Enemy Combatant
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
One More Way The Miserable Failure Falls Short Of FDR's Accomplishments
On May 19, 2005, Sen. Harry Reid made a speech in which he pointed out one unbelieveable, devastating fact: The so-called War on Terror has now lasted longer than American participation in World War Two. (Because this fact is so hugely inconvenient to BushCo and its mainstream media enablers, it has scarcely been repeated again.)
Yes, that's right, in the time it took BushCo to fart around Tora Bora, let Osama run to Pakistan, lie us into a second war, color-code our fears, cut taxes (once again!) on the rich, put himself back in office (on equally dubious grounds as the first time) and exhort us all to "go shopping," FDR managed to rally the country, enlist our allies and defeat two worldwide, formidable enemies -- Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan -- on two separate fronts.
If we still had the media we had during Watergate, not only would there be no second Bush term, but he and his cohorts would be sitting in a cell somewhere. I wonder if there are grounds to try the media in the Hague for their war crimes, as well?
Thursday, May 26, 2005
James Iredell, who later became a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1790-1799), stated at North Carolina’s ratification convention:
"The President must certainly be punishable for giving false information to the Senate. He is to regulate all intercourse with foreign powers, and it is his duty to impart to the Senate every material intelligence he receives. If it should appear that he has not given them full information, but has concealed important intelligence which he ought to have communicated, and by that means induced them to enter into measures injurious to their country, and which they would not have consented to had the true state of things been disclosed to them, - in this case, I ask whether, upon an impeachment for a misdemeanor upon such an account, the Senate would probably favor him."
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Homeland Skeerity
As everyone knows by now, the Keystone Crips in charge of national security couldn't prevent the second airplane in three weeks from violating the restricted airspace around the Capitol. (And we expect these same subgeniuses to provide security way off in Iraq and Afghanistan, too? Keep dreaming.) The $64,000 question, though, is did or didn't Rumsfeld issue a "shoot down" order for that first plane? The "official story" turns on a dime when moneyed interests are at stake. Certainly makes me feel safe.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Nuclear Optioned
Last night, The Deal looked a lot to me like the Fugitive Slave Law, a compromise over matters that simply ought not to be compromised, and only a brief postponement of the inevitable conflagration.
Today, with Catkillah Frist threatening to "retrigger" the nuclear option immediately, I'm feeling more optimistic. The good folks over at Legal Fiction point out that The Deal expressly takes the nuclear option off the table until 2006 -- at least for its 14 signatories. If Frist and his neomonarchists, in their relentless march backward through history, want to pick an intramural street fight with the Republican Jacobins before the 2006 election, I say fine. I think this agreement has the potential, at least, of marking a turning point for Republicans in the Senate. And if and when the McCain-Graham branch of the GOP finally decides to push the theocrats in their party under the blade, I'll be sure to save us some good seats up front. You bring the popcorn.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
US accuses Britain over Afghanistan's heroin cropsAmerican officials have accused Britain of being "substantially responsible" for the failure to make more progress in eradicating heroin production in Afghanistan, said a classified document published yesterday."You can't catch me sleepin'. . . Don't you ever believe that. I'm not that dumb. The day you try to put anything over on me will be a costly one for both of you . . . Any more lip out of ya and I'll pull off and let ya have it. If ya know what's good for ya, ya won't monkey around with Fred C. Dobbs!"
The three-page cable sent by the US embassy in Kabul to the State Department said the British-led campaign against the drug trade was selecting the wrong targets. It also accused British officials of refusing to alter their plans when asked to do so.
The document accused President Hamid Karzai of a failure of leadership, by offering only ineffective backing to the campaign.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Listen Up, It's The Liberal Agenda
fresh from the Streisand Compound. Here are your marching orders:
1. From now on, the GOP effort to kill the filibuster is no longer "the nuclear option," it's not "the Byrd option," and it's certainly not "the constitutional option."
It's "the Slim Pickens option," from here on out, OK?
2. In referring to the Neocon takeover, we need to adopt the language of the Cold War. Remember David Horowitz? First he was a leftwing Stalinist; now he's a rightwing Stalinist. His economic views have changed; his totalitarian political views have pretty much stayed the same. These treasonous bastards in charge now are rightwing Stalinists, just like Whore-owitz. They may believe in some sort of dog-eat-dog capitalism, but they sure as hell don't believe in democracy.
The other benefit of this is, it'll confuse the hell out of rank-and-file Republican voters, and get them to start seeing their leaders in a markedly different light.
3. Put your Senators and Congresscritters on speed dial, and add your local newspaper and TV stations to your email address book. If you are glib and self-assured in front of a camera, see if you can't get some media access, but have your pithy soundbites well-rehearsed beforehand. This is going to be a busy week.
We Distort. You Decide (To Watch Something Else).Here's something you won't hear on Fox News -- ratings for the cable news channel have been plummeting since before the November election.Why?
According to TV Newser, the number of people watching Fox during prime time in the 25 to 54 age bracket dropped in April for the sixth straight month [i.e., a 58% net loss of viewership].
I believe the 19th century's preeminent Republican physicist, Abraham Lincoln, may have discovered the answer to that question in his seminal work, "The effects of deception in its interrelation with the time/people matrix."
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
BRIT MP TO MINN SEN: STFU!“Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life’s blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
“I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
“Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
Man, oh man. British MP George Galloway must've blistered all the paint out of that room.
Now I'm searching CSPAN to watch, as well as read this: I want to see if "Sen." Norm Coleman, doing his best Joe McCarthy ("I've got a list of names!"), still has any eyebrows or skin left on his face, once Galloway is through with him.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
The Walrus And The Bullshitter"The time has come," the Walrus said,If Bolton gets in at the UN (a proposition now getting 50/50 odds), Bush will have bought an insurance policy against impeachment: War with Iran and/or North Korea. And no worries about being dogged by a free press; experience shows that the rationales and lies can always be fixed around the war crimes.
"To talk of many things:
Of wives--and clubs--and oil-for-food--
Of neocon unborns--
And why my moods are boiling hot--
And why Iran has horns."
"But wait a bit," the Senate cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Bullshitter.
They thanked him much for that.
"A lot of smoke," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Piss and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Senators dear,
We can begin to feed."
"But not on us!" Senators cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?"
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
At Plato's Retreat, He Went By The Names "Captain Bangeroo" And "Bolt-On"
John "Stud" Bolton reportedly has "Gov. Ryan" problems, according to Raw Story (and, ultimately, Larry Flint):Corroborated allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Department despite inquires posed by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Mr. Flynt has obtained information from numerous sources that Mr. Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato’s Retreat, the popular swingers club that operated in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Naismith's Revenge
Well, to that joke about how "you know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese," we can now add:". . . and the Most Valuable Player in the NBA is a white guy from Canada . . ."
Can't We "Outsource" The Filibuster Vote Count?
An online friend from Houston writes, with her reverie on how (in a perfect world) the filibuster vote should go:Hey, did you hear what happened on the filibuster vote?
The Senate calls for the vote.
The count is 71 in favor of keeping the filibuster, 33 in favor of the Republicans' "nucular" option, meaning, end the 200-year tradition of the filibuster.
The Republicans call for a recount, because the Senate only has 100 possible votes. "There must be something wrong," they sputter. "Anyone can tell, there's something wrong with the vote! Stop! Recount! We KNOW we had more votes than that! We should have won!" One stamps his feet, raising a tiny cloud of dust on the Senate floor.
However, what they didn't know was that Liebold was now in charge of Senate votes. It's a new company, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and it electronically counts Senate votes. There is no paper trail, and no way to recount the votes. The modem is connected to . . . well, don't worry your pretty little head about that.
"Revote! Revote! We call for a revote!" shout the outraged Republicans. One becomes so red in the face that the defibrilator is brought out, just in case. "Any fool can see that if there are 104 votes from only 100 Senators, something is wrong!"
"Oh, we know you will be graceful in defeat, just like John Kerry was," say the Democrats, in a soothing tone. "Surely, the Republicans do not want to be known as a band of wild-eyed conspiracy theorists, squandering our time when we could be doing important work. The Senators have spoken, and we have a mandate."
(end of fairy tale)
Oh, well, we can always dream, can't we?
Saturday, May 07, 2005
It's Nut-Cuttin' Time
Junta leader "Defibrillator" Dick Cheney has now made the ultimate decision next week on the Bolton nomination easy for Republicans -- they should unconditionally reject him. Cheney did so by blocking the release to the Senate of transcriptions made of the NSA intercepts that Bolton had obtained on his political enemies while at the State Department. As Steve Clemons at the Washington Note put it, "[u]nder Secretaries with questionable intentions can get the transcripts -- but Senators with Constitutional oversight responsibilities seemingly cannot."
This is no longer about partisan politics -- it's about whether we will any longer have a democracy at all. If Senate Republicans cave on this -- essentially abrogating their "advise and consent" role under the Constitution -- then Sen. Harry Reid's path from here on out becomes clear as well: Fight the end of the filibuster with everything the Democrats have got. If the nascent Fascists in the Republican Party are hellbent on making Il Douchebag the undisputed Maximum Leader of this country, they can do so without our help.
