide uproar, according to a memorandum disclosed today.

The memorandum, written by the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to a senior Pentagon official, said that when the two members of his agency objected to the treatment, they were threatened and told to keep quiet by other military interrogators. The memorandum said that the Defense Intelligence Agency officials saw prisoners being brought in to a detention center with burn marks on their backs and complaining about sore kidneys.

For Rummy, everything is just hunky dory.

He said he enjoyed working with Mr. Bush, whom he called "an excellent executive," was in good health, had no young children and was eager to tackle of series of continuing professional challenges, from revamping the military's overseas basing arrangements to overhauling the Pentagon's personnel system.

Of all of them, Rumsfeld has failed the worst (Condi is a close second) yet he is richly rewarded. Imagine how sweet life would be for most of us if we had a boss who expected little more than loyalty and a stiff back. History will judge them fairly becasue they are on the wrong side of it.

Until then, all we can do is hope that some on our side have the courage to bring the torture issue front and center.

Rumsfeld's Hand Jive

See, it's sleight of hand. You divert attention with hand gestures to make it look like you are saying something that makes sense, even when you're giving the press the business.

Rumsfeld Tells The Troops: Stop Yer' Whinin'

Rumsfeld addressed 2,300 American soldiers today and was asked some direct questions.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

Though he didn't stop there, just so the soldiers understood that he felt their pain, he added:

And, the defense chief added, armor is not always a savior in the kind of combat U.S. troops face in Iraq, where the insurgents' weapon of choice is the roadside bomb, or improvised explosive device that has killed and maimed hundreds, if not thousands, of American troops since the summer of 2003.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

He even talked some about the backdoor draft.

Yet another soldier asked, without putting it to Rumsfeld as a direct criticism, how much longer the Army will continue using its "stop loss" power to prevent soldiers from leaving the service who are otherwise eligible to retire or quit.

Rumsfeld said that this condition was simply a fact of life for soldiers at time of war.

"It's basically a sound principle, it's nothing new, it's been well understood" by soldiers, he said. "My guess is it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used."

Translation: We have a misinformation campaign we're trying to run out of Washington, so as bad as you think you've got it here, I'm doing some pretty heavy lifting myself. You can't believe the flak, well not the kind of flak you're taking, but flak nonetheless, back at the Pentagon. And that is a big building. So geez, would you lighten up and just do your jobs.

A Short Visit to where Bizarro Street & Incontinence Avenue Meet

Where Peter Robinson reveals THE WHITEST FAMILY ON EARTH -- including the poodle!

Three things:

1. Surely he forwarded this to David Brooks.

2. Apparently, Robinson is considering becoming the Joe Jackson of the Natalists crowd. I can just see a song coming up about their white rat.

3. There seems to be "hope" for one child.

Unfortunate Headline of the Day

Thanks, Washington Post.

"Schwarzenegger Lends Women His Muscle"

Tragically, the Jokes all but Write Themselves

Sometimes, you find snark, sometimes it finds you.

The Iraq war is a test of wills from which the US Army will grow stronger as it seeks to transform itself into a 21st century fighting force, a top army general said.

General Peter Schoomaker, army chief of staff, refused however to guarantee that the US military would successfully defeat the ongoing insurgency and pave the way for a democratic Iraqi government to take power.

"There's nobody dumb enough to stand up here and guarantee anything," he said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank.*

Hmmm, we better look to somebody who is:

"The terrorists will do all they can to delay and disrupt free elections in Iraq ,and they will fail," the president said. "Free elections will proceed as planned...

"We'll help the Iraqi government build a force that no longer needs coalition support, so they can defend their own nation and then American soldiers and Marines can come home with the honor they have earned."

*Although I might add, c'mon you are at the Heritage Foundation and you cannot find somebody that dumb?

Bad Anniversaries

Most everyone remembers that yesterday was the "Day that will Live in Infamy", well at least most everyone not educated at a charter school.

Many kids educated at fundamentalist home schools, combining their history and biology classes remember December 7, 1941, as the day, "the Muslims and the ACLU bombed Pearl Harbor with flesh-eating dinosaurs!"

Today is the anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. Who, had he lived, would undoubtedly be ripped once a week by Bill O'Reilly.

Leave it to Bobo

Seems Davy's (where's Goliath?) little paean to the joys of white people and the bountiful fruit of their abutted loins, has a few more potholes than even I, Atta J. Turk, thought possible. Or as would be asked in the language of the white-faced, white-picketed world of David Brooks:

"Oh, Ward, aren't you being a little hard on the Beaver Bobo?"

"No, June, I'm not. That boy has to learn a thing or two, or people are going to assume he died in 'Nam!"

In this day & age (as in "now") citing a modern eugenicist, is, well, disturbing.

Golly, Bobo really would fit in well in Nazi Germany, let alone with Wally. Actually, having seen Brooks on more than a few occasions, I think he is more of an Eddie Haskell type.

Oh, and here is another Bobacular throw out from Brooks gone spectacularly wrong (thanks to Atrios' commenter, Nina Katrina). In yesterday's column Brooks wrote:

Young families move away from what they perceive as disorder, vulgarity and danger and move to places like Douglas County in Colorado (which is the fastest-growing county in the country and has one of the highest concentrations of kids)...

What they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parents. People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.

Yes, it's all white-bread paradise for those Douglas County basketballers:

For the second time in two months, a Douglas County judge has denied a request to lower the $500,000 bond holding Rick Lopez, former coach of the Colorado Hoopsters girls' basketball team. Lopez is facing more than 50 charges of alleged sexual assault of three of his former players...

Lopez, 36, formerly of Castle Rock, faces 55 felony counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust or pattern of abuse, three counts of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of misdemeanor child abuse. He was arrested July 30 on a sealed warrant in Syracuse, N.Y., where he was allegedly stalking a former player.

I'm sure Daniel Okrent will be on this, like a complaining e-mailer.

Bush Boom Pffffffft

Well, here's a rosy economic scenario:

The U.S. economic outlook dimmed on Tuesday after reports said business productivity grew more slowly in the third quarter than first estimated, labor costs rose and other indicators signaled softening activity.

Chain store sales fell in the crucial shopping period after Thanksgiving, planned job cuts climbed during November and a survey of consumer confidence waned in possible pointers that the economy tempered its pace in the final months of the year.

Outstanding U.S. consumer credit swelled to $2.093 trillion in October, the Federal Reserve said.

The Labor Department said nonfarm business productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the July-to-September period -- the slowest clip since the fourth quarter of 2002. It also nudged up growth in unit labor costs to a 1.8 percent pace in a potential boost to inflation.

Wall Street had expected an upward revision to productivity growth to a 2.0 percent rate from an originally reported third-quarter pace of 1.9 percent. Productivity in the second quarter grew at a rate of 3.9 percent.

Terrific. I salute our Chimperial Wizards of the Economy. I think there is only one thing for Bush to do, blame Greenspan. I can imagine somebody over at the intersection of Sophistry Street & Sweet-Sweet Derbyshire Ass Avenue bloviating (in a sure winner of a 2005 Weblog Award):

"I cannot be the only one to notice that the mass marketing of Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis all all coincide with the struggle of the American Economy to rebound. One cannot help but notice the correlation between increased Andrea Mitchell humping and the stagnation of the American Economy. It has little to do with the President, and much to do with a preoccupied and aroused Alan Greenspan."

You know, or words to that effect, my bet is it will be Rich Lowry.

Aroused, Alan Greenspan, surely enough to make K-Lo break out the vibrator and read "How to Make Love Like a Youth Pastor".

And it's not getting any better:

"The biggest worry for the economy is that the large number of lower-middle class and middle-class Americans struggling to make it paycheck to paycheck will be short of discretionary income during the holiday shopping season," said John Challenger, the firm's chief executive, in a statement.

A survey of consumer confidence told a similar story, with Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence reporting that their economic optimism index fell modestly to 54.5 in December after dropping to 55.1 in November. A reading above 50 indicates optimism.

Indeed, U.S. retailers continued to report disappointing sales in the key week after the Thanksgiving Day holiday, which kicks off the Christmas shopping season.

A report by Redbook Research, an independent company, showed sales in December to-date were down 0.8 percent compared with November.

Maine Chips in

MB Williams of Wampum, unknowingly touches upon one of my favorite themes, that Eisenhower was a veritable quote machine, and undoubtedly would have a thing or two to lecture Bush about today.

Most readers of this blog also read the bigger blogboys. Therefore, they know that a couple days ago Atrios, Drum, and Yglesias engaged in a cat(blogging)fight over Michael Moore and whether he, and other generally (not universally) anti-military activist types should be disowned, shunted aside, and not even listened to.

I came down squarely against the anti-Liebermanian branch (Drum, Yglesias), considering them in essence wussy militarists. As Atrios pointed out, apparently one can be wrong by arguing for a war, without getting credit for being right about not fighting a war.

But MB remembered to do something I'm ashamed I didn't think of (although at the time I had other things to do in my actual compensated profession), that Michael Moore isn't doing something that noted radical "Dwight David Eisenhower" had not already pointed out:

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Eisenhower first recognized the sleeping giant: Moore only reported on it awake and pillaging the village.

TOUCHÉ.

MB then goes on to discuss what was one of the true turning points of history -- one where we as a nation held all the cards and ONCE AGAIN turned down the wrong fucking path -- all for the sake of our industries of arms and paranoia. Go read it because it pisses me off to no end whenever I think about it.

Oh, and it really is well written -- I'm not sucking up only to remind you people of the Koufax Awards or anything and possibly nominating anything from this blog.

Stop rolling your eyes dammit!

File under LOVE THAT TITLE

The Grammy nominations are out. My favorite song title of the nominated songs (country, of course): "It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chewed your ass out all day long" written by Rodney Crowell and Vince gill. Damn, is that the Condi theme song?

Which One of These Three Doesn't Belong?

Because we took action the world is a safer place.


I mean it.



No, really I mean it.

Bush Doublespeak

The Bush Misadministration keeps talking about having delivered "freedom" to Iraq. Note our pal Rummy yesterday and today in his "speechifying." I think I remember a few other members of the staff of misadministration speaking about "freedom" and Iraq from time to time.

Freedom is such a shibboleth! The Bushies love to say the word even though it has so many different meanings. I would contend that there are several different meanings of the word.

In my lighter moments (yeah, they do so happen), I like to think of freedom (in the context of class) from the standpoint of the Old English framework. The British talked of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.” The pursuit of “property” implied that all bona fide members of the citizenry should have the right to pursue private property, without restriction, in a “free” market.

When the United States was being established as an independent nation, the framers of our declaration of independence from England were members of a landed-aristocracy. As such, they were apparently less than willing to grant unrestricted freedom to the masses with regard to this right. And so, the word “happiness” was intentionally substituted for the word “property.” In that context, the new citizens of the United States were defined as having the right to be happy, but are not necessarily the right to freely pursue property. So, the U.S.A. is founded on ridiculous assumptions of freedom.

There are at least two basic political meanings: positive freedom (freedom for government) and negative freedom (freedom from government). There are costs associated with both. It takes effort to register low-income voters so that they realize their freedom for government and to use government to effect freedom from want and freedom from fear (rather than government promoting fear as a basis for a pre-emptive war).

It also takes effort to protect civil liberties and to prevent government encroachment on free enterprise (if that's your thing). So however you slice it, freedom is not simple and blowing shit up is never a good way to define it.

There is a third kind of political freedom, and that is national independence. This freedom we violated when we presumed that we could "bring freedom to Iraq," and the costs have been horrendous for ourselves and even more for the Iraqis. Because "freedom is not free," we should count the real costs and avoid costly misadventures to "defend freedom."

The Minority Party Must Respond

It isn't as if the mainstream news outlets haven't been covering this story. There has to be more outrage. The story on detainee abuse in Iraq and Cuba is equal to or greater than lying our way to war. This is not an issue the minority party can play under the table politics with the majority. It must bring the matter full front and center and give it the public airing it deserves.

Misadministration admits cannot win hearts and minds

The right-wing's idol-in-chief Reagan once quoting a famous poem contended that America was a City on a Hill. The so-called great communicator got away with subverting the constitution because he thought that he was fighting a holy war against communism so perhaps I should not be surprised with the current state of affairs. Bush deludedly believes that he is fighting a holy war against Terrorism. The difference is that while the Gipper clothed himself in the religious rhetoric, he was not a true believer. Well, at least not in the pedantic extreme born again sense.

And what have we become now? What kind of image have we created that will last the ages?

We bully our neighbors and supposed friends. We ignore any international treaties at whim because we don't like them. We avoid international agreements and conventions because they might damage business or limit our ability to "fight" terrorism. We go to war on false premises and lies. We say one thing and then do another time and again with this current misadministration.

We have created enemies where there was none. Furthermore we continue to antagonize the world with a mean-spirited cowboy international policy.

This chart clearly demonstrates the consequences of this horrible policy (from Ed Stephan, you can see a more readable version, here


And now we admit that we cannot even win what was supposedly the major objective in Iraq -- transforming the middle east.

Time and time again now Mr. Preznit has demonstrated a callous disregard for our most cherished principles. The Right and Nut-wing attacked Clinton for far far far less. It is time that we begin creating a coordinated move for the impeachment of George W. Bush. History will judge as harshly for anything else.

Our Art Critic in Residence

"Isn't this one of those Titt-ians like the one I saw on E. Buzz Miller's Art Classics? The guy who liked to paint broads on couches? Hey Condi, if you look real close you can see her..."

The Accidental Tourist

Since the election we've all had our share of smug, self assured Bush supporters telling us to get over it. His lack of qualfications for the office is now trumped by the fact that he has been elected by a majority of the popular vote. They say the point is now moot, the question irrelevant. Well not for me it isn't.

What best exemplifies Bush's lack of qualification? His spotty academic record? His failures in the business world? His lack of accomplishment in a do-nothing job as governor of Texas? His history as an abuser of drugs and alcohol? All of these matter but what I think best exemplifies his complete lack of qualification for the office is his apparent deficiency of interest in the world around him and how the cumulation of events in the US and outside the US affects us today.

Here it is in full bloom.

Mr. Bush never lingers at much of anything, but he really doesn't linger in museums and at historical sites. On Tuesday in Quebec, the president spent only 30 minutes at the National Archives of Canada, where he efficiently gazed at portraits of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 2002, Mr. Bush spent only 30 minutes at the Great Wall of China, which he visited on the way to the airport. In 2003, during a six-day trip to Africa, he spent 15 minutes at the Slave House on Goree Island in Senegal, which is said to have been the holding pen and departure point for as many as a million slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean.

He spent only 60 minutes at a game park in Botswana, a country he visited for a total of six hours.

Can you imagine 30 minutes at the Great Wall? 15 minutes at the Slave House in Senegal? It is all in the past. You get the feeling that if it predates his presidency it doesn't hold much relevance to him, that he is put out having to think about it.

Consider this moment from the dedication of the Clinton Library.

At the private luncheon afterwards, in a heated tent pitched behind the library, Shimon Peres delivered a heartfelt toast to Clinton's perseverance in pursuing the Middle East peace process. Upon entering the tent, Bush, according to an eyewitness, told an aide: "One gulp and we're out of here." He had informed the Clintons he would stay through the lunch, but by the time Peres arose with wine glass in hand the president was gone.

And what does he do when he finally extricates himself from places and events that he finds no fun?

The president has even less patience with elaborate welcoming ceremonies and official dinners on foreign trips. "He'll usually get on the plane and jokingly say, 'Thank you, Condi, I enjoyed that,' " said a Bush aide, who asked not to be identified because the president's remarks reflected impatience with his job. He was referring to Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and presidential minder.

Ever the imperious boss, he lets his minders know that it was all too much work. Why do I have to do this, can't we go back to that fancy room where I live and play those computer war simulations? Pleeease Uncle Dick! Can you imagine him stomping his feet? Like the spoiled brat Spaulding from the movie Caddyshack, he's not just demanding but he does things precisely becasue he can get away with them (didn't he tell Woodward something like: that's the thing about being Preznit, nobody questions your decisions). Like Spaulding just when he thinks nobody is looking he probably picks his nose and sneaks in just a little taste.

There you go, a few reasons Bush is a lousy, unqualified president.

Pussy vs. Wussy

Ever wonder if Richard Cohen and Nicholas Kristof get together on occasion and compare notes over who is the least effective establishment liberal?

I mean it would be a hell of a contest, a little like watching five-year olds play soccer. Only less entertaining and attended by fewer folks on the State's Registry. However, when it comes to pants wetting it would probably be be about even.

Like "Highlander" there can be only one.

Who will prevail, well maybe not prevail, who can be the first to declare it a draw?

So Much to Caption

What material, the Chimp in Chief and his minions give us. But before Blogger refuses to let me post again, let me get this up.


No Kidding?! You are calling me from an Airplane Phone? WOW! That is really cool.


Come closer boys, I'm dusty.


For you Star Trek Fans....

Cheney: Beep!

Karzai: Beep! Beep!

Cheney: Beep!


Establishing a new inaugural ritual, Karzai smells the seat cushion in which Lynn Cheney passed wind. Who needs the Stone of Scone! Next up, the holy panties of Condeleeza.


"Hmmmm, I'm guessing a breakfast burrito"

In other news:


The Japanese have finally taken the step so many of us have been waiting for. A festive work bong.


Alright, I've been tolerant enough, but if the Muslim World is also going to inflict "Barbershop Music" on us, I'm going to be one melancholy baby at the Camptown Races this year, and I'm going to take it out on the bob-tail nag.


"Doo"!


"Um....line?"


"Dah"

Happy Hannukah

Jerry Falwell would like to remind you that some of his best friends are Jewish.



Mine too. It's just that unlike Falwell, I'm friendly with the 99.99999% non-batshit crazy, rapture inducing, evil portion.

I Would Just Like to Add, Attaturk has had Sex -- With Another Person

Just a little preemptive explanation as to why next Tuesday's blogging may be light, what with this coming out and all.

While engaged with that, you may also find me at an appropriate site for interactive communication with others viewing this item at the same time.

I believe it's at http://www.onehandedtypists.com.

If you also have some interest in this item, you may get an early start here, but try to pace yourself.

BoBo Writes about Those He Doesn't Know

Bobo pretends he's Magda Goebbels.

So there are significant fertility inequalities across regions. People on the Great Plains and in the Southwest are much more fertile than people in New England or on the Pacific coast.

You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.

...

What they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parents. People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.

What a disposable douche. Bobo so loves those people in the Great Plains and the Southwest...that he lives with all those non-productive New Yorkers where he can get his lattes.

I know this is a recurrent theme at this blog, but is there a more lameass editorialists than Brooks? I mean, obviously there are more ill-informed ones, crazier columnists, more malevolent blowhards, hell thanks to Bob Novak, there are even possible traitors who get 500 words twice a week. But is there are more pusillanimous sop than this guy?

Read today's column, and then look at this parody of the guy I first wrote a couple months ago (if you cannot recycle as a blogger, what is the point?):

Austria Ready for Unification's Message

Vienna Times, March 10, 1938

Yesterday, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on whether Austria will remain independent, or follow the natural dictates of its ethnic composition and join with growing Germany, now seemingly reborn under the steady and determined leadership of its Fuhrer, Austrian native, Adolf Hitler.

To some this seems to be an example of Schnuschnigg caving in to the pressures of the more dynamic and strong-willed German leader, but those with this view are clearly a minority.

It is true that the intellectuals of Vienna bemoan the apparent loss of an Austria identity through an alliance with the German Reich. However, as one who has traveled throughout the Tirol on many a skiing vacation, rather than just confining myself to effete coffee-houses, like Herr Krugmann, I can tell you that the feelings of those in the city favoring non-confederation, let's call them "pessimists", are not shared by the common Austrians that make up the back bone of this land. I like to call them, "anschlussmists"

These common people, the people of the beer halls, sausage factories, clock makers, puppeteers, and all those wearing the brown-shirt and leiderhosen of pride agree that it is better for Austria's future to join in league with its powerful and upward-moving neighbor to the north than to remain in a state of meaningless independence.

It is true the pessimists, comprised as they are of intellectuals, artists, and financiers, all have financial or religious reasons for opposing the plan so advocated by Herr Hitler and now the strong-willed Schuschnigg. However, their claims and concerns seem both overwrought and unduly dour, especially to the average hard-working Austrian of the Alps who unarguably have made this country what it is. What the family in Innsbrook wants may not seem right and proper to the academic in Vienna, but that does not mean that the bulk of the former will not have their voices heard.

It is true that Herr Hitler has, while rising to power in Berlin, made statements regarding Jews that are strident and even accurately called impolite. However, now that he has taken political power in Germany, other than minor changes in the law, he has yet to put this rhetoric into practice. There is little evidence at this point that even if that language was something he was serious about, which it is likely he was not, it is language of the past and not of policy. Appealing to one's base through hyperbole is part and parcel of any political process and there is little evidence of any pending actions against jews*. It seems unlikely that Austrians have anything to worry about on this score and indeed such assertions now seem to be simply "fear mongering".

In the coming hours, Austrians will have to make the faithful decision, we must make sure that we respect the will of the majority and not let fear and use demogougery to cloud what should be evident to all.

Shout Out to Ranters

As some of you can guess by seeing the early postings today, Attaturk is having trouble finding his muse. But like Pavlov's dogs, he has a compulsion to put up posts anyway.

While I'm waiting for my creative jones to kick in, enjoy the rantings of a not famous enough blogger, Rorschach.

Thank God, Krugman's Back for a Moment

And discussing the gigantic fraud that is the Social Security Reform crisis:

Privatizing Social Security - replacing the current system, in whole or in part, with personal investment accounts - won't do anything to strengthen the system's finances. If anything, it will make things worse. Nonetheless, the politics of privatization depend crucially on convincing the public that the system is in imminent danger of collapse, that we must destroy Social Security in order to save it.

I'll have a lot to say about all this when I return to my regular schedule in January. But right now it seems important to take a break from my break, and debunk the hype about a Social Security crisis.

There's more.

How much would you pay to see Bobo on Lehrer discuss this matter with White House talking points only to have Krugman emerge and call him a "gigantic pussball"?

Round 3:

Some pictures just come to you.


What Laura doesn't know is that the President is currently enjoying a very different kind of 'White Christmas'.

Round II

Holden and Attaturk are still dueling it out.


"It is with great regret that I accept Secretary Thompson's request. He will no longer be responsible for catering the food at this year's White House Christmas Party."

Shit waiting to Blow up

The United States forced military conscription service and the coalition of da willin' "allies" (or is that you give us much money and we send a few soldiers to get shot at) keep turning to that employment boom known as private contractors (read: private companies) to fill a few thousand jobs that were once performed only by the quintessential bureaucrat or do I mean soldiers? We all know how well those freelance prison interrogators turned out. Lovely, lovely.

So leave it to Mother Jones writer Barry Yeoman to report on how under pressure to fill jobs quickly many of these companies have recruited former police officers and soldiers who engaged in human rights violations in such places as South Africa, Chile, and the former Yugoslavia.

Man, am I alone in thinking that shit has already hit the fan? Or is it worse?

Like Ned Beatty in Deliverace...

In celebration of the battles between Atrios (won't blogroll me), Kevin Drum (won't blogroll me) and Matthew Yglesias (won't blogroll me), Holden of First Draft and I are staging our own fight -- you may choose to view this as a couple of guys running and doing all sorts of ineffective slappings, or you can have us captioning. I'd take the latter.

I'm ready for the dueling banjos...

Holden shot first, now here is mine:


"Hmmm, speaking of mandate, does the carpet match the lack of drapes?"

Problems with Metaphor and Values

So the Neocon roll call has repeatedly come up with the metaphor that the 9-11 attacks are equivalent to Pearl Harbor or worse. They claim that they, like Bettin'Man Big Bill Bennett, claim to have morals and values on their side. So, they claim that God must be on their side too. These shrill inhuman voices keep shouting that we had no warning and that these attacks targeted civilians (if you watch the debate shows that is, for me I watch with the sound turned off and listen to music).

Now that is an interesting point, if not in the incessant whine of an Ann Coulter or Instahack, or Andy. Civilians were targeted, hmmmm... Oh where recently have I heard that refrain?

The problem, at least in my mind, with equating the 9-11 attacks with the Pearl Harbor attack, lies not in the fact that Hawaii was a territory, but that the 9-11 attacks were not carried out by a nation-state. For all we knew, the perpetrators of the attack were dead with the rest of their victims.

Therefore, who deserves retaliation? I shuddered, like I am sure everyone else who reads this blog, when I realized they were going to attack Afghanistan. I was certainly no fan of the Taliban, but what did the average Afghani have to do with the 9-11 attacks? And how have we been made safer by this boyhood adventure into the mountains?

I remember hearing in one news report that members of a bombed out village in Afghanistan had no idea what was going on. As globalized as this society is, there are people who have no idea who the president of the United States is and why he hates them. But the leaders of their country allowed the Al-Q to squat in their country and that by golly was reason enough to attack.

Now we are engaged in intensive war with Iraqi insurgents (or should they be thought of as freedom fighters as they want their country back, heck its theirs to fuck up, isn't it?), and again, what did the average person from Fallujah have to do with the 9-11 attacks? I simply cannot understand how anyone can think that these activities are sanctioned by God, under the prophethood of George Bush. THESE are the moral values of the right: Targeting civilians!

Seems like the moral values of the right sound a lot like the values of the terrorists.

Winning Hearts and Minds

Lovely news sure to reach out across the region that more photos depicting torture, some in people's homes, are showing up on the web and ought to make the prospects for peace and elections, well, less certain.

Wonder what the "will of the people" will be on this one?

On the Supreme Court, Being "One Smart Guy" Is Not Enough

I posted late last night my take on Senator Reid's appearance on MTP. I am underwhelmed but willing to give the guy a chance. On the positive side (Social Security "privatization", calling the chimp a liar, and not allowing Russert to diminsih the influence of the caucus) he was ok. But on the negative side, he's got some splaining to do. Reid's positions on abortion and gay marriage left a lot to be desired. But his take on Supreme Court nominations warrants a little further discussion.

In stating that the President should first consult with him before sending up a name is right, as was his comment about Clarence Thomas. But what his answer signalled about Scalia was bizarre. One more time:

RUSSERT: Let me turn to judicial nominations.

Again, Harry Reid on National Public Radio, November 19: "If they" -- the Bush White House -- "for example, gave us Clarence Thomas as chief justice, I personally feel that would be wrong. If they gave us Antonin Scalia, that's a little different question. I may not agree with some of his decisions, but I agree with the brilliance of his mind."

Could you support Antonin Scalia to be chief justice of the Supreme Court?

REID: If he can overcome the ethics problems that have arisen since he was selected as a justice of the Supreme Court. And those ethics problems, you've talked about them, every reporter has talked about them in town, where he took trips that were probably not in keeping with the code of judicial ethics. So we have to get over this.

I cannot dispute the fact, as I have said, that this is one smart guy. And I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reason for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute.

Here is what one smart guy has to say about judges who philosophically disagree with the death penalty:

Addressing students at Georgetown University last week, Scalia argued that Catholic judges who believe the church's teaching that capital punishment is wrong should not be on the bench, stating that "any Catholic jurists (with such concerns) ... would have to resign."

Yeah he is smart, but that isn't enough to qualify him or anyone for the highest court in the land. Real battles are fought regarding our rights in trial courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. We can debate whether the Supreme Court has as much influence over our lives as congress or the executive branch (see Jeffrey Rosen in yesterday's NYT Sunday Mag) but what seems beyond debate is whether a court full of Scalias makes a difference to people that believe they have a right to privacy. More later.

Six Weeks Late Humorous Picture of the Day.

Kudos to Holden for posting up the pic.

Cargo plane reenacts the last flight of Otis Redding.


Naturally, the message is misspelled.

The Kennedy Center Honors -- AKA "The Washington Prom"

The Bush Administration paying tribute to six people that voted against it. What could be a better subject for picture captioning?


Billy Joel and his wife Kate arrive. Ms. Joel's Wife wears the relieved smile that can only indicate that Billy agreed to take a cab.


Katie Couric and her magic colon.


Robert Downey Jr., moments before he asked Denny Hastert if he could sleep it off at his house.


"Desperate House Non-Wife"


Bill Cohen and wife Janet Langhart Cohen arrive and make Samuel Francis cry into his white sheets.


Bo Derek is crushed to learn that, once again, she has not been honored by the Kennedy Center.


Joe Lieberman congratulates Don Rumsfeld on his body count.


Washington's "Hot Sex" couple arrives, sans typical accessories of riding crop and ball-gag.


L to R: Kerry voter, Kerry voter, "oops", Kerry voter, Kerry voter, Kerry voter, Kerry voter, Kerry voter.


John Kerry demonstrates to Warren Beatty what he is going to do to John O'Neill at his first opportunity.


The look on Dear Leader shows that he is making sure that Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are appropriately enthusiastic at his entrance.


The Kennedy Center Honors the most prestigious and successful of American Artists. And, I guess, Elton John.

Headline of the Day

"House GOP in Debate on Intelligence Bill"

Majority of GOP, opposed.

Who will Fill the Charisma Gap?

How can this be? John Snow, Treasury Secretary, on his way out the door.



Who now will be the pretty face of American Capitalism?