Going Dark for a While

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

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

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

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

Catch you later, and thanks for reading!

"Must Watch" Video

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1145 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611 3631

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

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2139
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1641
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1541
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 470
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 365.

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

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

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

Sept 30, 2003

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

Up-Down Vote? Only When it Comes to Judges

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Georgia Death Row Inmate Gets Stay of Execution

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

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

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

But you would be wrong.

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

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

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

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

He had, case closed, hello Sparky.

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

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

Nicholson to Resign!

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

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

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

So goodbye, Jimmy. Heckuva job!

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1138 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falkslands War) and Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Bush Like Hitler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm just saying...

Did Petraeus Betray Us?

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

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

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

If the Children Want Bread Let Them Eat Cake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For free.

The Liberal Media Strikes Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Owsley Lives!

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

Or just "Owsley" to those in the know.

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

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

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

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

Groovy, man.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592 3611

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

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2132
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1634
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1534
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 463
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 358.

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

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

Yeah, it's true. But so what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is time for you to go.

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"Do you have blacks, too?"

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

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

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

--Oct 3, 2003

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

But I think we already knew that.

Bush Tortures Teenager

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surgeon Generals Muzzled

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Hypocrisy Reigns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not!

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1131 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Court of Appeals Rules on Wiretapping Suit

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

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

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

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

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

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

Constitutional Grounds for Impeachment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lawn Order Presidency?

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

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

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

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

What?

Uh... never mind.

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

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

Answer: None of of.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006 3018 3025 3067 3087 3118 3132 3151 3166 3189 3210 3233 3245 3266 3299 3316 3337 3358 3387 3409 3444 3504 3519 3546 3577 3592

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

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 2125
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1627
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1527
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 456
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 351.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baby Doc Quote of the Week

"Those who enter the country violate the law."

--Nov 28, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sentenced to Death -- For Driving a Car?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July Fourth

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

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

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

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

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

A Fucking OUTRAGE

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

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

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

This is a fucking outrage against justice, against humanity!

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 1124 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

And it's not just The Twins: ONLY ONE member of the extended Bush family has seen fit to volunteer for military service. Check out the Buzzflash analysis of the chickenshit Bush/Cheney extended family and see for yourself. There's even a photo taken in 2000 of the extended Bush family, complete with a whole lot of young fresh faces who seem to be of an age now to be eligible to enlist.

Little Georgie Bush, the son of Jebbie, has just enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He's going into the Officer Training Program, preparing to be ... an intelligence officer. Okay, the obvious jokes aside, what are the chances he's ever going to see Iraq?

Bush and Cheney were cowards during Vietnam who sent other men off to die in their place. Now the next generation is doing its part, sending their own peers off to die instead of them.

Why can't the Twins be more like their royal counterparts in the UK? The British Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerra de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War) and Prince Prince Harry, until the decision was made not to send him, was on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant. But even though he's not on his way to The Sandbox, he's still in uniform

Will the Bush Twins follow his example?

No, they will not. They are fucking cowards like their father and their Uncle Dick(less) Cheney.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, the twins are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.