Maddow interviews Blago

The following is Rachel's take on the entire interview. She discusses the highlights, or lowlights with a former DOJ Prosecutor and whether Blago slipped up and admitted wrong-doing. Remember, Blago's attorney quit because he refused to keep his piehole shut and drop his national tour of talk shows. The entire interview can be seen here in sections.

Rover and his dilemma-Love it!

This drama unfolding with Krazy Karl just makes me friggin giddy! Executive Privilege just ain't what it used to be, is it Rover? To ask Obama's opinion is simply weird to me. ;p From TruthDig:

John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has just subpoenaed Karl Rove while investigating the politicization of the Justice Department and the political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. Rove previously invoked executive privilege to avoid congressional subpoenas. Conyers said in a press release: “I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court. ... Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it.”

Goodness!

Oh, and happy 50th birthday KO! ;)

Sirota and Maddow-Stimulus Pkg

What's Obama done in his first week? Well, lemme tell ya..

He hasn't been sitting on his hands reading polls, he hasn't been giving us empty speeches or downplaying the economic crisis either. In his first week, Obama has done the following, per Bill Moyers Journal:

In his first full day in office, President Barack Obama enacted two executive orders dealing with government openness and ethics. The NEW YORK TIMES suggested that, like many presidents before him, President Obama carefully chose these orders to send a message about his priorities as President.
*snip*
In one of his first executive orders, President Obama revoked the use of executive privilige as a means for former presidents and their heirs to keep documents from becoming public. In a separate memorandum President Obama undid a post-9/11 directive from the Bush administration that had encouraged federal agencies to deny Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Additionally, President Obama signed a memorandum outlining his administration's committment to open and transparent government.

Thankfully, Obama's administration also ordered a shut down to any of Bush's midnight regulations that haven't been finalized yet.

Obama has also signed E.O's that stop torture, close Gitmo, and will now allow the federal government to fund family planning clinics outside the U.S. that counsel on abortion.

It's was a busy week for our Commander-in-Chief. And I welcome that with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

The beginning of a new week and he is still making changes. Today, he signed an Executive Order reversing Bush's fuckery on allowing states to set their own EPA standards. As a Cali native and current resident of one of the smoggiest shitholes in the state, that makes me very happy.

A cuteness moment..

The cuteness quotient is off the charts for me in this video.

Is the demise of the Lobbyist near?

I doubt it, in spite of Obama's decree....those fuckers will survive. The Rethugs will still be drawn to them like moths to a flame. Harry Reid still hearts them too hell, the old fuck defends them. Both parties covet them, lets not kid ourselves here.

But 2008 wasn't a good year for those carpetbagging assholes, and it makes me smile to know that. You can view the top 20 lobbying groups income comparison's for 08 and 07 here.

There are good lobbyists. But sadly there are more bad than good. That's the problem of course. The only way to clean them up is to get rid of them all....and that's too bad.

On a personal note...the doctors now say I have an antibiotic-resistant strain of strep. Say that real fast 4 times. ;) How they came to that conclusion is beyond me since all the fucking tests kept coming back negative for everything...

I am now on superdrugs that majorly fuck with the digestive system. Oh happy happy joy joy to that eh? Cure one ailment to the detriment of another part of the body. sigh.....

Another corrupt Rethug indicted...

Former NY state Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno is our latest corrupt politician. From FindLaw:

Republican Joseph Bruno, the former New York Senate Majority Leader, was indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges accusing him of public corruption by accepting nearly $3.2 million over more than a decade from labor unions.

The charges allege that from 2003 to 2006, Bruno engaged in a scheme to defraud New Yorkers by accepting approximately $3.198 million from labor unions seeking state business in exchange for using his official government position to take action on behalf of the unions.

You can read the criminal indictment here.

Real piece o' work that Bruno. Hope he enjoys a long jail sentence with the common criminals. Bet he isn't laughing now...

Tags: Joseph Bruno

Republican myths about Obama's stimulus plan..

The latest fuckery being preached by the Rethugs, with regard to Obama's Stimulus Plan, has been addressed by ThinkProgress's The Progress Report. Below is a shortened version...be sure to read their entire version if the mood strikes you.

MYTH 1 -- SPENDING IS NOT STIMULATIVE: However, an analysis by Moody’s Economy.com found that government spending results in more significant "bang for the buck." For every dollar invested in specific types of spending, the boost in real GDP is more than $1.30. The most benefit comes from extending unemployment benefits ($1.64) and increasing food stamps ($1.73), but strong returns result from infrastructure investment ($1.59) and aid to state and local governments ($1.36), as well. Furthermore, Moody's also noted, "A well-timed, targeted, and temporary stimulus could in fact cost the Treasury less in the long run, since a debilitating recession would severely undermine tax revenues and prompt more government spending for longer." Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's and former adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign, released his analysis of the House plan on Wednesday, and concluded that it would "provide a vital boost to the flagging economy," without which full employment would not return until 2014.

MYTH 2 -- STIMULUS WON'T CREATE JOBS: "The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation's roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools." It stands to reason that investing in infrastructure is going to lead to job creation, as someone needs to be hired to actually complete the various projects. By investing $100 billion in clean energy infrastructure alone, the Center for American Progress (CAP) has estimated that 2 million jobs can be created in the next two years. Aid to states through bolstering Medicaid also "generates business and gets people into jobs," as a recent report by Families USA showed: "The new dollars pass from one person to another in successive rounds of spending, generating additional business activity, jobs, and wages that would not otherwise be produced." Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer and Vice President Biden aide Jared Bernstein, meanwhile -- by using the "1% of GDP equals 1 million jobs rule of thumb" -- estimated that a stimulus plan will create or save three million jobs. According to their calculations, "30% of the jobs created will be in construction and manufacturing," while "the other two significant sectors that are disproportionately represented in job creation are retail trade and leisure and hospitality."

MYTH 3 -- PERMANENT TAX CUTS ARE THE BEST STIMULUS: But CAP'sWill Straw explained, "The track record for such steps is poor in general, but they are particularly ill-suited for a recessionary period. After all, the reason that businesses and individuals are not investing at the moment has little to do with the taxes they may pay in the future and everything to do with a fear of losing money because there is no demand in the economy." An analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that every $10 billion spent on this kind of cut would create or save just 10,000 jobs, "versus nearly 60,000 jobs which could be created or saved by extending unemployment benefits and food stamps or investing directly in energy, transportation and education infrastructure." Furthermore, permanent measures will exacerbate the long-term debt much more than temporary measures will.

These are the talking points we, as progressives, should embrace and put out there when the rightwing nutjobs, lobbyists for the corporatocracy or any other jackass that supports the trickle down theory starts quoting their guy's bullshittery. All the links are good solid ideas backed up by intelligent people that believe enriching the wealthy won't do shit to bring us out of this global nightmare.

Video:Dean Baker: Talk Back To The Anti-Spending Crowd


Tags: Obama Stimulus Plan

The Media doesn't like the 'new rules'

From MSNBC:

News organizations that cover the White House sparred with the Obama administration on Thursday over access issues for photographers and rules for briefings.

Representatives from Obama's press office held a conference call with photo editors, who are concerned that the administration prefers distributing photos taken by a White House photographer in cases where photojournalists have been permitted access in the past. It was unclear whether the two sides had reached any accommodation.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse refused to distribute photos taken by the White House of the new president on his first day in the Oval Office because of the dispute. Still photographers were also not given access to Obama's do-over oath of office administered Wednesday night by Chief Justice John Roberts and an economics meeting on Thursday.

The Associated Press also questioned on Thursday why reporters were not allowed to use the names of administration officials giving a background briefing on issues regarding the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

Background briefings are hardly new in Washington, and were frequently conducted during the Bush and Clinton administrations. But the AP wanted to establish early with the administration that it's important to get information on the record as often as possible, said Michael Oreskes, managing editor for U.S. news.

"Information is a lot more valuable to the public if you know where it's coming from," Oreskes said. "So we try very hard in all source situations to identify sources as fully as we can."

Gibbs did not directly address the issue when asked about it later, saying that "I hope that you all found the exercise that we did the morning helpful."

I watched the first press conference yesterday and frankly, it was a very hostile bunch of journalists..so there isn't going to be a 'honeymoon' with the press..which is probably a good thing considering how the Media fell in lockstep with BushCo.

They spied on journalists...wtf??

I can't believe they did that...I can't believe they were that paranoid..our government.



Especially after apologizing for eavesdropping onWaPo and others:

It.Justs.Blows.Me.the.Fuck.Away.

And Obama will do nothing?

This.Is.Rich.

Obama signs executive order to close Gitmo, end torture.

Oh Happy Day! He just finished signing the executive order to close Gitmo within one year of today. He also signed an E.O that disallows torture of prisoners. From MSNBC:

Moving quickly to reverse his predecessor's policies on the treatment of terror suspects, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed an executive order to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year.

He also signed an executive order to require that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual, a move meant to restrict what the CIA can do. The presdient created an interagency task force to advise him on detainee policy.

He is starting off on the right foot...or is that the left foot? ;)

Colbert +Tuesday night=hilarious!

Stephen reacts to the inauguration of Barack Obama..priceless!

Weapons-grade Plutonium found abandoned.

This really makes you feel warm and fuzzy! And it has historical value! From New Scientist:

An old glass jar inside a beaten up old safe at the bottom of a waste pit may seem an unlikely place to find a pivotal piece of 20th century history. But that's just where the first batch of weapons-grade plutonium ever made has been found - abandoned at the world's oldest nuclear processing site.

See a gallery of images of the find and where it came from

The potentially dangerous find was made at Hanford, Washington State, the site of a nuclear reservation, established in 1943 to support the US's pioneering nuclear weapons program.

Hanford made the plutonium-239 for Trinity, the first ever nuclear weapon test, on 16 July 1945. Just three-and-a-half weeks later, more Hanford plutonium was used in the nuclear strike on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

But sloppy work by the contractors running the site saw all kinds of chemical and radioactive waste indiscriminately buried in pits underground over the 40 years Hanford was operational, earning it the accolade of the dirtiest place on Earth.

Hanford...damn, that is irony at it's best ain't it? It's a good read, sure to ruin your breakfast folks.

Tags: weapons-grade plutonium found, Hanford

120-day Hold put on Gitmo trials.

AP WaPo and Reuters are reporting that a 120 day hold has been placed on any military tribunal trials at Gitmo...by Presidential Order. From Reuters:

Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

Military judges were expected to rule on the request on Wednesday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official involved in the trials said on condition of anonymity.

The request would halt proceedings in 21 pending cases, including the death penalty case against five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in 2001.

Prosecutors said in their written request the halt was "in the interests of justice."

This is a great day folks. ;)

You gotta love Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

Best part of the ceremony...other than President Obama's speech of course, was the right Rev Lowery's benediction. The last part made me want to get up and yell AMEN Brotha! Preach it!

With your hands of power and your heart of love, help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nations shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen

.

Colbert's show was a total trip tonight as well. When video is available..I will get it up.

One door closes, another one opens.

Happy Inauguration Day People!!!

The day is just beginning. I am excited as I sit and watch the thousands of humans streaming into DC, and specifically the Washington Mall. The temperature is below freezing there the wild chill at minus 15 degrees, but no one seems to notice or care.

The new President isn't Superman. He will not be able to fix it all alone. It will take all the Congress Critters. It will take bi-partisanship.

The new day is dawning here in America, both literally and figuratively.

And it's gonna be a bumpy fucking ride!

Graphic below filched from DCap. ;)

Gitmo detainees leaving..few at a time.

This is a day of hope and change....for lots of people. Especially Haji Bismullah:

For nearly six years, Haji Bismullah, an Afghan detainee at Guantánamo Bay, has insisted that he was no terrorist, but had actually fought the Taliban and had later been part of the pro-American Afghan government.

Over the weekend, the Bush administration flew him home after a military panel concluded that he “should no longer be deemed an enemy combatant.”

Asked about the panel’s decision, which was not publicly announced and seemed to acknowledge a mistake of grand proportions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said, “Mr. Bismullah was lawfully detained as an enemy combatant based on the information that was available at the time.”

Lawyers for Mr. Bismullah, 29, presented sworn statements from officials of the American-supported Afghanistan government of Hamid Karzai that indicated Mr. Bismullah had been named as a terrorist by collaborators of the Taliban who wanted to take over his position as a provincial official. In fact, after Mr. Bismullah was shipped to Guantánamo, a local official said in a sworn statement, one of his accusers stole his car and drove it for two years.~NYT.

Doesn't that make your blood boil? Don't you want to take a baseball bat to someone's head who calls all the men held at Gitmo terrorists, scum and vermin? Another set of ruined lives gets a new start:

The US Department of Defense on Saturday announced it had transferred six detainees out of Guantanamo Bay. The detainees, four of whom were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria, and one to Afghanistan, were found to be eligible for transfer after what DOD called "a comprehensive series of review processes." ~Jurist.

And George W. Bush has less than 24 hours left in the White House. Too bad he isn't being transferred to Gitmo.

Martin Luther King had it right. Judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

But you can not even count on be judged correctly in Bush's War's..especially when all the checks and balances we have relied on for hundreds of years have been removed by idiots who think they know it all.

Tags: Haji Bismullah

8 years of Bush in 8 minutes...

Love this! From KO via TO:

George Walker Bush.

43rd president of the United States.
first ever with a criminal record.
our third story tonight,
his presidency: eight years in eight minutes.

early in 2001 the U.S. fingered Al Qaeda
for the bombing of the USS Cole
Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke
had a plan to take down Al Qaeda.
instead by February the NSC
had already discussed invading Iraq,
and had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq.

by March 5 Bush had a map ready for Iraqi oil exploration
and a list of companies.
Al Qaeda?
Rice told Clarke not to give Bush a lot of long memos.
not a big reader.

August 6, 2001
a CIA analyst briefs Bush on vacation:
"Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."
Bush takes no action tells the briefer - quote
all right, you've covered your ass now.

next month Clarke requests
using new predator drones to kill Bin Laden
the Pentagon and CIA
say no.

September 11th
Bush remains seated for several minutes
to avoid scaring school children
by getting up and leaving.
he then flies around the country
and promises quote a full scale investigation to find
those folks who did it

To continue reading, click here.

A little bit of fun for a sickie like moi.

The lovely and talented OKjimm has tagged moi with a "Six Random Things About Me" meme. It is his attempt to bring a little frivolity into my meager political existence. But...I still found a way to put politics into it. HAHAHAHA jimbo! ;p

The Rules

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Drumroll please!!!! Six random things about me-

1. I have smoked the herb with Dusty Hill of ZZ Top fame. It was a fabulous Boston morning and it was some excellent shit.

2. He then hit on me. I politely declined. It was the 70's and I was in love with someone.

3. I drove an amateur stockcar for an entire season, never finished a race. The guys put me into the wall every week.

4. I have been married 4 times...twice to the same idiot.

5. I rubbed shoulders with some of the brightest revolutionary minds of my era(70's). A lot of good that did me.

6. I have been jailed twice for not paying my speeding tickets. I have been jailed numerous times for protesting..too many to count.

7. I have lost a lot of weight lately and my fucking underwear won't stay up.


Now, I share the love with the following wonderful people. I don't follow rules well, so I picked seven. Have some fun with it ok?
Karen Zipdrive
Kim
Lazy Iguana
BadTux
Dark Black
Fran
Betmo

Hugs...but no kisses to all..I am contagious ya know. ;p

Mary Frances Berry Responds to John Tanner

Tanner is the fucktarded Bushie that had the nads to send a racist email, on the company computer one might say, that cast Ms. Berry, also an employee, in a real nasty friggin light. From TPM:

The former chief of the department's voting rights section, had told a colleague over email in 2004 that he liked his coffee "Mary Frances Berry style -- black and bitter." Berry, an African-American, was at the time the chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Well, Johnny sent her an apology which you can see and peruse here...which according to Ms. Berry isn't worth mentioning. Of course he did not email her the apology until the first letter was released to the public under the FOIA last week. Why, Muy embarrassing to be outed as a fuckery-laden racist at the end of your time on the public dole wouldn't you say? Btw, he didn't lose his job over this, but most companies would seriously frown on company emails such as this about high-ranking co-workers.



Do we have a fucktard of the week already? Christ, its awful soon for that..we have until next friday to name one, this takes all the air out of my sails about looking for the next one.

Oh, and another excellent read is William Rivers Pitt on The Shrubs last speech, replete with Monty Python remembrance!!!!! Its wonderful m'dear reader and just hits the spot for all you leftwing nutjobs out there. ;)

Tags: John Tanner, Mary Frances Berry

Juan Cole gets it right-friggin-on about W.

Thanks and hugs to Betmo for turning me on to Cole's post today on The Shrub. Juan Cole is usually a great read, but this one really hits all the marks for me. He says all the right things I could never put together if my life depended on it..I am much too hot-headed. A few choice paragraphs to peak your interest to read the entire post:

Bush is my slightly older contemporary. I knew guys like W. in college, the frat boys who painted the local lighthouse windows red in the middle of the night after binging on cheap beer and chasing skirts instead of cracking their books. The guys who were rude and arrogant because they did not know how to wear their inherited wealth gracefully, the loudmouths who parroted Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley without having the integrity of the former or the eloquence of the latter.
*snip*
W. wasn't up to dealing with the Middle East. It is a complex, vital, fractious place and is notorious as the graveyard of modern presidencies. Carter was done in by Iranian hostage-takers. Reagan embroiled himself in Iran-Contra. Bush Sr. imprudently took on the Israel lobbies over loan guarantees for Israeli colonies on the West Bank, and that misstep helped cost him reelection.
*snip*
There are weasels among the pundits who say that Bush has been vindicated, insofar as Iraq has regained better security than it had in 2006. This is like saying that the Norwegian brown rat was vindicated when the Black Death ran its course, having killed a third of Europe before it subsided.

Isn't that simply delicious? Wait..here is my favorite part of all:

W. is a frightful combination of ignorant, dull, and pigheaded when to succeed in the Middle East he needed to be well-informed, bright and intellectually agile.

Go read it, it is SO fucking worth it...you will not be disappointed m'dear readers. It says everything that needs to be said about the worst President in our nation's history. BTW, CBS's last poll on The Shrub came out today:

President Bush is leaving office with the lowest final approval rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago. Just 22 percent say that they approve of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years, while 73 percent say they disapprove.

Adios you worthless FUCKTARDO...don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. May you and your cronies rot in Hell or the Hague, your choice...for all eternity.

Top graphic by the inimitable Worried Shrimp. Bottom graphic by Dark Black the Magnificent.

Tags: George W Bush, Bushs Legacy

ps....I get more tests tomorrow to figure out wtf is wrong w/my body. Now the docs don't have a clue...I thought medicine was an exact science? Ye old jalopy just ain't running on all cylinders and its a real bitch to be me..which it usually is anyway..so whats the diff? ;>P

9 Israeli human rights groups think Israel has committed war crimes

I shit you not people. From IHT:

Nine Israeli human rights groups called on Wednesday for an investigation into whether Israeli officials had committed war crimes in Gaza since tens of thousands of civilians there have nowhere to flee, the health system has collapsed, many are without electricity and running water, and some are beyond the reach of rescue teams.

"This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes," the groups said in their first news conference on the 19-day-old war.

If that doesn't tell you something, your fucking daft. Keep in mind that both Hamas and Israel are asshats of the highest order. Both are war-mongering fucks.

But Israel admits it has not slowed down Hamas. From another IHT article:

Despite heavy air and ground assaults, Israel has yet to cripple the military wing of Hamas or destroy the group's ability to launch rockets, Israeli intelligence officials said on Tuesday, suggesting that Israel's main goals in the conflict remain unfulfilled even after more than two weeks of war.

The comments reflected a view among some Israeli officials that any lasting solution to the conflict would require either a breakthrough diplomatic accord that heavily restricts Hamas's military abilities or a deeper ground assault into urban areas of Gaza, known here as a possible "Phase Three" of the war.

Over a thousand Palestinians have been killed so far. From the Guardian article:

So far 1,010 Palestinians have died, including 315 children and 95 women, Dr Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza's medical emergency services, told the Guardian. The number of injured after 19 days of fighting stood at 4,700, he said. On the Israeli side, 13 people have died, among them three civilians, and four soldiers accidentally killed by their own troops.

If two weeks of constant shelling has not stopped Hamas...perhaps it is time to talk ya'all? Or do the numbers of dead and wounded in this pissing contest mean nothing to either side?

Dick Cheney has no remorse for the thousands of dead and wounded in Iraq...it's not impossible to believe the same about Hamas and the government of Israel..but it does sicken and anger me.

Speaking of moi.....now the doc thinks I have Mono..an old bat with mono...wtf? All I know is I ain't getting any better and I am a tad bitchy..ok...real bitchy. The ball and chain is real glad I am sleeping a LOT. ;)

Who is kidding who? There will be no justice for Oscar Grant.

All we can hope for is a long jail term for the BART cop that executed him. The DA finally arrested the sumbitch yesterday, twelve days after the killing.

Yes, Johannes Mehserle executed him. Oscar was face down, unarmed and not resisting. Video exists of the execution, yet it took the District Attorney 12-fucking-days to arrest Mehserle.

The only thing we can hope for is education and awareness of the brutality that is handed out by both Oakland cops and BART cops on the residents of Oakland CA.

Is that enough? It has to be, because that is all we, the universal we, and Oscar's family are going to get.

Tags: Oscar Grant, Johannes Mehserle

The Justice Dept hits just keep on coming!

I do not feel any better today, so after watching KO at least twice this evening as I slipped in and out of consciousness, the following video finally sunk in...and royally pissed me the hell off:

The Civil Rights Division no less m'dear reader. Christ almighty..what a gigantic friggin douche Bradley J. Schlozman is. WaPo has a nice writeup about Bradley and his 'practices' here. Ignorant fucktard award winner this week..yep, its Bradley! From the WaPo writeup:

Over three years in which he controlled employment decisions, Schlozman favored young conservatives for entry-level jobs, transferred those he called "right-thinking Americans" into top assignments and instructed colleagues that "adherents of Mao's little red book need not apply," according to e-mails cited in the report. Authorities analyzed 112 career hires during Schlozman's tenure and determined that "virtually all" of the lawyers whose political affiliations were known at the time had ties to Republicans or conservative legal groups.

The final bitchslap is that the Justice Dept is not going to prosecute Mr. Schlozman for perjury or violating civil service laws...ain't that just grand?? Ok, back to bed...where did I put that cough medicine with the codeine in it?

From our Dept of WTF?

I couldn't believe it. I thought perhaps it was the codeine cough medicine that was jerking me out. When I heard what The Shrub said in his cough...final Presser today about Katrina, I thought I was going to stroke the hell out.

First, he didn't even get the number of "people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed." correct..it took days and days for any federal help to get there. There were so many fuck ups by the Fed's, who can name them all in five minutes? The sumbitch outright lied about Katrina today in his press conference...may Gawd have mercy on his lying ass.

Bush's legacy will always be about Iraq, torture, loss of our constitutional rights and finally the worst...Katrina. Katrina was an abject failure of the highest order...on our own soil.

Watch Rachel and Jeb Horne tick off all the failures regarding FEMA and the Bush administration as a whole, when it comes to responding to Katrina, the levee's failing and 1800 people dying:

One friggin week left of this lying sack of sheep shit..one more week.

Going back to bed, my throat is killing me and I now have a headache from thinking about the horror that was..and sadly still is..Katrina and how The Shrub lied his ever-loving ass off about it today.

Mumps or strep?

I got one or the other folks...Jaysus it sucks to be sick. No politics..just Ricky Gervais' shtick at the Golden Globes..I found it funny. Remember, I am sick, so if you don't find it funny...perhaps you need to have the mumps or strep throat.



UPDATE...it happens to be Strep..a very nasty case of it. :(

Major Irony alert!

From Jurist:

Son of Liberia ex-leader Taylor sentenced to 97 years in US prison for torture

The son of a former president of Liberia now on trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity was sentenced [DOJ press release] to a 97-year jail term in the US Friday by US District Court for the Southern District of Florida for committing torture in Liberia. Charles Arthur Emmanuel, son of Charles Taylor was found guilty by a jury in October on charges that he was the head of a paramilitary group which tortured and killed opponents during the presidency of Emmanuel's father. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga handed down the sentence to Emmanuel, a US citizen born in Boston. Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Freidrich of the US Department of Justice Criminal Division Criminal Division said of the sentence:

The lengthy prison term handed down today justly reflects the horror and torture that Taylor Jr. visited upon his victims. This case was made in no small part by the courage of individual victims who had the mettle to come forward and speak the truth about what had been done to them . . . Our message to human rights violators, no matter where they are, remains the same: We will use the full reach of U.S. law, and every lawful resource at the disposal of our investigators and prosecutors, to hold you fully accountable for your crimes.

Emmanuel was the first person to be indicted under the 1994 extraterritorial federal anti-torture statute [18 USC §2340A text] permitting US federal courts to charge US citizens or those present in the US for torture that took place overseas.

Hopefully, the incredible irony of the charges and the sentence isn't lost on anyone that reads this blog. I damn near bit a hole in my bottom lip to keep from laughing at what the idiot Freidrich had to say...

This.is.wrong.on.every.level.

From The Army Times:

After serving two tours in Iraq — tours filled with killing enemy combatants and watching close friends die — Sgt. Adam Boyle, 27, returned home expecting the Army to take care of him.

Instead, service member advocates and Boyle’s mother say his chain of command in the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., worked to end his military career at the first sign of weakness.

In October, a medical evaluation board physician at Bragg recommended that Boyle go through the military disability retirement process for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder — which is supposed to automatically earn him at least a 50 percent disability retirement rating — as well as for chronic headaches. The doctor also diagnosed Boyle with alcohol abuse and said he was probably missing formations due to the medications doctors put him on to treat his PTSD.

But in December, Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, signed an order forcing Boyle out on an administrative discharge for a “pattern of misconduct,” and ordering that the soldier pay back his re-enlistment bonus.

Last year, after a number of troops diagnosed with PTSD were administratively forced out for “personality disorders” following combat deployments, the Defense Department changed its rules: The pertinent service surgeon general now must sign off on any personality-disorder discharge if a service member has been diagnosed with PTSD.

“Not even a year later, they’re pushing them out administratively for ‘pattern of misconduct,’ ” said Carissa Picard, an attorney and founder of Military Spouses for Change, a group created in response to the personality-disorder cases. “I’m so angry. We’re seeing it all the time. And it’s for petty stuff.”

Who is gonna make this right? Who? Fucking bastards drive me up a wall with this shit.

The government keeps sending them back into combat until they are shells and then throws them away at the first opportunity. To rub salt in the wound:

Boyle must repay the Army $18,500 for his re-enlistment bonus. The Army also withheld 65 days’ worth of leave payments and his final paycheck.

Simply amazing ain't it?

UPDATE: The mother of Sgt Boyle has posted an update to her son's case on the Sirens Chronicles version of this post here.

Tags: Adam Boyle, PTSD

Lebanon fires rockets into Israel

Sweet-Jaysus-in-a-speedo....the shit has not only hit the fan, its getting knee-deep. From Reuters:

Israel pressed its offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday amid sharp Red Cross criticism that it was delaying access to casualties.

A rocket salvo from Lebanon slightly wounded two people in northern Israel and briefly raised fears that Hezbollah fighters were opening a second front to relieve pressure on Gaza. But an Israeli cabinet minister blamed Palestinian groups in Lebanon.

This isn't going away any time soon. It will only get worse. Keep in mind that very few Israeli's have been killed while over 700 Palestinians are dead from this pissing contest. Again from Reuters:

Eleven Israelis have died in the past 13 days, eight of them soldiers, including four killed by "friendly" fire.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its officials and Palestinian ambulance workers had found four starving children huddled with at least 12 corpses in Gaza in a house 80 meters from an Israeli military position.

Among the dead in the house, found lying on mattresses, were the children's mothers, the ICRC said.

In nearby houses in Gaza's devastated Zeitoun neighborhood, the team found another three corpses and 15 survivors, including several who were wounded, the Geneva-based agency said.

It is so hard to wrap my mind around this carnage. It makes me weep.

Tags: Lebanon launches rockets into Israel, Gaza

Great reads at Sirens Chronicles today..

Big Fella has an excellent article up over there, the title: It’s Official: Internet Surpasses Newspapers. He quotes a new Pew Research study on the subject.

For most of us left of the center, this has been a fact for years already.

Check it out ok? While your there, Carol has a good one up about our civil liberties entitled: George the Worst. She examines what Bush has wrecked and how Obama might deal with our loss of civil liberties and the rule of law.

Alien Trucker has a good one called Feeble Old Clowns and Their Dynasties.

Betmo raises the roof on the war between Hamas and Israel with her post Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza. The graphic she has up says it all for me.

Well, that is today's update on Sirens Chronicles...a good place to find all sorts of thoughts and points-of-view, not to mention Alien Truckers fine music video's. ;)

Tag: Sirens Chronicles

DiFi upset? Ask me if I care...

The Senator from CA, Dianne Feinstein, can kiss my hairy ass. She supported all the egregious tactics BushCo used during the last eight years just for starters. I haven't voted for that worthless woman for over a decade to be brutally honest here. DiFi gave her stamp of approval to everything BushCo did that was wrong...torture, warrantless wiretapping, confirming Porter Goss and Hayden...the list is endless.

Screw her and her pov that she should of been consulted on the pick of Leon Panetta for CIA Director. Screw the ole biddy who is basically a DINO if you think about it, based on her voting record alone.

As for Leon Panetta, here is a good writeup that addresses why he is an excellent pick for CIA Director. The CIA has been totally politicized by the Bush Administration for starters. From the Time writeup:

Leon Panetta may not have an intelligence background, but his appointment as CIA director shows that Barack Obama understands the CIA's problems. As a former White House chief of staff, Clinton Administration budget director and eight-term California Congressman, Panetta knows his way around Washington better than most people, and that kind of knowledge is exactly what the CIA needs right now.

Panetta is experienced enough to understand that the CIA was the victim of political manipulation under the Bush Administration. It was the Bush White House that cherry-picked the intelligence on Iraq, not the CIA. Panetta will have the ear of the new President to walk him through all of this and to make the case that there is no point in throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Panetta will also serve as a good counterweight to retired Admiral Dennis Blair, the designated director of national intelligence who is unlikely to streamline the intelligence community or challenge the Pentagon's preeminent position.

So screw you DiFi....hard, bitch. You have lost whatever credibility you once had. I am glad Obama ignored you during the process of picking an Intel Chief. You have shown us that you pander to the most basic fears that Bush and Cheney have been pushing for eight long fucking years, and you are ready and willing to toss all of us under the bus in the name of getting those nasty terrorists. I hope to hell you retire soon..I am sick to death of you. Below is KO and Rachel discussing how DiFi dropped the ball on oversight among other things...

Burris denied entry to Senate

From WGN:

He had arrived outside the Capitol at 10:25 a.m. Eastern time with Capitol police helping him through a scrum of TV cameras, boom mikes and reporters.

The man attempting to sign in as the new junior senator from Illinois was met by Terrance Gainer, the Senate sergeant at arms and an old friend: Gainer was director of the Illinois State Police when Burris was attorney general. Gainer served as a ready and friendly escort, ushering Burris to a security line inside the Capitol.

Gainer escorted Burris into the Secretary of the Senate's office on the 3rd floor of the Capitol, one floor above the Senate chamber, to present his credentials. Media gathered around the corner -- several abreast stretching down the hallway.

Leaders have been negotiating with Burris, and there was some word that Burris might accept his rejection in the secretary's office. Guards initially had been told they were to treat Burris as they would a senator, easing his path through the Capitol entrance, but were later told to take him through security as any visitor.

I feel sort of sorry for this man. He is a legend in his own mind, but he had to know this wasn't going to be a walk in the park for him. Having lost five straight primaries, he is familiar with rejection.

Obama has to hate the drama, one would think.

In case you are wondering where I have been...

Friday, my sista in San Diego called and told me she had an extra ticket to the Chargers-Colts playoff game for Saturday.

I jumped on it folks. I can not deny my love of football..and my hapless Chargers. Below are some of my photos of the tailgating party and the game. I know most folks that read this blog aren't into sports, but that said....I am and I know Randal is too.

The opposition warming up
The gratuitous cheerleader shot for Randal and any other guys that enjoy half dressed females shivering in the cold and damp weather.(click for much larger photo)
Since SD is a military town, the usual show of military force at all sporting events
The Dan Fouts and Lance Alworth flags flown proudly at the "Q"..two of the best AFL players evah!

I have more but that's enough for now...we will now resume our regular political bitching. Did ya miss me? ;)

Duke Energy says ash ponds are safe...yeah right! Preliminary testing shows that isn't the case.

Does anyone think they will admit what a toxic mess the Harriman spill is or how unsafe the huge ponds are?

Not only no but Hell No.

The first samples of drinking water downstream of the spill have been analyzed. You can read it here. Let me share some of the results below:

Arsenic- 35 to 300 times higher than drinking water criteria. 3 to 10 times higher than max TN aquatic life criteria.

Barium- 2 to 4 times higher than drinking water criteria.

Cadmium- 0.25 to 3 times higheer than drinking water criteria. 4 to 7 times higher than max TN aquatic life criteria.

Chromium- 3.5 times higher than max drinking water criteria.

Copper- 7 tp 70 times higher than the max TN aquatic life criteria.

Mercury- 5 to 8 times higher than max drinking water limit. 7 to 12 times higher than the max TN aquatic life criteria.

Samples collected by Donna Lisenby. Analyzed by Shea Tuberty and Carol Babyak, both PhD's at Appalachian State University.

Now, how safe is that sludge and the fly ash? yeah, I thought so...it isn't. Hat tip to TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee for the link to the testing results. From a press release on the results:

"High levels of toxic heavy metals are present in samples taken from the Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill in Harriman, TN, independent testing shows."

"Concentrations of eight toxic chemicals range from twice to 300 times higher than drinking water limits, according to scientists with Appalachian State University who conducted the tests."

Video is from the site as well, showing the sampling of the river.



Tags:Tennessee Valley Authority, Coal Ash Sludge Ponds, Harriman Sludge Pond, Emory River contaminated

US policy helped build Hamas’ power base.

McClatchy has an interesting read up on the recent history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Analysts draw a direct line between US/Israeli policies and the rise of Hamas in the region. As usual, the US screwed the pooch and instead of talking to the aggressors, they push for military action instead. From the McClatchy writeup:

In August 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew from the narrow coastal territory, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised it would make Israel safer. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the move as “historic.”

Israel had left behind a political vacuum, however. That, along with decisions by Israel, the U.S. and Palestinian rivals inadvertently boosted the militant Islamic group Hamas into power. Hamas is stronger than ever, and Israel’s air strikes risk bolstering it further, according to current and former U.S. officials, diplomats and analysts.

Then, in January 2006, the Palestinians, with strong backing from the Bush administration, held legislative elections. Over Israeli misgivings, Hamas — which has questioned Israel’s right to exist and which the U.S. and Israel consider terrorist group — was allowed to participate.

Hamas won a majority of seats, benefiting from the perceived corruption and incompetence of Abbas’s Fatah faction.

“The United States should have anticipated a result it didn’t like, and it should have played it better,” said Jon Alterman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Hamas has much more power now than it did three years ago,” he said.

After the elections, the Bush administration began an effort to reverse the results, McClatchy reported in 2007, but it failed to weaken the group or persuade it to modify its hard-line views. As the months went on, Washington opposed Arab efforts to form a Palestinian unity government and pressed Abbas to confront Hamas.

In June 2007, after months of factional fighting, Hamas forces overran Gaza, ousting Fatah’s foreign-armed and trained security forces. The U.S. rounded up diplomatic and financial support for Abbas, and Israel responded by clamping down harder on Gaza.

Even the Arab states believe the only way to shut down Hamas is politically, not militarily. But the two important powers in the region…the US and Israel refuse to consider that method.

Damn fucking shame if you ask me. But then…our biggest purchaser of American weaponry wouldn’t be buying all that firepower would they? hmmm….

From my cathouse to yours...

Fred

Jack

Bobbie

Pee Wee

Leroy

Crazy Patty

Mama Kitteh

Tabby Lynn

The kitteh's and I wish you all a Merry New Year which really won't begin until January 20th ;)