Continuing Tragedy...

Last week this blog (and many others) linked to a story from Scout Prime on how officials had declared the search for the dead over prematurely ... and how it sure seemed related to race.

USA Today has another story of just how large the death toll will certainly rise:

The whereabouts of 6,644 people reported missing after Hurricane Katrina have not been determined, raising the prospect that the death toll could be higher than the 1,306 recorded so far in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to two groups working with the federal government to account for victims.

Most of those who remain listed as unaccounted-for 12 weeks after the storm probably are alive and well, says Kym Pasqualini, chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing Adults. She says they are listed as missing because government record-keeping efforts haven't caught up with them in their new locations.

However, Pasqualini says those counting the victims are particularly concerned about an estimated 1,300 unaccounted-for people who lived in areas that were heavily damaged by Katrina, or who were disabled at the time the storm hit. The fact that authorities haven't been able to determine what happened to them suggests that the death toll from Katrina could climb significantly.

Thank goodness USA Today is still covering this, the press has certainly abandoned this story...and gone back to Natalie Holloway.

Tool versus Fool

Oh man, this is rich:

A colonel in the Marine reserves has taken issue with how his views were represented in a Republican attack last week on Representative Murtha.

Speaking on the House floor on Friday, Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, asserted that the colonel had "asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, marines never do."

But a spokeswoman for the colonel, Danny R. Bubp, said Ms. Schmidt had misconstrued their conversation.

While Mr. Bubp, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, opposes a quick withdrawal for forces, "he did not mention Congressman Murtha by name nor did he mean to disparage Congressman Murtha," said Karen Tabor, his spokeswoman. "He feels as though the words that Congresswoman Schmidt chose did not represent their conversation."

Schmidt has repeatedly used GOP Operative and Marine Reserve Desk Jockey Danny Bobp to abuse individuals who actually served in a conflict. She used him often when she was sliming Paul Hackett. Now her knuckle-dragging douchebaggery comes back to kick her in the ass and Bobp, the willing tool, runs for the proverbial hills.

Leaving Mean Jean all alone -- except, of course, for her flying monkeys.

"How 'bout a little liar Scarecrow?!"

Not good for the GOP; Great for America

One might say that after about 50 years of being in control of the House of Representatives the Democratic Party deserved to lose control of the body -- not for their policies, but for the petty corruptions the last and biggest of which was problem the check-kiting scandal.

But being overachievers in the art of corruption, as opposed to the wankery which cometh naturally, the GOP has managed to catch up with amazing efficiency and take sleaziness to a lofty new plane. The plea bargain of Michael Scanlon has huge implications for the House Leadership and several key members, almost all Republican.

Investigators are looking at half a dozen members of Congress, current and former senior Hill aides, a former deputy secretary of the interior, and Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, according to sources familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Because of his central role in much of Abramoff's business, Scanlon could be a key witness in any trials that arise from the case.

Scanlon had been in discussions with prosecutors for six months before Friday's announcement that he was being charged with one count of conspiracy as part of a plea agreement. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle yesterday and agreed to pay restitution of $19.7 million, Scanlon's share of fees from four tribes named in the charging documents.

He admitted that he or Abramoff offered bribes on behalf of clients over a period of four years, and at one point during the proceedings he corrected court filings that mistakenly noted that the illegal acts began in 2001. "My client informs me that some of the overt acts are actually in 2000," said Scanlon attorney Stephen L. Braga.

With all of their policy initiatives, especially the White House's repeated clusterfuckery (what have they done as an achievement other the scare enough people to get them reelected? What on earth is "better" after any of their actions?) the GOP is blowing itself up.

So far the most predominant GOP rejoinder is "Oh yeah? Well at least we have a plan". Nobody seems to understand that in the Fall of 2006, the populace will likely unite in saying...and that's the problem!"

For now, though the punditry doesn't like it, I see nothing wrong with the Democrats saying that their plan so far is, NOT TO BE ASSHOLE INCOMPETENTS LIKE THE REPUBLICANS!

Seems to me like its better to be accused of having "no plan" than already demonstrating you have a clearly disastrous one.

One last frivolous post...

Not to just throw my "geek" status out there for all to see (ed: You mean besides having a blog?) but after what he did with the "Lord of the Rings" I'd pretty much see any Peter Jackson 'movie experience'. I've always sort of admired the original "King Kong" as a film of achievement and influence for its time. However, it was never something I'd be all hopped up about seeing a remake of, until now.

If having Jackson doing it wasn't enough, have any of you seen the new television advertisement for the movie?

WOW!

Somebody knows how to do a movie trailer. I don't know if Jackson's folks cut that, or the studio but it is one of the best commercials for a film I've ever seen.

Rivalry

As anyone who has read this blog knows I need psychological counseling, or an intervention, or something.

But also, as anyone who has read this blog knows; despite my progressivity, I'm a sucker for the NFL (the ultimate Corporate/Socialist league). I grew up watching the Vikings lose Super Bowl after Super Bowl, only to mature into a person who has watched the Vikings lose games of lesser consequence (Gary Anderson nooooooooooo!)

I slept through the second half of the game last night -- comfortable in the knowledge I was missing the last hour and a half of John Madden's sloppy love sonnets to Brett Favre. Somehow the Vikings won a game over their biggest rival. By the way the NFC North, as it is now called, has great rivalries. It pretty much goes like this:

Packers hate the Vikings, Vikings hate the Packers;

Packers hate the Bears; Bears hate the Packers;

Lions pissed that nobody hates them enough, decide they will just generally hate everybody and take it out on Joey Harrington.

X-Box vs. Being Outside

So Hegemonians I've decided that I will not buy myself a new X-Box. The keeps my game playing device record to "0 since Pong".

I hope you understand this decision.

He must be on Pot to call the Kettle Black

Crashcart certainly has never been curtailed from flat-out lying before a friendly audience (the only kind these schmucks ever appear in front of):

Cheney pressed the administration's high-voltage attack on war critics, particularly Senate Democrats who voted in October 2002 to give Bush authority to go to war in Iraq and who now oppose his policy, calling them "dishonest and reprehensible."

Shall we replay your lyin' again Dick?

Shy Bladder...

"I can only go in front of someone if Jack Abramoff paid them $500 for a golden shower!"


Photo found at Needlenose.

Too much Wild Turkey!

Bush visits Maurice Sendak's house.

Dick "Ticking Timebomb" Cheney

From CNN:

A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.

Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.

"There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."

Better late than never, I guess.

Who'd have thunk this guy would be capable of being so craven and evil?

The Mongolian President Enjoys Tricking His Visitor

By telling him it is customary for the visitor to "mount" the yak first.

(REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

"Fucking Chinese Doors"

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

"Hey Ghengis, nice to meet you"

Who's the white guy?

(Jason Reed/Reuters)


How do you stuff one of those? heh heh heh

(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)


Meanwhile, as Atrios pointed out, this is rather depressing and says something about all involved.

As he barnstormed through Japan, South Korea and China, with a final stop in Mongolia still to come, Bush visited no museums, tried no restaurants, bought no souvenirs and made no effort to meet ordinary local people.

"I live in a bubble," Bush once said, explaining his anti-tourist tendencies by citing the enormous security and logistical considerations involved in arranging any sightseeing. "That's just life."

The Bush spirit trickles down to many of his top advisers, who hardly go out of their way to sample the local offerings either. A number of the most senior White House officials on the trip, perhaps seeking the comforts of their Texas homes, chose to skip the kimchi in South Korea to go to dinner at Outback Steakhouse -- twice. (Admittedly, a few unadventurous journalists joined them.)

I can understand the security concerns for a President. But, fuck you are in, for Americans, an exotic country -- LIVE A LITTLE! See something, be less ignorant.

For these people, I bet they figured they were being adventurous by seeing if the "bloomin' onion" tasted the same as it does in Fairfax, Virginia. It's the traveling equivalent of seeing whether a Pringles in Seattle can fit with the Pringles you bought in Miami.

But I'm not going to let Bush off that easy, every prior President even "I read it in a Script Once" Reagan got out and explored a bit. Here's a good story from that article:

She [Laura Bush] has had little luck enticing her husband into joining her over the years. The first time the Bushes traveled to China together in their current capacity, she had to tell him to slow down as he tried to race through a tour of the Great Wall. She once persuaded him to go to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, only to see him burn through the place in 30 minutes. He dispensed with the Kremlin cathedrals in Moscow in seven minutes. He flatly declined an Australian invitation to attend the Rugby World Cup while down under.

Freeance via Black & Decker

Wow, we really must be winning now!!

British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Defence, admits that he knows of "alleged deaths in custody" and other "serious prisoner abuse" at al-Jamiyat police station, which was reopened by Britain after the war.

Militia-dominated police, who were recruited by Britain, are believed to have tortured at least two men to death in the station. Their bodies were later found with drill holes to their arms, legs and skulls.

The victims were suspected of collaborating with coalition forces, according to intelligence reports. Despite being pressed "very hard" by Britain, however, the Iraqi authorities in Basra are failing to even investigate incidents of torture and murder by police, ministers admit.

That's right, the POLICE recruited by the Coalition, drilled holes in people suspected of working with the Coalition!

Well, I guess it could be worse, they could be getting creative with a dremel. We could be looking at a collaborator turned into a coffee table or something.

The Thinly Veiled Lie

Rummy today:

While some lawmakers press for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made no promises on Sunday and said commanders' assessments will determine the pace of any military drawdown.

Right now, I have little doubt that Commanders are ordered to require such orders to come down in a timely fashion for the 2006 elections.

Cynical and as disastrous as ever is our Bush Administration.

For the callous Mr. Rumsfeld though, it is all an abstraction -- just like a dead or wounded soldier.

Where's Roberto Al-D'Aubuisson?

Billmon noted that Negroponte should head back to Iraq because it would be old home week. Like Billmon, I have little doubt that Negroponte helped set up this system, after all it was bragged about by the Pentagon some time ago:

According to human rights organisations in Baghdad, 'disappearances' - for long a feature of Iraq's dirty war - have reached epidemic proportions in recent months. Human rights workers, international and local, who asked not to be identified in order to protect their researchers in the city and their organisations' access to senior government officials, told The Observer last week that they have hundreds of cases on their books. They described the disappearances as the most pressing human rights issue in a country that is in the midst of a human rights disaster.

The crisis was underlined by last week's uncovering of the secret Ministry of the Interior detention facility in the well-to-do neighbourhood of Jadriya.

It led the US embassy in Baghdad to forcefully condemn the new Iraq's culture of torture and killing - a statement that many believe has been too long in coming.

The emergence of a culture of pernicious violence at Iraq's interior ministry blossomed in the face of repeated warnings to US and UK officials over the past year and a half, under an apparently deliberate policy by London and Washington to avoid public criticism of the country's new institutions.

It is a silence that persisted despite compelling evidence provided by human rights organisations, journalists and Iraqi officials that, from the very moment of the hand-over of sovereignty, violent abuses were being committed in the Ministry of the Interior building - the results of which have been witnessed by The Observer.

So "Freedom" has been on the march using the time-tested American model of encouraging torture and human rights abuse, looking the other way, and then being like Claude Rains in Casablanca expressing "Shock" that such abuses are occurring. The "Central America" method.

Nevertheless, somewhere at this moment a right-wing blogger is masturbating at this news.

If you can, go read the rest of Billmon's post, he's at his usual thoughtful best.

President Charles Nelson Reilly

He looks like someone told him Michael Moore is coming over.

Update:

The true story of this picture is far funnier than any caption I could have come up with:

When the reporter asked for "a very quick follow-up", Bush cut him off by thanking the press corps and telling the reporter "No you may not," as he strode towards a set of double doors leading out of the room.

The only problem was that they were locked.

"I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work," Bush quipped, facing reporters again until an aide rescued him by pointing to him towards the correct door.

Congratulations Suburban Cincinnatti

Here is how the GOP leadership describes Jean Schmidt's tirade on Friday against Jack Murtha:

Several Republicans who were on the House floor said afterward that Ms. Schmidt did not appear to know she was referring to a much-decorated veteran.

"The poor lady didn't know Jack Murtha was a Marine - she really just ran into a hornet's nest," said Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia.

Representative David Dreier of California said, "Very clearly, she did not know that Jack Murtha was a Marine."

Shorter description:

"What she lacks in tact, she makes up for in being a complete moron."

By the way, it would be nice if the New York Times would actually give an accurate description of the "Marine Colonel" she quoted. Colonel Bobp is a complete GOP shill, and current GOP Ohio State Representative (is he awash in Noe money?)

Santa Claus is being "Served" Downtown

Jerry Falwell's makin' a list;
He's checkin' it twice,
He's gonna serve a Summons,
Tonight,

'Cause Santa Claus is bein'
served Dowtown

Evangelical Christian pastor Jerry Falwell has a message for Americans when it comes to celebrating Christmas this year: You're either with us, or you're against us.

Falwell has put the power of his 24,000-member congregation behind the "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," an effort led by the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel. The group promises to file suit against anyone who spreads what it sees as misinformation about how Christmas can be celebrated in schools and public spaces.

...

Fanning the Yule log of discontent against what the Liberty Counsel calls "grinches" like the American Civil Liberties Union are evangelical-led organizations including the 150,000-member American Family Association. It has called for a boycott of Target stores next weekend. The chain's crime, according to the group, is a ban on the use of "Merry Christmas" in stores, an accusation the chain denies.

These people are the biggest killjoys since Prohition. Now I cannot figure out whether we are supposed to boycott Target for employing a few wingnut pharmacists, or go to Target because they say "Happy Holidays". "My religion of love and tolerance is superior to all -- and if you don't like it, I'm going to sue your ass."

It would be laughable, were they not give power well beyond their actual means -- but the cynicism of the GOP in using them has built them up to thinking that this sort of bullshit will sell. Watch FOXNEWS try to sell it all holiday season.

Progress

The day after 80 people were killed in suicide bombings in Iraq, only 48 or so have died from suicide bombings.

You see, we are making progress that's a 40% reduction.


Freeance Bitches!