Jack Dalton: The Bendermans Need Our Help

Like me, some of you may know Jack Dalton. He is a disabled Vietnam vet and peace activist who lives in Portland, OR. He has his own tales of horror and despair about his own dealings with the VA and the military establishment, but today he is issuing a call to all of us that Kevin and Monica Benderman need our help.

Here's the full story on Jack's blog, complete with Monica Benderman's mailing address.

The Bendermans would not ask for help for themselves, so it's up to people like Jack to do the asking for them. Anything we can do to help out will be greatly appreciated.

"I have learned from first hand experience that war is the destroyer of everything that is good in the world, it turns our young into soulless killers and we tell them that they are heroes when they master the 'art' of killing."

-- Sgt Kevin Benderman, Conscientious Objector

Let's all show some holiday spirit and generosity and help out the Bendermans.

Thank you.

Propaganda Run Amok

It's not enough that our government paid so-called journalists in this country to play nice with them (Maggie Gallagher, Armstrong Williams), but we're also doing it in Iraq.

Not that a little good news coming out of Iraq is a bad thing. It's just that it should be news, and not some planted story put there by the Ministry of Truth to make the average Iraqi in the Baghdad street think that we're the fucking liberators or whatever.

Truth be told, I don't think we're fooling the average Iraqi in the streets of Baghdad. Would you be fooled if you read in the paper that the strangers kicking in your door and setting off willy-peter rockets up your ass was actually your friend, come to liberate you from the evil dictator?

Yeah, me neither.

Execution Milestone Postponed

What was scheduled to be the United States' 1000th execution since the reinstatement of the death penalty and the Utah firing squad execution of Gary Gilmore in 1977 will not occur as planned today.

Instead, Virginia governor Mark Warner -- said to have presidential ambitions -- yesterday commuted the sentence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison without parole.

Leave it to the wingnuts to jump all over soft-on-crime Warner for this act of compassion. That's what they do best. They're the "pro-life" people you know. They're the ones who believe in promoting the "culture of life". I actually heard that fucking smarmy crypto-fascist wacko-waco-cultist Orrin Hatch (R-Polygamist) say one time that "the death penalty is how we demonstrate our respect for life". Jesus, talk about some Orwellian bullshit there!

But the big milestone is only postponed, not avoided. And postponed most like only a couple of days -- two more victims of this state-sponsored terrorism are scheduled to walk the green mile on Friday, one each in the two Carolinas.

BTW, Texas leads the pack in total numbers of executions at 355. That's 261 more than its nearest competitor, Virginia, and 276 more than number three, Oklahoma.

Jesus Christ, people. Simple math ought to tell you that the death penalty isn't a deterrent in Texas. And if it isn't a deterrent in Texas, then it sure as hell isn't a deterrent anywhere else.

Isn't it about time we ended this barbarous practice and got out of the business of killing people?

Oh, wait. I forgot where I am. This is the good ole USA, and that's what we do best.

We kill people.

One Veteran's Voice: A Must Read

For an excellent brief analysis of the Mess-o-potamia and the actions of one George W. Bush, see One Veteran's Voice As goes Israel. He actually holds out some hope, something I haven't seen for a while.

His blog is a must-read -- I have it on my "daily list" set of tabs (Firefox) and never miss it. It's a welcome new voice here in Left Blogistan, bringing the unique perspective of the recently returned Iraqi War veteran to the blogosphere.

Here is an excerpt that sounds like the thoughts of just about every Vietnam veteran that I know:

I simply cannot stand by idly as more people die. It stains my conscience. I can accept that the cause I fought for was true and just, but ultimately foolhardy. Truth is--when I was fighting I was more concerned with my the immediate survival of myself and my comrades than any political goals. Democracy was the furthest thing from my mind when I was blasting people with a 7.62mm machine gun.

Check out his blog over at One Veteran's Voice. You'll be glad you did.

One Down, Several Hundred to Go

It's the arrogance, really, more than anything else, that bothers me so fucking much about the Repugnican thugs that have swaggered in and taken over my country.

So it was with great, brimming, undisguised pleasure that I absorbed the news today about one of my favorite guys-you-love-to-hate, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to various charges of bribery and corruption.

Like my good friend RJB over at Words Have Power has been saying for a long time, it was time for Duke to go.

But Duke, before you go, I gotta say, $2 million???!!! Don't you think that was just a little excessive?

Like I say, it's the arrogance. I almost feel sorry (not really) for the fucker, a guy just a little older than me, looking at a stiff prison term, resigning in disgrace from the US House, dragged into a courtroom in front of an "activist" judge... Well, you know the whole story by now.

See ya, Randy. And oh, by the way, if somebody asks you in the shower if that's your soap on the floor, deny it.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 557 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

One of the more memorable cadence chants at the September protest in DC went like this: "Not our sons, not our fathers. If you want war, send your daughters."

Be sure to sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for any of the children of the Bush Dynasty to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Note: I got some Monkey Mail about this issue on a previous post -- check it out and see what fish people are saying about it. Among other things, that we have a "voluntary military" -- yeah, that's the fucking point.

Today's Quiz

It's time for another episode of Who Said It and When. Put on your thinking caps and see if you can identify the big-time Repugnican thug who said the following:

1. "So many minority youths had volunteered that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself." -- Explaining at the 1988 GOP convention why he and vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle did not fight in the Vietnam War.


2. "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" -- To three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 9, 2005.


3. "I AM the federal government." -- To the owner of Ruth's Chris Steak House, after being told to put out his cigar because of federal government regulations banning smoking in the building, May 14, 2003.


4. "I am not a federal employee. I am a constitutional officer. My job is the Constitution of the United States, I am not a government employee. I am in the Constitution." -- CNN interview, Dec. 19, 1995.


5. "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes." -- March 12, 2003.

You probably already guessed it: It was the Bugman himself, our old buddy Tom Delay, soon to be appearing in prison blues.

What an asshole. And god damn those minorities for preventing him and Danny Quayle from doing their patriotic duty and fighting in Vietnam.

Motherfucker.

Winter Soldier

Last night I had the opportunity to see Winter Soldier, the documentary about the three-day Winter Soldier Investigation held in Detroit in late January and early February 1971. The film, long unavailable for public viewing, is currently making the rounds of art houses and film societies throughout the country.

Filmed in stark black and white, the film contains snippets of the testimony given by some of the more than 100 participants and parts of interviews given by those men and others who talked of atrocities and war crimes they participated in or witnessed while they were in Vietnam.

Controversial since day one, both the Winter Soldier Investigation and the film made during it have come under fire over the years, most recently during the last presidential election when the rightwing attempted to use it as ammunition against John Kerry.

Occasional inserts of color photos taken of the participants while they were in country were added to the film later and serve to blunt some of the over-the-top criticism by many on the right that none of the participants were actually veterans who had served in Vietnam.

From my own time in Vietnam (1968-69), I can tell you that while I personally saw no atrocities of the kind described in the WSI testimony, it was "in the air" that they were taking place, and taking place on a regular basis.

One of the criticisms of the film (and the testimony itself) has been, basically, "yeah, so what -- shit happens in war". Well, yes it does. But does that make it right? If every invading army since the beginning of time has done these things, does that make them any the less war crimes?

Wikipedia (of course) has an excellent overview article on WSI, and be sure to read the companion talk section to get a feel for some of the flavor and the heat of the controversy surrounding the WSI.

The Sixties Project has the complete testimony of the participants -- read their statements for yourself and see if you think it's all lies.

In the meantime, if you get the chance to see this powerful film, be sure to take it. A Google search for "winter soldier film schedule" turns up over 14,000 hits. You ought to be able to find a showing near you.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Fun Never Stops

As if the fucking bitch Jean Schmidt wasn't already in enough hot water, now it comes out that the poor state representative who she blamed for calling Murtha a coward never even said it.

From the Cincinatti Enquirer story:

Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt, and he would never call a fellow Marine a coward.

How about now, Cincinatti? Any regrets on sending that fucking bitch to Congress? You could have had Paul Hackett, but no-o-o-oooo, not you. Instead you sent the lying fuckweasel bitch of the century, and this is what you get.

It kind of makes you feel sorry for Schmidt, doesn't it? Not!

Beware Buyer

Indiana Rep Stephen Buyer, that is, the Repugnican lapdog chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, a koolaid-drinking party loyalist who took over this critical committee after the overthrow of Chris Smith, who was an activist for veterans in spite of the fact that he was also a Repug.

Buyer earlier this year referred to veterans as "whiny" because we complained about proposed cuts in VA benefits. When someone called him on it, he pulled one of those typically slimy Repug tactics and claimed that he didn't say it, he was just quoting someone else.

This, BTW, is one of those hallmark Repug actions, just like Jean Schmidt did just the other day to John Murtha, calling him a coward.

But I digress. Like most of the rightwing, Buyer hates veterans. He's the last person who ought to be the chairman of this committee, and yet there he is. I hope some bold Democrat in his district -- preferably a returned Iraq War vet -- will have the balls to take him on and rub his smarmy face in the brown Indiana dirt.

See the always-incisive Larry Scott's commentary on Buyer at military.com, and then let's all prepare to kick some bucks loose for Buyer's opponent next year. This asshole has to go.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 549 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

One of the more memorable cadence chants at the September protest in DC went like this: "Not our sons, not our fathers. If you want war, send your daughters."

Be sure to sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for any of the children of the Bush Dynasty to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Hating the Veterans -- Nothing New for Repugnicans

As I've argued before in this forum (here and here, for example), the right wing hates the military and hates veterans.

It's nothing new. At least as far back as 1932 and the infamous "Bonus Army" march on Washington DC it's been that way.

For a good brief summary of the sad chain of events that led up to the killing of two WWI veterans by DC police and the subsequent routing of the veteran encampment by infantry, cavalry and six tanks of the US Army under General Douglas MacArthur (assisted by two other future big names, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton), see The Bonus Army on the Eyewitness to History website.

A Lot of Fucking Nerve

That would be Jean Schmidt (R-Flaming Bitch), getting up on the floor of the People's Chamber of Deputies (aka the House of Representatives) and calling fellow Congesssman, retired Marine Colonel and decorated Vietnam vet John Murtha a coward. Check out the great picture on Think Progesss and watch the video of her imploding.

If you recall, she was the assclown bitch who beat Iraq vet Paul Hackett in that special election for the open seat in Ohio. I wonder if the people in her district have buyer's remorse yet? And for chrissake, check out that fucking outfit she's wearing. And these are the people who want a "flag desecration" amendment? I can see why -- she'd have to stop wearing shit like that. I guess it's one of those cry-for-help things, like "stop me before I kill again"...

As soon as she called Murtha a coward, the House exploded into catcalls and boos, and ultimately she had to back down and issue an apology.

What a fucking bitch -- and I do apologize to all bitches everywhere for this odious comparison.

House Democrat Calls for End to Iraq War

US Rep John Murtha (D-Penn), a retired Marine colonel and someone who is considered a hawk on defense issues, gave a stinging rebuke to the Busheviks yesterday when he called for a swift withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

The coalition forces "have done all they can," Murtha said. "It's time for a change in direction." He also described our Iraq misadventure as a "flawed policy wrapped in an illusion".

Predictably, little Scotty McWeewee called for Murtha's head on a platter, saying it was "surrender" and compared Murtha to Michael Moore. Michael Moore???

And Speaker I'm-a-Fat-Moron Hastert (R-Idiot), not to be outdone, said this about Murtha and Nancy Pelosi: "They would prefer that the United States surrender to the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans."

CNN has the whole story. Can this be finally be the beginning of the end for our Iraq misadventure? Maybe, but so far, only two dozen Democrats and just three Repugs have signed on to measures or other calls for an end to the war.

It's our job to hold our own congressional reps accountable, hold their feet to the fire, and demand that they join the calls for withdrawal. I love a protest march as much as the next guy, and they do have their place in sending a message to the world and the American people, but the real action takes place in Congress.

The only way that the Vietnam War finally ended was that we, the people, demanded from our Congress an end to the war, and finally they voted to end the funding.

That's what we need now, so be sure to contact your own representative and demand that he or she join with John Murtha to end the war.

Now.

Friday Cat Blogging

Who Said It and When?

Today's quiz: Which prominent politician said the following, and when did he say it?

As a matter of general principle, I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government ... too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.

Okay, any guesses? How about Ted Kennedy talking about Bush's failed Iraq war? No. How about William Fulbright talking about Nixon and the Vietnam War? No.

Give up? Well it was Mister Republican himself, Robert Taft, conservative senator from Ohio, and the date was December 19, 1941.

Yes, 1941. Just a little over two weeks after Pearl Harbor.

Now fast forward to 2005 and Baby Doc proclaiming constantly that those who criticize him (and his failed policies) are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Aid and comfort to the enemy. Think about that phrase -- it's the constitutional definition of treason.

So my fellow traitors, someone ought to throw that quote up to Sean Hannity, ask him if he agrees with it, and then ambush him with the source. That's something that he loves to do to nearly every liberal that shows up on his show (and amazingly, seems to catch them more often than not). It's about time we fight fire with fire. Will one of you talking heads from the left ambush the fucker already?

War Crimes. Lying Pentagon. Another Day at the Office

W-P. White phosphorus. It's a chemical weapon.

In Vietnam we called it "willy-peter" and it is nasty stuff. If it gets on your skin, it will eat its way to the bone before it stops. The pain is excruciating, I'm told.

Using it is a war crime. Period.

So after months of denying it, the Bushevik Pentagon, when faced with incontrovertible proof from an Italian television production, finally admitted that we used it in Fallujah. But they still deny that using it constitutes a war crime. A carefully nuanced statement from a Pentagon spokesman, LTC Barry "Flunky" Venable, held in essence that since the US was not a signatory to Protocol III of the Conventional Weapons agreement, our using W-P was not illegal and not a "war crime".

Yeah, big surprise there. Nobody is going to freely admit to committing war crimes. But the fact remains that we did use it, we lied about it to cover it up, and now we've had to admit it, once we got busted.

Jeez, the poor colonel -- he's just like everyone else in the Baby Doc Maladministration, another member of the Gang that Can't Think Straight.

Another nail in the Impeachment Coffin. Time for the whole corrupt lot of them to go.

Finally, Some Good News Coming out of the VA

The VA finally figured out that its plan to subject 100% of the totally-disabled PTSD veterans to a humiliating and potentially financially disastrous review of their claims just wasn't worth it.

Citing "clerical error", the VA cancelled the review.

Clerical error my ass. I'll bet good money that enough of us squawked about it loudly enough so that they could see that it was a no-starter.

Keep the pressure on, guys. The fight has just begun.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 542 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

It has now become The Question: If it is such a noble cause, why aren't the Bush Twins in uniform and in Iraq? We will ask it every chance we get, at every place Bush speaks, to anyone who will listen.

Remember The Question! And be sure to sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for any of the children of the Bush Dynasty to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up #344

Word has it from The Prince of Darkness himself, Bob Novak, that Baby Doc was angry at his staff for the arrangements at the Argentine summit last week.

Seems our petulant Boy-King didn't like staying up past his beddy-bye time to attend a dinner that started at 10 PM. Like any cranky two-year-old, Little Georgie picked at his food and then stomped off to bed, wearing his Doctor Dentons and carrying his molestation-victim teddy bear under his arm.

Jesus Christ, and this is the Leader of the Free World? This is what we get when we allow ourselves to be made fools of by a president who never left the country before he got to doin' that prezdintin' stuff (which, don't forget, is hard work). If he'd managed to take just one trip abroad, he'd discover that in much of the civilized world, meals are eaten much later than they are in the USA.

But I guess that was too much to expect. My only expectation now is that the little fucker won't get us all blown up when he launches one more reckless Rovian misadventure in another country (can you say "Iran"?) to take the focus off his failed administration and the heat that the Dems are going to bring to bear on the BFEE criminal conspiracy after next year's elections.

Operation Truth Responds to Bush Vets Day Tirade

Operation Truth is an organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are opposed to the murderous policies of the Baby Doc Maladminstration.

Here's what their leader, Paul Rieckhoff, had to say in response to yesterday's out-of-control tirade against America's domestic enemies (i.e. liberals & anti-war demonstrators):

“On Veterans’ Day, the President spoke a lot about the reasons for the war in Iraq, but very little about how he plans to take care of the people fighting that war, and what the future holds for them.

“Those of us who fought in Iraq deserve to know why we became Veterans in the first place. On today of all days there should be consensus on the need to rise above partisan bickering over who said what in Washington and begin real investigations into prewar intelligence. It’s unfortunate that the President doesn’t think he owes that to the people who have been unwavering in their bravery while carrying out his plans.”

Veteran Bob Geiger Skewers Bush

I couldn't have said it better myself. Bob Geiger over at the Yellow Dog Blog gives both barrels to Baby Doc on Veterans Day.

Excerpt:

As our nation celebrates the contributions and sacrifices of America's Veterans today, I thought I would take the time to let you know how one Veteran feels about your commitment to our military and your true level of patriotism. After all, the Republican party smears anyone they oppose by questioning their support of the troops and their national loyalty so that's all fair game, right?

You wear the self-provided mantle of a wartime president, love to appear before troops – even if it's a fake piece of theater with pre-screened questions and answers – and use as one of the last available devices in a failed presidency, your zeal for all things military and national security.

But there are many things a Commander-in-Chief must be to truly gain the respect and authority that such a designation merits – and you have shown none of those.

Tired of Losing Elections? Become a Republican

Here's a nifty little animation that says it all. If you're tired of losing elections by a 1% landslide, then follow this handy guide and become a Republican. It's fun and easy.

A Veterans Day Message

Hello to all of my fellow veterans, and thank you for your service and your sacrifice. On a day when we should be honoring veterans, we are instead faced with an all-out assault on veterans and veterans rights by the Bush Maladminstration.

The DAV nails it today in a news release from Arthur Wilson, National Adjutant of the DAV:

On Veterans Day, as our nation remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President and Members of Congress will call on America to support our troops and talk about how much we owe our men and women in uniform. But instead of honoring its commitment to those whose service and sacrifice have kept us free and safe, our government has launched a devastating assault on benefits for America’s veterans.

Federal funding for veterans programs over the years has not even kept pace with inflation, let alone the increased demands on the Department of Veterans Affairs for health care and other earned benefits. The administration claims to have provided record increases for veterans, yet thousands of them have been denied access to VA health care. Because of budget shortfalls, VA facilities in every region of the country have exhausted reserve funds to meet critical needs. Many have stopped hiring doctors and nurses, while still others have cut back or even eliminated medical services. It is a clear indication that the men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country are not a national priority.

Read the full text on the DAV website, and be prepared for a long hard fight. This administration, aided and abetted by its chickenhawk co-conspirators in Congress such as Steve Buyers (R-Asshole), is already on record as intending to dismantle the Veterans Adminstration.

Read the Larry Scott opinion piece on the Military.com website for an eye-opening look at what is being planned.

We have to stick together and fight these bastards. Don't let them do this to us. I am fucking appalled that so many veterans and service members voted for these fascist motherfuckers. WTFU, brothers, and see what they are doing to you.

Dems Set to Cave on Scalito?

I knew it was too good to last. After showing a big pair of brass ones last week, now the Dems are ready to cave in on the Scalito nomination, virtually guaranteeing that there won't be a filibuster.

The Seattle P-I says that liberals are going to fight back in other ways -- and there are plenty of them, from his lying to Congress in 1990 over whether he would disqualify himself from ruling on Vanguard Funds (in which he held about $80,000 worth) and then, just 12 years later, going back on his word, to his questionably vague statements on Roe vs. Wade ("I have respect for the decision", whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean).

Sorry, but those are issues that will go nowhere. The Moron-American voting bloc doesn't own mutual fund shares and can't relate to them, and they are easily convinced that "respect for the decision" means he won't vote to overturn it.

Like I said all along, poor Harriet was just a stalking horse, spread out there by Baby Doc to muddy the waters and confuse the issue, then conveniently swept aside when she was no longer useful, replaced by someone the wingnuts had in mind all along, knowing they would have the willing compliance of a sufficient number of weak-kneed Democrats to ensure that the fascist control of a majority of the court would be complete.

Bush: "We Do Not Torture" -- Have You Checked with the Big Dick?

In an ABC news story a couple of days ago, Baby Doc said, with a straight face, that the US does not torture individuals.

These fuckers can't say anything without lying. And maybe he ought to check first with Unca Dick before he makes these kinds of rash statements, since VP Crashcart is lobbying against the McCain anti-torture amendment so frenetically that he's about to flatline.

How is it that the pResident can say one thing while his VP says exactly the opposite, and not one person in the Repugnican-apologist media-whore SCLM even bothers to try to call them on it?

John O'Neill, Worthless Carpetbagger Gadfly

Now the Swift Boat Liars are out to get Vermont's Bernie Sanders.

Like O'Neill, who is supposedly a Texas lawyer, even has a dog in that fight. Jesus Christ, what is with these people?

A friend of mine said that O'Neill has been bitter all these years because he didn't get a parade when he came back from Vietnam, so let's just give the slimy sleazeball liar his goddamn parade and then maybe he'll settle down.

In the meantime, keep your eyes on the Vermont senate race. Bernie may need an influx of cash to counter the dirty lying motherfuckers, and he deserves it. He was one of the few voices in congress to start pushing the government into acknowledging and treating Gulf War Syndrome, and he has long been a friend to veterans.

If Bernie needs the cash -- and he will -- please consider a generous donation.

Winston Said It -- Baby Doc Ignores It

Even way back in WWII, the Brits were scrupulous about civil liberties. They were proud of the fact that the Nazi infiltrators and their running-dog lackey English traitors who were exposed and arrested were still afforded their full rights under a democracy.

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

--Winston Churchill, November 21, 1943

We have locked away in Gitmo alone hundreds of people, without charge, without arraignment, without proof, without anything approaching a hint of the type of civil liberties that we have up to this point taken for granted.

(Thanks to my good buddy Bartcop for this one.)

Concrete Coat Tails

Democrats have swept to victory in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. Looks like Baby Doc's coat tails are too heavy to do anything but sink, let alone help a couple of hapless Repugs get elected. Virginia especially has been a reliably red state for many years, and this was not supposed to happen. The last gov race was seen as an anomaly. Apparently not.

It's still too early to watch The Gropinator's "special election" ballot measures go down in flames in California, but I am confident that it's going to happen. He's already worn out his welcome with the voters, and his shabby treatment of Warren "Bulworth" Beatty did not help his image.

This election season was seen as a precursor to '06. Let's hope that it is a portent of things to come and we finally take back our country.

How Wrong Can One Man Be?

How wrong and still be in power.

A little trip down memory lane (and into the memory hole?), courtesy of CBS News: Here's a story from 2002 wherein Rummy states, flat-out, that the Iraq war would be short: "Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that," he said.

He even used the "Q" word, rejecting the very concept of a quagmire.

Fast forward to today, and the motherfucker is still there. It's a prime example of how incompetence is rewarded in the upside-down Orwellian world of Baby Doc Bush.

Impeachment. Now.

This is How You Do It

There's no getting around the fact that the Dems are embarrassed by their votes to authorize the Mess-o-potamia^tm. But it's really simple how they can get around it.

Today Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) stated it simply: "I was dead flat wrong."

It really is that simple. He told famous media whore Wolf Blitzer that if he knew then what he knows now, he would not have cast his vote for the potential use of force against Saddam.

Americans love it when people -- even politicians -- come clean, admit their mistakes and vow to move on. The rest of the Dems need to take a lesson from Senator Jay (are you listening, Hilary?) and say they were wrong, too.

How about, guys and gals?

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 535 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

It has now become The Question: If it is such a noble cause, why aren't the Bush Twins in uniform and in Iraq? We will ask it every chance we get, at every place Bush speaks, to anyone who will listen.

Remember The Question! And be sure to sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for any of the children of the Bush Dynasty to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Vietnam War Dogtags -- Do You Know These People?

Kudos to Martha and Verlyn Roskam, who found 37 American dog tags being sold on the streets of Saigon as souvenirs a couple of years back, scooped them up and began the process of returning them to their owners --or to the surivors.

They managed to find some of the people, but they need our help with others. Go to the Matter of Honor website to see the names. Who knows, you might be able to connect the dogtags with their rightful owners after all these years.

[Thanks to Main & Central for the heads-up on this story.]

Impeach the Lying Bastards

A new Zogby poll shows that 53% of Americans say that they want congress to impeach Baby Doc if he lied about the war in Iraq.

The NY Times has the story about a DIA report that shows that the intelligence source that the whole war was based on was "questionable". Okay, if Bush, Cheney and Powell saw this report -- and they did -- then the logical conclusion is that they lied. Bush lied. Cheney lied. Powell lied. And 2046 Americans have died as a result of those lies.

Impeachment is the answer, and a new PAC has been formed to call for that impeachment. Unfortunately, because there's still no free lunch, they need a quick infusion of cash to continue their noble cause. Head on over to ImpeachPAC and see what they're up to. If you agree with me that this is an important cause, how about shaking loose a few bucks.

Let's elect people to congress next year who will press for that impeachment.

One of the best signs from the September protest in DC: Somebody give him a blow job so we can impeach him.

I don't think it has to come to that. He's already committed high crimes and misdemeanors. The deaths of 2046 Americans in Iraq is proof of that. All we need is a congress with some balls to carry it on to its logical conclusion.

Part of the Plan for the Betterment of the Empire

The Washington Post reports that, no big surprise, youths from economically depressed areas are joining the military in much larger numbers than their peers.

It's always been the case, unfortunately. A good friend of mine lived in West Virginia during the Vietnam War; he had a 1-A draft classification, but so many people were enlisting, desperate to escape Appalachian poverty, that the military met its quotas with just enlistments and nobody got drafted.

But it's different now. Back then there were isolated pockets of poverty in an otherwise economically booming economy. Now we've degenerated into the Wal-Mart economy, with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and the middle class evaporating. And that's what the keepers of the Empire are counting on. They need more cannon fodder to fight the continuing wars of the Empire, and without a real draft they are creating an economic draft.

It's a sad but true fact that we are allowing -- encouraging --our young people to sacrifice their lives so we can enrich even more that top 1%, those slimy plutocrats who don't give a shit about the rest of us.

The Big Dick Just Won't Give Up

Vice President Limp Dick Crashcart made a personal plea to Repugnican senators this week in support of torture. This despite the fact that the last senate vote on the anti-torture amendment was 90-9 in favor of abolishing torture as an instrument of interrogation.

Senator John McCain, who knows something about torture, won't back down. He's vowed to add the amendment to every bill that comes before the senate until it gets passed. And that 90-9 margin is veto-proof, so it's going to put Baby Doc on the spot. If he vetoes it, it will be the very first veto that the little moron has tried, and it will be a delicious treat to savor if that veto is overridden.

In the meantime, it would seem to me that Limp Dick ought to have better things on his mind than tilting at windmills in the senate. Like keeping his sorry ass out of impeachment, conviction and prison time.

Gee, Ya Think So, John?

Consortium News has the story that John Kerry, losing presidential aspirant, has told friends that he suspects that the 2004 election might have been stolen.

Jeez, Senator, what was your first clue? You let us all down when you gave up so quickly that fateful morning, after promising that you wouldn't throw in the towel until every vote was counted. You compounded it by refusing to back that resolution challenging the fairness of the Ohio vote.

Now, when it's way too late, we find this out?

It's starting to look more and more like the Dems deliberately threw the 2004 election. I am working on this theory, so look for it in a future post, once I've worked out all of the tin-foil-hat details.

The "Crisis" in Runaway Military Health Care

Good old Stars & Stripes, that familiar rag we all read when we were overseas, has an alarming story about curtailing the so-called runaway costs in military health care.

Some lame-ass, Dr. William Winkenwerder, says that military health costs have doubled in just the last four years to more than $36 billion, "largely because of enhancements in benefits for retirees and their families".

Excuse me, doc, but I think the billions upon billions of dollars pounded into the sand in Iraq, poured into the outstretched trick-or-treat bags of Halliburton, or scattered to the desert winds is a little more important in the overall money crisis.

What you want to do is turn your back on the veterans who supported you, fought for you, lost limbs for you. Military retirees who chose to spend their lives defending you instead of being out in the "real world" with "real jobs" making real money. It is unconscionable now that we turn their service and their sacrifice into little more than a footnote joke. So long, thanks for the service, and maybe you can get a job as a greeter at Wal-Mart to supplement that overly generous military retirement.

Like I've said before, the rightwing hates the military. Every day we see more evidence of it.

Fucked Up Pharmacy

There were a couple of news stories this week that kind of flew under the radar, but which together bothered me in a profound way.

In the first, Target Stores -- a corporation which has been trying to portray itself in those bouncy ads as Wal-Mart with a soul -- has come out and said that their pharmacists do not have to dispense a birth control prescription if they don't feel like it (i.e., if it would offend their religious sensibilities).

In the second, an even more disturbing case, a 20-year-old rape victim called dozens of pharmacies in Tucson, AZ, looking for emergency contraception. When she finally found one, Fry's Pharmacy, the religious nutcase druggist refused to provide it to her on "religious and moral objections".

What the fuck is up with these people? Why in the hell did they go to pharmacy school in the first place? Why does Fry's even stock the fucking drug if they are going to refust to dispense it? Is it just to torture and victimize the raped woman even more? Because Jesus wants her to carry that rapist's child?

I'm sorry, if you can't do your job, then you need to find a new one. If you won't do your job, then your employer needs to fire you. It's that simple.

I will refuse to shop at Target until their policies change. I encourage everyone to do the same, and go to the Target website, click on Contact Us and let them know why you are not shopping there.

Bush Poll Numbers Plummet!

The most recent CBS News Poll has Baby Doc's appproval numbers at just 35%. Think of that -- in the entire US Presidency only Nixon had lower poll numbers. And we all know what happened to him.

A difference this time is that Baby Doc won't be able to reinvent himself and come back as a senior statesman. Not unless you like having your senior statesmen pissing their pants and wearing a drool cup around their necks. I predict a rapid downward spiral after he is forced to resign the presidency -- you can tell by just looking at him that he's already circling the drain.

I've said it before: I think he's hitting the bottle again, gone from being a dry drunk to being a wet one. It's the rational explanation for much of his bizarre behavior. It's the elephant in the living room and most people have chosen to ignore it, the way they ignored the obvious signs of impending Alzheimers in Reagan -- after all, who in their right mind would want to contemplate having the fate of the world in the hands of someone so incompetent that he can't tie his own shoelaces? We're experts at denial, and sadly, that usually spells trouble in the long run.

BTW, the poll also showed that people thought the CIA leak was more important (51%) than a similar poll showed for the whole Lewinsky scandal (41% in a 1998 poll). Thank god that Baby Doc fulfilled his campaign promises to bring "decency" back into the White House. I'm sure we ALL agree that 2035 dead Americans, leaking out their lives onto the blood-soaked sands of Iraq is far better than the knowledge that our president has been getting a couple of sneaky blow jobs in the Oval Office.

We're in Safe Hands -- Not!

Using vocabulary eerily similar to the War on Terra^tm, Baby Doc said that he's asking congress for $7+ billion to combat the coming wave of bird flu, including stockpiling antiviral medicines that don't even exist yet.

If the Bush Maladministration handles this pandemic the way they've clusterfucked everything else that's happened to drift their way, we are, once again, so fucked.

Does it make you feel safer that your health is in the hands of this lame duck moron who says he's relying on science to bail us out. Jeez, that's comforting coming from him -- there's nothing like that old faith-based "science" to ward off the plague. You know, the way it did in Europe in the Middle Ages. All Baby Doc has to do is get his buddies over there on the Religious Right to pray for us all and we'll be just fine...

Oh, wait. I forgot. They won't pray for us. They'll pray for god to smite us mightily, if not with hurricanes then with viruses, to make us pay for our profligate sinning ways.

Shape of Things to Come

In a rare move today, Sen Harry Reid forced the Senate into a closed session because the Repugnican majority had refused to keep a prior committment to investigate the intelligence -- or lack thereof -- leading up to the Iraq War, solely for the purpose of protecting the Bush Adminstration.

In a fit of pique, Senator Billy Frist (R-Catkiller) threw a temper tantrum, saying that the action was a political stunt and personal affront to him. Well, I'll stipulate that here is a guy who knows both his political stunts and his personal affronts, since he seems to be full of so many of both of them.

Today's LA Times has the full story.

It's good to see the Dems grow some balls, at long last. This could be a precursor to a unified action to filibuster Il Duce Alito and scuttle his chances of getting on the Supreme Court to wreak lasting damage to our nation and our democratic freedoms.

All I can say is "Give 'em hell, Harry!"

Scalia Lite?

...or maybe not so lite, since the newest nominee to the Supremes has a record that sounds more like Torquemada than O'Connor, the justice he'll be replacing.

Here's what I think has happened here: The Mayberry Machaivellians orchestrated the whole thing starting a couple of months ago when they saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that somebody in the Baby Doc Maladministration was going down.

So what do they do? They have their Meat Puppet nominate someone so far out of left field as to be in the next county, little Harriet Miers, as a stalking horse until they needed a diversion. As soon as it became fact that indictments were coming -- and soon -- the good soldier Miers graciously stepped aside.

Scooter was indicted Friday. Today Baby Doc nominates neo-fascist Scalia-mini-me Alito to the court and all of a sudden the focus is off the worst political crime since Watergate and on to the court nominee.

Clever, these Repugnican motherfuckers. I'll give 'em that.

And he will probably be confirmed, even if the Dems can manage to dig up enough balls to stage a filibuster -- I just heard on NPR Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Religious Cult) threaten the "nuclear option" if the Dems filibuster.

So, while it might be fun to watch the Senate implode, as seems likely, in the long run it will not be good for the country or for our democracy.

Like I've said before, we're fucked.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 528 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

It has now become The Question: If it is such a noble cause, why aren't the Bush Twins in uniform and in Iraq? We will ask it every chance we get, at every place Bush speaks, to anyone who will listen.

Remember The Question! And be sure to sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for any of the children of the Bush Dynasty to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Brit Hume to Juan Williams: Someone Needs to Hose You Down

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse over at Faux News, Brit Hume, their chief "news" caster, tells Juan Williams, a black man, someone needs to hose you down!

Now I know Brit has to be old enough to remember the civil rights era, when black people were routinely hosed down with fire hoses on the streets of Alabama. It's more than an unfortunate choice of words -- Brit Hume is a racist motherfucker who can't stand the thought of an uppity Negro talking back to him.

Brit Hume can get hosed himself; fuck him and fuck all of Faux News. Every day in every way they continue to show their true colors, and I cannot believe that anyone still watches that pathetic display of newsertainment. And yet they do, even people I know who are otherwise intelligent individuals but who have a giant blind spot when it comes to the unfair and unbalanced drivel that spews out of the slack jaws of those mouthbreathers of the right.

Why I Refuse to Join VSOs -- Reason # 566

Take a look at the Radical Veteran website to see a ludicrous attack on the part of an anonymous VFW post somewhere in the world of wingnuttery.

Gunny Sergeant Guy Johns (USMC-Ret, so he claims) is the author of the nomination for their "idiot of the month" award because of certain unspecified statements on the Radical Veteran website that "embarrass all military veterans".

The award winner will have the prestige of having his/her face printed on a urinal strainer so the inmates of the VFW club, if they can find their way through that alcoholic fog to the bathroom, can demonstrate their contempt for the award recipient.

Previous winners have been Ted Kennedy, James Carville, Susan Estrich, Michael Moore, Jane Fonda and Howard Wolfson, so the award winner will be in good company.

Check it out on the Radical Veteran guestbook page and be prepared to laugh at Gunny Johns' imbecility while you are shaking your head at his arrogance.

It's the Democrats' Fault. Naturally.

That didn't take long. Alreay on Faux News, good old Ben Stein, Repugnican moron, says that the Libby indictment was nothing more than a political vendetta.

Yeah, right. A political vendetta by the Dems, concocted and orchestrated by a Republican, under a Republican administration. Think about that for a while. The Democrats would have to be so fucking uber-Machaivellian that they would outdo the Repugs at the very zenith of their malevolent evil.

Watch for more of this theme on Faux News. Well, not literally, since I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Unless he was a Democrat. But I don't seem to develop any Democrat enemies.

But I digress... Instead of actually watching Faux News, do what I do and check in with News Hounds every day (motto: "We watch Fox News so You Don't Have to").

The Libby Squeeze Play

The Scootster is going down! Obstruction of justice and perjury, just for starters. Those charges carry about a 30-year sentence, I believe.

But to my disappointment, Karl Rove was not on the indictment list. Yet.

Here's the deal: I think Fitzgerald is throwing the max at Libby with the idea of squeezing him to give up Rove. There's no fucking way that Rove wasn't involved in this, and with Libby facing what could prove to be the remainder of his life in the graybar hotel, there's a good chance that he's going to sing like a canary.

And he won't be squealing on just Rove. Watch for Cheney to feel the sting of the lash as well. Any bets on him retiring due to "health reasons" in the next few months?

We all need to stay tuned. This could be more fun than Watergate.

Friday Cat Blogging

Miers Out -- Attila the Hun In?

Harriet Miers has "withdrawn" from consideration of appointment to the Supreme Court. On the advice and consent of the wingnut booboisie, the Hezbollah wing of the Repugnican party, Baby Doc's "best person I could find" nominee for the Supremes is out.

It's a Hobson's choice, actually, since Baby Doc is on notice that he can't fuck with "the base" and ignore the needs and desires of the far right. Watch for his next nominee to be someone to the right of Attila the Hun. Watch for the weak-kneed Dems, so happy that cronyism is out, to welcome in the next justice with open arms and bared necks.

I guess I sound kind of bitter, don't I?

Waiting for the Other Shoe

Jeez, this is worse than waiting for Xmas morning and the Santa gifts. We just know that indictments are coming down and Turdblossom is finally gonna get what's coming to him, but the waiting is just killing me.

I've been distracted all day, continually checking Google News for the announcement (I can't get any other news sources inside the building where I work, not even local radio -- it's a government job, need I say more?) and it just hasn't been forthcoming.

Now I hear that it may not be until Friday. Jesus, I just can't stand it. Rove, Libby and two "players to be named later" is the latest buzz. As pleasing as that will be, it's still going to be ultimately unsatisfying, unless ... the two unnamed indictees turn out to be Baby Doc and VP Crashcart.

Is it too much to hope for? I don't think so.

2000 Dead Americans -- 2000 Too Many

It's official. Today's casualty numbers show that we've hit the 2000 mark for dead Americans in Iraq.

Please take a moment to grieve for the dead and for the families who have lost sons, daughters, mothers and fathers. It was all so unnecessary and so futile and so stupid and so useless.

There will be vigils everywhere in the country this week. Go to the Moveon.org event page and find one near you. If one is not listed near you, please consider starting one in your town.

And take a moment to view the Paul Fusco photo montage of 27 military funerals for our dead soldiers from Iraq. It is one of the most moving pieces of Internet multimedia that I have ever seen.

Two thousand is two thousand too many.

Baby Doc to Wounded Veterans: Suck it Up, Wussies

This one came by while I was recovering, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows about it. Our wounded troops are returning home to the worst conditions for disabled veterans since the Vietnam War. In addition to the appalling state of our underfunded Veterans Hospitals, the severely understaffed Veterans Administration, and the long waiting lists just to get in to see a doctor, our returning veterans are also being dunned for nickle-and-dime pay adjustments that in most cases hover on that fine line between immoral and irrational.

In one documented case, a wounded soldier languished for months in an Army hospital after being airlifted out of Iraq following a bombing, only to be assessed an "overpayment" of $6200 as he was processing out of the service. Among other things, he was expected to pay for the gear he was wearing when he was wounded: his Kevlar helmet, his rucksack -- even his fucking suspenders!

Obviously the bean counters who have come up with this shit have never been in any kind of combat situation. As anyone who has actually been there knows, the very last thing on anyone's mind when you are dealing with a wounded soldier is to keep track of his goddamn equipment. This is so appalling that it would be gallows-humor laughable if it were not such a tragic -- and trenchant -- commentary on our whole Iraq misadventure, the "Mess-o-potamia", as fellow pissed-off veteran Jo Fish calls it.

Don't Think of Canada as an Escape Hatch

It's a time-honored tradition for us in the lower 48 to think of our neighbor to the north as some kind of safe haven for American dissidents. Time was when that was true -- I knew several draft dodging Americans back in the day who skipped out to Canada rather than allow themselves to be inducted into that immoral war in SE Asia -- but that door has been slowly swinging shut.

Case in point, disabled Army veteran Steve Tuck, injured in a parachuting accident, used morphine and other drugs for a number of years in an attempt to kill the constant pain. Unfortunately for him, he also used so-called Medical Marijuana, which seems to be higher on the DEA's list than heroin, crack cocaine or LSD, and that got him into trouble.

Despite the fact that California, where he was living at the time, had its own Medical Marijuana laws on the books, the Repugnican DEA and DOJ decided that state's rights don't really mean state's rights when they state tries to do something that the feds don't like. Steve was forced to flee to Canada in 2001 as a "pot war refugee".

So far so good, until earlier this month when Steve was glommed onto by the Mounties, dragged bodily out of a hospital and hauled to the US border with a urinary catheter still sticking out of his poor bladder. US authorities scraped him up and threw him into jail in Seattle, where he languished without medical care for five days, still attached to the catheter, and without even a medical examination.

What the fuck is up with this? My advice: Stay out of Canada if you are a refugee of any kind. That's also the hard lesson learned by the main character of Dawn Blair's chilling and prophetic and highly recommended America 2014: An Orwellian Tale. Buy it, read it, and prepare yourself for what just may come to pass in the next few years if this haunting dystopian vision turns real.

Oh, and what about Steve? He was finally released from jail last Thursday to seek medical treatment, but he has to go back to Northern California to answer to the drug charges.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

WTFU!

Over at the Progressive Leader blog, there's a call for everyone to adopt a new acronym: WTFU -- Wake the Fuck Up!

"Aintgonnatakeitnomore" (the blogonym of the site's owner) says that it is time for us all to WTFU to what's been going on. He has links to a lengthy analysis by a retired AF colonel concerning the orchestrated panoply of lies coming out of the administration.

For all the mindless masses out there, read what the good Colonel Sam Gardiner (USAF, Ret.) has written, where he has meticulousy identified 50 false news stories created and leaked by a secretive White House propaganda apparatus, also known as WHIG (White House Iraqi Group -- Dick Cheney, Condolezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Lewis Libby, Karl Rove and other playmates).

Now, WTFU and consider the hell we have reaped because of it.

What's a Little Perjury Anyway?

Perjury. Such an ugly term. So negative. Such a part of the liberal "blame game"... Instead let's call it the "criminalization of politics" -- a little lying under oath, well that's really nothing to get worked up about, is it? Not according to Faux News (Motto: We Lie It and You Buy It). Not according to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R - Bitchweasel).

Yep, it's just one of those pesky legal technicalities. Unfortunately, one that is punishable by five years in prison.

Too bad about those legal technicalities. The right wing has been kvetching about them for years, about the so-called "bad guys" getting off because of them. Turns out they work both ways -- those technicalities can actually bite you on the ass, Mister Repugnican Liar.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 521 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for the Bush children to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

I'm Back!

It's been a long haul getting back to a point where I can think clearly again (of course, there are those who say that was a lost cause from the beginning...), but I think I can safely say now, in that enduring Mark Twain phrase, that the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Thanks to all of you who expressed sympathy and other "hang in there" types of comments, both on the blog and by email. I appreciate all of you.

So now it's back to taking on the chickenhawks, the Repugnican hypocrites, the wingnut morons and the bloviating rightwing noise machine. Not to mention starting up again my now-famous Bush Twins in Uniform Watch.

Post Surgery Update

Today marks one week since my surgery, so it's time for another update.

I've been in constant moderate-to-severe pain for one week now, much more than I expected to have. So I asked the doctor about it and he said that I'd had four separate surgical procedures in one session on the table (i.e., straightening a deviated septum, radio-wave shrinkage of nasal turbinates, surgical removal of the uvula and most of the soft palate, and radio-wave shrinkage of excess tissue at the base of my tongue) -- each of those procedures, by itself, causes extreme pain. I got the full meal deal, so it's no fucking wonder I haven't bounced back the way I thought I would.

But today I finally have the nudging thought that I might eventually be able to rejoin the world of the living. I can swallow pills now (no more trying to choke down that nasty awful throat-burning nose-squirting oxy-codone-in-suspension semi-liquid syrup every three hours), and I'm starting to get the beginnings of an appetite back. I've been living -- if you can call it that -- on one piece of milk toast, one Slimfast shake, and two popsicles a day since last Wednesday. And I still can't talk out loud because of the pain. The pills manage to take the worst edges off, but the pain is still there.

On the positive side, I have lost over 10 pounds, but it is not a diet I would recommend.

I'm hoping to be back to my old self by Monday.

Dark Since Wednesday

I had some corrective surgery performed last Wednesday and it's really put me out of it; I expected to bounce back faster than this, but I haven't.

It's true -- you really can't recover as quickly as you used to be able to do when you were in your 20s.

Hope to be back to posting in a few days.

The Crime that Dare not Speak its Name

Impeachment! It wasn't even thinkable a year ago, and yet here is a new poll that says fully 50% of the American people agree that "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."

So we already know that he lied. Can Articles of Impeachment be far away? Elect Democrats next year in sufficient numbers to take back our Congress, and the truth will make us free.

Even the Air Force?

In another not surprising development, the elite, we're-above-all-that-nasty-ground-pounding-stuff, US Air Force is getting pressed into action to do some of the down and dirty work in Iraq.

Since there aren't enough people in the Army to do all the shit work, and nobody is rushing the recruitment offices, Uncle Donny and the Pentagon are getting pretty stretched to find people to do the unpleasant jobs, like guarding jails, protecting convoys, and interrogating prisoners.

So, if you can't recruit 'em off the streets, just cannibalize the other services. Now a bunch of Air Force personnel are in Iraq doing interrogations, guarding prisons and riding along as "shotgun" on supply convoys. A bunch more are in training down at my old stomping grounds in Fort Huachuca, AZ.

So all this shit duty isn't exactly what those effete snobs enlisted for, but they're doing it nevertheless. Even 40 years ago, those of us in the Army resented the Air Force for their airs of superiority, their arrogance -- and also for their goddam comfortable innerspring mattresses. Even back then we considered them elitist snobs, so in many ways it's gratifying to see them actually have to "work for a living".

But on the other hand, why should they have to do this shit? Why should anybody? We shouldn't even fucking be there.

Noble cause, my ass. Why aren't the recruiters knocking on that White House door and signing up those lazy-assed slacker daughters of our Boy-King? If this is such a fucking noble cause, they need to be in uniform.

Subway Terror Alert a Hoax? Say it Ain't So.

In yet another not surprising development, the NYC subway alert turns out to be so not true. In other words, a hoax. A prevarication. A lie.

Remember what I've always said about them instilling, nurturing and keeping a constant state of fear in the populace, to keep us off balance and distract us from their real plans and actions? Here's yet another example of it.

An interesting line from the Hitchhiker's Guide went something like this: The president of the galaxy has no power -- the only reason he exists is to distract our attention away from those who do have the power. Douglas Adams, who died much too soon, had it right on the money all those years ago when he first wrote the book.

They are sure to keep up the fake terror alerts, those cheap magic act diversions, while all the while trying to consolidate their corrupt power. The 2006 elections will tell the tale: If, after everything we do to bring down this corrupt and evil empire, they are still in power in the Congress, it will be time to think about making some "alternative lifestyle" plans.

Like living it somewhere else.

You Just Can't Make This Shit Up

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: Reality trumps fiction. Every time. I'm a novelist, and even I couldn't come up with this kind of crap.

"Pickles" Bush says that the resistance to Harriet Fuck-the-Constitution Miers is due to "sexism"... I kid you not. Here's the link to the Reuters story.

Poor Pickles. Imagine what it must be like to be married to Baby Doc. She deserves all the sympathy...well, that she deserves. Which is none. She must have known what she was getting into, and if the wants to keep on being the Stepford First Lady, far be it from me to call bullshit on it. She is an educated woman, a librarian, for chrissake. Surely she has to know what she's gotten herself into. She's like Kay, the Diane Keaton character in The Godfather, but without her final steely resolve. Come on, Laura, grow a spine. But we know you won't -- you'll just drink the Koolaid with the rest of the members of the BFEE.

In the meantime, we can avoid all those inconvenient and pesteringly dull arguments about Miers' lack of qualifications, her lack of judicial acumen, her lack of personal judgment ("the most brilliant man I've ever met..."), etc. by saying that all of the resistance to her nomination is due to... sexism.

Yeah, that's gonna work. Go with that, Pickles. If I were you, I'd be off working on my "Nuremburg" defense -- you know, where you take the Albert Speer ( the "good Nazi") approach: You were just doing your job and you didn't really know what was going on.

What Happens When Baby Doc Meets a Real Journalist

Remember that famous incident with Carole Coleman, the Irish journalist who had the nerve to ask Baby Doc those unnerving questions that our press corps ought to be asking? The one who actually had the effrontery to do her job? The one who, for her trouble, got a complaint lodged against her with her own embassy?

Yeah, we all remember her with a fond you-go-girlfriend attitude.

She has a book out now about her experiences covering the US for the Irish television network. An excerpt from that book is now available on the Sunday Times-Review (UK) website. Check it out for an excellent perspective on our Boy-Warrior-King that you won't get from the obsequient bootlicking ass-kissing administration lackeys in our own media.

With Friends Like These...

Our old buddy Joementum (aka Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Weasel) recently attended a 50th birthday bash for, of all things, the National Review. And, according to our double-secret super-duper deep-cover source, not only did the turncoat rat-bastard attend, he actually sat at the head table with William F. "Watch My Vocabulary" Buckley and my favorite windbag, Rush "It's Not Illegal When I Do It" Limbaugh.

Before we forget and it becomes ancient history musty with age, recall if you will that Buckley pretty much assured Joementum's election over the liberal (though nominally Republican, certainly more liberal that Lieberman) Lowell Weicker with his own election-year shenanigans.

So Atrios over at Eschaton thought we ought to see a little historical perspective on the National Review and what it stood for just a few short years ago.

Excerpt from a 1957 Nat Rev editorial:

The central question that emerges--and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by meerely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal--is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes--the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced ace. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the median cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists. The question, as far as the White community is concerned, is whether the claims of civilization supersede those of universal suffrage.
...
The great majority of the Negroes of the South who do not vote do not care to vote, and would not know for what to vote if they could.

Joe, you tell on yourself by the company you keep. Why don't you just go ahead and officially join the Repugnican Party. We don't need you hanging around stinking up ours any more.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 507 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for the Bush children to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Civics Lesson

A student in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as part of a class project on the Bill of Rights, created a poster by pinning a picture of Baby Doc to a wall with a thumbtack through his head and then holding the classic "thumbs down" pose with his own hand while he had someone take a picture of the whole thing.

It was supposed to be a poster that illustrated our right to dissent. So far so good, but he made the mistake of taking the film to his local Wal-Mart for developing, where an employee, a good citizen/Gestapo agent working in the photo department, saw the picture and called the local cops, who in turn called in the Secret Service.

Yes, the Secret Service. Who came to the high school where the student is a senior and took the offending poster into custody. Alternet has the complete story.

That kid got a lesson in the Bill of Rights, all right, but it wasn't the one the teacher wanted him to get.

And there's a lesson in it for all of us. I have argued in this space before that we are seeing one "isolated incident" after another of our Constitutional rights being trampled, abrogated, ignored or destroyed, with the sum total effect being one of subtle and not-so-subtle intimidation.

Well fuck 'em. I won't be silenced and I won't shut up on my own. We still have some rights left and I won't give them up without a fight. I advise you to do the same.

And don't shop at Wal-Mart. Like we needed another reason for that.

Strict Constructionist?

Yeah, the rightwing wants judges who are so-called strict constructionists on the court, intent-of-the-founders and all that crap. Unless it suits them to act otherwise.

Case in point: The Wall Street Journal (!) has a story on a little known-incident during the 2000 Presidential Race that sheds some light on Harriet Miers' judicial philosophy.

At the time I wondered how Baby Doc and The Dickster could be on the ticket together because I remembered that there was something in the Constitution that precluded a president and vice-president being from the same state. Turns out it was that pesky 12th Amendment, the one that sets up rules for the Electoral College, that says that the electors can't vote for candidates for these offices who are both from the same state as themselves.

So there was that little problem of Incurious George being the governor, so the argument couldn't be made that he wasn't from Texas, and the inconvenient fact that Dick Cheney was living in Dallas, with a job in Dallas, owning a house in Dallas, being registered to vote in Dallas, having a Texas driver's license which allowed him to drive his cars registered in Texas, and paying taxes in Texas. So the electoral votes from Texas wouldn't -- couldn't -- be counted. That was the basis of an obscure lawsuit, Jones v. Bush, filed by three Texas voters.

What to do? What to do?

Well, enter Harriet Miers, acting as defense attorney, who skillfully dodged all those important Constitutional issues by having Cheney say that he was really a citizen of Wyoming. With the connivance of Republican-appointed judges, the lawsuit was thrown out, both at the state level and on appeal at the Fifth Circuit.

Case closed, and strict constructionist my ass. Like I say, only when it suits them. The arrogance and hypocrisy of the Repugnican party knows no end.

21 Dead Americans in One Week!

In one fucking week we've had 21 dead Americans, but would you know about it from reading the newspapers? Watching the network news? Watching Faux News? No, you would not.

The MSM/SCLM have grown tired of covering the Iraqi War. Nothing new is happening, and the stories coming out of there are now showing all the leaden sameness that spells ratings death for the media outlets. The Iraq War (along with other "boring" news stories) is now relegated to trivia questions on TV quiz shows.

Besides, it's not like the children of anyone important are bleeding and dying over there. Don't look for a lot of media coverage unless, oh, say, the Bush Twins suddenly get patriotic and enlist in the Noble Cause.

Yeah. Uh-uh...

In the meantime, you can see scenes like this only in the Blogosphere:

God Speaks to Baby Doc

You talking to god is a sign of faith. God talking to you is a sign of insanity.

Nevertheless, it appears that god is indeed talking to Baby Doc. It was god who told him to invade Iraq. Reminds me of that old Flip Wilson routine, where he appears in drag as Geraldine, whose signature excuse for everything was "The devil made me do it".

Naturally one of the Palestinian officials to whom he said it claims that he didn't take it literally. Jesus, who in their right mind would take it literally, in what you would think was a normal conversation with the Leader of the Free World?

The White House official spokesliar, Scotty McClelland, of course, says Baby Doc didn't say it. Bullshit. Every time anyone in this administration opens his piehole a stream of lies comes pissing out.

So if god tells Baby Doc to pull the nuclear trigger, will he do it?

Stupid question -- damn straight he will do it. The neocon wingnuts have wanted to bring on Armageddon since at least the Reagan Administration (and probably before -- I seem to recall a National Review slogan from the late 60s that went, in that famously ostentatious William F. Buckley parlance, something like "Don't let THEM immanentize the eschaton").

And this time we don't have Christopher Walken to put a stop to it.

The Fear Factor. Again.

Baby Doc, facing plummeting poll numbers and sniping attacks from all sides for his latest careen into incompetent cronyism, suddenly spouts off that he personally is responsible for thwarting ten Al Queda plots against the forces of truth and justice and the American Way, including three right here in our own country, and disrupting plans in five more cases.

As usual, he is lying. Did I say as usual? I meant as always.

On of these three cases involved Jose Padilla, who is still in custody without having been charged with a crime -- probably because there really isn't a crime that they can charge him with. Even the law enforcement people who were interviewed for an LA Times story on the case say that the " hadn’t found any evidence… that the plot had developed into any kind of operational plan." It's pretty hard to call that a plot thwarted, I think.

Two more of them dealt with 9/11- associated "plots" to use airliners on the West Coast as weapons, but even the Justice Department says they that never got beyond the purely theoretical stages -- hard to even call them plots, I think, plus the plotters abandoned the plans themselves, so how can we call them "thwarted"?

Local cops in California, scene of many of these "crimes" are scratching their collective heads over the details in Bush's speech.

But never mind all that factual stuff. As this maladministration has shown us time and time again, the facts do not matter. All that matters is whipping up the fear in the American people to distract them from the rampant corruption and deliberate crime taking place in the White House.

Friday Cat Blogging

The Senate Grows Some Balls

By a truly lopsided vote of 90-9, the Senate last night voted to add an anti-torture section to a $440 billion military spending bill, despite a White House threat to veto the bill if the language was added.

Veto the bill??? What is up with that?

Senator John McCain, who knows something about torture and its effectiveness, spearheaded the drive to add the language to the bill. It was endorsed by Colin Powell and 28 other retired senior military officers. Senate Majority Leader Bill "Kitty-Kervorkian" Frist, in typical fashion, flip-flopped on it, first leading the opposition and then finally voting for it -- this fucker thinks he can be president?

But I digress -- now we're back to this: Veto the bill???!!!! What the fuck is up with that?

Roberts Shows His Colors. Already.

It didn't take very long for our newest court buddy, Chief Justice Frenchfry Fuck-You-Veterans Roberts, to make his first stand. First case out of the gate and the bug-eyed-boy starts grandstanding.

Not surprisingly his position was not the true conservative position.

The case stems from an Ashcroft Justice Department challenge of Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law. Funny isn't it, how the so-called "conservatives" (who are actually anything but) are such big talkers when it comes to Federalism and States Rights, but when the chips are down and it's time to show your hand, they will consistently take the path of Big Brother and Big Government at the expense of The People.

Roberts turns out to be an enabler for the power-drunk empire-building rights-suppressing prisoner-torturing playground-bully swaggering Baby Doc and his Executive Branch who wouldn't know a truly conservative position if it bit them on the ass.

Yeah, I'm surprised. How about you?

New Mier Revelations

Jeez, I hate to keep harping on the same theme, but the hits just keep on coming. Now we learn that Harriet Miers was present when Baby Doc got his now infamous pre-9/11 briefing about Osama Bin Laden.

She was also on the team that put together the fascist-inspired Patriot Act.

Like the bad old days of Stalin in the former Soviet Union, the chief qualifications for appointive office in the Bush Politburo are unquestioning loyalty and blind obedience. Harriet has both of those in excess ("the most brilliant man I've ever met").

On the Supreme Court, she will be a reliable voice for the further consolidation and expansion of Executive Branch power, at the expense of the other two branches. We do not need this. The Executive Branch is already too powerful -- with the obsequious acquiesence of the Congress -- and only the Court can do anything to reign it in. Not likely with these Bushevik appointments, and the course of empire marches on.

How did we manage to get to this sad point in our history? Like Jack Nicholson said in Easy Rider, "This used to be a great country; what happened?"

Send More Cannon Fodder

Well, here's a suprise. The Army, falling desperately short of its recruiting goals yet again, has decided to lower the bar a little and allow people that it previously turned away the distinct privilege of enlisting.

Jeez, nobody saw this coming? Just watch for that bar to get lower and lower until they are actively recruiting the profoundly retarded and the clinically insane. And when even that doesn't work, they are going to start talking the D-Word again. As in Draft.

Imperialism can go only so far without its legions, and four more wars will take a much larger military force than we have available. The only saving grace is that Baby Doc is now such a fucking lame duck that even Bill Frist is saying, "Hey, I barely know the guy", and having already squandered all of his political capital, he will not be able to continue his reckless expansion of the empire.

Like the Mafia

Remember Tom Hagen, the character played by Robert Duvall in The Godfather? He was the Corleone Family consiglieri, whose job it was to clean up the untidy loose ends left lying around after the family did its business. Remember the horse's head in the bed? That was the work of Tom Hagen.

Fast forward to Texas a few years ago, when Baby Doc was governor and thinking about a run for higher office, and that's exactly the role that Bushevik consiglieri and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers played in the Bush Crime Family.

Turns out, big surprise, that little Harriet was a major player in the coverup engineered by The Family to eliminate those annoying little factoids that could have a negative effect on Baby Doc's Prezdintin' aspirations. Like that small fact that he deserted from his National Guard unit, even after his influential father, Don Georgio, pulled any number of strings to get him into it.

This is historical fact. No reasonable person has been able to refute it, even though there has been upwards of $10,000 reward waiting for a couple of years for anyone who can prove that Baby Doc was in that guard unit when he says he was there.

So Harriet, the dutiful soldier, scrubbed the records, Baby Doc is now Prezdint, and she reaps her reward.

It boggles the mind. And what boggles it more than anything is that they aren't even trying to hide this shit. They don't care.

Next Up for the Supremes

So who the fuck is Harriet Miers and why does she deserve a seat on the Supreme Court? She's Baby Doc's personal attorney, and her next claim to fame was being the titular head of the Texas Lottery Commission. I guess that's experience enough to get a lifetime appointment to the highest court of the land, the court of William O. Douglas, John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Earl Warren.

But this appointment just has to be because she's the next one in line, since Republicans don't believe in Affirmative Action... Do they?

So, putting aside the fact that she doesn't know how to spell her own name and the fact that she's not even a judge, never sat on the bench, never tried a case -- the Bushies are defensively making the weak argument that other Supreme Court judges haven't been on the bench (however, those justices were highly qualified in other fields, something that seems to have escaped Mier) -- etc etc., exactly what is it it that makes her the most eminently qualified jurist available to replace Sandra Day O'Connor?

Beats me, except for this: She is a loyal Bushevik who once called Baby Doc the most brilliant (or smartest or some such nonsense) man she's ever met. And that's the kind of judgment she's going to bring to the Supreme Court???

She's 60 years old and never been married, and I am sure that, since she is part of the rightwing pro-God cultural values crowd, she's also not only never been pregnant, but has never even had sex. And probably not even an orgasm.

There you go, sisters. You're going to have a Supreme Court justice who has never had sex ruling on your reproductive rights. How do you like them apples?

Oh, and there is just one more thing: She will be another reliable vote on the Court to overturn Baby Doc's inevitable conviction on all those pesky criminal conspiracy, corruption, and human rights abuse charges that just won't go away...

Watch for it, and remember that you saw it here first.

Google Captured by the Right Wing?

On today's Google News, the US section had a headline that read "Dems have criminalized politics". A couple of sentences pulled from the lead of the Chicago Sun-Times story give no indication as to who wrote the article. Not until you clicked on the link and got taken to the website would you discover that it's a link to an opinion column, penned in hell with a quill dipped in venom, by the traitorous Prince of Darkness himself, Bob Novak.

And this was the top story in the US section. Sorry, Google, but that's not news. It's slanderous commentary by the most reactionary of wingnut columnists, a man who is guilty of treason.

That particular headline was gone the next time I looked, about an hour later. Maybe somebody called them on it, but this is not the first time that Google has catered to the Bush Maladminstration. For example, just try a Google Image search for "Bush Twins Naked" -- you will get zero hits, even though we all know that there have to be dozens of porn sites with the faces of Jenna and Not-Jenna photoshopped onto other women's bodies.

See also: Google kills ad critical of Bush, lets pro-Bush ads continue running for another take on the right-wing Google.

And no, I don't have an answer. I still prefer Google to search, but now I know that it isn't dishing up the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And I would never consider installing the Google Desktop search, nor would I have my email provided by Google.

Call me paranoid, but I don't trust them.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch -- 500 Days!

It has now been 500 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 to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Sign the Buzzflash petition and demand that the Bush offspring enlist, or else bring the troops home. If it's not a cause noble enough for the Bush children to join, then it's not noble enough for our sons and daughters to die for.

Monumental Arrogance

One of the things that I got a chance to do when I was in DC the weekend before the protest was to take a look at the new monuments that have been erected since my last visit.

The only monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC, that has the name of the sitting president who was in office when the monument was dedicated is the WWII Memorial.

Guess who's name is on it:

The little shit deserted his own National Guard unit, and he has the balls to put his name on a military memorial.

Monumental arrogance indeed.