Caturday!

Well! Hasn't this been an exciting week!

• Bishop Willard "Mitt" RomneyCare started the week claiming to have created 100,000 jobs while at vulture corporation Bain Capital, but ended it whimpering something about "6,000 jobs."

• After claiming that Romney won the Iowa state caucus, the GOP had to reverse itself and announce that Santorum actually won (Headline: Santorum easily slides ahead?)

• Jon Huntsman (who? Oh, c'mon! You know! The guy who was polling at 1% or lower but the media still insisted he was in the race, even while refusing to let Buddy Roemer or Gary Johnson speak!) finally took his two million dollars worth of dental work and three hot daughters out of the public eye by announcing that he's dropping out of the race.

  In a slap-in-the-face to all the "liberals" who love him (because the Republicans/conservatives hate his motorcycling ass with a passion), he endorsed Bishop Willard. WTF, Jon? Y U treat us so bad, after telling us that schmuck was unelectable? Did the Temple Leaders threaten to take away your planet, or what?

• Rick Purreh finally took pity on a suffering America and took his moronic undereducated dumber-than-the-last-Texas-hick ass back to N*****head Ranch where I guess he's keeping the local coyotes in fear for their lives and asking God "Why? Why me, Lord?" as he weeps incoherently into his bourbon-and-branch.

  Whom did he endorse? None other than "amoral jewelry-debt piglet"* Newt Gingrich, the man with the plan for trinkets from Tiffany's.

• Meanwhile, the Godbag Faction of the Republican Party met last Sunday to anoint Santorum as their Chosen.

  No, not with santorum, you sick little puppies. In any event, those Fuckus on The Fambly turds, those Christianist Bible-bashers and homo-haters and misogynistic morons of Rightwingnuttia decided that their Not-MittRomney candidate would be Rick Santorum. These assholes were totes backing (P)Rick Perry just last week, so, talk about pivoting on a dime here. Faithless sluts.

• Perennial punching bag and media slut-moron Sarah Palin apparently has lost even more of her brain to whatever deadly disease was making her spew word salad.

  After being informed that Newt's second wife, Marianne Gingrich, would be interviewed by ABC right after the South Carolina Republican debates, Babble Spice snorted that this would help Gingrich soar. Puzzled media bobbleheads have finally figured out that she meant Newt's amoral and perverse sexual shenanigans might have left him a little *sore,* or something. **

• Over in Wisconsin, the Recall Walker campaign announced that it had received more (lotsmore) signatures than the minimum required to achieve their aim. Down, down, down goes Snotty Wanker, erstwhile governor of Wisconsin and rent-boy for the Koch Bros.

So, what's the deal, Republicans? Are y'all just tired of being a party, or what? Because this is some pretty weak fucking sauce, here, jes' sayin. I know we here at La Casa de Los Gatos have been saying for a while that President O could just cold phone it in, but, man? Do y'all have to make it so EASY for him? Y'all spent six years telling us he was a weak-ass n*****, a compromiser who caved on everything and apologised to everyone and bowed to foreign leaders and was morally weak. Meanwhile, he's been kicking y'alls asses nine ways to Sunday every day of the week.

I have heard Republicans telling me for six years or more about the fight against terrorism and how y'all are going to follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, and y'all know where he is and will take him out but only if we elect you (WTF? Treason much?). So, do we wanna talk about who might actually have taken bin Laden out? Because, you know, I don't remember that Republican President we had before Mr. Obama, you know, the one that NOBODY seems to want to talk about, I mean, they're *still* talking about Clinton and Carter, but you know, that guy, seems like everyone's done gone and forgotten about him, when he said he didn't care about bin Laden any more, and he disbanded the task force that was supposed to be looking for bin Laden, I don't recall ONE SINGLE Republican saying anything then. Not one word about following him to hell, or they will pay, or none of that shit. No, sir. None a that shit. And now Mr. Obama, he took out that Mr. bin Laden, and he took out that Mr. al-Zawahiri and he took out a whole bunch of these here, what the Republicans was calling "terrorists," round about ten years ago. He took them all out. And what do you suppose our fine Republican friends did about that? Did they say "Thank you, Mr. Obama"? Did they say "Thank you Mr. President, for keeping our country safe"? No, sirree, they did not. They said he illegally invaded a sovereign nation. These people, who had no problem with the US invading the sovereign nation of Iraq, which was NOT involved in any attacks against us, got all upset because Mr. Obama had to send a surgical strike team to take out the man who masterminded the most recent attack on American soil, who was being sheltered on Pakistani territory, by our "allies." Imagine that. Did you think you'd live to see the day when a bunch of "America, right or wrong! America, love it or leave it!" assholes would be more upset about the rights of those who shelter our enemies than about our right to pursue those enemies who kill our citizens?

And when he's not the Caveman-in-chief, he's supposed to be some kind of Superman who is singlehandedly preventing yon teabaggers from getting anything done while shoving unpopular measures down the collective throat of the American people. He's a Marxist, a Stalinist, a Fascist, and an Islamist, he controls the courts (which, nevertheless, stubbornly refuse to rule in his favour on certain issues, why, no one can say). He's using mind control techniques to hypnotize the weak willed sheep who are cowed by his bullish tactics even as they are seduced by the pork he proffers. Geez, no wonder we're obese. Half our metaphors are about spectator sports and the other half about food. Oh, NOEZ!! He's forcing states to take care of sick people, disabled people, poor people, babies and children who might be hungry, starving people, old people! How AWFUL!

What the FUCK kind of world are we living in where these nutbags can turn reality into something resembling sausage, i.e., chopped up, mixed up, and stuffed up a pig's anus? Seriously. There is a styful of pigs on the Republican side of this election. Fortunately, it's thinning. Still, the choices fucking suck.

So it's off to Florida for Mittens and Newt and Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, while the rest of America stabs itself in the eye with a fork over and over and over, just to dull the pain.

Happy Caturday, y'all!

* Forever indebted to Kirsten Boyd Johnston of Wonkette for the so-fitting sobriquet of "amoral jewelry-debt piglet" for Newtie.
** Apparently, Bobblehead Barbie was correct, and them South Carolinians just LERVE them some amoral pigfuckery of the adulterous, wife-dumping, intern-humping, vow-breaking Nouveau Papist variety. Newt Gingrich just won South Carolina.

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Sally Kern, Ambulatory Fecontainer

If you didn't already know who Sally Kern is, feel free to look her up right here, which is where we pinched this horrifying photo.

Sally Kern's bigotry doesn't just aim itself at Teh Ghey. She is also no fan of women or minorities (no, she doesn't belong in either category), as she evinced by this speech. So why should it even be news that this dreadful cackling cow is making yet another gay-themed grab at headlines? She's got a book out. It's titled The Stoning of Sally Kern. Regrettably, it's not an instruction manual. Stupid twat, I mean, twit. Can you imagine having anything at all to do with this fetid ambulatory pigshit canister? No? Neither can we. Yet, somehow, she managed to find something that would join loins with her long enough to spawn. There's a persistent rumour in blogtopia that her husband, Southern Baptist minister Steven D. Kern, was once a member of the KKK. There's also the little matter of her gay son. Srsly. Click that link to read an interview with him. If your gaydar doesn't hit 12 out of a maximum of 10, let us know. These people just make us hork a big fat fucking hairball, OK? Srsly. And then there are people like this in the universe, who renew our faith in humanity and make it clear that the Kerns of this world are not a reason to give up on all its beauty, wonder, and awe:

The reason you have to "deal with" homosexuality is because these men and women are our fellow citizens. America is the people who show up. The show up for work, school, volunteer. They show up in the military, the police, the fire department (and the fire department calendars). They raise their kids and watch out for their neighbors.

The lesson I choose to take from 9/11 is not the paranoid fantasy that "they" are destroying us. It's that people are good. On that day, they called home to say "I love you". They helped strangers escape the danger -- sometimes dying in the effort. They fought back and made God work like the devil to take their lives. And they didn't check each other's religion, sexual preference, political party or immigration status.

Wonkette commenter JustPixelz

Yeah. That. Also, kittehz. We at this blog don't take our responsibilities lightly.

Too, FUCK YOU Sally Kerns! FUCK YOU very, very much, you horrendous bitch. Why can't all the people who have a problem with their GAY FAMILY just deal with it and leave the rest of us alone?

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A Moment of Silence

We all know what day it is.

President Barack Obama has challenged us to turn this day into a positive memorial to those who died by making it a day of service.

So mote it be.

We're off to do our bit for the neighbourhood and fire prevention. Have a wonderful Friday and a wonderful weekend, all.

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Politics: Mmmm, Peach Mint

My favourite flavour.

You will be happy to hear that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez today displayed their solid steel gonads to the White House. Which were so big, they needed a goddamned wheelbarrow to schlep them!


No, really. Conyers basically told the Gang of Thieves, Crooks, and Liars that they had better get him the documents he had requested, including unredacted FBI reports related to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe into the leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Operative quote:

“Both the rules and our previous oversight activity concerning the Fitzgerald investigation plainly encompass the current inquiry, and the notion that our oversight concerning criminal law enforcement should somehow stop at the gates of the White House has no proper basis.”

Um, YOW? Yowza, yowza, yowza? Been a long time since we heard such ass-kickin' plain talk from the representatives of We The People, yes?

(Pant, pant, pant, gasp)


And as if that wasn't enough, in a further display of gonadal wherewithal, Chairman Conyers and Chairwoman Sanchez went on to tell reptilian slime repository and FAIL-laden human impersonator KKKarl Rove, through his lawyer, that said maggot had better drag his pasty segmented behind before the committee on the date stated or the crack in it might be widened by lawful but forceful means. Operative quote:

“As Committee staff made clear, and as we indicated in our May 1 letter, the proposal that we somehow seek to separate the Siegelman matter from the broader issue of politicization of the Justice Department is unacceptable,” the two lawmakers wrote.

This hearing is related to the important matters of the unlawful prosecution and imprisonment of Governor Siegelman and the politicization of the Department of Justice.

In related news, Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment are now before the committee, and The Mighty Munchkin of Justice is pressuring the committee to consider them forthwith. If you want impeachment, help Dennis out by letting Conyers and Sanchez, and Dennis, and your Rep know that you support his request and they better get off their ass and review the damn thing. You have 21 days to take these actions. Also please contact all your friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues, even those who don't support impeachment - the mood of the country is changing, and they may have changed their minds. Operative quote:

The Ohio lawmaker said that it is now “incumbent” for the Judiciary Committee to review evidence he presented. He promised that if the committee failed to hold any hearings on the resolution within thirty days, he would repeat his efforts. He told one reporter Wednesday, “Leadership wants to bury it, but this is one resolution that will be coming back from the dead. … I will be bringing the resolution up again, and I won’t be the only one reading it.”

Don't forget to call, write, or email &mdash or do all three. If at all possible, impeachment may be the one thing that could prevent Winky McMonkeyBrain from starting a third war with Iran.

From the fine folks at ICHC

Given how successful we've been lately in Iraq and Afghanistan, we DO NOT WANT or need to start the next Presidency and Congressional Session tied up in foreign disasters. We have plenty of domestic disasters to deal with. So please, please, please, call, email, and write!

Kucinich has also warned the Judiciary Committee that if they don't get to it post-haste, he's going to present 60 (SIXTY!) articles of impeachment on the next go-round. Please thank him for his efforts. YAY Dennis! You rock! Operative quote:

“The minute the leadership said ‘this is dead on arrival’ I said that I hope they believe in life after death; because I’m coming back with it,” Kucinich vowed in an interview with the Sleuth this week. “It’s not gonna die. Because I’ll come back with more articles. Not 35, but perhaps 60 articles.”

[...]

For Kucinich, impeachment is more than simply a political windmill at which to tilt, he says. It’s about preserving the sanctity of the republic’s founding document.

“What we’re witnessing here,” he says, “is the not-so-slow-moving destruction of our Constittuion.”

Raw Story has the videos, copies of the letters, and more information at each preceding link.

Meanwhile, further displays of courage continue to erupt from other quarters. McClatchy, one of our few actual news organizations left, is reporting that Major General Antonio Taguba, who spoke out against the Bush regime's routine use of torture on detainees, is accusing the Misadministration of war crimes, and calling for those responsible to be held accountable. Operative quote:

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Be still, our beating heart! Our collective goddammit beating heart!!

And Amy Goodman over at Democracy Now! tells us that former Senator Mike Gravel is calling for an independent investigation into 9/11 and the prosecution of Stupie O'Stutters and Demon McVampire, otherwise known as our not-at-all-esteemed Leaders.

Dang! It never rains but it pours, yes? Let's hope all these separate actions with a common goal bear the kind of fruit we want &mdash that these criminals receive their just desserts of investigation, impeachment, and imprisonment. Personal Responsibility! The people demand they take some!

These hypocrites and liars were so willing to call for personal responsibility on the part of the sick, the weak, the poor, the suffering, the helpless, the ill and disabled. When it comes to their own responsibility for anything, the only thing they're quick to show is a clean pair of heels. It's time to turn that around now.

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

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World: War Crimes

Image from Court of Impeachment and War Crimes Blog

Well, well, well. We haven't always liked former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. In fact, when Anwar Ibrahim was running against him and he brought Anwar down and even had him set up, arrested, and jailed, we thought he was one of the most disgusting politicians and human beings we had ever come across.

But this week, Mister Ten Per Cent has almost completely redeemed himself in our eyes. He just called for Tony Blair, George Dubya, and John Howard to be tried for war crimes based on their actions in Iraq. From The Australian:

In a speech at Imperial College in London overnight, Mr Mahathir called for an international tribunal to try US President George W. Bush, Mr Howard and former British prime minister Tony Blair for their part in the conflict [...].

Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq said Mr Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wanted to see the trio tried "in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq".

"He said that people have to stop killing each other and use arbitration, negotiation and discussion as an alternative to violence, war and killing."

On the war in Iraq, Mr Mahathir spoke about "the thousands dying, the economic war, the power of oil and how we could utilise some of these tools to have a leverage against the people who commit countries to war", Mr Shafiq said.

[...]

More than 450 people attended the speech and about 200 more had to be turned away.

Why isn't any other Leader of Teh Free World stepping up and putting their support on the line? Mahathir is saying what millions of ordinary people have been thinking for a long time. Tony Blair is a war criminal. Gee Dubya is a war criminal. John Howard is a war criminal. These three stinking fetid pigballs are responsible for the deaths of one million human beings, maybe more.

We went into a secular nation that was not threatening us in any way based on the 935 lies of Gee Dubya Pigball, and we killed women, children, old people, sick people, the disabled. We destroyed families and homes, and now we can't even leave because the entire country is trembling on the verge of a civil war that threatens to destroy more millions. We took that secular nation where women had jobs and freedom, and we turned it into an Islamic fundamentalist state where honor killings have become the order of the day. From The Guardian:

Last year 133 women were killed in Basra - 47 of them for so-called 'honour killings', according to the Basra Security Committee. Out of those 47 cases there have been only three convictions for murder.

Since January this year, 36 women have been killed.

That's Basra alone. Just one city in Iraq. Who knows how many more women are being murdered in honour killings, or for failing to conform to the fundie codes of dress and behaviour that did not exist in this country when Saddam Hussein was in power.

It's a sad and shameful day indeed when a democratic nation does more harm to the rights of women in another land than its totalitarian dictator.

Meanwhile, somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden laughs his ass off watching us drown under the rising tide of debt, the cost of financing two wars, the armless, the legless, the wounded and maimed who come back to a system that can't take care of them. We can't give health care to our own children, but we're creating hundreds of thousands of potential recipients of health care, disability payment, and support services that we haven't bothered to put in place or pay for.

All the people associated with this crime against humanity need to face the gallows for their part in it. While Blair rakes in the millions, Howard has disappeared, afraid to face his countrymen, and Gee Dubya is relegated to dancing in front of reporters and acting like a cheap drunk with foreign dignitaries.

They all need to be in the Hague. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Pearle, Rice, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Dumbya, Gonezales, Tenet, the whole bloody lot. For shaming this once-proud nation. For destroying our system of laws. For thinking up ways to violate human rights. For approving torture. For planning and carrying out the murder of a million people. For causing soldiers who obeyed orders to commit suicide in despair due to homelessness, depression, injuries physical, mental, and spiritual. For failure to care for those they put in danger. For burdening the nation with inflation, debt, suffering, death, poverty, joblessness and misery.

A pox on all their houses! May they suffer every day of the rest of their lives from nameless fears and miseries and sickness, plague and disease.

Where are the European politicians and the other Asian politicians and the African politicians? Why are they not standing behind Mahathir in this moment? If the whole world called for these war criminals to be tried, and made it unsafe for them to travel outside the country, perhaps they would understand how much suffering they have created.

Here's to hoping Paraguay arrests the Chimpenfuehrer when he tries to flee there, and turns him over to an international tribunal.

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Iraq: Interesting Juxtaposition

Seen this morning over at Huffpo:

First headline: Poll: Majority Of Americans Say War Not Worth It

Second headline: Bush: Iraq War Worth It

In other news, although why call it "news" when it's not new and should come as no surprise to anyone, Drunky McStaggers once again attempts to tie 9/11 and his old friend Osama bin Laden (hey, where is Osama, anyway?) to Iraq.

"The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around -- it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror. For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al-Qaeda rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaeda out. In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous network. The significance of this development cannot be overstated."

No, you pathetic dry drunk drug-addled brainless idiot. Iraq was the proverbial innocent bystander here. Your friends the Saudis who won't increase oil production no matter how much you beg and grovel and publicly fellate them sent 15 of their citizens in a well-funded plot directed by a mastermind your Daddy's hunchmen trained, to damage America. That mastermind, Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding out in Afghanistan, where we're losing yet another war, thanks to your failed concepts of military strategy. Or he might be in Pakistan, where your good buddy Musharraf is soon to join the ranks of ex-dictators of Pakistan (notorious mainly for being assassinated).

Remember that picture? Five years ago, this idiot told us the war was over. Since then, 4,000 American troops have died; over one million Iraqis have died, men, women, children, old people, sick people, blind, deaf, and otherwise disabled people; between 3 and 5 million Iraqis are refugees, either in neighbouring nations, or internally displaced, because Shrinky McBrainless hasn't done squat to have the U.S. take in those Iraqis who worked with us and are now targeted by death squads; over 30,000 U.S. servicemen are maimed, injured, and disabled; and who knows how many Iraqis we have left wounded.

For a little perspective on how much this war is costing us and a comparison of timelines, drop by Gordon and Fixer's. Take a bucket, you'll need to puke.

Drunky's liege lord, Senior Puppetmaster and professional impersonator of human life, Snarly McCrashcart, meanwhile, flew his wife and daughter on a junket to the middle-east, that tinderbox of explosive politics. What are they doing, you ask, you humble American taxpayer whose dollars are financing that junket, even as you work your ass off without an inflation-matching raise for a decade? Goin' fishing. No, no kidding. Even as the reptilian bastard snarls in public about the nonexistent links between al Qaeda and Iraq.

When informed that two-thirds of the American people don't support the illegal, immoral war of occupation in Iraq, Snarly gave the American public the rigid digit. See the video clip for yourself.

So, you the two-thirds of the American Public who are against this war? Better get off yer asses and do something about it. And no, electing John McInsane is not the answer, because he can't tell his al Qaeda from a hole in the ground, and wants to start another war &mdash in Iran &mdash so the economy can go even further into the hole than it is already.

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Report on Iraq

Our esteemed fellow-blogger and bud, Stephen Herron, who is Drinking Liberally in New Milford (the only blogger guaranteed to be plastered all over the internets, and he ain't kidding) points us to a copy of that report the Pentagon and Drunky McStaggers do NOT want the American people to see.

Call yourself a patriot? Do something patriotic. Print the damn thing out and throw a report-reading party. Or email it to everyone you know. Donate a copy to your local library. Link to Stephen and thank him for finding the damn thing. Thank ABC for making it available. Think of something to get this out there. Please. If only every lie that Drunky McStaggers and his merry band of lying theives and incompetents had told had some hard evidence that could be handed out to refute them.

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War: Meanwhile, Over At The Other Success

Raw Story tells us that A a suicide car bomber blew himself up next to a convoy of Canadian troops in Kandahar yesterday. Toll? One civilian dead, two soldiers wounded.

A Humvee vehicle of the convoy was burned and destroyed.

Other important factoids for your perusal:

• 160 suicide attacks and 68 thwarted attempts (2007);
  
  
• 123 suicide attacks and 17 failed attempts (2006)
  
  Source for both sets of numbers: U.N. report released Monday 03/10/08 in New York. The report adds that insurgency-related violence has killed more than 8,000 people in Afghanistan in 2007. 1,500 of the dead were civilians.

Not that we're trying to piss on your parade or anything, but that's more than double the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, y'awl.

And, speaking of Iraq, Raw Story is reporting that three soldiers were killed in Iraq today, bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of this immoral and illegal war of occupation to 3,987. Only thirteen more to go, Dumbya, before you hit 4,000. You've already killed over 1,000 more Americans than Osama bin Laden. How does that feel?

Well, the depraved idiot seems to think it feels just fine. He's out there "reframing" the Iraq war as "forever" the right decision to make. What a putrid little bucket of puke. Makes us wish we believed in God just so we could imagine the nasty little bastard burning in Hell forever.

Stumble It!

Iraq: "Surge"

Of course, expecting Tony Snow to tell the truth, ever, on any subject for any reason, would have to mark you as a gull of the first order. That man lies every time his lips move. Still, he said something today that caused a major twitch in the PoliticalCat ears: Apparently (according to the lying diseasebag and shill Tony Snow), some 80 per cent of Bush's advisors opposed the surge, that disastrous temporary increase of troops to Baghdad that allowed Iraqi insurgents to migrate smoothly to other cities in Iraq, where they have since fulfilled their mandate of causing extreme trouble.

Snow's mendacity, exceeded only by his extreme stupidity, can best be seen in this statement:

“Everybody was telling him, ‘You’re crazy, don’t do this,’” Snow said. “You get the chills. He’s really unafraid to take the hits if he thinks he’s doing the right thing.”

Tony, you pathetic fucking idiot, what does he have to be afraid of? It's not like anybody's shooting at him, his kids, his family. We here at Casa de Los Gatos are completely and really unafraid to give the Iraqi insurgents the finger! In fact, we so firmly believe that we are doing the right thing that we hereby give the entire Afghani nation the finger.

What are they gonna do about it? Bomb some Canadian troops? Maim some American soldiers? Shoot some German soldiers in the head? Hahahaha! We laugh at their patheticness.

Jeebus fucking J.H. Christ, where do these morons come from? What the hell does Chimperor McDunce have to be afraid of? It's not like anyone's coming to take his meds or his case of Wild Turkey away for exhibiting verbal diarrhoea.

That's why he could say "Bring it on!" to the Iraqi insurgents, and when they did, he just threw 30,000 more bodies into the meatgrinder. Not his body, oh no. Like Darth Cheney, the Idiot Boy has "other priorities."


No, instead he sends his chimpminions to drag this suicidal, homicidal, bipolar, alcoholic soldier out of a hospital bed and return him to the frontlines. And these guys. And these guys.

And it's just so marvelously effective, all this surgeation and redeployment. Why, just look! Look how we're winning, winning, winning.

Meanwhile, because we took our collective eye off the ball in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is hiding, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is now forced to beg NATO nations for more troops for Afghanistan.

This focus, Gates writes in his letter, explains why Washington is now sending 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan -- troops which will join the 26,000 soldiers already stationed in Afghanistan. The Marines, though, will stay for seven months at the most, after which other NATO allies are expected to take up the slack. Where Gates is pointing the finger, though, is clear: at the Germans.

How disingenuous of Gates to fail to mention that the U.S. Marines wanted out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, which is why they're being sent there. And why not? At least Afghanistan is a just war.

However, our NATO allies are having problems with our overly enthusiastic warmongering, it seems. It's not just the $5.2 trillion lost in world stock markets thanks to the U.S. subprime lending woes (Regulation BAD, right Republicans? Here's yer $5.2 TRILLION worth of bad, you dumb pricks) that's bothering them. Der Spiegel says:

Early in the week, the Canadians also ramped up the pressure on Berlin. After losing 78 soldiers in Afghanistan, Ottawa issued a clear threat to its allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels: Either the Europeans send 1,000 combat troops, together with helicopters, to Kandahar, or Canada will completely withdraw its roughly 2,500 soldiers from Afghanistan next year.

[...]

Officials at the German defense ministry have called the Gates letter an "outrage." The Americans, they say, are fully aware of the special circumstances -- conditions imposed by the German parliament -- under which German forces currently operate in Afghanistan.

Of course, Gates is trying to disguise the begathon as a "stern warning." Good luck, ya dumb fuck.

Here's what the Germans have to say:

"I have a clear mandate from the German parliament," Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters Friday. "It consists of 3,500 soldiers serving along the northern border, and only helping out in the south for a limited period of time, as needed."

Meanwhile, the NATO Secretary-General's take on Gates' posturing for the home market is, um, refreshing:

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was quick to condemn the letter on Friday. According to Reuters he said it was "not helpful."

He said it was unfair to say Germany was doing too little and he would prefer if discussion on boosting troop numbers in Afghanistan was not done in public.

Of course, Gates' begathon would probably have yielded better results if he hadn't first trashed other NATO commanders' role in Afghanistan. Or shill for an administration that has shown all too clearly that the "war on terrrrra" is really a pretext for a war on American citizens and taxpayers.

Stumble It!

Politics: Official: Military Broken

Feel safer yet, people? Those of you responsible for electing Chimpy McDrunktard to power owe the rest of us - and the whole goddamned world - a fucking apology. Because you pathetic bedwetters were terrified out of your puny minds thanks to the tactics of Snarly McCrashcart and Pasty SlimeFingers, you failed to notice that this gang of crooks was using questionable tactics against yourselves, your fellow citizens, and the rest of the world.

You turned a blind eye as they ignored the true nature of the terror that brought this mighty nation to its knees and left it cowering under the covers for seven years. You ignored the fact that the majority of the terrorists who blew up the Twin Towers came from the same country that your Pretzeldunce flies to regularly, where he kisses the ruling family's royal arses. You believed the Idiot Boy when he told you to line up and throw your children, friends, neighbours, fellow citizens, or yourselves into a meatgrinder. You gave away your - and our - civil rights. You gave away everybody's human rights. You handed him your wallet, your ATM card and PIN number, and the keys to the house and car.

Well, Mr. Bring-It-On has one last arse-rogering for you. Better hope you've got lube, 'cause he sure as fuck won't be bringing any.


Raw Story tells us that the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves has issued a 400-page report essentially saying:

... that the nation "does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available" to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons incident, "an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk."

"Right now we don't have the forces we need, we don't have them trained, we don't have the equipment," commission Chairman Arnold Punaro said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Even though there is a lot going on in this area, we need to do a lot more. ... There's a lot of things in the pipeline, but in the world we live in — you're either ready or you're not."

The report adds that nearly a year ago, 88 percent of units were not combat-ready, and today that number is lower still.

So what the fuck happened to all the troop-supportin' war-lovin' and taxpayer-money-redistributin' that was going on? Where the fuck is our money and why was it not used to ensure that our troops are ready to protect our lives and our nation? Seems like we had plenty of money to give to Dumbass McChimperson's friends and family. Seems like we bought defective pumps for New Orleans with some of that fine taxpayer money from Dumbass' brother Jeb; and bogoid worthless "learning materials" from another brother Neal. Seems like a little of that TWO TRILLION FUCKING DOLLARS that we just threw down the bowlhole called Iraq might have been spent on military preparedness. You know, given 9/11 and all.

Punaro, a retired Marine Corps major general, had sharp criticism for Northern Command, saying that commanders there have made little progress developing detailed response plans for attacks against the homeland.

"NorthCom has got to get religion in this area," said Punaro. He said the military needs to avoid "pickup game" type responses, such as the much-criticized federal reaction to Hurricane Katrina, and put in place the kind of detailed plans that exist for virtually any international crisis.

No shit, sir. You tell 'em. Jeebus, what a pathetic buncha stiffs.

We realized just what a huge boondoggle The Idiotard and his myrmidons and the Republican Party Enablers had pulled on us when Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA. We remember the images, and we were stunned. We knew then that a government that could not even muster a half-assed response to a known, predicted, and defined disaster would need help keeping their own goddamned family jewels safe, much less the nation.


And what, precisely, comprises Stupie McTardibus' response to the news that the military is fucking broken? This. That's right. The Idiot-in-Chief, instead of coming up with a plan to fix what's broken, is, like any chimp, hooting and hollering and jumping up and down in the hope that the sight of his flaccid ballsack and crimson behind will distract potential threateners.

What a fucking idiot. No, really. What a thumpingly unreclaimable hopeless, useless fool. He's afraid that withdrawing troops from Iraq will cause Iran to think the U.S. is a paper tiger. Holy quacking duckshit, you fool. Who cares what anyone thinks? Not only are Americans being killed and injured in Iraq, but, Mister "we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here," our capacity to fight them ANYfuckingwhere is pretty much gone. More than 88 per cent - in plain English, Mr. Stupidous Chimperiffer, that means MOST - of the army reserves and the national guard are incapable, in their present state, of repelling an attack over fucking here.

The pathetic lying, lazy, drunken fool went on to flap his gums:

"You know, a lot of folks say, well, what's next, Mister President?"

Bullshit. We don't believe any "folks" is saying that no more. Based on your tanking poll ratings, we believe a lot of folks are saying, "Please God, how many days before this pathetic fool is back in Crawford clearing brush or whatever the fuck the useless turd does on his vacations? Where's my goddamn Bush Countdown Clock?" That's what "a lot of folks" are saying.

Yep. The Fuckwit-in-Chief, in a pathetic attempt to create a legacy other than the one of stark, staring, dismal FAILURE that is hovering over him right now, decided the way to pull the thrashing stock market out of its feebly flailing funk is - to cut Medicare! Huge cuts, at that. He is going to disembowel Medicare and Medicaid, try to make his tax cuts for the super-wealthy permanent, and keep the military in Iraq, slowly bleeding and dying.

And, even as Doofus O'Disaster is wrecking everything around him, he's proposing to charge Congress $200 for each copy of his (traditionally free) budget. We don't think this move will make enough to constitute a tax rebate for a single citizen.

Meanwhile, back in the nation where Osama bin Laden has been hiding for the past seven fucking years, things are slipping out of control, says Auntie Beeb. A suicide bomber has killed the governor of Helmand province in Afghanistan. A woman politician points out that the Afghani government is doing nothing to protect women (or politicians, for that matter) from routine death threats (which, given the current state of the recently-departed governor of Helmand, ought to be taken seriously). Canada is threatening to pull its troops out of Afghanistan. And the Afghani Senate that we are paying for has sentenced to death a young man who "humiliated Islam" by printing out and circulating an article that was apparently written by other Muslims who questioned the Prophet Muhammad's respect for the rights of women. The Guardian, unlike our own media lapdogs, reveals that the arrest of the person in question is an attempt to silence his brother, also a journalist, who has exposed some of the slavery and sexual abuse common to powerful Afghani warlords.

Is it any surprise that the maelstrom of turd created by the Turdibus Chimperor is causing more U.S. military personnel to take their lives than every before? Suicide rates in the military are the highest that they have been for a quarter of a century. Isn't it bad enough that the Idiotard is killing them, now he's treating them so badly that they're killing themselves. In an aside, we should add that the military has generously agreed NOT to prosecute Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside for attempting to kill herself.

If we didn't think more could be attributed to human greed and frailty than to malice, we would suspect Mister Fucknuts of being an agent of Osama bin Laden. Or part of a plot by Arab sheikhs to destroy the United States. Because that's the only thing the pathetic little turd has had any success in doing to date.

A PDF of the report is available here.

A parting of the hair with the Golden Bat o'Clue for all the idiots and bozos who dragged us, screaming and kicking, into the massive malfeasance and impending collapse that we face today.

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2008 Elections: OMFG

This is exactly why we need political change. This is why we need to elect Obama, goddammit.

Raw Story tells us that Philip Shenon's new book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation alleges that Philip Zelikow (former colleague of then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice) who was appointed executive director of the 9/11 Commission despite his close ties to the Bush White House, was in regular contact with none other than creepy, purulent slimebag KKKarl Rove while overseeing the commission. Shenon is a reporter for the New York Times.

Who the hell was responsible for electing Zelikow in the first place? Blogger, journalist, and author Max Holland blogged details from his copy of the book here. Shenon claims that those responsible for electing Zelikow knew about the conflict of interest, but - unbelievably - allowed Zelikow to retain his position. The article states, in part:

Zelikow "had laid the groundwork for much of what went wrong at the White House in the weeks and months before September 11. Would he want people to know that?" Shenon writes, according to Holland's summary.

Jesus suffering Christ. So this asshole Zelikow knew what was going on, worked to block any action on Clinton-era terrorism czar Richard Clarke's warning that bin Laden was "determined to strike" within the U.S., and then gets appointed to the commission that's supposed to be investigating what went wrong. All the time hangin' with his homies KKKarl and KKKondoleeza. Thanks, you piece of shit. Thanks to you, three thousand people lost their lives. God alone knows how many are walking around with shattered lungs and bodies and minds thanks to the events of that day. Thanks to you, we've squandered TWO FUCKING TRILLION DOLLARS of the taxpayers' money on an endless war and occupation of a tiny little country that had absolutely nothing to do with any of this shit. Thanks to you, Zelikow, you son of a thousand and father of none, nearly four thousand of the U.S. armed forces' troops have lost their lives, and some forty thousand others have lost their health and one or more limbs or organs. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their minds, or their peace of mind, or a family member or loved one, or their jobs and their health care.

Just so you could suck KKKarl's dick. Just so you could "protect" Israel. We are so fucking angry right now that we're ready to plotz. The article adds:

Widows of World Trade Center victims demanded Zelikow resign around the same time, when news emerged that Zelikow had participated in Bush administration transition briefings, but the commission's chairmen defended their executive director.

"Because he was one of the best experts on terrorism in the whole area of intelligence in the entire country, the same--they asked him to help the same reason we asked him to help," 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean said on Meet the Press then. "We haven't found, I think, either Vice Chairman [Lee] Hamilton or myself, any evidence to indicate in any way that he's partial to anybody or anything."

Are you fucking kidding me? Are you so full of shit, Mr. Kean, that you have the gall to say something like that?

"His academic career focused on Cold War issues, from the Cuban missile crisis to the fall of the Soviet Union.... He is certainly not among the world's 'foremost experts' on al-Qaida, a topic on which he appears to have written nothing," wrote Salon's Joe Conason, "and he is very unlikely to have briefed the new administration on that threat."

No shit? You mean just like his good buddy KKKondoleeza Fucking Rice? The bitch who shopped through Hurricane Katrina while people drowned?

According to Holland's summary of Shenon's book,

"Zelikow continued to insert himself into the work of 'Team 3,' the task force responsible for the most politically-sensitive part of the investigation, counter-terrorism policy. This brief encompassed the White House, which meant investigating the conduct of Condoleeza Rice and Richard Clarke during the months prior to 9/11. Team 3 staffers would come to believe that Zelikow prevented them from submitting a report that would have depicted Rice’s performance as 'amount[ing] to incompetence, or something not far from it.'"

Are you fucking KIDDING ME??? Incompetence? Try complete fucking malicious evildoing.

When are these goddamned children of the fetid slime going to be held to account? When? Send them all to a firing squad.

Nancy Pelosi, you stupid cunt, if this does not force your hand and make you move to impeach the whole gang of crooks and liars, you have lost the right to call yourself a human being. Fuck! Thank Evolution we have a Dennis Kucinich in the House. Perhaps the Mighty Munchkin of Justice will manage to get impeachment onto Nancy's agenda. We are truly sorry that Kucinich is not about to be our next President, but perhaps this way he will finally give the American people the justice for which they have longed lo these past seven years.

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2008 Elections: Oh, NOES1!!1i

Edwards is stepping out of the race. Goddammit. We admired him and loved him for forcing the other contenders to face up to issues like poverty and the breaking of the social contract. We understand - he needed to win a state, and did not succeed. But we still hate that it happened. Who will loyal Edwardsians cast their votes for now? Raw Story quotes AP in claiming that 40 per cent will probably vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, while 25 per cent will vote for Obama.

We sincerely hope those numbers are reversed, that is, 40 per cent vote for Obama and only 25 per cent for Clinton. Obama has requested Edwards' endorsement, but the Edwards camp has not announced that it will endorse either candidate.

The race is now between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. On the positive side, that is wonderful, that a woman and an African-American candidate are vying for the presidency as Democratic candidates. On the negative side, we wish Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards were still contending, to spur the entire nation on to greater heights.

Jimmy Carter, the elder statesman and former President (and, quite frankly, one of Casa de Los Gatos' alltime favourite hoomans), has come out in support of Obama without actually endorsing him. Given his long and close relationship with the Clintons, he probably won't endorse - unless the Clintons get up to some more borderline shenanigans.

Speaking of Obama, Carter said:

"We have four children with their spouses, we have eleven grandchildren, four or five of them are married, and all of them, except one, are for Obama," he said in an audioclip of the interview on the Wall Street Journal's website.

"I think that Obama will be almost automatically a healing factor in the animosity now and the distrust that relates to our country and its government," said Carter, 83, who was president from 1977-1981.

Meanwhile, in some really heartwarming GOOD news, Rudy 9iu11ani announced that he is stepping out of the race. Good riddance, Nosferatu. Return to the dank halls where you belong, with that strumpety tiara-laden tart of yours. He was a nasty little bully and we're sincerely glad to be shed of him.

AFP characterizes Giuliani's flameout as "from hero to zero." Well, he was not considered a hero here at Casa de Los Gatos, where his wife's nasty practice of demonstrating surgical tools on live dogs incensed us from Day One. We don't even want to think about all the terrible things that happened during his tenure as Mayor of NYC - Amadou Diallo, Louima, Kerik, the pathetic episode with rescue workers and firefighters' worthless communication devices - all because of the greed and selfishness and outright racism of Rudy Giuliani.

Which makes this statement of his particularly ironic, don'tyouthink?

"You don't always win, but you can always try to do it right ... that's what the American people deserve, a return to honesty and substance in our political discussion," Giuliani said.

The schmuck is endorsing McCain. Let's hope it functions like the Kiss of Death.

Hickabee continues in the race, to provide amusement if nothing else. So, on the Republican side, your choices are dog-torturer Willard "Mitt" Romney; John "100 Years' War" McCain; and Mike "Deepfried Squirrel!" Hickabee. What a buncha creeps.

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Entertainment: Jon Stewart Crushes

Rudy Giuliani - and the richly deserving David Frum, Giuliani's dogsbody - like a couple of bugs.

It is to larf:

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Politics: Sibel Edmonds

A.Q. Khan, renegade Pakistani nuclear scientist considered a hero in Pakistan

Seen anything about Sibel Edmonds' testimony in the paper lately? I recall reading something about a week ago, but it's been pushed off the front page by the much more thrilling business of an intoxicated Britney Spears losing her mind or her kids or her underwear.

The Times of London has an interesting article today on Edmonds' testimony. Sibels worked for the FBI as a Turkish language translator, and, as part of her job, listened in to hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office. An excerpt from her testimony as described in the article states, in part:

... foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.

However, Edmonds said: “He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives.”

If true, this is simply scandalous. Pakistan is known to be a hub of nuclear weapons information. Its top nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, has been proved to have sold nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea. Although he is supposedly under house arrest, no attempt has been made by Pakistani authorities to punish the man.

Despite the expenditure of billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers, American officials have never been permitted to question Dr. Khan. They are not even permitted to ask him questions directly. All questions must be submitted to the Pakistani intelligence authorities, the notorious ISI. The ISI presumably submits the written questions to Dr. Khan and delivers his replies to the U.S. intelligence officials.

Seems like a poor return on our investment. How do we even know that Dr. Khan is responsible for the answers?

Edmonds told the Times that Turki officials acted as a conduit for ISI to deflect suspicion from the Pakistanis.

Intercepted communications showed Ahmad (General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief) and his colleagues stationed in Washington were in constant contact with attachés in the Turkish embassy.

Intelligence analysts say that members of the ISI were close to Al-Qaeda before and after 9/11. Indeed, Ahmad was accused of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.

The results of the espionage were almost certainly passed to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist.

Khan was close to Ahmad and the ISI. While running Pakistan’s nuclear programme, he became a millionaire by selling atomic secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea. He also used a network of companies in America and Britain to obtain components for a nuclear programme.

Edmonds also informed the Times that one of her fellow translators at the FBI was the daughter of a Pakistani embassy official who worked for Ahmad. The translator was given top secret clearance despite protests from FBI investigators.

Feel safer now, America? While Bush's boys in Afghanistan and Iraq were rounding up innocent civilians and incarcerating them for years in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, where they were tortured, his people in the State department were employing ISI moles at the behest of their Pakistani bribers. State was smuggling known terrorists out of the country as a favour to the Pakistani government, lest they "spill the beans."

While we were using napalm and white phosphorus against civilians in Fallujah, the real terrorists were eating our lunch right here at home. Jeezus, this is repulsive.

Is there a single reason left to keep impeachment of Dick and boy george "off the table"?

Nancy? Harry? Are you slimy gutless worms out there?

Go read the whole article for yourself. Try not to vomit.

All this time, we've been chasing illusory monsters in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Meanwhile, a total of $10 billion dollars of taxpayer money has been paid to the Pakistani government, which is sending money to terrorists and permitting Saudi Arabia to run madrassahs in Pakistan that espouse an anti-U.S. position. What are we doing to combat this? We're giving $22 million to - get this - Pervez Musharraf to "promote democracy."

Pervez Musharraf. A military man who led a coup against the civilian government and refuses to resign either his military or his civilian position. Who routinely jails opponents and suppresses dissent by the simple expedient of having dissenters killed. Who is undoubtedly largely responsible for the murder of Benazir Bhutto and several hundred of her followers.

We wonder what the size of his Swiss bank account is.

Meanwhile Preznitwit Stupie McMidas has announced plans to involve the U.S. military in the border areas of Pakistan. To which the Pakistani army and foreign ministry have replied unequivocally that Stupie and his minions are decidedly unwelcome in Pakistan. And it cost us only $10 billion to buy that endearing response. For $10 billion, we deserve better, George. How about a rebuilt bridge in Minnesota, or a repaired levee in Truckee, or a lawsuit against your brother's flawed pumps in New Orleans, for which the beleaguered city is still paying? How about fixing one single fucking thing at home?

And Hillary Clinton, who ought to know better, rushed in to stick her foot in her mouth with some yammer about a joint U.S.-UK team to oversee the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. The Pakistani military spokesman put paid to that idea in no uncertain terms:

"We do not require anybody's assistance. We are fully capable of doing it on our own," said [Major General Waheed Arshad].

Good work, Hill.

In essence, Pakistan is a failing, if not failed, state. If we had paid attention to the true perpetrators of the incidents of September 11th, we would not be in this position now. But no. We had to elect the biggest idiot on the planet, a fool who will go down in history as a total failure in foreign policy.

He really does have the reverse Midas touch, doesn't he? Everything he touches turns to shit.

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Environment: A Compressed-Air Car?

How cool is THAT? Tata Motor Company of India is working with a French company to produce a car that runs on compressed air. Tata has been manufacturing and selling compressed-air buses for nearly eight years now, so the compressed-air car should not be much of a challenge for them at all.

Details about the car:

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

Mini-CAT? City Cat? Too damned cute for words.

$7K for a car. I can't remember when they cost that little.

Raw Story has the video clip and the details.

We here at The Political Cat believe that no one can have too much CAT in their lives. OK, we did once top ten of the little fuckers, and that's dangerous territory, but for a Cat this cute, we'd make way. And will that take the country off the foreign oil teat, or what?

Even though the primary source of oil imports into the U.S. is Canada, Saudi Arabia follows close behind, and it would be worth it to wipe the smug grins off the faces of the people who sponsored Osama bin Laden. If we stopped buying their oil, they wouldn't be able to fund the retrogressive Wahabi school of Islam that is responsible for the jihadist madrassahs that are turning out "martyrs" and "fighters" for the troubling wars attempting to destabilize Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.

And besides, it's hella cute, that little Cat car.

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2008 Elections: Are You A Muslim?

Because Rudy Giuliani wants the whole world to know that, if you are a Muslim (regardless of whether you're observant, nonpractising, orthodox, or in-name-only), he will "chase you back to your cave."

Don't have a cave? No problem! Just tell Rudy which benighted country you come from, and he might just arrange to bomb caves in it! Then he'll deport your Moose-lamb ass back there, so you can hide in obscurity. Yup. He's gonna get rid of you, that's what his spokesweasel says.

Vote for Rudy Giuliani! He'll make you caves and bomb you right back into them.

Video clip of Rudy's spokesman opening mouth and inserting foot available at Crooks & Liars. I wonder if Rudy remembers there are some 100,000 Americans of Pakistani descent in New York? Or if he even cares at all.

Slimy son-of-a-bitch.

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Update: Erla Lillendahl

In her own words, on her own blog, which she kindly had translated into English for those of us who don't read Icelandic.

A partial quote:

I didn't understand the officials’ conduct, for they were treating me like a very dangerous criminal. Soon thereafter I was removed from the cubicle and two armed guards placed me up against a wall. A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody.

If you didn't know better, you'd think you were reading a novel by Kafka.

If you come across this post, Ms. Lillendahl, please accept my apologies for your unpleasant experience. I'd hate to suffer such an experience. I hope some satisfactory resolution is reached.

The only positive thing I can say about this entire affair is, at least she wasn't a brown or black woman in that position. She'd probably be in Guantanamo by now.

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Politics: Anyone Surprised?

Graphic from EFF

From Raw Story comes a report via an AT&T whistleblower that Shrubya the Lesser and his horde of mindless myrmidons were planning to eavesdrop electronically on yer grandmother and all her friends two weeks after taking office. Nearly a year before "9/11 changed everything."

Yes? Am I hearing howls of surprise? Outrage? Anybody home out there?

Wake up, sheeple. Whoever wins Iowa, Republican and Democrat, better make sure they're not going to wiretap you. Terrorists, my ass. They just want a peek in your underwear drawer.

Sheebus MacIntyre's Ghost. They're utterly shameless about flouting the law, aren't they?

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National Security: Airport Workers Use Fake ID

Raw story reports that over 100 people with fake ID received security clearance to work at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The workers appear to be employees of a contractor, highlighting once again why privatizing the nation's security is a BAD idea.

The Republican leadership and the Misadministration have sought, over the past seven years, to privatize any function that can be privatized, and even some that cannot, pouring billions of taxpayer dollars from the public treasury directly into the pockets of scammers, cheats, and thieves. Like Neil Bush, for example, whose Ignite "educational" software is designed to teach "hunter/warriors," especially those requiring special education, how to use rhymes instead of learning math.

In their push for privatization, the Powers That (Used To) Be have deliberately obfuscated the fact that private businesses operate for the profit of their investors and shareholders. Public servants have a duty to the people. This crucial fact leads to private services being inferior when it comes to providing for the health, security, and well-being of the people. Their duty is not to the people. Their duty is to a subset of the people known as stockholders and stakeholders. The article states, in part:

... 110 employees of one contractor on site used social security numbers which either did not exist or belonged to other people, some of whom were dead, according to a criminal complaint.

One undocumented worker looking for work at the airport, who was actually a government informer, was told to look through a box with about 20 airport security badges and "pick one with a picture that most closely resembled his own likeness" the complaint said.

Lovely. Doesn't that make you feel a lot better? Safer? More secure?

How in the name of all that's holy did the Republicans get elected on a platform of keeping the nation safe? All they've done for the past seven years is loot the treasury, give their incompetent friends jobs with big titles and lots of money, divert needed monies to scams which enrich a few select people while leaving most of us worse off, and engage in corruption that endangers the whole nation.

The only good news in the article is that Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, is in charge of prosecuting the case. He has a reputation for honesty, fairness, devotion to the truth and damn the consequences, and a legendary tenacity. These creeps will not get away with their acts.


Note: Twenty-three of the arrestees were undocumented persons in the country illegally.

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Politics: Feeling Safer Yet?

Looks more like a vulture than an eagle

Hey, maybe it's just us over here in Casa de Los Gatos, but wouldn't you expect the Department of Homeland Security to hire people who, like, had enough in the old noggin to check that people's faces matched their passport pictures? You know, instead of needing some senior official from the TSA (the same TSA that is continually harrassing nursing mothers and damaging people's computers) to tell them what to look for? This story is just unbelievable.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently revealed an email sent by a senior official at the Transportation Security Administration giving screeners all over the country very specific details about what sorts of suspicious clues the undercover testers would expect them to notice -- such as ID's with photos that did not match the people using them and boarding passes with altered dates.

[...]

Security expert David Heyman told NBC that despite the tipoffs the screeners still did poorly, and "that's got to be very discouraging."

BushCo - making the world a safer place for someone, but it sure as hell ain't us.

Raw Story has the video.

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