What's Next, the Church of Satan?

A federal judge's ruling says that the VA's use of religion in "healing" veterans does not violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

Bullshit.

But naturally the fundo Xians are falling all over themselves in a congratulatory orgasm of religious transport, having once again fought back the atheistic forces of darkness, as embodied this time by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Which is sure to appeal this bogus decision, and it'll be interesting to watch this one play out.

In the meantime, though, all those bible-thumping snake-handling cousin-kissers won't be so fucking happy when someone representing something like, I don't know, the Church of Satan shows up for a ritual-abuse "healing" session with some fucked-up veterans, will they?

Why an Admiral?

Did you stop to wonder why Admiral William Fallon was picked to take over command in Iraq when all of the military action is on the ground and Iraq has only a 36-mile coastline?

Short answer: Take a look a this map and see which of Iraq's next-door neighbors has a 1500-mile coastline.

That's why an admiral.

Forty Years Ago Today

It was exactly 40 years ago today that LBJ gave a State of the Union address outlining the reasons why we should stay in -- why we should escalate in -- Vietnam.

And now, thanks to Will Bunch over at Attytood, we can see a line by line comparison between that speech and the eerily similar speech given tonight by Baby Doc.

Check out the whole story and see if the parallels are as chilling to you as they are to me.

And to all of my fellow Vietnam vets who say that there are no similarities between Iraq and Vietnam: Fuck off. You are wrong.

War on Two Continents

Baby Doc has finally gotten parity with his Daddy's War -- the attacks in Somalia have managed to spread the War on Terra^TM to another continent, and the little fucker seems hell bent on creating another World War for himself, the "War Prezdint".

And every attack this country makes creates another recruiting event for Al Qaeda. And not only Al Qaeda but any of dozens of other Anti-American "terrorist" organizations, groups, scout troops, or ad hoc committees.

So now that he's spread it to Africa, what's next? Somewhere in Europe? How about Germany -- they have a lot of Islamic immigrants. Naw, not Germany, been there, done that, and besides, it'd be too hard.

I know, how about France? They have all those North Africans rioting in those suburban rings around Paris, ought to be easy to take out with a few well-placed nukes. And we don't like the French anyway.

What's Going on Here?

I thought that the Attorneys for Veterans legislation was a done deal, passed in the waning days of the last congress.

For those not in the know, the legislation was needed to update a 140-year old Civil War relic that said that while a veteran could have an attorney's representation in a dispute with the VA, that attorney could charge no more than ten dollars!

It was a law that was in serious need of repealing or updating, but guess who was against that -- the service organizations. Yep, the DVA was at the head of the pack, followed closely by the VFW and American Legion. Not surprising, since this was nothing more than a turf issue to those fuckers.

Here's how it worked: Their sevice officer would help the veteran with his or her VA paperwork, and at the same time exercise some of that good ole boy networking with their drinking buddies inside the VA. The veteran gets his benefits and then out of a sense of gratitude or obligation would feel compelled to join the service organization that did such a wonderful job of getting his bennies. So it really in't any wonder they were against it. It means money out of their pockets for every vet they don't sign up.

But despite their objections, the bill passed, as part of an omnibus bill in the last days of the 109th. But it seems that one Senator Kent Conrad, a goddam Democrat for crissake, but apparently beholden to the special interests of the DVA etc, tried to hold up passage of the bill, and then inserted "repealer" language in the act, which now puts its repeal on the fast track with the 110th Congress.

What a fucking disappointment, over a goddam turf issue. The VA itself has an army of lawyers at its disposal, who do nothing but try to prevent the award of benefits to deserving veterans. It's way past time that the veteran himself has access to a lawyer to represent his interests.

And fuck those goddam turf warriors in the VSOs. I never had much use for them, and I still don't.

I am the New Number Two

People like me who are fans of the 60s cult classic BBC series The Prisoner will recognize that headline. And that's what I am reminded of every single time we manage to take out the Number Two Man in Al Qaeda.

Now we've taken out another Number Two, this time in Somalia. BFD. There's always a new Number Two. Now they've taken to calling them just another "top man" in Al Qaeda -- makes it easier, I guess. Even the pathological liars in the BFEE are getting tired of it.

A New Twist on the 419 Scam

For years my inbox, along with yours and everyone else's on the planet, has been inundated with get-rich-quick schemes usually involving a dead African and millions in dollars or Krugerrands or diamonds, etc.

This is called generically an Advance Fee Fraud, but because so many of its modern perpetrators are Nigerians, it became universally known as the Nigerian Letter or the 419 Scam (after the appropriate article of Nigerian law).

So it was with a mixture of relief and amusement that yesterday I got an email from someone representing himself to be one Captain James Adams, currently on duty in Iraq.

Here's what my new good buddy had to say:

I am CPT Adams, James of the US Marine Force on Monitoring and Peace keeping mission in Baghdad-Iraq. I know this may not be the proper way of contacting you based on the nature of my proposal but this is the only means avaliable to me here.
On the 27th day of August 2006, we were alerted on the sudden presence of some Terrorists camping in a suburb not too far from Karbala here in Iraq. After Immediate intervention, we captured three (3) of the Terrorists, twenty-six (26) were killed leaving seven (7) injured.
In the process of torture they confessed being rebels for late Ayman al-Zawahiri and took us to a cave in Karbala which served as their camp. Here we recovered several guns, bombs and other Ammunitions including some boxes among which one filled with hard drugs(cocaine) and the other two to my amazement contain some US Dollars amounting to $17.2M. I however instructed my junior intelligent officers to keep this in high secrecy.
I am in keen need of a reliable and trustworthy person like you who would receive, secure and protect these boxes containing the US Dollars for me till my assignment elapses in here in Iraq as the boxes have already been moved out of Iraq. I assure and promise to give you 25% of this fund, however feel free to negotiate what you wish to have as your percentage in this business.
Please assure me of your keeping this topmost secret to protect my job with the US Monitoring and Peace-Keeping mission. If you will assist me, please send me your response including your name, telephone and address to my personal email: jamesadams_76@yahoo.com.hk
Sincere regards,
CPT Adams, James

You gotta hand it to these guys, they just don't give up.

And now, for an interesting response to these jokers, see the scam-baiting Scam-o-rama: The Lads from Lagos page, wherein, among other things, an erstwhile victim turns the tables on his new best buddies and gets them to send HIM money! Priceless.

Olbermann Once Again Hits it Out of the Park

Here's a link to the latest Keith Olbermann diatribe against the Smirking Chimp -- watch it!

Olbermann always tells it like it is: "Mr President, you do not own this country. We have sacrificed 3000 persons for your lies; with your surge, we will now be sacrificing them for your ego."

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 957 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.

Come on, you two. Do your patriotic duty. Your daddy is standing there with egg on his face. Think what your enlistment into the military could do for his poll numbers with the American people. Think what it could do help him get that "surge" he's wanting so badly.

And everybody else, 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.

He Just Doesn't Get It

Sociopath. That was yesterday's comment, and it's still true. He just can't seem to get it.

In what has been an unmitigated string of Orwellian-named Acts of Congress, the latest to fall victim to the Baby Doc Pen of Fascism is the so-called Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

Oh, he signed it all right, but with yet another in a long line of infamous "signing statements" for which he is now notorious, saying the he is, once more, above the law.

What's worse, he's actually proud of the fact that he and he alone is the final abiter (the "decider") of what part of the law he -- and by extension the entire Executive Branch, including the Justice Department -- can blithely ignore.

Now the ball is in the court of the Dems to draw a line in the sand (mixed metaphor, but you know what I mean). Let's hope that their recent victory will allow them to finally grow some spine and stand up to the little tyrant.

Enough is enough. Call or write your Senator and your representative in Congress and ask them to demand answers from the White House that will explain and defend this action.

As members of a democratic society, we can expect no less.

Webb Introduces New GI Bill

In his first act as a freshman senator, James Webb (whose campaign I enthusiastically supported, as long-time readers of this blog know) has introduced a sweeping revision to the now-creaky GI Bill.

The bill is the first truly generous one since the WWII and Korean vets mustered out and went to college, in what has been hailed as one of the laws most instrumental in changing the Old Guard in this country and allowing us to become more of a representative democracy.

The GI Bill that Vietnam Vets were stuck with was a pale reflection of that which allowed our fathers and uncles and older brothers to get an education. We were paid only a monthly stipend, out of which we had to pay our tuition, fees, books and living expenses. This was a great deal for the community colleges and the small state schools, where all these expenses were less, but what it really meant was that while I, thoroughly working class, was able to apply to -- and be accepted by -- Stanford, I couldn't actually attend because the GI Bill wasn't enough to pay even the tuition.

The new Webb proposal would include all of the tuition, fees, etc., in addition to the stipend for living. It would allow more veterans to attend more colleges, even those whose tuition is so high that now only the scions of the wealthy can afford to go there.

An influx of smart, tough battle-hardened veterans will be a healthy addition to those elete bastions of weak-kneed snobs, and maybe straighten out a few of those Yellow Elephants.

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

Total coalition forces dead: 250
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1942
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1393
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1342
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: 325
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 171.

It is still 768 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Holy Warriors

In a flying-beneath-the-radar move, the Fundo Xians have stealthily taken over the chaplain corps in the military services and at the academies. Now over 50% of military chaplains are radical fundamentalists who preach holy war -- jihad -- against Islam.

There's a long article on the phenomenon over on Alternet. It's called America's Holy Warriors by Chris Hedges that is well worth the read.

Excerpt:

The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state.

Read it and see if you don't lose a little sleep over the impending possibility of a fundo theocracy in this country. The American Taliban are still out there, still as glassy-eyed as ever in their monomaniacal pursuit of those in league with Satan (that includes me and all of liberal types over here in the Reality Based Community, I presume). Once they take over the military, then we will be in some serious shit.

Baby Doc the Sociopath

"Sociopath" is kind of an outdated term, but basically it consists of behaviors characterized by impulsiveness, disregard for social norms, and indifference to the rights and feelings of others (see Antisocial Personality Disorder).

Keeping that in mind, please see the Buzzflash interview with Dr Justin Frank, the author of Bush on the Couch. It's pretty scary stuff, and I'm not the one to say that he's wrong. I read his book and I couldn't sleep for several nights because of it.

And I shudder to think that this is the so-called leader of the free world.

Ellison Swears in on Koran

Or Qu'ran or however you want to spell it. Keith Ellison, the new Minnesota Democratic member of the House of Representatives, the first Muslim elected to Congress, who weathered a storm of outrage from Faux News, the right wing in general, and one Representative Virgil Goode in particular, swore in today using a Koran once owned by ... [drumroll] ... Thomas Jefferson!

Virgil Goode, by the way, just happens to represent the Virginia district that ecompasses Jefferson's home, Monticello.

Oh, the irony!

The Human Behavior Experiments

Last night I watched a chilling documentary film from the Sundance Channel called The Human Behavior Experiments.

If you get the chance, be sure to see it. It centers on the now-infamous Milgram Experiment at Yale in the early 60s, in which an authority figure can get an otherwise "normal" human being to inflict torture -- including what he has no reason to doubt is a fatal electric shock on another person -- and the equally-notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, in which a group of male subjects was randomly divided into two groups, one of which acted as jailers and the other as prisoners.

Both experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that nearly everyone, given the right circumstances, can be subtly persuaded to do things that would ordinarily go against his or her conscience and values.

The most shocking part to me was the vast number of parallels between the prison experiment and the photos coming out of Abu Graib prison, even down to the bags over the heads, the stripping off of clothing, and the forced positions of simulated homosexuality.

I highly recommend this film, and it especially should be required viewing for the topknot generals, admirals and their civilian hangers-on at the Pentagon. As this film so graphically shows, the events at Abu Graib were not due to a few bad apples; the whole fucking barrel is rotten.

VA Collecting DNA?

The VA is embarking on an ambitious program which will attempt to get DNA information from veterans which they will then tie in to the veterans' medical records for "research" purposes.

Sounds okay, but only if -- and that's a BIG IF -- the purpose is to do research into such things as the genetic causes of disease and the development of treatments.

But let's face it, the VA does not have the best reputation when it comes to safeguarding personal privacy, and I am not at all willing to give up my DNA when I don't know -- and can't be guaranteed -- that it won't fall into the wrong hands. The wrong hands being my health insurance company, the cops or drug companies, just for starters.

So the next time you go to the VA medical center, if they ask you for a DNA sample, do what I'm going to do -- tell 'em you'll leave one on your way out with that cute blonde receptionist at the front desk...

As if We Didn't Already Have Enough to Worry About

A new research study has established a link between PTSD and heart disease.

No big surprise there; it was something that most of us knew more or less intuitively -- you can't go through that much stress and adrenaline without it having a serious effect on your health. But this study apparently puts the final nail in the coffin, so to speak.

At least now there is a causal nexus established, and research should be able to focus on PTSD as a factor.

And it is eminently treatable, at least by prophylaxis -- Rx: Stop sending people to fight in needless and stupid wars that are actually nothing but invasive military occupations.

Taunting Saddam on the Gallows

it didn't take long for a bootleg copy of the execution of Saddam Hussein to make it onto the open market. Someone smuggled it out to Al Jazeera almost immediately, and the Arab Street is up in arms about what it apparently shows: Witnesses jeering and taunting Saddam Hussein while he is on the gallows, while the rope is being pulled taut, while the trap door is being sprung.

Sadly, it doesn't surprise me. I am, as everyone knows who reads the blog regularly, categorically opposed to the death penalty, so what I have to say on the subject isn't really in the realm of reasoned and logical response, but...

If you are reduced to having to put someone to death, shouldn't it be done with a little dignity? A little solemnity? A little respect for the fact that you are killing someone?

After all, it was no less an august personage than Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Polygamy) who said, "the death penalty is the way we demonstrate our respect for human life"...

3000 Dead American Troops -- 3000 Too Many

Once again, I know it's just a number, but I can't get over how fucked it is to have reached it on New Year's Eve.

I will be going to a local vigil tonight at 4:30 with my Veterans for Peace chapter. I urge everyone to find a local happening and join it.

Let's speak with one voice: 3000 is 3000 too many!