Enemy Combatant
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Colbert Roasts Bush
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
Outstanding! I'm sure whoever invited Stephen Colbert to play Court Jester at the White House Correspondents' Awards Dinner expected a milder version of Lear's Fool; what they got instead was Poe's Hop-Frog.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Bushwhacked
Yes, we've all been Bushwhacked. Evidently, however, some of us require a helluva lot more blows to the head than others . . .
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Et Tu, Merle?
Let's get out of Iraq
and get back on track
and let's rebuild America first.
Why don't we liberate
these United States
We're the ones who need it the most
You think I'm blowing smoke?
Boys it ain't no joke
I make twenty trips a year
from coast to coast
When Bush has lost the C&W crowd, he's lost Red State America.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
For The Wingnut Doilies Who Read WorldNetDaily
Here's a good reason why Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance in violation of FISA is nothing like Clinton's "using spy satellite surveillance of white supremacists after the OKC bombing" --
the first story is true; the second one is FALSE! Apples and oranges . . .
If you do a google search, you'll find the sole citation for this latest "Clinton did it, too!" defense to be the McCurtain [Oklahoma] Daily Gazette -- a wingnut publication that seems to have two crusading "journalists" who have scooped everyone else in the world on the OKC bombing -- it's a huge coverup, and the federal government was behind it!
(They like to publish "Bigfoot"-sighting stories, too, but let's not hold that against them.)
What do Little Dixie's Woodward & Bernstein base their Clinton-spy-satellitestoryconfabulation on? Why, on US Secret Service documents that their birdcage liner alone got wind of! In fact, these two get leaked more sinister government documents (which, curiously, never seem to get reviewed by authentication experts) than any pair SINCE Woodstein!
Because if I'm gonna leak an earth-shattering story, about sinister government conspiracies, I'm running off to Bumfuck, Oklahoma, to do it in THIS newspaper!
(This also answers a question often asked on wingnut websites and discussion groups:
"Why hasn't this story been circulated and publicized more by the mainstream media?"
{raising hand:} Oooh! I know! I know!
Uh, because it's bullshit?)
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Those Of Us In The Reality-Based Community
would like to wish those of you in the faith-based community a very Happy Zombie Jesus Day.
Or a Happy G_d-Spared-Us-His-Genocide Day.
Or whatever the hell kind of freakish magical nonsense it is, that you believe makes this a "holiday season."
No, really.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
The Economic Correlation Between Pipers And Tunes
Seems only fair. After all, he worked a helluva lot harder for Halliburton than he did for America last year . . .
Friday, April 14, 2006
"Double-Secret Probation" Declassification?
Reading through Sidney Blumenthal's latest dissection of Bushco perfidy, one finds this gem:The formal rules for declassification were amended by Bush's Executive Order 13292 of March 25, 2003, on "Classified National Security Information." Under any circumstances the president has the authority, as he always has, to unilaterally declassify official secrets and intelligence "in the public interest." But a decision to declassify a document normally passes through the originating agency and then through the Office of the National Security Advisor. Then the document is stamped declassified and the declassified order is appended to the document.
None of these procedures was followed in this case, which is why Libby's antenna was gyrating. He sought the advice of Cheney's counsel, David Addington, Libby's close ally. In approaching Addington, Libby must have known what he would hear. Addington is the foremost legal advocate in the White House of the idea that the president should be unbound, unchecked, unfettered in his authority, whether in the torture of detainees, domestic surveillance or any other matter. Unsurprisingly, Addington "opined that presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."
Only four people -- Bush, Cheney, Libby and Addington -- were privy to the declassification. It was kept secret from the director of central intelligence, the secretary of state and the national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, among others. Indeed, Hadley was arguing at the time for declassification of the NIE but was deliberately kept in the dark that it was no longer classified. Fitzgerald writes about Libby: "Defendant fails to mention ... that he consciously decided not to make Mr. Hadley aware of the fact that defendant himself had already been disseminating the NIE by leaking it to reporters while Mr. Hadley sought to get it formally declassified." Having Hadley play the fool became part of the game.
Here's a question I have no answer to: Given his newly-found "unitary executive" fetish, isn't the idea that the president can carve out huge essential portions of his own branch of government -- here, the national security apparatus -- and deliberately keep them in the dark about what's declassified and what isn't, sound a little hinky to you? (Granted, if Bush and Cheney were true to form, they've already materially lied to Fitzgerald's grand jury and/or the FBI, so this may well prove a moot point.)
I strongly suspect that Bush got a juvenile kick out of playacting "doublespy secret agent" in this whole affair. It would be ironic justice if his Agent Cody Banks hijinks are what ultimately trip him up enough to topple his administration entirely.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
The Spirit of Woody Guthrie
is alive and well, and living inside Billy Bragg. "The Price Of Oil," 10/22/02
Norman Rockwell, Prophet
On the left, Harry Taylor. On the right, Norman Rockwell's 63-year-old prophecy of this day.
All praise to the Prophet! And all praise to his messenger, The Saturday Evening Post!
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Fatwa-Man and Little Boy
OK, now we know Bush and his minions are batshit-crazy. Seymour Hersh in this week's New Yorker lays out Bushco's plan to hit Iran with tactical nukes in the near future:The Pentagon adviser on the war on terror confirmed that some in the Administration were looking seriously at this option, which he linked to a resurgence of interest in tactical nuclear weapons among Pentagon civilians and in policy circles. He called it “a juggernaut that has to be stopped.” He also confirmed that some senior officers and officials were considering resigning over the issue. “There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries,” the adviser told me. “This goes to high levels.” The matter may soon reach a decisive point, he said, because the Joint Chiefs had agreed to give President Bush a formal recommendation stating that they are strongly opposed to considering the nuclear option for Iran. “The internal debate on this has hardened in recent weeks,” the adviser said. “And, if senior Pentagon officers express their opposition to the use of offensive nuclear weapons, then it will never happen.”Keep in mind, too, that while it appears tortured confessions haven't made their way into our court proceedings (even before the FISA Court), our "intelligence" on Iran's nuclear capabilities is likely being extracted from Farsi-speakers with pliers and blowtorches. Isn't it reassuring to know that our Iran "intel" has all the earmarks of accuracy as the Confession of Agimet of Geneva? (And likely will be used for similar purposes?)
The adviser added, however, that the idea of using tactical nuclear weapons in such situations has gained support from the Defense Science Board, an advisory panel whose members are selected by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. “They’re telling the Pentagon that we can build the B61 with more blast and less radiation,” he said.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Without Further DeLay
Now let's hope the media keeps their glaring spotlight on his weaselly little ass for the next few months, as he tries to turn into a lobbyist himself. I mean, I have no problem with his supporters having just been duped out of their campaign donations (which will now magically transmogrify into his legal defense fees); what irks me is the thought of him slipping back through the revolving door next week or next year, just long enough to pull off one last enormous taxpayer trainheist before the feds bring him to ground.
