Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1181 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?

And I see in the news that little Jenna is engaged to a joker named Henry Hager. Wanna bet that he won't be wearing a uniform anytime soon? Like ever? Unlike both husbands of the daughters of Lyndon Johnson, both of whom went into the service and were sent to Vietnam.

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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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 the Ghost of Vietnam

I note with a certain amount of arrogant liberal smugness that now the New York Times, flagship of the SCLM and one of the chief drumbeaters for the lead up to the illegal Iraq occupation, has an editorial that among other things calls Der Monkey Fuehrer's recent references to Vietnam "surreal".

If Mr. Bush, whose decision to inject Vietnam into the debate over Iraq was bizarre, took the time to study the real lessons of Vietnam, he would not be so eager to lead America still deeper into the 21st century quagmire he has created in Iraq. Following his path will not rectify the mistakes of Vietnam, it will simply repeat them.

And Robert Parry over at Consortium News has a long and thoughtul piece about the Iraq-Vietnam connection entitled Bush's Bogus Vietnam History Kills in which he expands many of the arguments I made a couple of days ago about the false lessons to be learned from the historical revisionism of the Vietnam War:

It is often said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But a much worse fate may await countries whose leaders distort and falsify history. Such countries are doomed to experience even bloodier miscalculations.

And finally, it might behoove us to read Max Cleland's 2003 analysis, Mistakes of Vietnam Repeated with Iraq:

Unfortunately, the people who drove the engine to get into the war in Iraq never served in Vietnam. Not the president. Not the vice president. Not the secretary of defense. Not the deputy secretary of defense. Too bad. They could have learned some lessons.

Read the whole thing. Even back in 2003, four years ago (longer than the US took to win WWII), Cleland called it.

If only someone in the BFEE had actually listened to him. Instead their end game seems to be to play out the clock and turn the mess over to the next president so they can blame the Dems for "losing" Iraq.

Typical. But how many more of our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, even our grandparents, are going to have to die so that can happen?

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 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705 3725

Total coalition forces dead: 297
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2167
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1669
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1569
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: 498
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 397.

It is still 514 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Postcards from Idiot America

I missed this when it first came out way back in Nov 2005, but Charles P. Pierce has a story over at Esquire called Greetings from Idiot America. It's worth checking out, just to see how totally fucked-up-nutsy a good portion of this nation really is.

You know, the ones who believe that the creation story in Genesis is historical fact, that there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark, and who flock to something called The Creation Museum in rural Ohio to view a pre-fall Adam who is biblically-correct naked, but seems to be lacking something important -- a penis.

Check it out. It's scary and funny at the same time.

And these people not only walk among us, but they are trying to make our schools teach this shit.

The answer: Get involved with your local school board. Attend their meetings, look at their agendas, and when it comes time to vote for school board candidates, hold their feet to the fire and demand that they not infuse religious dogma into our public school children.

Hell, if that's what it takes, run for the school board yourself. A lot of stellar political careers started at local school board elections. If it weren't for some prominent skeletons in my own closet, I'd have a political career of my own, and running for the school board would be a great place to start.

The Ghost of Vietnam

Der Monkey Fuehrer stated before the full crowd at the annual VFW convention in Kansas City that we should learn the lessons of past conflicts -- including the Vietnam War -- and apply them to the current "War on Terra^tm".

Big talk from someone who just couldn't be bothered by going into the service himself back when he had the chance, and who essentially went AWOL -- no, deserted -- when he did manage to use Poppy's influence to get him into the Texas Air National Guard. How dare he? How fucking dare he?

Yeah, I think we ought to take the real lessons of Vietnam to heart: We got into a war that we had no business being in and we were fighting the wrong enemy at the wrong time in the wrong place.

That's the lesson to be learned from Vietnam. That and the fact that we killed something over two million Vietnamese during our ten-year adventure in their country, and the fact that after we left, the number of Vietnamese killed dropped precipitously. Yes, there were retributions and boat people and "re-education" camps, as happens after the end of most wars, but no one can prove that the Vietnamese people were better off while we were there than they were after we left. And don't forget that the last US ground forces were out of the country a long time before the war ended.

But you still have revisionist historians and war-loving dilettantes claiming that we would have "won" in Vietnam but were stabbed in the back by the media and the college students on the various campuses that were in flames in the US. As I've said before, that's sounds a lot like what went on in Germany in the Weimar Republic after WWI: The Nazis gained their power and influence by convincing the volk that the war was lost by the treacherous Jews and godless Communists back home while the flower of German manhood was laid waste in the trenches of the Western Front.

Jesus, am I the only one who can see these parallels?

And why can't the VFW and the American Legion (next point on the Baby Doc tour) see it themselves? Why are they willing to swallow this shit from a draft-dodging National Guard deserter?

Rove Still Claims Innocence

In a word, bullshit!

No less a personage than former New York Times reporter and current Time Magazine writer Matt Cooper says so.

Not in so many words, of course, but if you read between the lines, that's what he's saying:

Yeah, I, I think he was dissembling, to put it charitably. Look, Karl Rove told me about Valerie Plame's identity on July 11th, 2003. I called him because Ambassador Wilson was in the news that week. I didn't know Ambassador Wilson even had a wife until I talked to Karl Rove and he said that she worked at the agency and she worked on WMD. I mean, to imply that he didn't know about it or that this was all the leak...by someone else, or he heard it as some rumor out in the hallway is, is nonsense.

And there you have it. Rove is a fucking LIAR!!! (Yeah, like that's news...)

But that won't matter in the long run. Or even the short run. Turdblossom is busy writing his own book, which -- watch for it to see if I'm right -- won't be published until days after the 2008 election. In the meantime, instead of "spending more time with my family" he'll be joining one of those high-priced high-octane K Street lobbying outfits. Who has better access to Der Monkey Fuehrer than Turdblossom himself? He ought to be pulling in some big bucks at that.

Assuming that the smiling evil genius isn't already behind bars by then. He still has to answer that subpoena and face the music for contempt of congress.

Let's hope the Dems have the balls to follow through and frog-march the little fucker into jail.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1173 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?

And I see in the news that little Jenna is engaged to a joker named Henry Hager. Wanna bet that he won't be wearing a uniform anytime soon? Like ever? Unlike both husbands of the daughters of Lyndon Johnson, both of whom went into the service and were sent to Vietnam.

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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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 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 3592 3611 3631 3683 3705

Total coalition forces dead: 297
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2160
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1662
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1562
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: 491
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 386.

It is still 521 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Light Load

In case you are wondering about the decrease in posts, we have two grandchildren visiting with us for the next two weeks. They are 14-year-old boys and, needless to say, they are a handful. We will be taking them lots of places and doing lots of things, so I won't be posting as much as I ordinarily would.

I have a lot to say about Rove resigning to "spend more time with my family" -- yeah, that's believable -- but not enough time to say it.

So I'll just leave it by posting the song "Turd Blossom Special" (to the tune of "The Orange Blossom Special"):

Look a yonder comin'
It's a political hack,
Democrats are runnin'
And they are not lookin' back.
It's the Turd Blossom Special,
And he's on the attack.

Outed an undercover agent
Couldn't wait to tell the news,
He gave her up to Novak,
He's got the Valerie blues,
He's the Turd Blossom Special,
Should be quakin' in his shoes.

"Say man, when you gonna get sent to prison?"
"When I'm gonna get sent to prison? Won't go, don't reckon I ever will."
"Ain't you worried about gettin' your Bush man in trouble?"
"He don't care if do-lie-do-lie-do-lie-do-lie."

I think you better listen,
I think that he's run out of hope,
I think he's goin' to prison,
He will not be able to cope,
Poor old Turd Blossom Special,
When he's playing drop the soap.

© 2005 Dennis Mansker

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1166 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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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.

GOP Hypocrisy Number Umpteen Million and Something...

I have to admit, I missed this one. It wasn't until I started perusing back issues of Buzzflash's GOP Hypocrite of the Week series that I saw it.

Remember when the Rethugs went ballistic over the left wing's criticism of the Scooter Libby "pardon"? The first thing they brought up was Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich. Remember that?

I guess they'd forgotten that Poppy Bush (#41) had, as one of his first official acts, pardoned everyone in sight who could have pinned the tail on him as bagman for the Iran-Contra treason.

But wait, that's not the half of it.

It turns out that Mark Rich availed himself of one of the most-connected lobbying firms on K Street to help in his seeking of that pardon. In fact, he got himself one of the most-connected, high-power lobbyist attorneys on K Street in those days.

That attorney's name?

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby!

So how do those rabid Busheviks who were so quick to point the finger of indignation at Mark Rich justify that Scooter, that sterling example of American patriotism and straight-shooting honesty, was instrumental in getting the Rich pardon?

And how do they justify that Rudy "No-Lips" Giuliani (R-Mafia Thug) was the one who sought Rich's conviction, decried his pardon, and NOW says that Scooter should have been pardoned?

Answer: They're the Rethugs. They don't have to justify anything!

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 3592 3611 3631 3683

Total coalition forces dead: 297
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2153
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1655
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1555
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: 484
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 379.

It is still 528 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simple suckles kids through?"

Feb 16, 2000, on the need for educational "accountability".

Hmmm. Maybe that explains why blow jobs aren't considered "sexual relations" by the younger generation (and some of the ...ahem..."older generation"; see Clinton, Bill, x-ref Lewinsky, Monica).

They got suckled without measure, all the way through school...

Who Was Lavena Lynn Johnson and Why Should You Care?

While Pat Tillman's obvious murder and its subsequent coverup has been all over the news -- after all, he was a celebrity before he joined the Army -- many other crimes against service members have been more or less ignored by the media. Crimes such as the rape of female soldiers in Iraq, which became so commonplace that many women refused to use the latrine after dark, and consequently came home with bladder and kidney disorders, some of them severe.

But it's not just rape. It's also murder, and one horrendous example has come to my attention recently.

PFC Lavena Lynn Johnson was murdered in Iraq over two years ago, and the coverup has beenboth more brazen and far worse than the Tillman coverup. For example, the allegedly right-handed Johnson managed to shoot herself in the left side of her head, a straight-on head wound, using her left hand both to balance her M16 and pull the trigger.

Hmmm, nothing more to see here; move along...

Over at Mirror on America, the Angry Independent has a series of posts on the incident and the coverup.

BTW, don't bother searching the MSM for this story. You won't find it.

But there's also a Lavena Johnson Blog where you can sign a petition to the congressional Armed Services Committees demanding that they investigate the death of PFC Johnson.

Oh, and did I mention that Lavena Johnson was black? Making more sense now why the MSM/SCLM isn't covering it?

Style Over Substance

Here's an interesting survey result. Some 67,000 individuals were asked their opinions on a variety of topics, including the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, the Patriot Act, etc. They were not asked about potential candidates for the presidency.

Then those opinions were compared to the stated positions on these issues taken by the Democratic candidates.

Guess who came in first. By a wide margin.

Dennis Kucinich! By a HUGE margin, 53% of all respondents had opinions on the issues that were the closest to those of Kucinich.

In contrast, "front runners" Clinton, Obama and Edwards came in with dismal percentages, all of them below 4%.

But the conventional wisdom is that he is a "marginal" candidate who can't win the Big Kahuna. And sadly, in our media age where the depth of Clinton's cleavage and the cost of Edwards' haircuts are more newsworthy than the Iraq death toll, the CW is probably right.

It's been said that if Abraham Lincoln had to run today, he would be unelectable -- not telegenic enough for today's voter-audience. And sad to say, that is correct.

See the whole story, complete with links to the survey results.

...and Speaking of Big Brother

The new FISA Absolute Power Act passed with the votes of 41 whipped-dog House Democrats. And did you know that now Alberto "Torquemada" Gonzales, of all people, can legally eavesdrop on any telephone conversations made by Americans to any foreign country?

That includes Canada and Mexico. And, since the long-distance rates to those countries are way lower than calls to Europe or Asia, it might be a fun investment of time and a few coins to dial numbers at random and say something cryptic and mysterious, like "the dog is on the cake" or "the mule has left the kitchen" before hanging up.

But if you have some extra cash, calls to pretty much any Middle Eastern country would be even better.

But I'd advise doing it from a pay phone. Do it from your home phone and you'll be off for a nice one-way all-expenses-paid orange-jump-suit-provided tropical vacation.

And Speaking of Democrats

At the moment I'm more than a little pissed at the Democrats in congress for their caviling stomach-crawling egg-sucking-dog attitude towards the Rethugs in the Baby Doc Maladministration when they passed the whole Big Brother we-can-spy-on- Americans-and-there's-nothing-YOU-can-do-about it law on the last night before their "vacation".

And these are the same people that criticized the Iraqi parliament for going on vacation in August! And Tony Snowjob actually defended the whole Iraqi vacation thing by saying it was "too hot" in August in Iraq.

Too hot? Tell that to the troops on the ground. They aren't getting a vacation.

Anyway, back to the Dems. What with their caving in on impeachment, their refusal to defund the war, and now their unbridled support for more Big Brother, I'm thinking that I am on the verge of actually leaving the party.

But what's wrong with that is that there really isn't any other viable party. Maybe if I had another 20-30 years, I could get involved in building a new party, but that's an uphill battle that history shows is nearly impossible to pull off. There hasn't been a viable new party created since the Republican party was born out of the ashes of the Whig party just before the Civil War.

So I guess I'm stuck with the Dems, but the best way to improve things is to work from the inside. As the fundo Xians proved a few years back by inserting their sleeper-cell cadre into the Rethug party at the local level, it works if you have a number of like-minded progressive activists who are willing to take up the fight for the long haul.

And all those Dems who voted along with the Rethugs for the new and improved Big Brother? Well, all the ones in the House are up for reelection next year.

Wanna bet that a lot of them will have challengers in the primary, challengers representing the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?

Questions for the Dems Tonight

Tonight marks the big-audience Soldier Field "debate" amongst the Democratic candidates for the presidency in 2008.

Jeff Cohen over at After Downing Street has a series of very pointed and useful questions that should be asked of each candidate.

Whether they will be asked -- and answered honestly -- is another story.

The "Other" Casualties

They are the ones that don't show up in any official tally of the victims of this stupid war. They are not among the 3679 dead Americans that make up the usual casualty statistics.

But they are victims and casualties nonetheless.

They are the ones who came home suffering from untreated PTSD, to an uncaring government and a VA health care system that is underfunded, understaffed and politicized for the furtherance ot the aims of the Bush Maladministration.

They are the ones who couldn't take it any longer and killed themselves. And, as was true for the Vietnam War, they are dismissed and vilified as being somehow not sane enough(!) in the first place to go to a foreign country and kill people for The Empire without feeling regret.

The warriors are being blamed instead of the system that crushes them in its iron fist.

Amy Goodman has a column on one of these hidden casualties of the War on Terra, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey.

It's worth the read, even if it will simultaneously sadden you and piss you off.

Especially if it will piss you off.

Bring the troops home. Now.

The Faith-Based Pentagon

It's a trend that's been building for a while, what with the fundo-evangelicals at the Air Force Academy and the disgusting antics of General Jerry Boykin, but now a group of general officers is being called to task by the Inspector General for appearing, in uniform and on duty, in a video filmed by something called Christian Embassy (which is affiliated with the notorious fundo organization, Campus Crusade for Christ).

Truthout.org has the whole story, along with a streaming video copy of the actual video. It's appalling to see what I consider to be a clear violation of the separation of church and state, and it's especially disturbing to have it come from the Pentagon.

I guess the next step will be "faith based" combat, where you pray that god will smite your enemies.

It kind of reminds me of a joke from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness: A guy is in the middle of the ocean without a boat, he's treading water, and another guy in a boat comes by and asks him if he needs help. "No, thanks," the water-treader says. "God will save me." A few hours later another boat comes by and the same thing, "god will save me." So finally the guy drowns and when he gets to heaven he askes god why he didn't save him.

The answer: "You freakin' moron, I sent you two boats!"

So I encourage everyone to join with me in supporting Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It's the premiere watchdog group that is instrumental in preventing this nation from becoming a fundo-Xian theocracy under the repressive iron heel of the American Taliban.

An Ignoble Anniversary

Lest we forget, it was six years ago today that Preznit Shrubby received in his grubby little hands a presidential briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack in US".

And what did he do? Nothing.

Just stayed down there on the ole Texas ranch, pullin' up brush and chawin' terbakky, he did.

And now it's been six years and we've lost 3677 American lives, poured into the sand in Iraq where their blood will mix with the oil that Halliburton will pump out and which, eventually, you and I and everyone will burn in our gasoline-powered motorized dinosaurs.

Like I say, an ignoble anniversary.

Bribery for the Soldiers of the Empire

I see that the Army is offering a $20,000 bribe to potential enlistees if they agree to ship out to basic training within 30 days. Now that's a lot of money to its target audience, the poor and unschooled who are working for minimum wage in the WalMart economy. It's a strong persuasion for someone who most likely has never seen that kind of money and who probably thought he or she never would.

And it's a clear indicator that the military is in trouble. Enlistments are down because no one in his or her right mind is going to be willing to be sent to Iraq over and over and over again, just to further the goals of the Evil Empire.

It wasn't enough, apparently, to relax the admission standards so that the borderline retarded and convicted felons could join up. Now they have to sweeten the pot with some cold hard cash.

It reminds me of a poster back in the 60s: What if they gave a war and no one came?

Looks like we're getting pretty close to that now.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1159 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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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.

I'm Back

Okay, it was a little longer than I expected, but after my Friday night retirement party I decided that I would test out the whole retirement concept of Doing Nothing.

Which I did, for nine whole days. I think. Without the stabilizing influence of having to get up and go to work five days a week, I think I lost a day or two in there somewhere.

But now it's Monday and I am secretly -- okay, not so secretly -- smirking at my former fellow employees who had the misfortune of being born too late and having started work too late to join me in retirement.

But there are trade-offs. Instead of dodging the boss at work, I am now dodging She Who Must Be Obeyed, who has the traditional Honey Do list clutched behind her back where she thinks I won't see it.

Going Dark for a While

Now that I am officially a geezer and eligible for Social Security, I'm retiring from work this Friday, and I have some well-earned leisure time coming to me (jeez, that kinda sounds like The Giggling Murder Monkey and his infamous "political capital" comment, doesn't it?).

Plus my retirement party/roast will undoubtedly render me hors de combat for a while anyway.

Check back in a week or so, after I've had a chance to recharge my batteries. (Funny, isn't it, that the older the battery, the less time between charges...)

And after I find a t-shirt that says, instead of Will Work for Food, Will Not Work for Anything.

Catch you later, and thanks for reading!

"Must Watch" Video

This is a short video from You Tube that shows -- in their own words -- the lies of the Baby Doc Maladminstration on the leadup to the Iraq Occupation.

Watch it, and especially look for the quick juxtaposition of Darth Cheney denying he ever said "it was pretty well confirmed" that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and 9-11, followed immediately by a video of him saying, word for word, "it was pretty well confirmed..."

Priceless. And terrifying, that they could spew this many lies, in public, on camera, and fucking get away with it!

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1145 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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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 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 3592 3611 3631

Total coalition forces dead: 291
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2139
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1641
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1541
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: 470
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 365.

It is still 571 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"We've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I've spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the leakers are."

Sept 30, 2003

So you can do what, give them a Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Up-Down Vote? Only When it Comes to Judges

The same senatorial assholes who went ballistic over demanding that Der Monkey Fuehrer's nominees for federal judge posts be given a straight up or down vote are unwilling to extend the same courtesy to our troops.

By a margin of 52-47 the Rethugs maintained their filibuster over the Iraq Timelines Bill. So what does the media do with that?

Right, you guessed it: Blame the Democrats for "failing to get a majority".

That is something you'd expect out of Faux News, but those sanctimonious bastions of the "Liberal Media" like the New York Times and CNN? That's what they led with, too. The Democrats' "failure".

You'd have to be some kind of special wizard with a Harry Potter divining rod to winnow out the truth from their coverage.

The truth is that the Democrats did not "fail" -- they had a majority vote, just not the required 60 votes to stop the Rethug filibuster. But I guess the arcane trappings of the legislative process are just too confusing for the Moron-American voting bloc to grasp.

Now a lot of those Rethug blowhards who were mouthing platitudes about getting out of Iraq are going to be stuck with this vote. When they had the chance to actually do something about their Fearless Leader's fuckup failures, they were hiding under their desks. Or their secretaries' skirts. Or folded up between pages...

More on John Kerry and the Swifties -- the Nightmare that Won't End

Being a student of history, I always watch a summer-replacement series on PBS called The History Detectives.

Last week's show had a segment on two black Civil War veterans being welcomed into the GAR somewhere in New York state, and ended with one of the "detectives", Wes Cowan, commenting on the state of veterans affairs since the Civil War, including the American Legion commander officially endorsing Benito Mussollini at the 1923 convention ("Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States")-- which is not at all surprising for an organization founded to counter "communism" -- and ended up with a commentary on the Swift Boat Liars for Bush smearing John Kerry and probably costing him the election.

Well, that did it. The wingnut wackos came out swinging at the communists at PBS and Cowan's "gratuitous and unwarranted" attack on those paragons of patriotism, the Swifties.

You can read a sample of the vituperative and hate-filled letters on the KCTS television's PBS Ombudsman site, complete with a rebuttal by the producers that puts the whiny-ass complainers in their places.

Once again, the smear campaign of the wingnut noise machine rears its ugly head, and once again facts and logic are employed to put them down.

Alas, to no avail. Those fuckers aren't capable of seeing the truth if it came up and smacked them alongside the head.

I'm ashamed to see that Vietnam veterans could stoop so low as to resort to outright lies about one of our own. It's dismaying, appalling and disgusting. And it just goes to show you that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Let's all keep an eye on that evil bunch of kool-aid-drinking fascists, and call them out every time they open those fat lying yaps of theirs.

Georgia Death Row Inmate Gets Stay of Execution

Troy Davis, a 38-year-old black man, was convicted and sentenced to death in Georgia for the killing of an off-duty policeman way back in 1991.

Davis was convicted based solely on the eyewitness testimony of nine individuals. Now seven of them have recanted their testimony and stated that the police coerced them into identifying Davis as the shooter.

So you'd think that this case would be tailor-made for a US Supreme Court decision remanding it for a new trial, at the very least.

But you would be wrong.

It was the Georgia state parole board that made the decision after the Supreme Court refused to get involved. Made it at the eleventh hour. Davis was already resigned to his fate, only to be jerked back into the land of hope. Jesus, talk about cruel and unusual punishment.

Such notable individuals as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former FBI director William Sessions have spoken out against Davis' execution, and Sessions even went as far as submitting a formal request for clemency.

Meanwhile we have a court ruled by activist judges, led by Antonin Chief-Justice-in-Everything-But-the-Title Scalia crowing that not one single person put to death by the state has later been proven innocent.

While I think that statement is flat wrong, proving it is another thing. I do seem to recall a case out of Texas a few years back where a death row inmate petitioned the court because incontrovertible evidence had come to light that indicated that his brother had committed the crime. But in that case, the court held that innocence or guilt did not enter into it -- only whether he had gotten a "fair trial".

He had, case closed, hello Sparky.

So back to Davis. He's not off the hook yet. All this does is extend his execution date out 90 days, to give parole board members time to examine the new evidence and decide whether Davis will be murdered by the state.

Davis has thus far been unable to get a court to look at the new evidence, so it's not clear what the parole board will -- or can -- do after it's examined the new facts.

Nicholson to Resign!

I've railed before about the Bush crony at the top of the heap in the VA, whose only credentials are that he's a veteran himself (yeah, like that helped the rest of us) with a strong Rethug loyalty to the Little Dictator, so it comes as welcome news that he's finally going to resign.

It won't be effective until October sometime, though, so he'll have a few months left to dish out those obscene bonuses to his own top cronies in the VA, and make a few more bad decisions when it comes to such minor fare as veterans benefits and health care.

But still, it's just another in what will prove to be a long line of senior maladminstration officials bailing out like a bunch of rats deserting a sinking ship.

So goodbye, Jimmy. Heckuva job!

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1138 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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and 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.

Bush Like Hitler

At least that was what the screaming headlines across the wingnut blogosphere (and yes, in the SCLM as well) said about Muslim congressman Keith Ellison's speech to, of all things, a convocation of Atheists for Human Rights.

Okay, fine. Except that's not exactly what he said. He did make a comparison between the Nazi party of 1933 and the Rethug party of today, and suggested that there were some interesting parallels between the Reichstag Fire and 9/11.

Mostly with that comparison, Ellison was voicing the same concerns that many of us have been voicing. Not that the Rethugs actually were behind 9/11, the way the Nazis were behind the fire, but in the way they were able to skillfully, adroitly and perniciously use the attack as an excuse for clamping down on free speech, religious liberty and the right of everyone to be immune from illegal search and seizure.

But oh, no. Not in that alternate universe over in Wingnutistan. They are calling for Ellison's head, calling him a traitor and a "conspiracy theorist".

Conspiracy theory. The rightwing has worked long and hard to reframe even our language, and they have been very successful at it. Anyone that comes up with an idea that they don't like they label it "conspiracy thory", and that has become shorthand for "psychotic babbling".

Once you get everyone on the same page with that, it pretty much frees you to do anything, and if by some chance you get busted doing it, deny it and attack your accuser as pushing conspiracy theory crap.

So then you can really engage in a conspiracy and get away with it.

I'm just saying...

Did Petraeus Betray Us?

No, I don't have any inside dope. I'm just practicing for the Rethug spin when the war continues to spiral out of control because the "surge" isn't working, and the Baby Doc Maladministration finally has to blame someone for its repeated failures.

Since Baby Doc "listens" to the generals on the ground, it's obvious that Petraeus will have to fall on his sword.

Wait for it, and remember that you heard it here first.

If the Children Want Bread Let Them Eat Cake

Well, so much for that "compassionate conservative" occupant of the White House. Baby Doc is threatening to veto a congressional bill that will seek to preserve and expand the Child Health Insurance in this country.

It's in crisis, and set to expire the end of August. So what do the Rethugs do? Stall it out in congress first, saying it's "socialized medicine" or some such nonsense, and Baby Doc himself, in a blatant display of crony capitalism, says it will take away profits from the insurance companies.

Okay, he didn't actually use that terminology, but he did say, "It's a way to encourage people to transfer from the private sector to government health-care plans."

In other words, socialized medicine that will take money away from the poor, starving downtrodden insurance companies.

The WaPo has an in depth story on the "controversy" that does a pretty good job of sorting it out.

Oh, and Baby Doc does mention giving the poor a "tax credit" to help pay for private insurance. Yeah, like that's going to help someone making $30,000 a year with two children to feed, clothe and take to doctors when they need it. How much will that "tax break" actually be? Enough for a shot of antibiotics and a couple of band-aids, maybe. If they're lucky.

Jesus, those fuckers are so insulated from the real world that they don't have a clue how much a loaf of bread costs, let alone how much the average family with two kids will have to spend on health care.

But if the children want bread, let them eat cake. That's what they do.

I don't need to point out that Baby Doc and other top officials of this maladministration already have "socialized medicine" -- he doesn't have to spend a dime on health care, since he gets his courtesy of the Pentagon.

For free.

The Liberal Media Strikes Again

Yesterday Der Monkey Fuehrer gave his weekly radio address, and in it can be found the following:

It became clear that our approach in Iraq was not working ... so in January I announced a new way forward.

In other words, he admitted that he and his malignant maladministration had fucked up. This is the first time that I can remember when he ever said anything remotely critical of his own decisions.

So what does the Liberal Media do with it? They bury the lede.

Here's a Google News search for the terms "bush saturday radio iraq": . There are a total of 99 hits, and only one of them leads off with the truly newsworthy fact, and that was a foreign website out of Pakistan called Pakistani Dawn.

And if you do a search for bush+saturday+radio and the phrase "approach in Iraq was not working", you get exactly TWO hits. Again, it was of course the Pakistani Dawn page, plus the Chicago Tribune, which merely displayed the entire radio address without comment.

Yeah, you just can't beat that ole Liberal Media, can you?

Owsley Lives!

Those of us of a certain age and, shall we say, "receptivity to new ideas" remember well a guy named Augustus Owsley Stanley III.

Or just "Owsley" to those in the know.

Owsley was the legendary creator of FDA-purity high-octane street-level LSD, for those of you who don't know, and Owsley Acid was legendary back in the day. Much imitated, never duplicated, and never improved upon, Owsley Acid was the sine qua non of psychedelic drugs.

Over the years I've periodically wondered whatever happened to The Bear, and just today I was sent newspaper article from the San Francisco Chronicle telling the rest of the story.

Turns out Owsley is still alive and kicking at 72(!), living in a remote area of the Queensland Australia Outback, still on his infamous "meat only diet" and still proud of the fact that he opened the minds of literally millions of American youth.

So here's to you, buddy. Way to go. If I weren't so freaking old now myself, I'd drop a tab or two in celebration. But there's no way now to get Owsley quality from street acid, so it's probably better that I just put on the Dark Side of the Moon platter and kick back in the dark.

Groovy, man.

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 3592 3611

Total coalition forces dead: 287
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2132
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1634
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1534
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: 463
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 358.

It is still 578 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

The Preznit Finally Admits Someone in His Maladminstration Leaked Plame's Name

Yeah, it's true. But so what?

This is an administration that's been long on cult-like loyalty and short on personal accountability or responsibility.

So in a press conference today he stated in answer to the WaPo's Michael Abramowitz question, "I am aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and, you know, I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, 'I did it.' Would we have had this -- endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House and it's run its course and now we're going to move on. Wendell..."

Wendell being the next press lackey in line, which allowed no followup questions by Abramowitz.

One of which might have been, "Mister pResident, you stated through you mouthpiece Scotty McWeewee on September 29, 2003, in answer to the subsequently marginalized Helen Thomas, that you pledged to fire anyone in the administration found to be involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame's name."

How about that, Dubya? I guess you didn't really mean it back then, did you? I remember watching you smirk when a reported asked you pointedly about someone in the administration leaking the name. Watching that smirk and that body language when you said, "Hey, it's a big administration, lotsa people" -- shrug.

That was all I needed to know that you had just given, on national television, a free pass to the person or persons responsible.

But all of that doesn't matter to you. You are so blinded by the right, savoring the power that you have arrogated to yourself, the "political capital" that you intended to spend and instead have pissed away, that you are incapable of seeing the damage that you and your administration have done and continue to do to this country, to its prestige in the world, to the souls of its people.

Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

It is time for you to go.

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"Do you have blacks, too?"

-- to Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso, Nov 8, 2001

But wait -- that's not enough. Here's another one:

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."

--Oct 3, 2003

So I guess that means, since we apparently do not meet any of the stated criteria, we are not a free nation...

But I think we already knew that.

Bush Tortures Teenager

I guess it's not enough to have the brain of an emotionally-stunted eight-year-old. You have to act like one, too.

In a town hall type forum in Ohio, Baby Doc let loose a sarcastic 1100-word tirade against a 13-year-old girl who had the temerity to ask a question about immigration reform.

For her trouble, the teenager was reduced to tears by the Asshole-in-Chief's ranting.

Raw Story has some sketchy details, such as they are. Of course the preznits handlers leaped on it, put out some fires, and had the Smirking Chimp meet with the girl and her family backstage afterwards.

Big fucking deal. He humiliates her in front of 400 people and then meets with her in secret. Good thing her parents went backstage with her, that's all I've got to say. Otherwise she'd be on her way to Gitmo even as we speak.

And I guess I don't need to add that it's a goddam good thing that it wasn't one of my teenage granddaughters who was up there being tortured.

On the other hand, they are smart kids (naturally) and wouldn't have shown up a Potemkin-village town hall with Der Monkey Fuehrer in the first place.

Surgeon Generals Muzzled

Yesterday it became public that the Baby Doc Maladministration has been actively engaged in muzzling its chief medial officer, the Surgeon General of the United States.

Dr. Richard H. Carmona, who was Surgeon General from 2001 to 2006, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that he was being directed by non-medical political appointees, and "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried..."

He testified that he was required to use the name of Der Monkey Fuehrer at least three times per page when he gave speeches. "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation -- not the doctor of a political party."

Carmona testified along with C. Everett Koop, Reagan's appointee to the post, and David Satcher, who served under Clinton. Both of them stated that they had felt political pressure, but it appears that the interference rose to new heights under Bush 43.

So what does the news media do with this? Cover it slightly, but coincidentally on the same day SS Oberstfuehrer Michael "I'm-not-a-corpse-but-I-play-one-on-television" Chertoff gets a "gut feeling" that Al Qaeda is preparing a summer offensive and raises the terror threat level to yellow, and that gets all the headlines.

Jesus, what is with the media in this country? Can't they see how they are being played like cheap ukuleles by their overlords in the BFEE? Don't they even care?

When Hypocrisy Reigns

Let's rewind back to those late and unlamented days of the Clinton impeachment. One of the big voices in condemning The Big Dog for his sexual misadventures was a bright and upcoming star of the Religious Right, a guy named David Vitter, newly elected to congress from Louisiana.

Family-values Vitter was also a strong backer of the so-called Marriage Protection Ammendment, which would define marriage as a sanctified-by-god union between and a man and a woman. He also called for abstinence-only sex education and made various claims that it was a sin to have sex, either before or after marriage, with anyone except your legally and spiritually bound spouse.

Too bad he wasn't listening to his own counsel.

On Monday Vitter was outed as a client of the DC Madam. After all that, it turns out that Vitter was using the services of DC Madam Debra Jean Palfrey. While he was mouthing all those sanctimonious homilies about "sex is bad". He issued a prepared statement (strangely reminiscent of fellow-Louisianan Jimmy Swaggart's crocodile-tear-drenched "I have offended thee o lord" mea culpa) in which he admitted his "serious sin" and said that both god and his wife have forgiven him. (I guess god talks to him, too -- but remember the old saying, if you talk to god, it's praying; if god talks to you it's insanity)

But this is the wife, by the way, that said something to the effect that if her husband ever ran around on her, her reaction would be less Hillary Clinton and more Lorena Bobbitt. I wonder if Vitter has taken to wearing chainmail underwear and sleeping on his stomach these days.

Oh, and do I really need to add that Vitter is ... wait for it ... a Republican? And do I really need to add that back in 2004, when the rumors first surfaced that Vitter was potentially a client of a New Orleans "escort service", he denied it publicly, calling the allegation "absolutely and completely untrue"?

So what does the right wing do with all of this? They circle the wagons and deny that it's hypocrisy. I heard Tucker "I-am-an-idiot-and-I-play-one-on-tv" Carlson actually defend the guy on one of the talking head shows last night, trying to make what had to be the weakest possible case for Vitter not being a hypocrite.

Sorry, if you are preaching a stern morality for others while choosing not to follow it yourself, then that is the very definition of hypocrisy. But once again, the truth doesn't seem to matter to these fuckers.

Carlson even said, essentially, that it's inherent in situations where the husband is separated from the wife by being in Washington DC while she stays home to raise the kids and keep the house. "Men are just like that," Carlson said. "That's what men do." Essentially we're the victims here, enslaved by our testosterone or something like that.

I don't know if Carlson is married (and the constant sporting of bow-ties, at least up until sometime last year, would militate against it -- what woman would want to marry a guy who wears bow ties all the time?), but if he is, I'll bet the Little Woman is not going to be letting the fucker go out of town for any length of time. Like an hour.

Oh, and one more thing on Vitter: He's the head of the Southern Strategy for none other than Rudy "No-lips" Giuliani, who doesn't really seem to be a very good judge of character, what with the whole Bernie Kerik thing and Thomas Ravenel, his South Carolina coordinator, calling black people "retarded" and then getting busted for running a cocaine ring.

Poor Rudy. It hasn't been a good time for him. I almost feel sorry for him.

Not!

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1131 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 Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and 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.

Court of Appeals Rules on Wiretapping Suit

Naturally this came out on a Friday, where it misses the major news cycles when people are getting ready for the weekend and are not really paying attention, and by the time Monday rolls around chances are there'll be a new missing white chick or new celebutant scandal.

But in a chilling ruling out of the Sixth Cicuit court in, of all places, Cincinnatti (WTF?), a majority of the three-judge panel said that the plaintiffs in this particular case had no standing to sue. They did not rule on the merits of the case, just on the standing issue.

No standing. Because those bringing the suit (i.e. the ACLU) weren't the ones who were illegally bugged, wiretapped, eavesdropped on by the NSA without approval from the FISA court.

But here's the catch: The program was and remains so secret that proving you were victimized by it is virtually impossible.

It's a big catch, but maybe not insurmountable. Read the story yourself for all the gruesome details.

And let's do everything we can to get the evil BFEE out of power.

Constitutional Grounds for Impeachment

They're not as limited as you might think. Here's a link to Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment, Provisions in the Constitution that are Relevant to Impeachment and Past Impeachment Inquiries -- It's a bit long, but well worth reading.

It's also important to note that George Mason, one of our revered "founding fathers", felt strongly about impeachment: "No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?"

It is worth noting also that Mason himself refused to sign the constitution because he felt that the provisions for impeachment were not sufficient to remove a president who was guilty of suborning treason by issuing a pardon for individuals who committed it.

Mason also felt that individual rights were not adequately protected under the constitution, a fact which was corrected with the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, a full two years after the adoption of the Constitution.

And Gouvernor Morris, another of the founding fathers, also felt that the president ought not to be able to pardon someone convicted of treason (hear that, Scooter? Hear that, Darth Cheney? Baby Doc? Anybody?).

Of course, Morris also had some definitely anti-democratic views -- the poor should not be allowed to vote since they would be tempted to sell their votes to the rich, the "common man" was basically incapable of self-government, and voting should be restricted only to property owners, but regardless of that, he still had at least one good idea.

So, given all that, the short answer to all this remains: Hell yes! Impeach the motherfuckers!

Lawn Order Presidency?

It's so goddam typical of these coy politicians: "I might run for president, I might not, first show me how much you love me".

So how is it that Fred I'm-not-really-an-avuncular-wise- man-I-just-play-one-on-television Thompson can be a Rethug frontrunner when he hasn't even announced that he is running?

How is it that the Moron-American voting bloc can think that the wise men that Thompson plays on TV and in the movies are somehow actually what we'll get if we elect him president?

Jesus, the guy was a high-powered lobbyist from K Street for most of his career. How that translates into presidential material is beyond me. You might as well have a completely incompetent moron sweeping into office on his daddy's coattails ...

What?

Uh... never mind.

But ... while we're on the subject, just who IS Fred Thompson and why is he suddenly the darling of the Rethug party? My guess is that he's the anti-Giuliani candidate, the any-body-but-Giuliani candidate. The "mainstream" right wing thinks Mr. No-Lip doesn't have what it really takes to be prezdint. Too much of a political hack, too much of an insider.

So it's not surprising that Good Ole Boy Freddy is hard at work, spinning himself as a Washington outsider, but how much of it is true?

Answer: None of of.

Freddy first came to Washington as a Minority Counsel (i.e., Rethug) for the Watergate Hearings, and he's the one who springboarded to fame for his televised grilling of Alexander Butterworth in which Butterworth first revealed that Nixon had secretively taped all Offal Office conversations. (And rumors abound that Freddy already knew about the tapes, and, in fact, had leaked that knowledge to the White House before Butterworth was called to testify -- in other words, Freddy was grandstanding.)

He then spent some 20 years as a high-octane lobbyist, spurring on such vital public policy issues as deregulation of the Savings and Loan Industry, the direct result of which cost American taxpayers 150 billion dollars when the industry collapsed and we had to bail it out. And don't forget the "forgotten" Bush brother, Neil, who ran his own S&L into the ground while he was screwing hookers in Bangkok.

Freddy was also tight with fellow Tennesseans Howard Baker and William Frist when they were leaders in the senate, and he helped establish the Clinch River nuclear project, which, by the time it was shut down before ever going on line had cost taxpayers another $1.7 billion.

And even after he became the face of law and order on television, he successfully lobbied for a British company who wanted to weasel out of its asbestos lawsuits accountability.

He was Baby Doc's point man on the nomination and eventual approval of Chief Justice John I-was-a-liar-when-I-testified-about-my-judicial-philosophy Roberts. Plus he was instrumental in the formation and operation of the Scooter Libby Defense Fund, which ultimately raised more than $5 million, and he was quick to state that he would pardon Libby if he were president.

And this is the "outsider" who now wants to be president? Hardly. And people need to wake up and take a cold hard look at the facts before blindly supporting him for president.

But chances are they won't. Once again emotion will triumph over reason, and fantasy will trump reality.

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 3592

Total coalition forces dead: 284
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2125
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1627
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1527
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: 456
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 351.

It is still 585 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Oh, the Irony (Part Six Million and Something...)

Way back when, your prezdint, Der Monkey Fuehrer, said, "Anyone who breaks the law in this administration will be taken care of."

I'll bet that you, like me, immediately thought of Tony Soprano or Michael Corleone.

We thought we knew what he meant. Turns out we were wrong and he was right.

Scooter was "taken care of" in a way that we could only hope for if we were convicted of the major federal felonies, obstruction of justice and perjury.

How much more will it take before we rise up en masse and demand the impeachment of the entire BFEE?

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"Those who enter the country violate the law."

--Nov 28, 2005

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

MUST WATCH!!! Olbermann's J'accuse!

On the eve of Independence Day, Keith Olbermann gave it to the Baby Doc Maladministration with both barrels and then some. I've been a fan of Olbermann's for a long time, and even I have never seen him in this full rant mode before.

Be sure to give it a watch. You can find it over at Crooks and Liars, but I'm sure that it's all over the web by this time. Everybody has it.

Olbermann: "Mister Bush, you ceased to be president of the United States... Even Richard Nixon knew when it was time to resign."

Let's hope that Der Monkey Fuehrer and Darth Cheney will listen.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen. Which is why I still demand IMPEACHMENT NOW!

Sentenced to Death -- For Driving a Car?

The outrages just keep coming. Down yonder in Texas (naturally) they're on track to snuff their 400th death row inmate this summer.

Number 400 could very well be one Kenneth Foster, who was sentenced to death despite the fact -- and the great state of Texas aknowledges it -- that he didn't kill anybody.

Let me say that again. Kenneth Foster did not murder anyone.

What he did do was have the poor judgment to drive a car in which Mauriceo Brown was a passenger when Brown arrived at the location where he shot and killed Michael LaHood Jr.

Brown has already been executed for the crime. He stated that Foster remained in the car, some 80 feet away from the scene, with the windows rolled up and the radio on. And that Foster did not know that Brown even had a weapon in his possession or what he was planning to do with it.

But all that doesn't matter, since Texas has one of those laws that allows all parties present at a crime to be held equally accountable.

So unless some miracle happens and the governor of Texas commutes his sentence, Foster will be executed on August 30th. If you feel that this would be an unconsionable miscarriage of justice, then please consider signing the online petition to the governor, or emailing the governor from his website. See Stop the Execution for more information and action items.

Maybe we could also hope for Der Monkey Fuehrer, since he's all concerned now about "excessive" punishments, to commute Foster's sentence.

But probably not. Kenneth Foster wasn't a member of the Inner Party and isn't a darling of the Neocon thugs.

And he has something else going against him: Kenneth Foster is a black man.

July Fourth

Okay, today we have a history lesson. First read this and tell me who the "He" is:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
...
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
...
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
...
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
...
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
...
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
...
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us...

Give up? Well, this particular passage makes up a large part of our own 1776 Declaration of Independence. The "He" refers to King George the Third, but as you can see, it has some remarkable reverberations to our present day and our own King George the W.

It's time for a renewal of the primary document in our history. We need to symbolically sign a new Declaration of Independence and declare ourselves free from the tyrannical rule of our own King George.

The best way we can do this? Contact your congressional representative and demand that he or she sign on to Dennis Kucinich's bill for the impeachment of the whole sick crew at the top of this evil maladministration.

A Fucking OUTRAGE

In an unanticipated move, Der Monkey Fuehrer today commuted the prison sentence of Scooter Libby. I thought it would be an out-and-out pardon -- and that's still not out of the question -- but he threw us a curve ball with this one.

Little Scooter still has the felony conviction and has to pay the fines -- yeah, like that's gonna be a big problem for him and his wingnut Rethug fatcat big-wallet supporters -- but no jail time.

So let's recapitulate: The former governor of Texas who oversaw something like 154 executions, earning him the nickname "The Texecutioner", commutes the sentence of someone who did arguably worse crimes than the poor and mostly minority saps who happened to kill someone within the borders of the Execution State, and he laughed and mocked the execution of Karla Faye Tucker while refusing clemency for 62-year-old grandmother and domestic-violence-victim Bettie Lou Beets.

This is a fucking outrage against justice, against humanity!

Scooter's crimes were so much worse than simple murder. He outed a CIA agent and caused the murder of an unknown number of sources of Valerie Plame who worked with her undercover in many dangerous countries. He mocked the rule of law. He flouted the Constitution of the United States. He helped the precipitous decline of American prestige in the world, and dried up many sources of secret CIA intelligence.

Now just watch: Baby Doc will pardon Scooter Libby on his last day in office, as sure as shit. Wait for it, and remember, you heard it here first.

It almost makes me want to believe in a god, just so The Texecutioner would have to stand before the throne and shit his pants when the big guy sends him on the down elevator to hell.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1124 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 Guerra 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.