Friday, September 30, 2005

"MOTHRA'S DEATH CAR!!!!"

Oh Man!

I've heard the Bill Bennett remarks and they were incredibly stupid and quite racist...though mostly just incredibly ham-handed. Bennett has never shown much evidence that he understands much of anything outside of what Bill Bennett wants.


...Bill Bennett wants fudge!

...Bill Bennett wants beer!

...Bill Bennett wants you to use less teeth!

...Bill Bennett says hit me on "16"!


So I have to say that this headline from the AP is likely to catch him off guard...I'd bet on it.

Bennett: Black Abortions Would Lower Crime



Sorry about that third thing that Bill Bennett wants.

Friday Miscellaneous Lifeform Blogging

Proudly guarding the Heritage Foundation Military Analysts of TOMORROW!

I give you...



C'mon do I really need to tell you what this is?

Hey DSM-IV Enthusiasts


Point out your likely future diagnosis!


Watertiger had similar thoughts.

Lots of Luck there...

Poor, poor, repellent woman.


OK... [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
...so I just warmed even more to David Dreier for plugging Byron and his Earle piece on Fox just now. He's good.

By "good," of course, I just mean he makes mehappy. Right now.
Posted at 09:30 PM


K-Lo, even if you were not more repellent than Doro Bush (a notable accomplishment) I have a feeling your desires will, as usual, go unrequited.

Oh, and perhaps you would like to rephrase what Mr. Drier was doing to Byron York.

Genetic Engineering

Gregor Mendel we salute you!



plus



plus



_____________________

Results in

The Peeance is getting its ass kicked!

How much has the Bush Administration bragged about the growing number of troops they have trained in the Iraqi Army?

If I was not so used to their lying my jaw would drop at this...but it is still mind-numbingly depressing:

But the growing concern about the conflict was on full display on Capitol Hill, where the top brass faced tough questions on US progress in training Iraqis to defend themselves, considered a key measure in whether the United States will be able to begin reducing its own presence. Some of the fiercest criticism came from Republicans.

''It doesn't feel like progress," remarked Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine.

When Casey reported that one Iraqi battalion was prepared to operate without US support, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, shot back: ''It was three before. . . . Now we're down to one battalion?"

''Right," Casey said, ''and things change in the battalions. I mean, we're making assessments on personnel, on leadership, on training. . . . There are a lot of variables that are involved here, Senator."

Casey did not fully explain why the number of combat-ready units has declined despite continued training efforts.



Ugh!

Um, Andy...

Remember how much you praised Ah-nold?

Wow, wrong again!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday vetoed landmark legislation that would have made California the second state to allow same-sex couples to marry.


Andrew, even the "nice" Republicans are not going to help you.

How many of your puffed-up heroes have turned out to be exactly what Paul Krugman and Robert Fisk said they were?

I remember the good old days

When your typical androgynous man-woman was a benevolent creature



Unlike today...

"You gotta inspect your horn, boy..."

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Freeance and Peeance

Fuck, etc!




A string of car bombs exploded Thursday in the Iraqi city of Balad, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 70 others, a police official in Tikrit told CNN.

The bombs went off about 10 minutes apart in the center of the city, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north Baghdad. Two of the bombs went off in one location and the third in another.

A hospital official told The Associated Press that many of the wounded were seriously injured, with burns and mangled limbs.

Earlier, the U.S. Marines reported that five U.S. Army soldiers were killed Wednesday in Ramadi by a roadside bomb.



That's 1,933.

Logic takes a Holiday

Well, actually at "Moron Junction" it never has resided. I'm trying really hard to wrap the ol' logic train across this one:

THAT SUICIDE BOMBER [Kathryn]
The female one--the "blessed sister" as one al Qaeda website dubbed her. This is awful, but I keep half-expecting someone to be honestly grateful the suicide bombing profession does not discriminate. And the Left claims women were better off in Saddam's Iraq...Posted at 07:17 AM


To borrow an expression from Dear Leader...

I generally don't link to this kind of stuff

Because, as all of you know, I HAVE HIGH STANDARDS!

But it seems timely to allow us to see what Tom DeLay's Prison Bitch" name might be...or perhaps you'd prefer to see the name of the soon to be indicted Republican of your choice.

If the answer remains static, let's just say I think the name is appropriate!

Might I suggest "Soap Dropper" for Tom Delay?

Via cat fancier Kevin Drum comes a link to this, the George W. Bush "nickname" chart:

Nicknames granted by President George W. Bush. Many stupid, some insulting, some not even nicknames. I've added occasional comment.

Joe Allbaugh - Big Country
Fred Barnes - Barney
Max Baucus - Maxie
Tony Blair - Landslide
Barbara Boxer - Ali
Martha Brant - Martita
Michael D. Brown - Brownie
Frank Bruni - Pancho
George H.W. Bush - Poppy
George W. Bush - Dubya, Bushie (Foul: You cannot give yourself a nickname)
Laura Bush - Bushie (what? no "Lump"?)
Carl Cameron - Camarones
Andrew Card - Tangent Man
Paul Cellucci - Cellooch
Dick Cheney - Big Time
Jean Chrétien - Dino (as in Dinosaur)
Susan Collins - Sweet Susan
John Cornyn - Corndog
Candy Crowley - Dulce
Mitch Daniels - The Blade
Tom Davis - T.D.
John Dickerson - Dick
Maureen Dowd - Cobra
Dianne Feinstein - Frazier
Barney Frank - Sabretooth
Bill Frist - Fristy
Rich Galen - Richie
Alberto Gonzales - Fredo (That must be comforting)
David Gregory - Little Stretch
Stephen Hadley - Hads
Dennis Hastert - Speak
Pete Hoekstra - Pedro
Karen Hughes - High Prophet, The Enforcer, Hurricane Karen (what no "Snatchsquatch"?)
Tim Hutchinson - Hutch
David Jackson - Action Jackson
Lee Jackson - Action Jackson (Jeebus, he really likes Carl Weathers doesn't he?)
Ted Kennedy - Senator (Oh, the wit)
Pete King - Pedro
Mort Kondracke - Morton (Excuse me, I'm informing the nickname police)
Dennis Kucinich - Mayor
Dick Kyle - Stretch
Ken Lay - Kenny Boy
Larry Lindsey - Thunderbolt Lindsey
Mitch McConnell - Mitchie
Mark McKinnon - M-Cat
George Miller - El Grande Jorge
Ben Nelson - Nellie, Benny, Benator
Colin Powell - Balloonfoot
Vladimir Putin - Pootie-Poot
Condoleezza Rice - Guru
Karl Rove - Boy Genius, Turd Blossom
John Rowland - Johnny
Bill Sammon - Super Stretch
Olympia Snowe - The Big O (Ugh!)
John Sweeney - Congressman Kick-Ass
George Tenet Brother George
Tommy Thompson - Double T
Fred Upton - Freddo
Ann Veneman - Bullets
Paul Wellstone - Pablo
George Will - The Commissioner
Patricia Wilson - Outback Woman ("Bloomin' Moron?")
Robert Zoellick - The Adding Machine



Anyhoo, any other suggestions?

Rumors of Bobo

It is rumored that today, Bobo wrote the following:

Politics is a team sport. Nobody can get anything done alone. But in today's Washington, loyalty to the team displaces loyalty to the truth. Loyalty to the team explains why President Bush doesn't fire people who serve him poorly, and why, as a result, his policies are often not well executed.

Loyalty to the team is why I often leave meals with politicians thinking "reasonable in private," but then I see them ranting like cartoon characters on TV. Loyalty to the team is why someone like Chuck Hagel is despised in Republican ranks even though, whether you agree or not, he is courageously speaking his mind.



I'm guessing it is "loyalty to team" that keeps Bobo employed.

Wow, Karen Hughes is everywhere...


Now she's attending Red Sox games with Kathryn Lopez, oh wait that's not Jabba on the left is it.

My bad.

A Day with the Undersecretary of Antagonizing People

From the NY Times:


It was the second day in a row that Ms. Hughes found herself at odds with groups of women on her "public diplomacy" tour, aimed at improving the American image in the Middle East. On Tuesday, she told Saudi Arabian women she would support efforts to raise their status but was taken aback when some of them responded that Americans misunderstand their embrace of traditions.


From the Washington Post:

"To preserve the peace, sometimes my country believes war is necessary."




"Freedom Good!"


"War Good"


The natives respond accordingly.

Once again Karen Hughes is exaggerating about her Boss


Although undoubtedly certain aspects of Snatchsquatch's reenactment of events are disturbingly accurate.

Photo via AP, caption disturbingly all Attaturk.

Hey, where's my cane?





"Hurry up Gimpy"

And now a photographic techniques comparison...


Reuters uses the Cybill Shephard "Moonlighting" Mood filter

versus


AFP uses the more contrasty Cybill Shephard as "Martha Stewart" filter

versus


No-filter

It's 2:48 in the Morning...Where is the Post at Eschaton?

Lazy threadbot!

Minnesota becomes first US state to require biodiesel

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

More like Mr. Potter than ever


Dick getting ready to go all Preston Brooks on Lynn's saggy ass!

Thanks to Watertiger.

DeLay wins!!

Like there is a single one of you that doesn't already know.

No, No, for the love of God no!

I am not a fan of the original -- but this could not be a suckier idea if they actually ever tried.

I Apologize for all Iowans

I don't live in his district, but the slimy stench of association carries over. Representative Steve King, representing amongst other places, Sioux City, Iowa has had his brains replaced with offal at the stockyards.

From the San Francisco Chronicle

House Republicans rejected an effort Tuesday to name a post office in Berkeley after longtime Berkeley Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek after a conservative lawmaker questioned whether the 94-year-old activist represents American values...

...Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, has been trying for more than two years to name the city's main post office on Allston Way for Shirek, a civil rights leader and peace activist who served on the Berkeley City Council for 20 years.

But House Republicans have sought to block the effort, mostly through a whisper campaign about her reported past ties to communist leaders and left-wing causes. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, objected Tuesday to Lee's proposal and rallied Republicans to defeat the measure in an unusual roll call vote...

...Lee, in a statement after the vote, blasted King, saying his "campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives."

To which King responded: "I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy, she would realize that he was a hero for America."


Once again, I apologize on behalf of the Hawkeye State.

Hey, Remember me?

Cable News Head: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States"


"I'm George W. Bush.

I'm the guy who is the President when those, um, hurricanes hit.

Maybe that didn't go all that well, heh heh heh. But I don't pay attention to polls.

I'm a doer. Here in my administration we are doers by doin' things. And today, I am doin' more things than ever done been done before. And doin' stuff is hard work, heh heh heh.


Before I go off to the gulf coast and do more stuff, again, 'cause there is stuff to do and I'm a doer, I'd like to do something else.


I would like to remind you that 9/11 changed everything, and it made me do stuff. And some of the stuff I am doin' includes makin' progress in the war on terror. We've done did and done captured the second highest guy of al-Zarwarwar...al-Zarqwawer...abu-Zargraib...a Daquiri for the 27th time.


He can run, but he cannot hide.

I'm done doin'.

God bless 'Murica."


Cable News Head: "President Bush speaking from the White House, about, something."

Orchestration

From Pickles pre-fab appearance on "Extreme Makeover" (as opposed to her husband's coming appearance on "Extreme Hangover") via the AP:

Before Mrs. Bush entered the community center where the show was filming, a director shooed away both victims and volunteers from the doorway, instructing them how to react as her entourage entered.

"Act surprised!" he said above the din.



Want me to act surprised?

Have one of the Bush's manage to do something spontaneous and meaningful.

That would fuckin' kill me.

Extreme Makeover: Bush Edition


Laura Bush arrives on the set, as the crew converts this empty vacant plot of soil into a lovely blacktop parking lot.


Hermetically sealed for her protection.


"And if you look at that spot on the side you can see that Jenna was drinking a Blue Hawaiian the last time she wore this shirt...and apparently eating nachos."

Meanwhile in that other country

The one most all of us supported action against, the incompetency of the Bush Administration continues with little coverage.
Two main rivals of President Hamid Karzai and a reputed warlord reviled by rights activists are likely to win seats in Afghanistan's parliament, partial preliminary election results suggested Tuesday.

With 9.2 percent of ballots counted from Kabul province, Karzai's top challengers in last year's presidential election - Mohammed Mohaqeq and Yunus Qanooni - had the most votes, according to results posted on the Web site of the U.N.-Afghan election board.


Fan-damn-tastic. Once again job quality fit for C-plus Augustus.

"Heck of a Job"

Brownie, aka Drownie, nka Clownie put in quite a performance yesterday...even with Republicans pretty much being the only attendees:

Pointing his finger, pounding the table, Brown veered from his prepared testimony to insist: "I get it" and "I know what it's all about," and "I know what I am doing" and "I do a pretty darn good job." This display produced gasps and chuckles in the gallery.

Brown did nothing to win over his questioners. Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) had to repeat a question because Brown was reading his BlackBerry.


But eventually, after putting on a dog & (arabian) pony show, Brownie stumbled into inadvertently pointing the finger at Dear Leader & Gang:

Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) elicited the biggest confession. "One of my frustrations over the past three years has been the emaciation of FEMA," Brown told him. Speaking of dwindling funds and a "brain drain," Brown said he struggled just "to keep that place together" and asserted that he "predicted privately for several years that we were going to reach this point."

Uh-Oh, Brownie is even incompetent at protecting Bush's ass.

Finally, this parting shot from Republican Christopher Shays:

"I have come to the conclusion that this administration values loyalty more than anything else," Shays said, "more than competence or, frankly, more than the truth. And you have reinforced that view. . . . I'm left with the feeling [that] the administration feels they have to protect you."


Gee, Congressman, you think?

See below.

Think Progress exposes more of Brownie's lyin' incompetent ass.

Who will win the race?

In the race to be indicted, it is possible that DeLay will edge out Rove and Frist will merely show.

How Fascism Works

Is how this Administration works as well.

When ever someone comes forward that makes them look bad by using...you know...facts, they don't try to correct things, they don't try to find the truth, they don't try to help the country.

No, they try to cover their asses by attacking the bearer of the bad news as a traitor or a lowlife.

The "respect the troops" -- as long as the troops stand at attention for Dear Leader.

This is disgusting and oh so predictable from the Bushies:

An Army captain who reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq said Tuesday that Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses...

...Captain Fishback, speaking publicly on the matter for first time, said the investigators who have questioned him in the past 10 days seemed to be less interested in individuals he identified in his chain of command who allegedly committed the abuses.

"I'm convinced this is going in a direction that's not consistent with why we came forward," Captain Fishback said in a telephone interview from Fort Bragg, N.C., where he is going through Army Special Forces training. "We came forward because of the larger issue that prisoner abuse is systemic in the Army. I'm concerned this will take a new twist, and they'll try to scapegoat some of the younger soldiers. This is a leadership problem."


No shit.

This is exactly what they did with Abu Ghraib.

Meanwhile, the "war porn" recently spoken about on the progressive blogosphere will lead to no prosecution whatsoever.

Looters

As right-wingers bloviate about which ever lie they can spin at the moment, the real looting takes place in Washington -- from the usual suspects.

And this time its not the "boogeyman" nor the stereotype -- nope, its straight graft and theft:
As fiscal hawks surrendered, would-be government contractors were meeting in the Hart Senate Office Building to figure out how to get a share of the money. A "Katrina Reconstruction Summit," hosted by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and sponsored by Halliburton, among others, brought some 200 lobbyists, corporate representatives and government staffers to a room overlooking the Capitol for a five-hour conference that included time for a "networking break" and advice on "opportunities for private sector involvement."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) sent his budget director, Bill Hoagland, who cautioned that federal Katrina spending might not exceed $100 billion. But John Clerici, from a law firm that helped sponsor the event, told the group that spending would "probably be larger" than $200 billion. "It's going to be spent in a fast and furious way," Clerici said.

Sipping coffee from china cups and munching on doughnuts, the corporate crowd heard Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, predict: "I think we'll see Mardi Gras in New Orleans to some extent this year."

Small Business Administration official Herbert L. Mitchell told them to think of the SBA as "really the federal government's disaster bank." Mitchell said his payroll has gone from 800 to 2,300 since the storm and he is adding 200 people a day as he tries to increase maximum payments to small businesses.


No real budget cuts and certainly no tax increases, and I'm betting a majority of this money goes to corporate friends of the GOP who will find a way to funnel some of this money back to the Party that is bankrupting the nation.

Is the Federal Government covered by the new Bankruptcy Law?

So we got "Goldstein's" No. 2 -- Surely we are making progress?

Sadly, No.

Blogenlust notes the frequency of the declaration of "top aide".

Like all things in the "War on Terror" and those alleged to be high ranking members of various groups, these terrorist organizations are run similarly to a McDonalds as most everyone is a "Manager" of something.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

What keeps a Preznit's Codpiece Fully Loaded?


Why some real "War" porn!

Jeff Gannon (nee Guckert) at the Sunday Pro-War rally attended by 400 people. On Saturday 150,000+ attended the anti-war rally and march. Gannon is the former prostitute who was uncovered as a fraud in the White House press pool.

Organizers of the Pro-war rally expected up to 20,000, leaving them approximately 19,600 short oF their original estimate.



Original photo and story caption by Joe Tretsh.

You cannot make this shit up...


For thee:

"People just need to recognize that the storms have caused a disruption and that if they're able to maybe not drive ... on a trip that's not essential, that would be helpful," Bush said.



For me:

President Bush urged Americans on Monday to cut back on unnecessary travel to make up for fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Rita as he prepared to take his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast.


Yes, that second one is from Nedra Pickler.

Oh, how the worm done turned.

Yesterday in First Amendment Repression Porn

A Bush Administration Tradition...


(Reuters)


Many people try to strike seductive poses.


Karen Hughes prefers a look she calls, "the Duce"

Compare & Contrast

The Freeps throw a little pro-war rally hoping for 20,000 and get about 400 total -- maybe.

Meanwhile, war opponents can easily get about that many to agree to engage in peaceful civil disobedience that will lead to their arrest.

Meanwhile, at Petticoat Moron Junction (with Jonah Sue, K-Jo and Uncle Derb who's movin' kind of Slow) comes this font of wisdom:

CINDY [Jim Robbins]
I'm getting email from angry leftists who don't seem to understand that Cindy Sheehan wanted to be arrested, that it was all planned out in advance, and that we will shortly be hearing a series of self-righteous statement from the courthouse steps. This is all so old and tiresome. Can't they come up with something original? BORING!
Posted at 05:08 PM


As opposed to sucking up to Dear Leader which is simply jingoism classic!

Your Right-Wing think tank money at work...

The intersection of Banality Street & Bonehead Avenue continues on with the march of folly:

GOP TRASH PLATFORM [John J. Miller]
In praising the way Houston has prepared for storms (compared to New Orleans), WSJ contributor Joel Kotkin approvingly passes on New York's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's famous quip (often repeated by Rudy Giuliani): "There is no Republican or Democratic way to clean streets."

But actually, there is. Democrats insist on hiring unionized city employees, giving them lifetime employment, lavish retirement packages, and lots of coffee breaks; Republicans prefer competitive bidding open to everyone.
Posted at 06:23 AM



TELL IT TO HALLIBURTON dumbass!

The Civil War will barely be televised

At least in this country. But Iraq is proving just how well we've managed to make things better without Saddam.

Behind the blood and chaos of the insurgents' bombs, there is an undeclared civil war already underway in Iraq, between the Sunni minority who ruled this country under Saddam and the Shiite majority.

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan reports there is a secret, ruthless cleansing of the country's towns and cities. Bodies — blindfolded, bound and executed — just appear, like the rotting corpses of 36 Sunni men that turned up in a dry riverbed south of Baghdad.

CBS News traced 16 of those men to a single street in a Baghdad suburb, where family members showed CBS News how the killers forced their way into their homes in the middle of the night and dragged away their sons and fathers.

"My uncles were tortured, they even poured acid on them," a young boy told CBS News.

Clutching photographs of the murdered men, the women and children left behind came together to grieve.

One woman said as her husband was marched away she sent her son after him with his slippers, but his abductor sent the child back with a chilling message: No need for slippers — he will come back dead.


Freeance & Peeance.

"Look sincere...like me"

Meanwhile in the world of tiresome photo-ops substituting for actual policy. Laura Bush get's her weirdass pinky* into another one.

Facing criticism that he appeared disengaged from the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush has been looking for opportunities to show his concern. But the White House will take the effort a step further Tuesday, venturing into untested waters by putting the nation's first lady on reality television.

Laura Bush will travel to storm-damaged Biloxi, Miss., to film a spot on the feel-good, wish-granting hit "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Mrs. Bush sought to be on the program because she shares the "same principles" that the producers hold, her press secretary said.


Shares the same principles of "Extreme Makeover"? Does she not know they don't use botox in home renovation?

Last night, Laura was out on the town in EXTREME PANTYLINES:PANTSUIT EDITION




*Copyright here

Brownie earns his money (and his nickname) investigating himself


"My medal of Freedom is up there somewhere"

Uh-Oh!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Little fucking progress

Society doesn't fall into anarchy nearly as quickly as it falls into stereotyping.

That the nation's frontline emergency-management officials believed the body count would resemble that of a bloody battle in a war is but one of scores of examples of myths about the Dome and the Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the news media and even some of the city's top officials, including the mayor and police superintendent.

The vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees — mass murders, rapes and beatings — have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law-enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

"I think 99 percent of it is (expletive)," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong — bad things happened. But I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything ... 99 percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved."

Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said authorities have only confirmed four murders in the entire city in the aftermath of Katrina — making it a typical week in a city that anticipated more than 200 homicides this year.


Little attention will be paid to this by right-wingers who were all too quick to jump on bad stories about the poor, and especially the black.

Every widespread biblical disaster in the South (and the bible belt ironically seems to have more of these than other areas) seems to lead to some sort of scapegoating or singling out of African-Americans as behaving like "savages" -- and it always turns out to be bullshit.

In the aftermath of the Galveston Hurricane blacks were falsely accused of looting and pillaging and pressed into gangs to dispose of bodies, many were shot on sight.

During the 1927 flood in South, this happened again.

And now, once again, in New Orleans, the right-wing jumps on this canard.

Not only is the Federal Government under Republicans remarkably tone-deaf (AT BEST) in providing huminarian relief, their conservative supporters are more than delighted to play on the most craven and false of stereotypes.

I have no doubt this marginalization was encouraged by Rove, no doubt at all.

Evolve TV -- Great Idea

Starting first with Kos & Juan Cole.

But you know eventually it will just "evolve" into a "reality show" about Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein scopin' out the ladies and trying to impress them through various feats of strength.

Propoganda Iconography

Like all things Bush Administration inspired was a cruel fucking joke.

Pat Tillman was made into Horst Wessel by these clowns.

He was much more than that, including a vociferous critic of Bush and his Iraqi policies.
Yet other Tillman family members are less reluctant to show Tillman’s unique character, which was more complex than the public image of a gung-ho patriotic warrior. He started keeping a journal at 16 and continued the practice on the battlefield, writing in it regularly. (His journal was lost immediately after his death.) Mary Tillman said a friend of Pat’s even arranged a private meeting with Chomsky, the antiwar author, to take place after his return from Afghanistan — a meeting prevented by his death. She said that although he supported the Afghan war, believing it justified by the Sept. 11 attacks, “Pat was very critical of the whole Iraq war.”

Baer, who served with Tillman for more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, told one anecdote that took place during the March 2003 invasion as the Rangers moved up through southern Iraq.

“I can see it like a movie screen,” Baer said. “We were outside of (a city in southern Iraq) watching as bombs were dropping on the town. We were at an old air base, me, Kevin and Pat, we weren’t in the fight right then. We were talking. And Pat said, ‘You know, this war is so f— illegal.’ And we all said, ‘Yeah.’ That’s who he was. He totally was against Bush.”

Another soldier in the platoon, who asked not to be identified, said Pat urged him to vote for Bush’s Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, Sen. John Kerry.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White — a Navy SEAL who served with Pat and Kevin for four months in Iraq and was the only military member to speak at Tillman’s memorial — said Pat “wasn’t very fired up about being in Iraq” and instead wanted to go fight al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He said both Pat and Kevin (who has a degree in philosophy) “were amazingly well-read individuals … very firm in some of their beliefs, their political and religious or not so religious beliefs.”

Baer recalled that Tillman encouraged him in his ambitions as an amateur poet. “I would read him my poems, and we would talk about them,” Baer said. “He helped me grow as an individual.”

Tillman subscribed to the Economist magazine, and a fellow soldier said Tillman created a makeshift base library of classic novels so his platoon mates would have literature to read in their down time. He even brought gourmet coffee to brew for his platoon in the field in Afghanistan.

Baer said Tillman was popular among his fellow soldiers and had no enemies. “The guys who killed Pat were his biggest fans,” he said. “They were really wrecked afterward.” He called Tillman “this amazing positive force who really brought our whole platoon together.

He had this great energy. Everybody loved him.” His former comrades and family recall Tillman as a born leader yet remarkably humble. White, the Navy SEAL, recalls one day when “some 19-year-old Ranger came and ordered him to cut an acre of grass.

And Pat just did it, he cut that grass, he didn’t complain. He could have taken millions of dollars playing football, but instead he was just taking orders like that.”

Mary Tillman says that’s how Pat would have wanted to be remembered, as an individual, not as a stock figure or political prop. But she also believes “Pat was a real hero, not what they used him as.”


He was more than a cardboard, cookie-cutter hero.

Most all of them are -- and like Tillman they are misused in death as they were misused in life.

Cranky Baby

President Petulant strikes again.

Those photos we posted didn't lie. From Newsweek (and the generally excreble insider elitist prick Evan Thomas):

The president didn't look all that relieved or happy, however. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep (he had been awakened all through the night with bulletins), and he seemed cranky and fidgety. A group of reporters and photographers had been summoned by White House handlers to capture a photo op of the commander in chief at his post. Bush stared at them balefully. He rocked back and forth in his chair, furiously at times, asked no questions and took no notes. It almost seemed as though he resented having to strike a pose for the press.


Once again the man is pissed at having to act like he gives a damn.

Oh, the Irony

That a clear demonstration of the predictability of evolution would emerge to show "Intelligent Design" as the mumbo-jumbo, hocus pocus shit it truly is.

And the test subject is particularly apt, considering IDs most famous clueless adherent.

Analysis of Chimp DNA Supports Evolutionary Theory

Oh, be still my guffawing heart

It is to laugh.

Saturday 150,000 to 250,000 proud Americans (and yes, ANSWER) showed up to protest the War in Iraq.


But the right-wing was quite sure they'd get literally thousands to respond on Sunday, 20 thousand in fact.

They got 400.

Here's the veritable throng:


If each pitched in $1.50 they would have donated the exact sum that Bush's special "Rebuild Iraq" charity has raised.

I should add though that Ken Blackwell announced the total as 400,000. That may explain Ohio.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Oh, by the way

I guess I have not mentioned this, but Athenae from First Draft has put together a fine book on the lies and machinations of Doug Feith, aka "the dumbest fucking guy on the planet".


(Order by clicking on that ugly mug)


I received a free copy -- the only swag Attaturk has gotten as a blogger.

It is a compilation of a variety of excellent bloggers and others on all things Feith.

Somehow, I was included. I guess they were four pages short or something.

How did Dr. Shock go to Dr. Love?


Bono loves him some former??? right-wing economics

For the story of how Jeffrey Sachs became the poster child of the antipoverty movement and rocker Bono's buddy and others in who are in the good fight against povery, take a look.

Oh, cool!!!

Here is some potentially good news. I've been a big ol' supporter of this. Nice to see some movement on the idea.

The race is on to build the first "space elevator' - long dismissed as science fiction - to carry people and materials into orbit along a cable thousands of miles long.

In a significant step, American aviation regulators have just given permission for the opening trials of a prototype, while a competition to be launched next month follows in the wake of the $10 million (£5.6 million) "X Prize'', which led to the first privately developed craft leaving the Earth's atmosphere, briefly, last year.

The Pope takes some time out from purging gay priests...


To spend some quality time with "Homoerotic Jesus".

Voting with their Pocketbook

Republicans always like to talk about their fiscal plan as essentially "letting people have more of the government's money so they can spend it as they see fit".

Now Bush is using $200 Billion plus of "the people's money" (and it will go up toward $300 Billion soon) to invade, blow up, kill, maim, and give lovely slogans to the people of Iraq.

And then, when tax dollars are not enough he asked for more. And the people have responded:

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.


Perhaps a good stiff drink or 30 will help him recover from that pimp-slap.

"Fuck a Puc"

Well, time to roast the Bush Administration on its own pitard again. Hopefully, we finally start seeing results. Time Magazine will corrobrate the Human Rights Watch report on prisoner abuse within the 82nd Airborne and show just how widespread the practice was beyond Abu Ghraib.

The Bush policy of avoiding coverage under the Geneva Convention filtered all the way down:

The Human Rights Watch report describes the Captain, in particular, as deeply frustrated by his attempts to report the abuse to his own superiors, who repeatedly instructed him to keep quiet, to ignore what he'd seen and to consider the implications for his career. The Captain told Human Rights Watch and Senate staff that he had contacted legislators reluctantly, believing it was the only way he could get the army to take him seriously. He also said that "I knew something was wrong" as he watched Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on television in 2004 testifying before a Congressional committee that the U.S. was following the Geneva Convention to the letter in Iraq. The Monday morning after Rumsfeld's testimony, he told Human Rights Watch, "I approached my chain of command." Eventually, the captain says, he approached his company commander, battalion commander and representatives of the Judge Advocate Corps (the military justice system), trying in vain to get clarification of rules on prisoner treatment and the application of the Geneva Convention. At one point, the Captain asserts, his Company commander told him, in effect, "Remember the honor of the unit is at stake," and, "Don't expect me to go to bat for you on this issue ..."

The Captain also says he was told there were pictures of abuse that occurred at Camp Mercury similar to photos taken by Military Police at Abu Ghraib prison. It is not clear whether the Captain saw the pictures, but he has said, sources tell TIME, that the photos were so similar to what was depicted at Abu Ghraib that, when the scandal erupted, soldiers burned them out of fear that they too could be punished. The Captain has also told Senate staff that many of the actions he witnessed did not, at the time, violate his personal code of conduct. He was also under the impression that the conduct was in line with military policy. It was only later, Congressional sources tell TIME, that he became aware of what he regarded as a blatant contradiction in official U.S. policy. As the captain puts it, according to the report: "I witnessed violations of the Geneva Conventions that I knew were violations of the Geneva Conventions when they happened but I was under the impression that that was U.S. policy at the time. And as soon as Abu Ghraib broke and they had hearings in front of Congress, the Secretary of Defense testified that we followed the spirit of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan, and the letter of the Geneva Conventions in Iraq, and as soon as he said that I knew something was wrong. So I called some of my classmates [from West Point], confirmed what I was concerned about and then on that Monday morning I approached my chain of command ..."


Once again.

Chimpeachment?

Fascism on the March

Many conservatives dislike the tone of Robert Fisk.

In fact, Sully, in the past, made it one of his life's missions to mock and abuse Fisk because the latter took such pains to point out the shortcomings of American foreign and military policy. This bookends in success with Sullivan's other accomplishment, supporting politicians whose strongest supporters view people like Andrew Sullivan as untermenschen.

I notice, however, that now that many of Fisk's assertions of the ineffectiveness of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy have been shown to be ... shall we say prescient then Sully's that I haven't read too many "Fiskings" at this site lately?

But that won't stop the Bush Administration, who get mad and ham-handed:


U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver. Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night.

According to Christie Mazuera Davis, a Lannan program officer, Fisk was told that his papers were not in order.


I'm betting the defect in his "papers" was his name.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Peerless

We run a fairly decent little blog here I guess.

But there are days as a blogger when you look at another's work and just say...WOW! they're really good, unbelievably good, I could never be that good. I shouldn't be allowed to read them for free.

As a guy who has been blogging for a year and a half now, Billmon's stuff today is about the best I've ever read, in no small part because it sums up my feelings so much better than I have or probably can.

It is just stunningly good, please do yourself a favor and read his stuff for today.

Has everyone seen this?

If not... you should.

I can't afford the price of gasoline...

Continuing his marvelous performance from Yesterday...

Apparently having told to stick his photo op "where the sun don't shine", Dear Leader went to Colorado to suffer boredom as people suffered.

Always the look is, "I know you bastards are in trouble, I'll do better this time...whatevah!"


Bored!


Bored!


Bored!


Bored!


"Okay, that's enough, turn on SportsCenter"

And to think, it could be worse

Worse than our current occupant in the White House. You know it is nice to see the GOP fracturing at the (de)base, but it also makes you realize that as lazy and petulant as he is, there are many in that party that are even worse. Moron Junction posted this email with some approval:

SELLOUTS [Jonah Goldberg]

Oh the mood is ugly. This is from a reader working at a major Big Government cabinet agency (I don't want to out him, but think Department of Labor, but worse):

I can totally sympathize. DeLay's comment that there was nothing in the federal budget to cut was demoralizing. Bush accepting the "discrimination causes poverty" argument was pretty bad, too. And if I hear another "Syria isn't being helpful" whine from the administration, I'm going to explode. What the hell are stealth bombers for? It's hard enough being a black Republican in D.C. without having to defend these sellouts.


Posted at 03:16 PM


Holy shit, what the hell would this moron be doing if he had more power than he does and wasn't some middling political hack in labor?

No doubt this walking asshat was leading the fight against Davis-Bacon.

Jeebus, what a scary bunch of people.

"We're British we know how to do these things..."

Remember that criticism of the United States when the insurgency first flared up from the British?

Well, at this point, I think EVEN we have managed to avoid this scenario (though I emphasize "to this point"):

An Iraqi judge said on Saturday he had renewed arrest warrants for two British soldiers who were rescued from jail early this week by troops using armor to crash through the prison walls.

The British government said the warrants are not legally binding, as the soldiers are subject to UK law.

This week's violence in Basra infuriated local Iraqi police and government officials, and tensions remained high in the city on Saturday.


Sunnis pissed, now the Shiites pissed.

Civil War, closer every day.

Lov-a-lee

Fish rots from the head:

Soldiers in the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division vented their frustration by systematically torturing Iraqi detainees from 2003 into 2004, hitting them with baseball bats and dousing them with chemicals, a U.S. rights group alleges in a new report.

The Human Rights Watch report, issued Friday, was compiled from interviews with a captain and two sergeants who served in a battalion of the 82nd Airborne that was stationed at a military base called Mercury near Fallujah, the insurgent stronghold retaken by U.S. forces last year.

The soldiers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the abuse took place almost daily and often came under orders. Anything short of causing an inmate's death was allowed, they said.

The residents of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, nicknamed soldiers at the nearby base "the Murderous Maniacs," New York-based Human Rights Watch said. "The soldiers considered this name a badge of honor."

It said soldiers in the elite 82nd Airborne deprived detainees of sleep, food and water, subjected them to extreme heat and cold, stacked prisoners in human pyramids, kicked them in the face, and put chemicals on exposed skin and eyes.

One of the sergeants allegedly told the group that military intelligence personnel, eager for information, often instructed soldiers to "smoke" detainees — called Persons Under Control or PUCs — during questioning, the report said. "Smoking" prisoners meant physically abusing them until they lost consciousness.

But the motive was not always to gain intelligence, one sergeant was quoted as saying.

"Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC tent. In a way it was sport," he reportedly said.

"One day (another sergeant) shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy's leg with a mini-Louisville Slugger, a metal bat."

The soldier said anything short of death was acceptable.

"As long as no PUCs came up dead, it happened," he said. "We kept it to broken arms and legs."

The timing of some of the alleged tortures coincided with the prisoner abuse by American forces at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad in fall of 2003.

"These soldiers' firsthand accounts provide further evidence contradicting claims that abuse of detainees by U.S. forces was isolated or spontaneous," the report said. "The accounts here suggest that the mistreatment of prisoners by the U.S. military is even more widespread than has been acknowledged to date, including among troops belonging to some of the best trained, most decorated, and highly respected units in the U.S. Army."


If the Bush Administration (via Abu Gonzales to his boss's undoubtedly vengeful consent) hadn't encouraged this conduct, its determination to cover it up makes them as complicit as the soldiers who did it. They've bent over backwards to claim the abuse at Abu Ghraib was isolated, it clearly was not.

It is a shame on all Americans -- made worse by the nations ratification (if not many of us specifically) in reelecting them (or electing for the first time depending on your point of view).

In any case, this is fucking unacceptable.

What would Jesus do?

He'd be fucking ashamed to be associated with these people, the whole lot of them for one.

UPDATE:

Perusing the Blogs, Digby is on this story too and makes a very good point. Let's hear no more about the "savagery" of New Orleans in its chaos. This was "disciplined" American soldiers allowed to take out their frustrations on the "swarthies" and I'm betting the freeps so quick to pounce on rumors of New Orleans are getting themselves a small chubby (do they have any other kind?) over this bit of barbarism while humming, "Proud to be an American".

Despair

I live too far away from Washington, D.C. and I'm quite busy with business matters in any case, along with other stuff.

Nonetheless, I wish I could be there to take part and have the efforts of so many thousands "marginalized" as loons.

But think for a moment, who is crazier, those hundred thousand plus, or the world of the freeper who positively "get off" on what Billmon writes about today?

Friday, September 23, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen

The JUDAS Taylor Dancers!



Thanks to reader W. Shaman.