A History Buff???

Jesus, out of all of the ludicrous statements that have been puked out the vapid faces of the White House mouthpieces, this one just has to be at the top of the official Stupid-For-All-Time list. I was planning on going dark until after the holidays, but this one just plain forced me to break squelch.

Turns out that Baby Doc -- according to White House spokesliar Trent Duffy -- is a "history buff" whose vacation reading includes both the Patricia O'Toole study of post-presidential Teddy Roosevelt, When Trumpets Call, and Imperial Grunts, Robert Kaplan's account of the daily lives of US soldiers.

It would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic. We're supposed to swallow, without choking or laughing, a bald-faced statment that our own Baby Doc, who has never once given the slightest indication that he even has a passing acquaintance with the basic concepts of history, is all of a sudden a history buff??? And, to make it worse, that he is reading about Theodore Roosevelt, the very embodiment of Progressive Republican politics? Let's hope that Pickles will at least read some of the Roosevelt book to him. A "history buff" like Baby Doc ought to be able to absorb at least some of the lessons of the Progressive era and some of the ideals that Teddy stood for. Ha ha.

Give me a fucking break. My bullshit detector is on full red alert and yours ought to be as well. We are talking about someone whose last known reading material was a My Pet Goat, someone who can't even read a fucking daily newspaper, someone who has to have read to him even the single paragraph of the daily presidential briefing memo.

I can't believe what blatantly transparent lies the fuckers are still trying to cram down our throats, and the sad thing is that so many people are still willing to swallow their daily ration of White House shit.

Holiday Greetings

I'm going dark until after the holiday, so have a merry Xmas, everyone -- except for you, Bill O'Reilly; you have a "happy holiday"...

See you next week.

Friday Cat Blogging

Enemies List

So the question is kind of left hanging there: Why did he do it?

Why did Baby Doc engage in wholesale spying on American citizens without even attempting to go through the mainly pro-forma process of taking the issue before the double-super-secret Star Chamber FISA court? Keep in mind that the court has routinely in the past rubber-stamped every request for covert action that the administration has brought before it. So why did he not even bother to ask before he did it?

It has to be that the fuckers have been spying on enemies of the administration, and not just "routine" enemies of the state. In other words, they have a Nixonian enemies list, and they knew that if they brought this list before the FISA Court, even David Sentelle, the yes-man Repugnican hack who headed the court, would choke on allowing spying on people like Cindy Sheehan, Howard Dean and John Kerry.

I used to joke about it: A cousin of mine made it onto Nixon's list, and I used to say that I wanted to make it onto Bush's list. Given my active participation in the anti-war movement and my public rants -- here and elsewhere -- about the fascist maladministration of Baby Doc and the BFEE, it turns out the joke was on me.

Apparently it IS Just a Piece of Paper

The always-on-point Billmon over at The Whiskey Bar has a pair of dueling quotes, one from Baby Doc prattling about the "obligation" to protect our "civil liberties", blah-blah-blah, followed by this one from the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union:

Citizens of the U.S.S.R. are guaranteed inviolability of the person. No person may be placed under arrest except by decision of a court or with the sanction of a procurator.
The inviolability of the homes of citizens and privacy of correspondence are protected by law.

This, if you recall, was at the height of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. It was just a "goddamned piece of paper" to Joe Stalin and the Politburo.

As you know, Baby Doc (along with his ventriloquist sock-puppeteers in the BFEE) truly believes -- and has said as much -- that our constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper. With the willing compliance of the courts, the congress and the so-called liberal media, the Bush Maladministration is striving to emulate the worst excesses of the Soviet Union. They think they can ignore at will the protections provided to our citizens by our own constitution.

Let's all show them that they are wrong-wrong-wrong. Demand impeachment now!

And the Survey Says...

Okay, so it's not a scientifically or statistically valid poll, but over at MSNBC they are running a survey, and as of right now the numbers are running 88% FOR impeachment.

Drop by and take the poll yourself. The more numbers we can rack up, the better we'll all feel.

Where is the Outrage???!!!

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"If a Coke Dealer Has Your ID, it Doesn't Look So Good"

In an exposé in Radar, we learn that a prominent downtown DC coke dealer has made a videotape in which he brandishes Jenna Bush's UT-Austin ID card and implies that the two of them had more than just drinks at the notorious Happy Ending bar in Chinatown.

And not only does he brandish it, we learn from the anonymous source that he actually holds it up close enough to the camera so that the presidential liability-in-chief can be readily identified.

Okay, so it's not a smoking gun and fake IDs are as common as tornadoes in trailer courts, but as anyone knows who has read this blog since the very beginning (the very first post, in fact), I'm not a huge fan of the slackerbabe Bush twins, and given Jenna's predilections for hard-charging partying down, is it really so unbelievable that she'd be "hanging out" with this guy?

Or maybe Words Have Power called it right when he said that she was just doing some community service work, helping to clean up bars and coke dealers…

Oh, and that quote in the headline? It's from Radar's unnamed but evidently knowledgeable source, and it's one you can't argue with.

In the meantime, this story has legs sufficient that the Secret Service is looking into it. We'll keep an eye on it ourselves and report out if we learn anything of substance.

The Bill of Rights: A Worthy Cause

Amid all the battles over the display of the Ten Commandments on court houses, city halls and the like, mostly in the south, a guy in Arizona has come up with a great idea.

Chris Bliss has started something called the Foundation Foundation, and the goal is to place in public places in each state a copy of the Bill of Rights. They are starting with the states that have the Ten Commandments already on display, so people can do some "comparison shopping" and see which of the two sets of laws is truly representative of the rule of law we have in this country.

To make it even sweeter, they are starting in Austin, Texas, which if you will recall was the location of that now infamous decision by the Supreme Court that it was perfectly okay to display blatantly religious graven images (i.e., the Ten Commandments) on the publicly-owned grounds of the state capitol.

See the details on the Foundation website at mybillofrights.org. They are accepting donations -- nothing over $100 -- and I think this is a worthy cause. I know it's Xmas and you're all strapped for cash, but this is an ongoing project and they'll still need donations in 2006. It's something to keep in mind, and even a token amount, ten bucks or so, would be greatly appreciated.

And a special thanks to Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio for the heads-up on this.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 578 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

Baby Doc to America: Fuck You

It's not as if we needed any more evidence, but yesterday's admission to high crimes and misdemeanors by Baby Doc raises the level of Bush Maladministration arrogance to a new height, and it ought to fuel the fires of impeachment.

In case you missed it, the little fucker actually admitted, to a national audience on his weekly radio show, that he violated the law and ordered domestic spying on American citizens.

And it's not as if the law is so restraining that he couldn't have gotten the secret court order for the wiretaps. (If you want to look it up, it's the FISA from 1978 -- admittedly a lo-o-ong time ago, but it's still the law of the land).

However, there are certain individuals in the Maladministration who are claiming, with a straight face, that the president does not have to obey any laws he doesn't want to obey (Dick Cheney was one of the original proponents of this theory back when he worked for Tricky Dick, and we all know how that worked out for them).

The way this argument goes, forcing the president to obey a law passed by congress would mean subordination of the executive branch to the legislative branch, and therefore it would be unconstitutional.

Got that? Unconstitutional. I can't fucking believe that there are actually so-called legal experts in constitutional law who would seriously support such a nonsensical interpretation. And none of these renowned scholars can explain away that pesky little clause about "high crimes and misdemeanors" -- if the president is not subject to the law, then there can't be any committing of crimes. Carrying it to its logical extreme, the president could commit murder and get away with it.

Wait a second... Uh-oh. Well, I guess the president can commit murder and get away with it -- 2155 dead Americans, 201 dead coalition force soldiers and 100,000+ dead Iraqis can't be wrong.

Never mind.

More Dueling Quotes from Baby Doc

1. Asked by head Faux News Whore Brit Hume if he thought Tom Delay was innocent: "Yes, I do."



2. Asked by just about everyone if he thought Karl Rove was innocent: "I can't comment on an ongoing investigation."

Hmmm. Kinda makes ya wonder, doesn't it...?

"They Hate Our Freedoms"

Way back in the heady days following 9-11, Baby Doc made the statement that the so-called fanatical radical Islamist followers of Osama Bin Laden (remember him?) attacked us "because they hate our freedoms". To combat this, he and his neocon handlers then set about to dismantle, remove and destroy those very freedoms that they hated so much.

Case in point: A student at UMass Dartmouth was visited a couple of months back by US agents because -- get this -- he requested a copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book (better known as Quotations from Chairman Mao) through interlibrary loan at his university.

Why the fuck this ever even came up on the Homeland Security radar, let alone trigger an investigation that prompted a personal visit from two armed agents, is beyond me. All over something that is available from Amazon.com for less than ten bucks.

Read the whole chilling tale on the South Coast Today website.

So the master plan for victory must be this: As soon as we've lost all of our freedoms, then everything will be okay again. They won't hate us any more and peace will rule the world.

Uh-huh.

A Bad Week for Baby Doc

It's been a bad week all around for Baby Doc. First he had to admit in public that "mistakes were made" in the analysis of intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Then, if that weren't enough, he lost face big-time by having to capitulate to his nemesis (in his own party!) John McCain on the torture issue. I guess our little TANG deserter really didn't have the street cred to go up against a tortured POW war hero.

And finally, to put the icing on the cake, responsible voices in the Senate put the brakes on the headlong rush to make permanent the more odious provisions of the National Socialist Neo-Stalinist Quasi-Stasi Police State Act (aka The Patriot Act). Faced with a cloture-proof 52-47 vote on continuing the filibuster, the White House had to back off from its demands that the Patriot Act was necessary because "national security" and the War on Terra^tm trumped personal freedom and individual liberties.

Even Republicans like Idaho's Larry Craig are seeing the light and realizing, finally and at long last, that there is nothing in the BFEE Maladministration that can, in the wildest stretch of the imagination, be considered "conservative".

And it's about fucking time.

Friday Cat Blogging

Torture: It's Not Just for Enemy Non-combatants Any More

There's an absolutely harrowing piece by Debra Davies of the Information Clearing House, posted over on Jack's Straight Speak.

Titled Torture Inc.: America's Brutal Prisons, the story is an exposé of the inhumane treatment that goes on right here in the good ole USA.

This doesn't really come as news to anyone whose ever known someone -- or who has been there themselves or has had a family member incarcerated -- living as a "guest" of the Department of Corrections, but it ought to be mandatory reading for everyone else, especially you assholes on the right who strut around chattering shit like "prison's nothing but a country club for felons" and "they have their own cell keys" and "they get to watch HBO all the time" and so on.

Sorry, folks, but prison is not a vacation -- the horror stories related here are all too common.

Too bad there's not a Geneva Convention covering domestic imprisonment and torture. But I guess that wouldn't make much of a difference, since we'd ingore it as well.

Yeah, Here's Another Surprise: Domestic Spying Rears its Ugly Head

Back in the 70s, everyone knew that the Nixon Administration was engaged in domestic spying. Everyone was appalled by it. I knew people who had gotten swept up in the paranoia of the times, and a cousin of mine actually made it onto the now-infamous "enemies list".

Something else that we knew coming out of that long nightmare was that in a democratic republic such as ours, domestic spying on peace activists, anti-war protesters, etc., who are no threat to the common good is not tolerated.

At least not until now. Last night's NBC News had a story on a Pentagon database showing several domestic peace groups were the subject of surveillance, including a Lake Worth FL group meeting at a Friends Society Meeting House.

So it's come full circle, and we're back to the dark old days of the Nixon years. Well, if that's what the Repugs want, I say -- in the words of their pantywaist fuhrer, "Bring it on!"

Don't they remember how the Nixon nightmare ended, with the presidency in tatters and their own fuhrer resigning in shame?

So let's keep the historical parallels going for just a little longer. Just long enough to impeach the lying crooked bastards.

Planespotters: The Scourge of the CIA

Okay, I'll have to admit up front, I'd never even heard of "planespotting", but it doesn't surprise me that it exists. Nor that it apparently first cropped up in the UK, where "trainspotting" was born.

Like its cousin, trainspotting, planespotting consists of documenting the sighting of airplanes, observing landings and takeoffs, & recording their registration numbers; they also take photographs of the planes. And also like trainspotting, it's an obsessively fervent hobby to its adherents.

Unfortunately for the American fascists busily engaged in offshoring prisoners to foreign gulags for torture, those obsessive-compulsive hobbyists have documented a number of flights that were supposed to be "off the books".

It took a lot of hard work and a lot of sifting through mind-numbingly boring data to do it, so those intrepid souls who dug out the connections are to be congratulated.

Read the full story on the UK Guardian website.

Prussian Blue: Racism is Alive and Thriving

Coming of age in America in the early 60s, I supported both the NAACP and SNCC; not only did I have an enormous amount of respect for Martin Luther King, but I also applauded the fiery rhetoric of Malcolm X.

Back when I was young and stupid (unlike now, when I am old and stupid) I foolishly believed that true racism existed only among those who were many years older than me, and I thought that if we could just wait them out, and the day the last of those old fuckers died off would signal the end of racism.

What a fucking moron I was.

And nothing drives that point home better than the egregiously racist tunesmithing of Prussian Blue, a singing duo consisting of twin Aryans, 13-year-old Lamb and Lynx Gaede, a couple of Bakersfield admirers of Adolph Hitler, whose songs glorify the dominance of the so-called white race over all others and who play video games in which they vicariously kill black people.

You can Google the vicious duo, but The Black Commentator has the best take on the evil twins and their compliant friends in the media, especially those with Time, Inc.

This is a must-read.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 571 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

"Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper" -- WTF?

In an absolutely appalling display of treason -- and there's no better word for it -- Baby Doc called the US Constitution "just a goddamn piece of paper".

The incident happened last month when a group of congressional Repugs paraded into the Oval Orifice to discuss the renewal of the (Un)Patriot Act. One aid said during the meeting that some provisions of the Act undermine the Constitution.

Bush, according to three witnesses, screamed back "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

And there you have it. If you had any doubts before that the BFEE doesn't give a shit about us, about our laws, about our democracy, they should be dispelled by this. There's no possible scenerio that can explain away this outburst.

When I was in the service -- and when George W. Bush was sworn in as President -- we took a solemn oath to protect and preserve and defend the Constitution. To call that very document just a goddamned piece of paper, after swearing such an oath, should be an impeachable offense.

See the full story on the Capitol Hill Blue website.

Baby Doc is a traitor and he should be impeached. It's that simple.

Friday Cat Blogging

Death of the Triple X

Once again what was originally a good idea has been trampled into the dirt by the Falwellista morons, members of something called Concerned Women for America, apparently a group of religious-fanatic women who know absolutely nothing about the Internet and the way the web works, but who nonetheless are capable of writing over 6,000 cut-and-paste form letters to ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to prevent them from establishing a new doman, ".xxx", for the exclusive use of pornographers.

The idiots over at CWA evidently feel that this is a bad idea, establishing a domain solely for the use of pornogaphy. Why isn't exactly clear, but they've obviously scored a victory with ICANN. It's beyond me why these people would agitate for something on the web that they would never tolerate in the real world. The only people this ruling benefits are the pornographers themselves, who I am sure were not in favor of being relegated to a triple-x ghetto. Had the proposed new domain been approved, it would have been a simple matter for parents to "screen out" all access to any triple-x domain. But no, that's not good enough for the little-old-lady bluenoses over at CWA.

Now the Law of Unintended Consequences comes into effect. What would have been a neat and tidy way of establishing cyber "Red Zones" on the Internet has been cast aside, and, to continue the "real world" examples, you will have X-Rated movie theaters moving in next door to churches and grade schools. Is that such a great idea?

As with so many of the lame-assed half-baked ideas trotted out by the religious right, it kinda makes you wonder what their real intent was.

And me? It makes me want to shake them by the shoulders and scream "What the fuck were you thinking???!!!" into their vapid cowlike faces.

Flag Burning. Again? Stop it, Hillary!

Jesus Christ, I expect this kind of crap from the Repugnicans. After all, they've caused all the problems we are facing, so anything they can do to take the Moron-American voter's focus off the fucking mess they've created will help them. But a Democrat? Moreover, one of the front-running-but-as-yet-unannounced candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination?

Hillary Clinton, of all people, is sponsoring a bill to outlaw flag burning. Yes, flag burning. As I've stated before in this space, this is a solution in search of a problem. With all the other real and pressing issues facing us, why in the fuck would we even be thinking about something like this?

Is it because Hillary wants the attention off her vote for the Iraq War -- and her refusal to admit that it was a mistake -- or is it because she has the presidential ambition bug so bad that she's moving to the right in the hopes that she can siphon off votes from the middle, running as a Republican Lite?

Either way, it's reprehensible and unconscionable. I'm not a single-issue voter, but there are certain core values that I hold near and dear: I am against the death penalty, and for a woman's right to choose; I am against unjustifiable wars of nationalistic aggression and for the United Nations; I am also for religious freedom (including freedom from religion), full veterans benefits, civil rights for all persons, and free speech -- which includes the freedom to express yourself by burning a flag.

This is why I belong to such organizations as the ACLU (proud to be a card-carrying member), Veterans for Peace, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights.

If a candidate takes positions -- or sponsors bills -- that are in opposition to these core values, then s/he will in all likelihood not get my vote. It's that simple.

Hillary, you won't be reading this, but someone may read it and pass it on to you: If you want to have any chance at taking the White House back for the Democrats in 2008, give up on this flag-burning bullshit.

Democrats won't be a power party again until we go back to our roots, back to our base. Stop this blatant move to the right, this abortive attempt to carve a new constituency out of the middle. It might have worked some for your husband, but it was due to the Big Dog's immense personal charm and charisma that he won those votes, and not because of his slide to the right. Note also that he didn't have particularly long coattails, and the rightwing Contract on America happened on -- and because of -- his watch.

No one likes "lite" beer, and no one likes "lite" Republicans. If I'm going to vote for someone who acts and talks like a Republican, it won't be a nominal Democrat. Forget about it. Hillary, you need to do what the Repugs have always been good at: Play to your base.

Most of us are still liberal and proud of it, but we may not be willing to vote for the lesser of two evils many more times. I am coming close to going back to "throwing my vote away" on marginal third party candidates again rather than just donate it to someone who does not share with me a dedication to most of these core values.

Action Item: National Call-In Day Today

Congress Members get back to DC today, so let's welcome them. Please call, e-mail, or fax both of your senators and the congressional representative from your district to ask for an end to the war in Iraq.

The purpose of this National Call-In Day -- organized by Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America, and After Downing Street, together with United for Peace and Justice and many other peace organizations -- is to flood Congress Members' offices with our message for bringing this war to a close.

The message is simple: "I am calling to let Rep. ______ know that I think the Iraq war is wrong and all our troops should be brought home immediately!"

You can call the Capitol toll-free at 888-818-6641.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 564 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

Dueling Quotes from Baby Doc

"I think it's also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn."

-- The Smirking Chimp on June 3, 1999, criticizing
Clinton for not setting a timetable in Kosovo.

"Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a message across the world that America is a weak and an unreliable ally. Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies—that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

-- The Smirking Chimp on November 30, 2005.

You all saw this flip-flop contradiction reported in the SCLM, didn't you? What's that? No? You didn't?

Funny, neither did I.

Holy Sheepshit, Batman!

As if the lying weren't enough, as if the dissembling over abortion rights weren't enough, the LA Times has a story about Scalito that ought to make your blood run cold.

While he was a Reagan administration lawyer, Scalito wrote yet another in a series of memos that ought to be personally embarrassing (but aren't), this one stating that police were justified in shooting in the back an unarmed teenager who was fleeing a crime scene -- and it probably goes without saying that the teenager was black.

Signifcantly, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision eschewing Alito's reasoning, used that very same case to establish a precedent on the use of "extreme force".

Justice Byron White, writing for the majority, said, "It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape."

Of course all that can -- and will -- change when Scalito joins his fascist brethren on the bench.

Like I've said before so many times, we are so fucked.

Worst President Ever, Dog Bites Man

Here's another in a series of "dog bites man" stories, but this one has some interesting bullet points.

Presidential historian Richard Reeves, writing from Paris, outlines in excruciating detail the reasons why Baby Doc will go down in history as the worst president ever, worse even than James Buchanan, whose brief maladminstration led directly to the Civil War.

Citing a poll done among professional historians by the History News Network at George Mason University, Reeves notes that the vast majority of those who responded think that Bush 43 is a failure.

Excerpt:

This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:

• He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;
  
• He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;
  
• He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;
  
• He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign

If anyone had any doubts about the real Bush historical record, this article ought to dispel them completely.

Friday Cat Blogging

WTF???

A little over a year ago, the House Repugnicans quietly killed a provision in a bill that would have provided for training for a large number of new sky marshals to ride the nation's airplanes and protect us from airborne terrorists.

Now these assholes, it seems to me, ride airplanes a lot more than the rest of us, so why would they want to make flying less safe? It doesn't make any sense.

Unless it's one of three things:

(1) There's something in it for them -- some kind of under-the-table off-the-books kickback, but I can't imagine what that would be.

(2) They've drunk the Koolaid^tm so much that they don't care if the plane they are riding on flies into the Sears Tower as long as they've cut back on all domestic spending, or

(3) They know something we don't know about air safety and terrorists. Like there aren't any terrorists riding American planes, 9-11 was a setup, like the infamous Reichstag fire, and Osama is an active agent of the Repugnifascist conspiracy.

Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

Jack Dalton: The Bendermans Need Our Help

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

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

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

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

-- Sgt Kevin Benderman, Conscientious Objector

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

Thank you.

Propaganda Run Amok

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

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

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

Yeah, me neither.

Execution Milestone Postponed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We kill people.

One Veteran's Voice: A Must Read

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

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

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

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

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

One Down, Several Hundred to Go

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 557 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

Today's Quiz

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

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


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


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


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


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

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

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

Motherfucker.

Winter Soldier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Cat Blogging

The Fun Never Stops

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

From the Cincinatti Enquirer story:

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

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

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

Beware Buyer

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 549 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

Hating the Veterans -- Nothing New for Repugnicans

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

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

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

A Lot of Fucking Nerve

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

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

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

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

House Democrat Calls for End to Iraq War

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now.

Friday Cat Blogging

Who Said It and When?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

War Crimes. Lying Pentagon. Another Day at the Office

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

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

Using it is a war crime. Period.

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

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

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

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

Finally, Some Good News Coming out of the VA

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

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 542 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

You Can't Make This Stuff Up #344

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

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

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

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

Operation Truth Responds to Bush Vets Day Tirade

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

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

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

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

Veteran Bob Geiger Skewers Bush

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

Tired of Losing Elections? Become a Republican

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

A Veterans Day Message

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dems Set to Cave on Scalito?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John O'Neill, Worthless Carpetbagger Gadfly

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

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

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

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

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

Winston Said It -- Baby Doc Ignores It

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

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

--Winston Churchill, November 21, 1943

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

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

Concrete Coat Tails

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

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

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

How Wrong Can One Man Be?

How wrong and still be in power.

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

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

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

Impeachment. Now.

This is How You Do It

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

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

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

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

How about, guys and gals?

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 535 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

Vietnam War Dogtags -- Do You Know These People?

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

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

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

Impeach the Lying Bastards

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part of the Plan for the Betterment of the Empire

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

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

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

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

The Big Dick Just Won't Give Up

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

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

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

Gee, Ya Think So, John?

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

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

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

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

The "Crisis" in Runaway Military Health Care

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

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

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

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

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

Fucked Up Pharmacy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bush Poll Numbers Plummet!

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

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

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

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

We're in Safe Hands -- Not!

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

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

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

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

Shape of Things to Come

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

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

Today's LA Times has the full story.

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

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

Scalia Lite?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 528 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why I Refuse to Join VSOs -- Reason # 566

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

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

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

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

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

It's the Democrats' Fault. Naturally.

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

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

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

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

The Libby Squeeze Play

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Cat Blogging

Miers Out -- Attila the Hun In?

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

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

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

Waiting for the Other Shoe

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

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

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

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

2000 Dead Americans -- 2000 Too Many

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

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

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

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

Two thousand is two thousand too many.

Baby Doc to Wounded Veterans: Suck it Up, Wussies

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

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

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