Serious minds require serious blogging

So naturally, Ann Althouse live-blogged the emmys.

What's next, the Tonys?

Statactless

On Saturday the Washington Post published a patently hocus-pocus analysis of death-rates in Iraq and found it to be really safe:

The death rate for U.S. men ages 18 to 39 in 2003 was 1.53 per 1,000 -- 39 percent of that of troops in Iraq. But one can also find something equivalent to combat conditions on home soil. The death rate for African American men ages 20 to 34 in Philadelphia was 4.37 per 1,000 in 2002, 11 percent higher than among troops in Iraq. Slightly more than half the Philadelphia deaths were homicides.

Naturally, war enabler emeritus Ernest T. Bass, ESQ jumped on this as being proof that things are not so bad over there.

As is, of course, this raises five immediate questions.

1. Notice that "casualties" are not included, Reynolds, who is certainly no military scholar has previously equated "casualties" as deaths, something that is not how it is traditionally defined, casualties includes not just dead but wounded. There have been more than 20,000 American casualties in Iraq.

2. The study really under-reports several key differences between a current American Soldier and an average citizen in this country. The average american soldier is heavily armed himself, wearing personal body armor, as well as being accompanied typically by other heavily armed men in vehiclies while perhaps not adequately armored for full effectiveness are certainly better armored than your typical Honda Civic. They are also trained to be wary and take such action as to minimize their exposure to injury.

3. I don't know about the city any of you live in, but I would bet you do not have instant communications systems that quickly brings medical assistance of those specializing in treating gunshot and shrapnel wounds, including a fleet of helicopters that can get you to a nearby medical unit with an even higher level of specialization that has you treated almost immediately. This was pointed out by an emailer to Reynolds, which to his credit he published:

Among my other duties in Iraq, I was a convoy gunner. I am also a native of inner city Philadelphia who has spent almost all of my life in some of the city's toughest neighborhoods. I can say from direct experience that combat duty in Iraq isn't as easy or as safe as walking down the street in Philadelphia. This is a simple fact that the statistics you've linked to attempt to obfuscate. The statistics don't take into account the fact that the majority of servicemen in Iraq spend their deployments behind rows of T-walls, Hesco barriers, and checkpoints, and that the much smaller number of troops that spend their time outside the wire face far greater danger than young black men walking the streets of Philly. The statistics also ignore the fact that the American military has some of the best trauma care in the world, and that the number of people who live despite grave injuries vastly outnumbers those who die from them. (If I remember correctly, the Army said a little while ago that the number of deaths in Iraq would be four times greater if not for its ability to quickly evacuate casualties to top quality medical facilities.) This means that a lot more soldiers have faced potentially life-threatening injuries than just those who have died. If the proper statistics were referenced (or even available) I'd bet my next paycheck that they would back up the obvious reality: Iraq is a warzone that is vastly more dangerous than even the deadliest sections of Philadelphia.

4. The statistics do not include the deaths and injuries among Iraqi soldiers...OR CIVILIANS. Sixty-plus of whom died in bombings alone yesterday. Even the most conservative county of deaths places the total at well over 50,000 over three years, but some estimate more than 200,000 deaths. And that is DEATHS alone, as for casualties, who the hell really knows? There were nearly 3,500 violent deaths in Baghdad alone. A total that puts any American city to shame. New York City came no where near that total...even during the month of September 2001 -- and they got a 2,900 death head start!

5. Even if you interpret the stats as the authors intend it raises a serious question of how much it sucks to be a black male in this country, and how unserious our effort has been to alleviate that problem.

And then there is a final obvious question that comes out of this question if as Insty and others want to interpret the stats...

IF IT IS SO SAFE, AND YOU SUPPORT THE WAR SO MUCH, WHY AREN'T YOU OVER THERE?

Understanding Iraq in 2 news stories

August 25th:

The past two weeks have seen a 41 percent decline in violent attacks across Baghdad, Iraq, according to a top coalition officer supporting Iraqi forces.

August 27th:

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A series of deadly suicide bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 59 people in a brutal response to premier Nuri al-Maliki's attempts to stitch his wounded country back together.

We'll

Looks like we've found the graveyard of old Bush-Cheney Iraq talking points.


(AFP/File/Odd Andersen)

By the way, 90 plus percent of Iraqis want us the FUCK OUT of their country!

Excuse me...

While I betray my home state origins and salute the baseball team of my youth!



Now if Lariano can get healthy and be throwing by the end of the year...

Immortally Non-Beloved

So much for that Bush-bump...

Other issues, however, certainly are preoccupying voters. Bush’s approval rating has taken a slight dip since the last NEWSWEEK Poll in mid-August. While 38 percent of respondents approved and 55 percent disapproved of his job performance back then, now 36 percent approve and 56 percent disapprove. That approval figure nearly matches the president’s all-time low of 35 percent in May.

Some potential factors contributing to that slippage: his handling of the economy (with 37 percent approving and 58 percent disapproving) and the situation in Iraq (31 percent vs. 63 percent). Both of these results also approach all-time lows. The only semblance of a silver lining remains his handling of terrorism and homeland security, with 49 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving. But unfortunately for Bush, his approval rating on that issue edged downward as well, from 55 percent in mid-August.

For the Powerloiners

He's a genius, he's a leader, he's so awesome. Another week chalked up for the men with powered loins:

With apologies to Jackson Browne (to 'Lawyers in Love')

It's hard to stay up with what's been going down
So I just give up and swallow all Rove's stuff now
Among the Regimes new war plan schemes
Am I the only one who hears the memes?
Oh the looney themes of lawyers in love

Bush to send the air force to Iranistan, go nuk-u-lar
They bomb just before the election, October!
Blogging while billing fees, with Bush we're on our knees
Cheering for World War III while Jesus bleeds
To the mating calls of lawyers in love

Last week I flew myself to Washington, the capitol
Bush talked to me while I was fluffing him, I do his will
The rapture has us doomed, or so says Reverend Moon
And I hear that Iranistan will be glowing soon
A vacation land for lawyers in love

And like a good typical neighbor....

State Farm Doesn't Care!

If this is true, State Farm policy holders should cancel their policies en masse.

State Farm Insurance supervisors systematically demanded that Hurricane Katrina damage reports be buried or replaced or changed so that the company would not have to pay policyholders' claims in Mississippi, two State Farm insiders tell ABC News.

Kerri and Cori Rigsby, independent adjusters who had worked for State Farm exclusively for eight years, say they have turned over thousands of internal company documents and their own detailed statement to the FBI and Mississippi state investigators.

In an exclusive interview with ABC news, to be broadcast on 20/20 -- Watch 20/20 tonight at 10 --and World News, the Rigsby sisters say they saw "widespread" fraud at the State Farm offices in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.

"Katrina was devastating, but so was State Farm," says Cori Rigsby.

At one point, they say State Farm brought in a special shredding truck they believe was used to destroy key documents. State Farm says shredding is standard to protect policyholders' privacy.

The sisters say they saw supervisors go to great lengths to pressure outside engineers to prepare reports concluding that damage was caused by water, not covered under State Farm policies, rather than by wind.

They say reports that concluded that damage was caused by wind, for which State Farm would have to pay, were hidden in a special file and new reports were ordered.

Unbelievable. Those sisters sound like heroes though.

How to tell you've had too much

You start calling the audience idiots and then when they mildly voice their displeasure, you choose to demonstrate your self-proclaimed greater intellect by flipping them off.

CLASSY!

Let's call this method "the Hitchens"!


Crooks & Liars had the pic, and naturally has the video.

Strangely no comment from Jonah Goldberg, John Podhoretz and William Kristol

Now that you mention it, I've noticed:

Hollywood star Sandra Bullock's husband Jesse James has launched a scathing verbal attack on President George W Bush, calling the leader "a d**khead."

The motorcycle maker visited soldiers outside Baghdad, Iraq--and is convinced the majority of the U.S. military agree with him.

James says, "Everyone in Iraq knows Bush is a d**khead. He's the boss' kid.

"Everybody I know who has a successful business who has a kid--the kid is always a f**khead. Have you ever noticed that?"

Via Holden

Shorter Krauthammer

Before we bomb the Iranians, we have to bomb the French.

Oh and...

Rosie Ruiz Redux

Mean Jean, the drama queen, appears to have faked her participation in a Marathon.

Four months after she was reprimanded for making false statements about having a second undergraduate degree, the state's top elections officials will investigate whether the Miami Township Republican told the truth about how well she fared in - or whether she even ran - a 1993 marathon in the state capital.

A panel of the Ohio Elections Commission found probable cause Thursday that false statements might have been made by the first-term Republican and her campaign about the Columbus Marathon 13 years ago.

I merely report, you deride:


'Real Marines' may not cut & run; but Mean Jean appears to know how to 'Cut & Paste'.

Summarized about Right:

Boy we sure don't know much about Iraqn we better bomb the fuck out of 'em!

Too bad we don't know more, but better safe than sorry.

Uh-huh

It was high members of this Republican administration who leaked to the Iranians and the whole world the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative who spent her professional career combatting the proliferation of WMD and was, at the time she was betrayed by Traitor Rove and his merry band, working on Iran. Had it not been for these Republican figures, none of whom has yet been punished in any way for endangering US national security, we might know more about Iran.

Combining the days big stories according to the cable news networks

John Mark Karr admits to molesting Pluto.

If George Bush were President

1863:
"What the hell is four-score? Give it up for my good friend President Davis!"

1902:
"Barely be able to speak badly and bomb the fuck out of the evildoers. All the canal construction will be handled by Standard Oil, right Dick?"

1933:
"If I were you, I'd be fucking afraid, 'cuz without me, you'd all die. And it would hurt. A lot!"

1963:
"Itch bean ein berlinererer"

Non-finder of Labors' Love Lost

Poor Joe, so far from Bush, so close to his electorate.

Today, the UAW endorsed the Democratic Nominee for U.S. Senate, Ned Lamont, at a noon-hour press conference at their Region 9A headquarters in Farmington. Before the August 8 Primary, members had met with both Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont and concluded that Lamont was the candidate to support, citing his stance on issues like NAFTA and universal healthcare. Those issues, according to Region 9A director Bob Madore, “are two of the top issues affecting our membership.”

Joe promptly went out and asked Ford, GM, and Dr. Z for money (and the latter for a mustache ride)

Hey, there is an idea...

Golly in all the hubbub I missed something

I thought he was out rolling his eyes and tut-tutting with Peggy Noonan, but while Peggy enjoys her Medicare D rush of prescriptives the Bullshit Moose has returned.

But he's more than returned.

He is no longer just "Bullshit Moose", no, he is something even more...

He is...

Bullshit Moose the White!

In this highly charged political climate, the Moose is a rare breed apart.

I believe he made this speech in front of a large flag.

Naturally, the Bullshit Moose the White is still upon Josh Marshall's blogroll even those it's pretty clear that his love of bombing the fuck out of third worlder's has yet to be fully sated --

Of course, Iran is not just a threat to Israel, but to all liberal democracies. However, Israel uniquely comprehends the immediacy of the Iranian threat. Time is not on our side. While the mullahs may be a few years from obtaining nukes, there is a point of no return in their efforts - and it is soon.

The world, unfortunately, would rather sleep. Sanctions are just so inconvenient. Money is to be made. And diplomacy, regardless of its effectiveness, is holy in the church of the left.

Even though Iran has been showered with generous offers of incentives, the left wants them to be given even more carrots without the serious threat of a stick. Lefties claim they are tough and they are only anti-war when it comes to Iraq, but appeasement is their instinctive impulse when confronted with a national security threat to America or her allies.

But, make no mistake - the recent war with Hizbollah has taught Israel a painful lesson. They cannot afford to slumber while their enemy prepares for a slaughter. In the next war, Hizbolla could be supplied with the ultimate weapon by their patrons in Teheran.

And the writing is on the wall...

Yet another moron who thinks he is channeling Churchill, when he is really channeling an armchair version of Curtis LeMay.

But what else could we possibly expect from the Bullshit Moose the (really, really) White?

Funny

But that last bit seemed somewhat familiar...

I noticed this when I first saw the show, but it took the YouTube a while to come out.

Forget the Sharks, the Beach is scarier than ever!

Not only is this a dangerous precursor of massive environmental change

Study: Polar Bear Genitals are Shrinking

But the people who did this particular task have a hell of a resume stuffer.

59 Copies of "Archie Comics" and one copy of "Juggs" do not 5 dozen books make

We are now living in the true world of the Cult of Personality:

Bush has entered a book-reading competition with Karl Rove, his political adviser. White House aides say the president has read 60 books so far this year (while the brainy Rove, to Bush's competitive delight, has racked up only 50).

Breeding Hope Through Forced Governance

I missed the chimp's press conference the other morning but was able to read transcripts and watch clips of a most embarassing performance by the leader of the free world. He was so bad I am left to wonder what kind of desperation leads his handlers to feed him to the wolves like that--so ill-prepared. T-bogg put up a clip of a classic stream-of-consciousness, meandering, non-answer that is exhibit "A" of the stupidity of the man.

My one wish is that we would hear the press start snickering during one of these moments and build to a crescendo of belly laughs. Of course that will never happen, but how do they keep straight faces?

Apparently Human Cartoons

Are unable to recognize the merits of the "graphic artist".

Let us see the one-word descriptions you suggest for noise Ana Marie?

I would guess a good one for your blogging career would be a one-word description indicating the need for astroglide.

I suggest....

Headlines so ironic and projected you just have to laugh

Snake in the Grass: The pompous, hypocritical hucksterism of Günter Grass.
By Christopher Hitchens

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black (label).

"Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq."

sug·gest (sg-jst, s-jst) KEY

TRANSITIVE VERB:
sug·gest·ed , sug·gest·ing , sug·gests
1. To offer for consideration or action; propose: suggest things for children to do; suggested that we take a walk.
2. To bring or call to mind by logic or association; evoke: a cloud that suggests a mushroom; a ringlike symbol suggesting unity.
3. To make evident indirectly; intimate or imply: a silence that suggested disapproval.
4. To serve as or provide a motive for; prompt or demand: Such a crime suggests apt punishment.

Why can an obscure anonymous blogboy do this in 15 minutes, yet the national media not manage to pull off any comparison in 48 hours?

October 28, 2002:

"This [Saddam Hussein] is a person who has had contacts with al Qaeda."

February 2, 2003:

"Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training."

March 6, 2003:

"He has trained and financed al Qaeda-type organizations before, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations."

May 1, 2003 sans flightsuit:

The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.

January 23, 2004:

"There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government," Cheney said in an interview on National Public Radio.

June 15, 2004:

President Bush repeated his administration's claim that Iraq was in league with al Qaeda under Saddam Hussein's rule, saying Tuesday that fugitive Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ties Saddam to the terrorist network.

June 18, 2004:

Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the evidence is "overwhelming" that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, and he said media reports suggesting that the 9/11 commission has reached a contradictory conclusion were "irresponsible."

"There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming," Cheney said in an interview with CNBC's "Capitol Report."

June 18, 2004:

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda" is "because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda."

Not one fucking thing right

Chatham House, a British think tank on international relations and analysis, has issued a lengthy article on Iran and the World. Included within it is a summary of the U.S. position in Iraq and its relationship vis-a-vis Iran. And as seen below every fucking thing has been a lie, a disaster, and has made things worse.

It is useful at this point to consider political realities in contemporary Iraq. Even though elections were held in December 2005, and a new government with a four-year lifespan has been formed, albeit somewhat belatedly, the political structure and characteristics of Iraq are far from what the US administration would deem to be in keeping with an ‘ideal’ model.

The first hope of the ‘ideal’ model was that Iraq would be a bastion of secular democracy. This has clearly not happened. Even if it is accepted that Iraq is on the pathway to becoming democratic in a Western sense (and this is a big assumption), the most influential political group in Iraq are those who identify themselves as Shi’a Muslims, who follow one of several religiously based political parties.

The second hope, even expectation, of the US was that Iraq would be united by a strong and vibrant sense of Iraqi nationalism. Whether Arab Sunni, Arab Shi’a, Turkmen, Kurd or Assyrian, it was taken for granted that all would subscribe to a cohesive sense of Iraqi-ness. This did not happen. Instead, ethno-sectarian identities rapidly established themselves as the principal means of social organization and political mobilization. This fracturing of the political space in Iraq, combined with the chaotic devolution of power, opened up fissures which could be exploited by neighbouring powers and other formations such as Salafi-Jihadi militants. In this complex environment, Iran and other states would find it easy to create networks of patronage and build a portfolio of locally effective parties, militias, and organizations which could all be influenced to act in their interests.

The third hope was that the emergence of a democratic Iraq would take place relatively quickly. Over three years after the removal of the Ba’th regime from power, it is clear that Iraq is far from stable and will almost certainly require the MNF to remain for some time in order to prevent absolute collapse, possible fragmentation, and the continuing strengthening of the forces of radical
Islamism deemed inimical to US interests.

The great problem facing the US is that Iran has superseded it as the most influential power in Iraq. This influence has a variety of forms but all can be turned against the US presence in Iraq with relative ease, and almost certainly would heighten US casualties to the point where a continued presence might not be tenable. Sources in Iraq are already warning that the major cities (including Basra and Baghdad) have witnessed a rise in the activities of Iranian paramilitary units and the recent bout of violence and instability in Basra is now considered to be a small display of what would happen if Iran itself was targeted.

You can say many, many, bad things about Saddam Hussein, but one thing you could not say is that he was an ally of Iran. By their incomprehensibly stupid invasion of the nation they have managed to create a gigantic, chaotic place that is going to go from a check on Iranian power to an ally; as well as handcuff the flexibility of any military response being a real threat.

Now, thanks to Bush -- and no matter how much Bill Kristol masturbates to the prospect, taking military action against Iran will be an unmitigated disaster for the American military.

Bush may not realize it (which is quite frightening) but he has managed to put us in a fucking box full of scorpions with no real method of escape without getting stung...and if he follows his puny heart and operates against Iran, thousands more American troops will be stung to death.

Conflicted

The Right-Wing just cannot help themselves as frothing, FROTHING, over Anna Diggs Taylor being on the board of an organization which gave money to the ACLU.

How dare she have such an indirect conflict of interest! Even if it isn't!

Granted it isn't nearly as bad as these conflicts, which are not considered conflicts of interest:

A Supreme Court justice's son working for the firm representing the guy who ultimately prevails before the Supreme Court over a contested election (with his Dad voting in the majority) and then gets himself appointed to the No. 3 job at the Department of Labor.

Or another Supreme Court justice's wife working for the potential "transitition team" which will pick the members of the new administration -- which occurs after her husband the Supreme Court justice sides with her "team".

Or, your hunting buddy has a case coming before the Supreme Court, but you can simply say you have no conflict...quack quack quack.

"Macaca, that's a good one, heh heh heh"

Bush assisting political suiciders:

President Bush has no qualms about raising campaign cash for Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) despite the Republican's widely assailed quip in which he called a rival campaign worker of Indian descent a "macaca."

I have to say, no matter how often I see it, I giggle everytime I see the name of Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams. Although I am angry that someone actually has my "porn name".

I Await Howard Fineman's declaration...

That, like the standards Howie the Ho applies to Democrats, the GOP is in the midst of a "Civil War"

Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, whose perceived missteps over the past four years have turned him into one of the most unpopular governors in state history, soundly lost his bid for re-election after finishing last in a hotly contested three-way race for the Republican nomination.

With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Sarah Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won the GOP nod with 51 percent of the vote. Former state legislator John Binkley came in second with 30 percent. Murkowski polled just 19 percent.

Murkowski shook Palin's hand in the middle of a crowd of her supporters, all waving signs. "Congratulations, you've got my support. I'll do everything to see that you're elected," Murkowski told her.

At least, Murkowski possesses the class Joe Lieberman lacks.

I'm betting Howie says naught...in fact, I bet he says nothing even when and if Lincoln Chaffee or Rhode Island is defeated in the Republican Primary on September 12.

Bush and his National Security Team meet at the Crawford Ranch

And thus endeth my Bush fart jokes.

The GOP campaign the next 10 weeks

August 21, 2006: boo!

August 28, 2006: Boo!

September 5, 2006: BOO!

September 12, 2006: BOO!

September 19, 2006: BOO!

Sept-October, 2006: BOO!!

November 2006: BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Leadership

"War is not a time of joy. These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists."


"Now, pull my finger. Pull it!"
(AFP/Paul J. Richards)


(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


"Awe, Helen, you really let one go there."
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

"Memo to Self"

(AFP/Paul J. Richards)
"Don't say these aren't times of joy and then make fun of some dudes seersucker suit. It'll bite you in the ass. Might make 'em ask hard qweschen"

"These aren't joyous times," Bush said, reflecting on the situation in Iraq. "These are challenging times. And they're difficult times. And they're straining the -- the psyche of our country. I understand that."

And yet Bush found plenty of time to poke fun at members of the press corps.

The prime object of his teasing was seersucker-clad Cox News Service reporter Ken Herman, who has covered Bush since they both worked in Texas.

But Herman returned the favor with a grilling:

"A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn't gone in. How do you square all of that?" Herman asked, when his turn came around.

Bush: "I square it because imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein, who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who had relations with Zarqawi. Imagine what the world would be like with him in power. The idea is to try to help change the Middle East. . . .

"You know, I've heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived and -- you know, the stir-up-the-hornet's- nest theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were. . . . "

Herman: "What did Iraq have to do with that?"

Bush: "What did Iraq have to do with what?"

Herman: "The attacks upon the World Trade Center?"

Bush: "Nothing. Except for it's part of -- and nobody's ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- Iraq -- the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. . . .

"I fully believe it was the right decision to remove Saddam Hussein, and I fully believe the world is better off without him. Now the question is: How do we succeed in Iraq?"

Thank God the Bush Twins are doing their part in the "War on Terror"

REUTERS/Steve Marcus

"Funny, I haven't gotten laid either."

(AFP/Getty Images/File/Ethan Miller)

Your President

Your so-called "War" President:

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.

If the DNC doesn't IMMEDIATELY start running fucking advertisements on this Exchange

There will be HELL TO PAY!

Question: "But what did Iraq have to do with September 11th?"

Bush: "Nothing."

Self-Immolation

While the pundicracy has had it's cynical giggles at a split in the Democratic attitudes towards Iraq, also known as Joe Lieberman versus Sanity, how much note will be taken of the obvious split on Iraq between the GOP's self-described purveyor's of non-spin McCain versus Hegel?

Furthermore, it is obvious that after mocking, haranguing and praying that we on the left who decried this disaster before it ever started, sentient conservatives are having a moment of their own:

Although, I disagree with the remedy of Rick Moran, I at least give him credit for understanding that the Administration has been lying to all of us for years about a war (as opposed to a blowjob):

For if there is a victory to be had in Iraq – and one can just barely make one out in the distance amidst the blood and ruin – it will take courage on the part of the President to confront these problems and do what is necessary in order to reverse course. And this will entail both risks and probably a larger casualty count among Americans fighting there.

Yes we need more troops – a lot more at least temporarily. Order must be brought to Baghdad and its environs and to do that we would need, according to General Trainor, is perhaps as many as 50,000 more Americans to both police the area and ferret out insurgents and the death squads.

For that to happen, the President would have to admit he and Donald Rumsfeld have been wrong all along and that in order to achieve stability, the additional troops must be sent. It is of the utmost distress to me that this President has failed to take responsibility for past mistakes and admitted to error in prosecuting the war. The grudging admissions of mistakes just isn’t getting it done. If he is serious about winning in Iraq (and he has called Iraq the “frontline” in the war on terror”) then he is going to have to go before the American people and explain why additional troops are necessary.

Yes I can understand why he has not admitted past mistakes and errors. The political climate wouldn’t give him “credit” for doing so. The situation in Iraq has gone far beyond the politics of the moment and now engages the future security of the United States. If he can’t be a man and take the inevitable finger pointing and name calling, then all hope is lost and we should start bringing the troops home now. The whispers in Washington that the President wishes to simply “hang on” in Iraq and leave the denouement to his successor is possibly the most immoral, cynical thing I’ve ever heard – which leads me to believe that it is not true. But it is equally immoral to simply apply more of the same prescriptions to a war that is now clearly out of control. Drastic changes are necessary. And if the President is not willing to apply them whether out of fear of the political consequences to his presidency or the Republican party, then he doesn’t deserve to sit in the big chair.

I bolded one part of this because, frankly, if one doesn't think at this point that Bush, Cheney and Rove are not capable of immoral cynicism, there's little hope you'll ever believe such a thing is possible.

They lied to get us into this war, using the highest level of immoral cynicism possible, they've continued it throughout. By this time you really have only two choices about Bush, he's either barely smart enough to breathe, or he is just as immoral and cynical as Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld (for whom you do not have the option of stupidity, they're just patently immoral).

The solution to Iraq is not more troops, the actual solution set sail in the Spring of 2003 when we gave it up to allow flightsuit photo ops. Now it is just a parade of horribles. They either fuck themselves and us over now; or they fuck themselves and us over after several hundred more Americans die and billions more are wasted in costs several months down the line. In my opinion, we might as well get the Iranian's best price on the giant embassy, or they'll get it for free in a few years anyway.

A Romantic evening with Joe Lieberman

I love you Hadassah, can we play our usual?
(AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)



Pull it, pull it! Pull It!
(AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)


hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
(AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)


Thanks you're a zeeskyte.
(AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper)

The Bush Line-Up

9 Catchers, and they all passed balls.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

You Got Served

Old President Havegot (as in "what the people have got to understand") got served last week by a cranky district court judge in the Sixth Circuit and the MSM and even the blogosphere is all atwitter with the flaws in the court's opinion. Greenwald has spent probably every waking minute the last few days explaining his argument that even though the reasoning may leave much to be desired, it is the outcome itself that is important. The fact that the right wing blogosphere responded by calling names instead of analyzing the decision says a lot about how scared they are. Whatever. All I can say is that it must have felt really good to bitch-slap the administration.

Besides, the question I am really interested in is the general make-up and disposition of the Sixth Circuit. If the case landed in the Eight Circuit I wouldn't be so sanguine about how the case would finally resolve even though this one undoubtedly lands in the You-Nita States Supreme Court.

Hertzberg

I subscribe to only a few publications, most of which with I can't keep current because of work, the active lives of 13 and 9 year-old boys, obsessively reading blogs of great writers (Digby, Billmon, atrios (when he decides to really write), and on and on, but the one publication I renew time and again is the New Yorker. It is reliable because of writers like Hertzberg, Hersh, Goldberg, Gladwell, and, Mayer, to name a few. Here is part of Hertzberg's recent contribution to The Talk of the Town on THE debacle:

On February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite, the longtime anchorman of the CBS Evening News and the gruff but kindly voice of what was then called Middle America, signed off his broadcast on an unusual note. Freshly returned from Vietnam, where the Tet offensive had just ended, Cronkite offered what he called “an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective.” “We have too often been disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds,” he said. “To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic yet unsatisfactory conclusion.” Like the famous issue of Life devoted to photographs of a week’s worth of American dead, Cronkite’s polite demurral came to symbolize the long migration of opposition to the war in Vietnam from the fringe—the campus firebrands, the radical clerics, the flowers-in-gun-barrels hippies, the papier-mâché puppeteers—to the wide, upholstered center of American political life.

The center of American politics is no longer as roomy (or as comfy) as it was then. The fringe, now luxuriant only at the rightmost edge of the political prayer rug, has gone online and wired itself for AM radio and cable TV. And nowhere in the cacophonous, atomized “media environment” of today is there anyone capable of deploying the wall-to-wall avuncular authority that was Cronkite’s stock-in-trade. Even so, in this August of 2006 a palpable, ’68-like shift in sentiment is in the steamy air. Among foreign-policy élites and the broader public alike, it has become the preponderant conviction that George W. Bush’s war of choice in Iraq is a catastrophe.

“It is now obvious that we are not midwifing democracy in Iraq,” Thomas L. Friedman wrote, in the August 4th edition of the Times. “We are baby-sitting a civil war.” Friedman may not be another Walter Lippmann (just as any number of Stewarts, Olbermanns, O’Reillys, and Coopers don’t quite add up to a Cronkite), but he is the most influential foreign-affairs columnist in the country, and from the beginning he has been a critical supporter of the war. His defection is a bellwether. “The Administration now has to admit what anyone—including myself—who believed in the importance of getting Iraq right has to admit,” he wrote. “Whether for Bush reasons or Arab reasons, it is not happening, and we can’t throw more good lives after good lives.” In a Washington Post column a day earlier, the relentlessly centrist David S. Broder, citing his colleague Thomas E. Ricks’s new book, “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq,” admitted that “the hope for victory is gone” and deplored “the answer from Bush,” which he characterized this way: “Carry on. Do not waver. And do not question the logic of prolonging the agony.”

The dude can just write. The whole thing really is worth the read so hop on over.

Ruining The Whole World

Attaturk posts below to a perfect example of what a war monger says to a room full of sheep and it is disgusting (what Rove said, not what Attaturk said). In today's Los Angeles Times appears a report about just how divided is the country we have "LIBERATED":

Travel west across the river to the Sunni neighborhood of Amiriya and listen to Fatima Omar: "I have a best friend who's leaving the country in six or seven weeks, and I can't go visit her because she lives in a Shiite neighborhood."

With each explosion, with each firefight, Omar's geography shrinks.

"We are prisoners of the city," she said.

Conditions that lead Pentagon generals to say civil war is close are already polarizing many neighborhoods. Although Shiites and Sunnis still live side by side in some places, about 200,000 Iraqis, most of them from Baghdad, have left their mixed neighborhoods and taken refuge in communities where they can live among their own. In July, the Baghdad morgue reported more than 1,800 violent deaths.

Real fucking funny, isn't it? So funny I forgot to laugh.

Scumbag

They'd make great Nazis.

Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel lobby during the reception.

"I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son," Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Police then ordered the group to leave, but some protesters had paid for rooms for the night. Those protesters went upstairs, including Sheehan.

One protester slipped inside the ballroom during the dinner but was escorted out after shouting about men and women dying, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its Sunday editions.

"Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported.

"I don't question the patriotism of our critics. Many are hardworking public servants who are doing the best they can. Some of them are people looking for a free meal," Rove said, drawing more laughs.

And Karl Rove is a scum-sucking bastard who cheerleaded on an illegal war that has killed tens of thousands of people and which harmed every fucking thing it could, including this nation's long-term and short-term interests...all in the name of getting a moron reelected President.

Who's getting a fuckin' free lunch here?

Betrayed?

You've dealt with this moron for six years and now YOU feel betrayed?

The alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair is in danger after it was revealed that the Prime Minister believes the President has 'let him down badly' over the Middle East crisis.

A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush's record on the issue was 'crap'.

The source said: "We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?"

Whose the bigger moron, the moron or the moron who follows the moron?


Yip, Yip!

What is Bush's nickname for Mike Allen?

I'm guessing "Slurpee"

There are key differences between the two, though. Allen, 54, is three inches taller and six years younger than the president. And where Bob Woodward found that Bush could give detail-rich answers to scores of complex questions at a stretch, Allen embarrassed himself in January by replying "For what?" when a New York Times reporter asked his opinion of the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke, which had been announced three months before and was coming to a Senate vote. (Hint: His predecessor was Alan Greenspan.)

Was Allen awake for that monstrosity of press conference Bush had yesterday? Bush can't give detail-rich answers in describing the difference between a 'Mounds' and an 'Almond Joy'. One cannot assert George Allen's stupidity by saying Bush is smart (especially using court stenographer Bob Woodward), you say it by saying he's even DUMBER than George Bush. Which leads you to be aware that the guy probably isn't safe from choking on pudding.

The fact this Mike Allen keeps his job is Exhibit A that the corporate press is slowly killing this country.

Violating the Mann Act

Pam and her liquid-fun bags hijack an airplane.



Samuel L. Jackson:

Get this motherfucking nutjob off this mother fucking plane!

Thanks to Sadly No.

Other than Zombie Lincoln, Zombie Theodore Roosevelt or Zombie Eisenhower

There is only one Republican I can stomach at the moment, not that I'd vote for him - but at least Hegel seems to actually be in pain, an actual "straight-talker"?

Gas prices, drought, war.

Iraq, Lebanon, terrorists, the plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic.

Nebraskans with questions on their minds.

Hagel with direct answers.

“There were no terrorists in Iraq until we got there.”

“War should never be held hostage to a political agenda. It shouldn’t be used as a partisan issue, a wedge issue, especially by those in my party who say Democrats don’t care about the security of our country.”

“I think the Patriot Act had gone too far (and needed to be amended) to balance constitutional liberties and security.”...

...Yes, Hagel acknowledges, his critiques of Bush administration policies in the Middle East probably are becoming increasingly blunt.

Does that reflect anger?

“I am very frustrated,” he answers, leaning forward in his seat to talk over the sound of the two engines rushing him toward the Sioux City airport.

“I see policies that clearly are not in the long-term interests of the country, policies that are damaging this country.

“We’re going to pay a price.”

Sure, Hagel says, “I’m not unaware that when I challenge the president, I’m politically outside the mainstream of my political party. I have angered some people.

“Yes, it will have an effect on my future. I’m not bothered by it.”...

...Hagel is annoyed by those in his party who choose to use the war for partisan advantage.

That’s “cheap political rhetoric,” he says.

“At least as many Democrats have died in Iraq as Republicans.”

Funny how that works

The Doughy Pantload quite the logical thinker, as we all know.

Which explains why he can post stuff like this:

Book Recko [Jonah Goldberg]
I mentioned it in my column today , but I really do recommend Jeffrey Herf's The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust. So many books on Nazism come out every year and get lost in the maw. This is an important, imaginative and novel piece of scholarship. And, unlike his Reactionary Modernism, it's very easy reading.

Posted at 10:49 AM

I've actually read Herf's book and it goes into great detail about how deeply and illogically the Nazi's truly believed "the jews" controlled everything and how the propoganda got notched up the more imperiled the Nazi regime was [and one might then note how deeply that propoganda could be absorbed into the marrow by a great number of ordinary Germans per Daniel Goldhagen].

But what is amazing is that Goldberg then takes this right to the illogical hatred of Jews in Iran -- which is not an inappropriate argument about Ahmadinejad.

H-O-W-E-V-E-R

Pantload cannot seem to see the pattern of broad-brushing, illogical castigation against "Muslims" or the "Arab World" in his constant searching of analogies that is supposed to demonstrate the need to kill us some more islamofacists to scare the rest of the arab street straight because of the size of our mighty tallywackers. He is exactly the same tool the Nazi's used to castigate and vilify a broad swatch of people, this time Muslims or Arabs. In form, there isn't all that much separating Ahmadinejad's bigotry and the Pantload's.

or example, here, here, and here.

It also doesn't take a hell of a lot of observance to note that everytime the GOP seems politically imperiled the "evil islamofascist terrorist" seems to make a cameo appearance and dominate the propoganda posing as cable news for several days afterwards. Does anyone doubt that after going literally 2 years without these sort of "high alert" warnings, suddenly ten weeks before the election they start off again.

Anybody want to predict when between mid-October and November 7, Osama will be suddenly showing up with his latest finger waving diatribe?

No More JonBenet

Flame on...

Ok, stop it, don't, enough already, quit, stop damn it, no more, For God's sake, arrrghhhhh -- I have officially had enough of the witless media gourging itself on faux or sort of real (not to even begin with the real at the moment) celebrity crime cases. I always thought that the JonBenet case was among the worst of these mindless enterprises that the media love so much yet accomplish no improvement for the planet.

The media seemed to love this case to such a degree I began to wonder about the minds of the suits who would rearrange the schedules of programing and news to make room for this garbage.

No, do not think me a heartless bastard -- I thought the crime was as hideous and disgusting as anyone else -- but I saw and continue to see no reason to gear up the media hype machine again. A crime did occur. A tragedy was perpetrated on a little girl. The family was strange. But let's not engross ourselves with this prurient sick reporting again. Not when little girls all around the planet are dying because of a worthless executive (no offense to real executives) who is kind of, sort of running the ship of state in the ol' USA of these days. Not with so many children homeless.

Can't we focus on something with more substance. A story that has clear and direct consequences for our everyday lives? No, I suppose not. Because to do otherwise would mean that the media would have to work and not just rehash old stories. We would need real reporters who did not simply repeat lines that the misadministration gave them but true investigative reporting where you assume that everyone is holding out important information on you.

Where are those reporters? They are few and far far between at best, aren't they?

What was I thinking?

Flame off...

About that "hero" suing Murtha

It was going to be tossed in any case, but ooooooooh how the freeptonians came in their underoos about the matter.

But no matter how much you moisten and then apoxy yourself to the scipt "S" in your 'Superman' 54-waisted undies with your noxious premature, Coulter-fantasizing, premature emissions, you will not be able to get around this problem:

A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said...

...the logbook, which was meant to be a daily record of major incidents the marines’ company encountered, had all the pages missing for Nov. 19, the day of the killings, and that those portions had not been found, the officials said.

No conclusions are drawn about who may have tampered with the log. But the report says that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the leader of the squad involved in the killings, was on duty at the unit’s operations center, where the logbook was kept, shortly after the killings occurred, the officials said.

Ah, sigh...(to the Love Boat theme)

Lies, repeated anew,
Come aboard.
We're deceiving you.
Lies, a freeper's usual game.
Let them flow,
The press will listen to you

The Swift Boat
soon will be making another run.
The Swift Boat promises wanking for everyone.
See a creep all a fester,
The mind on a new campaign.

Clear lies still hurt liberals more
With a creepy smile, from a crushing bore.


It's Swift!
Oh Jesus again, their swiiiiiiiift!

Fez Tip to TBogg on the story.

Now that's an old school 'Rally'

"Thank you fellow patriots, fellow survivalists, bunker aficionados, gun lovers, and white supremicists. Or as I like to call you, my base. Mwafa mofar ma har ha marful."

(AP Photo/Troy Maben)

I'm boldly taking a good helmsman

Real Dolls, the Next Generation!


(AFP/Getty Images/Ethan Miller)

Full-Scale Sectarian Violence

I think John at AmericaBlog asks the legitimate question of what possibly separates 'full-scale sectarian violence' from 'Civil War'?

The blast was the latest of several recent attacks in the district, a densely populated area controlled by the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr. It signaled that full-scale sectarian fighting was continuing in the capital despite the extra American troops deployed there.

Ah, the difference it makes:

That's more like it

I sure do like seeing pictures of emails like this:



There's more from that bitter old bastard that I've come to really enjoy Jack Cafferty.

Best. Video. Ever.

And the song is pretty good too.

You all must see this video by Ok Go.

What do you all think?

Middle of the Middle East

To my mind, the mess that we have seen recently -- and is ever ongoing -- reflects what we've seen in mid-Atlantic collegial culture suddenly going uncritically pro-Palestinian and in some individuals unnervingly so. The truth lies not in one extreme position or the other. And whatever one's views of the state of Israel and what's been occurred in Syria, Lebanon, or for that matter Jordan, it is rather ominous that we are given a binary view -- support or criticize -- as if there are no other options, as if the situation and history provides such a simplistic and stark choice.

This is especially tricky when we consider that this thinking continues despite more than fifty years of counterinsurgency in Israel. Until recently, we seemed to be locked into a kind of perpetuating anti-Palestinian sentiment in North America as one does not hear from those living in Israel including career military who might shed some context on the war (not that Iraq war, the newer one).

Regional pacificism would be nice but as Gandhi pointed out, it relies on clear and accountable civil institutions led by laws/courts. Hmmm... that is clearly missing. And Gitmo-crazed American leaders (so-called) have no leg to stand on here. Clearly.

The majority of Islamic leaders and Muslims abroad have certainly condemned terrorism. It is less clear as to whether our so-called international "community" has condemned actions taken that have aggravated relations with legitimate and peaceful Islamic states and organizations. Think it through: How many Islamic heads of state favor radical groups engaged in terrorism? How does one eradicate such movements without creating martyrs to assorted extremist causes?

The bobble-heads on the right want Islamic leaders to do what they say rather than work behind the scenes in difficult cultural times. How do you tear down extremists without bringing them more sympathy and support? This is especially true in many countries where support of extremist religious and social groups have helped aristocratic families or politicains maintain their control (read: Egypt and Saudi Arabia as two examples).

Added to this is the Right-Wingers in the United States and England screaming about suicide bombers... like it or not, they are a reflection of the intelligence and surveillance build up in Israel, technologies and techniques much marketed abroad. Sri Lanka, a purchaser of this expertise has had almost 300 incidents involving suicide bombers. Expertise, alas, was sold to the Sri Lankan state as well as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Suddenly, the spectre of suicide bombers, as the only remaining means to bring a dispute to the doorstep of politicians or otherwise make one's point plainly. I wish this had been more discussion and less support of state sponsored violence in Sri Lanka from the late 1980s. Then maybe the situation there would not be written with so much blood.

Terrorist organisations of the lunatic fringe are indeed USING religion, their adherents are not Muslims. They are picking and choosing from the Koran and the Sunnah. They do however (and unfortunately) prey upon situations marked by despair, a perceived lack of alternatives, low opportuntiies and the pathology of waiting that never seems agreeable to human beings.

If one examines one historical sitaution or another, and the balm of streamlined ideologies, anti-American statements become clearer. What is an Afghan having suffered under the Taliban, then blasted anew by the present campaign, meant to think of their situation? When we remember that the individual has earlier toughed out the Soviet campaign and quite probably lost every scrap of property built up over generations.

I suppose we are all trying to figure out the future of the Middle East. But we have to be far more careful than the 'wingers, faux newsies, and one-book (ghost written, of course) experts and contemplate just what impression should leaders in Islamic countries or anyone else gain from foreign policy decisions of the last few years? As for the narrow, anti-Western minority, just what should such persons make of what appears in the global media depicting the glorious and powerful West? What to do, as in Sudan of yesteryear, when US corporations overstayed their leases? Even after they were asked to leave.

Hypocrites

The Wake-Up Wal-Mart bus tour rolls across Iowa and what do I see? Two Senators who supported anti-consumer bankruptcy legislation looking at me.

Organizers have planned events with Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

For a refresher on what a piece of shit this bill was and is see this diary from dkos.

They want to be president, they should not be let-off the hook. Hold them accountable.

"Hey there little Amish boy..."

"Ever seen a zipper?"


REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

All good streaks come to an end...

Revolutionary War gave us Washington;

Civil War gave us Lincoln;

The Progressive Era gave us Theodore Roosevelt;

The Depression & WWII gave us Franklin Roosevelt;

The Cold War gave us Truman;

9/11 gave us...take your pick...






Well, it was good while it lasted.

Terrorism, like a orphaned puppy

Bush: Terrorists will 'follow us home' if troops leave Iraq now

Bender over

Time for the come down.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Here's something new

And it isn't good:

While the number of Americans killed in action per month has declined slightly — to 38 killed in action in July, from 42 in January, in part reflecting improvements in armor and other defenses — the number of Americans wounded has soared, to 518 in July from 287 in January. Explosive devices accounted for slightly more than half the deaths.

An analysis of the 1,666 bombs that exploded in July shows that 70 percent were directed against the American-led military force, according to a spokesman for the military command in Baghdad. Twenty percent struck Iraqi security forces, up from 9 percent in 2005. And 10 percent of the blasts struck civilians, twice the rate from last year.

Let's see there was this ol' chestnut:

"The trumpet of freedom has been sounded, and that trumpet never calls defeat."

Except when it does:

Yet some outside experts who have recently visited the White House said Bush administration officials were beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive.

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

“Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspect,” the expert said, “but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”

The Worm doth turn

Rich Lowry:

Dumber than a guy who is dumber than a sack of hammers

Someone please give Denny Hastert a larger plate for the buffet please...for he is dumber than Mark Levin:

"I always say if we can protect Iraq's borders against Syria and, you know, Jordan, and everyplace else, Iran, we can protect our own borders," he said.

Conservatives have, of course, previously blamed the perforated borders of Iraq as being responsible for everything from hiding Saddam's WMDs to allowing a flood of terrorists into the country for months.

Nice analogy Denny.

A fork

Something that Mark Levin is not yet qualified to use without safety glasses.

My favorite recent infantile, non-considered statement is:

Nothing about [George Allen] suggests any kind of discriminatory instincts.

It is to effin' laugh.

Progress

Since violent death seems to be Iraq's number two industry, I think it's time for Larry Kudlow to unroll that ten dollar bill tube and notice that it is an incredible growth industry.

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll in January.

When I go...

I'm not sure I want my obit done by TBogg...or maybe I do.

Attention NASA

Because of your recently discovered loss I was wondering if I could help out.

If by saying you lost 700 videotapes including film starring Neil Armstrong...you really mean videos (wink, wink) starring Seka, then I may be able to replace some of your old videotapes.

They were beta right?

Line of the Day

Mark Evanier:

You can't bring a bottle of Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water onto an airplane in this country. But you can bring a Dell Laptop with a battery that can explode and burst into flame.

A Nation of Ignoramuses

No wonder the GOP does so well. Being afraid is about all your average newt (or Newt) is aware of as well.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!

In a survey released yesterday, veteran political pollster John Zogby determined that although 77 percent of us can identify two of the Seven Dwarfs, only 24 percent could name two Supreme Court justices.

"Not surprisingly, Clarence Thomas, whose nomination was marked by controversy, was the most recognized justice --

This, of course, is a bit of a mixed bag too, as the most common answers people give when asked to name the Seven Dwarfs reveals.

Senator George Allen sends a message of apology

To the target of his prior scorn:

Post-Nostradumbass

Naturally...

The president portrayed the war, which killed about 790 Lebanese and 155 Israelis, as part of a broader struggle between freedom and terrorism. He said one can only imagine how much more dangerous such a conflict would be if Iran possessed nuclear weapons.

Bush said Hezbollah lost, though Israel didn't knock out the guerrillas.

Of course, Bush is really solid when it comes to establishing military victory...

"Adapting to Win"?

I thought these bozos didn't believe in evolution?

Brown Shirt Time?

U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has called for a review of domestic antiterrorism laws, saying the U.S. might benefit from the more aggressive surveillance and arrest powers used by British authorities last week to thwart an alleged plot to bomb airliners, the Boston Globe reports. Chertoff said no American links to the London plot have been uncovered, but added that the top priority for U.S. counterterrorism officials is to identify any possible connection between the suspects in Britain and Pakistan and individuals in the United States.

At a time when Congress is questioning the scope of the Bush administration's powers -- including a controversial program to listen to domestic phone calls without a warrant -- Chertoff said more powers to track potential terrorists inside the U.S. may be needed. The British "have an easier time getting electronic surveillance, and they also can detain people for up to, I think, 28 days without charging them," Chertoff said on "Fox News Sunday." "And those are very useful tools when you're trying to intercept an ongoing and very dynamic plot when you may not have collected all the evidence." Responded Rep. Edward Markey (D-Ma.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee: "The Bush administration wants to poke holes in the Constitution instead of plugging holes in our homeland security system."

Not just crazy, but Crazy Mean

Pam from Atlas Shrugs, holy shit!

I Don't Know Why I Still Hope For More From NPR

Today, as always on Mondays, news "analyst" Cokie Roberts's disembodied voice floats in over my cheap Radio Shack transistor. Today she holds forth on how the recent terrorist arrests are going to help Republicans politically. Democrats get a biscuit or two, but really, with Roberts, as with all the beltway pundit class it is always about repeating the same old story.

So if you are feeling ill from something you shouldn't have eaten and need to induce vomiting, or if you are just a masochist like me, I give you Cokie "fellate, rinse, repeat" Roberts.

"You're Not Safe Anymore"

That seems to be the theme of the day on CNN.

But I thought we were fightin' over there, and passing the Patriot Act, not to mention keeping Bush in the White House, instead of prison, for the explicit purpose of keeping us safe?

So now we are supposed to be terrified -- 24/7, 365, 4 Life -- AND fight "them" over there AND still stay this course?

And wasn't CNN telling me the last two weeks that the "RAPTURE" is upon us?

I mean jiminy jeebus, am I supposed to be terrified? happy? happy to be terrified?

Michael Barone Blind Man of Vision

Billmon has one take down of this full-time full-on FoxNews blowhard, Bush enabler.

But there is more, much, much more, here's ten minutes research for you to wonder how such a dipshit retains his job except in a media that does not strive for balance, nor have any sense of it's own accountability. On merit alone, you have to be right ONCE at least in life about something. For example, I had a choice between white socks and dark socks to wear with my black wingtips this morning. I chose dark.

On that basis alone, I am one up on Michael Barone.


4/14/2003:

Also on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Donald Rumsfeld had rejected eight State Department nominees for positions in postwar Iraq. On Thursday U.S. News broke the story that Rumsfeld had sent two memos to the president urging immediate recognition of a provisional Iraqi government, presumably including leaders of the pro-democracy Iraqi National Congress. On Friday, it was reported that Rumsfeld was offering positions to two Clinton appointees, James Woolsey and Walter Slocombe.

All this suggests that President Bush has decided to follow through on his promise to create a democratic, peaceful Iraq. And that he is rejecting the advice of the State Department's Near Eastern Bureau, which is used to working with Arab tyrants of various stripes and is dedicated to "stability in the Middle East"—the same stability that gave us September 11. State wants to install an authoritarian leader acceptable to the Arab tyrants who deflect popular dissatisfaction with their rule by directing their people's hostility to the United States and Israel.

Defense has a better idea.

September 22, 2003:

Reports from soldiers on the ground, circulating widely on the Internet but seldom if ever appearing in old media, indicate that the large majority of Iraqis are friendly and helpful and glad that American troops are there. Those may be anecdotes; data come from a poll conducted in August by American Enterprise in four major cities, including one in the so-called Sunni triangle. No one should dwell on the precise percentages, which are subject to error, but by wide margins the results show that Iraqis are optimistic about the future and unfavorably disposed to Osama bin Laden, the Iranian mullahs, and, especially, the Baathist remnants. We cannot be sure exactly how Iraqis' minds are changing. But the evidence suggests they are receptive to representative democracy and hostile to Palestinians and other Arabs who supported their oppressor.

March 22, 2004:

What is remarkable about our occupation of Iraq is not that it has gone badly but that it has gone so well. Last week, crude oil production was above target level, the central bank signed up for the payment system used by central banks internationally, and 140,000 Iraqi police and law enforcement officers were on duty. A new Iraqi currency is circulating, and schools are open. Wages are rising, interest rates are falling, businesses are opening and hiring. Millions of Iraqis are buying cellphones, TVs, and satellite dishes. Attacks on Americans have greatly diminished, and attacks on Iraqis are likely to turn them against terrorists rather than against us.

March 28, 2005:

Middle East expert Daniel Pipes writes, "For the first time in three decades, Lebanon now seems within reach of regaining its independence."

Not having a clue as to what they are doing

It's really hard to think that the bottom-line for the Bush Administration, the Military, and the GOP is now simply "Hope things go well enough for us to pretend we can leave".

Praying for a Miracle is NOT an exit strategy!

And Bush is turning to that policy

Caleb Carr:

IS THERE AN alternative to this pattern of mistakes and countermistakes? There is, but it involves a quality that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have ever come close to mastering: tactical restraint in order to achieve strategic advantage. Simply put, this involves looking past immediate and all-out retaliation as the best method of countering threat. It is not a call for turning the other cheek; rather, it suggests that savagely swinging back every time one's cheek is dealt so much as a brushing blow does not amount to effective boxing, much less enlightened belligerent behavior.

Israel has repeatedly defeated nation-states that acted against it. However, since the six-day war it has been an unending series of reprisals actions against disorganized representatives of the worst represented people on earth (much of it their own fault), the Palestinians. And despite the "love" of the doctrine of eye-for-an-eye neither of them have come close to solving the problem, nor even releasing the pressure that builds up for violence.

And this is the doctrine that is so appealing to so many Republicans -- never more so then it is to George Bush & Dick Cheney. It hasn't worked for Israel - to say that the problem of terrorism is any better because Israel hits back harder than the "terrorists" is to ignore reality. Something the Bush Administration lives to do anyway. The fear is always that someone will get the bomb...what has the Bush Administration really done to not make that more likely?

Everybody is a friggin' blogger

Except Bush - but then again, he's not much of a writer.


Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who's blog is a lot like the Corner only slightly more intelligent and slightly less crazy.

He also has a better beard than K-Lo.

Ironically, while Bush was claiming to read "The Stranger" Ahmadinejad was reading 'The Quiet American'.

Spooky right?

Poor Mr. Ass

The whole 10-day vacation thing never ceases to amuse me. Granted in most situations a President never gets a vacation (but remember who we are talking about here).

I haven't taken a Summer Vacation in 10 years...or more, I honestly don't remember the last time I took one. And here I am, cranking out a bunch of work again on a Saturday and Sunday.

But enough about me, let's talk about you talking about me. ;-)

Seriously, we have again gotten this list of books Bush has supposedly read or is reading while at Rancho de Fuckup. The latest being the "high school lit" classic "The Stranger", even getting "praise" for quickly reading a book that is all of 150 pages long. What's next, only taking a week to plow through Animal Farm, aka 'The Dick Cheney Story'?

Just one time, I would like to see someone from the press corps actually quiz Bush on these books he's allegedly read. We've seen this guy in operation for nearly six years as President, I find it hard to believe he reads anything more literary than Marmaduke -- I doubt he "gets" the sledgehammer subtlety of Mallard Fillmore for chrissake.

Quiz him, quiz him, quiz him!

I demand evidence of literacy and retention!

Yee Haw!

More evidence of the Bush-Cheney cabal fucking up through hubris scenario:

The US government was closely involved in the planning of Israel's military operations against Islamic militant group Hezbollah even before the July 12 kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue.

The kidnapping triggered a month-long Israeli operation in South Lebanon that is expected to come to an end on Monday.

But Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh writes that President George W Bush and vice president Dick Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential US pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations.

Citing an unnamed Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of the Israeli and US governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah - and shared it with Bush administration officials - well before the July 12 kidnappings.

The expert added that the White House had several reasons for supporting a bombing campaign, the report said.

If there was to be a military option against Iran, it had to get rid of the weapons Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation against Israel, Hersh writes.

Citing a US government consultant with close ties to Israel, Hersh also reports that earlier this summer, before the Hezbollah kidnappings, several Israeli officials visited Washington "to get a green light" for a bombing operation following a Hezbollah provocation, and "to find out how much the United States would bear".

"The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits," the magazine quotes the consultant as saying. "Why oppose it? We'll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."

US government officials have denied the charges.

So the usual.

And the legacy no doubt will continue:

Nonetheless, Hersh writes, a former senior intelligence official says some officers serving with the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain deeply concerned that the administration will have a far more positive assessment of the air campaign than they should.

"There is no way that (defence secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and Cheney will draw the right conclusion about this," the report quotes the former official as saying. "When the smoke clears, they'll say it was a success, and they'll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran."

Wow, Sporty Spice really let herself go

Nice to see that Adidas landed that lucrative Commandante contract.

Although Nike will probably be delighted with their sales in South Florida.

You should see Raul's awesome bike suit, btw.

(AFP/Juventud Rebelde.cu)

I know you're on vacation

But does that mean you can wear Karen Hughes' blouse?

(AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper)

The cheapest gift of all

Sometime yesterday this site hit 1.5 million visits, a milestone of no real significance whatsoever, but still thanks.

Meanwhile, Watertiger, co-conspirator of a fetish-site with yours truly is closing in on a million hits. It also coincides with her birthday so if you want to give her a gift, without having to hit the Amazon wish list, here is your opportunity.

My only question is, where is my eclair?!

Note, I have suggested that DeDurkheim & Champollion set up their own competing site featuring armpits, I've even given it a start for them, but so far, nothing.

Finally, industrial science saves the world

Perfect for the bubble-boy.

More on the strategic disaster

Billmon's refrain is similar to mine last night, he's truly been outstanding the last month:

At this point I'm not sure if the Israeli branch of the punditburo has yet to recognize the full magnitude of the debacle, or whether it's just trying to put a brave face on it. But this statement, from Ha'aretz's Ze'ev Schiff, is a leading nominee for the Emperor Hirohito Memorial Prize for Ridiculous Understatement:

In regard to other Arab elements, it is very possible that Israeli deterrence will be somewhat undercut.

All the bellicose rhetoric in the world -- like Schiff's threat that Israel will respond with "cruel craziness" if other red lines are crossed in the future -- can't conceal the multiple failures: of a miltary aristocracy's arrogant faith in technology, of an Army that's grown accustomed to waging war against Palestinian teenagers, of a political establishment that believes with zombie-like intensity that the cure for its own incompetence is ever greater applications of military force. (Because, of course, that's the only thing the Arabs understand.)

There will be hell to pay for this fiasco -- coming as it did on top of Uncle Sam's own murder suicide pact in Iraq. When and where that payment wil be demanded isn't clear yet, but if the past is any guide it will be paid in the blood of the innocent, not the guilty. Condi better swap her forceps for a shovel, because it looks like there's going to be a plenty of graves to dig in the "new" Middle East.

Another disaster to the ledger

Israel's ill conceived over-reaction (to a legitimate concern) has managed to accomplish not a hell of a lot -- after being given the green light, if not a slap on the ass from the Bush Adminisration. If the cease-fire can "hold" so to speak, at least it will end the carnage, while the bill for the damage and death gets paid...though not the grudge. Although first Lebanon and and especially Hezbullah have to agree too.

All-in-all this has been about as pyrrhic a non-victory for the Israelis as Iraqistan has been for the United States. In both cases, at best tactical draws when victory was expected and required.

But strategically, oh man, the legacy of Iraq and this smaller, shorter war, are going to be very bad. The hollow shells of the world superpower and the regional one have been exposed in all their (non)glory.

Bush isn't satisfied to lost his own wars through overconfidence and incompetence, no he has to have it spread.

He's "Typhoid Georgie"

You know this liquid ban on flights

Makes those hack Slice Sierra Mist commericals even more annoying -- and considering it involves Kathy Griffin* going "waaaa-waaaa" with a wand, that is pretty damned annoying.




*Note, I generally don't mind Kathy Griffin, but those commercials with her and other sort of famous stand up comics are terrible.


Update: Thanks to "gravie" for the correction.

Let's roll

Shorter Krauthammer:

The refusal of Democrats to accept policy disasters and military defeats as being good for the nation is why the Republicans will be allowed to drive American completely into the ground.

But what should I expect really?

About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace — peace essentially on Israel's terms — but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to "shush" him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year.