Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 991 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

The Most Important Anniversary You Never Heard Of

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the US Supreme Court's Everson v. Board of Education decision, wherein something unique and, viewed from today's vantage, rather strange happened.

The entire court, while splitting 5-4 on the merits of Everson, came together to enunciate -- unanimously -- the following position on the Establishment Clause of the US Constitition:

The 'establishment of religion' clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation' between Church and State.

And there you have it, in stark black and white: The entire US Supreme Court, liberal and conservative alike, in complete agreement that there is, in fact, a "wall of separation" between church and state.

Remember that the next time one of your fundo Xian buddies starts yapping about putting "god" back in government and misrepresenting the "intent of the framers" about whether this is a nation founded on religion.

It's startling -- and alarming -- to realize how far we have drifted away from what used to be settled case law, and how fragile that wall of separation has become with the recent rash of Scalia-clone Supreme Court justices.

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

Total coalition forces dead: 256
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1977
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1428
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1377
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: 359
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 206.

It is still 733 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

40 Years for Porn? More WTF

Jesus, what the fuck is it with Connecticut? As if re-electing Joementum Lieberman wasn't embarrassing enough, now there's the Norwich teacher porn case that reeks -- stinks to high heaven -- of an egregiously outrageous miscarriage of justice.

You can read the whole story and its followup article, but briefly Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in a middle school (it wasn't even a fucking grade school), was the victim of a porn cascade.

A porn cascade, for those not in the know, used to occur with alarming regularity in the days before popup blockers, firewalls, virus shields and the like. Without you knowing really what had triggered it, suddenly your computer would be taken over by porno zombies and start popping up screen after screen after screen of pornography. Every time you shut one down, two more would pop up.

So our poor sub was victimized by this. And not only victimized by this, but subsequently by the school board and the county prosecutor, along with a jury whose members were apparently so fucking stupid that they believed the prosecutor's lies about computers.

Without going into a long diatribe about it, I've worked with computers for the last 25+ years and I can tell from the prosecutor's arguments that either he's never seen one before, or he has a hidden agenda to run for statewide office on a get-tough-on-crime-and-let's-start-with-pornography ticket.

One of the prosecutor's arguments that apparently held sway with the jurors: You have to click on the links to get the pages.

Bullshit bullshit bullshit. I'm actually surprised that anyone would really believe that. But, on the other hand, maybe these people have never actually seen or heard of a porn cascade. After all, with modern equipment and software, they don't happen very much any more.

Modern equipment, modern software.

But do I really need to point out the fact that the computer in question was running a system so old as to be an antique: Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5, no popup blockers, no virus protection, no spamblockers and no firewall?

And that's the fault of the school district, not this poor sub who tried to prevent the students from seeing the screen while she panicked out and tried to make it stop. The prosecutor's argument? She could have just unplugged it. So that's the bottom line? She's facing 40 years in the graybar hotel with a cellmate named Butch for not unplugging it????

The friends and family of teacher Julie Amero have set up a website at http://julieamer.blogspot.com for contributions to her legal defense fund. Please drop by and give a few bucks for a worthy cause.

Let's all stand up for what is right and help overturn this outrageous injustice.

Apparently Size Does Matter

No one had a problem with Denny Make-That-Three-Triple-Cheeseburgers Hastert having a Pentagon jet in which to commute between DC and Chicago. It was deemed necessary and expedient for someone who is, after all, second in line to the presidency, to have secure transportation.

But what happens when the Dems take control and the Speaker of the House is suddenly a liberal? A woman? From San Francisco?

The House Rethugs are suddenly all over her for having the fucking nerve to expect the same thing her predecessor had: An airplane that can fly her non-stop from DC to her home district.

Their main objection? The size of the plane. The one she's asking for is bigger than Hastert's.

That's it. Never mind the fact that it has to be bigger since it has to fly farther. Oh, no.

Thankfully for the humor community, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Dickwad) has now rung in on the size issue. The headline: "Boehner Stiffs Pelosi".

Now if only Roy Blunt (R-Moron) would join him, the headlines could read "Pelosi Gets Blunt Boehner"...

Do Your Fucking Job. Again.

More people are refusing to do their jobs. A news story today reveals that many doctors not only do not advise patients about things that the doctor has issues with, such as birth control or abortion, but they also don't refer those patients to other health care providers who might be more liberal in their treatment options.

Like cab drivers, pharmacists and others who are licensed to operate in the public good, these people have no goddam business imposing their weird religious beliefs on people who rely on them for the services they are licensed to provide.

Once again, do your fucking job or get a different one.

Starting the Discussion on the "T" Word

I'll admit up front that since the 2004 VP debate, I'm not a big fan of John Edwards. His dismal nonperfomance in that puppet show marked one of the lowest points in a Democratic campaign that was nothing but low points.

That said, though, props to Edwards for bringing up the dreaded "T" word. Every responsible analyst/economist agrees, maybe not in public, that the only way to turn around this country and start paying off the horrendous debt that the BFEE has saddled us with is to ... raise taxes.

Health care is a good place to start. Something HAS to be done with the health care system in this country, and it's a source of international shame that we are the very last industrialized nation that hasn't instituted some kind of national health care system.

Edwards' proposal is actually a fairly decent one, and a good place to start the discussion.

And Speaking of Iran...

Here's something we need to see before we start dropping bombs and launching missles.

Make sure your speakers are plugged in and turned on.

Remember the ... QM2?

You know the saying everything old is new again.

"Remember the Maine" got us into the Spanish American War. The sinking of the Lusitania got us into WWI.

I see that Cunard's new luxury liner, the Queen Mary 2, has Dubai as one of its regular ports of call. (Cunard was also, BTW, the owner of The Lusitania)

Dubai, for those who are still geographically challenged, is INSIDE THE FUCKING PERSIAN GULF. You have to go through the infamous 21-mile-wide Straits of Hormuz to get there.

The Persian Gulf. Only one of the hottest spots on the planet for things-that-can-go-wrong. And the US is steadily increasing its naval presence there. Which is why there's an admiral in charge (see my previous post on this question).

So can't anyone see that a luxury liner registered in a nation that is part of the so-called "Coalition of the Willing"
might just turn out to be a target of convenience for every whirling dervish Al Qaeda hashashin with access to a sea kayak and a backpack full of C4?

Or for a double-super-secret agent under the control of the BFEE to sabotage in a floating version of the Reichstag Fire, in order to provoke an attack against ... Iran.

Think about it.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 985 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

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 -- That's 62 in just two weeks!

Total coalition forces dead: 253
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1970
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1421
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1370
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: 352
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 199.

It is still 740 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

And Even More on Spitting

Coincidentally, as I was composing the previous blog entry, I got a post on my old "spitting on vets" post. Someone who prefers to hide behind anonymity cites a reference to an alleged CBS news story from December 1971 that "proves" that Vietnam vets were spit on. And based on this single citation he claims that "hundreds" of Vietnam vets were victims of expectorant attacks.

Okay, I'll bite. I looked at the source. Just as I suspected, it is not a documented contemporary account. It's just some guy saying after the fact that he was spit on at the Seattle airport on his way back from Vietnam. There were no arrests, no incident reports filed by airport security or local police, no contemporary newspaper accounts, nothing. Just one guy's after-the-fact claim.

Some proof.

Saying so does not make it so. When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, we landed at Travis Air Force in California. Then we were loaded on busses and carted off to the Oakland Army Terminal for processing out. Finally I took a taxi to the San Francisco airport and caught a flight to Seattle.

So I went through both of the airports that figure prominently in most of those "spitting on veterans" stories, without incident. So did my fellow Vietnam vets; out of all the veterans that I know -- and I know a lot of them -- NO ONE has reported that they were spit on.

And when you think about it, just how would anyone know you had just returned from Vietnam? Why were no other soldiers, sailors or Marines in uniform spat on? If they were, why haven't they reported it? It seems to me that those rabid leftwing pinko-commie antiwar protesters full of spit and looking for a place to explode wouldn't be that discerning.

After I returned I went back to college and became active in the anti-war movement. No one I ever met in the movement called me a baby-killer or spit on me. Quite the contrary, returning vets held a special cachet because it was felt that we had been there and seen it all, and we could speak with authority. Members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in the early days before the ideological split, were honored with prominent spots in the antiwar rallies and demonstrations.

Ironically, it was the warhawks who dissed the Vietnam vets. I've said before that we were made to feel uncomfortable in the American Legion and the VFW -- they looked at us as losers, slackers and stoned-out druggies who were unable to win our own war the way they had won theirs.

So if anyone was routinely disrespecting Vietnam vets, it was not the anti-war movement. Let's get that straight once and for all.

Okay. But let's just say, for argument's sake, that the CBS story is correct, and he actually was spit on by an anti-war protester at the Seattle airport.

So what? One incident proves nothing. One incident is just that, one incident. It certainly does not serve as the basis for the blanket statement you see everywhere, that Vietnam vets were routinely spit on when we returned.

It's easy to see why the rightwing wants to promote this canard. But it's sad to see so many of my fellow vets buying into it and manufacturing false memories of it happening to them.

Remember, there is ZERO evidence that these spitting incidents ever occurred. None. Not a single arrest, police report or newspaper/media account contemporary with the event.

If you can find one (and not some bogus after-the-fact reminiscence), send it to me and I will eat my words.

Spitting. Again.

Jesus, will it never end. As I've said before in this blog, claims of spitting on veterans has become a shorthand way to denigrate anti-war protesters. Only problem is, it never happened to troops coming back from Vietnam and it isn't happening now.

One-legged Iraq War veteran Private Joshua Sparling, however, seems to be proud of the fact that he has been a one-man spittoon. Sparling has claimed that on numerous occasions he's been spat upon by protesters.

At the risk of sounding like a parrot, bullshit bullshit billshit.

Sparling is a professional Rethug agitator who hangs out with the likes of Sean Hannity and Ann "Thrax" Coulter. He shows up belligerent and obnoxious at anti-war rallies, actually trying to provoke someone into spitting on him. Trouble is, no one will actually do it, so he's reduced to just making shit up. Hey, they eat that up over in rightwing cuckoo-land.

One of the problems with his whole shtick, though, is that it only serves to resurrect the completely discounted urban legend about Vietnam veterans being spat on. In airports. On their way home from Vietnam.

Remember that not one single case of a Vietnam veteran being spat upon has ever been documented. But that doesn't matter, since proof and evidence are the province of the reality-based community. It still shows up in any simple Google News search.

Check out the full story of Joshua Sparling over at AlterNet. It's not a pretty sight, but someone needs to call out the fucker on his lies. And he can stop waving that bloody stump around -- he hasn't sacrificed nearly as much as 3085 of his fellow soldiers.

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

I work in a research unit, and long-time readers know how I feel about innumeracy, so I am more attuned than most to the subtle ways people who want to lie to you can manipulate the numbers to make their arguments sound valid.

But there's nothing subtle about this one. This came up and smacked me between the eyes.

At the VA website there is a page that shows the number of wounded in Iraq. For several months this figure was up in the 50,000 range, and then on January 10 it plummeted, without explanation, to 21,649.

So what's up with that?

Well, it turns out that the lower figure is the number of strictly combat-related injuries. The rest of them are due to illness, vehicle crashes and other accidents, etc., a number that the VA insists isn't relevant. See the full story over at VA Watchdog

Never mind that it helps to hide the true cost of war (for example, those injuries or illnesses likely would not have happened if the individual hadn't been in Iraq to begin with). And the cost, to be borne for several generations, of caring for the veterans who have been disabled in those incidents. Remember, if it occurred while you were in the service, it is by definition a service-connected disability.

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the VA came up with a new definition of service-connected disability. Look at the money it would save if disabled veterans were helped only for combat wounds and nothing else.

Jesus, I'd better shut up. I might be giving the evil fuckers in the BFEE some ideas and lose my own VA disability payments...

Through the Looking Glass

It's a crazy world, isn't it? A Republican senator with a 96% positive rating from the American Conservative Union is challenging his own president on the war in Iraq while the leading Democrats are still talking fuzzy about the war, despite the sound thrashing the Dems gave their opponents last November, with the war itself as the main issue in those victories.

Chuck Hagel, Vietnam veteran and current senator from Nebraska, has been a long-time vocal opponent of the Iraq debacle, stemming from his realization that he had, along with a lot of his fellow vets, been duped by then-president Johnson over the reasons for and the conduct of the Vietnam War. He's been asking the tough questions and demanding the answers from the BFEE Maladminstration for a long time now, and he can't be ignored.

It's even gotten to the point that longtime leftist journalist Robert Scheer has come out and said that given a choice between Hagel and one of the wishy-washy namby-pamby mealy-mouth squishy-on-the-war Democrats, he'll support Hagel.

And that, IMHO, would be a huge mistake. Hagel, for all his aw-shucks charm and flatland charisma, is still more conservative than even McCain, and there's no reason to think he wouldn't, to take just one example, appoint more Scalia-Thomas-Alito clones to the Supreme Court.

Op Ed News has a lengthy but compelling analysis of Hagel and his maybe White House run. It's worth a read.

From Our WTF Department

Minneapolis cab drivers who are Muslim are refusing to pick up fares from the airport if the potential riders are carrying alocholic beverages or are accompanied by dogs.

The Muslim belief system is, of course, anti-alcohol but I did not know that dog saliva is considered "unclean".

Actually, this post should be really be titled "From Our Give Me a Fucking Break Department". As with the notorious Xian fundo pharmacists who refuse to fill valid prescriptions for the Morning After pill, these jokers have no goddam business imposing their belief system on their customers.

If you are engaged in a public service job -- cab driver, pharmacist, fireman, cop, what-the-fuck-ever -- then you do not get to impose your religious values on others. If you don't think you can do your job without imposing those values on others, then you need to get in another line of work.

If I'm standing at the Minneapolis airport in a twenty-below blizzard, toting two quarts of single-malt scotch under one arm and my cousin's ankle-snapping lapdog under the other, the last thing I'm gonna give a shit about is your religious proclivities. I want a cab and I want one now.

Do your fucking job or get a different one. It's that simple.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 978 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

Total coalition forces dead: 253
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1963
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1414
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1363
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: 345
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 192.

It is still 747 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

So Many Hypocrites, So Little Time

Okay, so I stole the headline from Buzzflash, but it's a great lead-in for the latest Dick Cheney story.

Faux News is frothing over the fact that Wolf Blitzer had the audacity, the gall, to ask The Big Dick about that whole Lesbian-daughter-pregnancy thing. "Personal life is off limits," they're screaming. "Family is sacrosanct."

Never mind that these are the same hypocritical motherfuckers who believe that "family" does not include the Heather-has-two-mommies crowd, and were in the forefront, waving pitchforks and brandishing flaming torches, when Bill Clinton's most personal and private details were paraded before the nation for months on end.

Clueless. As Usual.

One of the more idiotic proposals to come out of the State of the Union was Baby Doc's suggestion to give people a $15,000 tax break for health insurance.

In addition to all of the other problems with this stupidity, the major one is that more than half of the uninsured in this country, even those who are working, are so poor that they already owe no taxes. Some big benefit that's going to be for them.

This is another example of building the pie higher. Not only is he totally clueless, he thinks we are as well.

Libby's Lawyer: It Was Rove

"Scooter" Libby's lawyer in his opening statements at Libby's trial shifted the blame to Karl Rove and said that his client was being scapegoated for the Plame leak.

This is the story that just won't quit, and I don't think there's a rational sentient being on the planet that doesn't, in his heart of hearts, believe that Rove was NOT behind the Plame leak.

So it was a smart move on the part of Theodore V. Wells Jr., Libby's lawyer. Shift the focus away from your client and put it on the one person who is most likely to have really committed the act.

It's a tactic as old as dirt, but it works.

Now let's watch the fun as the truth finally comes out. Maybe Karl Rove won't slither out of this one. Maybe he's going to end up in the graybar hotel after all.

Vets MIA in State of Union Speech

Once again, in a perfect record, Baby Doc ignored this nation's veterans in his State of the Union speech last night.

That in itself is not surprising. The Rethug party for years has thought of the military as interchangeable parts in the assembly line of Empire.

But what is surprising is that James Webb, both a Vietnam veteran and former head of the VA, also did not mention veterans in the Democratic response.

I expected better from him.

Chutzpah!

I've worked in Unemployment Insurance for most of the last 30 years, so there isn't a whole lot that comes up that can amuse me or surprise me. But this one did.

A Des Moines woman, one Emmalee Bauer, a 25-year-old total slacker, had what appeared to be a pretty cushy job at the Sheraton Hotel. And during the time she was employed there she maintained what turned out to be a pretty hefty daily journal of her activities at work. Most of which consisted of descriptions of how she was slacking off and not working.

She started writing it out in longhand, but when her manager finally told her to stop keeping the journal on work time, she started keeping it on the computer instead. "That way, there isn't any way to tell for sure if I am working really hard or I am just goofing off," she wrote one day.

And when they finally discover her, they fire her. Yeah, big surprise there, all right.

So what does she do? Files for Unemployment Insurance! And during the course of the hearing over whether she should be allowed benefits, the journal, which ran to some 300 single-spaced pages when printed out, is entered into evidence.

Check out the Des Moines Register article on the case and read some of the entries introduced during the hearing.

The whole thing reminds me of that archetypal chutzpah story of the axe murderer who chopped up both of his parents and then pleaded with the judge for leniency because he was an orphan.

I kind of feel sorry for Little Emmalee, since with all this negative publicity it's going to be kind of hard for her to find another job. Especially one with all the perks of the one she lost.

Gentlemen, Start Your Smear Engines

Jesus, the guy wasn't even an announced candidate when it started:

A typical example from a currently-circulating email that started last year sometime:

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (black muslim) of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. (white atheist).

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro -- a Muslim -- moving to Jakarta with Obama when he was six years old. Within six months he had learned to speak the Indonesian language. Obama spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school" in Jakarta. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim while admitting that he was once a Muslim, mitigating that damning information by saying that, for two years, he also attended a Catholic school.

And it's only going to get worse. Now that he's officially in the running, wait for the wingnuttery to pull all the stops. I'll bet you will never hear once on rightwing radio his name mentioned without that unfortunate middle name being included.

Oh, and about those smear emails? As always, you can learn the truth at the About.com Urban Legends website or you can check it out at Snopes.com.

Not that reality will make a difference to the Moron-Americans who buy into this bullshit, but at least you will know the truth.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 971 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

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

Total coalition forces dead: 252
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1956
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1407
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1356
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: 338
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 185.

It is still 754 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

Flip Flop Flip Flop

Nothing like a little political reality to create a series of flip-flops. Or in this case, a lot of political reality.

The BFEE is running for cover and scrambling to make up for lost ground after Baby Doc's handlers finally had it sink in that they are in big trouble and "staying the course" isn't going to cut it on a whole plethora of issues.

Latest to hit the skids is the whole warrantless wiretap concept, wherein the stubborn W. has steadfastly maintained that he is the ultimate authority and final arbiter (aka "decider") as to the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance. Now they've agreed to allow FISA oversight of the wiretaps. Something they should have done all along.

But leave it to Der Monkey Feuhrer and his spokesboy Tony Snow to put a Rethug/Fascist spin on it: "it's an example of a case where we take hits for doing what's right rather than getting credit for what seems to be expedient."

Expedient? Trashing the constitution, abrogating the rights of US citizens, trampling roughshod over basic democratic rights, and all that crap is just "expedient" to these people.

BTW, Baby Doc has also backed down as well on most of the wingnut Atilla-the-Hun judicial appointments he's been flogging for over a year I guess he's finally seen the handwriting on the wall and someone has told him that if he does too much to piss off the 110th, impeachment might become more than an abstract concept.

Now these are exactly the kinds of things that Baby Doc and the Rethugs were talking about when they called Kerry a "flip-flopper". Jeez, nothing like a slap in the face from the cold hand of fact to change your outlook, is there?

Iraq for Dummies

Kudos to a fellow vet over at the fairly new ironically-named One Veteran of Iraqi Freedom blog for breaking it down to a Sesame Street version of the Iraq War that even Baby Doc himself could understand. As long as Pickles can read it aloud to him.

BTW, for those in the know, this blog used to be One Veteran's Voice.

The Fascist Mindset

I guess this shit shouldn't surprise me any more, but it still does.

Last week a Pentagon spokesman/fulltime asshole named Charles Stimson, who is the DOD Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs (a fairly high-falutin' title if you ask me) went on a DC radio station and made an astonishing statement.

First he listed the dozen or so law firms who are representing Gitmo detainees, and then he went on to say "I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, these CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."

Well allrighty then. First we pick up these people without a warrant, then keep them locked up for years without habeas corpus, and when they finally manage to get in touch with an attorney (all of whom are working pro bono, BTW), threaten an economic boycott on the law firms where those attorneys are employed.

Makes a nice, neat package for the government, doesn't it? Get the lawyers to run in fear and then claim that the detainees must be guilty, since they couldn't even get a free lawyer to defend them.

What a fucking outrage. Yeah, yeah, I know the fucker ended up apologizing for saying it. For saying it. Not for thinking it.

But it serves to illustrate perfectly, in this little capsulized event, the utter disdain and contempt this maladministration feels toward the constitution and the rule of law.

MLK Day -- A Day of Service

I have always held a special reverence and enormous amount of respect for Dr Martin Luther King and the superhuman efforts that he exerted for Civil Rights in this country.

I was raised in rural Oklahoma and went to a segregated grade school in the early 1950s. Then we moved to a town in the Pacific Northwest, whose black population was literally so small you could count them on two hands. Consequently, like so many of my peers, the opportunities that we had to interact with African-Americans on any kind of equal footing were basically nonexistent. It really wasn't until I went into the military that I had the opportunity to work along side of and form friendships with black people. And the respect that I had for Dr King forced me to put aside the racial stereotypes and thoughtless prejudices that I had been raised with and allowed me to form those friendships.

The MLK Day of Service is a terrific way to honor the spirit and the work of Dr King. It's probably a little late for this year, but next year mark your calendars to have A Day On, Not a Day Off on Martin Luther King Day. Opportunities to make a difference in your community are there, and all it takes is a few dedicated individuals to change the world.

Timing is Everything

The fact that the Dems were hogging all the press with their 100 Hours must have really grated on Der Monkey Fuehrer's handlers. Their lapdog lackeys in the SCLM were giving the Dems way too much space, both in print and on television. Bringing too much attention to the fact that the Dems were going to get more done in 100 hours than the do-nothing Rethugs managed to in six years.

So what's the time-honored way of dealing with that situation? Wag the dog and go to war.

Except we're already in one, so the next best thing is to heat up the one we have. Send more troops. And sure enough, the ADD media's focus got dragged away from the Dems and back to the BFEE.

But maybe that's a good thing. While the media is waiting for its short attention span to wander somewhere else, the Dems can fly under the radar and get more things done in a shorter period of time.

Like issue subpoenas and start impeachment proceedings.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 964 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

And everybody, 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.

Crocodile Tears

I see by these news stories that Baby Doc is "shedding tears" for Corporal Jason Dunham, the Marine who was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor. The coverage is complete with a photo of Der Monkey Fuehrer with something wet trickling down his cheek.

I can just imagine a hand, just out of frame, holding a bottle of Visine and dribbling out that oh-so-touching tear.

How convenient -- how fucking convenient --that we have this phony-baloney photo op to exploit the grief of the family of Corporal Dunham immediately after the announcement of a troop escalation cynical political ploy insane strategery military surge in Iraq.

Give me a fucking break, already.

So Many Hypocrites, So Little Time

I learned on Olbermann's Countdown that one Jack Kingston, a Rethug (naturally) congressman from Georgia, fired a broadside at the Dems for wanting to increase the minimum wage, saying "the real way to end poverty was for people to marry and start to work 40 hours a week."

So what else did he say? He also said recently that Nancy Pelosi's intent to force congressmen to work five days a week "eats away at families and marriages suffer."

Jesus, what is it with these fuckers? Just what the fuck IS it?

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

Total coalition forces dead: 251
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1949
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1400
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1349
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: 332
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 178.

It is still 761 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

What's Next, the Church of Satan?

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

Bullshit.

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

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

Why an Admiral?

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

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

That's why an admiral.

Forty Years Ago Today

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

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

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

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

War on Two Continents

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

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

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

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

What's Going on Here?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am the New Number Two

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

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

A New Twist on the 419 Scam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Olbermann Once Again Hits it Out of the Park

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

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

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 957 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

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

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

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

He Just Doesn't Get It

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Webb Introduces New GI Bill

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

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

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

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

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

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826 2865 2888 2906 2959 3006

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

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1942
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1393
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1342
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347

Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 325
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 171.

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

Holy Warriors

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

Baby Doc the Sociopath

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

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

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

Ellison Swears in on Koran

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

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

Oh, the irony!

The Human Behavior Experiments

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

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

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

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

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

VA Collecting DNA?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taunting Saddam on the Gallows

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

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

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

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

3000 Dead American Troops -- 3000 Too Many

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

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

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

Happy Holidays, Everyone

I'm going dark until after the new year. I need the R&R very badly. Thanks to everyone who continues to read this blog, and I'll be back after the holiday.

See you then, and stay progressive!

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

Total coalition forces dead: 247
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1928
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1379
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1328
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: 311
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 157.

It is still 782 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration.

MORE Troops???

Let's see now. The war in Iraq has been a total debacle, an unmitigated disaster, a supreme clusterfuck, claiming nearly 3000 American lives, and all Baby Doc can do is ... call for more troops?

Let's throw some gasoline on the fire and try to put it out. Let's pour a thousand gallons of water over the top of that drowning man to try to save him. I remember an old bumper sticker from the Vietnam era: Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity.

It's like the November elections -- as clear a referendum on the Iraq war as we could have seen -- didn't happen.

William Arkin, writing in the normally lickspittle WaHoPo, calls it out in his column today. And be sure to check out the blog posts at the bottom of the page. Unbelievably, there are still people who are so out of touch with reality that they are still supporting The Smirking Chimp.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 943 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

Come on, you two. Do your patriotic duty. Your daddy is standing there with egg on his face. Think what your enlistment into the military could do for his poll numbers with the American people.

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

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

Better Living Through Electricity

We finally have our electricity on, after days of cold and darkness following the big windstorm of 2006.

On Thursday evening, at the height of the windstorm, our power went off, but I still managed to make it to work on Friday. Only a skeleton crew actually showed up, though, so we sat around and yakked like college students in a dorm bull session, and then midmorning I went out on a food run to the only fast food place in town that was open, Jack in the Box, where I sat in the drive-up window line for nearly 45 minutes to get a sackful of delicious breakfasts of sausage-on-a-croissant.

So I spent a nice warm day at the office while She Who Must Be Obeyed was sitting at home, freezing her ass off and getting more and more disgruntled.

When I finally rolled in around 4:00 in the afternoon, she was more than a little surly, not to mention negative and bitter.

"What's up?" I said, casually tossing my hat and scarf onto the footstool. I really should have known from the look on her face that she had not had a good day.

"You want to know 'what's up'?" she hissed. "I've been here freezing to death while you've been sitting around your nice warm office drinking coffee and eating croissants."

"And surfing the Internets," I said. "But this isn't so bad. Think of it as an adventure, like winter camping. What's for supper?"

"I don't DO winter camping!" she screamed, smashing a lit Coleman lantern over my head.

So, after I smothered the flames under my woolen stocking cap and drew some eyebrows back on my face, I took her out for a nice dinner at one of the downtown restaurants that had its power on and then we came home and layered ourselves with winter clothing. A couple glasses of wine later we were all right and amused ourselves listening to mp3 versions of Xmas shows from the golden days of radio (Jack Benny, Life of Riley, etc).

On Saturday we got away, and today the power is back on, the house is warm, and all's right with the world. At least this little corner of it. Two streets away they still are in the dark. It's all in the luck of the draw. And where the Suits from Puget Sound Energy live, apparently. Those neighborhoods seemed to get their lights back on almost immediately.

But I'm sure that was just a coincidence.

A Step Back from the Brink of Fascism

One of the first orders of the day for Democrats ought to be a rollback of the fascist laws and regulations enacted by the glassy-eyed goosestepping followers of Der Monkey Fuehrer, and that appears to be exactly where they are headed.

According to Patrick Leahy, the new head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the wiretap law will be first up. Let's hope that it doesn't stop there, that this is only the beginning, and don't forget that it was the very same committee that in 1974 was ready to vote articles of impeachment against another corrupt and crooked Rethug, Richard Nixon.

I Thought the Election Was Over

But it wasn't: There was still a runoff election to be decided in Texas 23. And I'm happy to relate that the Democratic challenger, Ciro Rodriguez, stomped long-term Rethug Rep Henry Bonilla, to give the Dems yet another seat.

Now all they have to do is govern. Something that we haven't seen a lot of in the last six years of rubber-stamp Lackeys for Baby Doc.

BTW, that runoff election was held on, of all days, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the most important dates in Mexico. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that the date was chosen in a deliberate attempt to suppress the Hispanic vote, a demographic that was seen to prefer Rodriguez over Bonilla.

Take That, Swifties!

News from the Federal Elections Commission today: The Swift Boat Liars for Bush have been hit with a $230,000 fine for their over-the-top campaign of deceit against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Raw Story has the details, along with the other guilty parties, including (regrettably) MoveOn.org.

But it was the Swifties who got the biggest hit, and deservedly so. Maybe this will be a lesson to the backers and hangers-on of the Swifties that they need to dial it back a little.

But chances are they won't. And why should they? When it comes right down to it, in their warped world view, a small fine is worth it to keep Baby Doc in power. Besides, the BFEE will I am sure open its vault and pay the Swifties back for the amount of the fine.

It's just chump change to those fuckers.

Violation of Patent Rights

I like to play with my cats using a laser pointer. They chase it around the room and generally have almost as much fun as I do -- but inevitably they give up before I do, once they figure out that I'm having a good time...

So how was I supposed to know that every time I do this, I am infringing on someone's actual patented idea.

No wonder patent law reform is such a hot button issue in this country. But for every ridiculously granted patent for a frivolously obvious idea, there are hundreds of legitimate inventors who will suffer if the laws aren't revised in the right way. From the looks of the proposals, the "reform" will benefit the rich and the powerful (e.g. Microsoft), to the detriment of the rest of us.

Yeah, now there's a big surprise.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 936 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

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

Come on, you two. Do your patriotic duty. Your daddy is standing there with egg on his face. Think what your enlistment into the military could do for his poll numbers with the American people.

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

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

USA Today Calls for President to Resign

Here's what USA Today had to say:

Has the President so failed in his duties to the nation that he should leave office? The answer to that question is yes, and the time for the President to leave is not after months of continued national embarrassment but now. [The President] should resign.

How about that for a hard-hitting opinion piece? They pretty much call it as we see it, don't they?

Well, it's just too fucking bad that this was published on Sept. 15, 1998, and "The President" was Bill Clinton.

So where are these papers who called for Clinton's resignation over one little lie about getting a blow job -- a lie in answer to a question that should never have been asked -- now that Baby Doc has been shown to be a criminally insane megalomaniac operating outside all normal bounds of reality? Major dailies such as the Seattle Times, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Des Moines Sunday Register, the San Jose Mercury-News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution all called for Clinton to resign. Not one has called for Bush to resign.

Of course that would mean a President Cheney, and who wants that?

(Thanks to Beggars Can Be Choosers for the heads up on this.)

And BTW, does anyone still believe in coincidences when it comes to this crowd in the White House? I don't want to go all tin-foil-hat here, but does anyone remember that the Starr Report was issued on ... September 11? I'm just asking.

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

Total coalition forces dead: 247
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1914
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1365
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1314
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: 297
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 143.

It is still 796 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Lying Legion Chief Claims to be Vietnam Vet

It used to be that the membership of the American Legion consisted of veterans who were actually in a war on foreign soil. I don't know exactly when that changed, but you'd at least think that the Supreme Kommandant of that fine organization would be an actual war veteran.

But not one Paul Morin, who ran for the office using the statement in his official bio as "Morin is Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army".

The closest Morin got to Vietnam was ... Fort Dix, NJ.

I've been a stickler over the years about who is and who is not a Vietnam veteran. To my way of thinking, if you weren't boots-on-the-ground, butt-in-the-air or feet-in-the-water, then you really can't call yourself a Vietnam veteran. Period. You are a Vietnam-era veteran. Not that there's anything wrong with that, let me make that perfectly clear. Those of us who were drafted had a chance to be sent anywhere. Several friends of mine who were drafted around the same time as me spent their time stateside, and a lucky few got to go to Germany. We were all in the service and we all served honorably. But they don't describe themselves as "Vietnam veterans".

Wannabes like Morin make a mockery of the service of real Vietnam vets and he ought to be ashamed of himself. This is yet another in a long line of reasons why I have never joined -- and will never join -- the American Legion, the VFW, etc.

Mary Cheney Pregnant!

I don't know how it can get any better. Mary Cheney, who pretended to be pissed off at both Kerry and Edwards during the last presidential campaign for "outing" her as a Lesbian (which, as we all know, was completely bogus -- she was openly gay for years before that), is now the proud bearer of her very own fetus.

Cheney, who has lived with Heather Poe, her same-sex partner, for the last 15 years, has been an embarrassment and a thorn in the side of the Xian fundos backing the BFEE for years. And has been living proof that being gay is not a "lifestyle choice", that with all the advantages accruing to her growing up in a religiously active politically conservative family she is still gay.

The details are sketchy, of course, but we can only hope that she saved one of the "baste-'em-don't-waste'em" snowflake babies that would otherwise be flushed down the toilet.

But I'm guessing that she didn't. All that Focus on the Fetus talk is just that: Big talk. When the chips are down, the little embryos have served their propaganda purpose and Gay Mary will have gone to a sperm bank to get the "perfect" child.

She and her partner, BTW, now live in Virginia, which just passed an anti-gay rights law. What that means is that while Baby Snowflake might have two mommies, one of them will have absolutely NO parental rights.

And I am assuming that Mary and her father The Dick are perfectly happy with that arrangement. After all, it's an article of faith for the Repugnican Party. But I do feel sorry for Heather Poe. She will have no rights at all when it comes to that baby. On the bright side, though, she also won't be stuck for child support when she and Mary get a divorce have a legal separation break up.

And I'm sure that's one more thing that the anti-gay-marriage crowd is happy about -- abandoned children who are not supported by the absent parent.

Iraq: One By One They Finally Cough Up the Truth

The Independent from the UK is always an interesting read, to get news from a non-US, non-SCLM perspective. They are have an intriguing list of individuals, from Colin Powell to Jack Straw to Donald Rumsfeld, who are finally telling the truth about Iraq.

See the story and then wonder why John Kerry was called a "flip-flopper" by many of these same fuckers.

And why Baby Doc and The Poodle still remain strangely silent...

Save Your Hearing

I came home from Vietnam with some significant hearing loss, mainly in my right ear, the result of an M-16 on full rock-n-roll right next to my head one night when the Jeep I was riding in got ambushed.

I also love music, and I love it turned up loud. Which can create additional problems with your hearing if you've joined the iPod revolution.

While my mp3 player is not an actual iPod, it is essentially the same thing: a 1 gig mp3 player with headphones, and I have to be careful when I turn up the volume.

All of his isn't new, but it's being newly stressed in a new report from the Mayo Clinic. For all of us old geezers who already had hearing loss, the news is pretty grim. It appears to be worse if you use those tiny little "earbud" headphones jammed into your ear canal.

Take some time to read the article, and then consider what I did to deal with it.

I bought some over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones from Sony (only $125 and worth every penny; Bose, the Rolls Royce of headphones, can possibly be better, but not $150 better) which have a noise-cancelling circuit built in. Consequently I can drown out the external noise -- I work in a particularly loud office with some annoyingly irritating coworkers -- without having to crank up the volume.

Of course just not wearing them is an option, but I'm afraid that if I did that, you'd be seeing the breaking news alerts: "Vietnam vet goes beserk, film at eleven".

VA Spending Too Slowly on Mental Health

In another news-that-isn't-news story out of the mismanaged Dept of Veterans Affairs, a new report faults the VA for not spending money already allocated for the mental health care of veterans.

Jesus, what the fuck IS it with the Rethugs? First they won't fund the VA at the levels needed, and then when they slapped around by a feisty Mom-in-Tennis-Shoes (Washington Senator Patty Murray) and finally, grudgingly, open the purse a little bit, their flunkies over at the VA won't spend the money.

Like I've said before, the Repugnican Party doesn't give a shit about America's veterans or its active duty military. The sad part is that they now are shameless about it. They used to give us at least some lip service, but now they've even given up on that pretense.

Mandatory funding for VA health care? I'll support that, but it had better include mandatory spending, too.

Taking the Oath

Some wingnut talkshow host by the name of Dennis Prager, whoever the fuck that is, has tried to stir up a little religio-racist tempest by saying that newly-elected Muslim congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) has refused to take the oath of office on a Bible and will use a Quran instead.

Oh my god! It's the end of civilization as we know it!

Naturally this is red meat to the Moron-American/Racist-Knuckledragger audience that these guys naturally play to, and it's had its desired effect. Now the MSM has picked up on it, repeating the statement that Ellison has said he'll use the Quran, and the left is now weighing in with a defense of religious liberty, blah blah blah.

Too bad that no one even bothers to do the slightest amount of research, or they would have learned that NO ONE SWEARS ON A BIBLE when they take the oath of office.

Back in the day, when I was still an aspiring hack, we were a drunken cynical lot but even we could be counted on to do at least a minimum of research on a story.

But that's too much to expect now. The wingnuts lie. They lie all the time. They will be lying even more now that their party is no longer in power in the marbled halls of Congress, and the goddamn MSM/SCLM will continue to be enablers and allow them to get away with it.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 929 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.

But now it's even worse -- they've been asked to leave Argentina, of all places, because they've been partying too much. Argentina, previously known for harboring Adolph Eichmann and other Nazi war criminals! It must be bad if even Argentina is kicking you to leave...

Used to be the best thing for a couple of troublemaking slacker offspring was a hitch in the service. There used to be a saying in my family: There are two kinds of Farnsworth boys, those who have been in the Navy and those the judge hasn't sent there yet. (Of course, iconoclast that I am, I had to go into the Army.)

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

BTW, they 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

Total coalition forces dead: 247
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1907
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1358
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1307
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: 290
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 136.

It is still 803 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.