"...she drank it like wine"

This is dedicated to Hillary Clinton. The synch's a little off, so don't look right at it or it'll make you dizzy, like Canadian whiskey.

Nanci Griffith & Tom Russell, Glasgow '98

Quote of the Day

Paul Krugman on Repuglican'ts:

If a problem can’t be solved with deregulation and tax cuts, they pretend it doesn’t exist.

We're probably lucky. Those things are directed at a very small constituency. Imagine the trouble they would cause if they tried to solve the rest of the problems they created.

So ...

Iraq is about oil (as opposed to WMD, Freedom, Democracy, and all the other stuff)? McCain says so.

If I were a terrorist

Location, location, location...

Dave Lindorff on why Bush's hideout in Paraguay might not work out so good after all:

Given that President Bush, once he leaves office on January 20, 2009, will no longer have the diplomatic immunity conferred upon heads of state, or the Constitutional protection against indictment by domestic prosecutors, it makes sense that he would be looking for a safe haven from the long arm of the law.

After all, the guy is guilty of a huge laundry list of international crimes, from the Crime Against Peace and Conspiracy against Peace in the UN Charter, to Geneva Convention violations such as approval of torture of prisoners, collective punishment of civilians, the killing of children and child soldiers, the failure to protect occupied citizens, the use of banned weapons, etc., etc., and also of domestic crimes, ranging from political use of government employees, conspiracy, treason, lying to federal officials, defrauding Congress, etc.

No wonder he wants to do what Klaus Barbie, Josef Mengele, and Adolf Eichmann did, and hole up in Paraguay.

Only trouble is, Paraguay may not be such a safe haven for long.

Last month, a former Roman Catholic Bishop with leftist, populist tendencies, Fernando Lugo, surprised almost everyone in Paraguay, and no doubt President Bush, by winning the national presidential election, ousting the Colorado Party for the first time in 61 years. There is talk that among other things, Lugo is thinking of returning Paraguay to the community of nations, by signing some of those extradition agreements.

If he does that, Bush may be stuck having to hide behind his rump squad of Secret Service agents down at the Crawford Ranch, hoping they can keep the process servers from Brattleboro and Marlboro, VT, with their war crimes arrest warrants, at bay.

Once Bush loses his flimsy 'Executive Privilege' and the ability to pardon himself, I hope the Vermont cops will be the least of his worries.

Adopt-a-thon!

The North Shore Animal League is having its yearly Adopt-a-thon starting this morning:

In 1995, Pet Adoptathon began simply as a North Shore Animal League America adoption weekend, with the goal of finding homes for each dog and cat in the shelter. The first weekend in May was set aside and plans were made to stay open 36 hours straight. Local media was called and special fun activities were held under the big tent-all to call attention to the many dogs, cats, puppies and kittens at the League. And it worked! That weekend, over 500 needy pets were placed in excellent adoptive homes.

It became apparent that the overwhelming success had to be shared. Soon the League extended invitations to shelters everywhere to participate in Pet Adoptathon '96. That year, over 700 animal organizations joined together; the result was thousands more loving adoptions. And every year since, Pet Adoptathon has continued to grow. Last year, over 1,500 organizations participated all across the United States and around the globe. Twelve years later, Pet Adoptathon has fostered over 250,000 loving adoption worldwide.

This is a national event with many shelters participating nationwide. See if you can find it in your heart to help. Adopt a pet or make a donation. It's one of our favorite causes and our Shayna is an NSAL alumnus (Class of '98) too.

Saturday whorage

Another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

Our friend 42 has created a new bumpersticker. Get yours before Election Day.

Let us know what's going on with you in comments.

Bumpersticker of the Day

I found a catalog from Northern Sun in my P.O. Box that was in there by mistake. You lose, Ann. They got tons of lefty shit.

More flag criminals ...

The head of the Joint Chiefs thinks elections this year might be messy. Mr. Aravosis:

It's hard to read this in a good way. Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in yesterday's Washington Post that the elections this year would make us vulnerable. It's a very weird quote, and one that a military officer in a country that isn't a banana republic probably shouldn't be making.

...

It is. But that just goes to show you, if you want to achieve and remain at the flag rank, you have to push the propaganda. More strange comments at the link.

It ain't whether ya win or lose, it's how ya place the blame

Arrest Bush

I'm down wit dat!

Ted Rall

The high-level discussions about these ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were so detailed, [Bush Administration] sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top Al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.”

Bush knew.

Not only did he know, he personally approved it. He likes torture.

“Yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue,” he confirmed. “And I approved.”

George W. Bush has publicly confessed that he ordered torture, thus violating the Convention Against Torture. He, Cheney, Rumseld, Rice and the other Principals must therefore be arrested and, unlike the thousands of detainees kidnapped by the U.S. since 9/11, arraigned and placed on trial.

Because the torture ordered by Bush and his cabinet directly resulted in death, they must additionally be charged with several counts of murder. Fifteen U.S. soldiers have been charged with the murders of two detainees at the U.S. airbase at Bagram, Afghanistan in 2002. They were following orders issued by their Commander-in-Chief and his Principals.

Having spent considerable time with 'principals' in high school, arrest 'em all for torture I say!

The Supreme Court has never resolved the question of whether a sitting president can be arrested by civilian authorities. Even if he were charged and convicted, many legal experts say he could issue himself a pardon.

There is, however, a person who could begin holding Bush and the others accountable for their crimes.

She is Cathy L. Lanier, the 39-year-old chief of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Lanier, take note: you have probable cause to arrest a self-confessed serial torturer and mass murderer within the borders of the District of Columbia. He resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Go get him.

Fuckin' A! Here's my scenario: lock the sonofabitch up and let the legal proceedings start. Given Bush's holdings in Paraguay, he's a flight risk, so deny him bail and leave him in remand while his case grinds its way slowly through the system. Hell, there are lotsa guys in jail who weait months, if not years, in jail like that.

He can go ahead and pardon himself. Only the walls will hear him.

Don't forget Cheney. He can't be left loose to officially become president. He needs to go to Gitmo or Bulgaria or somewhere to await trial. Given that he's the Dark Lord, maybe Azkaban. The Dementors will be disappointed because he has no soul to suck out, but that's tough shit.

Put the book back in the guest bathroom, Georgie

OpEd News

News Flash: SMU Bush Presidential Library Rejection, passed 844-20

This rejection passed on Wednesday morning, 30-April-08, at the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church that is still meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.

This body is the highest authority of the denomination and cannot be over-ruled by any other body within the denomination.

To my darling Methodist wife: I am very proud of your people today for not wanting their school's good name sullied by association with the anti-Christ.

Note to the Chimp: Try Yale. Maybe you can get a 'legacy' library. They're 'elite' enough that all you have to do is give them money.

Update:

The story appears to not be true as pointed out by a really rude penguin. Looks like the SMU Methodists chickened out. They voted to hand it off to some bigger Methodists who probably won't dare diss Bush. Oh well.

A comment from the correcting article:

Why anyone affiliated with any Christian organization would want to be associated with this blight on American mores is beyond me.

Torture, invasion and the raping of our constitution shall forever be the earmarks of the Bush administration. A library? It should more approach a holocaust museum.

Or a dungeon.

The Criminalization of Raw Milk

Counterpunch

On April 25, 2008, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Mark Nolt, a Wenger Mennonite (Horse and Buggy Mennonite) dairyman, threatened for months with arrest for selling raw milk without a permit was removed from his property by state troopers.

Jonas Stoltzfus, a friend, fellow farmer, and Church of the Brethen, was asked by Mr. Nolt to speak for him, and said of the raid yesterday - "Six state troopers and a man with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture trespassed onto his property, and stole $20-25,000 of his product and equipment."

The permitting issue, ostensibly for food safety, is contradicted by a look both at raw milk itself and at its competition, corporate milk - pasteurized and often from cows injected with rBGH.

Four issues stand out:

Yes they do. Go see. Hint: the term 'corporate milk' should be a clue.

Monsanto sells rBGH-milk associated with cancers, Clinton hired Monsanto employees which approved their own genetically engineered product, Hillary Clinton has been silent up to today about the risk rBGH poses to women, PR firms strongly push the milk on all ages. None face jail or fines for altered facts, for PR campaigns encouraging even children to drink rBGH-milk, or for banning labeling of it, which has put the entire US population at medical risk for years. Monsanto, the Clintons, Burson-Marsteller and Goodby, Silverstein and Partners are all making millions.

Mr. Nolt, released after being taken off by state troopers, refused to accept a ride from them. He started walking. Friends gave him a lift home.

Raw milk is not generally available in the small town where we live now, but me'n Mrs. G drank raw milk for years. Pasteurization was basically an improvement that allowed people to not get sick themselves from drinking milk from sick cows. What Big Milk is putting in the product these days isn't any good either, but it keeps production levels up.

I'm with Mr. Nolt in another way: I've walked home from jail lotsa times.

Bush admits lying about 'winning'

BuzzFlash

RADDATZ: But the overall thing -- when you say, "We're winning," you know what the American people hear. You know how that will play.

BUSH: Well, yes. I think we -- and I wanted -- that's as much trying to bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well as -- look, you can't have the commander in chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing either, "It's not worth it," or, "You're losing." I mean, what does that do for morale?

So Bush essentially lied to our soldiers in order to keep them believing that they were "winning" a war that they were losing because of years of lies and mismanagement coming directly from Bush and Cheney.

Now people died as a result of these lies and the Bush-Cheney malfeasance.

That, my friends, is some hypocrisy. It's also criminal neglect.

He didn't just lie to our soldiers. He lied to everyone.

And he knew that he was lying all along. We knew that, of course.

Why are Bush in Cheney still in office and not in prison?

Union's War Protest Shuts Down West Coast Ports

NYTimes

West Coast ports were shut down on Thursday as thousands of longshoremen failed to report for work, part of what their union leaders said was a one-day, one-shift protest against the war in Iraq.

"We're loyal to America, and we won't stand by while our country, our troops and our economy are being destroyed by a war that's bankrupting us to the tune of $3 trillion," the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Bob McEllrath, said in a written statement. "It's time to stand up, and we're doing our part today."

About 25,000 union members are employed at 29 West Coast ports, but the protest took place only during the day shift. A spokesman for the main West Coast employers' group, the Pacific Maritime Association, said it appeared that about 6,000 workers did not show up for work, which meant that about 10,000 containers would not be loaded or unloaded from about 30 cargo ships.

On the Seattle waterfront, members of the United Auto Workers and the Service Employees International Union mixed with self-described socialists while many of the scores of police officers on the scene ate box lunches and petted their horses.

In Oakland, Calif., some truckers who said they were angry about high gas prices decided not to cross picket lines at the port.

"I got here ready to haul," said Cesar Lara, 41, a resident of Richmond, Calif., born in Zacatecas, Mexico. "They told me it was a picket but if I wanted to go in I could. But I'm supporting them and to end the war."

Kevin Schroeder, director of Local 13's political action committee, said, "The children of middle-class people are over there dying, so we decided to do something. We are fortunate enough to be in an organization that has a platform to do something."

My hat's off to everyone who participated in this action. That said, one shift won't do anything other than perhaps raise awareness. Hit Big Biz in the pocketbook for a week or so and it might do even more when W**-M***'s shelves run bare of cheap Chinese gimcracks.

Now, if everybody who works for The Bigs stayed home one day...

This thought just jumped into my head: Wanta raise awareness? How about all the 'fast food' employees strike for one day? Folks'd notice that.

Why is it ... revisited

That nothing the Bush administration does goes according to plan? Nelson Mandela, for crying out loud?

Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA.

...

Then again, maybe it is going according to plan?

Now I'm going ... according to plan ... sort of ...

Why is it ...

I know more about Miley Cyrus (What the fuck kinda name is Miley?) than I ever wanted to know? Is there nothing else going on in the world? Thank God it's Friday. I always manage to find a couple hours on the weekend to sit and watch the Beeb and EuroNews and see what everybody else (aside from Barack, Hil, and Miley) is doing.

Off to work ...

Convenient?

Pre-911, this might have gotten a raised eyebrow from me at most. In today's climate, the DC Madam's suicide sounds pretty suspicious to me. Our pal Montag:

... I think we do need a public disclosure of all her clients, it would do them all some good.

We might find out 50 years from now if anyone cares by then. Somehow, I don't think a senatorial hack from LA was the most powerful person with a 'service' appointment.

Ya hadda take a poll?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.

...

No shit, Sherlock.

Obscenity ...

For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices.

...

Heaven forbid they give the American public, you know, the folks who have to buy your product or starve, a break when times get bad. Ya made a $60 billion off us last year, you know, when the price of gas was half what it is now. Greedy bastids.