Soldier death toll in Iraq hits 7 month high..

So much for Petraeus' bullshit that deaths are down and things are better since "the surge" started. This article gives the numbers, which don't lie...unlike General Petraeus:

The U.S. military death toll hit a seven-month high of 50 on Wednesday — with more than half the losses in Baghdad as American forces wage growing street battles against Shiite fighters.

Iraqi civilian deaths also remained high following the Iraqi government crackdown on Shiite militia factions — accused by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of using residents as human shields during close combat in the teeming Sadr City slum.

The clashes in Sadr City — a base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia — show little sign of easing as Iraqi and U.S. troops try to exert control over an area containing nearly half of the Baghdad's population.

It makes me wonder outloud..would General Davy sell his soul to the devil? Or has he already done that? Rat bastards.Tomorrow is the anniversary of Mission Accomplished...yeah...a real treat to celebrate that one...

Lurita Doan finally forced out...by the White House no less.

No one besides Karl Rove has done more to politicize the GSA than Lurita Doan. This woman had no clue as to how to run a huge federal government department and most likely got her job because she was a 'loyal Bushie'. Ms. Doan had also been criticized for proposing to cut $5 million from the GSA Inspector General's budget to limit the office's ability to audit contracts for fraud and waste. From the NYT via TO:

Lurita A. Doan has been forced out as head of the General Services Administration, the federal agency that oversees billions of dollars in contracts and manages thousands of government-owned buildings.

In a stormy two-year tenure as the agency's administrator, Ms. Doan has been accused of improperly mixing government business with politics and of trying to steer government contracts to her friends. Democrats in Congress said she violated the Hatch Act, which makes it illegal for government employees to take action that could influence an election.

Ms. Doan's resignation as administrator was requested by the White House on Tuesday, and it takes effect immediately, the agency said on Wednesday. It released a statement in which Ms. Doan said, "It has been a great privilege to serve our nation and a great president."

Much of the criticism of Ms. Doan came after it became known that on Jan. 26, 2007, a deputy to Karl Rove, then President Bush's chief political adviser, gave a briefing to employees of her agency that identified incumbent Democrats in Congress whom the Republican Party hoped to unseat in 2008, as well as Republican incumbents who seemed vulnerable to defeat.

Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya Lurita. Bon Voyage...too bad Congress never followed up on the Hatch Act violations.

Blackwater is at it again in San Diego county..

Couple of months ago..the thugs at Blackwater were ousted from the tiny town of Potrero CA. Then the voters promptly got rid of the elected planners, via a recall election, that were all in bed with Blackwater.

Now, as Big Fella noted in the comments of my post linked above, Blackwater has tried to come in through the backdoor in San Diego county. From the UT article:

San Diego officials will challenge Blackwater Worldwide's permit for an indoor military training facility in South County, saying the public didn't know about the plan.

"Residents deserve to know when a facility like this is approved – before it is approved," San Diego City Council President Scott Peters said.

The North Carolina company received a permit in March for a training site in Otay Mesa, an industrial section of south San Diego, shortly after abandoning its controversial proposal to build a larger facility in Potrero in East County.

The city Development Services Department granted the permit without public hearings. The site was already permitted for a vocational school, and city staff members decided Blackwater's training of Navy personnel qualified. The facility will have a shooting range, a simulated Navy ship and classrooms.

I think the San Diego City Council folks don't want a repeat of what happened in Potrero... a recall election just wouldn't do now would it folks? :)

Peters said Blackwater wasn't upfront about its plans to operate out of a 61,600-square-foot building owned by Los Angeles company Hometex in a business park on Siempre Viva Road, just south of Brown Field.

"They filed for a permit under the name of a subcontractor as a deliberate dodge to keep our city and community in the dark," Peters said.

Hopefully they can be run out of town again...friggin money-grubbing mercs that they are.

Jimmy Carter on Obama and the Middle East..

I know..plenty of folks think Carter was a one-hit wonder that didn't do squat. But I feel differently about him. I believe he is genuinely concerned about the world and the inherent problems.

Watch Jimmy, he talks turkey with Tweety about Obama, the campaign bullshit and about the middle-east and his contacts with the powers that be there. He is pushing his book about his mother Lillian...who was a strong and wonderful woman that many of us could aspire to. She was a Peace Corp worker in her later years, and lived in the poor side of town where Anglo faces were few and far between in her youth..god love her.

McCain's healthcare plan; created by the healthcare industry

I know McCain isn't stupid..but for the love of Buddha wtf is the deal with asking healthcare industry lobbyists to craft a plan for him? From CAF we get this lil tidbit:

McCain and his handlers knew they had to say something about health care. So they turned to their friends (and financial supporters) in the health care industry and the conservative think tanks. And they have adopted the most extreme right-wing ideological approach, premised on the idea that the big problem in health care is that Americans have too much insurance – in their words, we don't have enough "skin in the game" – and that only when we have to buy health care with money that comes directly out of our own pockets will consumers force doctors, hospitals and insurance companies to become more efficient.

Tax credits...the asshole wants to give us all tax credits so we can buy our own insurance. Of course many of us have pre-existing conditions..so McCain will make the states set up an insurance pool for people like me. As for his tax credits..here is the amount he is offering from a CNN writeup:

Under McCain's heath care plan, individuals would be eligible for a $2,500 credit and families a $5,000 credit to help pay for health insurance if they do not subscribe to, or do not have access to, employer-provided health care coverage. The government would send the money directly to insurers

.

I know for a fact that 2500 bucks isn't enough to give ANYONE decent healthcare coverage. Who is this fuckwit kidding? Also take into account he wants to tax health care premiums that are paid for by employers. How is this progress? This will cause most, if not all employers to refuse to provide healthcare insurance for their employees. Again from the CAF writeup:

But McCain, like George Bush, pays more attention to ultra-conservative theory than he does to the facts. So McCain wants to tax workers' health care premiums that are paid for by employers. Ask any expert, conservative or liberal, and they will tell you the result will be companies will stop providing health care as an employee benefit. Fortune Magazine quotes one of their experts on the impact of McCain's plan: "I predict that most companies would stop paying for health care in three to four years," says Robert Laszewski, a consultant who works with corporate benefits managers.

Friggin Rethuglicans...god forbid they actually help the consumer instead of their pals in the healthcare industry. Thi bullshit plan will force families and individuals to find their own healthcare plans and forgo the usual discount offered to group plan participants. Fuck his tax credit too.. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study the average cost a year for group plan coverage is...$11,765. McCain's fucking tax credit wouldn't even cover half of that.

Fuck me running..this is an outrage and he knows it. It's a blatant ploy to make his buddies in the healthcare industry richer whilst screwing the living hell out of Americans.

Loyal Bushies get insider info..no..really?

The fuckwits at the Pentagon have been feeding retired military officers information, which they in turn use as pundits and talking heads on various tv and radio news shows.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Come on...there is no way that anyone should be freaked by this disclosure. From the NYT article:

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Now what does bug the hell out of me is the link between these retired officers and those carpetebaggers known as military contractors. That is total and complete bullshit. As the NYT states, that relation is hardly, if ever, disclosed to the public. Once again, our MSM is playing with the truth by refusing to provide full disclosure. As this section states:

...several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration's war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

BushCo again seeks to get their propaganda straight to the people..via the easiest way possible..the airwaves. Some of the retired mouthpieces now question the information they were given by the pricks in the Pentagon. They realize that they too were duped. Here is one of the 'analyists' take on the bullshit they were fed:

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. "This was a coherent, active policy," he said.

As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.

"Night and day," Mr. Allard said, "I felt we'd been hosed."

We were all hosed Mr. Allard..every one of us that watched or listened to you jerkoffs spouting the BushCo line. Once again...BushCo politicized a process. But the Pentagon has taken some major heat this week on their spoon-feeding of bullshit to the retired military minds. They are going to....this is rich...stop and reconsider the practice:

Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department's relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.

Of course it's improper..how could it not be?

Artwork by the talented Worried Shrimp

Happy belated Birthday Mr. Murrow.

He would of been 100 years old yesterday. From wiki:

On March 9, 1954, Murrow, Friendly, and their news team produced a 30-minute See It Now special entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Murrow knew full well that he was using the medium of television to attack a single man and expose him to nationwide scrutiny, and he was often quoted as having doubts about the method he used for this news report.

Murrow and his See It Now co-producer, Fred Friendly, paid for their own newspaper advertisement for the program; they were not allowed to use CBS' money for the publicity campaign or even use the CBS logo. Nonetheless, this 30-minute TV episode contributed to a nationwide backlash against McCarthy and against the Red Scare in general, and it is seen as a turning point in the history of television.

The broadcast provoked tens of thousands of letters, telegrams and phone calls to CBS headquarters, running 15 to 1 in favor of Murrow. In a Murrow retrospective produced by CBS for the A&E Network series Biography, Friendly noted how truck drivers pulled up to Murrow on the street in subsequent days and shouted "Good show, Ed. Good show, Ed."

Afterwards, Murrow offered McCarthy a chance to appear on See It Now to respond to the criticism that was given to him on the program. McCarthy accepted the invitation and made an appearance on See It Now three weeks later. However, McCarthy's rebuttal to Murrow only decreased his popularity, already fading, even further.

He died two days after his birthday in 1965. Some of his memorable quotes:

"No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices." – Speech to staff, March 9, 1954

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality, then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the. . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought." – Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, June 1953

There were so many...too many to list here. This museum has a good writeup of his entire career. Below is a tribute CBS did after Murrows death.

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Matthews and Haynes-Cortez the Killer

Dave Matthews-Warren Haynes-Cortez the Killer
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What does America manufacture? Debt...

Kevin Phillips was a conservative superstar back in 'the day'. He helped to create and bring into power the extreme right wing of the Republican party.

He is now one of their biggest foes. His newest book entitled: Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, lays out how America's manufacturing plants have died off and been replaced by....wait for it...

The Mall. Yes, the Shopping Mall where we the people spend our money, and if we don't have any..we use our credit cards to buy things we don't need but we covet. Mr. Phillips isn't the only human being to see the writing on the wall. Danny Schecter has made a movie about it which he calls; In Debt We Trust. Mr. Schecter's take on our society's credit addiction:

Over the past 25 years, America has moved from a society based on production to a nation driven by consumption; from a country that once shared its resources with the world to one deeply in debt to foreign banks and countries-to the tune of trillions of dollars. As the growing number of bankruptcies and foreclosures testifies, our national debt is mirrored by a skyrocketing consumer debt, with an increasing number of individuals and families unable to cope.

Back to Kevin Phillips' book. The Financial Industry now makes up roughly 21% of the U.S. GDP(Gross Domestic Product) -- the largest sector of the private economy. Does this bother you? It should. Manufacturing has shrunk to only 12% of the GDP. Read that again, only twelve percent of our GDP is now Manufacturing. To put it very succinctly..that is a massive timebomb that is waiting to blow. Individuals that adore the American capitalist system will undoubtedly say Phillips is full of bat guano, but I am not one of those. From the book, via a NYT review:

By 2007 total indebtedness was three times the size of the gross domestic product, a ratio that surpassed the record set in the years of the Great Depression. From 2001 to 2007 alone, domestic financial debt grew to $14.5 trillion from $8.5 trillion, and home mortgage debt ballooned to almost $10 trillion from $4.9 trillion, an increase of 102 percent. A crisis in the mortgage market in August 2007 brought the party to an end. Since then we have been living in a twilight zone of what a security analyst quoted in the book calls “one of the slowest-moving train wrecks we’ve seen.”

To Continue reading, please click here.

Crossposted at Bring it On and UnCapitalist Journal

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright on Bill Moyers Journal

"I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American,
that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ.
And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That's what they wanted to communicate."

-Rev. Jeremiah Wright

I will be watching this Friday evening. I find Rev. Wright to be a fascinating individual. I am not afraid of what he has to say and frankly, I don't buy into the bullshit currently out there as 10 second soundbites by the assholes in the MainStreamMedia.

To find out when it will show in your hood, click here.

McCain and the GI Bill..

For a military man to pull this bullshit..well, its down right pathetic and a travesty. The bi-partisan bill sponsored by Chuck Hagel and Jim Webb puts no limitations on the benefits for our returning soldiers who want to receive an education.

McCain didn't like that, so he has now sponsored his own bill that puts caps on what our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans would receive. From the Washington Independent link above:

Funny, then, that the benefits in McCain's bill fall well short of those provided by the proposal he refused to endorse. That bill, sponsored by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), offers Iraq and Afghanistan vets full tuition, room, board and supplies at any state school, despite the cost. It also makes no distinction between active-duty troops and members of the Guard and Reserves -- a provision added in recognition of the unprecedented reliance of today's volunteer military on those service-members.

In fact, one of the central criticisms of the Webb-Hagel bill -- from both the White House and many congressional Republicans -- is that it's too generous, and therefore will encourage service-members to abandon the military in favor of college. Offer a lesser benefit package, the theory goes, and the troops are more likely to stay in their boots. (Supporters of the Webb-Hagel bill, including a number of veterans advocacy groups, say the better benefits will encourage recruitment, therefore nullifying any retention problems that might occur on the other end.)

We can never be too generous to our returning soldiers. Not. Fucking. Ever. To even suggest that is tantamount to heresy and dare I say it...a shitty and completely bogus way to support our troops.

Artwork by the talented Dark Black.

General BetrayUs getting kicked upstairs..

So, is this his reward for being a good soldier for Bush and spinning (there is that word again) the War in Iraq as working just fine?

Me thinks it is. From the CNN writeup:

Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has been chosen to become chief of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Petraeus replaces Adm. William Fallon, who said last month he was resigning. Fallon said widespread, but false, reports that he was at odds with the Bush administration over Iran had made his job impossible.

In addition, Gates said, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the Multinational Corps-Iraq -- the No. 2 position in Iraq -- is being nominated to fill Petraeus' post. Odierno has been home from Iraq only for a couple of months, but has agreed to return, Gates said.

The plan is for Petraeus to leave Iraq in late summer or early fall, Gates said, to ensure a smooth transition and plenty of time for Odierno to prepare.

Odierno is the commander of the troop unit that found Saddam in the rathole. He is getting a big Atta-Boy too it seems.

We could of gotten here by doing NOTHING.

It's funny, but then..its not.

The spin goes on..

Listening to the Talking Heads on MSNBC last night, I was struck by how they sanitize the results by breaking them down into race and gender:

Per the exit polls, 47% of the Pennsylvania Democratic electorate last night was made up of white women, higher than any other race/gender subgroup. Clinton ended up winning them by more than 30 points, 66%-34%; in Ohio, she won this group, 67%-31%. The question that everyone seems to be asking now is: Why can't Obama put Clinton away?

So, now...instead of Hillary being DOA, its 'why can't Obama deliver the knock-out punch'?

I find myself getting wrapped up in this bullshit, drawn into wondering aloud about Obama too when BAM..it hits me.

Every state hasn't weighed in yet. Fuck the pundits. It's all spin. Just like Hillary claiming she is now ahead in the popular vote..if you count FL and MI.

But you can't count the votes from FL and MI because the only person on both ballots was good old Hillary. The Obama camp is putting the following spin out there to counter Team Hillary's email this morning:

-- Obama leads among pledged delegates, and Clinton will have to win about 70% of the remaining ones to overtake Obama on this measure. -- to get within 100 pledged delegates of Obama, Clinton will have to win 57% of the remaining ones -- and when looking at the total delegate score (pledged delegates and superdelegates), Obama is about 300 away from clinching the nomination; Clinton, according to NBC's count, is more than 430 delegates away.

Damn, I am mighty tired of everyone's spin..its making me dizzy.

I'm back!!!!!!!!!

I know..no one missed me, and life went on in spite of the fact that I was at the mercy of my yuppie sista from hell for five freaking days.

I got home just in time to watch the PA primary madness. Lawd knows this is important..to whom you say? Well, I was thinking ol Hill...

Then, I heard that even if she loses in PA..she ain't tossing in the towel. GAWD, what is it going to take???

I hope to get back in the thick of things quickly...I have over 800 news alert emails and I have no idea how many other types of emails to address.

I missed you all..all eight of my regular readers..your the reason I keep on bloggin..and I heart you all. Your thoughts are important to me, and your pov is spot on. I send you folks a big wet smooch..now I gotta wade through the mail and see what transpired whilst I was sloggin away for the woman that swears she is related to me.

If there is something critical I missed...please..feel free to enlighten me in the comments. :)

Hamas offers Israel a truce..

Its a 10 year truce and its based on Israel returning the lands they have occupied since the 1967 war. This comes after the visit by former President Jimmy Carter with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. From the MSNBC link:

Mashaal said Hamas would accept a Palestinian state limited to the lands Israel seized in 1967 — that is, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. But he said the group would never outright formally recognize Israel.

Earlier, Carter said that Hamas is prepared to accept the right of Israel to “live as a neighbor next door in peace.”

Carter said the group promised it wouldn’t undermine Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to reach a peace deal with Israel, as long as the Palestinian people approved it in a referendum. In such a scenario, he said Hamas would not oppose a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas has traditionally opposed peace negotiations with the Jewish state.

Carter’s comments came after his much criticized meetings with the top Hamas leaders in Syria in last week.

Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he decided not to meet with Carter in Israel because he does not wish to be seen as participating in any negotiations with Hamas.

The politics of peace seems quite complicated. And Israel doesn't seem to really want peace in my humble yet vocal opinion. Its bullshit on a stick.

I will travel homeward tomorrow..and I have never been happier at the thought of sleeping in my own bed and leaving my yuppie sista from hell in my rear view mirror.

McCain links Obama to Hamas..

Using a tactic out of the Karl Rove playbook Weathervane McCain links Obama to a terrorist organization in a recent email to his flock. From the CNN political blogs:

“Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders,” writes McCain deputy campaign manager Christian Ferry. “Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, ‘We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America.’”

The McCain fundraising e-mail says Obama’s stands have earned him “kind words” from Hamas. “John McCain's foreign policy provides a stark contrast to the policies of Barack Obama,” writes Ferry. “While Senator Obama would surrender in Iraq and hold talks with the Iranian regime, John McCain will never surrender in the struggle with Islamic extremists. Please join our campaign today by making a generous donation of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or $2,300.”

Reminds me of Bush's tactics against McCain in the 2000 election. And Johnny said he is going to run a clean campaign. Right..plus he asks for money..brilliant no?

Out of town for a few days..

I am currently in Sunny San Diego, helping out my sister. That is code for the bitch is a slavedriver and monopolizes every minute of my damn day...seriously.

For good reading..please stop by Sirens Chronicles. There are interesting and gifted writers over there. Running a group blog is sometimes like herding cats if you know what I mean..

We really do have great writers over there..if not for them..there would be no Sirens. So please check it out and leave a comment if you like a particular post.

I will try to maintain my sanity and not kill my sister..jail would not be kind to a female with a gimpy back now would it?

Serving a constituency-but which one?

With the news that the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) will appeal a ruling handed down last week by the courts, it gives one pause to consider why they would have a problem with the new law regarding lobbying. The law in question is the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA). In fact, the NAM folks are so verklempt about this ruling they are actually going to seek an emergency stay of the decision. Lets see how one of the NAM faithful spins this shall we? From the piehole of their fearless leader comes this:

"We remain convinced that many of the law's burdensome and intrusive disclosure requirements will have a serious chilling effect on the constitutional rights of our members," said former Michigan Gov. John Engler (R), the NAM's president, in a statement. "We are committed to protecting the rights of everyone in this country, including those who work for manufacturers, to freely associate and to exercise their First Amendment rights without the government interfering with or chilling them."

Oh thats right, their First Amendment rights are being tromped on. Sweet Jesus, how can we allow that?

Well, I'll tell you how, because the rights of the whole trump the rights of a few special interest groups which represent corporations not people, thats how. I am sick to death of these sycophants painting these issues as a 'rights' issue. It's about disclosure, its about shining a sharp beacon of light into the beady rat eyes of the few who wish to push their will and interests on our elected officials. I like how J. Gerald Hebert, Campaign Legal Center Executive Director phrased it in his statement about Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's ruling last week in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Part of his spot-on remarks below:

“The National Association of Manufacturers' (NAM) attempt to gut disclosure provisions of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) was a blatant attempt to keep the public in the dark regarding those who spend huge amounts of money to influence policy anonymously. The court recognized clear precedent that the disclosure provision serves the compelling governmental interest in providing full disclosure of lobbying activity and in protecting the integrity of the legislative process.”

I think, no I know, the words of Mr. Hebert ring true with the intelligent citizens of this nation. Aren't we sick to death of cronyism and special interests ruling our Congress? Don't we want equal representation under the law? Because we aren't getting it, and we haven't for decades. Our current administration is a government for the Corporations and by the Corporations. Clinton was a subscriber to that doctrine as well, don't kid yourselves, as was Bush41 and Reagan.

The problem however is the Supreme Court is stacked with Bushie's that will most likely cater to the whims of these greedy corporations and their lobbying arms. This will undoubtedly be taken all the way to the Supreme's, you can take that to the bank. These guys won't give up until the last jurist has listened to them bitch, whine and complain about how their rights are being subverted by this law.

A law that protects we, the people, from pandering and special interests. A law that will hopefully keep Jack Abramoff-like fools out of the halls of Congress. It's not the end-all but its a start. It starts by keeping these bastards honest, if that is even possible. Their pandering self-interests must be held up to scrutiny that everyone can see, so that the Congress critters can't take their money and give them free rein to write our laws so that they only benefit the corporations, as they have for decades and decades.

Condi must GO..

From BraveNew Films..a nice little vignette of the bullshit and bravado by Condi over the years regarding torture:



Visit CondiMustGo.com for more on the petition drive to remove this disgusting war crimes committing bitch. Sign the petition..what do you have to lose?

NAM gets pissed the courts don't go along like BushCo does..

Those lobbying fools known as NAM are highly peeved about this development. From the writeup:

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is appealing a federal court order to dismiss the group’s lawsuit challenging a new ethics and lobbying law.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled Friday against the trade association’s suit, which took issue with a specific provision of the new law that would require “stealth coalitions” to disclose their member companies if they contributed at least $5,000 per quarter to the coalition or actively participated in a lobbying campaign.

Obviously the manufacturing lobby doesn’t like playing by the ‘new rules’. We can only hope to Buddha that judges uphold this new law..all the way up the chain. But frankly, I don’t feel good about our chances if they take it all the way to the Supreme’s. Those bastids are handpicked for the love of pete.

Crossposted at Bring it On!

At least this poor sot didn't make it to Gitmo..

The military has decided..finally..to release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein. It has been two years since they picked him up and accused him of being a terrorist..or aiding and abetting said terrorists.

Fucking assholes now say and I quote from the writeup:

"After the action by the Iraqi judicial committees, we reviewed the circumstances of Hussein's detention and determined that he no longer presents an imperative threat to security,"

How much do you want to bet he got just a little bit o' torture in those two years? Gawd, how can these fuckwits steal two years of someone's life and say..oopsy..he isn't a bad guy afterall. He never went to trial, he was never really charged with anything..and you know they had no fucking evidence.

He was an employee of a news gathering and disseminating company for Christs sake..and we are bloggers..see any connection? I do..both groups usually try to write about truth and injustice.

Kentucky Congressmen calls Obama: boy and a snake-oil salesman

The dipshit royale is U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis. What. A. WINGNUT..And...he's a Republican.

As if that wasn't obvious at this point. His money quote:

"I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button,"

Then, if that wasn't bad enough, he compared Obama to a snakeoil salesman for his message of hope. Well, I guess hope is a far-fucking-out idea in this day and age. He of course apologized but the genie was out of the bottle..too late to push her back in Geoff.

Look at his picture below..he looks like a friggin weenie for the love of Buddha.

I hear the strains of banjo music in my head..every time I look at him. How about you?

And now, Time for something completely different..

Stolen from Poobie ;) Watch the kudo's at the end..love KO's quote!

The Torturer-in-Chief speaks about the Torture Meetings held in the White House.

Jay Bybee, one of the authors of the Torture Memo (here's Part I and Part II) is now a federal appellate judge in San Francisco. The other asshole that helped write this memo, Yoo, is teaching our youth in the ways of the law at a prestigious college in Northern California.

One teaches, the other sits in judgment on the rule of law. Amazing no?

Well, when someone that is versed in the ethics of legal eagles, such as..oh, Stephen Gillers who teaches legal ethics at New York University School of Law writes a column for The Nation..I read it and weep. When Jonathan Turley, a professor of Constitutional Law, tells us that this reaches all the way up the executive ladder and has for years now, I weep. I weep that our country was taken down the wrong road by a couple of fucking nimrod's that were rewarded for their breach of ethics, and some say their glaring lack of common sense, with a job teaching our youth and a federal judgeship. I really can't believe this shit m'dear reader. But I digress..sorry.

Now, our Idiot-in-Chief has weighed in on this latest fresh hell wherein we find Bush's top advisors and cabinet members sat around and discussed enhanced methods of interrogation..aka torture. From the ABC interview, via TPM:

"Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC New s White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And, yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."...

Bush said the ABC report about the Principals' involvement was not so "startling."

To protect the American people ? Isn't it more likely that all these memo's were written to protect the ass of our Idiot-in-Chief and his fuckwitted minions? Isn't it more likely that the Torture meetings were held to insure that everyone was 'onboard' with torturing and no defections would occur? Isn't it more likely that they are all complicit because that way..they will continue to cover their own asses and that of the Idiot-in-Chief when it comes to war crimes and shredding our fourth amendment?

It's like a blood oath..the kind that kids took when doing something that they knew they would get them trouble for. It's a gigantic CYA for the war criminals that lead our nation..into the abyss.

Global Day for Darfur

QuakerDave has a post up about today. As usual, I am a day late and a devalued dollar short..but I will bring up this topic to educate and make us all aware of what is happening in Darfur..and goes largely ignored by the media in general.

The deathtoll in Darfur is a nightmare, a real nightmare...The children..that is what surrounds me the most..the affect on the children of Darfur. The most innocent of victims.

Five years of war means there are now school-aged children that have experienced nothing but violence in their short lives.

A million children have grown up in refugee camps. A million. Over 2.6 million people are estimated to have been displaced.

Today is the Global Day for Darfur. Citizens around the world will call on their governments and the United Nations to act decisively to get the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on the ground more fully and more quickly so that the children of Darfur - and the millions of civilians affected by five years of brutal violence and displacement - can live in peace.

Take a moment and visit here: The Voice of Darfur. Each picture holds an audio file, a story of the horror that is Darfur..five years on.

Here is a post I wrote in January of this year about the signing statement Bush added to the Sudan Divestiture Bill he signed. Our Fuckwit-in-Chief can not even bring himself to do what twenty-two states and more than fifty universities have already done.. passed and honor divestment measures from problematic companies in Sudan.

Our federal government condones the murder and genocide in Darfur with Bush's signing statement..but we do not have to.

Crossposted at SirensChronicles

Beauty in Black and White

I hope folks will pause for a few minutes and view these photographs. Some people don't appreciate Ansel Adams because they can't get into black and white photography. That is really a shame as far as I am concerned, because when you look at his photography at say..1100-1800 resolution, its beauty is simply stunning. Many of the photographs on this government website were taken in the 1940's when Adams began teaching at the Art Center School of Los Angeles, which included the training of military photographers. They are photographs of our natural treasures known as our National Park System that were taken when he contracted with the Department of the Interior in 1941. It's a huge collection and you can see the photo's in small or large (by large I mean huge) resolution. Below are some that I found breathtaking in their full size which we can't post here but you can see at the link to the govt website.

First is of course the Grand Canyon. It is taken from the South Rim. The shadowing just mesmerized me when I saw it at its full size.

Next is one of my favorite spots in Arizona, Canyon De Chelly

The one below is Glacier National Park in Montana at dusk

The last is the Grand Canyon again.

If you made it this far, congratulations..you took the time to "smell the roses", which people are doing in less and less numbers for the last twenty years when it comes to our National Parks. We need to do that occasionally or we lose sight of why we continue our quest to save the environment or keep the federal fuckwits honest and beholden to 'we' the people. Now, go check out more of the magnificent beauty on the government website linked above. You will be awed by the natural beauty of our once-great country, that will hopefully rise again from the ashes of Republican rule. ;)

Turley on Team Torture

As Ashcroft said, and I concur: History will not treat this kindly

Team Torture?

Watching KO tonight, and using his phrase as my post title..his biggest story for me was about the ABC newstory last night that there was actually a "Team Torture" which met in the White House and included all the central players discussing which torture methods to use on which terrorists. From the ABC report:

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The ABC news story video below.


As Jonathan Turley said tonight on Countdown..its not a question of whether war crimes were committed..its a question of whether anything will be done about it.

Tags: Principles Committee, Torture methods

Ok I lied..I can get into politics today..

Patrick Leahy wants to replace the 90-year old wonder Robert Byrd..

I loved Byrd when he still had it going..but no one that old still has it going..I don't give a damn who they are. From The Hill's writeup:

Sen. Patrick Leahy is privately indicating interest in taking over the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from an ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) if necessary, four Democratic sources said Thursday.

The Vermont Democrat, third-in-line on the panel, strongly denied those claims. But all four sources said Leahy has sent several signals to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about the move.

"It's been going on. There have been lots of whispers in Reid's ear," said one Democratic source.

Leahy "has tried to meet with Reid several times" about Byrd's chairmanship, according to another source.

The 90-year-old Byrd has been ailing for months, after having been hospitalized in February after a fall in his home and again in March for adverse reactions to medication. Both hospital stays were short, but senators this week raised the issue of his fitness as chairman during a Democratic leadership meeting.

Iraq Me Dave Petraeus..Ethno-Sectarian Competition?

I think I like Jon Stewart's take on the Dog and Pony show that just took place in DC

It's all I have today..two Dr appts took the wind out of my sails..and I really can't get into serious politics today..but one thing..

Ethno-Sectarian Competition????? WTF is that shit?

Talk about double-talking jive..He is the best bullshitter around..General Davy folks..without a friggin doubt. And they say Jon Stewart doesn't give us any real news..

Beyond Beijing..

I made this for Enigma at WaterGate Summer.



Meanwhile today..54 Burmese immigrants suffocated to death while being smuggled into Thailand looking for work.

Another anniversary in Iraq!!!!

Today is the day on which the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down in Baghdad. The anniversary will be marked in Baghdad by an all day curfew on vehicles. It’s been five long arduous years since the troops entered the city of Baghdad. What exactly has been accomplished? Oh plenty..

We have spent a boatload of money. We have managed to bring down the bulk of Iraq’s infrastructure. We have built, sometimes with slave labor, a huge American Embassy that is grossly overbudget.

Lets not forget that the Iraqi’s have been able to vote democratically! The fact that the government they elected can’t get squat done is but a small footnote..right? The Green Zone, once considered the safest place in Iraq, is being shelled almost daily by mortars and deaths are a fact of life within those walls these last two weeks. The benchmarks set for the government of Iraq have not been met by and large, but hey..according to Petraeus..its all coming together nicely..but he needs more time.

How do you plan on celebrating another war milestone in Iraq? Have a houseparty? Make sure to invite General Davy over..oh wait..I think he’s busy with the Congress critters again today.

UPDATE: The curfew did not stop squat today in Baghdad. From IHT via TO:
At least a dozen people were killed in Baghdad's Shi'ite slum of Sadr City on Wednesday, despite vehicle bans aimed at preventing unrest from spreading on the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Police said six people died in clashes overnight, and an explosion in the morning hit a funeral in the slum, killing six more and wounding 14 people.

Dr Qasim al-Mudalla told Reuters 11 bodies and 54 wounded had been brought to the Imam Ali hospital he manages in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr since Sunday. The dead included four children and two women, he said.

Ah yes General Davy..its going so damn well over there!!! How much more money do ya need dude to keep this going in perpetuity?

Crossposted at Bring It On!

Conyers schedules hearing with Yoo as the star.

I doubt that Yoo will appear..after all, executive privilege is one of the buzz phrase's of the Bushie Adminstration..but here is the writeup by TPM muckraker:

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) wants to former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo to discuss his now-infamous March 14, 2003 memo that broadly authorized the use of torture by military interrogators of unlawful combatants.

Conyers has gone ahead and scheduled a hearing for May 6th on the memo and invited Yoo in a letter today. But it's apparent from the letter that Yoo is not too enthusiastic about the prospect of testifying to Congress. He's apparently raised concerns to committee staff that the topics covered might "implicate executive confidentiality interests" and generally indicated that he'd rather not appear.

Considering how little press this memo(here's Part I and Part II) has received, I wonder how much press the hearing will get.

Tags: John Yoo, Torture memo

Today's Dog and Pony show on the Hill..

I tried so very hard to watch it..I really did. My mind was elsewhere and frankly I got real friggin tired of the Congress Critters waxing poetic, sucking up facetime on the camera and then Crocker and Petraeus answering with less words and no substance than we deserve.

With that said..TPM muckraker has a nice set of posts on what went down and videos to boot. I realize I link to them a lot but I think they are the best site in the blogosphere for cutting through the bullshit and giving us the facts.

Here are two links to videos of Obama's line of questioning. I think he tried to get a straight answer out of Bushie's little minions more so than any of the other assholes there. Hillary damn near put me to sleep with her fucking speechifying..I was thinking..stfu and ask a question woman!

Got a lot on my mind lately..so forgive the lack of bitching and moaning about how fucked up our system is and those who run it.

McCain calls wife a..well, he used the 'c' word

RawStory has an interesting article up about Weathervane McCain's ability to come unglued at inopportune times and even on people he espouses to love and cherish. In this case, he got highly peeved at Cindy, his wife. This excerpt is from a soon to be published book by Cliff Schecter:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

I don't know about other women..but if my spouse..or anyone for that matter uses cunt when referring to me face to face or within earshot..they will either be walking funny for the next month or splayed out on the ground out cold. Call me a bitch if you must..but a cunt..nope...if you value your life you won't go there with me. The excuse that it was a long day doesn't cut it either..you old fucking fart..get used to it..Presidents get maybe 6 hours of sleep a night..if that. Unless your Georgie Bush of course.

Considering that Cindy has all the money in that marriage..I found it even more incredible. Because if it was me, he would be shining shoes for a living after that friggin tirade, in front of other people no less.

Doug and his Feith-based bullshit.

Douglas Feith is a tool, among other things. Last night on Sixty Minutes he attempted to spin a yarn so big, I thought the interviewer, Steve Kroft, was going to piss down both legs as he stared at Feith in amazement.

Feith attempted to spin the War in Iraq as a preemptive strike. No, I am not kidding..its in the link above either in the transcript or the video of the show. From Feith's own piehole:

"What we did after 9/11 was look broadly at the international terrorist network from which the next attack on the United States might come. And we did not focus narrowly only on the people who were specifically responsible for 9/11. Our main goal was preventing the next attack." (emphasis mine)

Incredulous at this point, Kroft says Feith's logic stinks to high heaven and could be used to attack Iran, North Korea, Syria and countless other countries that talk a good game but haven't done anything to us on US soil. Then Feith drops this little turd:

"In an era where WMDs can put countries in a position to do an enormous amount of harm,” he tells Kroft, “the old of idea of having to wait until you actually see the country mobilizing for war doesn't make a lot of sense."

I guess it's safe to say at this point that Doug isn't a big fan of diplomacy and talking it out. Kroft then lets Doug know that the Idiot-in-Chief and others said the reason we were attacking Iraq was because of an imminent threat that they were going to use their WMD's on the U.S.

Feith actually has the nads to say at this point that he believes no one in the administration actually said that. Kroft, fully loaded with ammo at this point, starts ticking off various members of the BushCo cartel that parroted that line of thought: Rummy, Powell, and Bush himself.

Feith is promoting his new book; War and Decision. Kroft prefaces the interview by saying Feith defends much and apologizes for very little about the war in his book. That would be an understatement m'dear reader.

Feith is considered one of the architects of the Iraq war, along with Paul Wolfowitz. He was also the guy that was in charge of Iraq's military prisons, which means he was the head honcho for Abu-Ghraib. He has so much disdain for the Geneva Conventions that this Slate article quotes the following:

It was Feith who devised the legal solution for getting around the Geneva Conventions' prohibition on physically or psychologically coercing prisoners of war into talking. As a Pentagon official in the 1980s, Feith had laid out the argument that terrorists didn't deserve protection under the Geneva Conventions. Once the war on terrorism started, all he had to do was implement it. And even more damning than his legal rule-making is Feith's reported reaction to complaints by military Judge Advocate General lawyers about the new, looser interrogation rules. "They said he had a dismissive, if not derisive, attitude toward the Geneva Conventions," Scott Horton, a lawyer who was approached by six outraged JAG officers last year, told the Chicago Tribune. "One of them said he calls it 'law in the service of terror.' "

Oh my, the GC isn't worth the paper it's printed on Doug? Lets move on..shall we? Doug was also in charge of the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Unit:

The group issued a report about connections between Iraq and al-Qaida that Rumsfeld had Feith deliver to CIA Director George Tenet in August 2002. This was reportedly the same report that Vice President Cheney recently called "your best source of information" on the links between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Of course that report has been debunked to hell and back. Feith also denies taking part in the decision-making process that led to Bremer dismantling the Iraq Army. Bremer..to paraphrase, says Feith is full of shit on that point too. I would tend to think if your the head of the department tasked with rebuilding the post-war Iraq..you really would have a say in any and everything done in that regard.

The 60 Minutes interview will most likely cause you to clinch your teeth when Doug Feith is finished covering his ass and doing quite a bad job of it I might add. Kroft corrects him on quite a few points. If your a big enough sucker to buy his book to read his excuses for why the Iraq war went to shit..head on over to your nearest bookstore. I personally find Dougie Feith a liar and a warmongering fuckwit that ignored common sense issues and helped trash our Constitution while having a primo job in the Bush administration. To close, I think this quote from a recent HuffPo writeup sums it up best for me:

What's incredible is that only in the field of foreign policy can someone have so disastrous a record and be showered with medals, endowed chairs at prestigious think tanks, and even a professorship at Georgetown University's esteemed Walsh School of Foreign Service. It boggles the mind.

Yes, it surely does boggle my mind. The man should be tried under those very same Geneva Conventions.

Tags: Doug Feith

Mark Penn resigns as Chief Strategist for Camp Hillary

From MSNBC:

From NBC's Mark Murray and John Boxley Mark Penn, who recently met with the Colombian government regarding a trade deal that Hillary Clinton opposes, has resigned his post as the Clinton campaign's chief strategist.

"After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign," campaign manager Maggie Williams said in a statement. "Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign."

Williams added, "Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson will coordinate the campaign's strategic message team going forward."

Per sources in the campaign, Hillary Clinton was disappointed with Penn's meeting with the Colombian government. She is a big opponent of the trade pact. Penn knew that he had made error in judgment and realized over the weekend that he would need to step down as chief strategist.

Clinton agreed.

Tags: Mark Penn resigns

Today's Iraq death count..in the Green Zone.

From MSNBC:

A rocket attack on the U.S.-protected Green Zone on Sunday killed three American soldiers and wounded at least 31 people, a military official said. The strike came after heavy fighting in a Baghdad neighborhood that left 20 dead and more than 50 wounded in the worst violence here since a cease-fire was declared a week ago.

At least two rockets struck the sprawling Green Zone in central Baghdad, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to release the information. A separate strike happened in southeastern Baghdad.

As I said earlier however..its just a blip on the screen. stay tuned for more fluff about Obama, Hillary and every other issue that doesn't mean shit in the grand scheme of things. Can't wait to hear Petraeus spin this shit when he hits the hill. And we wonder why one in four soldiers is suffering from anxiety, depression or acute stress, according to an official Army survey of soldiers' mental health. From the WaPo writeup:

The Army study of mental health showed that 27 percent of noncommissioned officers - a critically important group - on their third or fourth tour exhibited symptoms commonly referred to as post-traumatic stress disorders. That figure is far higher than the roughly 12 percent who exhibit those symptoms after one tour and the 18.5 percent who develop the disorders after a second deployment, according to the study, which was conducted by the Army surgeon general's Mental Health Advisory Team.

The Army and the rest of the service chiefs have endorsed General Petraeus's recommendations for continued high troop levels in Iraq. But Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, and their top deputies also have warned that the war in Iraq should not be permitted to inflict an unacceptable toll on the military as a whole. "Our readiness is being consumed as fast as we build it," Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said in stark comments delivered to Congress last week. "Lengthy and repeated deployments with insufficient recovery time have placed incredible stress on our soldiers and our families, testing the resolve of our all-volunteer force like never before."

Artwork by the highly-talented Worried Shrimp.

The American Media-Bought and paid for?

There was a time in our history when America's so-called mainstream media kept us informed on important issues and events. We have to look no farther than the recent past, a little more than thirty years ago, to give them a few well-deserved kudos. I refer specifically to the Pentagon Papers and Nixon's Waterloo that came to be known as Watergate. Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers was a global as well as national turning point in the Vietnam War. The investigative work of the Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward began the unraveling of Nixon's White House. Both events transpired in the early 1970's and ended with President Nixon's resignation from office on August 9, 1974. Both of these watershed moments in our history could not have happened in this decade, I would bet my last devalued dollar on that.

This morning, as I perused my emails, I focused on Salon's Glen Greenwald's piece entitled; The US establishment media in a nutshell. Glen has his panties in a wad about how little our MSM gives us on the Iraq War and how much baloney it does manage to slop we the hogs, with. With a simple NEXUS inquiry based on a 30 day news cycle, Mr. Greenwald provides us with the following big ticket items:

"Yoo and torture" - 102

"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73

"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16

"Obama and bowling" -- 1,043

"Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)

"Obama and patriotism" - 1,607

"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079

Now, I am sure you notice right off that the most written about subjects are the worthless and totally inane Presidential campaign fluff bs. Topics which do not have a tinkers damn thing to do with the programs and ideas that either of the Democratic nominees for that office are espousing.

This set my jaw in a very uncomfortable position so early in the AM. To be more precise, it jacked the hell right out of my jaw, and I hadn't even had a friggin cup of coffee yet. Although most of the lesser articles are regarding events and issues in the Iraq War, nothing even has those two words in it.

What this tell us is that the MSM has “taken a powder” on reporting any of the events of the Iraq War within the last thirty days. Our media has expended little ink on addressing the events that have been unfolding in Basra or the daily shelling of the American compound in the Green Zone—two things which are important events with regard to how the war is going for BushCo.

If you want to stay abreast of the happenings in Iraq, you have to read either the European media or alternative media here in the United States. That is complete and utter bat guano my dear reader.

Unless of course your just regular folks, as Greenwald notes in his article. Regular folks, according to the MSM just want the fluff, the happy news. I find this unbelievable until I pause and consider how little the majority of American's have invested in the Iraq Occupation. Our money is invested heavily of course, but it isn't like we have to shell it out of our own pockets daily. Perhaps if we did that, we would find the majority of Americans highly pissed off—but I am not holding my breath on that either. The American blood being shed is also a very small cross section of our country.

As long as American's continue to show very little emotion or disgust with regard to the travesty of mythic stature in Iraq, our mainstream media will continue to provide us with nothing substantial. The bottom line is that it's our fault really, not theirs. We eat the pablum they shovel in our pieholes and ask for nothing more.

Where are the Daniel Ellsberg's, Carl Bernstein's and Bob Woodwards? They aren't out there and even if they were—would they take it all the way to our current Supreme Court in an effort to get the truth out to the world? I doubt it because the Supreme Court is bought and paid for too. Just ask the folks languishing in Guantanamo and awaiting their military tribunals. Ask the ACLU about how those warrant-less wiretapping cases are going and how many of them have been dismissed because of that disgusting phrase: State Secrets Privilege.

For BushCo it is game, set and match. And they skunked us bad folks. They fucked us and didn't even kiss us first.

Crossposted at UnCapitalist Journal