Coming in the Summer of 2018

"Hi, I'm George Bush, you may remember me as the hard workin', deciderin', mission accomplishin', mandated - twice, President of the United States."


George Bush stars in the the most delicious "documentary" of the Summer...







The most disturbing and shocking power point presentation you'll ever see.


"heh, heh is this thing on?"

"psssst, you have to flip the switch on the back Mr. President"

"heh, heh, thanks Josh...when Karl gets out he'll have this ready ahead of time"

"Okay, here we go"


"Oopsy, heh heh heh"

"Next slide! Stat!"


"There that's better. Earth, the greatest source of wealth ever created. The only place in the universe we know of with taxes."


"Some people say that we've abused the earth. That because the temperature has gone up about 10 degrees and America's heartland is now a desert, it's somehow a bad thing."


"Well, I disagree. I call it an opportunity."


"Some say that the successful people should not be hoarding all the oxygen. I say, they're my base."


"The truth is that we can no longer just stand idly by and watch our world crumble as we all try to eat our remaining grain and drink what is left of our fresh water."


"No we must go down a new path."


"We must kill and eat the poor."

An "Inconvenient Inconvenience", take your family to see it at a theatre near you. Admission is free if you bring a very, very large roasting pot. It'll be fun, we promise.

Dammit!!!

Bolton breaks in on their "quality time". At least his fly is up.


And just to fuck with Josh Bolton:




Original pic from (AFP/White House/Eric Draper)

The Derbyshire Family Gets Together

Especially for "Daughter's" company.

The MST3K classic short, "A Date with Your Family" aka "The Woody Allen Story" (sadly, not my line)

A 1950's era salute. And you can tell it's the 1950's because the brothers would no longer have separate beds -- keep that line in your heads when you watch it, you'll get it.

Oh, and it's narrated by Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver himself).

World Cup

I'm putting my money on the team with the most sobriquets. That's pretty much always Brazil.

Now if the United States could put together a team of Liza, Elvis, Clenis, the Hammer, Oprah, J-Lo, and various pseudonymed bloggers* we'd be a serious threat.

And thus ends my supply of soccer jokes.


*Becoming a rarity I understand -- Thers, I've heard, has incredible ball skilz [Armando not so much]. Perhaps I've said too much.

Quick, what's the square root of 4?

There's your GOP brain trust.

The Pep Boys they're not. Well maybe Manny.

(AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

We'll see

I think John Zogby, who obviously knows more about polling than I do, is by and large correct, but there is more to the dynamic I think. Zogby says:

Sagging job approval numbers wouldn't get a boost, a new Zogby Interactive survey shows

With President Bush's job approval numbers languishing in the low 30s, not even Osama bin Laden can come to the rescue, a new Zogby Interactive survey shows.

And Wednesday's death of Iraqi al-Qaeda leader Al-Zarqawi is unlikely to improve the President's numbers, Pollster John Zogby said.

Asked how much credit would be due President Bush if bin Laden were caught, 52% said they would give him no credit because he turned his attention instead to Iraq after the war on Afghanistan. Twenty-eight percent would give him all the credit, while 17% said he would deserve some of the credit.

The President's job approval rating in fighting against terrorism would be at 42% if bin Laden were found, the poll shows, which is about where he is right now - with bin Laden still on the loose. A Zogby telephone poll in may showed his job approval for fighting terrorism at 41%, which was down from 44% in February.

I think after a period of time this is true.

But in the short-term the lead story seemed to be "we Americans blow'd stuff up real good" and any good American loves blowing up the shit! The subtext was - still more crap happening in Iraqifuckedupalltohellistan. I'm guessing the mouth-breathers, and semi-mouth breathers won't catch the underlying facts. They rarely do.



The wake of Zarqawi's death was similar to the flag-waving disgusting subtext that was cable news in the late Winter and Spring of 2003. There were no reports of what is known: that his power was manufactured largely by us and what we said (he was a psy-op creature); that Bush did not nail him before the war in large part so he could be used as a reason FOR the war; and that Iraq and its civil unrest have little to do anymore with this nimrod. AmericaBlog has more.

Sorry to fit so well in to what the red bloggers consider a stereotype, but facts are facts -- and they've rarely been interested. The platitudes of "our troops rock" and shit are nice -- and of course most of them do a great job under nearly impossible conditions. But the impossible conditions and how they got created and when they will end is the important question. Not the fucking platitudes which is all the Bush and his enablers have had since "Mission Accomplished".

You know, I'd look at video of the news coverage before the lead up to the war again, but I'm not a bulemic harpy like Ann Coulter.

Behold the Wisdom of Lewis Black

From the Washington Post:

Saginaw, Mich.: It seems like the relationship between the press and politicians has changed drastically in recent years. What I mean is - journalists who have become "celebrities" (Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Bob Woodward, etc) frequent the same parties, events, vacation spots as the politicians they cover and share a common "class" affiliation. How do you feel this "celebritization" (not a word) of the media has affected the coverage of the news (or lack thereof) and lack of willingness on their part to go out on a limb and actually be critical?

Lewis Black: I think that's just the tip of the iceburg. The press is supposed to be adversarial. They seem to have forgotten.

_______________________

Brooklyn N.Y.: What is your take on the whole Colbert dinner "scandal" did you think he was funny or not? Is the media out of touch with the people and incapable of looking at itself objectively? If so would you include the post and times in that category?

Follow up do you think modern journalists are lazy or stupid? Or neither?

Lewis Black: See above question. As for Stephen, I thought it was funny. Many at the event didn't get that he was playing a character. I have played those kind of rooms. The stick is wedged firmly up that place where the sun doesn't shine.

And you'll like it!

I don't care what the reast of the cool bloggers do, I'm staying with blogger no matter how bloggered it is.

Because I'm lazy.

Yearly Kos Day 1, Afternoon Edition

Well, I'm here at my 'Dreamsicle' tinged apartment missing out on all those things that attendees are seeing.

Like this...

Only at the Riviera, just like Yearly Kos.

Wow, lucky them. Whew...Des Moines doesn't look too bad anymore.

You know who else is at Yearly Kos while Atta J. Turk is not?

Byron York!

Unleash the hounds.

Glad to see the FBI fighting the "real enemy"

According to activists from Des Moines, Philadelphia, Miami, Sacramento, and other locations, a young woman named "Anna" allegedly infiltrated peace rallies and animal rights protests and even attempted to join protests against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) ahead of the DNC's national convention last year as a paid FBI confidential "informant." Activists say that she has tried to provoke conflict at various advocacy events and violent incidents with police to get people arrested. In other words, Anna is not just an informant, she may be a provocateur.

Although she is known among activist groups as either Anna Davies or Anna Davidson, others know her as Grai Damiani. She targets "anarchist" groups.

Thanks FBI.

How's that dirty bomb stuff comin'?

And then the book comes to it's inevitable conclusion...

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

You know say what you want...

They really did a nice job picking out the frame on that picture. Classy touch. I think it says something about our current regime that such pictures are, indeed, suitable for framing.

But a touch more gold, or a little wider, and well, that picture of a dead man's head would be in poor taste.

So all-in-all, tasteful without being gaudy.

Bravo!

Pic via CNN.

I sure hope they were able to find Zarqawi's pistol

Because if they did, they can give it to Bush. Then he can pull out Saddam's pistol and pretend he's Yosemite Sam!


You know very well he wants to.

I usually don't cotton to an abundance of fetishes

But those I have, I hold dear.

This is not one, but if you like to watch ugly people masturbate, you can drop some quarters (and your pants) and go over to Moron Junction, where K-Lo is rubbing herself raw like she just stole a Mitt Romney Sex Tape.


(not a bad photoshop but the actual picture K-Lo keeps above her monitor)



Sorry, too early?

This just in from Tom Friedman

"Now that Al Zarqawi is dead, we will see know whether Iraq has improved in another six months. Well, time to go write another book, see ya' in December suckahs!"

FoxNEWS , December 2, 1859

Tucker Carlson in History

Berlin, July 1925:

"You know I read and really agreed with a lot in your book, it's reasonable and very smart."

This will be a great comfort to those suffereing from incurable diseases

We at Acme Labs haven't gotten around to your problem yet, but hey, we've created a hypoallergenic kitty!

Still waiting for the hamster that can do your taxes.

Yes, they are sooooooo left wing...

But when say, Noam Chomsky (who I don't agree with completely), gets interviewed on television as much as Ann Coulter, I'll believe that the media in this country actually gives a shit about policy as opposed to a clown show.

I don't like this word, and don't like using it -- but if ever the word "cunt" was meant for someone, it is Ann Coulter.

Yearly Kos day 1

Well I didn't arrive in Vegas for the big convention last night.

Or this morning.

But I did paint my place in "dreamsicle" so I'm ready to go with the first of my convention reports.

First, it's great to be at a convention where you can blog in your underwear. If I had some cheetos, I'd feel like a right-wing blogger. But sadly, having painted the apartment they cheetos are harder to find.

I seem to be the only person here so far, but it is early. I'm sure that later today I'll be able to claim I saw Kos, Jane Hamsher, Christy Hardin Smith, Atrios and the others.

Oh look, there's Armando, I mean Jerome Throckmorton Junior -- or is no one supposed to know that yet?

Hey, look it's my dog, what she doing here?

Gone, but sadly, probably mission accomplished

Zarqawi appears to be dead, which is certainly not bad news. Emmanuel Goldstein wasn't much more than an overhyped goon.

Tom over at Atrios pointed out the psyop nature of Zarqawi, and that's certainly true:

"The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." -- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, in an internal 2004 memo praising the propaganda campaign to hype the threat of Iraq's "terrorist mastermind" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

So the death, much as it will be hyped (again), won't change much. The clusterfuck will continue and someone new will be the boogeyman. Let's see, Uday & Quesay that didn't help; Saddam out of hidey hole, that didn't help; Zarqawi...

Where's Osama by the way?

"I struck a rich vein of gold"

But then Bush thought, "Maybe I shouldn't eat it, but just casually wipe it off on my pants".

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

But me likely the bombey so much!!!

Poor Michael Ledeen, he sooooooooooo wants to kill him some Iranistanians:

Apparently those in charge of our Iran non-policy concluded that the appeasement of North Korea worked so well, we should do the same thing with Iran. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before Condi borrows one of Albright’s big hats, and goes to Tehran to dance with their dictator.

The architects of this latest foolishness are whispering the same reassuring nonsense as their predecessors did about North Korea: We’re offering light-water reactors, which aren’t as dangerous as heavy-water reactors, we won’t give them anything unless they agree to stop enrichment, blah, blah, blah. All of which is true, and totally insane, since a madman is, famously, a person who thinks that he will produce a different outcome by doing the same thing over and over again.

One stupid clusterfuck at a time. This time the Bush Administration is full of hypocrites instead of Ledeens, I mean idiots, eh, same diff.

"These are for Family Values?"

"Puffy McBoobjob and her girls?"

"Uh-huh"

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

That's right, Katherine Harris who spooned on the House floor with another married Representative.




Thanks to Holden for pointing them out.

Garrison Keillor in Salon

Sums it up pretty well in regard to the GOP:

You might not have always liked Republicans, but you could count on them to manage the bank. They might be lousy tippers, act snooty, talk through their noses, wear spats and splash mud on you as they race their Pierce-Arrows through the village, but you knew they could do the math. To see them produce a ninny and then follow him loyally into the swamp for five years is disconcerting, like seeing the Rolling Stones take up lite jazz. So here we are at an uneasy point in our history, mired in a costly war and getting nowhere, a supine Congress granting absolute power to a president who seems to get smaller and dimmer, and the best the Republicans can offer is San Franciscophobia? This is beyond pitiful. This is violently stupid.

It is painful to look at your father and realize the old man should not be allowed to manage his own money anymore. This is the discovery the country has made about the party in power. They are inept. The checkbook needs to be taken away. They will rant, they will screech, they will wave their canes at you and call you all sorts of names, but you have to do what you have to do.

"I like mah polling Lowah..."

"Oh, zowwee Mariah, I zought you vere somevone elze."

(Phil McCarten/Reuters)

The three pronged Hell Beast

The Bush Presidency and their three-pronged wankeresque method of maintaining power.

1. Thuggery and cheating at the polls.

2. Throw out ridiculous wedge-issues like gay marriage and flag-burning to distract from the real policy which is to make the rich richer.

3. Manufacturer "wargasms" so they can use the patriotism canard.

For more than two years it has been widely reported that the U.S. invaded Iraq because of intelligence failures. But in fact it is far more likely that the Iraq war started because of an extraordinary intelligence success—specifically, an astoundingly effective campaign of disinformation, or black propaganda, which led the White House, the Pentagon, Britain's M.I.6 intelligence service, and thousands of outlets in the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein's nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States...

...Vanity Fair has interviewed a number of former intelligence and military analysts who have served in the C.I.A., the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency (D.I.A.), and the Pentagon. Some of them refer to the Niger documents as "a disinformation operation," others as "black propaganda," "black ops," or "a classic psy-ops [psychological-operations] campaign." But whatever term they use, at least nine of these officials believe that the Niger documents were part of a covert operation to deliberately mislead the American public.

The officials are Bearden; Colonel W. Patrick Lang, who served as the D.I.A.'s defense intelligence officer for the Middle East, South Asia, and terrorism; Colonel Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell; Melvin Goodman, a former division chief and senior analyst at the C.I.A. and the State Department; Ray McGovern, a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years; Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who served in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia division in 2002 and 2003; Larry C. Johnson, a former C.I.A. officer who was deputy director of the State Department Office of Counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993; former C.I.A. official Philip Giraldi; and Vincent Cannistraro, the former chief of operations of the C.I.A.'s Counterterrorism Center.

In addition, Vanity Fair has found at least 14 instances prior to the 2003 State of the Union in which analysts at the C.I.A., the State Department, or other government agencies who had examined the Niger documents or reports about them raised serious doubts about their legitimacy—only to be rebuffed by Bush-administration officials who wanted to use the material. "They were just relentless," says Wilkerson, who later prepared Colin Powell's presentation before the United Nations General Assembly. "You would take it out and they would stick it back in. That was their favorite bureaucratic technique—ruthless relentlessness."

The above is from a lengthy Vanity Fair article, go read the whole thing.

Can we occasionally do the right thing?

Ugh!

In a March 19, 1958, memo to the CIA, West German intelligence officials wrote that they knew where Eichmann was hiding. Eichmann played a key role in transporting Jews to death camps during World War II. "He is reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias 'Clemens' since 1952," authorities wrote.

But neither side acted on that information because they worried what he might say about Hans Globke, a highly placed former Nazi and a chief adviser in West Germany helping the U.S. coordinate anticommunist initiatives in that country.

Two years later, when Jewish authorities captured Eichmann, the CIA pressured journalists to delete references to Globke.

"Entire material has been read. One obscure mention of Globke which Life omitting at our request," CIA Director Allen Dulles wrote in a Sept. 20, 1960, internal memorandum, after Life magazine purchased Eichmann's memoir.

I sure am fuckin' sick of coming close to winning traditional Republican Districts

It's time for November to get here.

You're telling me

We have to stop gay marriage and flag burning, but THIS is allowed to happen?

Jerry Lewis, who played "The Nutty Professor" in 1963, has a wacky new scheme: staging the film as a Broadway musical. The first show is planned for January at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where the 80-year-old comedian has a houseboat, he said.

Lewis will direct the show...

I'd rather have Shatner direct "Pilgrim's Progress - The Musical".

Who EVER would have guessed...

That George Will is 'anal retentive'?

No president considers it part of his job description to tell the country that the human rectum, with its delicate and absorptive lining, makes anal-receptive sexual intercourse dangerous when HIV is prevalent.

George Will obviously never met Millard Fillmore! *rimshot*

Digby has more, um, detail.

Cheney --- the unknown File

Raw Story without link says:

FBI RELEASES 112 PAGES OF CHENEY
FILE TO RAW STORY: DEVELOPING...

What could this mean? Here's a guess.


The Cheney file:

May 17, 1960:
"You, xxxx xxxxx, go xxxx yourself!"

December 24, 1965:
"Lynne, we need a xxxxxx' baby so I can get out of xxxxxx' 'nam. And it's Chrismas, so come over here and help me xxxx you, instead of myself, for once."

November 25, 1981:
"If you, xxxx xxxxxxx, don't want cranberries, you can go xxxx yourself."

July 4, 1997:
"Whaddya' mean you're a xxxxxx' lesbian? Why can't you just xxxx yourself?"

September 11, 2001:
"Scramble the planes, make Flight 93 go xxxx itself."

October 15, 2002:
"What could go wrong in Iraq, it's not like it's possible we could go xxxx ourselves!?

Febuary 11, 2006:
*blam* "Oh xxxx me! Better finish him off." *blam* *blam* *blam*

Let's see is she the "construction worker?", the "leather dude", "the sailor?"...

Get those pelvic thrusts workin' Condi


That's funny Gwen Ifill never makes you do those. Why would you need to work on that move?


Ooooooooooh.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Somebody give Fred Barnes a new orphaned tube sock

He's found a new Bush to fantasize about...

Then and now redux

Of course, though it may be the day of the beast, it is also the 62nd anniversary of D-Day. Most of this is a reposting of what I put up last year.

Compare the future Republican President of the United States versus the current model.

"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone. June 5, 1944."

Those words were written by Dwight Eisenhower before the most substantial and risky military operation in world history. Of course, the Normandy Invasions did not fail, but if it had, the above statement would have been released and it would have been Eisenhower's epitath.

Sixty years later, we have a so-called leader that never assumes responsibility for anything negative.


September 11, 2001 and the national unpreparedness -- "Hey, I was on vacation"

The fact that Iraq did not have stockpiles of W.M.D., the main pretext he used to justify invading the nation?

"I just relied on what the people I wanted to hear told me? Don't look at me."

What about Iraq never seeming to get better?

"Dammit, I said it was getting better and dammit it is."

Turning a huge surplus into a massive defict?

"We both know that was the work of the evildoer fairies, not me."

Abu Ghraib?

It was the little redneck woman, not me or anybody high up.

The continuing lackluster performance of the stock market.

"Is that Clenis guy still available?"

The Social Security Plan that actually makes things substantially worse?


That medicare prescription plan with the gigantic doughnut holes that accomplished little except make Big Pharma wealthier than ever?


Haditha, and other deaths of civilians because there was no plan and no training for insurgency?


I guess somebody doesn't want to play anymore.

Well now we know don't we?

It's all those activist judges and gay marriage.

The "Omenator"

It is the right day...

A question from "AmericaBlog"

"Does George Allen masturbate?"

Oh, yes. Especially when he's in his Confederate General costume.

So anyway...

"The doctor told me that sometimes they just never drop. It's a more common condition than is generally known."

(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Mr. President could you give us your thoughts on the Florida Senate Race?

(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

A summation of how swell things are going in Iraq

Noted by Juan Cole:

The US military in Ramadi fired four artillery shells at the train station, attempting to take out guerrillas who were off-loading weaponry there. AP says, "A hospital official, Dr. Omar al-Duleimi, said American forces killed five civilians and wounded 15. The U.S. military said the mission had "positive effects on the target," but it denied that civilians were killed or injured in the city west of the capital. " I suppose 5 persons are dead and 15 are wounded, but that it is unclear if they were civilians or guerrillas. Anyway, that guerrillas might even think they could openly offload weaponry at the train station in Ramadi tells me all I need to know about the state of security in the city.

Once again, the utility of artillery comes into question, but it really is the highlighted sentence that is shocking.

I Beg Your Pardon

Bush left the Rose Garden.

To go make his special "Me hatey teh gays" in the Old Executive Office Building. In such an instance there would be far fewer pictures and photo ops with the folks that showed up to support the Chimperor Disgustus. So who was there?

"Rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers Gary Bauer, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes James Dobson, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."

(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

In honor of Kiss the Ass of My Base Day

From Ruth in an Atrios thread.

Republican Marriage Update

Where Atta J. Turk offsets the important news coverage of the Clintons with updates on prominent marital relationships in the Grand Old Party:

Today let us highlight Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao:

"Pure" politics

Damned Activist Judges

I'm sure Clarence Thomas is appalled at judicial activism stepping in and setting the agenda on marriage, in opposition of the popular mood.

I'm sure the Justice and his wife discuss this all the time.

After all they live in Virginia, and but for a Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia which stated that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional, they could not do so. The Loving case (decided in 1967) ended all race-based marriage laws in the United States.

At trial, the Lovings were sentenced to a year in prison (suspended for 25 years if they left the state) and the trial judge said something that George Bush could slightly modity and then say about gay marriage (well it's Bush so maybe not too easily):

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

The Lovings, of course, were lucky at the time to only get a year in jail instead of being lynched, making the question "How we Survived" rather moot.

Many better blogs have talked about asking Bush (or Dick, Lynne or Mary Cheney) what he thinks of the "Loving" case...and I for one agree, I would like Bush to be asked what he thinks of "Loving". And I laugh in anticipation of what the Commander Codpiece would say.

But I'd like to hear what Clarence Thomas "really" thinks. I'm guessing he's a first class hypocrite.

We're all ears

I live in the midwest and I still have problems with this nonsense:

The Homeland Security bureaucrat who shortchanged New Yorkers' safety by $80 million implied yesterday that guarding a Nebraska cornfield from an Al Qaeda attack is the same as putting a cop with a gun on the Brooklyn Bridge.

"When you are protecting agriculture in the Midwest, you are protecting the citizens of New York City," Assistant Secretary Tracy Henke told C-Span's "Washington Journal." ...

...A senior U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington also scoffed at the insinuation that Al Qaeda is targeting cornfields and grain stores.

"The whole DHS agro-terrorism theory doesn't hold," the official said. Asked if he had ever heard of a credible terrorist threat to the food supply, the official laughingly replied, "Never."

Ugh!

Here's a shocker:

Henke is a Republican political operative and protégé of former Attorney General John Ashcroft with no background in military or intelligence. She previously worked for two GOP senators from her home state of Missouri, which collected 25% more security cash from her office this year.

Fire Rumsfeld, fire him now

Fire everyone in the policy making branch of the Defense Department! Should have happened a long time ago, of course.

So much for Abu Ghraib being one of Bush's self-admitted mistakes:

Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

The decision could culminate a lengthy debate within the Defense Department but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed. However, the State Department fiercely opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Convention protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, the Defense Department officials acknowledged.

There could not be a WORSE fucking decision than this one. Especially in light of all that has been exposed the last two years. This is insane!

On another note, I've mentioned a few times on this blog that one of the major issues that we, as a nation, truly have to consider is how we use our military. The signature nature of American fighting is logistics and firepower...overwhelming firepower to the point of, ironically, overkill. In the short-term this undoubtedly saves soldiers lives, but in the long-run it creates far too many civilian casualties (that we ignore) and causes resentment (which makes us somehow surprised) undermining policy goals and ultimately making things more dangerous from American troops.

Here is an example, American troops accidently kill three civilians while test-firing a 155 mm gun. Which is a gigantic piece of artillery and of quite dubious utility in fighting an insurgency (to say the least). But it sure does blow shit up good.

I know sometimes these things happen

But I'm still waiting for my Yearly KOS invitation.

A Culture of Self-Delusion

The world we have created. Thanks Bush-enablers:

The guest at the European-American Press Club was the U.N. undersecretary-general for communications, Shashi Tharoor. He began his opening remarks by talking about Pew surveys in 21 major countries, all of them reporting declining regard for the United Nations. "It started with Iraq. The United Nations began losing stature everywhere, but for different reasons."

He said that large numbers of the respondents in 20 of the 21 countries blamed the United Nations for not being able to stop or control the United States in Iraq. The 21st country was the United States, where respondents blamed the U.N. for not helping us enough in Iraq.

And now, having followed a diplomatic scorched-earth policy for several years, the Bush Administration wants a coalition to support military action against yet another nation in the same region.

Indeed

Robert Fisk, from Iraq:

I think it becomes a habit, this sort of thing. Already the horrors of Abu Ghraib are shrugged away. It was abuse, not torture. And then up pops a junior officer in the United States charged for killing an Iraqi army general by stuffing him upside down in a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest. And again, it gets few headlines. Who cares if another Iraqi bites the dust? Aren't they trying to kill our boys who are out there fighting terror.

For who can be held to account when we regard ourselves as the brightest, the most honorable of creatures, doing endless battle with the killers of Sept. 11 or July 7 because we love our country and our people -- but not other people -- so much. And so we dress ourselves up as Galahads, yes as Crusaders, and we tell those whose countries we invade that we are going to bring them democracy. I can't help wondering today how many of the innocents slaughtered in Haditha took the opportunity to vote in the Iraqi elections -- before their "liberators" murdered them.

Four out of my five wives agree

That we support us some Bush because he believes in the sanctity of marriage. Utah, the last bastion of Bush lovers and, well, robots.

Stewie Griffin came to Utah apparently,

"Victory is mine!"

Are you like me?

Do you wake up in a blind rage about what is happening to our country and then go downhill from there?



(REUTERS/Larry Downing)

Who will do their duty?

The New York Times Editorial this morning puts the cause and the possible effects of Haditha -- and the need for the press to "DO IT'S JOB" rather than wave the flag to please it's viewers.

Now that we have reached the one place we most wanted to avoid, it will not do to focus blame narrowly on the Marine unit suspected of carrying out these killings and ignore the administration officials, from President Bush on down, who made the chances of this sort of disaster so much greater by deliberately blurring the rules governing the conduct of American soldiers in the field. The inquiry also needs to critically examine the behavior of top commanders responsible for ensuring lawful and professional conduct and of midlevel officers who apparently covered up the Haditha incident for months until journalists' inquiries forced a more honest review.

So far, nothing in President Bush's repeated statements on the issue offers any real assurance that the White House and the Pentagon will not once again try to protect the most senior military and political ranks from proper accountability. This is the pattern that this administration has repeatedly followed in the past — in the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib, in the beating deaths of prisoners at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and in the serial abuses of justice and constitutional principle at Guantánamo Bay

These damage control operations have done a great job of shielding the reputations of top military commanders and high-ranking Pentagon officials. But it has been at the expense of things that are far more precious: America's international reputation and the honor of the United States military. The overwhelming majority of American troops in Iraq are dedicated military professionals, doing their best to behave correctly under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Their good name requires a serious inquiry, not another deflection of blame to the lowest-ranking troops on the scene...

...It should not surprise anyone that this war — launched on the basis of false intelligence analysis, managed by a Pentagon exempted from normal standards of command responsibility and still far from achieving minimally acceptable results — is increasingly unpopular with the American people. At the very least, the public is now entitled to straight answers on what went wrong at Haditha and who, besides those at the bottom of the chain of command, will be required to take responsibility for it.

The Bush Administration will most definitely protect officers and policies in this matter, there is no doubt about it.

But will the press allow them to? It is one thing for a pinhead like O'Reilly to slander American soldiers of the past to defend the Bush Administration today. As slimy as that is, from him, it is hardly surprising. It is another thing for "legitimate" journalists like John Roberts and Wolf Blitzer to cavalierly re-write it. These folks "enabled us" into this war, it sure looks like they are going to "enable us" to stay there.

The more they cover their asses in the Bush Administration and the Rumsfeld DOD, the worse it gets. The papering over of Abu Ghraib has led to a situation where the investigation and clearing of soldiers actions at Ishiqa is not believed by the the Iraqi population, let alone the government we've helped put in place. A conspiracy to diminish error or cruelty is only going to lessen whatever chances are left after three years of fuck ups to get out of Iraq with a chance it won't turn to shit (and that I think is unduly optimistic), it also increases the danger to the Americans left in that country (stuck) at the moment.

But it is, and always has been, about covering their asses.

I ask you, does this look like the face of a heartless bastard?

(AFP/Pool/Tim Chong)

Toasty

The fear of the "genius" of Rove is so out of line. Bush no longer has control over his own destiny, he is done, finished. Every effort they make is a known joke. The Gay Marriage Amendment will produce three reactions, all bad.

For people like me, who oppose such a stupid piece of legislation, there will be laughter, and the same level of shame we've had for several years. For people who are ambivalent -- just laughter.

And for supporters, Bush's base?

Cynicism:

"I'm going to go and hear what he says, but we already know it is a ruse," said Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, which opposes gay marriage. "We're not buying it. We're going to go and watch the dog-and-pony show, [but] it's too little, too late."

Such comments have raised the prospect that the debate over gay marriage — designed to galvanize one of Bush's most important constituencies, social conservatives — could instead exacerbate the president's political headaches.

They are fucking over.

Slow day...means more Shatner

Must have been some MTV Movie Awards thing.

But...that's...not...all

Speaking of "Cut and Run"

I plan on being down at the Federal Courthouse to laugh my ass off...

Presidential adviser Karl Rove told an enthusiastic crowd of Broward County Republicans on Friday night that the worst mistake the U.S. could make is to "cut and run" in Iraq.

Without mentioning growing opposition to the war or the record-low popularity in polls of his boss, President Bush, Rove gave a resounding defense of the decision to go to war three years ago, and he blasted Democrats who now consider the war a mistake.

There is an incredible irreality about these clowns.

Rove has no fuckin' clue as to how to fix his boss's problems.

Of course, there is no solution.

You Know I stopped participating in "Model UN" when I graduated

Jenna would be there too, but the Betty Ford Center isn't a sovereign state.

(REUTERS/Chip East)

Wow, that's a relief

After going weeks without acknowledging their existence, champion Heffer Timmeh is having a member of a little known or seen Party on 'Meet the Press'. It calls itself the "Democratic Party".

I could be more facetious, except that Democrat is Joe Biden, who apparently, along with Joe Lieberman are the only members of the Party in Washington. And I may be a member and a half too high.

But then again, I am a liberal.

Boy, I bet they really had to twist Joe Biden's arm to appear on a Sunday Talk Show.

"Well, time to keep a watch on my poll numbers"

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

So Insty

Ernest T. Bass, ESQ - Debasing Professors everywhere:

[C]rying wolf leads end (sic) the end to moral callousness, as people assume that there's no point in behaving morally when they're going to be called monsters anyway. This seems rather uncontroversially obvious to me.

I guess Ernest T. is offering his services in Indianapolis then as an expert for the defense.

"Its My Music and I'll Call it what I Wanna"

So, apparently we need new rules for conservatives. We know that the far right has a quarrel with reality. They don't like it when it fails to serve their purpose, which would qualify as a form on maddness. Well, as most of us already know... the folks at the National Revue have a quirky sense of reality.

Well my friends, they have taken their bizarro world to dizzing heights of insanity, and no I am not talking about their love of the Iraq war. And with the recent arguments by KLo and the other men, that is saying a lot.

Apparently some of the most rebellious songs in the rock n roll canon are secretly, unknown to us normal folks who have been listening to them for years are about right wing ideals. That they are conservative in nature. Yup, the Who's classic "Won't Get Fooled Again" -- is not the sarcastic statement against the boss in all its forms. Nope, it becomes a conservative diatribe about naive idealism and the danger of left wing rebeliousness. Yup, a song that we all know as so very far from a right wing rant, becomes um, a right wing rant.

Everyone out there who thinks that I am out of touch and the Neo-Cons at the Natinonal Revue could not be this insane? Read this.

What are a few Daily Attacks between Friends?

Iraqi officials now accuse the U.S. military of 'daily' and 'unnecessary' attacks against innocent civilians, notably women and children. The prime minister of Iraq, which Bush and company installed said that American troops crush unarmed civilians "with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion."

Is anyone out there watching the defense of these horrible actions by the Bush misadministration? The GOP talking heads are busy spinning, spinning, and yeah... more spinning on this. "If mistakes were made it was the actions of a few misguided, scared soldiers" they tell us. "Fog of war" they repeat. "Not representative of the overall military effort" they say. So, from all of these statements and oh so many more (because excuses seem to be the stock and trade of the Bush administration), we have to conclude that the military must not know what it is doing; thank you very much Donald Rumsfeld.

Is it any surprise that the members of the Republican machine which is responsible for these senseless deaths are worried that they will pay a high price in the upcoming elections? And we know that they will. Remember that it is not just Bush and Cheney who have created this mind-blowing human catastrophe. And this time we don't need a rocket launcher to make some son of a bitch pay.

Think about the FUBAR clustermess of whatever-the-hell-it-is that is happening in Iraq and realize that the situation is not going to get any better. In fact, it is going to get worse. More investigations over the disorganized actions of the U.S. military will happen -- and damn straight that they should -- and of course that will focus mostly on what SOME individual soldiers did, but the point is, more atrocities will come to light. And this will be followed with more despair in the U.S. and even more damage to what little world street cred we have left. And the Republicans are a little worried over image that might damage their political chances? Perhaps, they shouldn't have gotten us into this mess to begin with...

Man, they can't think long term, can they?

I am still confused here though. Do these right-wing ideologues read newspapers from outside of the U.S.? We are taking a pounding out there. The inevitable investigations and (bless them) whistleblowers are going to turn up some nasty hidden secrets about the behavior of the military. We are seeing the tip of the iceberg on that. And still the Republicans are worried that we are not selling liberty and democracy well to the audience of the world? Huh?

I have to believe that the republicans will loose at least one half of congress and in a few years the presidency. The economy is great for the rich but sucks for the rest of us. Gas cost will create ripple effects in the economy of the regular folks for years to come. Since everything is based on petroleum (in one form or another) almost all things are going to get more expensive. And that is in the short and long term. Thank you Republicans.

Just remember that the Republicans "trust the American people" and the GOP is the "friend of the American people." And, the Iraqis should have seen this one coming... "America is the friend of the Iraqi people."

Hell, with friends like these who needs enemies?

Robert Kennedy Jr

Future Right Wing Talking Points!

-- He's a Kennedy!

-- George Bush voters in Wisconsin might have been inundated with cheese-doodles and prevented from voting by orange-tinged fingers!

-- He's sliming a black man!

-- His Uncle's a Drunk!

-- His Nephew's a Drunk!

-- His research was sloppy, as is demonstrated in my rebutal -- it's the one without footnotes.

-- He's an environmental extremist!

-- He's a Kennedy!

-- He has a weak voice!

-- LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I can't hear you!

-- But how much is he giving to Mary Jo's family?

-- He's an American Hater!

-- Why doesn't he go back to France!?

-- Some people say he's not very nice!

-- Sorry Lentils!

-- Why does he hate America?

-- And what about it, at least we now have a President brave enough to come out against gay marriage in election years!

-- He's not Michelle Malkin, who's like sane and stuff!

-- He does not eat paste!

-- Heh, Indeed!

-- LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA still can't hear you!

-- His Rolling Stone Article could hurt America!

-- His grandfather was a nazi symp -- oh, wait a minute...those poor Nazis murdered in cold blood by Ike's soldiers. (Bill O'Reilly only)

-- He's a Kennedy!

-- He's bitter!

-- He's not a misunderstood genius that is ahead of his time like George W. Bush!

-- He's a Kennedy!

-- LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA what? what?

-- My pee-pee hurts!

-- We're Winning!

-- He's not a decider!

-- He doesn't have the balls to out a CIA Operative!

-- I just made a present in my pants!

-- My God, for fucksake, he's a Kennedy!

Go read what Right-Wingers never will.

Take action on O'Reilly's lies

As I said below, Bill Maher had his contract with ABC ended because he said you could call the 9/11 hijackers any kind of jackass, but you couldn't legitimately call them cowards.

In our "nuanced" age, the right-wing bitched and bitched until ABC said it would end his show.

Meanwhile, O'Reilly continuously pisses on the memories of the victims of a massacre by claiming that they were cold-blodded killers, not victims.

These were the American Troops he claims to so love.

O'Reilly's average audience is 70, seriously.

And folks in that age range, are big with the VFW.

I think they may be interested in demanding an apology from both O'Reilly and from FoxNews for covering for him.

Here is their information:

Media contacts
Jerry Newberry, 816-968-1168
816-835-1851 (cell)
e-mail: jnewberry@vfw.org

Washington Office:
Joe Davis, 202-608-8357
202-374-9998 (cell)
e-mail: jdavis@vfwdc.org

Be polite, of course, these people have certainly done nothing wrong, but they can make the perpetrators of this awful act eat some crow and, if not get a bacillus like O'Reilly off the air, at least cause him to act contrite rather than re-write history. Feel free to send them the Olbermann video - at least for a while.

Fair and Balanced Invocations

Leave it to a FoxNews Contributor to find a way to use an opening prayer to invoke God's aid against Eliot Spitzer (one of them there Jewish fellers).



From the NYDaily News blog.

Re-Fashioning History

I've been watching Olbermann a long time, not just in his current MSNBC show, but also its prior incarnation as well as his years on ESPN and FoxSports. I have never seen him this angry, with one exception, in the wake of the Bush Administration's incompentency during Katrina.

But he was full-on pissed last night, and not without reason.

Go here to see the video, which I may put up when it's available.

For the second time in less than a year, Bill O'Reilly pulled the Malmedy Massacre out of his ass as an example of American's killing "innocent" people. He did it first in October of last year, and blogs like Steve Gilliard and Crooks and Liars took note. And, to my surprise, so did I (when you've put up 6,000 plus posts I guess you forget some of them). I'm just going to repost what I put up then:

More popular bloggers than I have taken up this issue (referred to in brief below) which started through a nice catch, as usual, from Crooks & Liars. But Bill O'Reilly in order to make a cheap point, excusing torture, accused American Soldiers, specifically the 82nd Airborne, of committing the Malmedy Massacre.

American soldiers, of course, did no such thing. Rather, the German 1st Panzer mowed down troops, mostly from the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (the 82nd was 10 miles away and had nothing to do with this incident). Whether the massacre was calculated, or the result of panic, is less clear, but there is no doubt that dozens of American soldiers were killed after having surrendered.

Many American soldiers escaped the massacre by fleeing, among those that escaped was the actor Charles Durning.

It was one of the best known outrages against American troops of the Second World War, particularly in the European Theatre. Any American who has done more than a cursory study of World War II -- and by that I mean pretty much watched the "History Channel" for a few hours, knows about the Malmedy Massacre.

But to have a different take on it requires a deep resevoir of sympathy for the right-wing nut job view of history. A view of history, where even tragedies inflicted on American soldiers have to be glossed over to make excuses for the Nazis.

Steve Gilliard through a Kos Diarist found and expounded on an item which could have been the source of O'Reilly's twisted history through Ann "Dry Hump McCarthy's Tombstone" Coulter:

somehow she neglects to mention McCarthy's first moment in the national spotlight. That was his infamous 1949 campaign on behalf of Nazi S.S. officers who were convicted of war crimes for the massacre of American troops in the town of Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge. On their orders, 83 American prisoners of war had been murdered by Waffen S.S. machine-gunners. The S.S. officers were sentenced to death, but McCarthy insisted that the entire case was a frame-up, with confessions obtained by horrific torture. He intervened in Senate hearings on the case and lied repeatedly during his defense of the Nazi murderers. His most spectacular claim was that the American investigators had crushed the testicles of German prisoners as an interrogation technique. McCarthy was later shown to have served as the pawn of neo-Nazi and communist provocateurs who were using the Malmedy case to whip up anti-American sentiment in postwar Germany. The main source for his false charges concerning Malmedy was a Germany lawyer named Rudolf Aschenauer, whose closest ties were to the postwar Nazi underground and to American right-wing isolationists, but who has also been identified as a communist agent. Aschenauer testified at U.S. Senate hearings in Germany that he had passed information about Malmedy to McCarthy.

O'Reilly outrageously slandered the American Army, by accusing it of perpetrating a war crime of which its soldiers were the victim. He should not be allowed to get away with it. There, are, of course, outrages that occur from all sides in all wars, but that doesn't excuse this -- nor does it excuse the behavior of the American military in this war. War outrages should always be exposed -- and never excused.

You may chastise Mr. O'Reilly if you wish:

oreilly@foxnews.com

Okay, back to the present. This would not mean all that much but for the fact that earlier this week, in trying to minimize Haditha, just like he had then tried to minimize Abu Ghraib, O'Reilly -- who by now should have known better -- pulled this chestnut out of his ass AGAIN!

It is one thing to make an error, but when it involves taking history and turning it inside out and thereby slandering the victims of murder, as they murderers, that is simply pathelogical. If Charles Durning is able, I hope Olbermann has him on his show tonight -- he survived that massacre, and I'm pretty damned sure, he's righteously pissed.

Bill Maher, we all recall, had his contract ended with ABC because he had the temerity to say that whatever else you called the 9/11 highjackers you could not call them cowards (leaving the rest of the universe of castigating words available).

Twice O'Reilly is allowed to defend the Nazis and slander their murdered victims as the perpetrators of a war crime and he gets nothing more than a tongue-lashing?

Fair and Balanced my ass.

And then to top it off...

The pièce de résistance, FoxNews, when transcribing Bill O'Reilly's cover up of a cover up...covers up for O'Reilly's slander.

When you're **that** wrong -- when you're defending Nazi War Criminals and pinning their crimes on Americans, and you get **caught** doing so -- **twice** -- you're supposed to say 'I'm sorry, I was wrong'... and then you should shut up for a long time. Instead, Fox **washed** its transcript of O'Reilly's remarks Tuesday -- its website claims O'Reilly said "In **Normandy**..." when in fact he said "In **Malmedy**..."

I'll let Olbermann's words then go to completion:

The rewriting of past reporting -- worthy of Orwell -- has now carried over into such on-line transcription services as Burrell's and Factiva. Whatever did or did not happen **later**, in supposed or actual retribution... the victims at Malmedy, were **Americans**, gunned down while surrendering -- by **Nazis** in 1944 -- and again, Tuesday Night and Wednesday Night -- by a false patriot who would rather be loud than right.

"In Malmedy, as you know" Bill O'Reilly **said** Tuesday night, in some indecipherable attempt to defend the events of Haditha, "U.S. forces captured S.S. forces who had their hands in the air and were unarmed and they shot them dead, you know that. That's on the record. And documented."

The victims at Malmedy in December, 1944... were Americans. **Americans** with their hands in the air. **Americans** who were unarmed. That's on the record. And documented.

And their memory deserves better than Bill O'Reilly.

History should be as unkind to Bill O'Reilly, as he has been to the memory of soldiers of the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. Only two days after MEMORIAL DAY, Bill O'Reilly pisses on their legacy.

What a horrendous ass.

Fuck!!

It happened again in March:

The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.

The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.

The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.

A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way.

The new evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha, where US marines are suspected of massacring up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005.

Bush is determined to save his Presidency...

By eliminating all wasted and superfluous items.

REUTERS/Larry Downing


Commentor Telly Belly brings up something I hadn't thought of, this really seems like a Josh Bolton wet dream doesn't it?

Behold the War President: Let's Rename It

I will come right to the point.

It is far past time for us to rename the Bush presidency. Since the mainstream media (in all its coopted forms: radio -- remember that medium? -- television, and print) have abducated their role as investigaors and independent watchdogs of politicians, we need to take matters into our own hands -- or keyboards actually. Where are our muckrakers and investigative reporters when we so desperately need them? I am tired of waiting (yeah, I know there are a few of them... but for every meaningful column from Hersh there are a thousand K-LOs, Peggy Nooners, and Kraulthhammeroonies).

So, let's do it ourselves.

Bush has so often proclaimed that he is a war president in a time of Terra' and that requires him to take extreme measures to defend the liberty security something of all most some Americans.

Anyone ever remember Bush mentioning 9-11 in a speech? Anyone? Anyone in the back?

But what can the self proclaimed war president say when cuts are being made to grants to support that one single item called by some -- security upon which he has based his whole miserable presidency? What happens when someone's only point in an argument is proven wrong by later actions?

So, dear friends what should we do? We should create the official label of this debacle of a presidency? And we know all the arguments about whether or not he really truly won either election. Let's set that asside for a moment -- just for a moment -- and focus on creating the term that will come to be forever associated with Bush. After all, this could be useful to the opposition, right?

I will even get us started.

Stupendous Failure? Imperial Imp? Crashing of Credability? These are not that good, I know that you all can do better. What should be the monicker that we can all can use here and into the future? What term that we make today will be the favorite of historians far into the future?

Please add your insightful label, term, phrase and brief commentary in the Bloviatings below. Happy hunting.

Two days of Larry King -- "8th Level of Hell, Hello!"

Best posture this side of "fitness celebrity John Bastow" has himself a theme going.


"So whad'ya say, 11th and 9th time's a charm?"


"So which one of you can I get drunk enough to marry me first?"

But Al Gore is boring and Michael Moore is fat and...

I do believe they can stretch this back a bit, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce won't mind:

President Bush is the worst president in the last 61 years, according to a new national Quinnipiac poll. Bush is named by 34%, followed by Richard Nixon at 17% and Bill Clinton at 16%.

Meanwhile, Bush's approval rate remains unchanged from last month at 38%, with 62% disapproving of his job performance. Said pollster Maurice Carroll: "Bush's job approval numbers remain in the cellar. But he might finally have hit bottom."

I never get tired of these

Letterman continues to show George Bush the "Communicatorer"

"It's just the "Sunni Triangle" that's a problem"

Ah, the peaceful success that is Southern Iraq, typified by the that exemplar Basra.

Iraq's prime minister declared a state of emergency Wednesday in once peaceful and oil-rich Basra, as the sectarian and militia violence engulfing the country's capital spread to its southern economic heartland.

If anyone is interested in a project that pays nothing and rewards less

I'd be interested in comparing the new Homeland Security Grants to voting behaviors. I'm thinking there may be a correlation between where the money is being spent and what districts vote Republican.

When New York City and the District of Columbia get huge reductions, and New Orleans too -- while Fort Lauderdale gets a giant boost it makes one rather suspicious.

The two cities targeted in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will receive far less counterterrorism money this year in what the Homeland Security Department described Wednesday as an effort to spread funding to other communities facing threats.

But the cut was attacked by the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who represents the New York suburbs and vowed to hit back at the department...

..."It's absolutely indefensible, it's disgraceful. As far as I'm concerned the Department of Homeland Security and the administration have declared war on New York," Republican Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record) told the Associated Press.

"It's a knife in the back to New York and I'm going to do everything I can to make them very sorry they made this decision," King said.

I love this little snippet on the basis for the reduction towards New York City:

New York's grant plummeted from about $207 million to $124 million. A DHS risk scorecard for the city asserted that the home of the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge has "zero" national monuments or icons.

Quick who's buried in Grant's Tomb? -- No one of any consequence apparently.

You'd think a Republican Administration would at least recognize the iconic nation of "Wall Street" (did they give money to protect abortion free "Wall Drug"?).

Jeebus with a socket wrench we are governed by idiots.

From a "Bush Administration Oriented Policy" standpoint there is certainly a logic to this.

After all if New York City or the District is attacked again it means:

(1) Fewer Democrats and liberals.

(2) More reason to stir up the mouthbreathers of the South, West and Midwest all while decreasing the places for we surviving opponents to go for a good protest march.

(3) FoxNews has a secret studio/ bunker complex available for emergency operation in Southern Illinois. All their major stars (except Colmes) have personal escape pods provided to them through earlier DHS grants, so no real harm to the catapulting of propoganda.

Makes you proud to be an American doesn't it?

I know that I am in Iowa

Monitoring the downfall of Little Ricky Santorum is primarily the job of Pennsylvanians, who make up pretty much half the progressive blogosphere (Philly especially seems to be the Motown of liberal blogging). However, some news is just too good to pass up.

Santorum now trails Democratic challenger Bob Casey 56% to 33% (see crosstabs). Our latest survey of the governor's race also brings good news for the Democrat in that contest.

Last month, Santorum trailed by thirteen percentage points. The incumbent began 2006 down by 20 points and closed to within single digits by March. That was before the Primary Election solidified Casey's position as the Democratic nominee.

Santorum continues to flounder with his base, attracting support from only 67% of GOP voters. Casey now attracts 87% of Democrats, a ten-point gain since our April 20 poll.

Ricky better start pounding out killer versions of 'Babbaloo' and put his fetus in a jar to work if he's going to make this close.