Harold Pinter takes it to Bush...and to a large extent Americans

To a certain extent some of what Pinter said in accepting his Nobel Prize yesterday is overwrought and a bit broad. Most of what he says about Bush is absolutely right, much of what he says about we, as Americans, is uncomfortably close to the truth. It may not be wholly correct on every particular, but far too much of its gist is correct. I'm putting two large chunks of his speech up because they are food for thought and so little heard in this country -- and if they are, those who say them are shouted down by the powers that be -- or the insipid minions they inspire.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

It's a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US.

The United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great Britain.

...

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort – all other justifications having failed to justify themselves – as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.

Death in this context is irrelevant. Both Bush and Blair place death well away on the back burner. At least 100,000 Iraqis were killed by American bombs and missiles before the Iraq insurgency began. These people are of no moment. Their deaths don't exist. They are blank. They are not even recorded as being dead. 'We don't do body counts,' said the American general Tommy Franks.

Early in the invasion there was a photograph published on the front page of British newspapers of Tony Blair kissing the cheek of a little Iraqi boy. 'A grateful child,' said the caption. A few days later there was a story and photograph, on an inside page, of another four-year-old boy with no arms. His family had been blown up by a missile. He was the only survivor. 'When do I get my arms back?' he asked. The story was dropped. Well, Tony Blair wasn't holding him in his arms, nor the body of any other mutilated child, nor the body of any bloody corpse. Blood is dirty. It dirties your shirt and tie when you're making a sincere speech on television.

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

There is, in reality, no honest discourse on a broad scale in the United States. We have military bases all over the world. While going out of our way to ignore it, we are the greatest imperial power in the history of the world. While preaching the doctrine of "freedom" and "democracy" we use those words as weapons both intellectual and physical against states that either practice such concepts with different words, or more often, may have those same concepts but do not fall in line with our whims.

France has "freedom" and "democracy" on a level equal to ours -- yet how many Americans do not like the French because they criticize, however constructively, who we want to fucking bomb? Go back and trace our relationship with France over the last forty years, the dispute has always been about who wants to bomb who. Either we want to bomb someone (Libya, Iraq, etc.) or they do (Greenpeace). Our response, a national fit of immaturity (freedom fries, the latest boycott organized by National Fuckstick O'Reilly).

Venezuela has some semblance of both freedom and democracy, but their President is a blowhard that likes to point out the elephant in the room. Discovering that the elephant is us there is only one solution, support a coup against him. That failing, we essentially organize a "Hugo Chavez" is teh crazy compaign.

It goes on and on and on. And anyone who stops to question that machine, suggesting that everything the United States does in the world may not be the greatest thing ever, is castigated and marginalized.

Meanwhile, we spend half a trillion every year on bombs, guns, and associated killing machines...all in the name of "preserving our way of life". Nobody ever stops to posit...maybe if we spend only $250 Billion on such things we might be able to not only preserve, but quite possibly improve our way of life.

Hell, if we weren't spending $300 billion on creating a hodge-podge, perpetual civil war in Iraq, we might even be able to save an important American City assuming a bunch of Republicans could be motivated to save a city comprised of large numbers of African-Americans. But no, not only do we promise emptily and deliver shit, we forget them -- why we don't even collect the bodies of Americans anymore, we just let them rot or wash out to sea.

But you better say "Merry CHRISTMAS" asshole!

Because this is America, land of the allegedly free, home of the photo-opped brave, inventor of the TV Dinner, perfector of the microwave dinner and the bunker-buster bomb.

Not Quite Forgotten Hero

The good McCarthy.

Fixated Much Bill?

From Media Matters it appears that *shockingly* O'Reilly seems to have issues with a certain segment of our society. All while pimping his interview with Howard Stern.

Bill cannot get his mind off of lesbians.

There is one thing I know of that can get Bill's mind off of lesbians though and that's sitting on a giant dildo while on the phone with his latest victim.

Do not we all remember this timeless classic?

66. During the course of O'REILLY's telephone monologue on August 2, 2004, he suggested that Plaintiff ANDREA MACKRIS purchase a vibrator and name it, and that he had one "shaped like a cock with a little battery in it" that a woman had given him. It became apparent that Defendant was masturbating as he spoke. After he climaxed, Defendant O'REILLY said to Plaintiff: "I appreciate the fun phone call. You can have fun tonight. I'll appreciate it. I mean it."

Ah, yes, the man who is leading the charge on the war on Christmas.

See more of Bill's fascinating reviews here.

Our Question of the Week

Is it an insult to Cletus to refer to the Preznit as a Cletus-like moron?

Attaturk's tortured analogy of the Weekend.

There is one obvious problem I've always had with Narnia, other than the fact it has always seemed a rather ham-handed and simplistic allegory, compared to my preferred read of Lewis's friend Tolkien.

I've had Turkish Delight and if you love that crap enough to down it like it is going out of style you pretty much are on the road to being a serial killer already. Children that like Turkish Delight are like the kids that are big on pre-teen taxidermy. Sure, some of them are just doing it for the County Fair, but the rest of 'em like keeping the trophies from their kills just a little too much.

Wow, look who won this year's "Holiday" Pageant?

Winner at the White House, five years running.

Whenever Bush makes a Statement about Iraq...

I'm starting to hear the Grateful Dead's "Casey Jones" in the background:

President Bush suggested Friday that history will vindicate his decision to invade Iraq, saying he believed that a half century from now, it will be regarded as important a transition for the world as the democratization of Japan was after World War II.

"I'm absolutely convinced that some day, 50 or 60 years from now, an American president will be speaking to an audience saying, 'Thank goodness a generation of Americans rose to the challenge and helped people be liberated from tyranny,' " Mr. Bush said. " 'Democracy spread and the world is more peaceful for it.' "

Drivin' that train
High on cocaine
Casey Jones you better
watch your speed
Trouble ahead
Trouble behind
and you know that notion
just crossed my mind

Many outside experts and even some of Mr. Bush's own aides question his reliance on the comparison, noting that Japan was a unified state before World War II, but that Iraq has always been divided along religious and regional lines.

"It may sound too simple, but this is a comparison the president believes in deeply," one of his senior aides said when Mr. Bush was in Asia, declining to be quoted by name in discussing the president's thinking. "It's the argument he knows his presidency will be judged by."

Bush deeply believing in a simple notion that is, indeed, far too simple?

Wow, there's a shocker.

The Banality of it all

This article from the Guardian not only shows how widespread the CIA's use of secret prison and transport of detainees is; but also how 1970s era Soviet Union it all seems. Cloak and Dagger crap that can be relatively easily uncovered, especially in the age of the internet.

Paul last saw the Gulfstream V about 18 months ago. He comes down to Glasgow airport's planespotters' club most days. He had not seen the plane before so he marked the serial number down in his book. At the time, he did not think there was anything unusual about the Gulfstream being ushered to a stand away from public view, one that could not be seen from the airport terminal or the club's prime view.

But that flight this week was at the centre of a transatlantic row that saw the prime minister being put on the spot on the floor of the House of Commons and the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, forced on the defensive during a visit to Europe. The Gulfstream V has been identified as having been used by the CIA for "extraordinary renditions" - abducting terror suspects and taking them to secret prisons around the world where they may be tortured.

Apparently Bush & Cheney go to bed everynight and do the WWBD (What would Breznev Do?)

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave and all that shit.

Scarce over the weekend

One again weather has been the bane of my internet existence, the Satellite Dish out at my "ranch" in Boonieville as broken down so this weekend posting will be scattershot except when, like now, I can drive to civilization (or what passes for it here in the midwest).

And now...

The Lyin'


The Witch*


And, my god, the wardrobe.



I think a little nose trim might be a good idea for Bush by the way. Looks like he needs to mine some candy.

Oh, and this didn't really fit in anywhere, but behold the picture...

Simply the WORST GANG BANG video EVER!

*Not to impugn the good name of most witches.

"I'm Calling it a Christmas Tree Charlie Brown...

Because the coming of the "Prince of Peace" is the reason for the season. So if you don't say "Merry Christmas" and accept the love and peace of Jesus Christ, I'm going to cockpunch you so hard it will make Ziggy pass out."

Another 32 Dead

That's 75 dead in two days of bus attacks.

Bush brought back the bromide of "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here".

Well that must make your average Iraqi ("The U.S. is fighting them HERE so they don't have to fight them away from me.") really, really happy!

Gee, thanks for being so FUCKING brave

This is just disgusting, how did the GOP majority get so corrupt, so fast? Because the Democrats enabled it. From Melanie Stone:

Since 1998, there has been an ethics "truce" in the House of Representatives, under the terms of which no member will file an ethics complaint against another member. Because outsiders are prohibited from filing complaints with the House ethics committee, this has effectively shut down the ethics process...

...Congress has a constitutional obligation to police itself, but members are full of excuses as to why they can't or won't file ethics complaints. The truth is that the Democratic leadership doesn't allow anyone to file a complaint for fear of retaliation, not exactly a profile in courage. Congressional inaction on ethics has forced the Department of Justice to criminally investigate conduct once left to the jurisdiction of the ethics committees. It is abundantly clear that the House leadership - both Democratic and Republican - will take ethics seriously only when we, as citizens and voters, force them to.

Better leadership please.

And you know what, when the Democrats retake power in the house, I hope they allow the Republicans to enforce ethical issues.

This compromise was about nothing more than keeping each other safely in their seats.

Though its the GOP that has abused this agreement, the monumental stupidity of going along is also on the Democratic Leadership.

Thank You Comrade Nutjob

Rumsfeld, who is going crazier by the day, has announced that our disastrical mystery tour will reduce troops all the way back down to the level they had been at most all the time we've been there 137,000.

And that's 137,000 non-Congressional children of Republicans and zero Jenna, Not Jenna and most tragically not Billy Bush.

Each and every day Rummy is making James "I Believe I can Fly!" Forrestal at the end look like Melvin Laird. Oh man, I loves me some Secretary of Defense humor.

Froomkin ask and answers a worthy question:

Always worth a read, always:

Some American journalists intent on fact-checking President Bush's vision of Iraq are finding it too dangerous to inspect the areas Bush yesterday cited as models of success.

Which sort of tells you the story right there...

...There were, however, at least a couple reporters plying their trade in Bush's exemplary cities yesterday.

In The Washington Post, Saad Sarhan in Najaf teamed up with Robin Wright in Washington for a story that contrasted Bush's words with the facts on the ground.

"Some Iraqis challenged Bush's assertions," they write. "In Najaf, Rafid Farhan, 33, said security is now controlled by Moqtada Sadr, a young cleric and militia leader, and not U.S. troops or the Iraqi government. . . .

"[M]ilitia fighters of the two rival religious parties that control the Shiite holy city recently clashed in street battles. A few days ago, former prime minister Ayad Allawi was attacked during a visit by an angry, rock-throwing mob that some Iraqis charge was backed by a militia -- and that Allawi called an assassination attempt."

As for Mosul, Wright was tagging along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she made a stop there last month -- "although the city is still so volatile that she flew by Black Hawk helicopter to the U.S. military headquarters and never got into the city. . . .

" 'Progress is running far behind Iraqi expectations in virtually every area,' said Wayne White, head of the State Department's Iraq intelligence team from 2003 to 2005 and now an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute. 'In their view, most Iraqis are not seeing "amazing progress." All too many of them live in constant danger, with less electricity in many areas than under Saddam Hussein.' "

Given that virtually EVERYTHING Bush has said has been incorrect about Iraq, especially words beginning with "W", "M", "D" (as well as "F", "P" and A through C, E, G through L, N, O, and, oh yes, Q through Z) it would be nice if the the press would be ready to actually fact check what he says within say, three hours of when he says it.

For example, after Bush says that things are swell in Mosul, CNN goes to its correspondent in Iraq and asks him, "So how are things goin in Mosul" where upon the correspondent can correctly state, "I don't know, its not safe for me to go there and look."

That would pretty much answer the question of whether Bush is telling the truth or not.

Perhaps we should just try a simpler, easier to apply method.

"Are Bush's lips moving?"

If yes, then lying.

Brian Kilmeade and the Goblet of Liars

(Via Make them Accountable)

Ah, the discourse of Fox & Friends, always taking the high road.

On the December 6 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, radio host and regular Fox & Friends guest Erich "Mancow" Muller stated that Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean "ought to be kicked out of America" and "tried for treason" in response to a San Antonio radio interview in which Dean said that the idea that the United States can win the war in Iraq is "just plain wrong." After Muller asserted that Dean should be "kicked out of America," Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed, replying: "Absolutely."

Muller went on to state that Dean "is the enemy." He exclaimed, "This is the head of the Democrats!" He went on to add: "These people want every boy to die. They're bloodthirsty animals. Howard Dean is a vile human being." Muller later said: "[T]his guy is bloodthirsty. He is evil. I'm telling you, I really think that every time you report another dead body in Iraq, they go, 'Hoo hoo, it's perfect.' "…

The guy OPPOSED the Iraqi War, and favors leveling with the American People, he's obviously bloodthirsty.

Not only that but a traitor and on and on and on.

Such are the tides of history...FoxNews would probably have been delighted, positively de-fucking-lighted...when someone like Jean Juares was assassinated as World War One was beginning. The traitorous, bloodthirsty Juares was trying to prevent the war. A war which killed millions.

I put this up over a year ago, but what the hell, it never hurts to repeat it again. I'm not comparing Howard Dean to Juan Juares, but it does fit into one of the things that is as old as history itself, the villification of truth tellers by simplistic tools of the established order. It's a long, long post -- and as Rex Kramer notes in comments, it may also be appropriate to put up on the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder.

From November 2004:


Remember Me!

We have often heard in the United States about the corrosive evils of socialism. But the criticism of socialism is funny coming from the patent results of capitalism in this world.

Attaturk isn't a socialist really, damn close, but not quite. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't believe that the world would be a better place today if another path had been taken early in the last century.

Thomas Frank, in "What Happened to Kansas" builds upon a topic that this blog has discussed in a different way in the last few weeks since the disappointment of the election.

Frank's major simple question is, how did the prairie states like Kansas for example, go from being the birthplace of the progressive movement into being among the most dependably conservative states in the nation?

Nebraska gave birth to "the great commoner" William Jennings Bryan, now it votes at a seventy-percent rate for George W. Bush.

It did not have to be this way.

The American progressive movements of the prairie were not alone in the world at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Europe at the same period was giving birth to a far stronger and more active progressive movement, the socialists.

One of the most prominent of these socialist was Frenchman Jean Jaures, the man pictured above.

Here is how the 20th Century and our present day would be vastly different if the Jaures's of the world had prevailed.

Jaures was a socialist, a socialist who believed in non-violent change to make the laborers of europe more economically free to profit from the hard work that comprised their day-to-day existence. A lover of mankind, rather than a loather of it. There was no cynicism in Jaures, only determination of the long-term hope for mankind.

Jaures believed that the economic interests of laborers were more important than national boundaries. A unified cause of their interest in economic progress over nationalistic war. It was an argument that in the first decade of the 20th century gained strength, no where more than Germany, where the workers were as active in the cause of economic justice as any.

But there were, of course, other forces at work in Europe in the summer of 1914 besides love of humanity and the cause of economic justice. The power of grudges and the power of self-worth, often terms "honor" were present.

It was found in the form of Gavrilo Pricip, a nineteen year old Bosnian, and believer in the concept of Serbian Nationalism exerting itself in the southern Austria-Hungarian empire in a greater Serbian nation.

Once again, one man can change the course of history.

Princip was a small young man, too small to be granted entry into the Serbian Army, but his actions would set forth events that would cause the meat grinder of war to take all the soldiers it could get no matter their size. Princip and others received training from a Serb nationalist group called "The Black Hand". On June 28, 1914, he took advantage of an opportunity to fire two shots into the body of the heir to Europe's most decrepit empire and his controversial non-noble spouse. Ironically, the assassinated man had great sympathy for the cause of the Serbs in the empire, but symbolism meant more than truth.

The First Two Victims of 100 million

So the first blow was struck for the "grudge", and then it expanded, Austria having little evidence that Serbia was involved in assassinating its heir (who the ancient Emperor did not much like anyway) other than indirectly inspiring the assassin was determined to exact revenge against one of the few European states it could, it supposed, crush. Sound familiar?

And then "Honor". Russia viewed itself as the "protector" of all slavic nations, like Serbia, so when Austria-Hungary mobilized to strike at Serbia, Russia was honor bound to mobilize against Austria-Hungary. Germany, which through the boorish behavior of the Kaiser had managed to have only Austria-Hungary as an ally in Europe was "honor bound" to mobilize against the Russians to protect Austria-Hungary. France, bound by treaty to Russia, then mobilized against Germany and much of its populace was bearing the "grudge" of the defeat at German hands nearly 50 years earlier. Britain, bound by no treaties, but it's word, joined its new ally France in preparing for war against Germany.

Many of the working classes now faced a choice between their logical economic interests, and the emotional call of nationalism. Again, sound familiar?

Bravely, against the tide, came Jean Jaures. In late July, he spoke at a socialist gathering in Brussels against the war, issuing the call for rationality, against the tragedy of war. He thundered in Brussels and then returned to Paris to continue to try to rally, as he had before, the working classes of Europe (those who would have to fight the war) to the cause of peace.

If he had succeeded, if war had been averted, if the working masses of Europe had risen then and said, "enough" of war, "enough" of militarism, "enough" of rogue and irresponsible nationalism, "enough" of jingoism. Imagine the world that could have been created.

Perhaps:

No World War One, no nine-million battle deaths.

No widespread civilian deaths based on diseases perpetuated by the suffering of the "Great War", another ten million deaths averted.

No Russian Revolution, sparing us many events to come, and the Russians another ten million deaths incurred between 1917 and 1922.

A Europe of less bombastic and more confined Constitutional Monarchs; or their gradual elimination rather than violent overthrow. In retrospect, even Nicolas Romanov probably would think that was a better result than being shot down with his family in the basement of the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg. No Russian Revolution means no Lenin, no Stalin, no purges, no mass starvations, no June 22, 1941 (see below) and ultimately no Cold War.

No First World War means effectively no Second World War, especially in Europe. The marginalization of the Kaiser, but the growth of steady workers unions makes the "grudge" politics of Hitler unnecessary. In fact, Hitler remains an obscure failure of one form or another. No need for a Hitler means no Nazi Party, an ultimately no Holocaust.

No Holocaust means it likely that the Zionist movement remains simply that, it means any form of Balfour Plan leads to a more accommodationist relationship between Jews and Muslims in the region. It means no fifty years of instability in the Middle East, it means no Six Day War, ultimately, it likely means no 9/11.

No World Wars means no cold war, the vast economic power of the United States is made to benefit society and education to such an extent it propels the World to a new age of peace and prosperity. Trillions of dollars building bombers, are instead used to educate you, train you, provide you with a social safety net, health insurance.

No World War means no need for the development of nuclear weapons.

Imagine the possibilities -- would other things have arisen, sure, but could they really have been worse than what happened? 100 Million Dead, Trillions spent on armaments, perpetual debts, etc. Seriously, how could we collectively, have fucked up any worse short of starting a nuclear war?

Jean Jaures was arguing for these possibilities over war, over corporatism, over nationalism, over hunger, over disease, over ignorance.

But it was not to be.

At the height of the struggle, the voices opposing the war were centralising around Jaures.

But there were nationalist workers, and their zeal was up against that of the determined pacifist. Their embodiment was Raoul Villain. A month after Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, on July 31, 1914, Villain saw Juaues in a coffee shop with a small number of associates. Villain fired shots through the window, and the most persuasive voice for peace was another early victim of the Great War.

Gunned down, and now, but for a few virtually forgotten by the tide of war he so feared, and worked so hard to prevent. Gunned down and proven right, and pretty much forgotten in the bargain, such is the curse of the prophet.

When conservatives in this country start bitching and moaning about how fucked up socialism is (or the French for that matter), remind them of July 31, 1914.

We should take from the past its fires and not its ashes.
-- Jean Jaures

Attaturk's Dog would like to know...

Do these come with a squeeky and a rattle inside?

(Meerkittens from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Ron Jenkins and GWDPA)

Looks like Watertiger already got these things. Apparently the best way to beat me to a post is to stay up past 9 in the evening.

Boy, I sure hope this won't ruin O'Reilly's Christmas

Apparently, Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff is one step closer to some "maximum" jail time.

Involved in a murder, or with murderers?

Jack, Jack, Jack. That's the kind of thing that Jerry Falwell would make videos about if you were a Democrat.

Don't you know that if you are a Republican, you don't hire domestic hitmen?

You exercise your need to kill by invading Iraq, or even the classics, like taking out Allende or bombing the fuck out of Cambodia. What is your problem?

"Oh Wilbur"

Sadly, I had placed my money on her simply "placing", but she won. I guess I misunderestimated again.

Yes, I know its cruel.

Would you have preferred a "pearl necklace" joke?

(AFP/Sergei Supinsky)

Condi is there as the Bush Administration

Unleashes its goal for America's future. We will all be "Home Depot" employees.

(AFP/BELGA/Herwig Vergult)

"Presidential Candidate for Honduras Manuel Zelaya says he wants to know what razor you use"

"As a fellow heavy beard sufferer."

(AP Photo/Delmer Martinez, La Prensa)



Yep, nothing better for American Diplomacy than a visit from the "Pantsuit of Death".

(AP Photo/Delmer Martinez, La Prensa)

Preznit Speaks...If You Can Call It That

Yesterday's news in the blogosphere: White House allows no questions of the moron in chief after his talk today at the Council on Foreign Relations. Apparently breaking with long tradition. (Though they aren't beyond allowing crazy Don Rumsfeld out in public--imagine what that says about Bush.) I'm not going to bother with a link but I heard the report of the talk during the main news segment on NPR's All Things Considered. What wasn't mentioned in the main news report was the important fact about Bush would not allow questions. It wasn't until Daniel Shorr's analysis that it was mentioned.

What passes for newsworthy just blows me away. Thank goodness for news analysts I guess.

Thanks for getting us to 1 Million

One of these individuals appears to have been our 1 millionth visitor:

51
71.192.58.#
Mount Laurel, New Jersey
11:50:59 pm 1 0:00
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/
52
192.217.249.#
Brooklyn, New York
11:50:59 pm 1 0:00
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/
53
137.53.76.#
Portland, Oregon
11:50:56 pm 1 0:00
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/
54
rr.com
Alcove, New York
11:51:19 pm 2 0:24
http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/
55
65.205.1.#
Bethesda, Maryland
11:51:26 pm 2 0:37


You may report to Rising Hegemon Headquarters to be congratulated, thoroughly vetted, and indoctrinated into our awesome doomsday cult.

Hey Anarchists!

I don't mean to be giving you any ideas, but if you design something like this and send it to Bill O'Reilly, I bet you could sell a few.




Feliz Naviduuuuuuuude,

Atta J. Turk

Thanks,

Sometime today we will cross the One Million Visitor Threshold.

At least half of those were not me refreshing this blog to see if anyone had commented yet. So the rest of you, deserve at least half the credit -- but then again, you had to put up with all the pain.

At present we're about 550 short. But thanks again from myself, Champollion and DeDurheim.

It's not like there's a history or anything...

While Ford Motor may be cancelling its advertisements in the gay community, that's nothing compared to what history suggests they will be doing to gay jews.

That's right, as a compromise they are bringing back the Pinto and advertising it in "The Advocate".

Sometimes the comedy, it makes me feel sick, sorry to any that are offended (though that's the point isn't it?).

(I'd like to remind everybody, especially attorneys for Ford Motor Company, that this is a parody)

Two slurps, One Scoop and I report on your Missile

Atta J. Turk looks back fondly on his fantasy of so long ago, the mature, sexually liberated New York Times Reporter willing to help him make his passage to manhood:

Elsewhere, Mnookin pulls no punches in stating that over the years Miller "had built a reputation for sleeping with her sources," had dated one of Sulzberger's best friends, Steve Ratner, "and had even, for a time, shared a vacation home with Sulzberger," whatever that means.

The fact that my fantasy involved Tom Friedman, and I had to close my eyes when I was making out with Craig Stadler, doesn't make it any less hot!

But admittedly just as disturbing.

"S is for Saddam"?

"I am so going to write a nasty poem about Sue Grafton!"

(AP Photo/David Furst, Pool)

You call this a massage chair?!

(AP Photo/David Furst, Pool)

Jealous?

Not able to single handedly lower oil prices, save Christmas, or wipe his own ass, Michael Reagan - already famous for having his father feign memory loss in order to avoid talking to him -- decides that he must get some attention.

Why couldn't Jane Wyman have continued to beat him with a bottle?

Michael Reagan, son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is blasting Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean for declaring that the U.S. won't be able to win the war in Iraq, saying Dean ought to be "hung for treason."

"Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!" Reagan told his Radio America audience on Monday.

Reagan was reacting to Dean's comments earlier in the day, when the top Democrat said that the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

Glad to see that the level of discourse has improved. Glad that I, Atta J. Turk, could raise it back.

What exactly are these two doing with their lives, II

A few days ago I wrote that Bushette I and Bushette II were seen spending their birthdays (their 24th birthdays) walking through live oblivious of the suffering of others -- hell, just generally oblivious.

I don't begrudge them their parents; but dammit, I hate it when women walk through their lives oblivious to the needs of others -- that's what men are for! Don't bogart our cushy gender role ladies...and have you seen the remote?

Anyhow, not simply content with drinking and shopping on special days, the shiftlessness has permiated them to their very shallow cores as Holden notes.

Meanwhile folks their own age are dying or being maimed in one way or another in faraway lands, or at least working for a wage. You would think, for the sake of appearances at least, they'd at least look like they are doing something with their lives.

"Hello"..."Hello"..."Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

(and that's left to right)

Bush tries out his new vaudeville act, Larry, Curley & the Myth of the Popular President.

Angela Merkel presides as ...

The Romulan Ambassador states she went to Talos IV to save Captain Bitch.

As If We Needed More Evidence

...that Alito will be a very bad justice on issues involving individual rights, we have Stephen Henderson of Knight Ridder doing the homework for us.

But Knight Ridder's review of Alito's record reveals decisions so consistent that it appears results do matter to him.

"Alito is more conservative than O'Connor; this isn't a hard question," said Rory Little, a Hastings College of the Law professor in San Francisco and a former Supreme Court clerk who praised Alito's credentials. "This isn't a guy who is going to vote in a way that will make anybody on the left happy."

A review of Alito's work on dozens of cases that raised important social issues found that he rarely supports individual rights claims.

***

In other areas, Alito often goes out of his way to narrow the scope of individual rights, sometimes reaching out to undo lower-court rulings that affirmed those rights.

***

Alito has been particularly rigid in employment discrimination cases.

Many conservative jurists set a high bar for plaintiffs who allege racial, gender or age bias in the workplace, but Alito has seldom found merit in a bias claim.

He has written in at least 18 discrimination cases and has sided with plaintiffs four times, including once when white police officers claimed that Pittsburgh's affirmative action policy unfairly disadvantaged them and another time when a mentally disabled grocery store worker was fired.

Alito also sided with a disabled New Jersey police dispatcher and once with a female employee who said she'd been sexually harassed but couldn't show that she'd suffered monetary loss as a result.

Like his opinions in other areas, Alito's work in discrimination cases is nearly devoid of explosive language or dismissive tones. His arguments have been convincing to his colleagues: Thirteen of his rulings were for the 3rd Circuit majority, meaning that at least one other judge on the court agreed with him.

But in most of the employment discrimination cases, Alito succeeded in applying a standard higher than the Supreme Court requires to plaintiffs' claims, often forcing them to prove that bias was the motivation behind their misfortunes.

In two cases, Alito dissented from 3rd Circuit rulings that allowed discrimination claims to proceed. In one, a racial discrimination case involving a black hotel maid, Alito agreed that the woman had been treated unfairly, but he said that the employer had produced enough evidence to show that the unfair treatment didn't amount to illegal discrimination.

In the second case, a gender discrimination claim, Alito accused the majority of making it too easy for the plaintiffs to get to trial.

Alito's other opinions on discrimination reveal similar skepticism. He has written consistently that plaintiffs failed to prove that bias was the "determinative" factor in their misfortunes and that the courts should resist subjecting employers to second-guessing about routine personnel matters.

In one case, Clowes v. Allegheny Valley Hospital, he overruled a jury verdict in favor of a nurse who claimed age discrimination. Janet Clowes, a nurse who'd worked at the hospital for 30 years, alleged that her employer's harassment effectively forced her to quit her job, called constructive discharge.

Alito's decision to overturn the jury verdict was an aggressive move, seemingly at odds with his usual restraint.

"We recognize that the jury ... presumably concluded ... that (the supervisor) treated Clowes unfairly," Alito wrote. "But it is clear that unfair treatment is by no means the same as constructive discharge."

Alito's record also suggests that the former New Jersey U.S. attorney seldom strays far from his prosecutorial roots and remains reluctant to side with criminal defendants. His tough views on crime and punishment are likely to cement the Supreme Court's rightward movement in that area, particularly when it comes to evaluating the complex federal sentencing laws and the ongoing efforts by Congress to write new criminal laws.

In 60 criminal appeals that resulted in published decisions in which he wrote a majority, dissenting or concurring opinion, Alito sided with a defendant's key argument in 12 cases, most of the time sending a case back to a lower court judge for a new sentencing hearing.

Alito voted to overturn two convictions in those cases, excluding appeals where he left a central conviction intact but set aside other offenses.

But from police searches to the death penalty, Alito has rarely been persuaded to overturn a conviction or sentence.

***
Alito has taken part in at least 10 cases involving death row inmates since 1991, and he's sided with the defendants in two and allowed a third capital case to proceed in federal court without taking a position on the merits. That puts him among the 3rd Circuit's most conservative jurists when it comes to the death penalty.

So what we know is this: Alito places before individuals in his court a hight bar. You have been discriminated against; too bad, life is unfair, the employer said it had good reasons to deny you an opprtunity.

You win a jury verdict holding an employer deliberately created intolerable working conditions that forced you to quit; even though a jury finds in your favor, the rich white man in black robes knows better than a jury.

You are a criminal defendant convicted on flimsy evidence that may have been inadmissible; we don't disturb jury verdicts.

All you can hope for with a guy like this is that he gets a taste of his own medicine.

I've to $200, a full tank of gas and a map of Latin America...

Let's goooooooooooooo!!!!!

(AP Photo/Tim Johnson)

The plan all along...

You have to stop and think for a minute what game people like Michael Ledeen are really playing.

Is he really as stupid as he clearly appears to be? Or simply comfortably enscounsed among the most craven individuals in American history?

Or a little from column A and a little from column B?

One of the purported "theoretical" basis for unleashing "shock & awe" was that it would send a message to places like North Korea and Iran that they better learn to cooperate with the United States or there'd be trouble.

That sure has worked out swell hasn't it?

Bush did nothing but run away from direct talks with North Korea and engage in mutual put downs with the Korean regime until ta-dah! Kim Jong-Il had himself a nuclear bomb.

Now Bush and his neo-con policy boneheads have managed to invade the country right next to Iran and gotten themselves so bogged down they sent one message and one message only to Iran.

"We best get ourselves a fucking A-Bomb pronto!"

And lo and behold we are helpless and in the worst possible position as Iran puts the finishing touches on their quest for atomic weaponry.

When this inevitable event occurs, the blame goes no where but directly on the front step of the White House...with the notable assistance of wankers like Michael Ledeen.

Naturally, they will simply rattle the sabers and blame the Democrats, but it will all be empty gesture. Or at least it should be based on the facts.

For a nuclear Iran is clearly a potential danger...

...BUT it is a fucking FANTASTIC way for AIPAC, AEI, and the Heritage Foundation to make some more fucking money!... That is reality!

Think of how scary they can make the fund raising letters now!

It's better than making up the "War on Christmas"; it's better than naked jeebus in a urine vat; it's better than Jimmy Jeff and a pack o' gerbils. It's the best thing EVAHHHH!!!!

Fuckin' Wondertwins

Showing up Aquaman like that!


Don't pout Aquaman, go summon up a baleen whale or something.

So close to 1 million

Though we didn't make it by December 1, the bloggy blog (and its crapped out predecessor) is now about 3,500 visits from 1 million irritated over the last year and nine months.

In spite of the Hugh Hewitt picture, I appreciate those who tolerate our presence on the internets.

Once again Being Trampled under Foot by the Man

Rising Hegemon got nominated for zip, nada, nothin', not a goddamned thing for any of these awards.

Several decent blogs got nominated, but I'm not naming them. I'm bitter.

So for no real reason, other than my wrath, here is a bad photoshop of Hugh Hewitt in his underwear.*

I hope this teaches us all a lesson.


*I know too clean.

Cheer Up Eagle Fans

You still live in the Motown of the progressive blogosphere!

Double Douchebag

As if it wasn't outrageous enough that Cheney was off yesterday at a fund raiser for a guy up on a felony charge, the White House now intends to inflict the nation's number one torturer on returning troops.

First, the trip deep into the heart of Tex-ass:

ELECTIONS '06HOUSTON – Vice President Dick Cheney headlined a campaign fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on Monday, an appearance derided by Democrats as highlighting Mr. DeLay's vulnerability but welcomed by Republicans as a show of White House loyalty to an unjustly maligned GOP stalwart.

The event came hours after a judge dismissed one of the charges against Mr. DeLay but let others stand. The Sugar Land Republican declined to talk about the case with reporters as he arrived for the fundraiser at a hotel on Houston's west side. The event – a reception where Mr. Cheney spoke, followed by a dinner – was closed to the media.

People who attended the reception said Mr. Cheney's message was upbeat, recalling 20 years of legislation passed by Mr. DeLay and other Republicans, including tax cuts. And a positive outcome was predicted for Iraq, according to Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt.

Second, and then to torture our troops:

Vice President Dick Cheney, the point man in the administration's counteroffensive against war critics, to greet troops recently back from Iraq as part of a concerted effort to shore up slumping public support for the war.

Cheney was traveling Tuesday to Fort Drum in northern New York to speak at a rally for the Army's 10th Mountain Division and the New York Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division.

The Troy, N.Y.-based 42nd Infantry, whose commander oversaw a task force of 24,000 troops in north-central Iraq, had about 3,500 guardsmen return home in November.

The vice president's appearances, which include a rally and a sit-down with troops, are part of a series of speeches by top administration officials intended to spell out U.S. goals in Iraq more clearly in the run-up to Iraq's Dec. 15 elections to pick a permanent government.

They come as polls show President Bush's approval rating at the lowest of his presidency: 37 percent in a recent AP-Ipsos poll, with a majority of Americans now saying the war was a mistake.

You've just got home from your third tour of Iraq, all you want to do is get home to a home cooked meal, sex with your wife and all that post-traumatic stress disorder. But do you get to go home? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. You have to stick around so the human colostomy bag who sent you over there -- giving you the gift of MREs, no sex, and PTSD -- can do a photo-op with you. What could be better?

Dude, A Groucho disguise and a kaffiyeh?

Seems rather over the top, no?

(REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah)

"Al-Attica! Al-Attica! Al-Attica!"

(AP Photo/David Furst, Pool)

I enjoyed the Football last night

Especially CBS pushing the Pope Movie every 3 minutes and 15 seconds. They used the names "John Paul II" and "John Voight" more than they used the words "Trent Green" & "Jake Plummer".

I didn't watch the movie of course. But if you look at the intersection of "Lonely Street" & "Sparsely Attended Memorial Service Avenue" you'll notice that K-Lo wasn't on much last night.

She had a full night of masturbation planned.

As hard as it can be, if you read her stuff today, you can almost detect chafing.

Beep, ohhhhhhhhhh, beep beep beeeeeeeeeep!

Worst President Ever

More on a recent poll of historians, from a fine historian Richard Reeves:

This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:

He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

*He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

*He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

*He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

*He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign ( Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

*He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

*He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

*He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.

Quite an indictment. It is, of course, too early to evaluate a president. That, historically, takes decades, and views change over times as results and impact become more obvious. Besides, many of the historians note that however bad Bush seems, they have indeed since worse men around the White House. Some say Buchanan. Many say Vice President Dick Cheney.

Nice last sentence.

Priorities

Those six-week vacations at the Tender-Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch are starting to catch up to the Chimperor Disgustus:

The former Sept. 11 commission is giving Congress and the White House poor marks on protecting the U.S. against an inevitable terror attack because of their failure to enact several strong security measures.

The 10-member panel, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, prepared to release a report Monday assessing how well their recommendations have been followed. They say the government deserves "more F's than A's" in responding to their 41 suggested changes.

"People are not paying attention," chairman Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, said Sunday. "God help us if we have another attack."

Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal to create a national intelligence director. But it has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.

Barney is harder working than Bush -- and I say that knowing that the dog is apparently believed by Bush to be his man-purse.

It's all about Politics

It is hard not to remember how craven and fucked up the Bush Administration's initial response to Katrina was, without remembering it is as fucked up as ever now. But the stage was set early on.

You may remember that early on the Bush Administration, rather than getting on top of the situation tried to blame the governor of the State Kathleen Blanco. That was all part of the plan, not relief, but blame. It's what they do.

Shortly after noon on Aug. 31, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) delivered a message that stunned aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who were frantically managing the catastrophe that began two days earlier when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans. The governor should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get," Vitter quoted Rove as saying, according to handwritten notes by Terry Ryder, Blanco's executive counsel.

Thus began what one aide called a "full-court press" to compel the first-term governor to yield control of her state National Guard -- a legal, political and personal campaign by White House staff that failed three days later when Blanco rejected the administration's terms, 10 minutes before Bush was to announce them in a Rose Garden news conference, the governor's aides said.

It was all a fucking power play to make Bush look like the stuffed flight-suited he-man he fancies himself to be.

A Blanco aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the people around Bush were trying to maneuver the governor into an unnecessary change intended to make Bush look decisive.

"It was an overwhelming natural disaster. The federal government has an agency that exists for purposes of coming to the rescue of localities in a natural disaster, and that organization did not live up to what it was designed for or promised to," the aide said. Referring to Bush aides, he said, "It was time to recover from the fiasco, and take a win wherever you could, legitimate or not."

And Bush, of course, was sitting around on vacation hiding from Cindy Sheehan and company.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco late Friday released 100,000 pages of memos, handwritten notes, e-mails, phone logs and other documents requested by congressional committees that are now investigating what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the deadly Aug. 29 storm.

Among those documents are the back-and-forth communications between Blanco's office and the White House, starting with a letter Blanco sent President Bush a day before the hurricane hit.

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote.

Three days after the storm, Blanco wrote Bush asking that the 256th Louisiana National Guard Brigade be sent home from Iraq to help. The governor also asked for more generators, medicine, health care workers and mortuaries.

Five days later, Bush assistant Maggie Grant e-mailed Blanco aide Paine Gowen to say that the White House did not receive the letter.

"We found it on the governor's Web site but we need 'an original,' for our staff secretary to formally process the requests she is making," Grant wrote. "We are on the job but appreciate your help with a technical request. Tnx!"

I like that defense.

"We didn't get the letter."

That's fucking rich.

Bush is our own little Peter III, with the exception of not being married to Catherine the Great.

And I'm not doing this just to suck up...

The Media Matters redesign looks really great.

Hope your shoes hurt

Rice is going to be in full glower over in Europe it appears.

Just before she leaves for a trip to Europe on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to offer the Bush administration's first studied defense in the debate over reports of a network of secret prisons for terror suspects in several European countries.

But even as she tries to quell concerns, a senior aide said, Ms. Rice would not confirm that the prisons exist. That has been the government's stance since news articles about the prisons were published early last month.

Studied defense?

Yeh, right.

They've studied how happy it makes Bush & Cheney to contemplate some olive-skinned "heathen" strapped up to a board and dipped in one of three dippin' sauces. I'm guessing Dick is a "honey-mustard" guy.

Well this isn't good

I hope it doesn't end my progressive bona fides to call Ramsey Clark an attention whore?

Frankly, no matter what Clark gets involved in it generally has a negative backlash on progressive causes and today's action in Iraq will undoubtedly do so again. Thanks for the wingnut talking points -- the kind of thing that makes it worse for the people who have actually been right about this war from the beginning.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's defense team walked out of court Monday shortly after the former leader's trial resumed because the judge refused to allow former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to challenge the tribunal's legitimacy in an address to the courtroom.

Clark tried to address the court, saying he needed only two minutes to present his argument. But Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin said the tribunal had been established under the law by an elected Iraqi government and that only Saddam's chief lawyer could address the hearing.

Amin said the defense should submit its motion in writing and warned that if the defense walked out then the court would appoint replacement lawyers.

"We reject the appointment of court employees to defend us," Saddam said.

He and his half brother Barazan Ibrahim then chanted "Long Live Iraq, Long Live the Arab state."

When the judge explained that he was ruling in accordance with the law, Saddam replied: "This is a law made by America and does not reflect Iraqi sovereignty."

It's all a stunt. Not one as detrimental as the stunts the White House has pulled off repeatedly, but the Iraqi tribunal doesn't need to give Ramsey Clark time to rail about how illegitimate they are, this was all a plan to give Saddam a chance to give the bird to the United States.

That is not to say that many of the grievances of the Defense are not legitimate...the most basic of which is the comparative lack of security they receive.

Now I feel unclean, like I'm channelling Kevin Drum or something.

One of the Biggest and Most Consistent Lies

Of the Bush Administration has been their repeated proclamation that foreign jihadists were running the show and doing most of the fighting in Iraq. We've know this is pretty much a lie for about two years now. But they keep pushing it, most recently in the "Plan for (so-called) Victory in Iraq". The Telegraph (as usual a British Paper -- we couldn't have such reporting here in corporate media land) has more:

Iraqis, rather than foreign fighters, now form the vast majority of the insurgents who are waging a ferocious guerrilla war against United States forces in Sunni western Iraq, American commanders have revealed.

Their conclusion, disclosed to the Sunday Telegraph in interviews over 10 days in battle-torn Anbar province, contradicts the White House message that outsiders are the principal enemy in Iraq.

Of 1,300 suspected insurgents arrested over the past five months in and around Ramadi, none has been a foreigner. Col John Gronski, senior officer in the town, Anbar's provincial capital, said that almost all insurgent fighting there was by Iraqis. Foreigners provided only money and logistical support.

"The foreign fighters are staying north of the [Euphrates] river, training and advising, like the Soviets were doing in Vietnam," he said.

We will be waiting for some time for Bush to actually be honest about what is happening in Iraq. It's currently quite cold in the Midwest, but only rarely do I consider it hell, so I don't have much hope for Bush coming clean.

Shit, Bush doesn't even know how to come clean -- I think he is creating his own fantasy land in the White House (or Crawford).

Um, no thank you...

Americans say overwhelmingly, they'd like their next President to be completely unlike Bush.

Three in five Americans want the next U.S. president to be completely different from incumbent George W. Bush, according to a poll by Time magazine.

Bush's policies in Iraq and high gasoline and energy prices had a ``very negative'' effect on his overall job rating for 45 percent of respondents, according to the poll, conducted between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1. The results showed 36 percent would like the next president to have policies similar to those of Bush, compared with 60 percent who want a different type of leader.

The findings indicate Bush is failing to reverse flagging approval ratings after laying out his strategy for Iraq in a Nov. 30 speech. The poll showed 41 percent approve of the job Bush is doing while 53 percent disapprove, little changed from results in September after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. Of those who disapprove, 76 percent said they were unlikely to change their opinion of Bush.

Okay so the next President...

-- Honest
-- Intelligent
-- Flexible
-- Economically Responsible
-- Respect Civil Liberties
-- Be Competent

Oh, yes...

-- Be a Democrat.


Got it.


That latest "big speech" did squat because it was the same old, stubborn, lying, and barely understandable Bush.

Among the reasons Bush loves Laura

Is her fine sense of balance, which is a great asset during a bender.

(REUTERS/Mannie Garcia)

Hitting the Spiked Nog a little early I see

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Death per P.R. Campaign

From the NY Times:

There could be no doubt about the theme of President Bush's Iraq war strategy speech on Wednesday at the Naval Academy. He used the word victory 15 times in the address; "Plan for Victory" signs crowded the podium he spoke on; and the word heavily peppered the accompanying 35-page National Security Council document titled, "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

Although White House officials said many federal departments had contributed to the document, its relentless focus on the theme of victory strongly reflected a new voice in the administration: Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who joined the N.S.C. staff as a special adviser in June and has closely studied public opinion on the war.

Despite the president's oft-stated aversion to polls, Dr. Feaver was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented the administration with an analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believed it would ultimately succeed.

That finding, which is questioned by other political scientists, was clearly behind the victory theme in the speech and the plan, in which the word appears six times in the table of contents alone, including sections titled "Victory in Iraq is a Vital U.S. Interest" and "Our Strategy for Victory is Clear."

"This is not really a strategy document from the Pentagon about fighting the insurgency," said Christopher F. Gelpi, Dr. Feaver's colleague at Duke and co-author of the research on American tolerance for casualties. "The Pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the White House Web site to know how to fight the insurgents. The document is clearly targeted at American public opinion."

Dr. Feaver? I think its nice that that WKRP guy got a job again and all, but I would have hoped he'd be a little more productive.

Bush loves the simple shit -- because he can grasp it, and then stick out his twitchy jaw, lean into the podium and slowly "e-nun-ci-ate" his mantras. It's so Oz behind the curtain you wonder how they can ever pull it off. Good thing the media helps so much -- like Bush is participating in Special Olympics and you just applaud the effort.

Except this jackass is killing people, not trying to win a ribbon.

The Ass-Covering is Staggering

How many FBI agents have been punished for doing their jobs leading up to September 11, 2001?

Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation mishandled a Florida terror investigation, falsified documents in the case in an effort to cover repeated missteps and retaliated against an agent who first complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded. In one instance, someone altered dates on three F.B.I. forms using correction fluid to conceal an apparent violation of federal wiretap law, according to a draft report of an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general's office obtained by The New York Times. But investigators were unable to determine who altered the documents.

The agent who first alerted the F.B.I. to problems in the case, a veteran undercover operative named Mike German, was "retaliated against" by his boss, who was angered by the agent's complaints and stopped using him for prestigious assignments in training new undercover agents, the draft report concluded. Mr. German's case first became public last year, as he emerged as the latest in a string of whistle-blowers at the bureau who said they had been punished and effectively silenced for voicing concerns about the handling of terror investigations and other matters since Sept. 11, 2001.

The inspector general's draft report, dated Nov. 15 and awaiting final review, validated most of Mr. German's central accusations in the case. But the former agent, who left the bureau last year after he said his career had been derailed by the Florida episode, said he felt more disappointment than vindication. "More than anything else, I'm saddened by all this," Mr. German said in an interview. "I still love the F.B.I., and I know that there are good, honest, hard-working agents out there trying to do the right thing, and this hurts all of them." Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., has emphasized repeatedly, both publicly and in private messages to his staff, that employees are encouraged to come forward with reports of wrongdoing and that he will not tolerate retaliation against whistle-blowers.

Would be nice to know.

Bob Woodward meet the back of Frank Rich's Hand

From Times Select:

INDEED it's reporters who didn't have top-level access to the likes of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney who have gotten the Iraq story right. In the new book "Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11," Kristina Borjesson interviews some of them, including Jonathan Landay of Knight Ridder, who heard early on from a low-level source that "the vice president is lying" and produced a story headlined "Lack of Hard Evidence of Iraqi Weapons Worries Top U.S. Officials" on Sept. 6, 2002. That was two days before administration officials fanned out on the Sunday-morning talk shows to point ominously at the now-discredited front-page Times story about Saddam's aluminum tubes.

...

Such critical stories - including those at The Post and The Times that were too often relegated to Page 17 - did not get traction until the failure to find W.M.D.'s and the Wilson affair made America take a second look. Now that the country has awakened to that history, it will take more to shock it than the latest revelation that the Defense Department has been paying Iraqi newspapers to print its propaganda. Thanks in large part to the case Mr. Woodward found so inconsequential, everyone knows that much of the American press did just the same before the war - and, unlike those Iraqi newspapers or, say, Armstrong Williams, did so gratis.

Woodward's books sell because he gets to write insider gossip...of course, little commented upon is that its the "gossip" the White House serves out to him. He isn't reporting, any more than a court reporter reports. He only sees what they let him...in short Woodward is a tool.

So are O'Reilly & Gibson going?

Going to the 2005 News Corp. (parent of FoxNews) ... HOLIDAY PARTY!


That's right, not Christmas Party, HOLIDAY Party!

(from Mr. Benchley at D.U.)

"You know those Columns aren't going to paint themselves"

Condi wonders why her staff isn't as efficient as Oprahs?

The Scrooges

O'Reilly and his ultra pasty sidekick John Gibson are quite the pair. I always thought that Christmas was supposed to be a happy occasion, the time when you get into the spirit of love and joy for your fellow man.

Sadly, it appears that they (and too many others) believe it is a time to be pissed (or more appropriately) pretend to be pissed about something -- all the time. I'm no theologian, but I think the ONLY time Jesus got outright pissed about something was the rich, trying to get richer.

Oh well, here's your "tolerance" moment from John Gibson:

During a discussion about the alleged "war on Christmas," Gibson suggested that people "following the wrong religion" were not reciprocating the tolerance afforded to them by "the majority religion -- Christianity." He also said that as long as adherents of minority religions "are civil and they behave," Christians will tolerate them "without causing any trouble"

It's amazing how "be civil" and "behave" are words that people like John Gibson use after they've pretty much poked you in the eye with a sharp stick.

Number 3, Number 3, Number 3, Number 3...

If this guy was what they claim him to be, I'll shed no tears, but the refrain is what we have heard many, many times before.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The operational commander of al-Qaida and a top-five official in the terrorist organization was killed Wednesday or early Thursday by a CIA missile attack on a safehouse in Pakistan, officials have told NBC News.

Pakistani sources said that Hamza Rabia was one of five men killed at a safehouse located in the village of Asorai, in western Pakistan, near the town of Mirali.

Local residents said that the men were killed by an unknown number of missiles fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft. The witnesses said that missile remnants carrying U.S. markings remain in the area. They also said they had heard six explosions, but it is uncertain how many of these were the result of missile attacks and how many may have been the result of the missiles detonating explosives inside the safehouse.

U.S. officials have said that Rabia succeeded Abu Faraj as operations chief. Rabia was brought into al-Qaida by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2. Like al-Zawahiri, Rabia is an Egyptian. U.S. officials have described him recently as "top-five al-Qaida" and, as one US official said Friday, "killing him would be indeed a very big deal."

What a truly hate now is that based on their past acts I only half believe this and believe that succeeding days will clarify that much of this information is wrong -- and it will be clarified in a small paragraph about 15 pages after the initial headline.

Verification is necessary for everything assoctiated with Bush.

We're Winning!

Might I suggest that Rich Lowry never write about anything ever again?

SUBJECT: IRAQ [Rich Lowry ]
E-mail:


Mr. Lowry,
I am an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps and have recently returned from 6 months in Iraq. I spent 6 weeks living in Fallujah as a liason with Iraqi security forces. In the short time I lived in Fallujah, I saw that our own clear, hold and build strategy was working on a daily basis...11:34 a.m.

And now...I swear at 11:33 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ten U.S. Marines conducting a foot patrol outside the Iraqi city of Falluja were killed in the explosion of an insurgent bomb on Thursday, the U.S. military announced on Friday.

In a statement released in Falluja, the military said another 11 Marines were wounded in the blast caused by an "improvised explosive device" fashioned from several large artillery shells. Seven of those wounded have been able to return to duty, the military said.

The attack is one of the worst single incidents to hit U.S. Marines in the war.

Some fights are more amusing that others

Watching two grown mean beat each other to a bloody pulp?...not so funny, cover charge.

Watching two women wrestle in tapioca?...fascinating, cover charge.

Watching Andrew Sullivan and John Derbyshire slap fight? ... PRICELESS


Yesterday, as all blog readers likely know, Derbyshire appeared to turn his affections to the virtues of nubile young virgins, illegal in most all states.

Sullivan noticed and pointed out, that seemed rather perverted and curious, considering Derbyshire's advocacy of sodomy laws which are just as illegal in some states.

He even posted a photograph of the Derb's Wedding Nuptials...

Um, Derb, I'm fine with informal weddings and all, but would it kill you to tuck your shirt in? Nice posture by the way.

His wife is from China, and that is where they were married -- she was 23 in 1986.


In short, Derb is saying that he isn't a perv, because his wife was "legal" in 1986.

Okay, Derb, you didn't pull a Jerry Lee Lewis.

But you did marry a bride you ordered from the back of "Soldier of Fortune".

Yes, much better.

Friday Miscellaneous Lifeform Blogging

It's getting lonely for Andrew Sullivan.



(Jim Peaco/National Park Service/Reuters)

Meg White...of the White Stripes...

What's the point?

Discuss...


(Surely this is NEVER discussed on any other forum)

*Sigh*

I was going to do some caption about Laura looking for a smoking section, but realized in reading the real caption I cannot beat the sheer humor:


President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, participate in the sing-a-long with singing group The Whites, at the end of the Pageant of Peace program on The Ellipse near the White House, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005, in Washington. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)


Jesus wept.

Take that Brazil!

Argentina, overcompensating perhaps, for being the second biggest country in South America.


...Somewhere, Clarence Thomas is booking a flight to Buenos Aires.


(Actually for World AIDS Day of course)

Hey K-Lo you fatuous fuck read this one

The Intersection of "I've got a trick knee Street & I'm fighting the War on Ideas over here Avenue" is quick to jump on any email or newstory they can find of someone actually defending the Chimp while in the military.

Well, that can be matched letter for letter -- let us try the actual newspaper of the people in the service, Stars & Stripes (via veteran Nitpicker):

Weapons of mass destruction? I'm still looking for them, and if you find any give me a call so we can justify our presence in Iraq. We started the war based on a lie, and we'll finish it based on a lie. I say this because I am currently serving with a logistics headquarters in the Anbar province, between the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. I am not fooled by the constant fabrication of "democracy" and "freedom" touted by our leadership at home and overseas.

This deception is furthered by our armed forces' belief that we can just enter ancient Mesopotamia and tell the locals about the benefits of a legislative assembly. While our European ancestors were hanging from trees, these ancient people were writing algebra and solving quadratic equations. Now we feel compelled to strong-arm them into accepting the spoils of capitalism and "laissez-faire" society. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching Britney Spears on MTV and driving to McDonald's, but do you honestly believe that Sunnis, Shias and Kurds want our Western ideas of entertainment and freedom imposed on them? Think again.

I'm not being negative, I'm being realistic. The reality in Iraq is that the United States created a nightmare situation where one didn't exist. Yes, Saddam Hussein was an evil man who lied, cheated and pillaged his own nation. But how was he different from dictators in Africa who commit massive crimes again humanity with little repercussion and sometimes support from the West? The bottom line up front (BLUF to use a military acronym) is that Saddam was different because we used him as an excuse to go to war to make Americans "feel good" about the "War on Terrorism." The BLUF is that our ultimate goal in 2003 was the security of Israel and the lucrative oil fields in northern and southern Iraq.

Weapons of mass destruction? Call me when you find them. In the meantime, "bring 'em on" so we can get our "mission accomplished" and get out of this mess.

Capt. Jeff Pirozzi
Camp Taqaddum, Iraq

Suck on that one Jonah.

The Republican War against Voting

First we had Florida.

Then we had Ohio.

But in between we had Texas. And it is disgusting.

Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.

"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," the memo concluded.

The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.

But the Texas legislature proceeded with the new map anyway because it would maximize the number of Republican federal lawmakers in the state, the memo said. The redistricting was approved in 2003, and Texas Republicans gained five seats in the U.S. House in the 2004 elections, solidifying GOP control of Congress.

And it gets worse...

The 73-page memo, dated Dec. 12, 2003, has been kept under tight wraps for two years. Lawyers who worked on the case were subjected to an unusual gag rule. The memo was provided to The Post by a person connected to the case who is critical of the adopted redistricting map. Such recommendation memos, while not binding, historically carry great weight within the Justice Department.

Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Texas and other states with a history of discriminatory elections are required to submit changes in their voting systems or election maps for approval by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

The Texas case provides another example of conflict between political appointees and many of the division's career employees. In a separate case, The Post reported last month that a team was overruled when it recommended rejecting a controversial Georgia voter-identification program that was later struck down as unconstitutional by a court.

Mark Posner, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who now teaches law at American University, said it was "highly unusual" for political appointees to overrule a unanimous finding such as the one in the Texas case.

"In this kind of situation, where everybody agrees at least on the staff level . . . that is a very, very strong case," Posner said. "The fact that everybody agreed that there were reductions in minority voting strength, and that they were significant, raises a lot of questions as to why it was" approved, he said.

The Texas memo also provides new insight into the highly politicized environment surrounding that state's redistricting fight, which prompted Democratic state lawmakers to flee the state in hopes of derailing the plan. DeLay and his allies participated intensively as they pushed to redraw Texas's congressional boundaries and strengthen GOP control of the U.S. House.

Now it is true that an Appeals Court upheld this redistricting plan and it is on appeal to the Supreme Court. But this is the Texas redistricting plan was initiated mid-census period, and it was done for the benefit of the Republican Party, the effect on minorities (committing the group sin of being mostly Democrat) be damned. The modern GOP could give a damn about minority rights...unless they are metaphorically stalking Jesus.

Shit Sandwich

Why do I call the White House's plan this?


Here is why:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite US claims of progress in quelling the insurgency in Iraq, it remains as robust as ever and could grow a good deal stronger, according to a new study.

The study by two veteran defense analysts working for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy also said the US operation in Iraq was at a "tipping point" that will last for six to nine months.

"I think the outcome of this tipping period is probably going to dictate whether or not the US effort in Iraq succeeds or fails," analyst Jeffrey White said at a lunch unveiling the report.

The study said the insurgency, comprised of nationalists, members of Saddam Hussein's toppled regime and foreign Islamic fighters, showed no sign of losing steam 32 months after the US-led invasion.

"Although thousands of insurgents have been killed and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been detained ... incident and casualty data reinforce the impression that the insurgency is as robust and lethal as ever," it said.

Moreover, the researchers said, the insurgency has managed to exploit only a fraction of the disgruntled minority Sunni Muslim population with any kind of military training.

"Should the insurgency succeed in exploiting this untapped potential, it could greatly increase its military capabilities," they wrote.

The report was prepared by White, who spent 34 years at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Michael Eisenstadt, a former civilian-military analyst with the US army.

The tone contrasted with the assertion in the "national strategy for victory in Iraq" unveiled by President George W. Bush on Wednesday that US forces were making "significant progress" in containing the insurgency.

Considering who is in charge at the moment, let me requote something Joe Wilson said back in the Spring of 2004.

"We're Fucked!"

Ooh, Pretty

NASA releases most detailed images of Crab Nebula produced by the Hubbell Space Telescope:



(AP Photo/ NASA, ESA and Jeff Hester)

Does anyone in the White House yet see the futility...

Of Bush literally trying to improve his standing with the public by RELYING on his speaking skills?

Bush has got that clenched jaw thing down, but I would think even his admirers (becoming rarer all the time) would admit his ability to speak is not exactly better than the weak link on the High School Declamation Team.

Just what exactly are these two doing with their lives?

From the Statesman via Holden.

Leaving Mom and Dad back on the ranch, first twins Jenna and Barbara Bush celebrated their 24th birthday Friday on South Congress Avenue.

The Washington Post reports that the twins slipped away from Crawford for some shopping; Jenna held hands with boyfriend Henry Hager, and Barbara walked just behind with gal pals.

They refueled at Doc's Motorworks Bar & Grill, a former garage, and took advantage of the warm weather by relaxing in lawn chairs on the patio, where smoking is allowed.

Do either of these two college graduates have a job? Are they involved in anything at all, other than accessorizing?

By the way, 1,731 of American fatalities in Iraq have been between 18 and 30 of age. That is about 75%.

Happy birthday shiftless, smoking, drinkers.

Rapprochement

Andrew Sullivan and John Podhoretz get together to discuss how to repair the Right's split over torture.



Stolen from the comely Watertiger who had her own hilarious version first.

What's in a name?

David Brooks -- just seems to equal Republican Asshole, whether you are a deluded, template using GOP stooge like the NY Times editorialist, or a defective armored vest making Pentagon War Whore:

History will forever record Elizabeth Brooks' bat mitzvah as "Mitzvahpalooza."

For his daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Tom Petty to Aerosmith.

And as a commentor at the Huffington Post points out, David H. Brooks owns the following as described below, back in May 2005:

The Army and Marine Corps have recalled about 18,000 bullet-resistant vests produced by DHB Industries' Point Blank Body Armor Inc. subsidiary, according to wire reports.

Reuters said that the Army and Marine Corps announced the recall on Thursday. The Army recalled 8,083 vests out of a total of 873,000 it has used in the field. The Marine Corp recalled 10,342 out of about 191,000 being used.

DHB did not return two calls to its offices seeking comment about this recall. The Marines already recalled 5,000 vests made by Point Blank in May, Reuters said.

The wire service indicated that the military said vests were being recalled because they fell short of specifications set for the equipment.

But Reuters said the military said the vests were not believed to have put soldiers in danger, since its own threshold for strength is higher than they are expected to require in the field.

DHB Industries on Tuesday said it had received a new order for $30.1 million from the U.S. Army for additional vests. Shares of DHB slipped 7 percent in midday trading to $3.63 on the news of the recall.

And wait, thanks to Atrios' Commentor BKNY there is more...

Last weekend, Brooks sent his company jet to fly Aerosmith in from Pittsburgh. The band, which reportedly took the stage at 2:45 a.m., allowed Brooks' teenage nephew to play drums. The group's $1 million fee buys a lot of cooperation. The 50-year-old tycoon, who changed from a black leather suit into a magenta suede biker outfit covered with chains, later told a reporter he wouldn't comment on "a private event." ...

The smell of "Hai Karate" must have been strong, very, very strong!

Your Republican War Lovers at work.

If perchance you are not a David Brooks that is an apologist for wankery, I apologize -- but let's face it, the namesakes aren't holding up their end of the bargain over your good name.

Should we start calling a Bush Lie, pulling a Jonah?

This is from Daily Kos, the transcript of last night's Anderson Cooper 360 is not up yet, so it is not a direct quote, but apparently the most important words were actually said.

Cooper: "The President claims Iraqi troops were leading this battle, what's did you see?"

TIME reporter: "That's a pantload, the Iraqi troops were led and surrounded by green berets, I was there."

Oh my goodness, this must get confirmed!

Myth versus reality

From Perspectives:

November 30, 2005

"In Iraq, there will not be a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship." President Bush.

May 1, 2003

"In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." President Bush, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

I guess they can claim an Aircraft Carrier is not a Battleship.

Thwack!

Of course, they (and not alone of course) helped facilitate this gigantic clusterfuckery but the NY Times spares little in pointing out the continued empty statements, factual vacuity, and general ass-hattery of the Bush Administration on Iraq.

The address was accompanied by a voluminous handout entitled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which the White House grandly calls the newly declassified version of the plan that has been driving the war. If there was something secret about that plan, we can't figure out what it was. The document, and Mr. Bush's speech, were almost entirely a rehash of the same tired argument that everything's going just fine.

. . . Mr. Bush hates comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq. But after watching the president, we couldn't resist reading Richard Nixon's 1969 Vietnamization speech. Substitute the Iraqi constitutional process for the Paris peace talks, and Mr. Bush's ideas about the Iraqi Army are not much different from Nixon's plans - except Nixon admitted the war was going very badly (which was easier for him to do because he didn't start it), and he was very clear about the risks and huge sacrifices ahead.

A president who seems less in touch with reality than Richard Nixon needs to get out more.

Let me tell you the Atta J. Turk, non-scientific, completely out-of-my-ass conjecture about George W. Bush. The Chimperor is, probably, our most "autistic" President (even more than John Tyler - that catatonic rat-bastard!). If he doesn't have the same routine every day, if he cannot be in a predictable, safe environment, he lashes out. They don't let him keep Saddam's pistol loaded after all.

Cheney, Rove, Rummy, Condi, Card they are pretty much his round the clock residential assistants. He cannot fire any of them, because if they are gone, it changes his routine and, well next thing you know he will be lashing out against the Mexicans like Lou Dobbs on a bender and claiming a beef processing plant in the Ottawa suburbs is making sarin and Canada must allow in weapons inspectors or we're bombing those Montreal cheese-eating surrender-monkeys. Unleash Operation, Maurice "the Rocket" Richard now termed "Shock & Eh".

Take that you Mackenzie King worshipping hosers! How "a-boot" that?

That is why Bush is kept in as controlled an environment as possible. And Laura too, but in her case it is because it keeps her batteries fresh.

Somebody had a Hissy Fit!!!

Yesterday we all got a good laugh at this generation's Joe McCarthy and the fact that FoxNews was selling "Holiday" ornaments, and NOT Christmas ones. This was especially hilarious considering that O'Reilly has been going around echoing albino freak Jon Gibson's fake line of "The War on Christmas" of which wishing people "Happy Holidays" is example number one.

In other words,

"All you Jews can go back to Africa, and all you African-Americans and your colorful caps can go back to Kwazaastan"

Well, all I can say is I feel bad for the FoxNews website guy because I have a feeling somebody was screamed at until O'Reilly passed out with rage. And today it states:

THE O'REILLY FACTOR HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

The Problem is...underneath it still says:

Put your holiday tree in "The No Spin Zone" with this silver glass "O'Reilly Factor" ornament. Metal cap and hoop for hanging. Made in the USA.

So how many times in your life have you referred to that pine or pine facsimile as a "Holiday" tree?

Nice panic job FoxNews.

UPDATE: Apparently, it is possible that some FoxNews web team member reads this blog (in which case tell Roger Aisles to take a flyin' leap!) or Atrios' comments because now it says "Christmas Tree".

But they cannot change what the link says.

http://shop.ecompanystore.com/
foxnews/FOX_ProductList.asp?TYPE=Holiday+Ideas
&index=7&CATALOG=FOX&ID=71

thanks to pseudonymous in nc.