Passenger seat of my car

Soon to look like Maurice Clarett's:

(AP Photo/Columbus Police Department)

Why?

This is why:

It's hard out here for a myth

33%

No wonder they're screaming the FEAR card

It's all they've got, Bush's approval has fallen back panick-button levels:

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president's approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president's decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South.

More sobering for the GOP are the number of voters who backed Bush in 2004 who are ready to vote Democratic in the fall's congressional elections - 19 percent. These one-time Bush voters are more likely to be female, self-described moderates, low- to middle-income and from the Northeast and Midwest.

That's more like it

Oh the right-wing is going to have vapors of the NY Times editorial page (you know New York, the "home" of 9/11 [not 9/11 "teh musical"] -- the people who lived it, fought it, and now overwhelmingly vote against Bush & Cheney?).

It comes like a punch to the gut, at times like these, when our leaders blatantly use the nation’s trauma for political gain. We never get used to this. It never feels like business as usual.

On Wednesday, when the administration already knew that British agents were rounding up suspects in what they believed was a plot to blow up planes en route to the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney had a telephone interview with reporters to discuss the defeat of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in a Democratic primary. Mr. Cheney went off on a rather rambling disquisition, but its main point was clear: In rejecting Mr. Lieberman, who supported the war in Iraq, the Democrats were encouraging “the Al Qaeda types.” Within the Democratic ranks, the vice president added, “there’s a significant body of opinion that wants to go back — I guess the way I would describe it is sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set, in terms of how we deal with the world we live in.”

The man who beat Mr. Lieberman, Ned Lamont, lives in Greenwich, a suburb full of commuters who work in New York high-rise buildings. They are completely aware of the way international terrorism can come crashing down on an ordinary family, leaving the survivors stunned and bereft. A dozen of their neighbors died at the World Trade Center. They will never be able to go back to a “pre-9/11 mind-set.”

But that did not seem to deter Mr. Lieberman from scoring a cheap sound bite yesterday. Leaving Iraq, as Mr. Lamont advocates, “will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” he said. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

It's getting pretty bad out there. And the worse it gets for Republicans, and it is looking very bad for them, the more over the top they will become:

"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won't "look as appealing" under the circumstances.

Yes, thanks to another country's action, the Bush Administration has finally vanquished "Poland Springs Bottled Water". That's really what invading Iraq was all about.

GET THE FUCKING POINT! Sledgehammers do not kill gnats

Israeli public opinion catches up with reality much, much faster than FoxNews.

Of course, the former, from hard experience is familiar with reality, while Murdoch & Company have yet to make even a passing acquaintence.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Rising Israeli casualties and constant Hizbollah rocket attacks have eroded public support in Israel for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defence minister, opinion polls showed on Friday.

"Olmert must go," read the main headline in Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

A survey in Haaretz showed 48 percent of Israelis were satisfied with Olmert's performance compared with popularity ratings above 75 percent in the early stages of fighting against the Lebanese guerrilla group.

Public support for Defence Minister Amir Peretz had fallen from 65 percent to 37 percent, the survey showed.

Yo' Blair?

"Thanks to your law enforcement efforts to stop the "Iz-lahm-oo-fash-essss" ah 'preciate it. Now if you'll excuse me, ah'm gonna continue to blame the democrat party for it"

Not just thick in the waist

K-Lo, jeebus, you're purportedly an editor for chrissakes!

Can you not fucking read?

This Is the Democratic Party, a Continuing Series [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
From firedoglake, a.k.a. Lamont pal Jane Hamsher (who brought us Joe Lieberman in blackface):

Well, the blog was right...completely wrong on the author of course, it was TRex.

It would be like me holding her accountable for what "the Pod" spews....


Wait?

Did I just write "the Pod" & spew in the same sentence?

Paragraphs I wish I had written

From Doc Alterman:

I’m growing increasingly obsessed with the almost perfectly crazy use of “elitist” in our political culture. In the first place, I have no problem with genuine elitism. A society of 300 million people requires elites to help it function. It couldn’t possibly do otherwise. The problem with our elite is that, to put it gently, they’re a bunch of jerks. On the one hand, whenever their power is slightly challenged, they act like a bunch seventh-grade “Heathers.”

My August Holiday

Before I came back to reality, the reality of Joe Lieberman being used as a dirty damp mop, I attempted some find out how life is for the chimp by going on a little vacation. I didn't have any brush to clear nor armadillas ta chase, but you can't have it all. Besides, I could not only not match my get away to the chimp's from a time perspective, I was staying with my family in my hometown of Los Angeles and was on my holiday for all of 4 days when I had to return to reality. So I started thinking, with the chimp spending about half his time in the oval office on vacation (actually, if you add sleeping, eating, exercise, and Camp David together, has the guy put in more than one year out of the last six actually "working") when does your vacation stop being a vacation and actually become, well, a job?

Can't you just stay in Crawford? Oh I forgot the word "asshole", please amend the prior remark.

More Accurate

Watertiger did some analysis of the original GOP ad and finds some interesting projection going on. Something Mr. Godwin would note.

Fear of a Black Planet

The two Davids (Broder & Bobo) seem to think it significant to constantly use this drumbeat:

Broder:

Lamont found his most prominent support on the far-left flank of the Democratic Party. His organization was a hand-me-down from the Howard Dean presidential campaign, bolstered by a blizzard of Internet blogs from outside his home state. His roster of visiting campaigners was uniformly of the same political slant -- notably Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Rep. Maxine Waters of California.

Bobo:

"The Democratic Party was represented by its rising force -- Ned Lamont on a victory platform with the net roots exulting before him and Al Sharpton smiling just behind,"

Damn those black people and their uppity liberalism! How dare they!

Shorter version:

Liberalism bad, black liberalism, extra bad!

Jeebus, can you two at least try not to be fuckin' stenographers, let alone bigots?

Meanwhile, Bobo will soon undoubtedly play the anti-semitism card again.

Now, lets look at the man they both single out, Al Sharpton in comparison to the man in the White House.

Sharpton: Fabricating about someone committing a rape, I'll admit it, that is pretty damn bad.

Bush: Fabricating about the justification for war leading to (conservatively) 50,000 deaths, including 2,595 american soldiers, and untold tens of thousands of permanently maimed...and still lying and fabricating for more disasters in the hope you get incredibly fucking lucky?

All-in-all, I'd rather have a beer with the Black man Davies.

Your Forecast for today

Is for heavy right wing masturbation.

As the prevention of terrorist plots is equated to the war on terror which is equated to Iraq which is equated to Isra...

Oh, like they'll last that long.

Look, I'm glad, of course, they caught these folks before they did any harm -- if indeed it turns out that was their intention (Sorry, I've seen too many false proclamations to just accept what the US or Brits say at face value).

But this is exactly the kind of interdiction that should be made against terrorist plots. They are "law enforcement" problems. The thing that the GOP "mocked" Kerry for saying -- the truth. The actual truth (as opposed to manfactured "higher" truth) is what Karl Rove & the Rovians think is funny as hell apparently.

But thanks to our policies in the middle east, from Clusterfuck Central (dozens more dead everyday) to brokering disputes involving Israel, now with both thumbs on the scale (which is really a neat trick since Bush already has one up his ass) we'll have plenty more "law enforcement" problems for years and years to come.

Thanks Dubya!

More political genius...

I guess that GOP funded effort to get the Green Party on the ballot to take votes away from Casey is not going too well:

After a review of candidacy petitions filed on behalf of Green Party US Senate candidate Carl Romanelli and gubernatorial candidate Marakay Rogers, Dems plan to file a lawsuit bouncing them off the ballot. State Democratic Chair T.J. Rooney said a detailed review of the petitions -- a signature drive admittedly financed almost entirely by GOP supporters of embattled US Senator Rick Santorum -- showed 69,622 of the 94,544 signatures are likely invalid. "Phony names, fake signatures and a tremendous amount of illegal and deceptive practices were uncovered during our thorough and aggressive analysis," said Rooney. The Dems mocked the submitted petitions for being so sloppy as to contain signatures purporting to be for Jesus Christ, John Kerry, Lee H. Oswald, Terri Schiavo and Mickey Mouse. Romanelli countered the move is a heavy-handed, undemocratic effort to block him from running. Various sources involved in Keystone State politics told Politics1 they are confident the Democratic legal challenge will succeed in disqualifying the statewide Green nominees.

I want to know if there is a signature of "Gabe Santorum"?

THE BOTTOM LEVEL OF THE BASE!!!

Has been identified:

Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.

They're going to be in for quite a day, when they don't notice George Bush summoning up his "mourning smirk" and waging his finger on the fifth anniversary. They'll just say, "ooooh, that mumbly dude sure seems to like his beer, I sure would like to have one wit' him and talk about how much I hate Jeff Gordon but love me some dead Dale Earnhardt, NUMBER 3, NUMBER 3, NUMBER 3!".

This moment of unabashed common sense characterized as elitism brought to you by the Chubb Group.

In the meantime, with 300 million "legal" residents of the nation, we know no that FoxNews can potentially have as many as 15 million regular viewers:

95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday's edition of the newspaper.

Talking point spewer

If Mike Allen ever had an original thought ("Uh, Yahtzee?!") I'm sure it moved out long ago. For Allen is certainly trying to demonstrate that with Judy Miller out of the loop, there's still someone willing to post the GOP's spew uncritically, from which Josh "STILL blogrolling Bullshit Moose" Marshall states.

What's really sad is that the nexus of national press and political operative bigwigs really needs to get over itself a bit here. Because once they do, they may actually be able to get over Joe Lieberman.

Joe Lieberman is not a world-historical figure.

He's not fighting some long twilight struggle.

He thinks he's both. But he's not...

...I don't think most voters around the country really know or care that much about Joe Lieberman. And to the extent that they know who he is, outside of the committed partisans on both sides, they don't realize or think or imagine (as the Russert/Kristol/Matalin/Broder axis does) that he's this symbolically resonant figure on whom the fate of the nation may alas rest.

The heart of the matter here is that everyone knows Joe in DC. They like him. They think he's a nice guy, which he is. His staff likes him, which also makes him seem like a nice guy. He's schmoozed the city for two decades.

But really he's just a pol who ignored his constituents, went into serious denial about a major foreign policy disaster, was more lockstep with the president's non-policy than many Republicans, and got bounced by his constituents.

That's politics. And that's accountability. And, really? It's not that big a deal.

Many Americans are not comfortable with the idea of just pulling out of Iraq. But the war is really unpopular. I think most Americans realize that the president thinks his Iraq policy is a rousing success and most Democrats don't. They get that. They see it. They understand it. If Republicans think the Martyrdom of Joe is going to be their killer issue, let them have at it. They're trying to knock the Dems off their stride but they're showing their desperation. The whole thing is, in both the most serious and frivolous senses of the word, a joke.

I myself am waiting for Mike Allen's reports on Iranian centrifuges.

Whack-a-mole

Send troops into Baghdad...

...watch bombs go off somewhere else.

Bomb blasts on Thursday in a market near a sacred Shi'ite shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf killed 30 people and wounded dozens, the police said.

Iraqi state television said there were two separate attacks in a market near the Imam Ali shrine, while the police said a single suicide bomber was responsible. There were casualties among both the police and civilians.

What's next Bob Dylan?

You need a voice coach to blurt out "Brown Sugar"?

My only real regret about yesterday...

Is that the Bullshit Moose is on vacation.

So What Does This Portend For Democrats Close To Bush On Iraq?

So says body-armored Anderson Cooper to still-so-fat Candy Crowley that she has to stand sideways to fit in the frame and spew utter nonsense.

There aren't any, you dumb-fucks, other than Lieberman, and he isn't even a Democrat anymore. All I can say to these self-congratulating and butt-kissing insiders is: watch out for the pitchforks, they have your name on them.

No wonder he's got that "precious" Ann Coulter endorsement

Joe clearly loves fisting.
(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)


(Brian Snyder/Reuters)


(AP Photo/Bob Child)


REUTERS/Brian Snyder


REUTERS/Brian Snyder


REUTERS/Brian Snyder


(Mike Segar/Reuters)


REUTERS/Brian Snyder


(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)


(AP Photo/Bob Child)


(AP Photo/Bob Child)


REUTERS/Brian Snyder


REUTERS/Brian Snyder

You know I think we have discovered something

There's a reason Karen Hughes hasn't been "envoying" to the middle east lately. She's been rather busy.

And Now for the really important question

Will the Republican Party tacitly endorse Cynthia McKinney...or are they just into cheering for a white guy?

Faux Pas

Have those of us outside of the wing nut special committed an unknown breach of etiquette or is there simply exhaustion setting in or have we over burdened the media overseers with our relentless pursuit of questioning the baselessness of the Bush madness? (simply too many screwups to mention)

Is it possible that events have so exhausted the political and intellectual resources that silence exists in which case some of us have been exploiting laboring colleagues for what may well be thankless work or is there a virtual community to which some of us are not privy?

Concerns such as the Harvard Report on No Child Left Behind, the fate of Professors Churchill and Cole, the topic of pension liability, the higher immorality of Condoleeza Rice, London’s Ricin Ring, the need to urge the psychology brethren to carefully consider what’s going on with psychologists and prisoner interrogation, a context for looking at former Harvard University President Lawrence Summer’s diversity claims, and illustrations of 2005 estimated tax burdens submitted since April have, it seems, ended up in the ether of the Internet, with little commentary and righetous anger!

I am hesitant to post anything that might deal with illustrating and illuminating the contemporary conditions of Bush reality as I gather that too may be quickly becoming passé, something that the Internet postmodernists and online dialecticians have reduced to complaints about historic events rather than as the creeping toward something more sinister which is what is truly happening here.

The Bush regime is deconstructing our democracy, smashing an entire generation with heavy tax burdens, it is not just the too easy punching bag of Bush himself that must be opposed. We must stop the Republican party. The wing nuts and religious wackos must be fought.

Or it may be there’s a secret code that has some how been violated leaving some of us like the character in Kafka’s, The Trial.

Mr. Mel goes to Apology Town

At the risk of once again being Mr. Obvious, I note that the New York Times reports today that Mel Gibson meant every word of it. Despite this scientific evidence of behavior under the influence of alcohol, Gibson's movie buddies are spreading shiny Hollywood tinsel all over the incident.

See for instance this report from USA Today and this one from the San Francisco Chronicle in which high profile movie stars beg us to ignore the obvious about Mel. I wonder if working with someone for a month or two really qualifies you as knowing what is in someone's heart?

And, come on people... who is a better judge of character than actors and others in the film business. I mean the film business is synonmous with integrity and honor, am I right?

I could rock on sarcastically but you get the idea.

Prediction Central

So, how long will it take BP to replace their oil pipeline?

And I ask this especially right now with record high gas prices! So, if we are staring at a high jump in prices, how high will they go? And does this mean that we should avoid buying gas from BP? And I wonder how long it took to "discover" that there was 16 miles of corroded pipeline? Considering that moving the oil was the primary aspect of the business, wouldn't we all think that BP would closely monitor the situation? I know if my business depended on it, I would.

And now there are reports that the pipeline has not been tested or cleaned properly since 1992! So, what could have been a minor shut down of days or weeks... now becomes a shut down of so long a time that BP will not even set a completion date.

This is not a stand alone incident for BP; they have had refinery fires, oil spills, and now this incompetence. Damn, we all should buy our gas somewhere else or avoid buying gas as much as possible.

Of course, this may just be an attempt to make even more money off the back of the American people! Hell, with oil men -- even failed oil men -- in charge of the white house, BP knows it can do whatever it wants. BP may make a LOT more money because the pipeline is shut down, what is their incentive to get it fixed quickly?

I feel pretty angry and snarky about it. What do all of you think? How high will the prices go? Will BP be held accountable for this mess and its consequences?

Welfare for Wingnuts

Dennis Miller, his career is more weighed down with bad judgment than Virginia Woolf at the River Ouse...

...cha chi!!

So naturally, he does what any tired comedy act does. He goes to FoxNews, as a contributor to Hannity & Colmes.
A contributor to FoxNews?

Like Bobby Franks was a contributor to Leopold & Loeb...

...cha cha!!

Well, I guess we'll know who will be the master of ceremonies at the Joe Lieberman roast.

As "The Simpsons" once said when in a Treehouse of Horror episode when the family upgraded the house to a fully automated, computer-controlled system:

Dennis Miller-like voice: "Hey, cha-cha, this house has got more features than a NASA relief map of Turkmenistan."

Lisa: "Isn't that the voice that caused all those suicides?"

Marge: "Murder-suicides."

"Let me describe what ah'm up to on mah vacation"

Somebody should tell him not to do stuff like this when she's right there. It's gauche.

REUTERS/Jason Reed

Wait just a Needle Droppin' Minute!

Let's think about this notion that listening to violent or misogynistic lyrics creates an impact on teens... for a moment or two or three. And before we start punching the media, lets remember that it's what you do with it that matters.

If simply listening to inane lyrics lead me to behavior, I wonder what I would believe? I would have sympathy for the devil, been born to run, fallen in love with a cross dresser named Lola and belived that the new boss WAS the same as the old boss.

I have always argued that even if the music, lyrics, artist, band is stupid, lazy, misogynist, or violent does not necessarily create an automatic path to behavior for the listener. And I believe this across the board. Marilyn Manson is silly musical theatre in the same way that Alice Cooper and Crazy Arthur Brown were odd musical spectacle.

I believe that listening to music (or watching television or going to the movies does not create an irresistible impulse) does not control the listener. Yes, even those of you who will say... "wait just a minute Dirk D. DeDurkheim, consider the influence that Bob Dylan had on a generation!" I do not subscribe to the idea that Dylan created the behavior of a generation. Rather he gave a voice to some of the ideas and sentiments that were already present. Today Green Day is not creating a generation of thoughtful punk-poppers, they are already there. Green Day, like Dylan before them, treated their audience with some intelligence. And treating the lisenter with respect can pay off.

I have to admit to great reluctance to embrace these new studies which supposedly underscores the idea of so-called "lyrical impact on young minds." And like the author of the piece, I would not endorse censorship, instead I would contend that conversation about music and lyrics rather than pre-judging the music, lyrics, or artists may be a better solution to open up a dialogue about the music and its meaning.

Consider a recent example, Kanye West, his lyrics embody some social criticism and a pop music sensability that can resonate with "young minds." Should we scream from the mountain top that he is anti-woman with his song "Golddigger?" Or can we see a point of view that can lead to conversation, even if we do not wholy embrace his ideas? I personally have used that song to open up a conversation with my 17 year old daughter about the image of women in music.

I would contend that is a positive.

Sunday Night Football?

Alright, am I alone in thinking that the same smarminess that NBC brings to the Olympics (think Bob Costas at his height of smarm) is already on evidence for the exhibition game that was on last night? What do you Hegemonians think? I already yearn for Monday Night Football on ABC.

Talking to the Family... War is a Failure

Talking with some family members who are the Rush-spouting, Hannity-quoting, Coulter-loving wing nuts... left me with an inescapable conclusion: It is not enough to be for peace. We have to be against war, without any trace of ambivalence.

These wing nut folks (and remember you can not choose family) were complaining about how lacking of gratitude Iraqis and Muslims are for the faux pax Americana that has been created in Iraq and by spill over effect from the war and the recent fighting in and around Israel.

And one of my family, noted with disgust that some Muslims are even "pretending to be for peace." This led me into a tirade although I was always friendly and holding back. But it occured to me afterwards that peace efforts are often chaotic and lacking in the fervor (not to mention the support for) of the pro-war factions.

A few Muslims have been marching here and there for peace. A few Americans and Europeans have been doing the same. But an anti-war movement that opposes some wars but not others -- or opposes certain wars to a lesser degree -- has no credibility whatsoever. Because then it is subservient to an instrument of some interests (real or perceived does not matter here), and I don't care which ones.

In this day and age, all wars are nothing less than the grossest possible failures of all of diplomacy, flexibility, and most importantly of humanity. And to look at them any other way, just gives the green light to more war.

Now some may disagree with me but how can we claim any moral high ground on the basis of some war is ok because we say so?

I realize that questions such as 'where is the anti-war movement?' feel a little intellectually lazy and contemptuous for those who helped organize more rallies before troops hit the ground than the rallies during the peak of the Vietnam years, including the largest day of protest in world history, Febuary 15, 2003, with rallies in world cities around the world.

A lot of work has to take place to shift public opionion about the war. Historians may tell us later that the anti-war movement shifted the way we understood the war. While we have not stopped anything, the chorus of voices against this action has been heard but obviously not loud enough. And that is a problem.

Many who are involved in the anti-war movement are living lives while we do a rope a dope with history. It is increasingly painful for me to watch the world step backwards. Kindness and care and friendship and tolerance are things which keep many of us going. Even if our families don't get it.

Quote of the Day

"The relationship between the presidency and press has always been uneasy.... However, it has come to pass that the current administration has engaged in a number of practices and has enacted a series of severe and extraordinary policies that attack the press specifically and by extension, democracy itself."
-- Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

On August 4, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) passed a resolution, the first major statement against the policies of a president since the Vietnam War.

The key passage is: "The membership of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication urges the Bush administration to abandon its anti-press policies." The resolution identifies ten troubling practices involving secrecy, propaganda and the control of information. It recognizes that there is always tension between presidents and the press.

"This tension is both unavoidable and generally salutary: When each side conducts its duties with honesty and integrity, both hold the power of the other in check." The ten practises in question:

1. The Bush administration's response to press requests for information;
2. The Bush administration's use of staged town meetings;
3. The Bush administration's vision of the government as a private domain;
4. The Bush administration's practice of massive reclassification of documents;
5. The Bush administration's support of policies that weaken the multiplicity of voices on a local and national scale;
6. The Bush administration's policy of not allowing photographs of coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq to be released;
7. The Bush administration's use of propaganda, including video news releases;
8.The Bush administration's use of bribes and payments to columnists and other opinion makers;
9. The Bush administration's manipulation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and
10. The Bush administration's using the courts to pressure journalists to give up their sources and to punish them for obtaining leaked information.

To keep up a fantasy world

Moron Reuters photographer alters a news photo to make smoke seem more prominent then it really is:


(Reuters)

Stupid and unnecessary. The individual is promptly suspended after an investigation by the news service.

And what is the point really? And as an aside, as someone who eschews using Photoshop (or any other quality photo editing tool) - I use the free Microsoft Paint (i.e. photoshop for stupid, cheap bastards) - that is still one lousy photo manipulation.

Well, it serves to give the fantasy-writers of the right-wing an opportunity to say that what the media reports from anywhere (but especially Iraq or the Levant) is prejudiced. That despite report after report, news story after news story, the shinola ladled out to them every goddamn day by the White House & FoxNews is reality -- and actual reality is fiction.

50% believing in Iraqi WMD's anyone?

Meanwhile, dozens of prominent Bush Administration officials continue to be employed despite consistently "glossing" (even by "spin" standards) the news from Iraq for years. My goodness! You'll have a dickens of a time finding them leveling with the public.

Naturally, leading the charge have been the National Review's resident journalistic ethicists who are all for terminating individuals who engage in such manipulated claims in a "time of waaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr".

I'd like to emphasize this is not a gratuitous "Beaver Shot"

(AP Photo/Phil Coale)

Oh, stop gagging.

A Serial Killers Paradise

The major outlets are rich in one thing for certain at the moment, the stories the Bush Administration has been trying to keep a lid on for months.

The shortest is this from NBC News' Tom Aspell:

Iraq has to be a serial killer's paradise. Scores of dead bodies turn up on dumping grounds outside the country's main cities every morning. Iraqi police reports speak of corpses discovered bound, often showing signs of torture, and shot in the head. And yet nobody is ever arrested and charged with the killings. The overload of bodies prompted Baghdad's main morgue to announce this week that due to lack of storage space they would from now on keep corpses for only two weeks before burying them in mass graves.

It was an exhausting weekend for the beast

She got kind of ill, but she's better today. But very tired.

I guess when you date Rush Limbaugh one of three things can happen:

(A) You perform carbon monoxide experiment(s);

(B) You switch teams;

or

(C) EXTREME Cognitive Dissonance.

via Firedoglake

AbFab

This is Bolivian President Evo Morales giving his annual state-of-the-union speech. Man that is some fine camp!
REUTERS/Noah Friedmann-Rudovsky/Bolivian Presidency/Handout (BOLIVIA)

There is one thing that could make it better:

President Cletus

Ruling from the gut -- in action!

Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.

In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

I would pay a nice chunk of my current checking account balance to see a reporter at the next Bush Press Travesty to ask Stumblebum McFuckup about this AND ask him to explain to the American people some of the differences between Sunni & Shi'a.

And then, given the situation in Lebanon, I'd like him to be asked who the "Druze" are...I'd bet he'd start talking about Israel.

You know RIGHT NOW you could pop those questions on Clinton and 30 minutes later you'd have yourself a thorough overview. I'm willing to wager the Chimp would storm off the podium.

Full Bloom

If by bloom you mean, one of the worst places on earth...care of the Leadership of the U.S. of A:

For me, June marked the first month I don’t dare leave the house without a hijab, or headscarf. I don’t wear a hijab usually, but it’s no longer possible to drive around Baghdad without one. It’s just not a good idea. (Take note that when I say ‘drive’ I actually mean ‘sit in the back seat of the car’- I haven’t driven for the longest time.) Going around bare-headed in a car or in the street also puts the family members with you in danger. You risk hearing something you don’t want to hear and then the father or the brother or cousin or uncle can’t just sit by and let it happen. I haven’t driven for the longest time. If you’re a female, you risk being attacked.

I look at my older clothes- the jeans and t-shirts and colorful skirts- and it’s like I’m studying a wardrobe from another country, another lifetime. There was a time, a couple of years ago, when you could more or less wear what you wanted if you weren’t going to a public place. If you were going to a friends or relatives house, you could wear trousers and a shirt, or jeans, something you wouldn’t ordinarily wear. We don’t do that anymore because there’s always that risk of getting stopped in the car and checked by one militia or another.

There are no laws that say we have to wear a hijab (yet), but there are the men in head-to-toe black and the turbans, the extremists and fanatics who were liberated by the occupation, and at some point, you tire of the defiance. You no longer want to be seen. I feel like the black or white scarf I fling haphazardly on my head as I walk out the door makes me invisible to a certain degree- it’s easier to blend in with the masses shrouded in black. If you’re a female, you don’t want the attention- you don’t want it from Iraqi police, you don’t want it from the black-clad militia man, you don’t want it from the American soldier. You don’t want to be noticed or seen...

...I’ve said goodbye this last month to more people than I can count. Some of the ‘goodbyes’ were hurried and furtive- the sort you say at night to the neighbor who got a death threat and is leaving at the break of dawn, quietly.

Some of the ‘goodbyes’ were emotional and long-drawn, to the relatives and friends who can no longer bear to live in a country coming apart at the seams.

Many of the ‘goodbyes’ were said stoically- almost casually- with a fake smile plastered on the face and the words, “See you soon”… Only to walk out the door and want to collapse with the burden of parting with yet another loved one.

During times like these I remember a speech Bush made in 2003: One of the big achievements he claimed was the return of jubilant ‘exiled’ Iraqis to their country after the fall of Saddam. I’d like to see some numbers about the Iraqis currently outside of the country you are occupying… Not to mention internally displaced Iraqis abandoning their homes and cities.

I sometimes wonder if we’ll ever know just how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis left the country this bleak summer. I wonder how many of them will actually return. Where will they go? What will they do with themselves? Is it time to follow? Is it time to wash our hands of the country and try to find a stable life somewhere else?

And what Riverbend is saying is just a subjective example of a very real pictures of Iraq as a whole, and Baghdad in particular. People with the means to leave, are leaving. And no doubt, taking their "positive reviews" of the Bush War with them.

The Third Wheel

Has difficulty relaxing. Or perhaps Mr. Hadley has never actually taken a dump.

(AP Photo/White House, Eric Draper)

The RNC visits Chuck Hagel

Accompanied by an "Army of Mehlmans"

"Lock her own Cage"

Since there is so much material, I follow in the footsteps of Atrios in presenting more Borat:

Once again I ask

I've given the United States Government a few thousand dollars over the past three years to fund the Iraq War (all Americans have on average), and not only have I not even got a lousy T-Shirt with a shitty iron-on; but now I get this too:

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” marched through the streets of Baghdad’s biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.
…
“Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one. Let them confront us if they dare,” the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.
…
Protesters set fire to American and Israeli flags, as well as effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, showing the men with Dracula teeth. “Saddam and Bush, Two Faces of One Coin” was scrawled on Bush’s effigy.

Meanwhile, the hap-hap-happy stories of further returns on investment continue (Surely Larry Kudlow predicted incredible returns!)

Army troops in and around the capital interviewed in the last week cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is coming undone: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in car bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia death squads have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis; and when night falls, neighborhoods become open battlegrounds.

"There's one street that's the dividing line. They shoot mortars across the line and abduct people back and forth," said 1st Lt. Brian Johnson, a 4th Infantry Division platoon leader from Houston. Johnson, 24, was describing the nightly violence that pits Sunni gunmen from Baghdad's Ghazaliyah neighborhood against Shiite gunmen from the nearby Shula district.

As he spoke, the sights and sounds of battle grew: first, the rat-a-tat-tat of fire from AK-47 assault rifles, then the heavier bursts of PKC machine guns, and finally the booms of mortar rounds crisscrossing the night sky and crashing down onto houses and roads.

The bodies of captured Sunni and Shiite fighters will turn up in the morning, dropped in canals and left on the side of the road.

"We've seen some that have been executed on site, with bullet holes in the ground; the rest were tortured and executed somewhere else and dumped," Johnson said.

The recent assertion by U.S. soldiers here that Iraq is in a civil war is a stunning indication that American efforts to bring peace and democracy to Iraq are failing, more than three years after the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

Some Iraqi troops, too, share that assessment.

"This is a civil war," said a senior adviser to the commander of the Iraqi Army's 6th Division, which oversees much of Baghdad.

"The problem between Sunnis and Shiites is a religious one, and it gets worse every time they attack each other's mosques," said the adviser, who gave only his rank and first name, Col. Ahmed, because of security concerns. "Iraq is now caught in hell."

U.S. hopes for victory in Iraq hinge principally on two factors: Iraqi security forces becoming more competent and Iraqi political leaders persuading armed groups to lay down their weapons.

But neither seems to be happening. The violence has increased as Iraqi troops have been added, and feuding among the political leadership is intense. American soldiers, particularly the rank and file who go out on daily patrols, say they see no end to the bloodshed. Higher ranking officers concede that the developments are threatening to move beyond their grasp.

I only have one thought with this picture

The indomitable Watertiger saw this picture and has naturally made some hay out of it.

No doubt it speaks volumes about the Lieberman campaign.



But I only have one thought.

Man, would that be funny in blackface.*








*OK, not really.

Attention 101st Keyboarders

Jonah, Malkin, Beinart...

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Under current law, the maximum age to enlist in the active components is 35, while people up to age 39 may enlist in the reserves. By practice, the accepted age for recruits is 27 for the Air Force, 28 for the Marine Corps and 34 for the Navy and Army, although the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve sometimes take people up to age 39 in some specialties.

The Pentagon’s request to raise the maximum recruit age to 42 is part of what defense officials are calling a package of “urgent wartime support initiatives” sent to Congress Monday night prior to a Tuesday hearing of the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee.

You've unthinkingly (as usual) supported the wrecking of the military and its personnel on the rocky shoals of the Project for the New American Century (or "NAMBLA"*) it's time you helped fix it.

Via Think Progress


*the 'Daily Show isn't the only one

I haven't done a study

But it seems to me that for the last two years, literally, within 10 days of a Bush "happy Iraq talk" event -- be it the latest "surprise cameo in the Green Zone" or the latest in a series of "elected leaders" of the Green Zone appear in Washington (with mandatory Joint Session photo-op) we find out that the happy talk devolves into a situation even worse than before.

I'm too lazy to go and find any examples other than the latest appearance by Maliki and Bush's surprise trip where Tony Snow peed in his pants.

Does anybody want to see if in a month the Democrats won't turn the tables and get Hassert to bring a Withdrawal Bill to the floor of the House again?

Have you got the figurative to go with the literal guts Mr. Speaker?

For all that is holy as my witness I never expect to see the day

This would be the news:

Israeli Prime Minister would welcome Germans as Occupying Force

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would welcome German troops participating in an international force in southern Lebanon, according to a newspaper interview published Friday.

German officials have not ruled out contributing soldiers to a security force, but Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that "we as Germans should approach this region with the greatest caution."

Truly one of the great understatements ever uttered.

Not even Friedman, has any more Friedmans

Looks like the death of the F.U.

[T]hree years of efforts to democratize Iraq are not working. That means “staying the course” is pointless, and it’s time to start thinking about Plan B — how we might disengage with the least damage possible.

…But the administration now has to admit what anyone — including myself — who believed in the importance of getting Iraq right has to admit: Whether for Bush reasons or Arab reasons, it is not happening, and we can’t throw more good lives after good lives.

Finally, the war in Iraq has so divided us at home and abroad that leaving, while bringing other problems, might also make it easier to build coalitions to deal with post-U.S. Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah and Syria. All these problems are connected. We need to deal with Iran and Syria, but from a position of strength — and that requires a broad coalition.

The longer we maintain a unilateral failing strategy in Iraq, the harder it will be to build such a coalition, and the stronger the enemies of freedom will become.

Not much funny 'bout War Hate & Not Understanding

(Sorry Nick Lowe)



I sleepwalk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for wars to fight in my clear insanity.

I ask myself
Is all hope lost?

Nope there'll bit more pain and hatred, and misery?



And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I really know:

I sure do love my war hate & not understanding
Yes, I surely love war hate & not understanding.



And as I made worse
These troubled times

My spirit so uplifted by warcrimes
'Cause I am so fucking strong
And We sure can be trusted

With making disharmony?
Sweet agony.

'Cause each time I feel polls slippin' away, I know that I can rely.

On good ol' standbys war hate & not understanding

Yes, I surely love war hate & not understanding.



'Cuz we be the strong
And "We say" we're trusted
Maintaining disharmony
Sweet misery.

'Cause without reality slippin' away, I'd have to sit and cry.

But, thank you Jesus for war hate & not understanding
My good ol' buddies war hate & not understanding
Yes, I surely love war hate & not understanding.




And just because it's one of the best, here's a much better deal:

Out on the ledge

Thanks to the internets millions of us have seen the William Shatner "Rocketman" performance from the last seventies (aka "The Greatest Video EVER made!"). Except Pansypoo of course.

Mark Evanier found the one video I've been waiting to appear on You Tube fore some time. In the late 80s Chris Elliot had left Letterman to work on his incredibly bizarre and ahead of its time show, "Get A Life". But he returned as a guest to "Late Night" with a special performance.

Now, this was a few years before the internet made doing the Shatner/Rocket man thing so pervasive in hip-internet culture that Family Guy could do it on broadcast television and even I could use Bush to parody it through a discount Al Yankovich approach (and think about how cheesy that is).

But in the late 80s virtually no one, but the most hip of the hipster doofuses (hipster doofi?) would know about it. So Elliot comes out and does this:



Now when viewing this it may not seem so terribly funny because it's been done so often -- and really what can top the original? But back then, when so few people knew about it strikes me as an incredibly clever and brave thing to do. Elliott never was everyone's cup of tea and a little of him went a long way for many people, but I really loved his audacity in doing this skit.

And speaking of comedians not afraid to be bizarre & how Letterman's old show was the place for them (more than any current show including Conan [Sasha Baron-Cohen is the current standard bearer]), here is the modern TV age standard bearer:



Oh, and just for overload, a bit from "Get a Life"

"Dickens"

It was the best of Rummy (so) it was the worst of Rummy.

"I have never painted a rosy picture” about Iraq. Rumsfeld insisted that he has been “very measured” and told Clinton “you would have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I have been overly optimistic.”

Yes so tough that I spent no time on it and stumbled upon another blogger doing just a tad of the work that could be done on the topic.

It's time to revisit a few choice tidbits from the February 2006 report to Congress on Iraq, as submitted by the Secretary of Defense:

1. "Terrorist attacks have failed to create and spread sectarian conflict." (page 3)

2. "Increasingly robust Iraqi political institutions will provide peaceful means for reconciliation and bridging divides." (page 9)

3. Insurgents have "failed to deter development of the Iraq Security forces" and "failed to damage Iraqi public trust in the Iraq security forces." (page 23)

4. "The overarching term 'insurgency' is less of a useful construct today" because "previous synergy among enemy groups is breaking apart." (page 24)

The above wasn't written in 2003, 2004, or even "last throes" mid-2005. It was written six months ago.

That's but one Friedman Unit (F.U.) ago.

I'm Glad he's writing more

But Billmon is making my fatalistic cynicism seem like Katie Couric perkiness (with extra bonus of feeling like the GOP is metaphorically and constantly abusing my colon).

Don't make me too down man, I don't have a gun, I don't have powerful drugs, I have low ceilings, I live on the second floor, my knives are dull and I have an electric oven.

He's just stickin' up for the mAnn

Santorum only knows one transexual, but it's Ann Coulter.

On Wednesday, Senator Rick Santorum (R - PA) became the 170th Member of Congress to affirm that they do not discriminate in their own employment practices based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

Good for him, though I'm sure it will play well with his base.

The fetus in the jar could not, as usual, be reached for comment.

A "touch of class"

"He looks comfortable"
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(and a hearty laugh was had by all)


...well almost all.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst


NOTE: Pictures may not reflect actual context.

Meanwhile in the other alternative universe

"The fucking Iranistanians are responsible for all the wars in the world."
Modified from (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)


"Are you an Iranistanian?"
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas


"What are you looking at Sugar Tits?"
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Uniformly Fucked Up

More of the glorious progress brought to you by Bush-Cheney Co:

“Whenever I see uniforms now, I figure they must be militias,” Mr. Hamid said in a recent interview. “I immediately try to avoid them. If I have my gun, I know I need to be ready to use it.”

Such is the attitude of Iraqis in this capital shellshocked and made fearful by violence that seems to be committed almost daily by men dressed as those who are supposed to protect and serve. The audacious kidnapping on Monday was just the latest case of men using the signals of law and safety — a uniform, a vehicle with blue lights, a patch on the sleeve — to attack and abduct.

Everywhere Iraqis in uniform go, from ice cream shops to checkpoints, people now flee. The mottled mix of green, blue and khaki camouflage, along with the blue shirts of the local police, have all blurred into a flag for alarm. “En eles,” Iraqis in Baghdad now say when a friend has been taken; in traditional Arabic it means chewed up, but in the streets it has come to mean taken by mysterious men without explanation.

The article goes on to say that the Iraqi Generals are promising new uniforms and identity cards that will be "harder" to copy. A tailor who says he made uniforms and worries they went to insurgents is asked how long the "new uniforms" will take to copy:

“A day.”

At some point...

You would think, Bush's Republican fan club would eventually ask, why have you been lying to us for the last three years? Why have you made us look like chumps for defending you and spewing out your talking points for the last three years.

But like good party cogs, the type Lenin or Stalin would really admire, they won't.

I guess Tony Blair expects the same thing:

Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo.
William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines...

...Mr Patey wrote: "The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy.

"Even the lowered expectation of President Bush for Iraq - a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror - must remain in doubt."

Talking about the Shia militias blamed for many killings, Mr Patey added: "If we are to avoid a descent into civil war and anarchy then preventing the Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army) from developing into a state within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority."

BBC correspondent Paul Wood, who has seen the document, said although it does not contradict government denials that civil war is imminent, "it is a devastating official assessment of the prospects for a peaceful Iraq, and stands in stark contrast to the public rhetoric".

The cable says that "the next six months are crucial" - an assessment which is shared by the coalition's military commanders.

Oh fuck, a Friedman Unit (an F.U.) again!

I'm not sure even in a Hypothetical we could have a clearer example of...

The blind leading the blind...while making you wish you were blind?

The Dems & the Nutroots [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

My dear friend Marshall Wittmann talks about the future of the Democratic party:

Bullshit Moose giving advice to the Democrats, and being K-Lo's dear friend.

The Moose has built himself quite a life, doesn't he?

Support the Troops!

Best Freeway Blogger accomplishment yet...according to the individual that hung it:

Freewayblogger, I put this up in March on a radio tower at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. The command there loved it!

Yours, Anonymous

Found via Holden.

Like Blind Squirrels Finding Acorns

Digby writes about Dionne's column regarding Lieberman:

Dionne says he personally knows and likes Lieberman. Perhaps he and all the other DC insiders who are so worried that this Lamont challenge will end up hurting Democrats in the fall should have a talk with Joe. After all, whether or not there is a "distraction" is entirely in his hands.

What I say to Dionne is that even George Bush, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Condi Rice, and [name your favorite idiot here] have any number of people that will vouch they are just swell human beings. I say it don't mean shit. Lieberman deserves a humiliating defeat. Whether he gets it or not is another matter, but we can hope.

Here we go

REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

The final act may be starting:

Thousands of Shi'ite civilians charged with guarding neighborhoods in Iraq marched through Baghdad on Wednesday in a show of force likely to stir passions in a country ravaged by sectarian violence.

Young men in civilian uniforms and headbands, all members of what is known as the popular committees, chanted as a speaker called on them to crush "terrorists" and loyalists of ousted President Saddam Hussein leading a Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government.

"Step on terrorism," he said.

The crowd included members of the Badr Organization, one of the armed Shi'ite groups Sunni Arabs accuse of running militia death squads, a charge they deny.

Shorter message, Terrorist = Sunni

Amazing how we somehow think an international body stuck in Southern Lebanon with nebulous responsibilities other than taking up "missile flight path" space can solve a damn thing, when 127,000 and now more American troops, along with a few thousand others who can actually enforce things still cannot stop virtually anything.

2,000 Words

Gamma Gamma Gamma

What freaking soriority did Nora O'Donnell join and when can she and her brain check out of it and get to work?

The out and out vapid, twittering contempt that the IMUS boys and O'Donnell showed for primary voters was palpable on the soul-sucking IMUS show -- which, should I ever contemplate suicide will definitely be the show to watch if I need an extra push to choose the sweet release of death. Although, frankly, I'm not sure that death agrees with Imus all that much so maybe not.

I'm so delighted that NBC has then assigned Nora to the Connecticut Democratic Primary to cover then -- her bias already being so "beltway" focused. I know we heathens in the hinterlands outside of the beltway (all 298 million of us, not including Lou Dobbs house servants) are contemptible and all, but we still manage to be the cogs that give at least the appearance of democracy to our teetering empire. I'm sure the ramblings of Nora from Hartford's NBC affiliate will be true demonstrations of J-School vapidity. Oh dear god, let there be hair tossing.

Another diplomatic success

They really are coming fast and furious for Bush, Rice & Mustache-Boy. Prepare for another round of french-bashing.

Dealing a blow to a U.S.-backed strategy for Lebanon, France has refused to participate in a meeting of nations that could send troops to help monitor a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, even though it may join _ and possibly even lead _ such a force.

The French refusal to take part in the meeting, set to take place at the U.N. on Thursday, reflects a wide divergence in views between Washington and Paris about how to impose a lasting peace after three weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah.

France doesn't even want to talk about sending peacekeepers until fighting halts and the U.N. Security Council agrees to a wider framework for lasting peace. The U.S., which had sought the troop-contributor meeting in the first place, wants an end to the fighting to come only as part of a larger series of simultaneous moves that would include the peacekeepers.

France's decision seemed to contradict Bush administration claims Tuesday that diplomats were making progress toward establishing an international peacekeeping force for Lebanon. Officials said no quick cease-fire seemed likely, but that the Security Council could come to a deal soon.

I guess if we had followed the "Von Schlieffen Plan" proposed by the gang at "Moron Junction" in 2002/2003 and invaded them after France tried to prevent this nation from entering into a fucked up quagmire, we wouldn't have this problem.

Lost Cause

There are days, sometimes weeks, when summoning the energy to transmit something into the blogosphere is just too much. Thank gawd for those intrepid souls that somehow find a way to do it during times like these (Billmon, Digby, Attaturk). They express the outrage of millions of souls and it makes us feel better to read it, to be in common cause. Sometimes it helps to poke fun at the juvenile clown show running the country.

But for me there are days, the last several weeks in fact, when the sense of tragedy and contempt I feel for those that inflicted it on us that I can't summon the energy to even make fun of the morons driving us off a cliff. This is happening in real time folks, and even if by some stroke of luck we pull the crisis in Lebanon back from the brink, the mess we have caused in the region is far worse off than it was before we marched into Baghdad.

The talk of war crimes tribunals always seemed such a waste of time. But that would be a fate better than these people deserve.

Their typical romantic dinner

Only Bush eats, usually soup, nonetheless Condi is there to provide the Heimlich, if necessary and remind Bush that the flowers are not a salad.

The American Broadcasting Company is proud to (not) present

Mel Gibson's, "The Holocaust" mini-series was cancelled by ABC. It was almost finished.

Episode One: All My Hitlers

And Mel has even made a blooper reel:



Coming Soon:

"Movie Hitlers" vs. "Movie Jesus's"

Nod to Holden for the reminding me of the last Hitler.

Fuck Me

This may become both literally and figuratively my motto, if this comes to pass:

The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.

Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.

Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out of control, a process that might end in the world becoming uninhabitable.

via Rigorous Intuition.

When Iraq is finally recognized as lost

I imagine the right-wing will do what this Harper's article predicts and says we on the left, by criticizing Bush and his bungled occupation (continuing on after our criticism of the project to begin with) stabbed him in the back.

But I imagine a few thoughtful conservatives are eventually going to have to come to the conclusion that they just let Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and all the other enablers lie to them with impunity and with no accountability whatsoever.

For example:

One U.S. Army officer who is working on police and military training in Iraq, when asked about the prospect of a collapse of the Maliki government, responded in an email: “There's a Maliki government? Since when?” He went on: “Ultimately, I think the deterioration of the Baghdad security situation gives the lie to the U.S. effort. We've stood up X Iraqi army battalions and Y Iraqi police stations, and yet, Baghdad (and much of the contested provinces like Diyala and Anbar) continues to get worse.”

Best Paper-mache photo ever!

As found at Daily Kos:

Shorter K-Lo

Arabs (and Jews) must die in return for sacrificing the career of Mel Gibson.

A case of cheetos and a fresh towel

It looks like the 101st Keyboarders are going to be busy masturbating and stuffing their faces:

“Israel’s Security Cabinet approved early Tuesday widening the ground offensive in Lebanon and rejected a cease-fire until an international force is in place,” the AP reports. Meanwhile, “Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Syrian military on Monday to raise its readiness, pledging not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel.”

And when you add this:

Somewhere Cheney is in his hidey-hole lovingly caressing his colostomy bag.