Scalia Lite?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why I Refuse to Join VSOs -- Reason # 566

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

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

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

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

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

It's the Democrats' Fault. Naturally.

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

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

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

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

The Libby Squeeze Play

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Cat Blogging

Miers Out -- Attila the Hun In?

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

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

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

Waiting for the Other Shoe

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

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

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

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

2000 Dead Americans -- 2000 Too Many

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

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

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

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

Two thousand is two thousand too many.

Baby Doc to Wounded Veterans: Suck it Up, Wussies

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

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

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

Don't Think of Canada as an Escape Hatch

It's a time-honored tradition for us in the lower 48 to think of our neighbor to the north as some kind of safe haven for American dissidents. Time was when that was true -- I knew several draft dodging Americans back in the day who skipped out to Canada rather than allow themselves to be inducted into that immoral war in SE Asia -- but that door has been slowly swinging shut.

Case in point, disabled Army veteran Steve Tuck, injured in a parachuting accident, used morphine and other drugs for a number of years in an attempt to kill the constant pain. Unfortunately for him, he also used so-called Medical Marijuana, which seems to be higher on the DEA's list than heroin, crack cocaine or LSD, and that got him into trouble.

Despite the fact that California, where he was living at the time, had its own Medical Marijuana laws on the books, the Repugnican DEA and DOJ decided that state's rights don't really mean state's rights when they state tries to do something that the feds don't like. Steve was forced to flee to Canada in 2001 as a "pot war refugee".

So far so good, until earlier this month when Steve was glommed onto by the Mounties, dragged bodily out of a hospital and hauled to the US border with a urinary catheter still sticking out of his poor bladder. US authorities scraped him up and threw him into jail in Seattle, where he languished without medical care for five days, still attached to the catheter, and without even a medical examination.

What the fuck is up with this? My advice: Stay out of Canada if you are a refugee of any kind. That's also the hard lesson learned by the main character of Dawn Blair's chilling and prophetic and highly recommended America 2014: An Orwellian Tale. Buy it, read it, and prepare yourself for what just may come to pass in the next few years if this haunting dystopian vision turns real.

Oh, and what about Steve? He was finally released from jail last Thursday to seek medical treatment, but he has to go back to Northern California to answer to the drug charges.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

WTFU!

Over at the Progressive Leader blog, there's a call for everyone to adopt a new acronym: WTFU -- Wake the Fuck Up!

"Aintgonnatakeitnomore" (the blogonym of the site's owner) says that it is time for us all to WTFU to what's been going on. He has links to a lengthy analysis by a retired AF colonel concerning the orchestrated panoply of lies coming out of the administration.

For all the mindless masses out there, read what the good Colonel Sam Gardiner (USAF, Ret.) has written, where he has meticulousy identified 50 false news stories created and leaked by a secretive White House propaganda apparatus, also known as WHIG (White House Iraqi Group -- Dick Cheney, Condolezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Lewis Libby, Karl Rove and other playmates).

Now, WTFU and consider the hell we have reaped because of it.

What's a Little Perjury Anyway?

Perjury. Such an ugly term. So negative. Such a part of the liberal "blame game"... Instead let's call it the "criminalization of politics" -- a little lying under oath, well that's really nothing to get worked up about, is it? Not according to Faux News (Motto: We Lie It and You Buy It). Not according to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R - Bitchweasel).

Yep, it's just one of those pesky legal technicalities. Unfortunately, one that is punishable by five years in prison.

Too bad about those legal technicalities. The right wing has been kvetching about them for years, about the so-called "bad guys" getting off because of them. Turns out they work both ways -- those technicalities can actually bite you on the ass, Mister Repugnican Liar.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 521 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

I'm Back!

It's been a long haul getting back to a point where I can think clearly again (of course, there are those who say that was a lost cause from the beginning...), but I think I can safely say now, in that enduring Mark Twain phrase, that the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Thanks to all of you who expressed sympathy and other "hang in there" types of comments, both on the blog and by email. I appreciate all of you.

So now it's back to taking on the chickenhawks, the Repugnican hypocrites, the wingnut morons and the bloviating rightwing noise machine. Not to mention starting up again my now-famous Bush Twins in Uniform Watch.

Post Surgery Update

Today marks one week since my surgery, so it's time for another update.

I've been in constant moderate-to-severe pain for one week now, much more than I expected to have. So I asked the doctor about it and he said that I'd had four separate surgical procedures in one session on the table (i.e., straightening a deviated septum, radio-wave shrinkage of nasal turbinates, surgical removal of the uvula and most of the soft palate, and radio-wave shrinkage of excess tissue at the base of my tongue) -- each of those procedures, by itself, causes extreme pain. I got the full meal deal, so it's no fucking wonder I haven't bounced back the way I thought I would.

But today I finally have the nudging thought that I might eventually be able to rejoin the world of the living. I can swallow pills now (no more trying to choke down that nasty awful throat-burning nose-squirting oxy-codone-in-suspension semi-liquid syrup every three hours), and I'm starting to get the beginnings of an appetite back. I've been living -- if you can call it that -- on one piece of milk toast, one Slimfast shake, and two popsicles a day since last Wednesday. And I still can't talk out loud because of the pain. The pills manage to take the worst edges off, but the pain is still there.

On the positive side, I have lost over 10 pounds, but it is not a diet I would recommend.

I'm hoping to be back to my old self by Monday.

Dark Since Wednesday

I had some corrective surgery performed last Wednesday and it's really put me out of it; I expected to bounce back faster than this, but I haven't.

It's true -- you really can't recover as quickly as you used to be able to do when you were in your 20s.

Hope to be back to posting in a few days.

The Crime that Dare not Speak its Name

Impeachment! It wasn't even thinkable a year ago, and yet here is a new poll that says fully 50% of the American people agree that "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."

So we already know that he lied. Can Articles of Impeachment be far away? Elect Democrats next year in sufficient numbers to take back our Congress, and the truth will make us free.

Even the Air Force?

In another not surprising development, the elite, we're-above-all-that-nasty-ground-pounding-stuff, US Air Force is getting pressed into action to do some of the down and dirty work in Iraq.

Since there aren't enough people in the Army to do all the shit work, and nobody is rushing the recruitment offices, Uncle Donny and the Pentagon are getting pretty stretched to find people to do the unpleasant jobs, like guarding jails, protecting convoys, and interrogating prisoners.

So, if you can't recruit 'em off the streets, just cannibalize the other services. Now a bunch of Air Force personnel are in Iraq doing interrogations, guarding prisons and riding along as "shotgun" on supply convoys. A bunch more are in training down at my old stomping grounds in Fort Huachuca, AZ.

So all this shit duty isn't exactly what those effete snobs enlisted for, but they're doing it nevertheless. Even 40 years ago, those of us in the Army resented the Air Force for their airs of superiority, their arrogance -- and also for their goddam comfortable innerspring mattresses. Even back then we considered them elitist snobs, so in many ways it's gratifying to see them actually have to "work for a living".

But on the other hand, why should they have to do this shit? Why should anybody? We shouldn't even fucking be there.

Noble cause, my ass. Why aren't the recruiters knocking on that White House door and signing up those lazy-assed slacker daughters of our Boy-King? If this is such a fucking noble cause, they need to be in uniform.