Enemy Combatant
Friday, December 31, 2004
We'll Tak' A Cup O' Kindness Yet
May the New Year bring you all what you most wish for, and George W. all that he deserves!
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot, Over?
Sometimes these stories only make sense when I'm wearing my tinfoil hat:
Marines will stay close to home for urban training
Unit to use downtown Toledo
The Marines will take over parts of downtown Toledo as sounds of gunfire will echo off buildings when training exercises are conducted next weekend.
A Marine Corps unit based in Perrysburg will stage the exercises from 9 p.m. Jan. 7 to about noon Jan. 9, Maj. Gregory Cramer said.
"The only request we would have of folks, if they happen to be near where an exercise is taking place, is to stay away as much as possible," Major Cramer said.
Wow, now that's the understatement of the year. Tell it to the Fallujans.
Now, as a friend pointed out to me, if you were training people for desert warfare in Iraq, you wouldn't exactly send them to a Great Lakes city in the wintertime, now would you? (I mean, I'm no military genius like, say, Donald Rumsfeld -- but I'm just sayin'.)
So where exactly do they expect this "urban warfare" to take place, hmm?
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Aw, C'mon! He's Very Busy -- Ignoring Bigger Problems Than This One
Sunday, December 26, 2004
That's Why I Love Mankind (God's Song)
by Randy Newman:
And the Lord said
And the Lord said
I burn down your cities -- how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That's why I love mankind
You really need me
That's why I love mankind
A somber and contemplative Boxing Day to you all.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
When Karl Met Groucho: History Repeats Itself, First As Tragedy, Second Time As Farce
In 2000, the Supreme Court of the "big" Washington said, Stop the Counting! with Bush only 573 votes ahead, and (except for some rather transparently fraudulent juristic legerdemain) that was pretty much it -- Bush was effectively appointed leader of the Executive branch, by the one unelected branch.
In an act of near-farcical deja vu, in 2004, the Supreme Court of the "little" Washington, on the opposite coast (never mind that you could fit nearly 45 of the "big" Washingtons into the "little" one) said, Hey, Here's Another 537 Votes That Haven't Been Counted Yet, and the result is, that The Democrat With The G Name will likely be made leader of the Executive branch by -- well, a majority of the votes -- what a concept, eh?
Night and day, as far as judicial opinions go. One thing is consistent, though: The GOP argued in both cases to exclude votes from the count, rather than to count every vote. Once more, from the rooftops: The GOP wins only when every vote is NOT counted.
Fortunately, the Washington (state) Supreme Court opinion, because it deals exclusively with state election law, is untouchable by Scalia & Krewe -- unless, of course, this time they're willing to say that the federal Constitution's guarantee to each State of "a republican form of government" means something more, uh -- "fundamentalist" -- than we've ever been led to believe before.
But, who knows? Before Rehnquist kicks off, they may just have another "Star Trek" opinion in them. ("To boldly go where no court has gone before!")
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Attack On Mosul Mess Tent Kills At Least Score Of Soldiers
Looks like Rummy will need to loosen up his condolences-signing hand . . . too bad the "cognitive dissonance" to the standard Orwellian misinformation shitstorm from yesterday's "news conference" comes not in the form of hard questions raised by a revitalized and skeptical press, but rather through more death and destruction.
Watched the Robert McNamara documentary ("The Fog of War") on the Independent Film Channel the other night, and had to laugh aloud when I saw, among the (largely Civil War-era) names that the military had assigned to battles during the Vietnam fiasco, one scrolled by on the screen as "Operation Certain Victory." I've been trying to track down just when that "mission [was] accomplished" (and more important, how many more soldiers died after that particular battle ended).
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Dowd To Rummy: Here's Your Lump Of Coal
I have plenty of issues with the Mother Of All Beltway Heathers, believe me, but this time Maureen Dowd sure seems to be channelling Frank Capra -- "It's A Not So Wonderful Life," with Rummy in the role of George Bailey:
Since Rummy hadn't been born, no American troops died or were maimed in Iraq. No American soldiers tortured Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. No Iraqi explosives fell into the hands of terrorists. . .
Saturday, December 18, 2004
God Save Us, Every One
Happy Holidays, everyone.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Creeping Elmer Gantryism Spreads Among Red State Judiciary
Ala. judge wears Ten Commandments on robe
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A judge refused to delay a trial Tuesday when an attorney objected to his wearing a judicial robe with the Ten Commandments embroidered on the front in gold.
Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan showed up Monday at his Covington County courtroom in southern Alabama wearing the robe. Attorneys who try cases at the courthouse said they had not seen him wearing it before. The commandments were described as being big enough to read by anyone near the judge.
* * * *
McKathan told The Associated Press that he believes the Ten Commandments represent the truth "and you can't divorce the law from the truth. ... The Ten Commandments can help a judge know the difference between right and wrong."
-----------------------------------------------------------
That tears it -- I'm moving down to Alabama, and cornering the market on selling those mooks full facial tattoos of the Ten Commandments -- like Maori tribesmen.
"Why, you're just not a Christian if you won't go under the needle for the Law-erd!"
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Latest Factoid From The Ministry Of Truth: Lani Guinier Had "Nanny Problems"
Buried in the stories of Bernard Kerik's withdrawal of his name for head of Homeland Security, is this little bit of "revisionist history:"
Lani Guinier, a Clinton classmate at Yale University Law School, was the president's choice to head the Justice Department's civil rights division until it was learned that she had not paid taxes for a domestic worker.
No, no, no. Christ, this was not that long ago; some of us actually remember this: Kimba Wood had "nanny problems." Zoe Baird had "nanny problems." Lani Guinier, on the other hand, got smeared by the rightwing as "The Quota Queen," and her name was withdrawn because of her "controversial" writings about race and discrimination remedies.
I challenge anybody out there to find me a contemporaneous account (i.e., not written in the last few weeks or months) that shows that Lani Guinier had any "domestic help" controversies discussed in the media at the time of her Justice Dept. nomination, or its withdrawal shortly thereafter. This is such lazy, sloppy, dishonest reporting -- I expect to hear next that Robert Bork withdrew his name from consideration as a Supreme Court Justice because he smoked pot with his college students at parties!
Friday, December 10, 2004
The Heresies Of Parson Dubya
There's an excellent article in the Seattle Weekly featuring interviews with several liberal Christians, about why Bush's particular brand of "Christianity" is, in fact, its opposite:
[Trinity United Methodist Reverend Rich] Lang argues that followers of Jesus, not Bush, should call an Antichrist an Antichrist—or rather, its spirit. "The progressive church should bring back—and this sounds so crazy—the word 'heresy.' The end times theology and this other thing called Dominionism or Christian Reconstruction—those are heresies." Lang says not to believe Christian Coalition leader–turned–Whore of Enron–turned Bush/Cheney campaign lieutenant Ralph Reed when he claims the Christian right has no plans to upend the Constitution and impose its religion on civic life. "He's a liar," says Lang. "Dominionism is the notion that God has given the dominion, the governance of the world, to the church. And so Christians literally are born to rule, by force if necessary, to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth. I believe that the theology that drives the Bush administration affirms this." When Falwell preached, "We must take back what is rightfully ours," his ambitions did not stop at U.S. borders. This is a Church of a Law Unto Itself.
In the Greek, the word "anti" doesn't just mean "against." It also contains the meanings "equivalent to" or "a substitute for." Nero was anti-Christ because he falsely claimed to be God. The idea of deception is crucial. The Antichrist isn't the devil, the opposite of God. He's an evil human masquerading as a golden god. . . .
In this sense, the Bush church is Antichristlike indeed. It is institutionalized deception, anti-American ugliness with a beguiling face, a neocon job. Only when necessary does it employ the perilous bald-faced lie, the outrageously transparent duplicity—the political equivalent of Robertson arguing that "Do unto others" indicates Christ's support of capitalist selfishness. More often, a smoothly dissembling surface is preferred. Rove notoriously emulates Machiavelli; the Christian right is a stealth movement, infiltrating school boards and mainstream churches and every institution of democracy like a thief in the night—in order to undermine, overthrow, and replace democracy with theocracy. Bush is the father of lies. The Union of Concerned Scientists proclaims Bush's lies about science "unprecedented." In With God on Their Side, Kaplan concludes, on mountainous evidence, "The goal is not to engage your opponents in the public square, but to kneecap them, or send them into exile."
"It is a conspiracy in the sense that they have not been public and accountable to their ideology," says Lang. "Follow the money! The same filthy-rich foundations that have funded the rise of neocons are funding the rise of the religious right." He suggests that you check out the exposé Web site www.yuricareport.com for the terrifying particulars.
Listen, eight years of Cat'lick school left me a confirmed and consecrated agnostic. But I want this Rev. Lang and his spiritual comrades on the radio and TV, front and center, whenever they interview that vile little Pharisee, Falwell. "Fair and balanced," don'tcha know.
The Good Intentions Road Paving Company
(a Halliburton subsidiary)
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Some Of Those Who Are Forces / Will Be Those Who Burn Crosses
In the midst of a long, far-ranging post today on his blog, Informed Comment, Juan Cole discusses some testimony by
former Marine staff sergeant Jimmy Massey, who testified in favor of Army Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 26, who deserted just before the war and is seeking asylum in Canada. AP's Beth Duff-Brown reports that
"Massey . . . said his 7th Marines weapons company killed more than 30 civilians during a 48-hour period in April while stationed at a checkpoint in the southern Baghdad district of Rashid. The victims included unarmed demonstrators and a man who drove up in a car and raised his hands above his head in the universal symbol of surrender. "I know in my heart that these vehicles that came up, that they were civilians,'' he said. ''But I had to act on my orders. It's a struggle within my heart.'' The orders, he said, were to shoot at anyone who drove into what is known as the ''red zone'' surrounding the checkpoint because they could be suicide bombers. . . . I saw plenty of Marines become psychopaths. They enjoyed the killing.''
A Marine spokesman said that he did not want to suggest that Massey was lying, but insisted that Massey's interpretation of the situation was different from that of the corps.
Massey is being a little unfair. If you are in a guerrilla war zone and a car comes speeding at you and doesn't stop when so ordered, if you don't shoot the driver then you risk it being a car bomber who will kill you and your men. Of course civilians got killed that way, but it isn't clear that that is criminal as opposed to regrettable. But that some of the troops had a sadistic streak or thought all Arabs responsible for 9/11, etc., is also quite plausible. Those sadists aren't typical of the troops, but we know they exist. Timothy McVeigh took delight in blowing Iraqis away, during the Gulf War.
So, one more side effect of this war that we're bound to see in the future is many more hardened psychokiller Timothy McVeighs returning home to a shitty economy, a sleepwalking media and an indifferent public. Great. Thanks again, Dubya. Cheney. Rumsfeld.
What was that about "fighting them over there, so they don't attack us here," again?
A Return To "Soviet" Psychiatry For War Dissenters?
This story, published in Salon yesterday, should give us all pause:
Whitewashing torture?
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though there was nothing wrong with him.
The lunatics are quickly overrunning the asylum, folks -- and in their world, we're the crazy ones.
O Canada!
The Canadian Supreme Court, in an advisory opinion this morning, approved same-sex marriage as federal policy for the Great White North.
My (limited) understanding of Canadian constitutional law is that the Parliament must still pass enabling legislation, and the issue may still need to be litigated against the lone provincial holdout, Alberta (think of Texans transported to a frozen tundra), but that (as the Texans would say), "It's all over but the shoutin'."
(And a note to all purveyors of rightwing hate radio in this country: Some of us consider this a fundamental human-rights issue -- so please, no lame and predictable "Mountie" jokes, OK?)
Peter Beinart Is Still Drinking The Iraq War Kool-Aid. So Why Should We Listen To Him About Michael Moore And MoveOn.com?
David Niewert over at Ornicus rips Peter Beinert of the New Republic a well-deserved new one, in annotated detail, over Beinart's caricature-ridden slander that the left doesn't care at all about fighting the "war on terror."
I say "well-deserved," but it's also medically necessary -- after all, on the subject of the Iraq War, Peter Beinart is long past (shall we say) "maximally fulfilling his crap-containing capacity."
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Enough! The Next "Bipartisan Date Rape" They Try, We Go Full Lorena Bobbit On 'Em
Here's a welcome "alternative diagnosis" in contrast to all the Democratic handwringing I've seen of late:
First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you’ve learned, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it’s better than the abuse.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
At This Rate, We Should Declare War On Oil, Food And Shelter, And Universal Health Care
A Washington think tank has now concluded that our decades-long "War on Drugs" is a failure, given that illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin are now cheaper, purer and more readily available than ever before.
As with the "War on Terror," Americans have been asked to focus in this "war" exclusively on symptoms, and ignore causes. Similarly, it is anticipated that this bad news will prompt the Powers That Be to simply redouble their enforcement efforts, and impose more draconian punishments.
Yeah, that'll work.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Not Quite The Plummet From Thurgood To Clarence -- But Close
Unable to contain his enthusiasm for destroying All Things Fair And Just, the War-Criminal-In-Chief has now jumped the gun by weeks on replacing Mary Frances Berry, Chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission -- a veritable centurion in the battle for civil rights in this country, an Independent first appointed by President Carter -- with Gerald A. Reynolds, a recent laissez-faire corporate regulator and attorney, who detests affirmative action and can be expected to do the bidding of his less-pigmented GOP patrons.
Like Clarence Thomas, Mr. Reynolds can be expected to hold aloft the lamp at the far end of Liberty Street (now part of a "gated community") -- another Lawnjockey for Justice.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner
The eternal Thompson gunner, still wandering through the night
Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun
And bought it.
Amazing, Isn't It?
How an "isolated few," in far-flung locations, spontaneously and in an uncannily similar manner, suddenly decided, on their own (in an organization whose essence is top-down authority) to violate a half a century's military-justice practice, and begin to act like Nazis?
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Cross Nostradamus With Ebenezer Scrooge, And Voila: H.L. Mencken
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
-- H.L. Mencken, July 26, 1920
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Oh Would That It Were So
Unfortunately, it's a parody site.
More's the pity.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Be DoublePlus Afraid: Ahorita Viene Gonzales
Nat Hentoff makes the case to reject Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, in a Village Voice piece entitled Worse Than Ashcroft:
On November 10, [NPR's Nina] Totenberg quoted retired general Jim Cullen of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals, who says Gonzales directly contradicted established military and international law. He added that Gonzales realized that "the Judge Advocate Generals' Corps would never sanction departures from the Geneva Conventions or engaging in practices that the common man would regard as torture."
Hentoff argues that those of us who value constitutional rights must always reject fascism -- even when it comes with a brown face.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Ground Control, by Major Tom
All this talk about "next election" is fine, but here's a proposal from a DailyKos poster -- "Major Tom" -- for the Democrats' more immediate consideration: Sue for election fraud in Ohio.
(Listen -- I know it sounds preposterous -- file a lawsuit, to win the presidency. But I hear it worked for this guy in 2000 . . . )
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Instead Of George Wallace, The Alabama Christian Coalition Now Blocks The Schoolhouse Door
Yep, the Alabama Christian Coalition was among those publicly opposed to Amendment Two on the November 2nd ballot, which was designed to bring the Alabama Constitution into line with what we could charitably call the "post-apartheid world" (i.e., removing references to "white and colored children," as well as dismantling the state's expressly segregationist school system). However, the majority of Alabamians (those whose votes were counted, anyway) were having none of it.
They were helped in reaching that conclusion by the aforesaid ACC, as well as by "Judge" Roy Moore, who (fresh off his successes in pressing his views on church/state matters to the federal courts, and on his own fitness for office to his cohorts in the state judiciary) opined that proposed Amendment Two -- which would also have removed a clause declaring that Alabama does not guarantee a right to a public education (itself a last-minute, futile attempt to dodge the effects of Brown v. Board of Education) -- would permit "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise its taxes to pay for its schools.
Granted, after Bush v. Gore, the idea of a federal court making such an incoherent and preposterous ruling can't be entirely dismissed out of hand, but such an outcome was highly unlikely -- apparently, though, it was enough to afford the ACC a "legal fig leaf" in their campaign against Amendment Two.
So, mark my words: In 2016, when the Miguel Estrada Court reverses Brown v. Board of Education, Ground Zero for "the new Pretoria" will be Alabama, whose Constitution still mandates segregated schools . . .
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- Not On Fox, Anyway
"We appeal to the parliaments and nations of the world to bolster the will of [our] people, to support their aspiration to return to democracy," said a statement from the opposing candidate's campaign office, in protest and dispute of the election results.
Strong words, from a real leader, eh? So which one of these guys' campaigns issued today's statement?
(psst, here's a hint -- it's the second guy, Viktor Yushchenko, of the Ukraine)
Hey, Maybe "Our Leader" Will Write Us A Little Red-State Book
Maoist propaganda, courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing
Bushist propaganda, courtesy of Clear Channel, Orlando
Monday, November 22, 2004
Please, Bill, STOP! My Sides Are Hurting!
From Bill O'Reilly's latest column:
"Having survived a combat situation in Argentina during the Falklands War, I know that life-and-death decisions are made in a flash"
Funny, I would think kicking back in your Buenos Aires hotel room, with a Scotch in one hand, a dictaphone in the other, and a buzzer up the ol' poopchute, wouldn't qualify as "a combat situation" . . .
Sunday, November 21, 2004
A Little History Lesson For The Extrahistoric Administration
Michael W. Kauffman, in his new biography of John Wilkes Booth, "American Brutus," explains how his sympathies extend to Booth's co-conspirators, who were brutally treated after their arrest, held in hoods and quasi-medieval manacles in the suffocating confines of Navy ironboats, and then tried by a military tribune intent on dispensing swift justice:
"It is not easy to put aside the barbarous image of people in hoods and chains," observes Kauffman. "Prisoners had not been treated that way since 1696, and would not be again until 2001."
When future histories of torture are written, alongside the names of Torquemada, Mengele and Vlad the Impaler will go the names Bush, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft. Quite a legacy there, eh?
Thursday, November 18, 2004
SUPREME COURT ADOPTS PAPERLESS E-VOTING; AFFIRMS BUSH SECOND TERM BY VOTE OF 17-4
-- future headline, December 13, 2004
And this time, our incurious, lazy, and thoroughly cowed press won't even wonder how Scalia + Thomas + Rehnquist = 17 votes . . .
Here It Comes: Cue The GOP Fog Machine
A new study out of UC Berkeley indicates that e-voting anomalies in Florida may have given Bush 130K-260K "phantom" votes in Br'er Jeb's briarpatch (i.e., his entire margin of "victory" in that state -- and thus, the Electoral College).
Three guesses which direction the Republicans will spin this:
(a) ad hominem attacks on the source ("This study is from 'Berserkely,' after all -- whatever they're smoking, I want some of it");
(b) misdirection/muddying the issues ("This is just playing with numbers -- 'lies, damnable lies, and statistics' -- not one single actual vote was examined, to come up with this 'what if?' scenario"); or
(c) the shut-up-and-salute, Zell-Miller rant ("Your guy lost. Bush won. Get over it!")
Extra credit if you can work some "forged documents" into the mix. The betting window is open . . .
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Rule No. 1: IOKIYAR
Looks like the House leadership is going to push to change the rules, so that Tom Delay can continue as House Majority Leader while under state court indictment in Texas.
What seems to have fallen down the memory hole of nearly every news source reporting this, though, is the fact that it was Gingrich's crusaders in 1994 who imposed this automatic-step-down rule in the first place, in order to avoid further "Dan Rostenkowskis."
The problem here is the Democrats, who always, but always, misunderestimate the underhandedness of Republicans. The modern Republican Party is now entirely captive to the idea that The Rules Only Apply To Other People. The Dems simply don't understand that every time they sit down to play poker with the GOP, the game that's really being played is TEGWAR -- "The Exciting Game Without Any Rules."
Monday, November 15, 2004
Keep Your Jesus Off My Penis
and I'll keep my penis off o' you.
Deal?
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Magister Belli Laughs
Seems a high school group in Boulder decided to perform, in public mind you, Bob Dylan's "Masters of War," and local wingnut busybodies panicked and called the Secret Service, who bestirred themselves enough to come harass the kids on bogus claims that they had "threatened the President."
A warning to the Secret Service: There's a 41-year-old folk-rock song out there, with some pretty harsh and cutting lyrics, about wishing for the death of bloodthirsty warmongers. If somebody sings it, and somebody else hearing it is reminded of Bush -- well, as Someone Who Looks Remarkably Like McNamara said recently: Democracy is messy.
And high school students aren't the only ones reminiscing about those lyrics lately. It's just that some of us are older and wiser now, and know that we can "hide" that sort of thing from you -- by publishing it online.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Messages In An E-Bottle Received; Apologies Accepted
This site has sprung up, evidently, in response to Sorry, Everybody, which I mentioned earlier this week. Hey, maybe we should talk directly to the rest of the world more often, and bypass the Bush administration entirely; they pretty much suck at diplomacy, anyway.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Come To Think Of It, Maybe A Trial Separation Would Be A Good Idea
Spit-Take Alert! Sit Down, Swallow, Take A Deep Breath, And Move All Breakables Out Of Reach
Three guesses who National Review Online is recommending that Bush name as the next Secretary of State.
. . . none other than Zell Miller.
What? We're not involved in enough wars now? Or maybe, their thinking goes, we can avoid more wars, if The Personality Disorder Who Calls Himself A Democrat would just challenge our adversaries (and erstwhile allies) to duels! Hey, it's gotta work better than the house-to-house "canvassing" we're currently engaged in, in Fallujah . . .
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Sorry, Everybody
Here's a cathartic site wherein those of us in Blue States, and those of us who struggled to turn our Red States Blue, can offer the world our collective Nostra Culpa. (Check out the gallery.)
Oh, and to the inevitable drive-by freeper commentators, I can only say (in advance), "It's a 'conscience' thing -- you wouldn't understand."
Monday, November 08, 2004
And Up Here, We Appreciate The Difference Between The Stars-And-Stripes And The Stars-And-Bars
Imagine this scatalogical rant delivered in a Sou' Bahst'n accent -- it's even funnier.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
The Goat-Song of G. Dubya Bush
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like viewers etherized around Fox cable;
We need to remember that the Crawford Crybaby is not one whit smarter or more in touch with reality today than he was a week ago, and that he's not likely to learn anything from the fact that more people have voted against him in a single election than any sitting president in history.
So he's arrogant -- with less reason to be so, than any human in history. And that arrogance -- coupled with an ignorance of history, and an appalling incompetence at even the fundamentals of government -- might well prove to be his downfall in the next four years.
Remember, Nixon won a *real* landslide in 1972, and was gone in two more years, forced to resign in disgrace. Of course, the Democrats had the Congress at the time, and the American media could actually fog a mirror, so the analogy isn't perfect.
But think of it this way: Is there a single thing this administration hasn't fucked up eight ways from Sunday since they took office? Do you really think this last Tuesday broke the spell of that reverse Midas touch?
For all his efforts to escape his father's fate, Dubya is stuck with, essentially, his father's kind of political support: "A mile wide and an inch deep." I'm not going to say Bush voters last Tuesday were stupid; just that they weren't paying sufficient attention. Well, you know something about supporters who aren't paying attention? They're fickle.
The classic, Greek definition of "tragedy," while always involving an element of fate, required that an unfortunate choice be made by the hero. (Incidentally, the Greek word for "tragedy" meant, literally, "goat-song"; how's that for 9-11 serendipity?) Bush's tragic choice, I think, was to try to extend his misrule for another four years. I think Bush may soon meet his own Appointment in Samarra; by escaping his father's one-term fate, he's fled into the clutches of Nixon's (or, if you'd prefer, Clinton's).
Friday, November 05, 2004
Did They Jack The E-Vote? The Evidence Of Things Not Seen
Is this irrefutable proof of manipulation of the paperless voting machine results in several states? No, it's not.
Is it pretty strong evidence that we need an in-depth, nationwide audit of Tuesday's vote? You betcha.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Thank You, Sir. May I Have Another?
Right now I am too tired, and too demoralized, and too damned flummoxed to even think straight. But tonight's election results (inconclusive as they are) bring to mind H. L. Mencken's observation that
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it -- good and hard."
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Accelerate The Entropy! Cannon Fodder Is Too Precious And Sacrosanct For Stem Cell Research!
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Same Back At Ya, Chimpy
I regret that I have but one ballot to cast to rid America of this vile and shallow poltroon. But I'm looking forward to this country, collectively, giving him back our "one-fingered victory salute" this coming Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Miracle: Talk About Your Trifecta
Boy . . . the Patriots in February. The Sox in October. (Who'da thunk?)
I think Kerry needs to start bringing a broom with him everywhere for the next six days . . .
Good Dog! Here's A Milkbone
thanks to DC and bartcop
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Fear And Loathing, Campaign 2004
Hunter S. Thompson -- making the empirical argument that the only rational way to deal with the Bush administration is to ingest phenomenal amounts of booze and pharmaceuticals -- returns to a familiar subject, and finds himself pining for The Unshaven One:
Richard Nixon looks like a flaming liberal today, compared to a golem like George Bush. Indeed. Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?
If Nixon were running for president today, he would be seen as a "liberal" candidate, and he would probably win. He was a crook and a bungler, but what the hell? Nixon was a barrel of laughs compared to this gang of thugs from the Halliburton petroleum organization who are running the White House today -- and who will be running it this time next year, if we (the once-proud, once-loved and widely respected "American people") don't rise up like wounded warriors and whack those lying petroleum pimps out of the White House on November 2nd.
Nixon hated running for president during football season, but he did it anyway. Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for -- but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him.
Absolutely worth reading. Features the recent presidential debates, RMN, LBJ, a little of both JFKs, Muhammad Ali, a truly ha-ha-strange sex limerick allegedly told by Shrub at Yale, the Reichtag fire, and a few other surprises.
That Hunter -- he might mince his brains, but he doesn't mince his words.
Monday, October 25, 2004
Happy Days Are Here Again (And I Have Proof)
Newt Gingrich, August 1993: "The tax increase [in Clinton's first budget] will kill jobs and lead to a recession, and the recession will force people off of work and onto unemployment and will actually increase the deficit."
Newt Gingrich, October, 2004: "Neither side is going to get a 1964-style landslide."
Let's hope Newt's powers of prognostication prove just as accurate today as they were 11 years ago.
Friday, October 22, 2004
GOP Plan To Scare Voters By Crying Wolf Is A Howler
The impact of the GOP's big, anticipated "Wolf" ad, premiering today (and viewable at the Bush-Cheney site), apparently is turning out to be less of a bang than a whimper. First, the audience at CNN's Crossfire, when it was shown to them, reportedly laughed at it. Second, it lends itself to too many unfortunate metaphors ("Boy King again cries wolf," anyone?). Third -- and I hope Kerry mentions this about every 30 seconds or so, in the next eleven days -- no human being has ever been killed by a wolf in the continental United States -- ever.
And lastly -- aren't those wolf puppies just too cuuuute?
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Remember: You Heard It Here First
Congress will hold approval of Bush's "9/11 reforms" hostage, until he releases the CIA report re: said date. Afghanistan and Iraq will continue to implode, the victims of a brain-damaged wingnut policy that will leave them each with a central government weak enough to drown in a bathtub. Further Abu Ghraib leaks will come out, these involving rapes of young boys (caught on tape). Gasoline, the price of which has rocketed through the stratosphere the last few months, may stay plateau'd for the next two weeks. (That last tidbit is the good news for Bush.)
Not only should Kerry be measuring for new drapes, but I've already got his campaign victory song. And, in keeping with the Clinton tradition, it's by Fleetwood Mac.
No, not that one (thank God!). That one.
(And I propose they get the Dixie Chicks to perform it at the inaugural ball. Right after they perform Warren Zevon's "Lawyers, Guns and Money," and dedicate it to Dubya.)
Oh, and in the Series? Bosox in six.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
The Perfect (Shit)Storm
Robert Scheer has a story in the LA Times about how, as of June, the CIA prepared a scathing report on 9/11, that allegedly kicks ass and "blames names." Seems that the Bush administration wants to sit on the report (which Congress requested) until after the election. Something makes me think all those "blame the CIA" excuses Bush has made for believing his own special Ripleys-Believe-It-Or-Not funny pages version of Iraq intel might just come back to haunt him.
Listen -- do you hear a drip, drip sound? Is that a leak somewhere?
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Don't Laugh: It's Probably A Lucrative Magazine Idea
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Lord, Somebody Put A Fork In Dubya
'cause he's done . . .
It'll be a slow count by the refs (20 more days, in fact), but he ain't getting up off the canvas between now and then . . .
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Electronic Or Alien, Take Your Pick
OK, salon.com is running the above two pictures, side by side. To me, it means one of two things -- either:
1. Dubya's "wired for sound" pretty much all the time (at least while a camera is on him); or
2. He's got one of those slimy alien leeches on his back, a la Puppet Masters:
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Topic One: It's The Incompetence, Stupid
Right out of the box, Kerry in the last debate has to look for an opening, and then say this: "I'll tell you what -- in a Kerry administration, if we get the heads-up that half the flu vaccines might be contaminated, we won't sit around on that information with our thumbs up our asses for a month, without scrambling (like the British and French did) to buy up replacement vaccines available around the world.
"Of course, they 'hide' that kind of information from our Widowmaker-in-Chief, by printing it in the newspapers. What happened there, W -- couldn't tear yourself away from the sequel to My Pet Goat?"
Saturday, October 09, 2004
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Come Wednesday, I hope somebody's worked John Kerry into the proper state of mind for his last debate with Bush -- which is to say, politically homicidal. It's time to bare those teeth, Big John. It's time to show the American public the proper, patriotic way to frag a superior officer.
No more of this halfway, mealy-mouthed bullshit -- I want him to call Bush a liar, and use that very word, repeatedly. I want him to talk about the cooked intelligence that led us to Iraq (and to call THAT war a mistake). I want him to talk about Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo, and how those are a national disgrace that will haunt us well into this new century (if not longer). I want him to say if Bush had any real sense of "restoring honor and decency" to the White House, he'd have resigned a long time ago.
I want the issue of the day for the Media Attack Poodles to gnaw on endlessly the next day to be framed as follows: Has the Bush administration been worse than the Herbert Hoover administration, or about the same? You decide.
If he needs to watch Congressman Ryan's comments on the "draft dodgers" in the GOP House this week, or read about what Nancy Pelosi managed to sneak past the Republican Politburo, to pump him up, I'd say go for it. Ask the American public for exactly what you want: A Democratic Congress, to replace the Do-Nothing GOP Congress that's currently wasting space at Foggy Bottom. Hell, you gots to go all Harry Truman on his ass; get all up in his grill, yo.
For this last debate, please, Big John -- it's time to get your Howard Dean face on.
A Gertrude Stein Riddle: Why Is Bush Like Oakland?
Scott Rosenberg, who blogs at salon.com, had an interesting insight after last night's debate, about how Kerry invariably benefits (and Bush invariably loses ground) just from the media exposure alone:
Kerry's prize, just for showing up!
I imagine the Bush people are happy tonight -- this debate wasn't the obvious rout the last one was. But I still think the essential dynamic here helps Kerry. The problem for Bush is simple: The more time he spends in front of the American people in a forum that is not handpicked and tightly controlled by his own handlers, the more it's clear that there's nothing more to Bush.
If you already support him, well, you already support him, you're probably not going to change. If you're a Kerry supporter, like me, you're just going to keep shaking your head in disbelief. So all that matters is the slim wedge of people outside of the two camps. And with each debate, those people are seeing that, with Bush, that's all there is, folks. His lines are writ in stone, and we've heard them already. Here they were again: "He changed positions." (As if that in itself were a crime.) "I know how these people think." (The line reeked of dismissive condescension in the first debate, yet here it was again: does it play to the know-nothing xenophobic heartland?) "We've already got 75% of al-Qaida."(Oh, so why are we so worried about a terror attack? Ah, that's right, we got 75% of the leadership as of 9/11/2001 -- then we gave them some real effective recruiting help by invading Iraq.) Love him or hate him, you couldn't come away from this debate feeling that you'd heard or learned a single new thing from Bush.
Meanwhile, with each debate Kerry gets to display more of himself, gets to prove -- simply by virtue of showing up, being fast on his feet and articulate and smart and able to stand up for himself -- that he is nothing like the insane caricature of himself that the Bush ads have portrayed.
The time Bush spends in the spotlight diminishes him; the time Kerry spends in the spotlight enhances him. Since a political campaign can't hide the candidate, this leaves Bush in a bind. No wonder Kerry's strategists were willing to compromise on so many details of the debate formats to get Bush to commit to a third engagement. On to the next debate!
Thursday, October 07, 2004
New Florida E-Voting Machine
Give it a try!
Glad to see they've got that problem nailed down. So to speak.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Why Kerry's Alleged "Global Test" For Use Of American Power Sounds Familiar
The GOP talking pointy-heads have steered clear of pointing this out, but Kerry's announcement in Debate One that America's warmaking should have to meet a "global test" sounds eerily familiar -- like our having to explain, on a world stage, our taking up arms to defend ourselves, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind."
Now we see who's filling Kerry's mind with this internationalist garbage -- that goddamned wine-swilling, world-travelling, French-speaking, church-and-state-separating, Unitarian-believing hippie commie liberal, Thomas Jefferson!
Monday, October 04, 2004
Powell Quits: "Apres Moi, Le Deluge"
We've got us a significant leak, folks:
from salon.com:
A veteran Foreign Service officer warns that when Colin Powell departs in a second Bush term, America will lose its last bulwark against the radical ideologues who are planning more Iraqs.
Editor's note: "Anonymous" is a veteran Foreign Service officer currently serving as a State Department official. The views expressed are personal and not related to his official position.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Anonymous
Oct. 4, 2004 | Secretary of State Colin Powell is not staying for a second Bush term. When he goes, the last bulwark against complete neoconservative control of U.S. foreign policy goes with him. The implications are enormous, yet the American electorate appears to be blinded by the Bush campaign's deliberate manipulations of 9/11.
. . .
Powell is leaving. We need to repeat that. When this reality sinks in, we will finally understand what we are getting ourselves into in a second Bush term. A handful of conservative columnists, Republican senators and a few other GOP luminaries are trying to reclaim a traditional conservative Republican foreign policy approach. But it is clearly too late.
Further evidence the Bush kakocracy is beyond redemption.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Here's a question I'd like to see someone pose to Bush
at the next, "town hall" forum debate:
If your performance in the Oval Office over the past four years is the result of all your "hard work" (as you reminded us seven times at the last debate) -- if you're giving us what I assume are your "best efforts" now -- why should we expect that you're even capable of the increased effort that will obviously be necessary just to start to improve things?
Friday, October 01, 2004
Some Headlines I'd Like To See
WHITE HOUSE TIMEPIECES RUNNING MORE SMOOTHLY, ACCURATELY TODAY
Early Polling Shows Nation Grateful For Bush "Clock Cleaning" By Kerry
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Daily Show Again Caught Telling Painfully Unfunny Truth
Here's a transcript of last night's Daily Show, courtesy of Angry Bear:
JON STEWART: …Can we talk a little bit about what’s really going to happen at the debates tomorrow?
ED HELMS: [Sarcasm] Ookaay. This is the report I’m going to file. [grabs notebook and starts reading, in a quick monotone]. The two candidates exchanged pointed barbs about our Iraq policy and the war on Terror. Senator Kerry made strides towards shedding what some of his analysts call a patrician image…yadda yadda yadda…but the president with his plainspoken words was more effective in communicating his vision by relentless ...
STEWART: [interjecting] Ed. Ed, I’m sorry. You’ve written your report as though it's already happened. This is, is…
HELMS: Yeah, I wrote it yesterday.
STEWART: You write you stories in advance? And then put it in the past tense?
HELMS: Yeah. We all do. All the reporters do that.
STEWART: Why?
HELMS: We write the narratives in advance based on conventional wisdom, and then whatever happens, we make it fit that storyline.
STEWART: Why?
HELMS: We…We’re lazy. Lazy thinkers.
STEWART: But what happens if actual news happens?
HELMS: That’s what bloggers are for.
And here's what ABC News had up on its site until just a few moments ago (courtesy of Atrios's Eschaton):
CORAL GABLES, Fla. Sept. 30, 2004 — After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath.
The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism that he was prone to changing his positions.
Bush was expected to confront questions about leading the nation into war on the still-unproven premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He also has faced accusations that he lacked a strategy to deal with the violence and chaos that have left more than 1,000 Americans dead and that the Iraq war has diverted U.S. attention from al-Qaida and other terrorists.
Now, tell me again -- who's the real newscaster here, and who's the joke?
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
The Eminently Sensible Prof. Jack Balkin:
Ashcroft: We Need More Death
JB
Attorney General Ashcroft is unhappy that juries around the country seem less and less interested in killing people, the Los Angeles Times reports:
Shortly after arriving at the Justice Department nearly four years ago, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was faced with a new internal study that raised serious questions about the application of the federal death penalty.
A small number of federal districts, including pockets of Texas and Virginia, were accounting for the bulk of death cases. Experts decried the geographical disparities.
For Ashcroft, an ardent supporter of capital punishment, the solution was to seek the death penalty more often and more widely.
Since then, he has pushed federal prosecutors around the country — often over their objections — to be more aggressive in identifying prosecutions that could qualify as federal capital cases. Much of that effort has been in states that have banned or rarely impose capital punishment.
But Ashcroft's quiet campaign, which has been overshadowed by his prosecution of terrorism cases, has made few inroads.
With public support for the death penalty in decline, jurors have rebuffed calls for the death penalty in 23 of the 34 federal capital cases tried since 2001, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, a court- funded group that assists defense lawyers in capital cases.
Whether one supports or opposes the ability of the state to sentence people to death, one should applaud rather than decry the fact that juries in this country seem less willing to impose it. That trend has been produced by the individual decisions of members of the local communities all over the United States, who are supposed to represent, however imperfectly, the conscience of their communities. Even if one grants, as one must, that prosecutors and existing legal precedents play a role in the decrease in jury sentences of death, the trend is clear.
Juries all over the country are telling the courts that death is a matter of last resort, to be used sparingly, and only in the most serious cases. In many places they do not want it to be used at all. This is not timidity. It is not lack of empathy for victims. It is not insufficient concern with justice. It is civilization. By comparison with these juries all around the country, who regard the taking of a criminal defendant's life with supreme seriousness, Attorney General Ashcroft seems a savage, bloodthirsty brute.
Why is such a man the nation's chief law enforcement officer?
Posted 9:11 AM by JB
If Kerry Won't Give Bush The Smackdown On Iraq, The People Have To
from salon.com:
In a TV commercial released Wednesday, Cindy Sheehan, a 47-year-old woman from Vacaville, Calif., whose 24-year-old son was killed in Sadr City in April, speaks directly to George W. Bush.
Shot in black-and-white, her soft voice cracking, she says, "I imagined it would hurt if one of my kids was killed, but I never thought it would hurt this bad, especially someone so honest and brave as Casey, my son. When you haven't been honest with us, when you and your advisors rushed us into this war. How do you think we felt when we heard the Senate report that said there was no link between Iraq and 9/11?"
This is one of four new ads featuring relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, produced by a new political action committee called RealVoices.org. At a time when soldiers' parents have been arrested at Bush rallies and thrown out of the Republican National Convention for trying to make themselves heard, Real Voices was formed to broadcast the excruciating messages of those who feel that their loved ones' lives were wasted in Iraq.
Before they decide whether to give Dances With Goats four more years to slide us all further toward mayhem and entropy, the American people need to hear from these families -- repeatedly, on television.
I just sent them $25. How about you?
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Here's A Good Soundbite, Mr. Kerry
Are you listening?
Monday, September 27, 2004
Why Wait Until Friday Morning? Write Your Own Debate Postmortem Here
From Democratic Underground:
Don't be surprised! Here's how the media will cover Kerry's and Chimp's debate performance:
Kerry: If he's serious, they'll say he's glum, gloomy, pessimistic, and uninspiring.
If he's jovial, they'll say he's phony and trying too hard.
Bush: If he's serious, he's, presidential, the war-time commander in chief.
If he's jovial, everybody wants to have a beer with him.
Kerry: If he's forceful, they'll say he's too aggressive, mean, negative, desperate.
If he's calm, they'll say he's weak, unsteady, dull, lacks energy.
Bush: If he's forceful, he's strong, resolute, unwavering.
If he's calm, he's prepared, on-message, disciplined, reserved.
Kerry: If he's specific, they'll say he's wonkish, presenting "laundry lists," being overly-intellectual, show-offy, and nobody likes the smart kid.
If he's not specific, they'll say he's vague, criticizing but not offering solutions, not addressing the issues, and nobody knows who he is.
Bush: If he's specific, he "lays out his plan" and "makes his case."
If he's not specific, he's spanning the issues, giving a global presentation, painting a broad outline of his plans.
Kerry: If he jokes, they'll say he lacks gravitas, trivializes important issues, doesn't understand troops are in harm's way, nation's at war, disrespects the president, etc.
If he doesn't joke, they'll say he needs to lighten up, he's too stoney, he's wooden.
Bush: If he jokes, he's a man of the people, a regular guy, people relate to him.
If he doesn't joke, he truly cares about the American people and his sincerity resonates with voters in this difficult time.
Plus, if he finds his podium and doesn't trip on his way to it, he's surpassed all expectations. (Extra points for correct pronunciation of "Abu Ghraib" or "nuclear.")
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Question #1 At The Debate:
Has Bush ever stopped doing drugs?
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.
Kerry's already begun pummelling Bush about the head and shoulders for this, and rightly so.
Of course, if we any longer lived on the proper side of the Looking Glass, where what the President said and did got close and ruthless scrutiny by the media, Bush would already be long gone from office, shipped off to the Hague, and on trial alongside Slobo . . .
Friday, September 24, 2004
Does Bush Really See The World Through Rose-Colored Glasses
or is the tint deliberate, and accurate -- when everything and everyone around him is drenched in blood and red ink?
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Holy Cripes! There Are Some Wingnuts Out There!
And sometimes they call into CSPAN:
PETER SLEN, HOST: Kenner, Louisiana, good morning.
CALLER (in a very airy voice): Good morning. I’m going to vote for President Bush because, after all, you know, God made us there, you know, in His image, free from any black color and all [Host looks up, surprised]. The only church that Kerry can go to is where they say the Black Mass, and that is in the Merriam-Webster Pocket Book dictionary, where it says that that is the devil worshippers. [Host looks uncomfortably off-camera, at producer?] I would never vote for, you know, Senator Kerry . . .
I'm more determined than ever to vote -- if for no other reason than to cancel out this propellerhead's vote.
Once Again, Kerry Turns His Swift Boat Into The Gunfire
If you can get past the Republican self-congratulatory onanism in this Wall Street Journal story (and since when has their editorial-page mouthfrothing bled into their journalism? But I digress), you'll see that Kerry has made the crucial choice for his campaign between now and Judgment Day -- making the Iraq War the central focus of his argument Why We Need To Get Rid Of Bush.
Considerably more wetted-fingers-to-the-wind to get to this point than I would have liked, but hey, we're finally here.
Jimmy Carter got elected in 1976 by telling Americans he'd never lie to us. We've just been through, like, five Watergates, only without a single indictment, let alone a conviction or a resignation. Hell, even a firing.
It's Bobby and LBJ all over again, folks. (Only minus the Sirhan2, this time.) Kerry pounds Bush on this nonstop between now and November 2nd, and the distinct odor of lightly burned bread will commence to be smelled around the old Crawford soundstage (er, "ranch").
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
I love it when Google does this stuff:
It's Ray Charles's birthday:
The Incomparable Mark Morford, On Our "Squanderful" SUV Culture
You just gotta love the fact that some semitruck company somewhere called International Truck and Engine Corp. is now coming out with what they claim is the world's largest production pickup, called the CXT, all 9 feet high and 8 feet wide, a whopping 21 feet long and 14,500 pounds and 18 million excruciating earthly groans of it.
And in most states that don't give a crap for their roads or the environment or any human life that might be existing in the various passenger cars surrounding it, you don't need a commercial truck license to own or drive the CXT, a vehicle that makes the Hummer H2 look like a Honda Civic and that makes all the manly thick-necked boys go, ooohhhyeessss, and that the company itself claims, oh so tellingly, will absolutely guarantee your title of "king of the dirt pile."
See, there is this point. There is this point where it all becomes just beyond silly and absurd and surreal. There is this threshold you reach where you finally just have to toss in the moral and spiritual and intellectual and commonsensical towel and just laugh out loud and shake your head and sigh and then run off to the woods with a bottle of fine sake and the collected Coltrane. This is what you have to do. Especially when faced with such wicked absurdities as, say, Kraft Lunchables. Or John Ashcroft. Or Dr. Phil. Or the CXT.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Everybody Must Go AWOL!
In the ongoing yet neglected narrative of how Emperor Tipsy Dixit has brought our military to its knees, here are a couple of interesting tidbits:
Fort Drum has seen 645 warrants for desertion issued since Sept. 11, 2001.
40 percent of Army reservists fail to report to Fort Jackson
At this rate, I figure, there'll be a major return to battlefield fragging in no time.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
An Army Captain Tells It Like It Is On The NewsHour
"Well, I mean, the first thing we need to note here is that the president is a failed commander- in-chief. President Bush sent soldiers like me to die for weapons that we can't find.
If that doesn't prove that he's failed his last four years as president, frankly, I'm not sure what does. Sen. Kerry is the only one of the two candidates who has the credibility to bring allies to our side.
Our force levels in Iraq are so high that soldiers like myself, who spent, you know, an entire year . . . or some of them have spent entire years in Iraq, have come home for a year, and are now going back. 43 percent of Operation Iraqi Freedom Three is going to be guard and reserve forces.
This president has broken this military. And John Kerry's the only one of the two who's given us any alternatives or any possibility of hope. He's the one who supports increasing the size of the army by 40,000 soldiers, not President Bush.
He's the one who has the credibility to go back to the world, because let's be honest, the world isn't against the United States; they're against our president.
And I'll tell you what, going it alone hurt soldiers like me. Going it alone burdened our American army to a point where we've had to back draft people in our military.
I went to war because of this backdoor draft. Even though my time was up, I still went, and I did my duty. But the American public has a right to know the truth about this war.
We can talk all day long about what Sen. Kerry said at the National Guard today, but, you know what, he leveled with the national guardsmen. He didn't make any crazy attempts to link al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. He leveled with the soldiers and said, "you know, you guys are fighting hard."
And I'm going to be honest with you, President Bush continues to mislead our country about the direction of our war. And he hasn't even . . . this is a guy . . . this is a president who will not even support mandatory funding for our health care.
It was a dark day for me when I had to return home from the war in Iraq, have some bad dreams, go to my veterans hospital only to find out that the same man who sent me to war has turned his back on me when I came home, and decided that he was going to close our veterans hospital here in Pittsburgh on Highland Drive. "
* * *
"My experience on the ground was that, you know, we had a president who, prior to 9/11, his policies in Europe going against the Kyoto Accords, and deciding he wanted to build super-duper missile defense systems, had no credibility to build a coalition, spent our defense money on, you know, things like missile systems when we needed body armor and tanks.
My unit did not have body armor when we went to Iraq. When we got on the ground, I went from Kuwait to Baghdad in a convoy. Baghdad's very different from the southern part of the country where there's a British contingent.
Baghdad has lost . . . we've lost more American soldiers in Baghdad than any other place. That's why we're footing 90 percent of the bill for the war and 90 percent of the casualties.
And when we went to Baghdad, I heard my president tell our country that our mission was accomplished, and that same night I had two RPG's flung at my convoy and one of my trucks blown up. He clearly wasn't leveling with the American public. And then when I was in Baghdad, we started losing soldiers every day.
Every day we went out, there was combat. And when one of my soldiers died, I had to hear my commander-in-chief so eloquently entice my enemy with, "Bring it on," a deep sorrow day for me as an officer inside Iraq."
Army Capt. Jon Soltz, Iraqi occupational forces, May - September 2003 -- now Pennsylvania state co-coordinator, Veterans for Kerry
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Presciently, H.L. Mencken Advises The 2004 Bush Campaign
from his vantage point, on the pages of The Chicago Sunday Tribune, July 25, 1926:
. . . No normal human being wants to hear the truth. It is the passion of a small and aberrant minority of men, most of them pathological. They are hated for telling it while they live, and when they die they are swiftly forgotten. What remains to the world, in the field of wisdom, is a series of long tested and solidly agreeable lies.
This Young Man Reassures Me, Where The Old Man He's Become Does Not
"It takes a special courage to speak out against a cause for which you were once prepared to die."
-- Jeffrey Smith, a West Point-trained C.I.A. man and Kerry contemporary, on John Kerry's 1971 Congressional testimony
Maybe If The Democrats Distributed The Information On Free Software
as magazine inserts, some of the "undecided" voters might finally get the point?
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Time To Re-Don
those alcoa fedoras:
Blast, mushroom cloud reported in N. Korea
Sept. 11, 2004 | SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea, sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency reported Sunday.
As soon as I get my absentee ballot, I'm taking a decisive act to defend my country -- and it won't take me seven minutes to decide what to do. That way, on Election Day, I'll be free to help others get to the polls.
We've got to get rid of these incompetent clowns. They're going to get us all killed.
Cheney Says It Straight Out; Bush Just Gestures
. . . or maybe this is his signal to Condi that he's pissed at Laura?
Friday, September 10, 2004
We're Not In Lake Wobegon Anymore
The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.
-- Garrison Keillor
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Bush, "Staying The Course" During The Vietnam War, Courageously Volunteers To Stay Home:
from their (fascinatingly surreal) 2/8/04 interview:
Russert: Were you favor of the war in Vietnam?
President Bush: I supported my government. I did. And would have gone had my unit been called up, by the way.
Russert: But you didn't volunteer or enlist to go.
President Bush: No, I didn't. You're right. I served. I flew fighters and enjoyed it, and provided a service to our country. In those days we had what was called "air defense command," and it was a part of the air defense command system.
The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me as I look back was it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions, and it is lessons that any president must learn, and that is to the set the goal and the objective and allow the military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective. And those are essential lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.
Gee, and here I thought an "essential lesson" to be learned from the Vietnam War was something about the government *lying* to the American public about motives, tactics, "progress" and outcomes of an unwinnable guerilla war against nationalist insurgents trying to drive us out of their country . . .
But what do I know? In February of 1968, for me, it was quite the ethical quandary: either (1) sign up for Vietnam; or (2) finish fourth grade . . .
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Historical Newsflash: Elephant First Used To Symbolize Republican Voters -- Timid, Stupid, Easily Stampeded Republican Voters
Ah, the things we learn from history. Straight from the pachyderm's mouth:
The symbol of the elephant first appeared in Harper’s Weekly on November 7, 1874 in a cartoon by Thomas Nast.
Two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. In the political arena of the time, Ulysses S. Grant was midway through his second term as President and considering a third term. The New York Herald and illustrated journalists were depicting Grant wearing a crown raising the cry of "Caesarism." The Democrats had taken up the issue during the mid-term elections in order to disaffect Republican voters.
At the same time, in a completely non-political arena, the Herald was involving itself in a delightful hoax known as the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874. They ran a story, totally untrue, claiming that the animals of the zoo had broken loose and were roaming New York’s Central Park in search of prey.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two events and put them together in a cartoon for Harper’s Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion’s skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable:
"An ass having put on a lion’s skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings."
--From William Safire’s New Language of Politics, Revised edition, Collier Books, New York, 1972.
One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote -- not the party. It showed the Republican vote being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast showed the elephant in a trap, illustrating how the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance. Other cartoonists picked up the symbol and it soon ceased to represent the voters, but came to represent the Party itself. The jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democrats who had frightened the elephant.
Monday, September 06, 2004
Q: What's The Opposite Of A "Yellow Dog Democrat?"
A: It's a "Zell-oh Dog Democrat," of course!
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Republicans, once again displaying that "compassionate conservatism" for which they're famous, here and abroad.
From TalkLeft:
Watch this ABC news video of a young Republican supporter kicking a female protester inside Madison Square Garden as she was lying on the ground being held by three secret service agents. The protesters were arrested. The young Republican was not. A search is on for his identity. Have you seen him?
Memo To Dick: Learn Serbian -- We Plan To Make You And Slobo Cellmates
"Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual. America sees two John Kerrys."
-- Dick Cheney, 9/1/04
That's not true, Dick, but -- for you and Chicken George -- come November 3rd, it'll only feel like there were two John Kerrys.
Swift Boat Inspectors-General For Partisan Hatchet-Jobs
Homeland Security may be suppressing the information domestically (who knows), but according to at least one Tory rag from across the pond (where journalists, right and left, still seem to cling to the quaint notion that their job is to "ferret out the news"), the Pentagon is launching an investigation into whether Kerry earned all his medals in Vietnam. The nugget of the story -- what looks to be the trigger for the investigation -- is this:
Among other records to be examined is a citation of Mr Kerry for bravery that was apparently signed by the former Navy Secretary, John Lehman, and contributed to the award of his silver star. The glowing citation states: "By his brave actions, bold initiative and unwavering devotion to duty, Lt Kerry reflected great credit on himself." But Mr Lehman denies all knowledge of the commendation. "It's a total mystery to me," he said last week. "I never saw it, I never signed it and I never approved it." The inquiry will also investigate other reports and citations leading to the award of Mr Kerry's medals.
Gosh, Bush's chief hatchet man on the Kissinger -- er, Keane 9/11 Commission, suddenly has an attack of Alzheimer's over a commendation he made 35 years ago, and the Bush campaign gets to enlist the U.S. military into the Swift Boat Veterans' Kerry-Sniper Brigade? That's "changing the tone" in Washington, all right -- to a Stalinesque march.
Naturally, the American media, wishing to get to the bottom of this, will immediately begin peppering former Navy Secretary Lie-Man -- er, Lehman, about: (a) how many commendations did he, in fact, make, during the Vietnam Era; (b) what were their names, and individual circumstances; (c) how did it come about that he was asked, and agreed, to make each commendation; and (d) what records does he have to contradict the existing Pentagon records?
And naturally, the American media (and more importantly, the American *public*) will insist that, if an investigation like this goes forward in the last 60 days of an election, there *MUST* be a tandem, equally-vigorous investigation into Bush's military records, and that any reports on both must be announced in tandem, as well.
Right?
{sigh}
I'm not holding my breath.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Separated At Birth?
thanks to Mark Abbott for flagging this one down
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Boo- yah!
Sticking with the subject of outspoken immigrants, it should be noted that George Soros has now written and delivered the "Eff you, and the horse you rode in on" letter to little Denny Hastert, predicate to suing his ass (I predict) for defamation:
I must respectfully insist that you either substantiate these claims -- which you cannot do because they are false -- or publicly apologize for attempting to defame my character and damage my reputation.
Sounds to me like George has been consulting with wartime consigliere.
The Luddite Detour On The Way To The Voting Booth: A Modest Proposal
The more I hear and read about touchscreen voting, the push among some swing states for e-voting by overseas troops, the apparent efforts to remove from office or bypass California's Secretary of State before November (given that he recently "decertified" touchscreen voting throughout the state, because it leaves no paper trail for accurate recounts), the more firmly I secure my tinfoil hat onto my noggin.
The fact is, there is a method readily available, inexpensive and low-tech, with a proven history of accuracy for casting and counting votes: Paper ballots. Hand-counted, in a perfectly "transparent" process. Canada -- a country with nearly as many citizens as we have California residents, still uses hand-counted paper ballots exclusively in their federal elections -- and they manage to complete the vote count in a matter of hours.
What's more, there's a bill prepared, but evidently not yet introduced in Congress -- the Federal Paper Ballot Act of 2004 -- that would immediately put these safeguards in place here in the U.S. for the upcoming election.
Last time around, the election hijackers wore black robes. This time, I'm thinking, they'll have ways to keep the count from even getting that close. Ask yourselves this: If we can't trust the vote count, this whole democracy thing really is a sham, isn't it?
GOP To Wounded Vets: Go Cheney Yourselves
Republican Convention delegates have been "mocking" John Kerry's Vietnam War wounds (and by extension, those of every other wounded American veteran, ever), "by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them."
Come the next terrorist attack (Allah forbid), I hope all Purple Heart recipients, past and present, will choose *not* to assist or defend any of these people; they should be required to defend themselves.
And I think they've now provided the answer to Joseph Welch's rhetorical question put to Sen. Joe McCarthy: No; at long last, they don't have any sense of decency.
Monday, August 30, 2004
The Horse Whimperer
Well, if we've got to sink lower than the swiftboat bottomfeeders in order to catch those voters yet "undecided" between restoring democracy and oh, let's call it raging kleptocratic incompetence, I think a promising fishing hole can be found on Bush's horse-free "ranch."
Honestly, have you *ever* seen Bush anywhere near Man's Favorite Equine Companion?
You know, "it's been widely reported" that the little drugstore cowboy is askeered (as they say in Texas) of horses. If so, I think we need to "swiftboat this thing along" for a few weeks on television.
I mean, what does it say about the "character" of a "cowboy" -- who's really a Horse Whimperer?
And there ain't but one way Bush can lay this whole thing to rest. Saddle up, pardner!
Saturday, August 28, 2004
An Historical Perspective
Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly . . .
. . . and yet, they turn . . .
Hare Krishna Moonlanding Debunkers For Truth
Quick -- somebody call CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News! I've got a hardcore group of people -- thousands, in fact, located all around the world -- who will swear the whole NASA moonlanding program is and always was an outright hoax; that we never went there.
Plus -- unlike the Swiftboat folks -- they're not just blowing smoke up your ass; they've got photographic proof -- forensic evidence! -- to back up their claims.
What's more, they're "pious, religious folk" -- so the cable news shows can angle for inroads into reaching those potential viewers . . .
. . . C'mon, now: Wolf, Sean, Chris, Ken, Aaron -- let's get these folks booked on your shows, and let's hear some honest skepticism about "the official record" for a few weeks, eh?
Shouting "Fire" In A Crowded Political Theater
Wow. Bill Maher's concluding remarks last night, on his HBO series Real Time, were something else. (Fortunately, I taped it:):
You can't claim you're for peace unless you're willing to disturb it.
Now at the Republican Convention next week New York City is attempting to buy off angry war protestors by giving them discounts on restaurants and Broadway shows in exchange for a pledge not to all congregate in one place and to keep the noise down -- you know, like it's a high school band trip.
"What do we want?" "PEACE!"
"When do we want it?" "NOW! -- but we'll settle for dinner for two at Red Lobster."
You know what? I want to see some REAL protests next week -- the kind I watched as a kid from the Democratic Convention in Chicago in '68. I want to see THIS guy --
[makes twisted, angry face, flipping off cameras -- reminiscent of a photo of an angry Chicago protestor flipping off armed cops]
-- remember that guy? I mean, isn't that the least we as citizens can do? Isn't this one of those moments when democracy can show it's not afraid to be in the streets? Because you know who has peaceful, planned demonstrations? Totalitarian states, like North Korea and Disneyland.
Therefore, tonight, I am urging all the protestors in New York next week TO RIOT!
I'm talking about good, old-fashioned rioting -- the kind that made Whitey move to the suburbs!
{Guest interjection: "That's why Detroit looks like that!"}
Look, Protestor: You spent two weeks making that papier-mache Dick Cheney mask? [rolls eyes] Now, light it on fire and TORCH THE NEAREST GAP STORE!
Two lesbians with a "LICK BUSH" sign is NOT going to make the nightly news -- pick up a garbage can and throw it through a Starbucks window!!
I don't want to see a candlelight vigil -- this is New York, there's a bodycount at Simon & Garfunkle concerts!
If anything with "Trump" written on it is standing after September 3rd? You're a bunch of pussies who aren't worth the hemp in your Timberland shoes!
I want to see cabdrivers so nervous they stop picking up the white people!
We're Americans, damnit! We burn cars over basketball games! Let's MAKE some noise; let's KICK some ass! If I want to turn on the TV and see nothing . . .
. . . I'll keep watching the Olympics.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Swift Boat Incredulants For Proof
Turns out that -- when backed to the wall -- Swift Boat Nixon hitman John O'Neill does pretty good "nuance," too. From the Associated Press this morning:
During an Oval Office conversation in 1971, John O'Neill tells President Nixon he was in Cambodia in a swift boat during the war — a claim that is at odds with O'Neill's recent statements that he wasn't in the country.
"I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border," O'Neill is heard telling Nixon in a conversation that was taped by the former president's secret recording system. The tape is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md.
In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, O'Neill did not dispute what he said to Nixon on June 16, 1971, but he insisted he was never actually in Cambodia.
"I think I made it very clear that I was on the border, which is exactly where I was for three months," O'Neill said of the conversation. "I was about 100 yards from Cambodia."
* * * * *
In the book [he co-authored "Unfit For Command" -- Regnery White Supremacist Press, 2004], O'Neill wrote that Kerry's accounts of having been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968 "are complete lies."
He wrote that "Kerry was never ordered into Cambodia by anyone and would have been court-martialed had he gone there."
Uh huh. And that danger of court-martial is surely why O'Neill took great pains -- in that recorded 1971 conversation, directly with his Commander-in-Chief -- to make it crystal-clear precisely where he himself had been in relation to the Vietnamese-Cambodian border. Right!
Glad we cleared that up!
Monday, August 23, 2004
Liar Or Flip-Flopper? You Decide
Thanks to Atrios for retrieving this out of the memory hole:
So Ambassador Bremer has been talking about a seven-step plan: constitution, followed then by elections and then by the transfer of sovereignty. And it makes perfectly good sense to do this as soon as possible, but to do it in a way that is responsible. And I think that the -- as all of us have said, the French plan, which would somehow try to transfer sovereignty to an un-elected group of people, just isn't workable.
-- Condi Rice, 9/22/2003
Welcome To The Working Week
Well, I know it don't thrill you
I hope it don't kill you
If we can ever get our stultifying media to focus on something less new and shiny than the Swift Boat Liars' Choir for maybe five minutes, Kerry might try to change the subject, to point out that the Wrecks-All Wrangler in the Oval Office has now gutted much of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, by revoking overtime pay for millions of Americans.
Yes, that's right; of course the Bush Labor Department will claim that it's extending overtime pay to lots of Americans, but we've all seen this particular hand of Three Card Monte, on this particular streetcorner, before.
Maybe if Kerry got his numbers together, very quickly, (say by tomorrow) and pointed out that Bush just cut most people's paychecks (or extended their already-onerous workweek), without even extending them the courtesy of a reacharound, we might get this class warfare thing up and running nicely in time for the Coronation (uh, I mean the GOP Convention in NYC).
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Pretty Fly For A Dem Guy
It turns out Sen. Ted Kennedy has now made the airline "no fly" watchlist. Hey, maybe they'll extend it to all Democratic Senators (or maybe just Senators from Massachusetts).
That ought to make the last weeks of the campaign more interesting, no?
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Advice To GOP: Don't Assume The City That Never Sleeps Has Got Your Back
New Yorkers read the papers; plus they've got looong memories.
What was that Oedipal saying about payback again? Oh, yes!
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Cornered
"And, Mr. Bush, PLEASE stop telling us, over and over and over again, that we've 'turned the corner.'
If we've 'turned the corner' already, why are YOU still here?"
Bill Maher, in a monologue on his HBO series "Real Time," last night
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Worthless Justice
The latest news in the Hamdi saga should get you all hopping mad, if you take seriously at all the ideals of freedom and justice in this country:
Until late last year, the Pentagon insisted that Hamdi was a threat and refused to allow him to meet with lawyers. But after the Supreme Court agreed to hear Hamdi's case, Defense Department officials allowed Dunham to meet with his client under tightly monitored conditions.
At that time, the Pentagon said it had determined Hamdi no longer had any intelligence value to U.S. authorities.
Huh. I guess "intelligence value" must be something like "radioactivity," with a calculable half-life.
In any event, now that the Justice Department has (once again) tipped its empty hand, I hope Hamdi's trial judge, Judge Doumar (who has proven himself to be plenty independent and feisty in the past) tells the prosecutors they can shove their "settlement proposal" where the sun don't shine -- that, given the Government's outrageous behavior, he won't accept any plea bargain of the case that requires Hamdi either to renounce his US citizenship, or forego his right to sue the Government for his mistreatment. I hope Hamdi himself refuses to accept such an offer (although, given the way he's been treated, who could blame him if he decided his US citizenship wasn't worth keeping -- I mean, honestly, other than his -- apparently-phyrric -- Supreme Court victory, what good has it done him? The Justice Department hasn't treated him with the respect and dignity I'd grant a stray dog).
It's too bad, too, that no enterprising reporter isn't asking Justice Clarence Thomas ("our youngest, cruelest justice" as the NYTimes deftly pegged him a dozen years ago) the equivalent of Kerry's "Iraq war" question -- that is, given what we now know, would he still have voted as he did in Hamdi's case? (Remember, Thomas is the ONLY justice to buy into the Bush administration's breathtakingly totalitarian argument that the President has the authority, unilaterally, to cast a US citizen into perpetual gulag, and -- not only is this permitted under the Constitution -- but US courts are powerless to even review such an action.)
Go ahead, ask Clarence if he thinks jailing Hamdi for three years on nothing but Emperor Tipsy Dixit's word, when it turns out (once again) that his word wasn't worth shit, was justified.
Let's hear what the constitutional subgenius has to say for himself . . .
