Friday, June 29, 2007

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577

For those of you playing along at home, that's 31 in one week!

Total coalition forces dead: 280
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2118
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1620
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1520
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 449
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 344.

It is still 592 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Pat and Rudy Show

Now let's see if we've all been paying attention. Rudy Giuliani is on his third -- or is it fourth? -- marriage, he's pro-choice and pro-gay-rights.

If you're a rightwing Fundo, what's not to like?

And that's why it comes as no surprise that Pat Robertson is heaping praise on Rudy, to the point of embracing him (but not in a gay way) in public.

And not just any public. It was during a lecture series at Robertson's Regence University, where Robertson praised the Rethug ne'er-do-well to the point of embarrassment.

Embarrassment for everyone for Giuliani, who lapped it up like a cat at a saucer of milk.

I guess it's true that politics makes strange bedfellows (but not in a gay way).

Cheney's Office Backpedals Bigtime

I guess the whole I'm-not-part-of-the-executive-branch argument wasn't working out for Darth Cheney, so the latest spin on Cheney's office keeping secrets from the National Archives is that the VP's office is part of "The Presidency" and as such is exempted because it's not an executive branch "agency".

Never mind the fact that the directive includes all executive branch "entities" and not just agencies. Never mind the fact that the office of the Vice President is specifically excluded in only one mention in the directive -- which leads a reasonable member of the Reality-Based Community to conclude that it is included in the rest of it.

This is the kind of legal parsing that these same fuckers hooted at when Clinton tried it ("It depends on what the definition of 'is' is...").

I'd love to see the subpoenas start flying over this one. VP Crashcart has managed to thumb his nose at our constitutional system for six years. Now it's time for some payback.

Impeachment. That's the answer.

Vindication!

Those of us who have been around for a while used to talk in hushed tones about it as if it were the Holy Grail -- it was all the fault of the CIA, we said. The CIA was working with Mafia. The CIA had plans to assassinate Castro. The CIA used mind-control techniques and hallucinogenic drugs on unsuspecting citizens. The CIA tapped citizens' phones illegally. The CIA was spying on journalists.

Nonsense, the government told us. We would never do that. That's just your neurotic obsessive-compulsive conspiracy-theory mental illness that you're suffering under. The CIA is your friend, and your government would never lie to you.

Lies. Now, finally, the truth is out. The CIA has released a document compiled in the early 70s that details the very actions that we consipiracy theorists were dismissively derided for voicing all along.

And the media? They've taken the lead of the CIA and are calling the document "The Family Jewels", as if this were some quaint and mildly amusing social-gaffe-filled Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight Saturday morning cartoon show.

So what else were we lied to about? CIA involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, maybe? Hmmmmm...

Monday, June 25, 2007

High Court Overturns Hein

In a disgusting display of pandering to the Religious Right, the Supremes today issued its long-awaited decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, and -- no surprise here -- voted 5-4 that federal taxpayers do not have the right to challenge the constituionality of Der Monkey Fuehrer's so-called Faith Based Initiatives.

In brief, the plaintiffs argued that the doling out of federal tax money to these "faith-based" groups -- nearly all of them of the Fundo stripe -- violated the wall of separation between church and state.

Which it does. And that's not what the court ruled on. Instead, in a masterpiece of legal parsing, it held that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue.

No standing. Taxpayer money being used to fund religious organization, and the taxpayers themselves have "no standing".

The best quote to come out of this came from Sammy The Fixer Alito: "Tt is a complete fiction to argue that an unconstitutional (sic!) federal expenditure causes an individual federal taxpayer any measurable economic harm".

Jesus, what is with that bunch of woolly-brained morons?

This decision holds that taxpayers have standing only in expenditures specifically authorized by the legislative branch. What a bunch of crap that is -- if congress didn't give the money to the executive branch, they wouldn't have in the first place.

Okay, then, if I have no say in how my tax money is being spent unconstitionally, then maybe I'll just stop paying it. This is taxation without representation, and we already fought one revolution over it.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1117 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown, Argentina and god-knows-where-else to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerre de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and Prince Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

More on Cheney

As I said last week, Darth Cheney has stepped in it now. If he's claiming that he's not part of the executive branch and therefore not accountable for failing to follow a presidential directive, then he is not entitled to the money that congress appropriates for the running of his executive branch office.

And that's exactly what House Democratic Caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel plans to do.

This week he plans to introduce a bill that will strip away the millions of dollars earmarked for the Vice President's office as part of the executive branch.

"This amendment will ensure that the vice president's funding is consistent with his legal arguments," Emmanuel said.

Way to go, Rahm! That ought to get the fucker's attention.

Friday, June 22, 2007

More on Reframing the Vietnam War

This one has kind of flown under the radar -- my radar, at least -- but it's apparently been a hot item in the wingnut blogosphere at least since the 2004 election.

According to this latest reframe, North Vietnam's famous general, Vo Nguyen Giap, made the statement in his 1985 published memoirs that North Vietnam was ready to throw in the towel and ask for surrender terms following the crushing defeats of the 1968 Tet Offensive. But the news reports out of the liberal American media caused him to change his mind when he saw that the media was reporting Tet as a "victory" for the North Vietnamese. This was allegedly "verified" by later interviews with Giap and with a dissident NVA named Tin.

Bullshit.

Do a Google search for "giap surrender tet media" and you'll see for yourself -- the vast majority of the web pages for this particular phrase belong to such reliable sources as Free Republic and Front Page Magazine. But surprisingly, a number of middle of the road and even left-wing sources seem to have picked it up.

Okay, let's deconstruct it. First of all, Giap did not publish a memoir in 1985, but he did write one later. I have not read it myself, but my friend the historian has and he says that there's nothing in the memoir that could conceivably be stretched to account for this story. Various "interviews" with Giap are cited in this wingnut frenzy to blame the media in which Giap supposedly made this statement, but where are they? Somebody provide an authentic link to just one of these interviews, or a reference to a page number in Giap's book, and I will publicly eat my words.

And Mr. Tin...? Well, he's just a guy who became disenchanted with the People's Republic of Vietnam and his former homies, and came to the west with a wheelbarrow full of bullshit to feed to his erstwhile rescuers who were desperate to find a reason why we lost Vietnam.

And there it is: Walter Cronkite and liberal media! Those commie motherfuckers who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, sold out the American fighting man, and enabled those America-hating traitors, Hanoi Jane Fonda and John Kerry.

That's become the latest revisionist frame for the rightwing to point fingers at the "real winners" of the Vietnam War, the subversive anti-American fifth-columnist reporters, editors and antiwar activists who toiled tirelessly at home to undermine the war effort.

Jeez, that sounds vaguely familiar. It kind of sounds like the incoherent rantings of one Adolph Hitler, who was quick to blame the treacherous defeatist Jews in the government and the banking industry for Germany's defeat in WWI.

No doubt Tet was a tactical blunder of epic proportions, wiping out something like 75% of the Viet Cong in the south. And it's true that after Tet, the NVA, of necessity, had to take a much larger role in the prosecution of the war, but to claim that Giap was ready to surrender flies in the face of both history and reason.

Otherwise, how could the NVA have continued fighting the Americans for five more years, with a body count ratio of NVA to US of something like ten-to-one? How to explain that following Tet, the American military and its ARVN sidekicks withdrew from major parts of the countryside, in essence turning them over to the NVA? Was that the work of the liberal media and the antiwar activists as well? What about the public opinion polls in the US that STILL showed a majority of people in support of the war weeks after Tet? How about the reevaluation of the Vietnam war strategy by Lyndon Johnson, The Wise Men and what was left of the Best and the Brightest, which began on the day after the Battle of Tet started?

Jesus, those liberal media guys and maggot-infested war-protesting longhair hippie bums sure had a lot of control over the nation back then, didn't they?

Give me a fucking break. It's just another ludicrous example of The Big Lie, a revisionist talking point expounded by propagandists on the right to point out the treachery of the media and the antiwar movement.

Above the Law

We all knew that Cheney was a secretive sneaky motherfucker, but this goes beyond that. This is incredible, unbelievable. It's right up there with "I don't got to show you no stinking badges!"

Under the terms of a presidential directive issued by Clinton and expanded by Der Monkey Fuehrer, all executive branch offices -- no, entities -- are supposed to, once a year, report how much classified information they are keeping.

Every executive branch office, every executive branch entity, it would appear, except that of the Vice President. Darth Cheney's minions filed the required reports in 2001 and again in 2002, but since then nothing but silence.

Crashcart's excuse? He's not really part of the executive branch, and therefore not required to comply with the directive.

Because his sole constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate, The Dickless Wonder is saying that he's part of both the executive and the legislative branches, and therefore he doesn't have to worry about those pesky rules. Those inconvenient laws. Those traitorous demands for -- gasp -- accountability.

Jesus, just when you think you've heard it all...

So the answer to all this shit? Well, I just heard John Dean on the Rachel Maddow Show voice a modest proposal: Congress should cut off ALL funding for the Vice President's office, including staff salaries and facilities. Let him pay his own staff out of his own pocket, pay rent on his office space in the Old Executive Office Building, and on that palatial estate on the grounds of the National Observatory that serves as the official residence of the Vice President.

Sounds like a good idea to me. If he's not part of the Executive Branch, then we as taxpayers have no fucking business paying for his cyberpatched ass to occupy our space.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546

For those of you playing along at home, that's 27 in one week!

Total coalition forces dead: 280
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2111
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1613
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1513
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 442
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 337.

It is still 599 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

And Speaking of Lawsuits

There's a knuckledragging Rethug congressman named John Hostettler (R-Moron) who is quietly attempting to push through legislation that would prevent organizations such as the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State from collecting attorney's fees when they successfully sue churches for violations of the First Amendment.

I didn't even know about this until last night, when Barry Lynn touched on it in his talk in Seattle, but it's dangerously close to becoming law.

It's called The Public Expression of Religion Act and it came perilously close to passage in the last congress.

It's a blatant attempt to subvert the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to our Constitution, and it would, if passed, help to cement into public policy the establishment of Christianity -- fundamentalist backwoods Bible-thumping snake-handling Christianity -- as the official state religion, to the everlasting detriment of the approximately 20% of the American population who are emphatically not Christian, including people like me who are proud to have NO religion.

It's worth keeping an eye on this. I doubt that Hostettler will be able to come as close in the current congress, so it's premature to call for riots in the streets, but it does come as a serious reminder that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Last night I had the singular privilege and rare honor of meeting Rev. Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State when he was in Seattle to give a talk and sign his latest book, Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom.

I have long been an opponent of the drift towards theocracy that has been evident in this country, and it was a pleasure to hear Barry speak about the recent victories that AU has achieved in the battles to keep that wall of separation (in Jefferson's words) between government and the religious establishment.

But he reminded us that while we have won many battles, and that blatantly religious candidates were almost entirely losers in the 2006 election, the struggle continues, and it is up to us to remain vigilant against the sneaky inroads that the Fundos are trying constantly to make into our secular government.

To that end, I encourage everyone to join AU. It's only $35 a year and it is well worth the money. It isn't cheap bringing lawsuits against churches or governments who have blurred the line of separation, and the organization needs your help. Join today!

Gays in Uniform? The Horror!

A new exhibit at San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society contains, among other things, the dress uniform, medals and rusty footlocker of Leonard Matlovich.

Matlovich, who died in 1989 after serving three tours in Vietnam, chose for his epitaph, "When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."

Matlovich and other gay individuals who served with honor and distinction in America's military are being honored the GLBT Historical Society.

And it's long overdue. I hope to see the exhibit this fall when I go to San Francisco on vacation and pay my respects to those men and women who chose to hide their true selves so they could serve proudly in the armed forces.

Now all we need to do is convince the assholes at the top of the heap that we have always had gay men and women in the military, and it didn't hurt any of us -- or "unit cohesion", the latest buzzword in the Jim Crow-like approach to keeping our gay brothers and sisters in the closet.

And to discharge that dozen or more speakers of Arabic -- when we are bogged down in an Arab country -- simply because they happen to be gay is unconscionable. It is, in fact, mind boggling.

This new exhibit is a step in the right direction, bringing focus to the hidden and closeted gays who chose to serve their country and were trashed for their efforts.

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way."

--Apr 28, 2005

Clinton Slams "Free Trade" Deal With Korea

Jeez, it's easy to see that we're in the full throes of the political campaign season, even with 16 months left to go before the general election.

Now Hillary Clinton says she opposes the impending free trade agreement with Korea.

Yeah, great, but where was she when her hubby was jamming through NAFTA and CAFTA? Both of those extremely fine programs combined to force many thousands of American workers into poverty, into "service economy" dead end jobs, into lifestyle changes that none of them expected nor should have been expected to accept?

Remember Ross Perot? As much as I looked askance at the crazy little billionaire, he was dead on about that giant sucking sound.

So I guess it's kudos to Hillary, albeit reservedly. She's a little late to the party, but it's better than her never showing up at all.

Magic 1000

This is my 1000th post since I started this blog nearly two years ago. I can't believe that I was initially concerned that I would soon run out of things to say.

Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on your point of view -- it turns out that I was worried needlessly. You just can't underestimate the ability of Der Monkey Feuhrer and his minions to provide fodder for the leftwing blogosphere.

Thanks to all of you for reading.

--The F Man

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Another Game of Guess Who Said It

Okay, students, put on your thinking caps and tell me the source of this quote:

The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice. The credibility of those who now manage the nation’s top law enforcement agency is tragically eroded. We are fortunate to have its dedicated career workforce, especially its criminal prosecutors, who have faced the unprecedented politicization of decisions regarding both personnel and investigations.
Give up?

Was it some arm-waving Democrat? Some wacky believer in the quaint notion of the rule of law? Some anti-Bush sign-waving protest-marching latté-drinking Beemer-driving Nordstrom-shopping limousine liberal?

Nope, nope, and nope.

Believe it or not, that was in the 2000 platform of the Republican Party.

The hypocrisy never stops. That document is just a treasure trove of irony and unintended dark humor. Here's another example:
...a shrunken American military has been run ragged by a deployment tempo that has eroded its military readiness. Many units have seen their operational requirements increased four-fold, wearing out both people and equipment. Only last fall the Army certified two of its premier combat divisions as unready for war because of underfunding, mismanagement, and over-commitment to peacekeeping missions around the globe. More Army units and the other armed services report similar problems. It is a national scandal that almost one quarter of our Army's active combat strength is unfit for wartime duty.
Jesus, if I didn't know better, I'd think this was an up-to-date description of our current armed forces.

And don't forget that it was the "Clinton military" -- much reviled by the neocon thugs who have taken over this country -- that went to Afghanistan and Iraq and did their initial assignment, followed their initial orders, with such success.

Not the Bush military. Not the Rumsfeld military (remember "you go to war with the army you've got, not the army you'd like to have"?

This quaint and naively idealistic document ends with:
Republicans have a strategy. It is a strategy that recalls traditional truths about power and ideals and applies them to networked marketplaces, modern diplomacy and the high-tech battlefield. A Republican administration will use power wisely, set priorities, craft needed institutions of openness and freedom, and invest in the future. A Republican president and a Republican Congress can achieve the unity of national governance that has so long been absent. We see a confident America united in the fellowship of freedom with friends and allies throughout the world. We envision the restoration of a respected American leadership firmly grounded in a distinctly American internationalism.
A wise man (my grandfather) once told me that the way to vote for a president is to read the party platform. If you find one you agree with, vote for the other party because they always go the opposite way from what they say they are going to do.

Wise counsel indeed, when it came to the 2000 Rethug platform.

VA Hospitals and Clinics to Extend Hours -- Not!

Last Friday VA Commissar Nicholson made a surprise announcement that he has directed the 153 VA hospitals and clinics around the country to keep their doors open longer, to better serve the veteran population.

Sounds good, right?

Except for one tiny detail: No one bothered to tell the hospitals and clinics.

It apparently came as a total surprise to them.

Jesus, these people just can't stop lying! I guess they just can't help it -- it has to be a BFOQ for all the positions in the Baby Doc Maladministration.

Monday, June 18, 2007

A Surprise Unanimity from the Supremes

In a surprising -- some might say shocking -- unanimous decision today, the US Supreme Court came solidly down on the side of freedom and individual rights.

The case was Brendlin v. California, and the crux of it is that a passenger in a car that is stopped by the cops without probable cause can't be detained on evidence that results from that stop.

It's been a long-standing precedent that the driver of the car has had that protection. But the passengers have been in a kind of legal limbo until now.

So it's hats off to the five neofascist members of the court, who were, I was sure, going to vote the other way.

Maybe there's some hope after all.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1110 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown, Argentina and god-knows-where-else to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerre de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and Prince Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519

Total coalition forces dead: 277
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2104
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1606
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1506
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 435
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 330.

It is still 606 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Oh, the Irony! Getting Borked

Jeez, I swear you can't make this shit up. Former US Solicitor-General, Supreme Court nominee, Nixon triggerman and all-around rightwing asshole Robert Bork, a longtime champion of so-called "tort reform" has sued the Yale Club for inujuries he alleged suffered while climbing a set of steps to a dais where he was scheduled to speak.

Yep, the same Robert Bork who has campaigned so loudly for reform of our litigious society, who has called for an end to punitive damages, is suing for ... wait for it ... punitive damages.

Check out the analysis over at Tort Deform. Those guys have done a great job of putting Bork's lawsuit into perspective:

A 79 year old man tripped while trying to step onto a foot-high platform. He fell and hit his head and leg, but was able to give a speech and leave on his own. He has minor surgery and some physical therapy. A year after his injury, he sues the restaurant where he fell for over $1 million dollars plus punitive damages.

What reaction do you think most "reformers" would have to such a case? There's no need to speculate. Instead, let's look at the fact pattern from another famous case:

A 79 year old woman spilled hot coffee on herself while trying to put cream in it. She suffered third degree burns and needed surgery and months of physical therapy. Over a year after her injury, she sued the restaurant who served her the coffee and asks for punitive damages.
And thus did poor Mrs. Stella Liebeck and her now-infamous McDonald's Hot Coffee case become the unwilling poster child for tort reform.

So, bottom line, I guess it all depends on who's doin' the suin'...

Like I say, you can't make this shit up.

More on the True Cost of War

Veterans for America estimates that over 10,000 veterans of the current misadventure in Iraq are living on the streets. Halfway houses, drug rehab centers and homeless shelters are bursting at the seams, and the top officials at the VA are whistling their way past the graveyard.

Over 175,000 recent veterans have applied for disability compensation from the VA. The VA backlog is such that some of these veterans will die before their claims are approved (and yeah, I read the claims by the VA that they schedule upwards of 95% of veterans appointments within 30 days but the truth is something different).

There's a harrowing story out of LA "Surviving War, Slowly Dying at Home" about the plight of several of those vets.

This is unconscionable in a country such as ours, but it is happening right in front of our eyes, and it can be deposited directly on the doorstep of the Baby Doc Maladministration. And what still galls me is that many of my fellow veterans still continue to support this sick excuse for national leadership, to the detriment of their own self interests.

Supreme Court to Home Health Workers: Fuck You

In one of several business-friendly decisions handed down today, The Supremes (by a shocking 9-0 vote) ruled that home health care workers are NOT entitled to minimum wage or overtime protections.

The court held that current law doesn't provide for it. The US Fair Labor Standards Act is the controlling law here, and I guess that the Supremes are right, since techincally "domestic service workers" are not covered (remember, the Act was passed in 1938, back in the day when most of the upper crust had servants and didn't want them getting uppity).

BUT...it's just a law. It's not part of the Constitution, and therefore it is easily amended.

The next step is for the Dems to bring it up in Congress. It's something that needs to be done. The companies that hire these people for home health care charge the recipients of the care $20 an hour or more, and they pay their workers shit.

Since many of the home health care workers are women and minorities, it's also an equity issue. Let's bring them up to the same minimum wage and hour standards that we provide for nearly everyone else in this country.

And special kudos to the Service Employees Internation Union, who had the balls to bring this suit in the beginning.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Bomb-bomb-bomb, Bomb-bomb Iran

Jeez, what is it with ex-Democrat Joe Lie-berman? Now he's calling for tactical bombing of sites inside Iran.

So far he's the first mainstream politician to rattle that saber publicly, but he won't be the last.

"If Iran won't play by the rules(!)", he says, "we've got to use our force...including taking military action to stop them from what they are doing."

So let me get this straight. We've had such a GREAT time with our military misadventure in Iraq that Old Joe wants to expand that to yet another country that did not attack us.

We've spiraled so far out of control that now we have to bomb Iran to show the "terrorists" that we aren't afraid...of ... of what I don't know, and I don't know what rational end could come of bombing targets inside Iran.

What, we will make them love us only if we pulverize them? Have we turned into that big of a block bully for the whole world?

It's sad and scary to see someone who by rights was Number Two in this nation turn to these kinds of threats. Now you know why the Rethugs poured so many millions into his campaign funds last election, so he could run as an "independent" and fuck his lifelong Dem pals.

According the Joe "The Liar" Lieberman, Iran has trained and equipped Iraqi fighters who have, in turn, killed over 200 Americans in Iraq.

Okay, I'll admit my knowledge of the facts is a little hazy, but even I know that the vast majority of the problems we're facing in Iraq come from the Sunnis. The Iranians are Shi'a. The two groups HATE each other, so why would Iranian Shi'ites help their arch-enemies, the Sunnis?

And even if it were true, that figure, as doubtful as it is, represents only about 8% of the Americans killed in the BFEE illegal occupation. So we're going to widen the war, bomb yet another Muslim nation, drag them into the war, for a paltry 8% of the casualties?

It makes no sense.

We'll Always Have Paris

Jesus, it's a sad day when even I am held in thrall by the wacky shenanigans of America's favorite love-her-hate-her celebutante. I blame Keith Olbermann and his "Keeping Tabs" segment where even the ironic tone of Olbermann's tongue-in-cheek commentary doesn't remove the stain of having to cover Paris Hilton's latest antics.

There was a lot of confusion and uproar last week over her premature release to house-arrest by the LA County Sheriff, one Lee Baca, and the question on most lips was Why?

Ask and ye shall receive, my friends.

Money talks and Paris walks.

It turns out that Paris's billionaire grandfather, hotel king William Barron Hilton, had donated a substantial amount of campaign cash to Baca's election. Could this be payback?

And one final question: Why did I have to learn this from the foreign press? I had to go all the way to Australia to find the story?

BTW, word on the street has it that Paris is getting dehydrated because she won't eat or drink anything. Because she doesn't want to use the jail toilet. And not for the usual reasons (if you've been in jail, you'll know what I mean: Multiply the absolute worst facility you've ever seen by a factor of ten and then take away the toilet seat...).

It's because she doesn't want some county-jailer-slash-aspiring-paparazzi to snap a cell-phone-camera shot of her on the pot and put it on the Internets.

Got that? This from someone whose major claim to sexual fame was that notorious green-light blow job video from a few years back, which is still available all over the place.

Jesus, after that, what's a couple of candid shots of her squeezing one off on a jailhouse toilet?

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1103 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown, Argentina and god-knows-where-else to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerre de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and Prince Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504

Total coalition forces dead: 277
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2097
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1599
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1499
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 428
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 323.

It is still 613 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Julie Amero Update

You might remember the case of Julie Amero, the middle school teacher in Connecticut who was convicted on a "morals" charge for "allowing" her students to view pornographic images on a school computer.

This became a pet project of mine when I first heard about it, and now I am pleased to report that a judge has set aside Julie's conviction.

While the ruling means, under the strict interpretation of the law, that Julie is entitled to a new trial, my best guess is that the prosecutor will drop it faster than a flaming blunt.

Way to go, Julie. I knew that you would prevail.

But...just in case, I'm going to keep my eye on this. If that asshole prosecutor refuses to face reality, he might just refile the charges, and in that case, Julie will need more money in her defense fund.

And once again I'll be glad to donate as much as I can.

"Curing" Homosexuality

It's amusing -- and scary -- to watch the "last throes" of the Baby Doc Maladministration. Der Monkey Fuehrer's nominee to be the new Surgeon General of the US, James Holsinger of Kentucky, is a doctor who helped to found a Methodist congregation that believes that the "gay lifestyle" is a matter of choice and can be cured and who helped strip a Lesbian minister of her minsterial credentials.

"He has a pretty clear bias against gays and lesbians," according to Christina Gilgor, director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay rights group. "This ideology flies in the face of current scientific medical studies. That makes me uneasy that he rejects science and promotes ideology."

It just goes to show you how deeply the Religious Right has inserted itself into our government.

Give me a fucking break already. As if anyone would "choose" a lifestyle that would subject them to constant discrimination, abuse, harassment and threats of death (anyone besides me remember Matthew Shephard?).

I think the old Biblical phrase "physician heal thyself" is appropriate here.

BTW, Holsinger, in addition to being a doctor, is a graduate of something called the Asbury Theological Seminary, an innocuous-sounding institution that is dedicated to "send forth a well-trained, sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world".

More of that good ole faith-based medicine, I guess. If you weren't evil, god wouldn't punish you with sickness. Repent and pray, sinners, and god will heal you. That way you won't need to clog up the health-care system with the fruits of your sinful lifestyle.

A Pardon for Libby? The Rethug Big Guns Say So

Jeez, our boy Scooter has yet to spend one hour in jail and already they are calling for a presidential pardon. Even presidential hopeful and former high-power K-Street lobbyist Fred Thompson is on the bandwagon, saying he would "absolutely" pardon Libby to correct a "gross injustice".

Big shot Rethugs are right there as well: Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Billy Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Gen. Peter Pace -- the list goes on.

What is wrong with these people? They were the same ones who were calling for a public pillory of Bill Clinton when he committed perjury (for those who are still confused, "perjury" is a legal term for lying under oath, and it carries serious punishments with it for those who commit it), and yet here they are, weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth over the "gross injustice" that will be done to little Scooter if he has to go to prison.

At the bottom, this case is a simple one. Lie under oath and you will be punished. Obstruct justice and you will be punished. It doesn't matter one fucking iota that the real perpetrators of the crime (Karl Rove, Richard Armitage) of outing Valerie Plame will go unpunished. That's not the point.

Libby lied. If Bush pardons him, that will put the final nail in the indictment that history will hand down about the evil and corrupt Baby Doc Maladministration.

But I guess that really doesn't matter to these fuckers. In the words of Fearless Leader: "History? Who cares? We'll all be dead."

So I guess that little Scooter will not spend a day in the slammer. Watch for his lawyers (funded by Halliburton and the Carlyle Group) to stretch out the appeals until after next year's election, and Baby Doc will pardon him on the traditional last day in office, when he's beyond the reach of any who would want to retaliate.

But remember the outrage at some of Clinton's pardons? Remember how they were made an issue for Al Gore four years later? Maybe Baby Doc ought to pardon Scooter. It could spell the end of the Republican party...

A Pardon for Libby? James Carville Says So, Too.

In the cascade of letters written by the big names on the Right (Donnie Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, et al), the best one came from Mary Matalin, who pleaded that we "think of the children". Not just the Libby children, but alse her children and everyone else's children.

Think of the children? What the fuck is up with that? Yeah, I believe we ought to think of the children, and let this be an object lesson to them: If you lie under oath, you will be punished.

And sadly, James Carville(!) also signed Mad Mary's letter. Now that's just fucked. What happened to our favorite Ragin' Cajun? Does Mary have him whipped to the point where he'll do anything she says? Did she threaten to cut him off?

That relationship has always bothered me (I can't imagine sitting down across the breakfast table with someone who disagrees with me on each and every belief that I have -- let alone someone who is a willing mouthpiece for Darth Cheney) and maybe now we're seeing reality.

Maybe James Carville was never a progressive -- just an opportunistic hack who played one on tv.

Think about it.

A Pardon for Libby? James Carville Says So, Too.

In the cascade of letters written by the big names on the Right (Donnie Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, et al), the best one came from Mary Matalin, who pleaded that we "think of the children". Not just the Libby children, but alse her children and everyone else's children.

Think of the children? What the fuck is up with that? Yeah, I believe we ought to think of the children, and let this be an object lesson to them: If you lie under oath, you will be punished.

And sadly, James Carville(!) also signed Mad Mary's letter. Now that's just fucked. What happened to our favorite Ragin' Cajun? Does Mary have him whipped to the point where he'll do anything she says? Did she threaten to cut him off?

That relationship has always bothered me (I can't imagine sitting down across the breakfast table with someone who disagrees with me on each and every belief that I have -- let alone someone who is a willing mouthpiece for Darth Cheney) and maybe now we're seeing reality.

Maybe James Carville was never a progressive -- just an opportunistic hack who played one on tv.

Think about it.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Shit!

There, I feel better. And now I can say it on TV, just as long as I do not mean the actual act of sexual intercourse or that stinky cornlog floater in my toilet bowl.

In a stunning upset to the Bushevik FCC, a federal appeals court has ruled that broadcasters are not liable for the occasional and "fleeting" expletive uttered on television.

So Cher can relax after saying about her critics, "fuck 'em", and Nicole Richie can unwind after complaining about how fucking hard it is to get cow shit off of a Prado bag.

And the delicious irony is that the three-judge panel based its decision on (1) the widely available off-the-cuff remark by one Baby Doc Bush himself, who said through a mouthful of bread to Tony "The Poodle" Blair that Hezbollah needs to "stop doin' that shit" and get their act together, and (2) VP Crashcart telling Senator Patrick Leahy to go fuck himself on the floor of congress.

Yeah, you remember those two: They're at the very top rung of the party that promised to bring "decency" back to the White House.

In the Reserves and Opposed to the Iraq War? Shut the Fuck Up.

In one of the most bizarre stories floating around this week, the USMC is instituting a "general" discharge against a 25-year-old reservist corporal who had the Al-Qaeda-emboldening balls to actually show up at a peace demonstration and voice his concern about the war.

Corporal Adam Kokesh showed up at the demonstration wearing his Marine combat uniform, but he had taken the precaution of stripping all of the insignia off of it so there would be no question that he was there on his own, and not representing the military.

Not good enough for the ass-hats at the Pentagon, who seem to feel that those good ole American values of free speech and petitioning the government for redress are, like the Geneva Convention, "quaint".

As a punishment for the nervy corporal, they are going to give him a "general" discharge -- which is below an "honorable" discharge -- and that means that he will lose a substantial portion of the veterans benefits that he deserves.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Kokesh already did a tour in Iraq, that he was released from active duty but assigned to the "ready reserve", and as such is, for most intents and purposes, a civilian.

When I got out of the service, I kept much of my uniform, including a perfectly good field jacket that I wore for a number of years, and a set of jungle fatigues and a boonie hat (which I still have and which I still wear occasionally to anti-war demonstrations). I suppose I'd better start looking over my shoulder whenever I show up at a peace rally.

But I actually received an honorable discharge, and I've long since used up all of my GI Bill benefits, so they really don't have any kind of grip on me. I can't say the same for Kokesh, but it is gratifying to learn that the VFW is actually supporting him in his free speech battle with the Corps.

Wow. I wonder what the American Legion thinks about the whole thing? Not a word from them in the media.

Yeah, there's a surprise.

Oh, You Wild and Crazy Guys at Faux News

Jeez, you'd think that it would be impossible in this day and age, but when William Jefferson was indicted for bribery (BTW, the only guy who managed to get scam money OUT of Nigeria), Faux News ran the story with typical Democrat-baiting breathlessness.

The only small problem with their coverage was that they ran a picture of ... John Conyers.

Yeah, okay, Conyers is also a black congressman. Close enough: They all look alike, right?

If you had any doubts about the racist-fascist Rethugs over at the "unfair and imbalanced" network, that ought to set them to rest.

I'm Back

Okay, it's been a week and I've had a chance to recharge the old batteries. The rain has returned to the Wet Corner now that the top is off the Jeep (naturally), and I'm ready to go.

It's been an interesting week off, but that's another story. Suffice it to say that there have been highs (I'm retiring in 51 days!) and lows (two funerals in two days), but I'm still here and still kicking.

A hearty thank-you to all of my regular readers, and especially thanks for your continuing support. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for you.