The new magic number for Obama is 2118

After 10 hours and lots of backroom ass-kissing, the DNC Rule's committee has seated all of FL and MI's delegates but with only half a vote each.

The Super D's were not addressed separately, therefore it's not clear to me how MSNBC arrived at the new magic number.

Harold Ickes Jr. is a Hillary delegate and the MI state chair, and he wasn't happy with the outcome, saying Hillary is reserving the right to take this to the Convention's credential committee.

Christ there were some loud Hillary-ites there in the gallery. Like her, they don't see the writing on the wall I guess..

Another news story for today...Obama has resigned his membership in the Trinity Church after the lastest round of bullshittery there.

Another sidetrip away from Politics..

I nevah write about moi here. Nevah evah! But recently, if you scroll down a post or two you will see where I did veer from the norm on this here Bloggy thing.

I will now do this again.

I have blogged on a personal level every now and then over on my sports/bullshit blog in the past. Here and here are memorable posts from that blog and they tell you about moi and my mindset if you care to know. That blog has all of three readers and none of them are regular by any stretch of the imagination. That is quite fine with me, I don't really like to draw attention to myself...unless I am drunk of course. Plus I do not blog with any regularity over there. But I digress...

As a native and current resident of Cali, supposed land of the fruits and nuts, I can and most certainly do avail myself of the law known as Prop 215. I actually shop in a dispensary for my medication needs and they run the gamut from a posh, Weeds-type setting with all the comfy accouterments to the seedy bookie-like joints that are unclean, dark and with the armed guard at the front door...scary as fuck.

Most mornings I like to self-medicate after I take care of the few chores that require an alert Dusty to perform them. Like giving Nicky her morning insulin injection. Nick is our fat, old, white poodle that the ball and chain has owned for 13 plus years. He too is fat, white and old. But I don't hold it against him as he is a wonderful man that loves me and provides for me as no other human ever has.

To continue reading, click here jackass ;)

From our Dept of WTF?

From TO via McClatchy we get this news:

Washington - Beverly Fanning is among the campaign donors who'll be joining President Bush at a gala at Washington's Ford's Theater Sunday night, but she says that won't dissuade her from her current passion: volunteering for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Now, I knew I wasn't dreaming because I have had two cups of Espresso and my insect bites are driving me nuts...so I had to click on that linky in my TO newsletter. Yep, sure as shit it lists some of the folks that gave to the Bush campaign as now contributing to Obama's campaign..this info is available online of course if you know where to look and want to pour over pages and pages of FEC(Federal Election files. They list some of them:

Among them are Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the late GOP president Dwight Eisenhower; Connie Ballmer, the wife of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer; Ritchie Scaife, the estranged wife of conservative tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife and boxing promoter Don King.

Well, that isn't a list of who's who in the Rethuglican party but it is interesting none the less. Also noted in the piece is that the folks they talked to, who are moderate Republicans, are giving to OBAMA. Its a good read, and not real long..check it out...interesting as hell my dear readers .

The DNC Rules committee is haggling as I type this..

I slept in damn it, I nevah evah do that!!! MSNBC is showing it live and as I suck down a cuppa coffee, the FL chair is pleading his case.

Looks a little like an inquisition to me, except for the audience seated there are clapping and screaming like its a sports contest.

I will report on the outcome later..need more coffee.

Ok, its later...HuffPo is reporting a backroom deal was already reached for the FL delegates last night..all will be seated but each only has half a vote. No word on their Super's however.

So, its all a show that I am watching now...fuck that is bullshit..I hate backroom deals...reminds me of the Rethugs ya know..

Lets take a short break from Politics shall we?

Once again I am dogsitting at the mansion in the wine country of Temecula, replete with pool and jacuzzi and a shitload of vino. I left the house in Bakers-friggin-field at sunrise..six fucking am to be precise. The drive was uneventful save the asshole in the Toyota that wanted to play fuck-around a bit on the Grapevine. The Grapevine for those unfamiliar with it is the 4k foot mountain range that lies between the San Joaquin valley(me) and Hell-A (LA). I usually do around 85-90 mph there..I know it like the back of my liver-spotted hand and at that hour,the traffic is light save a few truckers. Any who, this jackass wanted to strut his stuff and evidently thought running me off the road was a grand game. I, driving a shitbox 6-cylinder 98 Taurus thought..ok pal, bring it. He did and I responded in kind. I am not the person you want to entice into a game of Chicken.I will never give in first..evah my dear reader. Since he didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of the issue, I finally took my foot off the gas pedal and wished him a fond farewell...or so I thought.

He started to block me in...never allowing me to pass him, and if I slowed down..so did he, always just a car bumper in front of me. This got old very fast as my patience scale is quite low...non-existent in fact. When we reached a downward pitching spot I jerked out into the next lane and gunned it. He of course did too, which might of been what the asshole wanted all along...a little freeway racing. When we hit 100, I sad fuck it...afterall, my threshold is 90..no ifs ands or butts.

Suddenly a black and white blur whooshed by me on the outside lane. Lo and behold, Johnny Law was hot on the ass of the...well, ass. I watched with glee as the jackass was pulled over, I honked and waved as I drove by him and the officer:) The song on the MP3 player was Little Feat's Dixie Chicken I believe.

So, I have arrived at the homestead unscathed. I unpack, set up ye old laptop and begin to hit the blogs...eager to check on my newfound friends Randal Graves, Tengrain, Politits, Cunning Runt FranIam Phydeaux and the uniquely talented Utah Savage. I have seen them in the circle I have been inhabitating lately and it was fun to leave a comment and see if they responded and recognized the moniker I am sure they had also noticed around the blogosphere lately.

They all did, and I was embarrassed actually because I am a little timid at first when I meet people, and then when I feel comfortable I let the fur fly so to speak..cussing like a sailor, making snarky and sometimes inappropriate comments, railing like a mental patient off her meds...the usual hellfire Dusty bullshit.

Politits came by and left me a beautiful comment on her blog that made me feel right at home and welcome as part of the Blogger family. Tengrain did as well, a fellow Cali resident, I was quite thrilled when he stopped by here as many of the bloggers named above. But the one that slapped me upside the head was the inimitable Utah Savage. Ms. Savage, I heart you, you are a woman after my own heart. You smoke (both things) cuss occasionally, straight talk it and most importantly of all your an old broad like me that has been married numerous times and not embarrassed to mention it and you live life to the fullest as physically possible at the moment.

Ms. Savage is a literary person too. She writes short stories, poetry and novels. She has wonderful command of the english language while still remaining close to the ground. I think I love her, no...I know I do. Her posts are long and full of imagery...both of the mind and a few graphics tossed in. I write all those things too....but no one has ever read them...I have them password protected on my laptop...I am weird like that. But I digress..

And she loves Keith Olbermann. This of course bonds us immediately, that and we both as old broads, smoke pot. So, we had a little give and take in her comments section. She then put up a post with MY name in the title...I felt like I had arrived now with the clique...sort of anyway.

It remains to be seen whether these new folks will stop by regularly. But it really doesn't matter because I have you, my six regular readers, which includes the lovely and talented DCap in NYC...so I can live with a small but wonderful audience like you folks.. as long as I have a bottle of chardonnay and a bowl of pot nearby.

But to end the Olbermann talk..he IS mine Utah, make no mistake about that chica... I will make him my 5th...or is it 6th husband...hell...don't matter..the man knows talent when he sees it..and he told me I rock and gazed lovingly into my eyes...I swear he did. ;)

Scottys visit with KO..

Olbermann devoted almost the entire hour to Scotty McClellan tonight. If I can d/l the video somewhere..hello Crooks and Liars..I will put it up. The only other guest was ironic as hell..John Dean.

If you can catch the show later..you won't regret it sports fans.

Also, ThinkProgress has a YouTube up where an MSNBC reporter states the Loyal Bushies are now calling Scooty a traitor...jeez. please...

Video! MSNBC has the entire show up on five videos here.

Blackwater sues the City of San Diego

Trying an end run to keep to their 'Grand Opening' date, Blackwater has sued the City of San Diego "to restrain the City from denying the company's installation of a weapons training school-under the cover of a "vocational school." Blackwater had planned on opening its facility in Otay Mesa, mere blocks from the US-Mexico border, on June 2nd. The company maintains it has a multi-million contract with the Navy to train sailors."

Read the complaint here. Their parent company has hired one of SD's top law firms. As I blogged here, San Diego's Mayor, Jerry Sanders had put a Stop Work Order on Blackwater's construction permit so as to investigate how they got their permits in the first place by using other companies names instead of their own to secure the proper permits.

Caption this sucker...

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Filched from Tengrain's place. I know I have a whole six regular readers...but humor this old bitch and take a stab at it, okey dokey??

I'll start...Damn, Why does my top lip smell like shit? I brushed, flossed and showered after I blew ol Dick Cheney early this morning..

He is disappointed, not disgruntled.

Oh what-fucking-ever McClellan. This is this morning's interview with Scotty on the Today Show. Meredith asks some very good questions about 4 minutes into the interview...she also brings up that Rove has now called Scotty a 'leftwing blogger':

About that Rules committee meeting this Saturday…

From Chuck Todd’s blog First Read on MSNBC:

A packet sent around to members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee has some neutral opinions about the various challenges. One thing folks ought to not miss is the fact that the DNC rules had called for an automatic 50% delegate cut for states that violate the window. The Rules committee went beyond that — which was within its rights — and took away ALL of the delegates. Doesn’t this provide the blueprint for what’s likely to happen on Saturday — a reinstatement of 50% of the delegates in both states? In fact, if we’re interpreting this right, and if the Rules committee follows the letter of the law on this issue, they can’t reinstate 100% of the delegates because of the initial violation. For those following the FL/MI fight closely, realize that a Florida compromise seems to be fairly easy to come to; frameworks are being developed as you read. But Michigan is the real riddle. The biggest impediment there are those “uncommitted” delegates; If the Rules committee decides to accept the January primary results then it’s not clear, via the DNC charter, that it’s within the party’s rules to assign uncommitted delegates to Obama. Of course, as multiple members of the Rules committee told NBC News, there’s such a thing as “political will,” which could trump the DNC charter. Oh, the joys of what we’ll be watching on Saturday.

yep, Saturday, as Elton John once said…is alright for fighting. The DNC lawyers have told them to just seat the suckers but remove half their votes..sounds good to me dudes. But it ain't over until I scream at a cat for doing something wrong while I try to pay attention to this bullshittery come Saturday morning... ;)

McClellan starts making the rounds of tv shows..

He will be on Countdown this evening. I am sure he will also land on every other show that is clamoring to let the little trolie polie open his piehole and puke out some mea culpas.

We need to remember that many newsies considered Scotty one of the dullest knives in the drawer to put it mildly.

We lefties can get all high and mighty about his 'revelations', but Tenet basically did the same damn thing in his book, which is to say its a huge CYA exercise with a payout if the book flies off the shelves at your local Barnes and Noble.

As a treat..I say that with tongue in cheek...below is Rover's pov about Scotty's book and musings via Fox Noise. Krazy Karl calls him a leftwing blogger. H/T to C&L for the video!

McClellan's new book hits the streets early..its a doozy evidently.

Scotty's new book will not only toss his boss under the bus, it will back up over him. From Politico via Crooks and Liars:

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.

McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

EmptyWheel discusses the Rove factor in PlameGate via Scotty's new tell-all. Check it out. KO and Rachel discuss it all below:

Bush plans Iran airstrike within next two months

I knew that bastard would start some shit with Iran before he left office. From Common Dreams:

NEW YORK - The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds' stated mission is to spread Iran's revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

Targets could include IRGC garrisons in southern and southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq. US officials have repeatedly claimed Iran is aiding Iraqi insurgents. In January 2007, US forces raided the Iranian consulate general in Erbil, Iraq, arresting five staff members, including two Iranian diplomats it held until November. Last September, the US Senate approved a resolution by a vote of 76-22 urging President George W Bush to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization. Following this non-binding "sense of the senate" resolution, the White House declared sanctions against the Quds Force as a terrorist group in October. The Bush administration has also accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program, though most intelligence analysts say the program has been abandoned.

Why is it imperative to start a "new" war with them? What will the sumbitch gain other than his contractor cronies getting richer and a bigger clusterfuck in the middle east?

Utah Phillips has died...

From Democracy Now!:

The "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest": Legendary Folk Musician, Activist Utah Phillips, 1935-2008

Utah Phillips, the legendary folk musician and peace and labor activist, has died at the age of seventy-three. Over the span of nearly four decades, Utah Phillips worked in what he referred to as “the Trade,” performing tirelessly throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The son of labor organizers, Phillips was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. As a teenager, he ran away from home and started living as a hobo who rode the rails and wrote songs about his experiences. In 1956, he joined the Army and served in the Korean War, an experience he would later refer to as the turning point of his life. In 1968, he ran for the US Senate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. For the past twenty-one years he lived in Nevada City, where he started a nationally syndicated folk music radio show. He also helped found the Hospitality House homeless shelter and the Peace and Justice Center.

Oh, this is a shocker...

Putin has been named the Prime Minister of the Belarus-Russian alliance. From the MSNBC writeup:

Some observers expected Vladimir Putin to become president of a unified state of Russia and Belarus after he stepped down earlier this month as Russian president.

The Belarusian news agency BelTA quoted the executive secretary of the alliance as saying Lukashenko had coordinated the move with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Medvedev is a mouthpiece for good ol Vladimir right? These guys are so intertwined you would need a crowbar to separate them. That’s Vlad with his shirt off…thank Gawd Georgie don’t run around like that…it would be the stuff nightmares are made of.

Haloscan is hosing up...again

If you leave a comment and don't see it...its there..take my word for it. The comment widget will show all comments even though the damn comment box isn't. Friggin haloscan..

Not what it's all about...

This is written by an Iraq War Veteran. He is still hospitalized and recovering from injuries he received during his deployment. He writes under the moniker ReasonOne at the Coalition for a Democratic America and at Sirens Chronicles. We are proud, at Sirens, to feature his writings and those of another veteran from a different war Big Fella.

Well it's Memorial Day and once again the American people are planning bar-be-ques, rushing to beaches, planning picnics and preparing gatherings with family and friends. The politicians are finding new and more obnoxious ways to manipulate the day for their own ends. And if this day had any significant meaning beyond personal enjoyment and political exploitation one would never know it.

The last knew the purpose of Memorial Day is to remember the service and sacrifice of America's Veterans. But as the years have passed we have forgotten that military service often means the deaths of those who serve and in our society we don't like to think about the idea of death and our wonderful Demander and Thief hasn't helped the situation any.

Let's face it. This Administration has done everything in its power to avoid discussing the tragedy which is the Iraq War. Our President refuses to attend funerals. The only time that he visits Iraq is when he can exploit soldiers. Here at home the only time that he speaks before troops and Veterans groups are when he wants to boost his sagging approval ratings.

The idea that we have a president who does nothing to elevate the significance of Memorial Day during a time of war is beyond the pail. With more than 4,000 dead and several thousand wounded, one would assume that our warmonger of a president would do SOMETHING to restore the spiritual relevance of this day, but that would require a certain degree of spirituality on the President's part and I think we can all agree that this president lacks anything that even remotely resembles spirituality.

Without viable leadership coming from the top the job of reviving the status of Memorial Day falls on Veterans and family members. And while they do an admirable job, the President and his ilk in Washington could still do more to emphasize the tragedy associated with war. But to do so would be an admission that our arrogant, warmongering president is trapped in a Catch 22 situation of his own creation. If he tries to remind the American people of the real purpose behind this day he can't help but remind the American people about the 4,000 + dead soldiers and thousands of wounded he has created. Reminding people of the dead and wounded he created is the only way that he can revive the true spirit of Memorial Day.

So what do we have? We have a situation in which an important American Holiday has devolved into a shallow, commercial festival. The memories of our troops have taken a backseat to steaks, brats, chickens, and superficial political speeches. Somehow I don't think this is what it's all about..

This is how McCain supports our troops?

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and I plan to run a piece by a veteran of the Iraq War. Today however, we take Weathervane McCain to task for his lies and bullshit he spews about supporting our soldiers. I hate this man like I hate Bush...perhaps even more so because he IS a veteran. May he suffer as our soldiers do..a thousand times worse for all eternity.

FAILING GRADES: McCain's record on supporting veterans is one of the worst in Congress. IAVA has given him a grade of a "D" for voting against veterans' priorities so often between 2000 and 2006. A scorecard of roll call votes compiled by the Disabled American Veterans found that McCain has voted for veterans funding bills only 20 percent of the time. For example, in May 2006, he voted against an amendment providing $20 billion to the Department of Veteran Affairs's (VA) medical facilities. In April 2006, he was one of just 13 senators to vote against providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care "and treatment for veterans." McCain has railed against comprehensive universal health care and wants to give veterans the "freedom to choose to carry their V.A. dollars to a provider that gives them the timely care at high quality and in the best location." But as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman notes, "[T]he Veterans Health Administration is one of the few clear American success stories in the struggle to contain health care costs. ... [I]t's an integrated system -- a system that takes long-term responsibility for its clients' health -- to deliver an impressive combination of high-quality care and low costs." McCain's plan, however, would "privatize and, in effect, dismantle the V.A." In his narrow-sighted focus on eliminating earmarks, McCain may also cut funding for military housing.

From The Progress Report

PNAC website is down...is it out??

Lord do I hate these mutha fuckas. I feel every last one of the bastards listed on their board needs to be tried for war crimes at the very least. SuzieQ had a post up about it today which linked to this site. From the linked to site:

The web site of the neoconservative based Project for a New American Century think tank has been taken down. The think tank in their own documents advocated the virtues of using the U.S. military as a global police force. They also endorsed preemptive war as a way to shape the world and even lobbied to get Bill Clinton to invade Iraq back in 1998. Contributors and signatories associated with the think tank included several high profile figures in George W. Bush's administration including Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, Richard Armitage and Richard Perle. Documents originating from this think tank have been the subject of a great deal of criticism by the 9/11 truth and anti-war movements. It now looks as if the neoconservatives whose agenda has been faltering as of late have decided to pull the plug on the web site for the purposes of damage control. If not, than somebody forgot to pay their Internet provider. We'll let you be the judge of which is the more likely scenario.

These smarmy bastards are scum and deserve a cell at the Hague..since most if not all of them are or were involved in BushCo's bullshit occupation of Iraq and the resulting debacle of death. If the smarmy site is down forevah....hoo-fucking-ray!!! If they just need to pay their internet hosting bill..too bad..I wish them nothing but horror and pain for all the days they have left. The photos below are the assholes that signed their names to the infamous 2000 memo..make they all rot in hell.

Thanks to Betmo for the heads up :)

Why can't we be friends?

The video below is not a setup. This guy, Gregory Pike hangs out in downtown Santa Barbara every day. From the Associated Students at UCSB website linked above:

"The dog raised the cat — I used her gestation period to raise the cat like a puppy. She chose Kitty from the litter, so she thinks it's her baby." The cat was then raised around all sorts of small animals, and treats the rat as if it were its own sibling. With the rat, "it's all about food." Rats, it turns out, are very open to interspecies pairing, as long as they aren't threatened and are properly taken care of. While it seems odd for the cat and rat to be stacked on top of the dog, Pike explains that it is the animals "safety zone": It is where the cat and rat feel most at home and protected by their surrogate mother. Of course, it also helps Pike and his pals walk around a little faster, as well as avoid possible rat or cat tripping incidents.

Bush-McCain fundraiser flops in Phoenix

Except if your a anti-Bush/McCain protester. Those folks are highly interested in this affair! A h/t and a hug to SuzieQ for posting this delicious piece of reality for Weathervane McCain. From the writeup:

A Tuesday fundraiser headlined by President Bush for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is being moved out of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.(emphasis mine)

W00T!!!! Makes me smile don’t cha know? Also a shout-out to Betmo for telling me about this gem so early on a Saturday morn.

Hillary invokes RFK's assassination?

WTF? Just off the top of my head, this is wrong on several levels. She needs to stick a sock in it.




This is beyond the pale. Its not the first time she has invoked RFK's assassination. KO will have a special comment on this huge fuckup.Let there be no mistake...she did not apologize:She said she REGRETS the remark.



KO's Special Comment on Hillary's unconscionable remark:

McCain and Lieberman shilling for nuclear power.

McCain gave a speech recently about the environment and alternative energy. Some folks gave him kudos for that speech and his stance, which possibly pissed off a few Rethugs.

Many more of us figured it was bullshit on a stick. And it was...

Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) are already circulating a proposed amendment [PDF] to their own Climate Security Act that would alter the bill to include more explicit support for nuclear power.

The amendment calls for "a portion of funds, as determined necessary by the appropriate committees of jurisdiction" be deposited into the Low- and Zero-Carbon Electricity Technology Fund already contained in the bill. This money would "fund a tax policy that will incentivize the manufacturing of nuclear project components in the United States." As the bill stands currently, the nuclear industry would be already be able to access this fund, as would any low- or no-carbon technology. The amendment would carve out specific monetary support for the nuclear industry, while other renewable sources would have to contend for the remaining pot of money.

Johnny McCain is backing these changes. Said a McCain campaign advisor:

"He wants to support the bill, he supports the goals of the bill, but he believes a comprehensive nuclear component needs to be added to it."

But it shouldn't be at the expense of other safer alternative methods. Unless that group is part of the folks his lobbyist buddies shill for.

Those bastards!

I say that with tongue firmly planted in cheek. The childish goings-on in the halls of government just make me smile like I have a fucking coathanger in my mouth. From ThinkProgress:

In 2003, Bush administration officials took down historic photos depicting significant moments in American diplomatic history. They replaced them “with huge color glossies extolling the diplomatic feats” of the Bush administration. Recently, however, things have taken “a turn for the worse” as unhappy State Department employees took matters into their own hands:

Outside the State Department ’s press briefing room on the department’s 2nd floor hang large official photos of Bush, Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney. The pictures were, er…modified by persons unknown. (We did not personally witness this, we must admit — or we’d have a photo to post). We’re talking fake mustaches and the like. The defacements were promptly cleaned up. They reappeared.

McClatchy’s “Nukes & Spooks” blog asks, “Further evidence that the Bushies are losing control as they enter their final months?”

Just warms the cockles of my little black heart….

Murdoch puts News Corp guy in at WSJ

The new managing editor of the Wall Street Journal is Robert Thomson. Robby is a long-term employee of Ruperts.

This can't be good.

When asked how its going at the WSJ since Rupert bought it, an employee had this to say:

Asked if Murdoch's ownership thus far has made the paper better or worse, Yount said, "He hasn't placed naked women on Page 3, is that an encouraging sign?"

Fuck I hate Murdoch. With every fiber of my being.

Webb GI Bill passes Senate 75-22

Here is a list of how everyone voted. Let me save you the trouble of looking however...all the nays had an R behind their name. McCain did not vote.

The number of yeas should be able to blow off Bush's promised veto.


McCain, you really don't support the troops do ya? Not by a longshot asshole.

Recount-A true story

Sunday evening, HBO will premiere Recount, the story of the Florida vote debacle of 2000. For me it will be must see tv. Below is a trailer of the film.



Kevin Spacey has said that many things not published about the whole debacle will be brought to light in the film.

This OpEd is awesome..read it!

A big hug to Jet at Bring it On for this article. Allison Benedikt has written a wonderful OpEd for the Village Voice on Hillary, her supporters and her campaign. It tackles that pesky subject of misogyny very well m'dear reader and I encourage...yea I demand that you read it. Tell me then what you think of it. Just a small blurb of it to get you interested:

Next comes Arianna "No Fear" Huffington, suffering from a strain of short-term memory loss that seems to be going around, to declare: "The greatest triumph of Clinton's campaign—a complete triumph—is the example she has set for the next generation."

Currently pregnant with the next generation, let me just say this: There is no greater wish that a mother can have for her daughter than that she will exploit poor people, obliterate Iran, and win rigged class president elections, Putin-style. (Mom, I won 100 percent of the vote!)

I love her!!! Look, as a woman that has fought against sexism my entire fucking life and I might add, the first woman to hold the job as Project Manager on a NASA subcontract in the 80's....I know how fucked up it is to be female and expect to be treated the same as males...and yet not be treated the same. I had to be better at my job than they were, work longer hours and make less money than they did. My husband divorced me because he was tired of me living at the office..I sacrificed my personal life for that fucking job..and I would probably do it all over again.

I am not bitter about any of it. I loved that job and when the spaceshuttle crashed, I knew many of us would be laid off. I opted to get laid off instead of having them dump a specific male co-worker because his son was suffering from brain cancer and I knew damn well that the health insurance was the most important part of the job for that guy at that point in time.

Besides I wanted to move back to Cali...and that is what I did when I got my walking papers. I went back to Cali, started my own business and raised my son as a single parent. If I am bitter about anything it's that my ex-husband was a piece of batshit that never paid a buck in child support.

Being bitter never serves anyone. It eats you up inside. That is why I think Hillary and her staunchest supporters need to suck it up and deal. Instead of screaming, bitching and moaning about how she was 'treated' they should be proud of what she accomplished by using race, lies and bullshit to win the states she did.

Tossing rocks in a glass house ain't a good idea..nope, it ain't.

San Diego Mayor orders stop work to Blackwater

Blackwater attempted to hide from the County of San Diego when they applied for the permits to set up shop in Otay Mesa. Jerry Sanders has started an investigation into how Blackwater obtained their permits..

None of the three permits issued were in Blackwater's name. From the link above:

In the case of Blackwater, the company used the name of affiliate Southwest Law Enforcement when it first applied for a city permit. On the second permit application, SAF Child Investments -- the owner of the building -- is listed as the applicant. And the third permit names another Blackwater affiliate Raven Development.

Blackwater's mouthpiece, Brian Bonfiglio, denies the company's use of three different affiliate names was meant to deceive.

Give me an effin break..why else would they use other entities to secure the needed permits? Well, a real estate consultant states that its business as usual for corporations to do that..it gives the parent company protection from lawsuits. The city attorney Mike Aguirre disagrees with that assessment saying:

Aguirre: You can't sneak in the back door and then make use of the general practices and procedures as a justification for doing something really in this particular situation may not be permissible."

Hope Blackwater gets shown the door again in San Diego County. It would warm the cockles of my little black heart don't ya know? :>)

Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor

Its the worst kind..and life expectancy isn't very long. But he has great healthcare, unlike millions of Americans, so I hope they can arrest it. From MSNBC:

Here is the statement from from Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, primary care physician, Massachusetts General Hospital: "Over the course of the last several days, we've done a series of tests on Senator Kennedy to determine the cause of his seizure. He has had no further seizures, remains in good overall condition, and is up and walking around the hospital. Some of the tests we had performed were inconclusive, particularly in light of the fact that the senator had severe narrowing of the left carotid artery and underwent surgery just 6 months ago. However, preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe. The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy. Decisions regarding the best course of treatment for Sen. Kennedy will be determined after further testing and analysis. Sen. Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in good spirits and full of energy."

75,000 people can't be all wrong.

No presidential candidate has ever drawn this many people in one place and on one day.

McCain's economic advisor is Phil Gramm?

Thanks to a new article up on the website The Public Record, I now have an Excedrin headache. Philly Gramm has only served one constituency his entire public life...that of the Corporatocracy and it's incestuous sister the Financial Industry. Now, as Weathervane McCain's chief economic advisor, we can expect old Johnny to tow the corporate line too, but of course under the guise of helping Americans.

Phil Gramm hates regulation of any market or any business. His love of all things capitalistic is legendary, as Leopold points out in his piece. Gramm was instrumental in giving Enron free rein during their heyday.

It's also a family affair for the Gramms. His wife Wendy was on the board of directors at Enron.

So, when McCain says he doesn't like something that will hamstring businesses and/or corporations...he is really towing the line as laid out by Phil Gramm. Take the Farm Bill currently before Congress. Johnny says he doesn't want to reward lobbyists...but if the truth be known..that ain't the real bitch that McCain and his buddy Gramm have with the bill. From TPR's article:

But the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee also opposes the farm bill because Gramm advised McCain that he should resist its regulatory language on the energy futures market.

Interesting no? Gramm is still looking out for his buddies. Bush has already stated he will veto the bill, because he too is a big supporter of unfettered capitalism..even at the expense of we, the people.

John Yoo, the Protest and the issue of his teaching at Berkeley

This past Saturday, May 17^th, the UC Berkley Law School held it’s graduation ceremony. It was attended by over 50 active and very vocal protesters. Most were dressed in prison orange and many were holding signs or reenacting various Guantanamo torture scenes for the graduates and their family members.

As someone that opposes torture as described in the Geneva Convention, Common Article 3, I find Yoo’s logic frightening and disgusting. My motto when it comes to treating people is this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Its friggin simple really, I don’t want American military personnel to be tortured so why in the blue hell would I accept my own government doing it, with obvious glee in some cases. But I digress.

Saturday’s protest was well-planned and frankly well funded. They flew a plane continuously over the proceedings with a sign that read:

Shame on Yoo & UC-End Torture

Yoo did not attend the ceremony. He had announced this previously as a matter of fact, but many of the protesters said it didn’t matter, it was still a great opportunity to get their message out. I support them on that issue.

What I have a problem with, besides Yoo’s involvement in BushCo’s administration is his teaching our next generation of lawyers. I hope, indeed I pray, that all of his students abhor him and what he stands for; a neoconservative individual with very few morals and incredibly low standards on the issues of equality, due process and human rights.

Yet, the man has every right to teach, he is after all, tenured. There is also another reason he should be allowed to teach, as much as it pains me to say; Academic Freedom. Christopher Edley, the Dean of Berkley’s Law School is an honorable man. He has worked for presidents and he currently advises Obama. His politics are liberal and yet his memo addressing the Yoo teaching issue is very spot-on when it comes to the basic tenant of why Yoo should be allowed to continue teaching at Berkley. A school he has been teaching at since 1993 and received tenure in 1999. From Dean Edley’s infamous memo on John Yoo:

There are important questions about the content of the Yoo memoranda, about tortured definitions of “torture,” about how he and his colleagues conceived their role as lawyers, and about whether and when the Commander in Chief is subject to domestic statutes and international law. We press our students to grapple with these matters, and in the legal literature Professor Yoo and his critics do battle. One can oppose and even condemn an idea, but I do not believe that in a university we can fearfully refuse to look at it. That would not be the best way to educate, nor a promising way to seek deeper understanding in a world of continual, strange revolutions.

Yoo also enjoys First Amendment rights and the most ironic of all, Due Process as well. So while we really have no conceivable reason to conclude he should be unceremoniously dumped at UC Berkley, we have every reason to wish some judge and jury somewhere would convict him and his BushCo employers of high crimes and misdemeanors. Only then could Mr. You be run out of Berkley’s Law School on a proverbial rail. Again from Dean Edley’s memo:

Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal or even a potentially chilling inquiry. As a legal matter, the test here is the relevant excerpt from the “General University Policy Regarding Academic Appointees,” adopted for the 10-campus University of California by both the system-wide Academic Senate and the Board of Regents:

Types of unacceptable conduct: … Commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrates unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty. [Academic Personnel Manual sec. 015]

There, in a nutshell, is what would be needed by the Dean to dump John Yoo. So the goal should be, for everyone that despises torture, to see Mr. Yoo tried and convicted in a court of law somewhere on our planet.

And frankly, I think getting canned by UC Berkley would be the least of Mr. Yoo’s problems if the situation named above finally happened to his smarmy ass. Only then will UC Berkley be free to fire that fuckwit and remove law students from his sphere of influence.

Crossposted at UnCapitalist Journal

The "Real McCain" is so full of shit...his eyes should be brown.

From Brave New Films...another edition of the Real McCain. The MSM gives him a free pass...but not these guys.

More underhanded bs from Gonzo comes to light..

From Jason Leopold's new website, The Public Record or TPR, we get this newest fresh hell:

Curiously, the Justice Department, which at the time was headed by John Ashcroft, officially launched the investigation on September 26, 2003, but Ashcroft waited more than three days before notifying Gonzales and the White House, whose high-level staffers were reported to be responsible for disseminating Wilson's affiliation with the spy agency to the media just two-and-a-half months earlier.

Gonzales asked the DOJ if he could wait until morning before notifying White House staffers about the probe, thereby delaying the issuance of a directive to preserve emails and other documents related to the leak of Wilson's undercover status federal investigators would need as part of their investigation.
The DOJ agreed.

But after Gonzales hung up the telephone, he immediately contacted Andrew Card, who was White House chief of staff at the time, and told him about the investigation.

For the entire piece, click the link above. Its a good read, and check out Jason's new site whilst your there. Frankly, I am not surprised by this information, but I am highly pissed at how cavalier those bastards were at covering their asses.

Update: Graphic created by Kvatch for his now-retired Blognonymous blog. :)

An Engineers guide to felines..

Something a little lighthearted

Doughy, White and Happy..

Huckabee jokes about assassinating Obama

Assassinating anyone isn't funny. Ever. From AP, these words came out of his mouth:

"That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor."

Even the NRA crowd, where he delivered the line, didn't laugh. Sick Fuck.

Graphic by Dark Wraith

This is a simply delicious writeup in the WSJ..

Jet, who also writes at Bring It On! sent around a link to this WSJ article today. It's a fabulous bit of snark about the Republicans and their downward spiral into the bowels of Hell. I highly suggest you read it if you are in need of a laugh, or just want to point a finger at the Rethugs and cackle like an insane person. Some choice quotes from the article which is penned by Peggy Noonan:

"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.

*Snip*

The party, Mr. Davis told me, is "an airplane flying right into a mountain." Analyses of its predicament reflect an "investment in the Bush presidency," but "the public has just moved so far past that." "Our leaders go up to the second floor of the White House and they get a case of White House-itis." Mr. Bush has left the party at a disadvantage in terms of communications: "He can't articulate. The only asset we have now is the big microphone, and he swallowed it." The party, said Mr. Davis, must admit its predicament, act independently of the White House, and force Democrats to define themselves. "They should have some ownership for what's going on. They control the budget. They pay no price. . . . Obama has all happy talk, but it's from 30,000 feet. Energy, immigration, what is he gonna do?"

*Final-Snip*

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined "brand," as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

He swallowed the microphone..laughing my ever-lovin ass off! It was my snark for the day and Peggy delivered it quite nicely.

A country twice the size of Idaho..

That is Iraq. Its not a huge piece of land, not by a longshot. Yet in our sixth year of warmongering BushCo simply can not end the madness there.

Our federal contractors are making a killing..literally and figuratively.

Yet, we have rightwing nutjobs like the idiot below running their pieholes on tv. This fuckwit didn't even know who Neville Chamberlain was. He had no sense of history. Yet he was more than willing to yell and bitch and moan about the Democrats. Hat tip to Tweety on this one. Kevin James is a fucking moron who needs to get back on his ADD meds.

149 House reps rent a set of balls...

In a stunning move, the Rethugs tried to play games by voting 'present' and it backfired on their smarmy asses.

149 House Reps voted NO on the War Funding Bill today. To see how they all voted, click here. With only 141 Reps voting yes....the bill failed. The bill would have provided $166 billion in war funding, the largest single provision since the war started in 2003.

Tsk.tsk..tsk.. :)

If your rep voted no...give them a call and thank them.

"We can't have acquittals. We've got to have convictions."

I have shuddered at the thought that most, if not all, of the individuals to be tried in BushCo's kangaroo court known as the military tribunals would be found guilty. That they would be found guilty on shoddy or non-existing evidence coerced out of them by torture and certainly without any decent representation.

Great gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands has occurred on this topic for me. This might cause some folks to see me as a loony lefty, among other things. As if that matters to me what people think of me.

I want the guilty to be found guilty...but I doubt that even a third of the people still being held in Gitmo are guilty of anything, even though they are considered 'high value' detainees by the people in charge.

Recently, one of those high-value guys saw the case against him dismissed. The alleged 20th hijacker, Mohammed al-Qahtani's case came to an abrupt end. The reason? He was tortured and tortured...and tortured some more. As Slate's Dahlia Lithwick notes:

The decision not to try him comes from the convening authority for the commissions, Susan Crawford. She didn't give an explanation for halting the prosecution, but, then, we don't really need one.

Lithwick's column states the reason that we might never see any of the 'high value' detainees tried and automatically convicted is because of the military itself. In her and Emily Bazelon's mind, there are honorable men and women involved in the Gitmo military commission hierarchy. While I have no doubt that some of the people involved are honorable and have a conscience, I still don't trust the majority of them to do the 'right thing' and end the Gitmo madness.

Dahlia and Emily start with Charles Swift, the defense lawyer from the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps who was appointed in 2002 to represent Salim Hamdan. Mr. Swift was a good and honorable man, to be sure. He has even publicly voiced his opposition to the military commissions. His opposition most likely cost him his military career.

Next, they lay out the case for Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the tribunals. He is an honorable man only because when it came time for him to actually prosecute detainees, which he had completely backed, he was stunned to learn which cases he was given. Cases without merit...but plenty of torture. From the Slate write up:

He resigned last October and went on an op-ed tear, writing that "full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system" because it "had become deeply politicized." Davis, who still maintains that the charges against Mr. Hamdan are "warranted by the evidence," was called to testify in Hamdan's case last month by the defense because of his indictment of the system.

Keith Allred is a military judge. That is pretty high up the food chain if you ask me. Allred bounced a biggie from Hamdan's trial. Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann has been removed from any further participation in Hamdan's prosecution by Allred because he determined that Hartmann directed prosecutors "to use evidence that the Chief Prosecutor considered tainted and unreliable, or perhaps obtained as the result of torture or coercion." (Allred also made a finding of fact that while interviewing Davis for the chief-prosecutor position, Department of Defense Gen. Jim Haynes told him, "We can't have acquittals. We've got to have convictions." So now that's the official account. Good to know.).

As I read further, I relax a bit. I realize that all might not be lost, that inherently good, honest people will not throw away their conscience just because their boss tells them to...they believe in the rule of law. The article rattles off four more names of individuals whose conscience trumped their bosses orders in BushCo's kangaroo court in Gitmo:

Four others—Maj. Robert Preston, Capt. John Carr, Capt. Carrie Wolf, and Lt. Col. Stuart Couch—have also left, apparently because of micromanagement and the interference of which Davis complained, including the demand that they use what they deemed to be unreliable coerced testimony.

That these individuals have sacrificed their careers in order to hold onto their belief system makes me feel that much better. It takes a lot for someone who is a career military officer to say fuck it and go very public with their opposition to the bullshit that is the Gitmo military commission.

We can only hope more of them are waiting in the wings. Beause there is still too much time left before January 21st gets here and the next Democratic President can put an end to the madness down in Guantanamo and shut the doors forever.

Crossposted at UnCapitalist Journal

KO's special comment tonight..Bush, Golf and our war dead

It was so good, I was applauding in my own fucking living room. God damn it was good.. And to catch Bush in an insincere lie to boot...priceless!

A kiss, a Hat Tip and a big cyber hug to John Amato, Silent Patriot and all the folks at Crooks and Liars that keep us informed and make sure we have the video asap. I heart all of you :)

Edwards endorses Obama

Branding the war on Terrah....

KO has a great Special Comment tonight..watch it if you can. If not, I will put it up here as soon as it comes available. Fucking spot-on.

Jason Leopold has new website

Its called The Public Record. From the About Us section of the site:

The Public Record, or TPR, is a nonprofit, independent, investigative news magazine.

TPR features hard-hitting original reports and biting commentary covering a wide-range of domestic and international issues. We have cultivated the best, the brightest, and the bravest journalistic minds and provided them with a media outlet to showcase their work.

We believe the independent and mainstream media have become saturated with individuals who opine and pontificate instead of report. Sadly, that means many important topics are not being covered. That is a void we intend to fill.

The Public Record is modeled after two newsletters published and reported by two muckraking journalists we have long admired: I.F. Stone, who published I.F. Stone's Weekly, and George Seldes, who published In Fact. We decided to call this publication The Public Record as a way of paying homage to Mr. Stone, who, to paraphrase the man, famously remarked that there is a wealth of important information in the public record if one simply took the time to search for it.

Think I will wander around their site for a bit. If you do, my dear reader, tell me what you think...

Oh no he didn't!!!!!!!

Larry Craig, that erstwhile bag of batshit that loves him some public restrooms is aiming for the spotlight again:

The Idaho Republican, who was famously made a pariah in his own party after allegedly soliciting sex in the Minneapolis airport men's room, announced that he would offer an amendment to the forthcoming Iraq war supplemental that would strip the legislation of Sen. Jim Webb's GI Bill.

Sweet Jaysus, wtf is Larry baby up to? Trying to cull favor with the rest of his Rethug brethren? He is a pariah at this point in his career. He thinks the bill is TOO generous..fucking loser.

I don't know if this is a scoop by HuffPo because I can't find anything else on the internets about this..

Tags: Larry Craig, Webb GI Bill

Rove will not be testifying before Congress..what a surprise!

The title is tongue in cheek of course..as I am sure no one on this planet is shocked by the news that Rover will not be visiting the Hill as a guest of the House Judiciary Committee.

The latest request for Krazy Karl to appear is based on the investigation into the Don Siegelman affair..by affair I mean that the Rethugs seriously made hay at Don's expense. From the RawStory writeup:

In his latest offer to settle the matter, Rove sent the panel a letter offering to respond to questions in writing, according to his attorney. But he reiterated that he would not testify publicly and under oath.

Committee leaders did not immediately answer questions about how they will respond. Earlier this month, they threatened to subpoena Rove if he did not agree to appear voluntarily by Monday.

Sweet friggin Jaysus, wtf do the idiots think they can do? They have subpoenaed this jackass how many times now and still not done a damn thing to him.

The Dems have no balls nor do they plan to rent any during this session of Congress. What a fucking pity...BushCo is not only in Contempt of Congress, they actually have contempt for Congress.

Tags: Karl Rove, Don Siegelman, Contempt for Congress