There's Strategy, and Then There's "Strategery"...

SGT Kevin Benderman, who refused to return to Iraq by claiming conscientious objector status, was found guilty Thursday of "Missing Movement by Design" and sentenced to 15 months in military jail -- a questionable charge and and even more questionable conviction.

Read fellow resister Camilo Mejia's take on it on the Truthout website and see for yourself what went wrong.

There's strategy, which should have worked in this case. And then there's that good ole Bushwa "stategery", which it appears always trumps reality.

How many more Kevin Bendermans, how many more Camilo Mejias, how many more Jonathan Barrigas will it take before we collectively as a society say "enough"?

Okay, a Little Sunday Levity...

God knows we need it. Here's my favorite Bush story:

Three surgeons were sitting around talking one night, bragging about their most successful operations.

Dr. Chappell says, "I once sewed back three fingers on the hand of a music student and today that man is a concert pianist."

Dr. Pattin rolls her eyes. "You think that's so great? I once sewed the leg back on a high school soccer player and today that man is the top scoring place kicker for the NFL."

Dr. Ihlang retorts, "Shit, that's nothing. When I was down in Texas, I came across the worst accident I ever saw. A cowboy was riding his horse along the railroad track and along came a train. When they cleaned up the mess, there was nothing left but a cowboy hat and a horse's ass. I sewed them together and today that man is the President of the United States."

More of Those Old Time Republican Family Values

Jesus, the hits just keep comin' at ya.

Larry Dale Floyd, 62, a Denton County, Texas, constable -- elected as a Republican, naturally -- is in jail in Colorado in lieu of $100,000 bail on charges of conspiracy and criminal intent to commit sexual assault on a child, pandering of a child, inducement of child prostitution, trafficking in children, criminal solicitation, solicitation for child prostitution and enticement of a child.

Wow, all of that over a little Internet "misunderstanding"...

Oh, and the intended victim? An eight-year-old girl.

Read the full story on the Dallas Morning News website and keep on electing those Republican perverts, redstate America.

God will be so proud of you when you're standing before those Pearly Gates, fumbling with your voter registration card and trying to figure out a way to change it to show "Democrat".

Too late.

Village vs Community -- No Comparison

Little Ricky "Man-on-Dog" Santorum has a new book out, the title of which I won't mention because I don't want it to have more Google hits than it truly deserves. He was on the Stephanopoulos show today (transcript) flogging the book -- and himself, naturally. [No, not that way, dirty mind.]

At one point he called Hilary Clinton a radical feminist because, among other things, her book, It Takes a Village, held that it took more than just a family to raise a child. In the same sentence he also said, "we need strong families and strong communities"...

So I guess in Little Ricky's microscopic view of the world, there is a H-U-U-U-G-E difference between a village and a community. It's just those of us on the lunatic fringe, here in the reality-based community, that can't see it.

BTW, the idea of life in American small towns of the 1950s is at the very core and is the epitome of the idealized vision of Republican values. And, as anyone who ever lived in a small town in those days can attest, everyone knew you, everyone knew your parents, and if you got out of line, either they would correct you themselves, or rat you off to your parents.

And that my friends is the very definition of It Takes A Village.

Fucking moron hypocrites.

Criminal on the Court

No one would tolerate a shoplifter on the Supreme Court. No one would countenance a forger. Or a carjacker. A purse-snatcher. A strong-arm robber. People that steal stuff are just not nice people.

Then why the fuck are the Democrats going to roll over and play dead for John Fuck Veterans Frenchfry Roberts?

Roberts was instrumental in the Florida debacle that overturned the will of the people and handed the election illegally over to The Chimp. That was thievery on such a grand scale that there should be a different vocabulary to describe it.

Now of course the Florida GOP is all, "Roberts? Roberts who? Oh, that guy. Yeah, maybe he was around some, but he didn't really do all that much."

Even the Jebster says he doesn't know him, despite the fact that the sleazy lawyer for the Repugs had a half-hour one-on-one strategy meeting with the governor.

Give me a break.

Imagine the outcry if the following alternate-universe scenario had played out (special thanks to TomDispatch.com for this one):

He's waited patiently for almost five years, and now -- finally -- President Gore, in his second term in office, has his long-desired chance to nominate a Supreme Court justice and so tip the court decisively in his direction.
Thanks to the infamous 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2000 that threw the disputed Florida vote recount to Gore, the Republicans still nurse bitter feelings. Five years later, they have no doubt that Election 2000 -- in which their candidate won the majority popular vote -- was stolen from them by the dreaded and hated "Democrat Court."
Gore nonetheless seizes the moment, appears on national television in prime time, and announces his nomination of a sturdy-jawed woman of color, an exceedingly liberal lawyer, a Clinton favorite and former aide to Attorney General Janet Reno, whose name appears on the founding lists of Moveon.org (though she now claims she has no memory of "membership" in the organization).
Soon after her nomination, it is reported that, in 2000, when the Florida case was in the balance, she paid her way to Florida and played a behind-the-scenes role on the David Boies legal team, worked in the shadows, and spent half an hour in a "very arcane discussion" with the busy then-candidate Al Gore.
The people around Gore at the time now claim not to remember much about her role and are sure that means it was insignificant.

Just imagine it.

Now tell me, what is wrong with the Democratic party in this country?

Petition for Iraqi Freedom

Elizabeth Woods (email: elisa42_05@hotmail.com) is an earnest young Republican who has a point of view. She is circulating an online petition to pResident Horsejack to "stay the course" in Iraq. Whatever that means this week.

Good for her. Here's the text of the email I sent to her in response:

Thank You for Supporting Our President

I am so proud of you for circulating your petitition. It is so refreshing to see a young person with the personal drive and patriotism that you so amply display taking an interest in the foreign policy of her country.

I am a disabled Vietnam combat veteran, the son of a WWII veteran, the nephew of TWO Korean War veterans (both of whom were also in WWII), the grandson of a WWI veteran, the great-grandson of a Spanish American War veteran, the great-great-grandson of THREE Civil War veterans, the great-great-great-grandson of a Mexican War veteran, the great-great-great-great-grandson of TWO War of 1812 veterans, and the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of FOUR veterans of the American Revolution. I have a son in the Tennessee National Guard in Fallujah, and a daughter-in-law in the Regular Army in Baghdad. In addition, I have two nephews in the Marine Corps who are "somewhere in Iraq" (that is all they are allowed to tell us).

I can't express how proud all of my ancestors -- and my children and nephews -- who took up arms to defend our nation will be of you that day when you hold up your right hand and take that pledge to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, when you take your oath of enlistment and join Uncle Sam's military service.

I just wish all of them could be with us when I witness that happy occasion.

Please consider inviting me to your swearing-in ceremony. Nothing would please me more. I am an aging disabled veteran now, with multiple physical problems stemming from my service in Vietnam, so I can't get around like I used to, but if you would only invite me to be a witness to that joyous occasion... well, words just can't capture the depth and the breadth and the intensity of the emotions that I would feel... I would, in short, die a happy man if only that one wish were to come true.

Thank you again for your impending sacrifice in the service of your country.

SP4 Winston S. Farnsworth
Medically Retired 100% Disabled
US Army Veteran
Vietnam 1968-69

Okay, so I lied a little: I don't have any relatives on the ground in Iraq, I'm not medically retired, and I have only a 10% disability. So what? These people thrive on lies -- the least I can to is provide some free of charge.

It'll be interesting to see if she she responds. And what she says, if she does. She's probably so fucking stupid that she won't get the sarcasm.

See Operation Yellow Elephant for more, and start your own "agitprop" campaign. It's actually a lot of fun.

Leonard Clark Punished by AZ Guard

Leonard Clark if you recall, was the Arizona National Guard soldier on active duty in Iraq who had the nerve -- the unmitigated gall -- to post on his blog his opinion about the war.

For his trouble, he was forced to take down his blog and submit to an Article 15 UCMJ, charged with "violating operational security" and 11 counts of disobeying orders.

Clark was busted down one rank to PFC, fined $820 per month for two months, and sentenced to 45 days restriction and 45 days of extra duty -- suspended for five months.

Kos has the whole story.

Remember the old saying, no good deed goes unpunished.

Who Are You Gonna Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes?

In what appears to be another in a line of involuntary muscle spasms, the First Finger got flipped yet again.

Little Scotty McClelland, true to form, says it never happened. Says he knows the president and the president would never do such a thing.

Huh?

Thanks to the Randi Rhodes website for this image montage.

Still don't believe it? Think it's been Photoshopped? Check out the video.

Let's see, Bush flipping the bird, Cheney telling a senator, on the floor of the Senate, "Go fuck yourself"...

Jeez, maybe these guys do represent true red state values after all.

Friday Song Parody

Tweaked on Treachery (Karl Rove)
Raised on Robbery -- Joni Mitchell
© 2005 Dennis Mansker

He was sitting in a cell at the graybar hotel,
Wondering how he got there,
Feeling sorry for himself.
A little secret-telling, giving up a name,
It was just a lady, Valerie Plame.
I said she's going down,
Wilson alone is such a shame,
He gets the blame, she gets the killin' flame.
I was a joker,
I claimed it was just a game.
Hey, Dubya, you got lots of clout,
I want out of prison,
And you can get me out.
Ain't no need of thinkin',
I was tweaked on treachery.

I talked to Bob Novak,
But I didn't say her name,
I said Joe Wilson's wife,
But it could be any dame.
I try and I try, I can't make any sense.
They're calling me a traitor,
I thought the truth was a defense.
I'm mean and I'm schemin',
I was tweaked on treachery.

Joe Wilson went to Niger once,
Was lookin' all around for yellowcake.
There wasn't any for Saddam to buy,
Showed our evidence was all fake.
He wrote a story in the New York Times
Put Bush in the ditch,
I won't get any rest,
That son of a bitch,
His wife's life's risky--
I was tweaked on treachery.

You know I'm not bad lookin',
But I do feel like a dope.
The guys call me honey,
When they want to play some "drop the soap".
Bush, where you goin'?
Don't go yet,
I'm still in prison, you're in my debt.
You said I'd be pardoned.
I was tweaked on treachery.

Friday Cat Blogging

Struggle? The German Translation is Kampf

In an amazingly out-of-touch display of cluelessness, the Orwellian language mavens in the Smirking Chimp Maladministration have decided that we are no longer in a "war"...

No, now we are engaged in a "struggle".

The entire wingnut propaganda machine is now retooling itself to adapt to the new slogan: It's not war, it's a struggle.

A struggle. Jesus Christ, a "struggle" is when you're trying to get the top button on your 501s fastened after you've had that extra piece of Aunt Effie's pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.

Nobody dies in a struggle. People die in a fucking war. Get a fucking clue, assholes.

And by the way, Adolph Hitler wrote a book in prison. It was called Mein Kampf. The English translation is My Struggle. Just in case you were wondering.

Maybe the Smirking Chimp will have his own opportunity to write a similarly-titled book. Under similar circumstances.

One can only hope.

Munitions Linked to Gulf War Brain Cancer

According to a report on the Reuters UK site, Gulf War veterans who were exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq, are nearly twice as likely to die from brain cancer.

This is from a new report appearing in the American Journal of Public Health.

We've been saying for a long time that there is something deadly wrong with the way the military has treated and continues to treat its soldiers and sailors -- and the way this maladministration treats its veterans. This is just more proof. Now watch these poor bastards try to fight the VA for health care for their cancer.

It's bad enough that we would do something like this to our enemies -- it is sickening that we would do this to our own troops.

And don't forget where those chemical munitions came from: We sold them to Saddam ourselves.

That's what Rummy was doing in that famous photograph of him shaking hands with -- and grinning at -- the Butcher of Baghdad. Closing the deal.

And then Saddam gassed the Kurds using US-supplied poison gas. "Gassed his own people," as Prezdint Horsejerk is so fond of saying, pretending to be aghast while ignoring the ultimate source of those poisonous clouds.

Keeping it Real, People

Just a reminder to everyone who has been caught up in the Supreme Court follies, or any of a large number of other diversions trotted before us by the swine media:

Karl Rove is still guilty of treason! Karl Rove is still working at the White House!

He ought to be fired NOW, not years from now. But Doonesbury had it right today: Turdblossom is probably going to get a promotion.

Fuck this. When are the Moron-American red state family values idiots going to realize that they are being royally screwed by these neocon pigs?

Harkin Amendment Calls for Balance at AFVN

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that would require Armed Forces Radio to provide balanced political programming, and establish an ombudsman position.

A total of over 64 hours per week of AFVN broadcasting consists of rightwing vocal vomit, with the likes of Rush "Dope Addict Pimple Ass Chickenhawk Professional Blowhard Fourth-Wife Family Values" Limbaugh spewing and endless stream of invective against the left in this country -- there is no counterbalancing programming, nor is there any solid requirement for it.

The Pigboy of course claims that HE'S the counterbalance. Against, of all things, National Public Radio. Jesus, it's come to this?

There used to be something called The Fairness Doctrine in this country. Our boy Ronnie Ray-gun appointed FCC commissioners who eventualy got rid of it in 1987. I say let's bring it back, and let's start with AFVN.

Read the full story on Media Matters for America, read the text of the Harkin Amendment, and let your senators know that you support it.

Let's support our troops by showing them that there is a voice of reason left in this nation.

While there still is.

"The Only Way to Suport the Troops is Going Over There" -- Why We "Heart" Paul Hackett

Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett is running as a Democrat in a special election for the vacant Ohio 2nd Congressional District. And as expected, the rightwing propaganda machine has geared up to slime another veteran.

His opponent, noted wingnut Jean Schmidt, has trotted out her lapdog lackeys to question Hackett's service: "I understand that Hackett did not participate in combat at all...let's not act as though we led Marines in combat if we did not, okay?" -- Eric Minamyer, Schmidt advisor.

Hackett was a civil affairs officer in Iraq. Eleven other members of civil affairs units have died in Iraq. The entire country -- what is left of it -- is a war zone. How dare that slimy little weasel say that about an American Marine officer. I'd like to know where that little motherfucker was hiding when it was time to sign up with the recruiter.

In response to the GOP-inspired attack by Schmidt and her white-feathered groupies, Hackett said, "The only way I know how to support the troops is by going over there. All the chickenhawks back here who said, 'Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us' - look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth."

I couldn't have said it better. But I could have said it worse: Shut your FUCKING mouth. But I'm not running for Congress.

Let's show the Ohio GOP -- and their shadowy bankrollers at the national level -- that we won't allow another bunch of Swift Boat Liars to denigrate the honorable service of another American veteran.

Please go to the Paul Hackett for Congress website and donate some cash so Paul can win the election next Tuesday. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. This is the dress rehearsal for the congressional battles of next year. Let's make our opening shot count.

You can make online donations at Act Blue

Thanks to Kos for this.

The Gang That Couldn't Think Straight

For reasons unknown, the Ashcroft Justice Department chose to quash an indictment by the Seattle branch of the US Attorney's office which would have resulted in the arrest of Haroon Aswat, who once lived at a Seattle mosque and now is a prime suspect in the London bombings.

Read the full story on the Seattle Times website and then you tell me why this decision was made.

I can't figure it out. The US Attorney in Seattle sure can't figure it out. The only way it makes sense is in some alternate-universe tin-foil-hat bizarro-world 13th dimension, and those of us in the reality-based community tend to stay away from that part of the forest...

He Who Recuses Himself Accuses Himself

In a remarkable exchange reported in the LA Times, Judge John Fuck Veterans Frenchfry Roberts said in response to a question from Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) that as a devout and practicing Roman Catholic, he would probably have to recuse himself from a Supreme Court decision if the law required a ruling that his church considered "immoral".

Think about that a minute. Not only would Justice Frenchfry have to recuse himself from any decision on abortion, but also decisions on issues of church and state, doctor-assisted suicide, the death penalty, preemptive war, pornography, gay rights, social welfare...

Jesus, the list is almost endless. So if he's not going to actually be doing anything, like issuing decisions and ruling on cases, why should we pay the fucker that fantastic salary?

Bush Twins in Uniform Watch

It has been 429 days since Jenna and Barbara Bush graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why?

Patriotism Lite

Thom Shanker in today's NYT has a superb analysis on what's wrong with the BFEE war effort: It's that only the troops are asked to share the sacrifice, and no one else is. No income surtax, no blood drives, no war bonds, no gas rationing, and no draft to share the burden across all economic levels. The Greatest Generation must be really proud of us, their progeny.

This is the only war we have ever fought as a nation wherein the Home Front was not an integral part of the war effort. This is the also rare war wherein the children of the president who are of military age are not in uniform.

The lying hypocritical Chickenhawk motherfuckers inside the Beltway and their fellow-traveler lackeys around the country sporting those fucking yellow ribbons on their gas-hog SUVs waste no time in preening their patriotic feathers and crowing from the rooftops that they "support the troops". But they're not willing to make even the slightest personal sacrifice to make manifest that support.

Every time I see one of those goddam yellow ribbons it is all I can do to restrain myself from tearing it off and grinding into the blacktop.

But things could escalate rapidly out of control, with the ultimate result that I might have to share a jail cell with Karl Rove, and I don't think I could trust myself not to throttle the little turdblossom.

Treason and Reason

Alan Bisbort at the Hartford Advocate calls it:

"The talking point for the next election: Republicans stand for Treason; Democrats stand for Reason. This was established during a Senate vote this week for an amendment to a homeland security appropriations bill that would deny access to classified material to any federal employee who discloses a covert CIA agent's identity. The bill was defeated, the vote breaking down along straight party lines, 53 to 44. The ruling party -- the Ruling Class -- has ossified, a sure sign of a government that will soon (but not soon enough!) collapse under the sheer weight of its own bullshit."

See the complete commentary and pass it on. Especially if you know any Democratic Party insiders who could use some good advice on winning elections...

Pardongate II -- Another Bush I Legacy

Check out the guest reader commentary on Buzzflash today, asking The One Question that the Senate Judiciary Committee should ask Judge John Fuck Veterans Roberts during his nomination hearing.

Thanks to the obstructionist Poppy Bush and his inappropriate pardon of Iran-Contra traitors Casper Weinberger and five other co-conspirators two decades ago, The Chimp has historical precedent to pardon Karl "The Traitor" Rove -- and anyone else involved in the exposure of a CIA agent -- even before there is a trial, and even before there are charges filed. And, to add to it, he could impound all documentary evidence and lock it up permanently from public view because of "national security". That's exactly what his daddy did way back when.

That means that all this work by the special prosecutor will have been in vain, the Turdblossom will walk without doing the frogmarch, and Prezdint Codpiece Numnutz will be able to retire back to the ranch and jack off some more horses.

And with Justice John French Fry Roberts on the Court to vote with the Scalia-Thomas Christo-Fascist bloc, don't look for The Supremes to help out.

This is a must-read commentary.

The Porn Star and the Party of Family Values

You can't make this shit up.

Porn star Mary Carey and her escort, powerhouse porn king Mark Kulkis, showed up as honored guests at a Republican fund raiser in June. Along with the Smirking Chimp himself and 6,000 of his closest friends. All at $5000 a pop. It was that five grand that made them honored guests, I suppose.

Mary had already said she wanted to fuck Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Pat Buchanan and Alan Colmes. But all the stops came out when the subject of the Bush twins came up.

"Oh my God, his daughters!" she said. "I'd love to party with his daughters. I'd love to meet them. I totally want to have sex with them."

Okay. Now we're talking. If the Republican Party has already sunk to the point that porn kings -- and princesses -- are honored guests, it's a small step from there to making a porno movie starring Mary Carey with Jenna and Not-Jenna in some nasty girl-on-girl action.

That's a guaranteed pay-per-view gold mine. I hope no one from the RNC is reading this blog. They might take my idea and run with it, and the money raised from that event alone would sink the Democratic Party for a generation.

PS -- Take a look at the photo on that link. This is the party that wants to pass a law against flag desecration! And that's the right wing WorldNetDaily website.

Like I said -- you can't make this shit up.

Liberal is NOT a Dirty Word

"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label liberal? If by liberal they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government and who is unconcerned with the taxpayers dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of liberal. But if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a liberal, then Im proud to say I'm a liberal."

-- John F. Kennedy
Sept 14, 1960

Veto? What the Fuck?

Preznit Smirking Chimp says he will veto the defense spending bill if it includes language that regulates the Pentagon's treatment of "detainees" -- or even if it sets up a commission to investigate Guantanamo and other prisons.

Veto? The sonofabitch has yet to veto one goddamn bill in four and half years, and now this is going to be his showdown veto?

As my old granny used to say, "that boy ain't right in the head".

This is a goddam defense spending bill, for christ sake. He's going to hold our own troops hostage to his desire to torture those funny-lookin' folks with the towels on their heads.

Great. Let him veto it. That will be yet another black mark against him in the history books. It's just too bad that I'm too old to still be around when the true history of the Bush Maladminstration is written.

I'm Shocked, Shocked I Tell You

In testimony that surprises no one, former CIA anaylyst (and registered Republican) Larry Johnson stated yesterday that Bush's lack of action on the Valerie Plame issue has jeopardized national security.

The pool of potential informants has suddenly dried up. Who would be willing to put their neck on the line to help the US if we can't guarantee their anonymity and safety?

Johnson stated that he wanted a GOP lawmaker with integrity to speak out on the issue. [GOP integrity? Larry, that in itself seems to present a problem.] "I expect better behavior out of Republicans." [And I don't know why, in the face of all the evidence pointing the other way, he would have that particular expectation, either.]

And meanwhile Karl "The Traitor" Rove still has his White House job and his security clearance, and he's still sucking on the public tit.

Give me a fucking break. If this were a Democratic administration, the torch-and-pitchfork-carrying villagers would already have chased Rove -- and Bush along with him -- to the old mill and set fire to it.

Friday Song Parody

J-A-I-L
(Y-M-C-A -- The Village People)
© 2005 Dennis Mansker

Young man, did you blab the wrong name?
I said, young man, was it Valerie Plame?
I said young man, now you'll take the blame.
You are gonna be unhappy.
Young man, 'cause she was CIA,
I said young man, there's a place you can stay,
Stay there for free and I think you will see,
You will be under lock and key.

Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Drop the soap is a game he won't enjoy
When he hangs out with all of the boys.
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L.

You will wear prison blues, you'll be behind bars,
You won't be driving fancy cars.
Young man, are you looking at me?
I said young man, you are no longer free.
I said young man, you just gave up your dreams,
But you got to know this one thing:
You made it there all by yourself.
I said young man, put your ass on the line,
And go there to the J-A-I-L,
It'll be like you've gone to hell.

Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Drop the soap is a game he won't enjoy
When he hangs out with all of the boys.
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L.

You will get yourself reamed, you'll be unable to feel,
You will barely hear yourself squeal.
Young man, when you break the law,
I said young man, it'll be shock and awe,
I said young man, you're gonna feel raw,
And you will be unhappy,
Young man, you are going away,
I said young man, there's a place you can stay.
Live there for free and I think you will see,
They're gonna throw away the key.

Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Drop the soap is a game he won't enjoy
When he hangs out with all of the boys.
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L,
Karl Rove is going to J-A-I-L.

Friday Cat Blogging

Dotty and Lucy

Oh, Yeah. This Makes Sense.

Kindasleazy Rice and her entourage were allegedly roughed up by guards during a diplomatic visit to fucking Sudan, of all places.

What the fuck?

We can read all of the MSM and SCLM reports about this that we want, but what the hell REALLY went on there? Can it be that Rice's "diplomacy" wasn't taken really well by her hosts in that African nation also known as "hell on earth"?

We will probably never know what really happened, since the whore media won't tell us -- especially after one of their own, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, was allegedly victimized by the Sadists of Sudan.

Jesus, would someone please just TELL US what happened?

Finally! The Bush Twins Enlist!

Saw the whole story on The Heretik, complete with a photo of Jenna and Not-Jenna wearing their stylish new C2H5OH helmets.

The twins have enlisted to drink until the war is over. "Like our dad said, war is hard work," Not-Jenna said. "So we're going to do some hard drinking."

Ah, would that it were true. As you know, I'm a fervent believer in the redemptive power of military training, especially for the rich, the spoiled, the arrogant and the lazy. I think the dynamic duo fall into those categories in multiple places.

It has been 426 days since they graduated from college. Isn't it about time they tried to stand on their own two feet? At attention. At Fort Polk. In August. For several hours. Followed by thirty minutes in the so-called front-leaning rest.

Discipline and self-control -- it's exactly what they are lacking, and it's exactly what military training will provide them.

There might still be a chance that we'll see the twins in uniform. It is their patriotic duty, after all.

What a Difference a Day Makes

First Fearless Leader said he'd fire anybody who leaked the name. Now he said he'll fire anyone who leaked the name who committed a crime.

Tomorrow he will say, "I'll fire anyone who leaked the name, was convicted of a crime, then sentenced to death and executed, then drawn and quartered, chopped and burned and then had his remaining molecules scattered to the four winds. His sorry ass is gonna be outta here!"

Karl Rove is still a traitor. Karl Rove is still on the job. We are paying Karl Traitor Rove's salary.

That makes us the suckers, doesn't it?

Roberts to Veterans: Go Fuck Yourselves

The case was Acree v. Republic of Iraq, and it began during Gulf War I when a number of POWs were tortured by the minions of Saddam Hussein. Following the end of hostilities, these veterans and their family members filed suit in US District Court against Saddam Hussein and the Republic of Iraq.

The end result of this case was that the judgment was for the plaintiffs in the amount of nearly $1 billion.

Happy ending, right?

Not so fast. Turns out that once Saddam was overthrown, the Bush Maladministration intervened to block the award because it didn't want the new Iraqi regime to start out in debt. Roberts, that sterling example of jurisprudence, argued -- alone -- that the federal courts did not even have jurisdiction to consider the victims' claims.

See the story on the ACS Blog for full details

And this is the best and the brightest legal mind of our generation?

Better fasten your seatbelts. We're in for a bumpy ride.

Iraq & Afghanistan War Vets Speak Out

A group of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has taken out an ad in the Washington Post critical of Bush and his handling of veterans issues.

The ad says, in part, "WITHOUT IMMEDIATE CHANGES, four out of five returning Veterans could be turned away from care at VA hospitals. That’s a raw deal the American people will not tolerate."

Let's help these guys in any way we can, and be proud of them for speaking out. Old guys like me aren't going to be around forever, so we need to be cultivating the next generation of liberal progressives to carry on the fight.

Justice French Fry

Once again I raise a salute to my compatriot The Democratic Veteran, whose fiendishly simple reaction to Roberts' nomination to The Supremes is to call him, wherever and whenever possible, Justice French Fry.

Roberts was in the majority when the DC Court decided that the full force and majesty of the law must be brought to bear on a 12-year-old girl who had the effrontery to eat a single french fry in a Metro station.

See the Daily Kos Dkosopedia complete entry on Roberts for a good summary of his rulings and views.

And thank you again, Mr. Fish.

Neener Neener. Told You So.

So who the fuck is John Roberts Jr.? Exactly who I said he would be yesterday. I just didn't mention him by name. Because I didn't know his name, I just knew what he would be.

Alliance for Justice has the scoop on him, from a couple of years ago when he was nominated -- and confirmed -- to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

According to their report, Roberts has "a record of hostility to the rights of women and minorities" and he also is "in favor of weakening the separation of church and state and limiting the role of federal courts in protecting the environment".

Moreover,

"While working under Presidents Reagan and Bush, Mr. Roberts supported a hard-line, anti-civil rights policy that opposed affirmative action, would have made it nearly impossible for minorities to prove a violation of the Voting Rights Act and would have 'resegregated' America's public schools. He also took strongly anti-choice positions in two Supreme Court cases, one that severely restricted the ability of poor women to gain information about abortion services, and another that took away a key means for women and clinics to combat anti-abortion zealots."

And here's what Independent Judiciary had to say about him -- it ain't so good, either. Nor is this report from People for the American Way.

Bushco thinks that because Roberts has such a slim record on the DC Curcuit, he will be a stealth candidate for the right the way Souter turned out to be a stealth candidate for humanity. And they are probably right, because the Dems will cave in once again and give the bastard a free pass onto the highest court in the land.

Now, as I also predicted, just watch the lapdog media go slavering after left-wing quotes against Roberts, countered with right-wing quotes to "fair and balance" the left-wing quotes, and pretty soon it's going to be "Karl who?"

Bizness as usual for the Bush Crime Family, BOHICA for the rest of us.

Westmoreland Dead at 91 -- Irrelevant

Now that Westy has shuffled off this mortal coil, has joined the choir invisible, has gone to meet his maker, has ceased to be, etc., I won't get a chance to ask the question I always wanted to ask him. Here's hoping that the Cosmic Muffin will ask it, when that inevitable F2F happens.

The question? Simply this: "What the fuck were you thinking????!!!!!"

My favorite Westmoreland anecdote: Years after the end of the Vietnam war, Westmoreland's nemesis, the famous North Vietnam general Vo Nguyen Giap, and Westmoreland finally met. Westmoreland, always the diplomat, testily said to his counterpart, in effect, "I don't get it. You should have lost that war. We never lost a battle, and you never won one."

General Giap replied simply, "This is true. It is also irrelevant."

Yet another lesson for our time from the pages of history.

Speak Up and Get Slapped -- Even if You are GOP!

The GOP Congressmen who headed efforts in 2004 to make the House leadership aware of the looming shortfall in VA health care were fired for their troubles.

Chris Smith (NJ) was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee when he informed the Politburo of the People's Chamber of Deputies that VA needed at least $2.5 billion more. For his trouble he was rebuked by his fellow Repugs for his alarmist outburst,and subsequently he lost his chairmanship.

Fellow committee members Rob Simmons (CT) and Rick Renzi (AZ) who spoke out in support of Smith were unceremoniously booted off as well.

Delay, Hastert and the other sleazy members of the Politburo remain silent on the subject except for a Delay sock puppet who lamely claimed, "we didn't see any indication that there was going to be a shortfall".

Yeah, right. And I didn't know that the sun was going to come up today.

Like the private citizens who try to exercise their right to speak out, these three public servants have been effectively silenced by their jackbooted thug overlords in the American Reichstag.

And meanwhile the Repugs seem to forget that American veterans are dying for lack of available care at VA medical facilities.

This is an appalling abuse of power, and we have to change it.

Get out and start campaigning NOW for every Democrat in sight. This long nightmare for America's veterans won't end until we get a progressive majority back in Congress, and even then it's going to be a long uphill battle.

Gimme That Ol' Time Faith-Based Science

In a move that at this point is really not at all surprising but appalling nonetheless, US Representative from Texas Joe Barton (R., Christo-Fascist Shitweasel) instigated an investigation against two scientists who came to a conclusion on Global Warming that matched that of every other reputable scientist on the planet but unfortunately happened to differ from "The Revealed Truth"^TM.

Even his fellow Repugs recognized that the incoherent glassy-eyed barely cognitive Barton went over the top.

See the Democratic Party blog Kicking Ass for the story: Read it and weep.

Rove and Treason

Whatever shit the Repugs throw against the wall, it won't matter what sticks or doesn't stick unless we fight back -- if we don't they are going to be successful in diverting the Moron-American redstaters' reality-tv-addled ADD attention span away from the fact that Karl Rove is guilty of treason. Witness the pathetic Ken Mehlmann's lies over the weekend when he said, with a straight face, that the Michael Cooper story exonerated Rove, when the truth was exactly the opposite.

Buzzflash has it right. We need to put the words "Rove and Treason" together as much as we can and as many times as we can.

It should be our mantra: Rove and treason Rove and treason Rove and treason Rove and treason Rove and treason Rove and treason.

Get that lying traitor out of OUR government. Rove and treason. Say it long and say it loud.

Rove and treason.

It's the Supreme Court, Stupid

Look for a surprise announcement of a patently unqualified faith-based right-wing Constitution-in-Exile racist homophobic anti-choice Supreme Court nominee in the next day or two to take the heat off of Karl "Traitor" Rove and Prez'dint Imastoopid Numnutz.

Nothing like poking a stick in a different wasp nest to take the focus of the lapdog media and their willing co-conspirators in the Moron-American voting bloc off of the one that's stinging you in the ass.

Fuckers.

Another Anti-Bush War Protester Arrested.

A war protester carrying signs that called for Bush's impeachment and the end of the war in Iraq was yanked out of a parade and arrested on July 13 in tiny Mexico, NY, an upstate community of some 5000 people.

An Oswego County deputy sheriff pulled Joshua Davies, 23, out of the parade, put him in handcuffs in the back of his prowl car, and charged him with disorderly conduct. Onlookers were stunned at what they saw. "Can they do that?" someone asked.

Apparently they can.

This is happening in cities and towns all across America -- for example, metropolitan Houston and tiny Neville, PA. A Google search for Bush Protester Arrested will give you an astonishing 92,800 hits going back years.

Our constitutional rights are being taken away, one day at a time, one person at a time.

While I have no doubt that Joshua Davies will eventually be cleared in this particular case (as were the individuals in Houston and Neville), the total cumulative effect of these arrests serves as a dampening field on all of our rights to freely speak our minds, and creates a chilling effect on the free exercise of our constitutional right of free speech.

And Mr and Mrs Red State, proud members of the faith-based Moron-American voting bloc, think that this is all perfectly okay. After all, Fearless Leader says, "there ought to be limits to freedom".

Welcome to 1933 Germany. Your papers, please.

The "Protect Halliburton and Fuck Navy Veterans Act" of 2005

As if the greedy pig motherfuckers at Halliburton weren't already fattening themselves enough at the public slop trough, a little-noticed bill is worming its nasty way through the greased machinery of the Repugnican senate.

It's called the FAIR Act, for Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution -- yet another in a long line of Orwellian naming conventions -- that would establish a $140 billion trust fund to be drawn down by sufferers from one or more of the many asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma.

Yeah, sounds great, but there are many troubling aspects to it:

• The bill would shield companies from further damage lawsuits filed by asbestos victims.


• It would also protect those companies from disclosing any asbestos information at all that is of a "confidential commercial or financial" nature.


• The companies themselves are the ones who get to make that designation.


• When that money is gone, anyone else that develops an asbestos-related health problem will be fucked.

Read the Society of Environmental Journalist's tip sheet for more information.

The chief beneficiary of this congressional largess: Halliburton, who inconveniently found itself saddled with a tremendous potential liability after its purchase of Johns-Manville. This is the company that is still paying Vice President Dickless Crashcart, in case you forgot.

The chief victims of this congressional mugging: America's veterans. Over 1/3 of the asbestos-related deaths in this country occur among Navy veterans who served between WWII and the mid-1970s, a time when asbestos was used extensively as insulation and fire retardant in Navy ships.

Read the chilling account of his father's death from asbestos-caused mesothelioma by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt's son, James, and heed his call for action to defeat this bill.

America's veterans have already been made to suffer far too much by this maladminstration. Let's not add to this grief. Contact your senators to urge them to kill this bill.

A Nation of Alternative Facts

As usual, Paul Krugman has it nailed. In his July 15 column, Krugman shows that the actual facts in the Rove debacle are immaterial and Republicans -- even those thought to be fiscally conservative and socially responsible -- are drinking the Kool-Aid and marching in lockstep with The Party.

It's not just about Rove; it's also about Bush and his "leadership" style and the fact that everyone knows that Rove is a liar and a bully and a thug -- and Bush, who knows it more than anyone, won't do anything about him.

Krugman concludes by wondering what has happened to America, and how did our political system get to this point.

Indeed.

Collateral Damage

I live in close proximity to Fort Lewis, Washington. Three times in the last two years the wives of Fort Lewis soldiers have been killed by their spouses. Each of the husbands was a recently returned Iraq War veteran. The most recent case was that of Brandon Bare, just 18, a native of North Carolina.

This is a sad tragedy that is being played out in the trailer courts and slumlord apartments sprawling out from the main gate of every military post in the country, from Fort Bragg to Fort Bliss, from Fort Hood to Fort Campbell. Young soldiers are abusing their wives, even to the point of death, because they can't cope with the stress of being a returning combat veteran.

We saw the very same thing play out in the years following the Vietnam War, and mostly caused by the same thing: The inability on the part of the warrior class to even acknowledge the existence of PTSD, let alone try to do anything to alleviate it. Instead these young men are told to suck it up, tough it out, move on, it don't mean shit.

The Bush Maladminstration apparently believes that. Otherwise they wouldn't be cutting back on the VA health care, and especially care for PTSD victims: Suck it up, tough it out, move on, it don't mean shit.

Well, I am sorry, but it DOES mean shit. The escalating number of dead military wives provides mute but eloquent proof. These women -- girls, really, in most cases -- are as much a casualty of war as are the soldiers killed on the battlefield, and we're going to be seeing a lot more of them.

Wake up, people. These are our sons and daughters, and this will be yet another generation marked forever with the broad brush of the "psychotic vet". We had enough of that in the aftermath of Vietnam. Let's not have any more of it.

Mr. Bush, Members of Congress, you must fully fund VA health care -- including PTSD treatment -- for our returning veterans. A generation is counting on you.

Flag Burning -- We Might Want to Keep an Eye on This One

Okay, so it didn't meet my prediction, but there's an interesting case out of Tennessee of a spaced-out teenager (like there's any other kind) in an alcoholic stupor who set fire to an American flag on July 4th.

It's not the kind of case you want to take to the Supreme Court -- it appears to be just a normal act of vandalism rather than a political statement -- but it may serve to test the Tennessee law.

He has an August 2 trial date where he will defend himself from charges of desecrating a venerated object, underage drinking, littering, evading arrest, burning personal property and theft.

Jesus wept.

Jonathan Randel -- Prosecution Precedent

I'm pretty sure you don't remember Randel. Neither did I until I read John Dean's It Doesn't Look Good for Karl Rove on the CNN website this morning.

Randel was a DEA analyst working in the Atlanta office who fingered British Conservative Lord Michael Ashcroft, major contributor to American conservative causes, as a money-launderer who was being ignored by the DEA.

Ashcroft sued, found out that it was Randel who leaked the information, and pressured US attorneys to pursue Randel. The Bush Dept of Justice dutifully investigated and slammed Randel with an 18-count indictment that was the equivalent of throwing a ton of shit against a wall in the sure knowledge that some of it was going to stick. (This is a common Repug tactic, as you know.)

Signifantly, one of the counts was a violation of Section 641, Title 18 USC, which prohibits "theft" of government records and information for non-governmental purposes. This is the statute that covers leaks.

Faced with a total of 500 years, Randel pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in federal prison.

The US Attorney boasted that the conviction of Randel would serve as a stellar example to the nation and the world as to how the administration would handle government leakers.

Really? Goodbye, Karl.

If I were you, I'd give Martha Stewart a call and ask for some advice. But since she's a good Democrat (the only reason she was persecuted, by the way, in case you didn't know that), about the only thing she'll tell you is that you won't need to bring your own soap to the showers.

Ha-ha.

Friday Cat Blogging

Not So Fast, Bonzo: Rehnquist Staying on Court

In a surprise announcement today, aging and ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist says he's not going anywhere. Read the NY Times story and weep, Preznent Smirking Chimp.

Word on the street had it for four long years that Rehnquist wanted to step down, but was afraid of who Fearless Leader Numnutz would install in his place. I thought it was all a load of crap, wishful thinking by some of my fellow travelers on the left who had more time than brains. Apparently it wasn't.

Rehnquist! In my wildest drug-induced alcohol-fueled sleep-deprived Hunter S. Thompson-like nightmare fantasy, I never thought I would see the day that I would be fervently hoping that Rehnquist would stay on the court.

Jesus, what a world.

Finally: A Weak Flame

It took them long enough, but I've finally gotten a little flame from a wingnut blog. It's something called UNCoRRELATED: News, Views and Opinions by the Pretentious for the Dilettants -- no, I don't know why its name is all caps except for the "o", nor do I know why dilettante is spelled without the customary final "e"; other than that the blog seems to be quite aptly named.

Calling the left's call for Rove's head a "liberal wet dream", UNC says, among other things, "One Pissed Off Veteran fulfills prophecy by comparing Rove to Goebbels, calling for imprisonment and of course anal rape. If you hug a liberal--wear gloves."

So, UNC, what's your point?

UNC, an unacknowledged prophet from the planet TFH, also says later on, "Totally ignored of course is the subsequent revelation that yes, Niger was in fact selling yellowcake to Iraq..." Go ahead and follow that link if you want, but contrary to expectation, it does not take you to a citation or another website that will validate that statement. Instead it takes you to another post on his blog where he makes some vague uncited allegations about rumors about yellowcake.

Interestingly enough, he also states early in the entry, "The same emotional state that produced the pogroms, lynching of Blacks in the South, the rape of Nanking and the atrocities of Rwanda are living right here in the hearts of those nice liberals living down the block."

Jeez, UNC, that's some pretty powerful shit you're pushing there. And you have the fucking nerve to criticize me for comparing Karl Rove to Goebbels?????
(And again, I really don't know why he uses a single subject, "state" with a plural verb, "are", but I guess that along with science and logic, the Right is now choosing to eschew "secular grammar".)

But let's give UNC the benefit of the doubt: What if he's right?

If so, then I think that the Administration needs to know about this. If there is actual proof that Niger was, in fact, selling the now-infamous yellowcake to Iraq (uranium, not boxes of Betty Crocker) and Joe Wilson knew about it and covered it up, and the whole WMD-inspired invasion of Iraq was NOT based on a lie, then UNC is failing to do his patriotic duty if he keeps this fact hidden.

Obviously the Bush Administration does not know this; if they did, Little Scotty McWetpants would be bragging it up to the media at every press briefing instead of trying to find a dry corner to hide in.

I can understand why UNC won't cite his sources on his blog -- then everybody would know about it! -- but why he is keeping it a secret from the Bush Adminstration is frankly beyond me.

A Charge to Keep

You'd think Prez'dint Itzalotta Hardwerk would want to keep at least one promise he made to the American people. He said, and you all heard him, that he would FIRE any person in his adminstration responsible for outing covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Now the wingnuts are taking two weak-kneed defensive positions: (1) He didn't actually use the word "fired", and (2) It's all about Joe Wilson, it's not about Karl Rove.

Bullshit. You know it and I know it. The American people ought to know it, too. It's now an open secret that Karl Rove was the asshole who dropped the dime on Valerie Plame.

Go to the Moveon Pac Fire Karl Rove petition and sign on. Tell YOUR president to keep his promise and fire Karl Rove.

Slacker Children of the Baby Boomer Generation

What would you think of a family that had two college graduates who are still living at home over one year after they graduated from college, who still don't have a job, and who are still sponging off of mom and dad?

Isn't that a classic sign of your typical weak-willed slacker Doctor Spock-reading baby-boomer parents who made a career out of sitting around Liberal Marin County or its equivalent, eating French cheese, drinking imported designer water and smoking hand-rolled spliffs?

It's no wonder the kids turned out they way they did, given their poor upbringing. They are already behind the game and falling farther behind with each passing day. Would it surprise you if they eventually turned up on welfare, pushing rusty shopping carts and showing the unmistakable signs of terminal food stamp poisoning?

I'm sure you would agree with me that these parents need to practice a little Tough Love. These children need to take control of their lives, stop being the equivalent of welfare bums still living with their parents, and grow up. What they need is some self-discipline, some direction in life, some goal-oriented training that will help them to become the decent hard-working taxpaying citizens that they so desperately need to become.

The answer of course is obvious, the same as it is for every other red-blooded healthy unemployed American youth: Join the military.

There's really no rational reason why Jenna and Barbara Bush are not in uniform.

Wow, the Press Has Finally Grown Some Balls

Head on over to jabbs and take a look at the excerpts from today's White House press briefing. Poor Scotty McClellan -- they are cutting him no slack at all.

It's not clear from the transcript who is asking these questions, but it appears to be NBC's David Gregory:

Q Scott, I mean, just -- I mean, this is ridiculous. The notion that you're going to stand before us after having commented with that level of detail and tell people watching this that somehow you decided not to talk. You've got a public record out there. Do you stand by your remarks from that podium, or not?

McCLELLAN: And again, David, I'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said, and I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is when the investigation ...

Q Why are you choosing when it's appropriate and when it's inappropriate?

McCLELLAN: If you'll let me finish ...

Q No, you're not finishing -- you're not saying anything. You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke out about Joseph Wilson's wife. So don't you owe the American public a fuller explanation? Was he involved, or was he not? Because, contrary to what you told the American people, he did, indeed, talk about his wife, didn't he?

Read more of it on the jabb site, or catch the full-meal deal on the White House website. There's a lot more, and you can almost feel the beads of sweat breaking out on Scotty's upper lip.

An Open Letter/Petition to pResident Bush

On the John Kerry website, you can sign a letter calling on Bush to fire Karl Rove.

Excerpt from the letter: "All I'm asking is that you remain true to your word. When the scandal first broke, your spokesman, Scott McClellan, said 'If anyone in this Administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this Administration.' (9/29/03, White House press briefing). What you do now, in light of Karl Rove’s involvement will speak volumes."

Go here to sign the letter.

Let's get the lying double-dealing two-faced hypocritical traitorous perjuring motherfucker out of OUR government. Oh yeah, and Karl Rove has to go, too...

It's About Time

A dozen gay veterans, male and female, from all branches of the service, have filed suit against the federal government seeking to overturn the idiotic "don't ask don't tell" policy concerning gays in the military.

Over 10,000 military personnel have been discharged from the service since the policy was introduced in 1993. And now we're in a time when the military can't meet its enlistment goals, so you'd think they'd want to keep every single able-bodied soldier, sailor, airman and marine on duty.

To those who say they don't want a gay person sleeping next to them or taking a shower with them, I say one word: bullshit. If you served in the military, then chances are you already did those things. You just didn't know it because the gay person sleeping next to you or showering with you was forced to keep his/her sexual orientation secret.
And somehow you survived it, didn't you?

It is unconscionable to prevent these patriotic Americans from serving their country if that decision is based solely on their sexual orientation. Let's hope the lawsuit is successful.

Supporting the Troops, Republican Style -- Part II

This is close to home. This makes it personal.
God damn the lying motherfucking chickenhawks who would do this to American veterans! God damn them!

Supporting the Troops, Republican Style

Ronald Glasser, frequent contributor to Harper's Magazine on medical issues, has an article in the July 2005 edition that says, among other things,

"Some 12,500 American G.I.s have been wounded in Iraq. Eight soldiers have been wounded for every one killed, about double the rate for Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. The percentage of soldiers who have undergone amputations is about twice that of any of our past military conflicts; nearly a quarter of all the wounded suffer from traumatic head injuries, far more than in our other recent wars...
The true legacy of this war will be seen not in the memorials to those lost forever but in the cabinets of files in the neurosurgical and orthopedic wards at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in the backlog of cases at Veterans Affairs."

Those of us who follow these kinds of things do not find this a surprise. The combination of heavily-armored torso protection coupled with huge advances in combat medical technology has resulted in a much higher number of the critically wounded hanging on and finally surviving, but it is survival with astonishingly debilitating injuries. This is something we've seen in no other war, and something that the Bush Misadminstration refuses to contend with, refuses to acknowledge, refuses even to believe.
The serious underfunding of VA medical care is now an open secret, common knowledge, so accepted that it is not even debatable by the shrill frothy-mouthed crazies on wingnut radio and Faux News. Thanks to the almost single-handed determination of Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray, Congress has authorized a special spending bill that will restore a lot -- but not all -- of the "missing" funding, but that amount will deal only with current needs. It will not address the future needs of our returning disabled veterans.
It will be to the everlasting shame of this nation if we continue to turn our backs on the disabled veterans who badly need medical care and who are not going to get it because it is "too expensive" for the DOD budget. These are our children, our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, that were deliberately sent into harm's way based on a lie, and they are coming home to try to rely on a VA health care system that is itself on life-support.
Jesus, people, we can do better than this.

Support Operation Yellow Elephant


Operation Yellow Elephant is the brain child of Jesus General, and the concept is very simple: Encourage college Republicans to do their part and enlist in the military. After all, they support the war, and what better way is there to support it than to actually join up and go to Iraq?
Do you know a young Republican? College student or not, he or she deserves the chance to prove that the Democrats and liberals are wrong when they call them chickenhawks.
Use this handy form to put them in touch with a friendly Army recruiter. You'll be doing both them and the Army a huge favor, since enlistments are way down and the recruiters need all the help they can get.
See more about Operation Yellow Elephant on The Smirking Chimp website.

SCOTUS Watch -- We Are So Fucked

It looks like Alberto "Torquemada" Gonzales is going to The Show. The Smirking Chimp is making the kind of gutteral noises that seem to precede a nomination. And our own chief torturer already sailed through his recent AG confirmation hearing.
Plus I heard that Harry Reid likes him.
Jesus, we are fucked. And this isn't even the big banana. If, as is widely assumed and rumored over the blogosphere the last couple of days, Rehnquist finally steps down, my prediction is that Duckman Scalia will be elevated to Chief Justice and another wingnut moron will be slid into his spot.
Even if the Dems can manage to avoid snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at last in the 2006 and 2008 elections, we will be fucked for the next 40 years because of the Christo-Fascist majority on the court.
We are so fucked.

Gonzales First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice? Not!

It is being widely reported -- including the current issue of Newsweek -- that Alberto Gonzales, should he be nominated to and approved for a Supreme Court seat, would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
This is a story being spread by the right-wing noise machine, presumably to show how inclusive the Repugs are, welcoming all and sundry into the party of the Big Tent.
Too bad for them that it's not true.
The first Hispanic Supreme Court justice was actually Benjamin Cardozo, who served on the court from 1932, when he replaced the retiring Oliver Wendell Holmes, until 1938 when he died after suffering a stroke that followed a late 1937 heart attack.
Cardozo descended from Sephardic Jews who left Spain (probably driven out in the great Expulsion of 1492) and came to the New World circa 1750 through Holland and England.
Cardozo, although appointed by Republican Herbert Hoover, was a member of the court's progressive wing. Unlike where Torquemada will likely be found.
Significantly, Cardozo wrote the majority opinion in the 1937 cases upholding the constitutionality of the Social Security Act.
This consequently makes him an enemy -- a traitor -- in the eyes of the so-called Constitution in Exile movement and their fellow-travelers at the lunatic fringe.
Including Janice Rogers Brown.

Friday Cat Blogging

Lucy and Dotty in their usual state of being -- half-asleep and wondering what the long hairless stupid cat with the camera is doing.

Learning the Lessons of Vietnam -- Again

It's too bad the chickenhawks-in-chief managed to weasel out of service in Vietnam (and let others die in their place). If they hadn't, then maybe they'd have a little different perspective on the way things are shaping up -- or down -- in the desert.

The parallels are as plentiful as they are pathetic: The lies, the needless deaths, the very unwinnable nature of the whole thing. The way the president is pumping to "stay the course", the way the vice-president claims, in opposition to everything we see and hear, that the insurgency is in its last throes.

I really do expect to hear any day now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The famous North Vietnamese general, Vo Nguyen Giap, said nearly 60 years ago when the Vietnamese were fighting their French overlords for control of their own country, "The enemy will pass slowly from the offensive to the defensive. The blitzkreig will transform itself into a war of long duration. Thus the enemy will be caught in a dilemma: He has to drag out the war in order to win it and does not possess, on the other hand, the psychological and political means to fight a long drawn-out war."

His words were as true for the Americans in Vietnam as they were for the French -- and still as true for the Americans who have invaded Iraq.

Colin Powell, before he sacrificed his dignity and reputation and credibility, was the author of the Powell Doctrine: Go into a war only when your goals are clear, your force is overpowering, and you have a clear exit strategy -- and get out when you have achieved your goal.

It's no wonder Powell is long gone from the Bush cabinet. The surprise is that he stayed as long as he did.

Fucking Disgusting Lying GOP Hypocrites, Chapter 13559

Thanks to Skippy for this one:

New York Governor George Pataki (R-Shitweasel) gave a speech at the Nuremburg Rally -- I mean the GOP Convention -- last year wherein he stated, among other things, "with supreme guts and righteousness, President Bush went into Iraq".

Now, almost a year later, Georgie's little boy, Teddy, freshly-minted Yale graduate with an ROTC commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps has, with "supreme guts and righteousness", applied for a THREE YEAR deferment so he can go to law school.

For the record, the elder Pataki, of prime age to have served in Vietnam, was given a medical deferment due to "poor eyesight". (The fucker must be absolutely blind and walking around with a white cane and a guide dog, since I was given NO draft deferment, despite the fact that I am LEGALLY BLIND in one eye.)

Of course the hypocritical motherfucker says that he hopes his son is given the deferment.

I do believe that. I also believe that the fathers and mothers of the 1750 dead Americans wanted their sons and daughters to get deferments, too.

Why isn't the war effort important enough for the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the influential to do their part? Why is it ALWAYS the sons and daughters of the poor and the working class in this country who have to make the ultimate sacrifice so that the ruling oligarchy can maintain its profit margins?

When are the rest of us going to wake the fuck up?

Here's the complete post on Skippy, along with, appropriately, the lyrics to "Fortunate Son", and here is the complete story on the New York Press website.

The Unfeeling President

The novelist E. L. Doctorow, never a fan of President Lucky Codpiece, really nailed it in an essay published in the Easthampton Star back in September of 2004. It is as valid today 3/4 of a year later as it was the day it was written.

It begins "I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear."

Read the rest of it and then tell me with a straight face that this is really the "war president" that this country wants and needs and deserves.

Interactive War Casualty Map

Kudos to the Palm Beach Post for creating an interactive map of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

See it here. Color-coded circles on the map show the number of casualties per town, and clicking on the circle will bring up data on the individual servicemen and women from that town who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It would be a nice addition to have a photograph of each of the dead on the website as well, to remind us that every dead soldier or marine or airman had a face, and a family that has been shattered by his or her death.

Certain sections of the country seem to be giving more than would appear to be their "fair share", even when you account for population variations. Take a look and see what you think.

Leonard Clark Silenced

Leonard Clark? you might wonder. Who's that? Well, Leonard Clark is a kindergarten teacher, former Democratic candidate for the state House in Arizona, and a member of the Arizona National Guard currently serving in Baghdad.

He is also a liberal blogger whose dispatches from the mean streets of Baghdad held more truth in one of them than a thousand reports by most of the embedded reporters from the MSM.

He posted an entry criticizing the surprise appearance of the Torturer-in-Chief and Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada Gonzales, on the scene in Baghdad. Among other things he said, "We need to let the three-piece-suited politicians and their crooked lackeys know that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" He also expressed his gratitude to AG Torquemada, who came all that way to tell him that he was not alone:

"I can rest peacfully when the next bomb goes off because the man who approved torture by the United States of America and deeply shamed this nation has told me I am not alone. Well, he’s right about one thing I know I'm not alone – whether it’s the spooks or agents that are monitoring me or my journals or those of you out there reading these words, I am certainly not alone. I know that many of those Iraqi people who wish to kill me and my fellow soldiers and are constantly waiting for their opportunity are making sure my fellow soldiers and I are not alone. Well, I just wanted to thank the brave A.G. for flying into the Green Zone and having to endanger himself behind all of his heavy security just so he could tell me I'm not alone. My heart is truly warmed."

Some time later he was called into the office of his company commander, threatened with disciplinary action, and told to take down the website. Something about not showing the proper amount of support for the war and for the president...

This is a fucking outrage. In 1968 I was busily tacking up Eugene McCarthy for President posters on my unit bulletin board in Vietnam just as fast as the lifers and officers could rip them down, but NOBODY told me that I couldn't do it. I also wrote letters to the editor of my hometown newspaper that were highly critical of the Vietnam war. NOBODY told me that I couldn't do that, either. It would never even have occurred to any of them to order me not to do these things. And this was after the 1968 Tet Offensive, when the whole war effort was starting to unravel, and they would have thought they had something to fear from a soldier making negative comments to the public and advocating the election of a very liberal anti-war candidate.

I am sure that the Army will come up with some lame-ass reason that doesn't include "censorship" in it as a justification for shutting Lenny up, but it will be a lie, just another fucking lie in a long line of fucking lies. I'm surprise they aren't using the Patriot Act to silence him. After all, they weren't afraid to use it on that homeless guy in New Jersey just to kick him out of a train station. Or maybe that's next.

In the meantime, Lenny is back on the streets of Baghdad, another silenced liberal voice of reason. His website will be taken down by his friend in the next few days, so see it now before it goes away: http://leonardclark.com/blog/

How many more Lennys will it take before NO ONE will speak up if they have the smallest negative thing to say about this fucked up war and the fucked up chickenhawks in charge of it?

And that's what they want. For us all to just shut up. All this criticism has a negative impact on the morale of ... George W. Bush. Well, guess what -- I'm not going to shut up, and neither should you. We have to talk for Lenny since now he can't talk for himself.

Get the fuck out of Iraq. That's what I say. Just get the fuck out. Let the Iraqi people decide for themselves how they want to govern their country. IT IS THEIR COUNTRY.

Of course, it's not their oil. Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and the rest of the BFEE have that locked up already.

Jeez, I Hate to Keep Harping on This, But...

Here's another quote from Fearless Leader's June 28 speech: "I thank those of you who have re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you. And to those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our armed forces."

So tell me again, why aren't the Bush twins in uniform?

4th of July Weekend

Surrounded by the exploding sounds of illegal fireworks, I spent the night huddled in my house like a refugee in a bunker.

The Fourth used to be my favorite holiday when I was a kid on the farm, eating sweet Oklahoma corn and watermelon chilled to 33 degrees in the milk cooler, blowing up cow pies with firecrackers, and going to town to watch the traditional patriotic parade and fireworks display.

Now I can barely stand it. I live in the geographical middle between three Indian reservations, notorious yearly purveyors of unsafe and insane explosives. The neighborhood children, aided and abetted by slacker parents who ought to know better, are out until midnight or later every night setting off exploding bottle rockets, "whistling pete" spin-bombs that sound like incoming mortar rounds, Chinese firecrackers that sound like AK-47s on full automatic and just about everything in between.

The Fourth of July is the most patriotic of holidays, the day on which we celebrate the birth of our country. Never mind the historical trivia that it wasn't really the 4th, etc., this country was something new on the scene, and it really was something to celebrate.

Sadly, this year we really don't have a lot to celebrate. The freedoms that we have taken for granted in this country are being taken away, slowly but surely, piece by piece, with every Patriot Act so-called "security" measure passed by Congress and signed by the president. I can't help but think of the famous Benjamin Franklin quote, that those who would trade their freedom for security deserve neither and will lose both.

I'm intending to fight back as long as I am still standing. As usual, Jack Dalton has it nailed. See his Declaration of Independence for the 21st Century. I can't add anything except my sincere thanks to Jack for posting this.

All of you, have a happy 4th of July and relax for a couple of days. After the holiday it's back to the real work, lobbying our Senators to prevent a radical wing-nut religious-fundamentalist constitution-in-exile activist judge from ascending to the throne of the Supreme Court. It's going to be a hard fight, and we must be ready for it. The future of our country for the next 40 years depends on it.

Send Karl Rove, the Lying Evil Bastard, to Prison

MSNBC analyist Lawrence O'Donnell fingers none other than Bush butt-buddy Karl Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak.

"What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury, the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Doe this come as a suprise to anyone? It was the Goebbels of the Bush Administration who broke federal law by exposing a CIA undercover operative, and reporters are going to jail for trying to shield the motherfucker.

And then he compounded the felony by lying to the grand jury about it.

In a fair and just society, this Mayberry Machiavelli (and Buzzflash hypocrite of the week) would be quickly hustled off for several rounds of drop-the-soap in a federal prison.

And once again we're back to my favorite question of the Watergate years: What did the President know and when did he know it?

Another Court Fight to Lose

The not-so-sudden retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor brings back to the front burner those gnawing doubts about the Bush Supreme Court nominee -- and about the Democrats' ability to stop the court's inexorable drift to the right. Now that drift seems more like an out-of-control careen. So many of the 5-4 decisions over the last few years have been decided by O'Connor's swing vote. Each of those decisions can be easily overturned if the issue comes back before the court. Which it will. The right wing is determined to roll back every human rights decision of the last sixty years and is willing to spend billions to do it.

The court-packing compromise worked out so recently among the 14 turncoats -- 7 Dems, 7 Repugs -- all of a sudden seems quaint and naive.

While the Democrats promised not to filibuster future Supreme Court nominees "except under extraordinary circumstances", there are those of us who felt and said at the time if Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owens, and William Pryor did not represent "extraordinary circumstances" we didn't know what would.

It's hard to say, really, what would qualify as "extraordinary circumstance", given what we know about these three. Here are some examples, just to give you an idea:

· Brown called The New Deal the triumph of Socialism, among other things, and wants to turn the clock back to some time before 1930.
· Owens was so right-wing even for Texas that her colleague on the court, Alberto Gonzalez (now attorney-general) said that she was out of the mainstream and described one of her opinions an "unconscionable act of judicial activism".
· Pryor defended Alabama's practice of handcuffing prisoners to a hitching post under the hot sun if they refused to work on chain gangs.

So what, in the Democrats' eyes, should prohibit someone from being confirmed? Murder? Rape? Child pornography? Sex with a dog? Sex with a chicken?

Now I guess we'll get to find out. All Bush has to do is to nominate one of these legal eagles to the court and the Democrats will be left looking like idiots, having caved in on these nominees before and now suddenly claiming they are not qualified. Once again the Repugs will have out-maneuvered the Dems, and our party will be left with egg on its face, holding the door to the Supreme Court wide open to the most radical of the out-of-the-mainstream judicial activist judges on the face of the planet.

The least we can do is to sign the Democrats' petition calling on Bush to nominate a concesus candidate who will unite and not divide our country. Go to http://www.democraticaction.org/petitions/consensusjudge.shtml and take a small step toward preserving what we have left of our freedom and our democracy.

Friday Cat Blogging

Since everyone else is doing it, I guess I won't fight the tide.
Here are Lucy and Dotty. Look for them every Friday.