Is Our Children Learning?

President Bush finally answers his own burning question, "Is our children learning?"




"Childrens do learn," he said Wednesday.

How We Treat Our Tyrants Says a lot About Us

With the arrival of Iran's President Ahmadinejad in NYC this week, and all the hand-wringing about how we should (or should not) have treated him, I thought back to the last time "the most dangerous man in the world" came to the United Nations. Consider for a moment how we treated Nikita Khruschev when he touched down on American soil:




From Time magazine... Nikita Khrushchev disembarked from his plane at Andrews Air Force Base to a 21-gun salute and a receiving line of 63 officials and bureaucrats, ending with President Eisenhower. He rode 13 miles with Ike in an open limousine to his guest quarters across from the White House. Then he met for two hours with Ike and his foreign policy team. Then came a white-tie state dinner. (The Soviets then put one on at the embassy for Ike.) He joshed with the CIA chief about pooling their intelligence data, since it probably all came from the same people—then was ushered upstairs to the East Wing for a leisurely gander at the Eisenhower family quarters. Visited the Agriculture Department's 12,000 acre research station ("If you didn't give a turkey a passport you couldn't tell the difference between a Communist and capitalist turkey"), spoke to the National Press Club, toured Manhattan, San Francisco (where he debated Walter Reuther on Stalin's crimes before a retinue of AFL-CIO leaders, or in K's words, "capitalist lackeys"), and Los Angeles (there he supped at the 20th Century Fox commissary, visited the set of the Frank Sinatra picture Can Can but to his great disappointment did not get to visit Disneyland), and sat down one more with the president, at Camp David.
Mrs. K did the ladies-who-lunch circuit, with Pat Nixon as guide. Eleanor Roosevelt toured them through Hyde Park. It's not like it was all hearts and flowers. He bellowed that America, as Time magazine reported, "must close down its worldwide deterrent bases and disarm." Reporters asked him what he'd been doing during Stalin's blood purges, and the 1956 invasion of Hungary. A banquet of 27 industrialists tried to impress upon him the merits of capitalism. Nelson Rockefeller rapped with him about the Bible.

Messed Up America

--Fifty years ago this week, the Little Rock Nine desegregated the high
school in Little Rock, Arkansas. News footage replayed this week included a
clip of a school-aged white girl in cat-eye glasses hissing unforgettably
at a reporter, "Niggers should stay in their own schools!"




--There is a tree at the high school in Jena, Alabama, that social norms have
decided black kids are not allowed to sit under. I'm talking about today,
in 2007. When the black kids decided to sit under the tree anyway, the
white kids responded by hanging several hangman's nooses from the tree's
limbs. An altercation ensued and in the aftermath six blacks were charged
with attempted murder. In the first trial, an all-white jury convicted a 16-year-old. He faces 22 years in prison. His alleged [attempted] murder weapon? A tennis shoe.



--Bill O'Reilly went to a black-owned restaurant in Harlem recently and said
he "couldn't get over the fact" there was no difference between the
black-run restaurant and any other eatery in NYC. "There wasn't any
craziness at all," he said. "No one said, Hey MF-er, bring me some iced
tea."



--A new study has found that black male job applicants with clean records are no more likely to get hired than white ex-convicts recently released from prison. The stats only get worse from there.



Somewhere in the midst of all these stories lies one truly messed up
America. How far have we come over the past 50 years? Really.

Control the Message

Every once on a while it helps to be reminded that we live in a theocracy, and a particularly mean-spirited and controlling one at that. From teaching evolution to saving peoples' lives through stem-cell research, from offering over-the-counter birth control at the local pharmacy to TXT messaging your pro-choice compatriots on your cell phone, the religious kooks in this country, the American Taliban, as it were, have their jack-booted feet stomped firmly on your Bill-of-Rights-loving neck.




Now get in line and keep quiet.

We are the Rube

“If you can’t spot the rube in a poker game, then the rube is you.”

So much of what has been written and reported to us in the United States about Iraq has been pure fabrication, myth, and PR. The picture [Patrick] Graham’s work (“Beyond Fallujah: A Year With the Iraqi Resistance” and “How George Bush Became the New Saddam”) paints of Iraq is of a situation much, much more complex than the “Sgt. Rock” comic book scenario that has been spun by the White House, the Pentagon, and their enablers in the US media. In Iraq, multiple factions are working together, then against each other, then together again, all trying to game the system and stay alive at the same time. ...US forces, both military and political, are walking a dangerous tightrope whereby they are now cozying up to our old enemies the Saddam loyalists in an effort to fight a beast of our own creation, al-Queda in Iraq.

From Firedoglake

Dylan, Maggie's Farm

[That's Mike Bloomfield gettin' all kinds of fuzzy wid it on lead guitar. This clip is from the Newport '65 show, which I believe is the one where Dylan showed up with an electric guitar and alienated about 85% of his audience.]

Rudy's Latest Fund-Raising Idea

Never one to let politics interfere with a good fundraising idea, erm..., strike that.

Never one to let good taste interfere with a good fund-raising idea, the Rudy Giuliani people are hosting a party in which contributors are being asked to donate $9.11.




Get it?

I Don't Support the Terrorists...

...but I find it exceedingly odd when my president and the president of Iran both make speeches before the United Nations and it's the one from Iran whose comments seem more reality-based.

Take the Quiz

Here's a handy-dandy quiz that will help you determine which presidential candidate best represents your views. None to my surprise, I came out in Kucinich country.

Shuster Skewers GOP Congresswoman

Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) went on MSNBC yesterday to criticize the Democrats for the MoveoOn.org ad that called General Petraeus "General Betray-us." David Shuster put the talking-points-spouting-hypoctrite in her place right quick with this exchange:

Shuster: "Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last solider from your district who was killed in Iraq?"




Blackburn:"The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh - from my district I - I do not know his name -"



Shuster: "Ok, his name was Jeremy Bohannon, he was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?"



Blackburn: "I - I, you know, I - I do not know why I did not know the name..." [Snip]



Shuster: "But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and Move On.org." [Snip]



Shuster: "But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon from your district, and you didn’t even know his name."

Ooooooooooh, SNAP!!! I'll bet she's never going on that guy's show again. It's nice to see someone's feet actually held to the fire once in a while.

Pool Boys Know All

Are you a decent human being? Only your pool boy knows for sure:

Pool boys are supposed to conduct torrid affairs with lonely pool owners. James Razsa has passionate feelings about his client, but not the kind likely to turn romantic.



Razsa cleans former President George H.W. Bush's pool, in Kennebunkport, Maine.



An enduring American figure, the pool boy has long stood for one lowly half of the nation's class gulf. When the pool owner happens to have been the most powerful man on the planet, and the pool boy happens to be one of the planet's great despisers of power, the metaphor explodes into 1,000 points of light.



"If every American had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands," is how he sees things.

[...]

Granted, the stakes are high at that level. Razsa recalls one day when former first lady Barbara Bush was on her way over, and it looked like there wouldn't be time to bring the pool's temperature up to her desired 82 degrees in time. The family's caretaker was in a panic, he says.



"He kept shouting, 'Barbara will go crazy! Barbara will go crazy!'" Razsa recalls. "This is the same woman who after Hurricane Katrina said (of the Houston Astrodome refugees), 'You know, they're underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them.'"

[...]

For Razsa, his job -- the only one he could find -- put him directly in touch with the very sort of power he holds partly responsible for his, and other people's, hard times.



"I look at the biggest middle finger in the world all day," is his more succinct explanation.



I ask Razsa if he has a monologue loaded up, in the event that his next encounter was at closer range. To my surprise, the idea doesn't appeal.



"What do you say? 'Thanks for School of the Americas [ed. I particularly like that snarky comment], and Iran-Contra, and NAFTA, and shipping all those jobs overseas, and arming Saddam, and funding the Taliban?' What do you say -- 'You're a jerk?' [ed. ibid]. There's nothing that can be put into a sentence that would capture the lives these people have taken, and the way of life that's been taken."

I'm Back Like D-Mac

Apologies for the down time, I've been on the road, tendin' to business.




We can get back into the swing of things with this observation:


Who could have ever predicted that Text, or TXT, as a verb, would slip so seamlessly into regular English usage? I actually heard the following on a national newscast: "He 'texted' a reply to the question." Now, I'm not even sure exactly how to spell "texted," though I know on my phone I usually spell it TXT'd. Either way, I know the grammar police are going to have a tough time with this one.

Band of Five Brothers

Mitt Romney's sons are making the ultimate a sacrifice.

Rathergate

Lost in all the hullabaloo surrounding Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS is the fact that the substantive allegations he made in the story still stand. It is generally accepted as fact, and could likely still be proven to an acceptable journalistic standard, that George W. Bush is/was a scheming Vietnam war dodger. Not that thousands of other children of privilege didn't also use their connections to duck out of 'Nam, but only one of them went on to become a war-mongering president of the United States who commissioned the deaths of nearly 3800 American soldiers (and counting).

But for one shoddy and [allegedly] forged document, Rather's story might have blown Dubya right out of the water. Instead, the truth about his time in the Texas Air National Guard is radioactive and likely buried in the dustbin of history. Meanwhile, the yellowcake/Niger forgery -- which was used to sell the American people on the Iraq War -- remains largely unexplored and unrevealed to the average American.




Tell me, which is the larger transgression?

Bush: All Hat, No Cattle

President of Mexico dismisses Dubya as a chicken-hearted cowboy poseur. He is after all, deep down, a Connecticutt yankee.

President Bush may like to be seen as a swaggering tough guy with a penchant for manly outdoor pursuits, but in a new book one of his closest allies has said he is afraid of horses.



Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a "windshield cowboy" – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".



He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a "big palomino" horse.



Mr Fox, who left office in December, recalled Mr Bush "backing away" from the animal.



''A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," he said, according to the Washington Post.



Mr Bush has spoken of his fondness for shooting doves and cutting brush on his Crawford ranch in Texas, which he bought in 1999.



The property reportedly has no horses and only five cattle.

Whoops! Mark Another F.U. off the Calendar

Stall tactics, circa early 2007.

Dude, Where's My Troop Withdrawal?


TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq, Jan. 19 — Gen. George Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, said today that the additional troops being sent to Iraq could begin to be withdrawn by late summer if security conditions improve in Baghdad.




“I believe the projections are late summer,” General Casey said, adding, “I think it’s probably going to be late summer before you get to the point where people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods.”

Read the sad litany of FUs (Friedman Units) here.




Meanwhile, troop fatalities are fast apporaching 3800.

Ooh La La

The late, great Ronnie Lane.
One of my all-time favorites.




I wish that I knew what I know now,

When I was younger.

They Write Letters

These people live among us. From the San Luis Obispo Tribune, September 20, 2007:

Love it or leave it


I’m responding to Frank Wilkins’ letter on Sept. 12 that said, “Bush exploited America’s fear by pushing his bogus case of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.”




How soon we forget, Mr. Wilkins, the whole world agreed that Saddam Hussein had them. And now, because we decide to stand up and confront evil, you say we’re the enemy.




Now we’ve lost respect because of Abu Ghraib. Prisoners were stripped naked and walked on dog leashes. That was heinous? I’ll tell you what’s heinous, Mr. Wilkins. Heinous is American soldiers burned and hung from bridges and people on video being beheaded. Now you tell me, who’s the barbaric ones?




I’m tired of hearing about how America is to blame for the woes of the whole world. It’s time Americans woke up and realized just what we’re up against, like it or not. And the best part of being American is that if you don’t like it, you’re free to leave.




Sherry Crowe


Nipomo

Priorities

U.S. Senators are more pissed about a newspaper ad than they are about 15 month troop deployments in Iraq.

"The Senate voted overwhelmingly [today] to condemn the MoveOn ad that appeared in the NYT last week. Final tally was 72-25. Hillary Clinton was among those voting against the resolution. [Barack Obama was absent from the vote.]"

The tally yesterday on the Webb amendment was 56-44 in favor.




Our leaders are seriously deranged.

The Idiot Son

You don't need to watch this whole Youtube clip to witness the profound buffoonery of George W. Bush, because at 6:16 on the video counter, right near the beginning really, your president proves his complete and total idiocy with this comment:

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

One can only assume he means Nelson Mandela.


That may be the best Bush quote ever. The rest is just gravy.

Cowards Assault Father of Dead Iraq War Soldier

If this story doesn't tell you everything you need to know about the cowards who support George Bush's pointless war, nothing will:

Carlos Arredondo, 47-year-old father of two sons, arrived in the nation's capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20-years-and-20-days-old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster-size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.

[...]

As Carlos passed counter-protesters, one man ripped a picture of Alex from the memorial. Carlos leaped on the man to retrieve the picture. It was at that point that approximately five others all began to attack Carlos by kicking him in the head, legs, stomach and back.

Conservative Enlightenment

There's an old saying the goes something like "you're a liberal until you have your first child, then you become a conservative." The mayor of San Diego recently found out the corollary to that maxim, which is that you can be a conservative for as long as you'd like, but when your lesbian daughter wants to get married you become a liberal.

Yesterday, by a 5-3 vote, the City Council of San Diego passed a resolution supporting marriage equality. Jerry Sanders, the Republican mayor-- who campaigned opposing marriage equality-- announced this morning that he had changed his mind and would sign the resolution instead of vetoing it. A former Chief of Police, Sanders, tearfully also announced that one of his daughters, Lisa, is gay and that he would lead with his heart. "The concept of a separate but equal institution is something that I cannot support," he explained, tearfully, with his wife standing at his side.

Click here to watch the remarkable video. It's not often you get to see someone share an epiphany with the world.

Blue States, Red Minority

Remember all that red state/blue state malarkey from back in the 2000 and 2004 elections? Well, even back then I thought the world (at least the educated, elightened part of the world) was decidedly blue, but there can't be much debate anymore.




Here is a map of the Unites States, by congressional district and polling data, illustrating areas where majorities exist in favor of a troop reduction.

[Troop reduction majority districts are in blue.]


Could somebody remind me again? Why does President 25% hold the upper hand in this political fight?

Economics 2.0

I had an interesting meeting today with a business owner in town at a place called McCartney Tank and Steel. They do steel fabrication, welding, that sorta thing. You don't get much more old school, industrial revolution, "American business" than a steel fabricator, and the guy that runs McCartney Steel is a classic throwback, wizened around the eyes, barrel-chested, forearms like bands of iron, steel-toed boots, Levi's. Dirt under the fingernails. The whole nine-yards.



So it was much to my surprise when I asked him how business was going and he mentioned, offhandedly but with a hint of sadness and resignation, that he's begun outsourcing work to China. Wha...? China?!? Now, I've heard of toy manufacturers outsourcing to China; I've heard of shoemakers outsourcing to Guatemala; I've heard of textile mills outsourcing to Sri Lanka; I've even heard that telephone tech support is outsourced to India; but how does a steel fabricator outsource his product, and when he does, you have to wonder: what's left for Americans to do?



McCartney explained that it's labor costs that are killing him, hourly rates here are 10 times what they pay workers in China (and still here they're only $12-$15 an hour). But there are also benefits, health care, retirement, paid vacation, sick leave, workman's comp premiums, every item adds significantly to his expenses, and by extension to the price he ultimately has to charge his customers.



Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. McCartney is chewing his bottom lip at the very idea that his products are made in China. He's a proud American, and he held out on outsourcing for more than 5 years against the better advice of his accountants and financial advisers. To be sure, he's got a beef with American labor these days as well. The way McCartney sees it, nobody here wants to work hard but everybody feels they deserve a job. "My guys used to make a tank in 5 hours, now it takes 'em 12," he says, at once incredulous and disgusted. "How do you explain that? And the Chinese tanks are top-quality product. You can't tell the difference!" So it's overseas for McCartney Tank and Steel.



"I can make a tank in China for $3800," he explains, "that it would cost me close to $10,000 to make here. The shipping cost is nothing, Shanghai to California, $900. There's just no way US production competes with that." So he's biting the bullet, and his lip, swallowing his all-American pride and producing his steel products -- I-beams and rebar and water tanks and roofing materials, the kind of stuff that made America great -- in China.



I told him when I heard Levi's finally had to face reality and move its operations overseas, that was when I knew the global economy was chewing up American productivity. We're a consumer nation now, and all our stuff is made elsewhere, because we consumers are not willing to pay the going rate to produce the stuff we used to make here.



I pointed out how sad it is that these jobs are going overseas. A worker used to be able to count on a decent paycheck, benefits, retirement, everything that goes into keeping a strong middle-class strong, but outsourcing drives wages down at home too, as companies like McCartney's try to hang onto their American ideal. McCartney agreed, but he's a businessman first, and he's gotta do what's best for the company. So while he used to have five welders, now he has one; the other four work in Shanghai, for pennies on the dollar.



When Levi's blue jeans are made in Guatemala, and McCartney steel comes from China, America has lost a little something, or a big something, depending on how you look at it. America has lost a bit of its history, a part of its soul.

All Juiced Up

I've got some bad news for ya. The media and the cable news channels are going to find this OJ thing irresistible. Once the trial gets started, it's going to be wall-to-wall OJ for months. The only people who can be happy about that are Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. I promise to avoid it here, unless there's some truly compelling element, such as he confesses to KILLING HIS WIFE AND HER WAITER FRIEND.

Don't Taze Me, Bro!!!

It's a damn good thing they didn't have those devices when I was in school!

Of course, I had a different set of problems.

Pope to Condi Rice: REJECTED!

The Bush administration boasts friends and influence just about everywhere:

Pope Benedict XVI refused a recent request by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the Middle East and Iraq, Vatican sources say.



The Pope refused a request for an audience during the August holidays.



...[O]ne leading Italian newspaper said it was an evident snub by the Vatican towards the Bush administration.

[...]

There are at least two reasons why Pope Benedict may have decided peremptorily against a private meeting with Ms Rice.



First, it was Ms Rice who just before the outbreak of the Iraq war in March 2003 made it clear to a special papal envoy sent from Rome, Cardinal Pio Laghi, that the Bush administration was not interested in the views of the late Pope on the immorality of launching its planned military offensive.



Secondly, the US has responded in a manner considered unacceptable at the Vatican to the protection of the rights of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution.

Or perhaps the pope may have heard about Condi's unorthodox --ahem-- living arrangements.

Webb Amendment Blocked, Defeated

Bush enablers Senate Republicans successfully torpedoed a vote on the Webb Amendment today by blocking a cloture vote on the issue. While your favorite news agency is likely to report to you that the Webb Amendment failed on a 56-44 vote, what they'll fail to mention is that the 56-44 vote was procedural sleight-of-hand trick on a "cloture" vote. It's complicated, see? But I'll let Josh Marshall break it all down for you:

The voting is over on the Webb troop-rest amendment. It passed 56-44, meaning it didn't get enough votes to clear a GOP filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Ried had this to say after the day's events:

“In blocking this bipartisan bill, Republicans have once again demonstrated that they are more committed to protecting the President than protecting our troops. They have shown they will allow President Bush’s flawed war strategy to continue to strain our military rather than allow the availability of troops to dictate our operations. And they believe it is in our national security interest to push our brave troops and their families beyond their breaking point.


“Democrats disagree. We care deeply about rebuilding our badly overextended military and ensuring our troops have the time to properly train, prepare for and recover from battle. And Democrats remain committed to repaying in some small measure the sacrifices our brave troops are making every day.”

The Webb Amendment

You'll be hearing a lot about the Webb Amendment today and in the days to come. It's a piece of legislation that simply guarantees that troops deployed overseas will be granted a 1:1 ratio of active duty to r-and-r back home.

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has introduced a bi-partisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring that active-duty troops and units have at least equal time at home as the length of their previous tour overseas. The amendment also sets a minimum 1-to-3 year ratio for National Guard and Reserve members and units.

Who could oppose such a measure, you ask?

Now we find that one of the great statesman Warner's last acts may be to pull the football out from under Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, whose amendment to allow the military a decent interval between deployments is coming up for a vote. Like clockwork, Warner, who had supported the bill is now saying that he may not since the Bush administration has agreed to his propaganda ploy to bring home a handful of troops for a big Christmas pageant, (which I'm sure the president, the vice president and Senator Warner will milk for all its worth.) You could make big money in Vegas by betting on Warner to stab Democrats in the back every time and take some cheap shiny trinket from the White House as a reward.

The Webb Amendment is a powerful piece of legislation, backed by the Military Officers Association and many military families who are seeing their loved ones deployed over and over again until their marriages and their finances are at a breaking point. Although it may serve to force the administration to withdraw troops more quickly than they wish to, this is not a political ploy. Even before the surge, experts said that the Iraq war was breaking the military. Now it is far worse. Someone has to step in and do something about this problem and it's obvious it isn't going to be the Republican party.

The (political) Surge is Working -- NOT

All that sound and fury from last week clearly signified nothing.

President Bush has achieved his lowest approval rating ever in the Reuters/Zogby Poll.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.


Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March.

[...]

The poll also found little confidence in U.S. foreign or economic policy, with 68 percent of Americans rating economic policy as just fair or poor and 73 percent calling foreign policy either fair or poor.


Most of the polling was done after a speech by Bush and testimony to Congress by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, indicating the United States would make some reductions but planned to keep high troop levels in Iraq for the foreseeable future.

Poetry Corner

A haiku sums up (as only a haiku can) Alan Greenspan's new book:




Curb Your Age Of Turbulence Enthusiasm

By Madeleine Begun Kane




Panning fiscal acts

He once endorsed, Greenspan feigns

Bystander status.

Unanswerable Question for the Ages

How did our oil end up under their sand?

Get Jangly!

Rock on, Los Hornitos!!

"Saturated with Teh Stoopid"

TRex at Firedoglake is having trouble swallowing the new meme about Bush:

Every now and then, I hit a wall. There comes a point in every political blogger’s life, I think, when you’ve soaked up as much Bush idiocy, rank incompetence, duplicity, deceit, and downright dumb-assery as you can reasonably stand. I am saturated with Teh Stoopid.


This makes it especially difficult for me to swallow this latest PR line about how actually our Toddler in Chief is an unsung genius, whose keen and canny intelligence and practicality are obscured by his “scruffy charm”. “Scruffy Charm” here being shorthand for a grown man who chews with his mouth dangling so far open that scraps of food fall freely from his maw.


“He’s read 87 books this year,” sigh the fawning press releases.

[...]

Does it not occur to anyone within the incestuous confines of the Beltway that having a president who makes Terri Schiavo look breathtakingly astute on foreign policy issues is a terrible danger to everyone in the country and by extension the world? How stupid are we all going to look if Bush and his pro-apocalypse BFF’s like Joe Lieberman actually get to launch their strikes against Iran? Or what if there’s another huge hurricane? Or a massive West Coast earthquake? Are you all okay with Bush and his appointees presiding over a major disaster? What about a terror strike?


I don’t get it. Why is he still there? Why, God, why?

More on the Blackwater Incident in Baghdad

Larry Johnson at TPM Cafe has more on the Blackwater combat incident that left nearly a dozen Iraqis dead on the streets of Baghdad:

[The decision] on whether the Blackwater security firm stays in Iraq will inform us whether Prime Minister Maliki has any power or is just a U.S. puppet. My money is on the puppet. Over the weekend Blackwater contractors escorting a State Department/US Embassy Baghdad convoy got into a shoot out. First problem: Blackwater does not have a license to operate in Iraq and does not need one.

[...]

...The Iraqi government has zero power to enforce a decision to oust a firm like Blackwater. For starters, Blackwater has a bigger air force and more armored vehicles than the Iraqi Army and police put together.

Wanna Get Away?

Remember that Southwest Airlines commercial where the frontman for the rock band performing in Chicago shouts out, "Thank you, Detroit!!"?




Here's Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson at the Service Employees International Union's recent annual meeting:

"Thank you AFSCME!!"

Whoops! I understand it can be hard to remember where you are when you're on the road every day, that's why they put big purple signs right in front of the podium that said "SEIU."


[btw -- That's Chris Dodd in the photo at the same meeting. It was Richardson who gaffed.]

Binary Sudoku

This game runs at about my level. Was never very good at Pictionary crossword puzzles either. Or gin rummy.

McCain Gives non-Christians "del Dito"

John McCain addressing the recent controversy over whether he's a Baptist or an Episcopalian:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday that questions over whether he identifies himself as a Baptist or an Episcopalian are not as important as his overarching faith. "The most important thing is that I am a Christian," the Arizona senator told reporters following two campaign stops in [South Carolina]. ...


McCain grew up Episcopalian and attended an Episcopal high school in Alexandria, Va. On Monday, he spoke briefly about that history and about the Baptist church he now attends. Then, after saying his overall faith is what's important, he concluded: "I don't have anything else to say about that issue."

An Episcopalian, a baptist... or as we Catholics would call him: a heretic.

Private Contractors Outnumber US Troops in Iraq

Private security contractor Blackwater USA was involved in a shooting incident in Baghdad earlier today that left nearly a dozen Iraq civilians dead after American "contractors" opened fire on a public street. Jeremy Scahill wrote the book on Blackwater, and here he is explaining a bit about the "shadow war" we're fighting in Iraq:




JEREMY SCAHILL, AUTHOR, “BLACKWATER”: Well, the in fact of the matter is the Bush administration failed to build the coalition of willing nations to occupy Iraq. And so, instead, the administration has built a coalition of billing corporations.


Right now in Iraq, the private personnel on the U.S. government payroll outnumber official U.S. troops. There are 180,000 so-called private contractors operating alongside of 165,000, 170,000 U.S. troops. So really now the U.S. military is the junior partner in this coalition. The mercenary component of the private sector involvement has been totally unaccountable. They operate with impunity. They kill Iraqi civilians and no charges are ever brought against them, in Iraqi law, U.S. law, military law.

Chuck Hagel Pulls No Punches

Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has long been a vocal critic of Geroge W. Bush's war, but his recent decision not to run for re-election appears to have freed him up to let loose with his true feelings. He was on Bill Maher's show last Friday:



Maher: Isn’t a dirty trick on the American people when you send a military man out there to basically do a political sell-job?”




Hagel: It’s not only a dirty trick, but it’s dishonest, it’s hypocritical, it’s dangerous and irresponsible. The fact is this is not Petraeus’ policy, it’s the Bush’s policy. The military is — certainly very clear in the Constitution — is subservient to the elected public officials of this country.. but to put our military in a position that this administration has put them in is just wrong, and it’s dangerous.”

Wild in the Streets

I'll try to follow up on this a bit later, but when you wonder why they hate us, you can start with incidents like this one:

A U.S. State Department motorcade came under attack in Baghdad on Sunday, prompting [private] security contractors [from Blackwater USA] guarding the convoy to open fire in the streets. At least nine civilians were killed, according to Iraqi officials.

Madonna del Dito

For those readers of the Catholic persuasion who are fed up with the Bush administration but perhaps a bit too devout and saintly to stand up and shout out: "F. You Dubya!!", I give you Madonna del Dito ("Madonna of the Finger") or "Our Lady of the Finger."

This relatively obscure Italian devotional painting dates from the late 1600s and features a sorrowful Mother Mary in blue vestments with a solitary finger protruding from beneath her veil. Whether this represents her reaction to Pontious Pilate's decision to crucify her son or her disdain for that slut woman of questionable morals Mary Magdalene is unimportant, I offer Madonna del Dito as a proxy for giving George W. Bush the finger.

So go ahead anti-Bush Catholics, it's easy and you can do it guilt-free: pray to this Madonna and she'll give Bush the finger for you!

Leave Britney Alone!!!!

Sorry to do this to y'all, and it is generally outside my sphere of interest, but I had no idea the earlier Youtube post of President Bush bawling his eyes out over General Petraeus ["Leave General Petraeus alone!!"] was a parody of an actual person -- an actual person is serious need of professional help.

Behold Britney's biggest fan:






"She loves her aunt...!" Good Lord, these people live among us.




Some of the comments are pretty funny:

--I think it's Nick Rhodes. I had no idea he felt this way.

--The still frame was enough for me... I just peed my pants.

--Kinda young Daniel Day Lewis meets '80s boy band meets tantrum.

--Looks like he filmed that inside a fort I made when I was 8.

--He makes a good point.

Hullabaloo!

Digby on the hypocrisy and confusion of the social conservative movement:

Many social conservatives are phonies, and the rest are willing dupes. I'm not sure why people are still surprised by this. How many diaper wearing wingnut senators and teenage boy-chasing conservative congressmen does it take to prove that the whole family values campaign was just another market tested bludgeon with which to hit liberals over the head?

Rep. Barbara Lee, September 14, 2001

A thoughtful person with a conscience. Congresswoman Barbara Lee cast the only no vote on the Authorization to Use Military Force following the 9/11 attacks.

Won't Get Fooled Again?

I have trouble understanding how a president who is roundly disrespected, widely ridiculed, dismissed as an incompetent and has basically no support among rational people in his own country can continue to set the terms of the debate and run the war any way he sees fit. How can this be?

I saw Bush on my teevee last Thursday and it finally hit me. The battle is lost. I felt beaten down. The fool on the hill has won. Bush is going to ride this thing all the way through, leaving the "pottery barn" disaster for his successor.

The man should be impeached, but the failure of the Democrats to stand up, to filibuster his horrific requests, to oppose him in any meaningful way, to pound their shoes on the podium, as it were, is going to let Bush off the hook. Oh, sure, history is certain to be a harsh judge, but in the meantime every day that passes brings more death in Iraq, and more misery.




"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

--Edmund Burke.

Famous Quotations

"In the life of all free nations, there come moments that decide the direction of a country and reveal the character of its people."

--George W. Bush, September 13, 2007




COMMENT: So what the hell are we waiting for?!?!

The US Festival

Back in '83, half a million people trudged out into the middle of the SoCal desert for three days of peace and love searing heat (there was no mud at the US Festival, that's for sure) and power ballads. If I recall correctly, the Go-go's played, and so did Eddie Money. Rock on Los Hornitos!!

"Coalition" Loses Another Member (Singluar)

When President Bush cited the "36 nations" with boots on the ground, he probably wasn't aware the two boots from Iceland would be leaving soon, but that nation has decided to call its ONE TROOP home from Iraq:

Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir has decided to remove an Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (ICRU) member from a NATO training program for the Iraqi army in Baghdad next month, causing disappointment among NATO leaders. The ICRU member has been working in Baghdad for the last two years.

UPDATE: Click the link for a list of "36 nations" as provided by the White House.

Tom Tomorrow

Tom Tomorrow just has this way of cutting through all the hypocritical baloney:

Religion Primer: Pentecostals are Better Than TV

Here's a dude who recounts exciting times growing up in the Pentacostal Church:

At this point in the service, the adults would collectively lose their fucking minds. They’d hop around in circles, screaming. They’d hysterically cry and hold their arms up towards the heavens. They’d gyrate around on the floor and speak in some unintelligible language: Bugga bugga boo! Oh, I love you Jesus! Yada gabba doodle boo boo wak!



It was fucking awesome!



Life doesn’t get more exciting for a 10 year old kid than attending a service in a Pentecostal Church. We went to Church every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night. On Sundays, we would be in Sunday school. On Saturday, we’d attend Church picnics or other related events. It got to the point where we were at Church more often than we were at home and we didn’t mind one fucking bit. Not only were we surrounded by friends, but at any second, there was a distinct possibility that someone would become possessed by the good ol’ Holy Ghost and feel compelled to shout at the ceiling, “GABBA GABBA GOOOOO!”



The Holy Ghost was so fucking cool. It made the adults look like idiots!

Damn, all we ever got to do was standsitkneelstandkneelsitkneelstandsitkneel, then sneak out at Communion. I guess that's how I came to know the Goaly Boast.

Not Everybody Loves G.Pet

Here's an interesting little tidbit I came across the other day.




From Think Progress:

In January, President Bush replaced [generals] Abizaid and Casey, who were “surge” skeptics, with Adm. William Fallon and Gen. David Petraeus. This week, Petraeus — in the first public hearings since taking on his new role — delivered his Iraq assessment to great media fanfare. But where was his boss, [CentCom Commander] Admiral Fallon? Inter-Press Service suggests animosity between the two might be one reason for Fallon’s absence:




Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickensh*t” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

The Washington Post reported this weekend that there is an internal military debate, described as “Armageddon,” brewing between Petraeus and Fallon because the two men have “profoundly different views of the U.S. role in Iraq.”

Another Dose of Reality Bush Will Never Hear

I hate to keep returning to Michael Ware and his comically busted up nose, but CNN's man on the ground in Iraq just keeps calling bullshit on Dubya:

BUSH: Today most of Baghdad’s neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down and ordinary life is beginning to return.


COOPER: What he didn’t mention is that there are four million Iraqis not in their homes…neighborhoods here in Baghdad have been ethnically cleansed.


WARE: Absolutely and if by the….if the President means by ordinary lives families essentially living locked up in their homes in almost perpetual darkness, without refrigeration or perhaps constantly struggling for ever more expensive gas to run generators, if he means waiting in their homes wondering if government death squads will drag them off and torture them and execute them, if he means living in sectarian cleansed neighborhoods where people who were your friends have had to flee, if he’s talking about living in communities that are protected by militias, then yeah, life’s returned to ordinary.

Yow! Kinda reminds me of my walk home from the County building.

The War Hits Close to Home

A kid from San Luis Obispo was injured recently in Iraq in an incident that left 7 other US soldiers dead. He was pretty badly hurt but is expected to recover.




This guy played high school tennis with my girlfriend's kid. I think that's a great photo of Lance, a rosy-cheeked teenager not much older than those Iraqi kids he's embracing. Fact is, he should be hitting balls with Julian, not driving around getting shot at and blown up in some godforsaken desert.

Somebody, please, remind me again, what the hell are we doing over there?

The Lying Comes Easily

At one point last night, President Bush thanked the "36 nations with boots on the ground in Iraq." Chris Matthews calls bullshit:

The fact we have 36 countries fighting on our side in Iraq must be news to the soldiers over there. I don’t know who these people are or how many divisions they have. All we read about in the papers are American GIs getting killed by IEDs and terrible accidents and all kinds of enemy action over there. … The idea we’re one of 36 countries fighting the war I think is ludicrous and why the President would throw that out there, I think it only opens him up to ridicule.

CNN reported in Feburary that the Coalition of the Willing was down to 22 nations, and the Associated Press finds most of our allies are making a token contribution at best:

There may well be 36 nations contributing to the cause, but the overwhelming majority of troops come from the United States. For example, Albania has 120 soldiers there and Bulgaria has 150 non-combat troops in Iraq. Bush visited both nations this summer as a thank you.


The United States has 168,000 troops in Iraq.

Get their full fact-check on the speech here.

The Speech: Same as it Ever Was

Congratulations, Mr. President. Quagmire accomplished.

And the Washington Post calls it "The Least Bad Plan."

PRESIDENT BUSH'S explanation of his latest plans for Iraq last night was marred by a couple of important omissions. First, the president failed to acknowledge that, according to the standards he himself established in January, the surge of U.S. troops into Iraq has been a failure --

...If the war were going worse than it is, the deployment schedule probably couldn't have been much different...


...Yet Mr. Bush's plan for the coming year is based, once again, on the hope that Iraqis will take steps that will make the added security provided by U.S. troops sustainable -- and prevent a worsening of the situation when American brigades withdraw. Though this hope proved illusory during the past eight months, there will be no change in the U.S. mission.


It's impossible not to be skeptical that the necessary political deals and improvements in Iraqi security forces will take place. Unless there is progress that justifies withdrawals going well beyond those he announced last night, Mr. Bush is unlikely to achieve the agreement in Washington on Iraq he said he now aims for.


But according to Gen. Petraeus, Mr. Crocker and the consensus view of U.S. intelligence agencies, if the U.S. counterinsurgency mission were abandoned in the near future, the result would be massive civilian casualties and still-greater turmoil that could spread to neighboring countries.

Erm, like we don't have that already?




McClatchey News wonders if the catch-phrases aren't becoming a little tired:

WASHINGTON — Eight months after President Bush made public a plan he hailed as the "New Way Forward" in Iraq, he's announced a new plan, this one called "Return on Success."


The new plan was reminiscent of last year's "Operation Together Forward," which called for U.S. troops to secure neighborhoods in Baghdad and hand them over to Iraqi security forces. It bore similarities to an even older plan commonly articulated with the catchphrase "as they stand up, we'll stand down."

The way things are going, maybe we should just call it Operation How Could Hell Be Any Worse?

The Speech: Leave General Petraeus Alone!!

He's got m-m-m-medals on his ch-ch-chest!!!

Libertarian Defined

"Once when we were in our twenties I asked my twin brother what exactly a Libertarian was. 'A Republican who owns a bong,' was his highly informative response."

--TRex @ Firedoglake

Bush's BFF in Anbar Swims with the Fishes

Only last week President Bush made a big show of his secret mission to Anbar province in Iraq, arguing that flying into a heavily fortified US military base under cover of darkness for a 6 hour stopover that included heavily-guarded, clandestine meetings with a Sunni insurgent warlord were signs of political progess in the region. Well, Bush's buddy got himself blown to bits today.

A key Sunni ally of the US and Iraqi governments has been killed in a bomb attack in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, 37, led what was known as the "Anbar Awakening", an alliance of Sunni Arab tribes that rose up against al-Qaeda in Iraq.




US President George Bush met and endorsed the sheikh last week in Iraq.

George W. Bush, the Typhoid Mary of geopolitical diplomacy.

Take a Number, Get in Line

F.U. -- Friedman Unit, Documented and Illustrated

Atrios has compiled a list of statements by Republican Senator John McCain which crystalize the concept of the "Friedman Unit."


Critical Six Months


John McCain today:

"You have to show success on the ground. … I think the next six months are going to be critical. We are going to have to show enough success or we will be forced out."





John McCain, 12/2005:

[W]e will probably see significant progress in the next six months to a year.



John McCain, August 2003:

We do not have time to spare. If we do not meaningfully improve security and services in Iraq over the next few months, it may be too late. We will risk an irreversible loss of Iraqi confidence and reinforce the efforts of extremists who seek our defeat and threaten Iraq's democratic future.



John McCain, September 2003:

The next three-to-six months will be critical.



John McCain, November 2006:

We're either going to lose this thing or win this thing in the next several months.



etc...

Mr. Fish -- A Sense of History

Vitter's Girl

Louisiana Senator David Vitter has probably been sitting at home rubbing his wife's feet and doing all the laundry while hoping against all hope that the Larry Craig scandal might allow him to fly his leaky little family values hot air balloon under the radar screen, but Larry Flynt and one decidedly hot Loosiana mama are about to make his life a whole lot more difficult.


America's favorite pornographer and New Orleans working girl Wendy Ellis (aka Wendy Cortez) held a splashy press conference yesterday in which Ellis Cortez Wendy "told reporters that Vitter visited her two to three times a week for sexual relations between July and November 1999."


Oooo. That can't be good for the home life.

LAT Knocks One Out; It's About Time

I've been none to thrilled with the LA Times over the past few years, what with the firing of my man Robert Scheer, the layoffs, the damn conservative takeover, the freaking ads on the front page(!?!?!) and the topsy-turvy Alice-in-Wonderland flip-book formerly known as the Book Review/Opinion sections, but they sure nailed the whole failed Bush disaster -- and congressional complicity therein -- in this editorial:

This is the essence of the two-day report to Congress by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. The general and the ambassador freely admitted that the situation in Iraq is frustrating, that U.S. military might cannot force Iraqis into the political reconciliation that is the only basis for real stability, and that it's impossible to predict when Iraqis will be able to run their country themselves. Nevertheless, they argued, the consequences of U.S. troops departing could be so horrific -- Iraq turning into an Al Qaeda haven plagued by ethnic cleansing and preyed upon by Iran -- that the only prudent course is to keep at least 130,000 soldiers in Iraq at least until July.




President Bush is expected to accept this recommendation in a speech Thursday. Despite Democratic protests, it's unlikely that this toothless Congress will stop him from continuing the de facto occupation of Iraq for the remainder of his term. We fear this is a grave mistake that will compound the colossal error of invading Iraq in the first place -- although we fervently hope that Petraeus, Crocker and the courageous people they lead will somehow manage to prove us wrong.




The president will ask the nation to pay for the next 11 months in Iraq with billions of dollars and hundreds of lives. We think this sacrifice will be in vain, because only Iraqis can heal their national wounds. And so we ask instead: What else could the United States do with a guesstimated $100 billion to reduce the strength and the appeal of Islamist terrorist groups worldwide?

People Have Opinions "Over There"

And they are decidedly not good.




Public Approval numbers in Pakistan for a few international political figures...


Osama bin Laden (46%)


Pervez Musharraf (38%)


George W. Bush (9%)




Not much of a surprise really. I just don't see how anything that we are doing as a nation is in any way helping to right the ship at this point. The soonest we can hope for any improvement at all in our global reputation is January 21, 2009.

Surge Reduction Sleight-of-Hand

I mentioned this morning how Bush's claim that bringing home 30,000 troops by next July should somehow count as a troop reduction was really nothing more than obfuscatory sleight-of-hand, and CNN's pugnacious Michael Ware (check out that dude's nose for goodness sake, can you say "amateur boxer?") tore the lid off the charade:

ANDERSON COOPER: Michael Ware, Petraeus said that as many as 30,000 troops could leave by the beginning of next summer. It was sort of presented as though that was an operational decision.


In truth, it is really an operational necessity. The U.S. can't maintain these current troop levels, without putting even more strain on the -- on our already strained troops. Is that correct?




MICHAEL WARE: Yes, that is correct, Anderson. In fact, I'm struck by the way people are regarding General Petraeus' discussion of -- of those troop levels until July of next year. People are acting like he has just announced some sort of phased withdrawal. Well, no, not at all. That was the timeline for the so-called surge in the beginning.


Indeed, it wasn't a surge. It was a one-year escalation of U.S. forces. And the clock was due to run out on that escalation in the summer of next year anyway. So, that is not a revelation at all.

Rep. Tom Lantos

I'd always wondered what the story was with California Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. He's virulently anti-war and regularly lowers the rhetorical boom on Dubya and the neocon yahoos that got us into the global mess in which we find ourselves. I just never knew the back story on this dignified, white-haired, Bay Area octogenarian with the vaguely eastern European accent. Looks like that xenophobic, under-informed idiot Rush Limbaugh was wondering the same things:




Limbaugh on Tom Lantos:

"I look at Lantos telling [Gen. Petraeus] that his strategy of withdrawing a brigade is nothing, and I want to ask myself, where is the military expertise of Tom Lantos? Who is advising him? Has he been there? How long ago?"




Who the HELL is Tom Lantos? Oh, he's led a fairly ordinary life:

Born the only child of upper-middle class Jewish parents in Budapest in 1928, Lantos grew up during a time when Hungary was slowly being taken over by the Nazis. When he was 10 years old, he bought his first newspaper--an experience he vividly recalls today. The headline read, "Hitler Marches into Austria."




"I sensed that this historic moment would have a tremendous impact on the lives of Hungarian Jews, my family and myself," he says. If only he knew.




When he was 16, German troops invaded his homeland--and along with them came Adolf Eichmann, with orders to exterminate the Jewish population of Hungary. By the end of the summer of 1944, most of the Jews outside of Budapest had been sent to Auschwitz.

Read the rest here, you'll never wonder about Tom Lantos' gravitas, nor his right to speak truth to power, ever again.




What's your story Rush?

Damn Statistics

There are more US troops in Iraq in proportion to the Iraqi population
than there were in Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War.

So It Goes

Two of the seven active duty soldiers who wrote an Op-Ed piece in the NYT criticizing Bush, Petraeus and the "Surge" are dead.

NEW YORK The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead.


Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident which was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the "surge." The names have just been released.

[...]

One of the other five authors of the Times piece, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He was expected to survive after being flown to a military hospital in the United States.




The controversial Times column on Aug. 19 was called "The War As We Saw It," and expressed skepticism about American gains in Iraq. “To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched,” the group wrote.


It closed: "We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through."

Speech!

George Bush is going to make a prime time speech tomorrow night in which he is expected to announce that he plans to bring 30,000 US troops home from Iraq by next July. First of all, besides the notion that it could all be bullshit, 30,000 is the number of troops the Decider added to the Iraq equation earlier this year with the wonderful "Surge." That, of course, means a reduction of this magnitude will only take us back to the level we were at in Feb/Mar 2007. Hence Bush will have procrastinated any meaningful change in troop levels or strategy for yet another year-and-a-half (and that's roughly 1200 dead American soldiers), and the stupid war will be 5½ years old. At some point this will all have to end, but I don't think having 130,000+ US servicemen and women in Iraq in July of 2008 is what the American people have in mind.




Don't believe the hype!! People hate this war and people hate this president.

Freedom!

Petraeus Lets Loose with the Uncertain Truth

From Talking Points Memo:

In the hearings' most stunning moment so far, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) asked Gen. Petraeus if success in the Iraq war will make America safer. His response -- by far the most surprising moment of the hearings -- was a blunt "I don't know." This is the first time that any general officer, let alone the commanding general in Iraq, has ever equivocated on whether success in
Iraq will contribute to U.S. security.

Perhaps somebody might want to let the friends and families of these 3774 American soldiers know that the Army's top man in Iraq can't say for sure whether the mission there is actually helping America.




Good Lord, the truth hurts.

The Way It Could All Play Out; WTF?

Remember the Anthrax?

Atrios takes time out from September 11 to remind us about the anthrax junk mail attacks:

What I just learned from CNN:




"...6 years after 9/11 there have been no terror attacks here in the United States."




I've long been fascinated by the erasure of the anthrax attacks - which, in their own way, freaked out the country more than 9/11 did* - from our collective memory.




*People object when I suggest this, but while the 9/11 attacks were of course The Big Ones, anthrax was this creepy shit which was KILLING US THROUGH THE MAIL. While most people didn't expect a plane to fly into their building, the anthrax attacks created a heightened sense of OMIGOD THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ME. 9/11 was terrible, but the anthrax attacks were terrifying to people.

17 people were infected and five people died from antrax poisoning over the course of several weeks beginning September 18, 2001! More here. The crime remains unsolved and has largely faded from public memory. Why is that, exactly?

Facts on the Ground: No Spin Clusterfuck

CNN's Anderson Cooper and correspondent Michael Ware discussed the situation in Iraq -- and General Petraeus' congressional testimony -- last night:

COOPER: Michael Ware, Petraeus said that as many as 30,000 troops could leave by the beginning of next summer. It was sort of presented as though that was an operational decision.


In truth, it is really an operational necessity. The U.S. can't maintain these current troop levels, without putting even more strain on the -- on our already strained troops. Is that correct?




WARE: Yes, that is correct, Anderson. In fact, I'm struck by the way people are regarding General Petraeus' discussion of -- of those troop levels until July of next year. People are acting like he has just announced some sort of phased withdrawal. Well, no, not at all. That was the timeline for the so-called surge in the beginning.


Indeed, it wasn't a surge. It was a one-year escalation of U.S. forces. And the clock was due to run out on that escalation in the summer of next year anyway. So, that is not a revelation at all.

[...]

COOPER: Michael, I want to read you a question that columnist David Brooks asked in "The New York Times" last week. He said, "The crucial question now is, do these tribes represent proto-local governments, or are they simply regional bands arming themselves in anticipation of a cataclysmic civil war?"


What do you think the answer to that is?




WARE: Well, it's a little bit of both, Anderson.


Certainly, this is how, say, for example, western Al Anbar Province is being governed. It is from these tribes that come the chief of police, that come the local town major, and then eventually comes the provincial council. So, these are the fundamental building blocks of the local government.


At the same time, there is a -- there is a flavor of warlordism about this. And that is what America is now harnessing, not just to attack al Qaeda, but to curb what U.S. military intelligence says is the heavy Iranian militia influence inside the central government.




COOPER: And are these -- these tribal groups willing to work with the central government in Baghdad, the Sunni -- the Shia- dominated government, and vice versa? Is -- is the government of al- Maliki willing to work with -- with these Sunni tribes?




WARE: The answer is no on both counts, Anderson.


These guys made it very clear to us on this day and on other days when I have contact with other groups, they are opposed to the Maliki government and any government that they believe is beholden to Iranian influence, a belief shared by many within the U.S. mission. So, these are anti-government forces that America is supporting against the government it created. And, certainly, within the Iraqi government, they believe that this is America building Sunni militias to act as a counterbalance to their influence.

Never Forget

Life Intrudes....

Off for a little of this for a day or two!!

It's Gonna Be a Long, Hard Slog

When you peel away at the bogus facade of the Bush administration's "Progress = Troop withdrawal" rhetoric, what you really find is this:

Stephen Biddle, a military analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations [and one of General Petraeus' key advisors], says the American public will support overseas deployments of troops — even for many years — as long as not many get killed. For instance, 64,000 U.S. troops are still in Germany, 60 years after the end of World War II and 16 years after the end of the Cold War. American soldiers have been keeping the peace in Bosnia now for more than a decade since the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic. In both operations, virtually no American soldiers have died as a result of hostile fire.




Biddle also said (again, expressing his personal view) that the strategy in Iraq would require the presence of roughly 100,000 American troops for 20 years — and that, even so, it would be a "long-shot gamble."

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a "long shot gamble?"

I Thought that Fred Thompson Guy was on Law and Order, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer

There are some folks out there in wingnut Republican land who swoon at the sight of Fred Thompson, alleged GOP savior and Reagan-lite knockoff. Well, the man may have a hot new model wife half his age, but I'm not so sure Fred is really too sexy for his shirt:

Bill Nye the Science Guy Booed in TX

Bill Nye the Science Guy was booed in Texas recently for breaking the news to a bunch of Bible literalists that moon only reflects the rays of the sun and does not in fact give off its own light.

From the Waco Tribune:

Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College's Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption.




But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: "God made two great lights -- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars."




The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.




At that point, several people in the audience, ["visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence"] stormed out in fury. One woman yelled "We believe in God!" and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected.

Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon died four years ago today. Here he tells us what it's like to get a cancer diagnosis, and what it's like to live with a dread disease.

Too Orwellian for Words

In a desperate effort to cook the books and make it appear as if "the surge" is working, the Bush administration is resorting to casualty counts that might have made Stalin or Pol Pot blush:

Intelligence analysts computing aggregate levels of violence against civilians for the NIE puzzled over how the military designated attacks as combat, sectarian or criminal, according to one senior intelligence official in Washington.
"If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian," the official said. "If it went through the front, it's criminal."

"Depending on which numbers you pick," he said, "you get a different outcome."

These people are evil and they have no shame.

Why They Hate Us, Reason No.∞

I'm with the generals on this one, the Bush administration's decision to build the largest embassy in the history of the free world in Baghdad is not helping our effort to win over the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi common folk.

The decision to occupy Saddam Hussein’s former palace complex with our military headquarters, while expedient in 2003, has most likely given the wrong impression to the Iraqi population. We recommend that careful consideration of the size of our national footprint in Iraq be reconsidered with regard to its efficiency, necessity, and its cost. Significant reductions, consolidations, and realignments would appear to be possible and prudent.


Disregarding the advice and concerns of these generals, Bush [...] has aggressively pursued the construction of an “embassy-fortress” in Baghdad. It is one of the “largest and costliest” embassies in the world. “The 65-acre compound will be largely a world unto itself, insulated as much as possible from problems that plague the rest of Baghdad.” Photos of the $592 million embassy below:

From the Think Progress comments:

"1. having a pool in a country whose capital city has trouble providing its citizens with clean drinking water is a really great idea.

Comment by cha cha cha — September 6, 2007"

Just Askin'....

Osama Clock: It's been 2,180 days since the president declared he would catch the al Qaeda leader "dead or alive."

It's Lonely at the Bottom

The lonely life of an underfunded third-tier presidential candidate who doesn't believe in evolution but does believe that embryonic stem cells are human beings. You're not in Kansas anymore, Sam.

Little Feat, Spanish Moon

Goodbye brother Clem

We lost a good man last week. Mike Clemmensen, known to one and all as "Clem," was a bartender at McCarthy's Irish Pub in San Luis Obispo, CA. He was hit by cancer in February 2006, and he did his best to live a pretty full life right up 'til the end.




Clem always put a shamorck on top of my Guinness, every pour. He used to pump the McCarthy's jukebox full of songs at the beginning of his shift so he wouldn't have to listen to any "crappy music." He loved "Spanish Moon" by Little Feat, and he hated the Beatles. He would always dim the lights in the bar, day or night, when Sinatra came on. He did not suffer fools well, nor sloppy college students, and I'd seen him cut more than a few people off, mostly for being stoopid more than drunk. Clem was a well-read sharp wit with strong, intelligent opinions and a serious gift of blarney. He will be dearly missed.




Clem also had the unique distinction of writing his own obituary. It appeared in the San Luis Obispo Tribune this morning:




Michael "Clem" Dwayne Clemmensen



Life Journey



January 1951 to August 29, 2007



I have been known by many a name and played many a role on life's vast stage in my 56 years. You've known me as Michael, Mikey, Mike, Clemo, Claymore, Clay and Clem. I burger flipped at Ed's, was a poison oak detector and always managed to find it, a dude ranch handy man, an ice cream cone stuffer for Thrifty's in Santa Barbara, a Cal Trans shovel prop, a band member that owned a van and 90% of the equipment, a famous government leader impersonator, a 'mixologist' at McCarthy's (Question of the Day - What is the main trade of the leprechaun?), and a riverboat captain on the powerful Mississippi.



"The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise..." -- Mark Twain in Eruption



Thanks so much to my family and friends for the love and support though my struggle with cancer.



A remembrance celebration will be held 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007, at the Elks Club in San Luis Obispo so you may share stories and remember the good times. I will miss you all.



'No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.' -- Calvin Coolidge



Question of the Day - What does the term "30" mean to a newspaper editor?



Michael has left the building ... Sine Metu