Open thread

Okay, I just watched the series finale of Stargate SG-1. It's as if someone took over the Sci-Fi channel, intent on running a good thing into the ground. They didn't just leave the story line of the entire year hanging, they totally ignored it. Yep, the big bad enemy they've been fighting all year, still there. First, these guys destroyed Battlestar Galactica - and that takes some doing, considering the show was one of the best shows on television, ever. And now this. It's not really clear why tonight's episode even needed to happen, because nothing happened at all. It was like one of those throwaway episodes that shows occasionally have, the ones where you watch and think "okay, that did nothing to advance the plot of the show." I'm curious what others think. Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging

(click photos to enlarge)




Took these photos at Al's Orchid Greenhouse a few weeks back, out in Virginia (Leesburg, I think). Great place. I honestly don't know what this is, though I think it might be a variation on Doritis pulcherimma. Anyway, it's nothing special, but at the same, there's something captivating about it. Meaning, I wouldn't want to own it, but looking at the photos is still kind of breathtaking. Enjoy. Read More......

Now the Pentagon is claiming, again, that we just *might* reduce forces in Iraq next spring

Assuming, of course, that we win by then. Actually, what they said was that we'll start to withdraw if the Iraqi security forces are ready by springtime. This is an absurd statement, and yet another outright attempt by our military leaders to mislead the American people.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno is repeating the same lie that they've been feeding us for years now - "if" things get better, "if" the Iraqi security forces are ready, then we'll withdraw. Uh, duh. I think we always knew that "if" things got better, we'd eventually leave. But things aren't getting better, and no one expects them to get better. Your own troops in charge of training the Iraqi security forces say it will probably take 30 to 40 years, if not longer, to get those forces up to par. And I quote the Washington Post, last October:

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., predicted last week that Iraqi security forces would be able to take control of the country in 12 to 18 months. But several days spent with American units training the Iraqi police illustrated why those soldiers on the ground believe it may take decades longer than Casey's assessment....

"I wouldn't let half of them feed my dog," 1st Lt. Floyd D. Estes Jr., a former head of the police transition team, said of the Iraqi police. "I just don't trust them."....

[Jon Moore, the deputy team chief] estimated it would take 30 to 40 years before the Iraqi police could function properly, perhaps longer if the militia infiltration and corruption continue to increase. His colleagues nodded.

"It's very, very slow-moving," Estes said.

"No," said Sgt. 1st Class William T. King Jr., another member of the team. "It's moving in reverse."

Yeah, I'm sure they'll be ready in 12 months. So what exactly is your point, General Odierno, other than to mislead the American people, and your own troops, because you're so career obsessed that you'll say anything to please the president? You're no better than Petraeus, Pace, and all the other career obsessed generals at the Pentagon who have lost touch with any sense of duty or honor. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 6/22/07

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

This past week was a doozy, during which I very much enjoyed attending the Take Back America conference, and for my troubles being called everything from "dangerous to our Democracy" to "Mao's secret little helper" by Republicans who think secret camps, illegal wiretaps and hush-hushing IMs from the Republican Michael Jackson are apparently equivalent to writing the Federalist Papers.

Not to mention sad-sack, power-leaking mainstream media journo-monkeys who just hate the netroots because, like, we actually base our opinions and reporting on wacky things like facts. We're as bad as the Bush Administration, splattered Joe Klein.

I provided my usual cautious response to Little Man Hate on Sam Seder's show this past Sunday.

Yet, without further ado, I will get to the didactic nature of my weekly encounters with the GOP:

1) Byron York, as many of you may be aware, is a writer of pathetically stupid books like The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, which is neither vast, nor often left-wing and only beginning to resemble an inkling of a conspiracy. But he had to try and sell books somehow, assuming autographed pictures of his circa 80s, Don Johnson 'do don't bring in the big bucks.

In any case, he was at Take Back America, and repeated the lie that people there booed the troops during Senator Hillary Clinton's speech. But hey, he's a Republican, and they lie like he uses LA Looks on his dreamy locks. So I guess it is to be expected.

2) Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. Losing that tough-on-crime cred quickly, are we? First there was Capo Kerik on his payroll. One would have thought that would be bad enough. But I guess Kerik got lonely being the only Attica-bound member of Rudy's crew. So Rudy made sure to add the Scarface of South Carolina, and as he is a Republican, a possible pedophile for good measure.

Who knew that a man could make marrying his cousin look like one of his classier acts?

3) President Bush at 26%?!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Nice legacy, Decider. You think Gordo Liddy would still think your "manhood" was leaping forth in that flight suit as he did way back when? My guess is there is some shrinkage going on. But hey, you're still three points above Nixon when he was leaving office with roughly the same approval rating as Idi Amin. So dare to dream Sergeant Shultz, dare to dream.

4) Finally, there's Ralph Nader. Not a Republican you say? Yeah, whatever. Ralphie is missing the press attention again, so apparently he is thinking about running again. Sure Ralph, you've not done enough damage to this country and tarnished your legacy completely. It sure would have sucked having a President Gore in office the past 6.5 years. (I'm suspecting 27 million Iraqis aren't loving Mr. Nader much nowadays either.)

Isn't there a reality show you could go on, maybe with fellow chump Bloomberg, and every other "Independent" who is supported by GOP money? Or a car with a bad transmission in Zambia you can go see about? Or a wax museum somewhere with an opening? Or another country where you can help elect a despot who will systematically trash everything you claim to have once believed in? I hear Russia is thinking about new elections - communism, what's old is new again, Ralphie!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: I have joined filmmaker Robert Greenwald in starting a new site for progressive original-content video. It can be found at Brave New Films. Please come by, join and make us a daily visit. We are adding to a missing piece of progressive infrastructure I dare say, and we need your support to make it a success. Read More......

Top Romney aide alleged to again be impersonating police officer (then again, Romney is impersonating a conservative so...)

This is so incredibly weird and you have to wonder about the mental stability of this top aide to Romney. This is not the first time something like this has happened and considering the years of Romney and Jay Garrity working together one also wonders what is the matter with Romney who is unable to see that Garrity has serious issues. Also, this latest alleged case of playing a police officer has the added issue of going after someone in the media, for reasons which are not yet clear.

State Police are investigating one of Mitt Romney's top campaign aides for allegedly impersonating a trooper by calling a Wilmington company and threatening to cite the driver of a company van for erratic driving, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the probe.

Jay Garrity, who is director of operations on Romney's presidential campaign and a constant presence at his side, became the primary target of the investigation, according to one of the sources, after authorities traced the cellphone used to make the call back to him. The investigation comes three years after Garrity, while working for Romney in the State House, was cited for having flashing lights and other police equipment in his car without proper permits.

The New Hampshire attorney general, according to the Associated Press, has also opened an investigation into a report that a Romney aide, later identified as Garrity, pulled over a New York Times reporter in New Hampshire and said he had run his license plate.

Is Mitt Romney protecting and hiring people like this who falsely impersonate police officers and harass people under false pretenses? Not very Christian of him. Read More......

New Orleans deaths up 47% post-Katrina

Let's not forget that the Republican "limited government" ideology lost an entire American city. George Bush went on vacation when he knew Katrina was coming, and he stayed on vacation for three days after Katrina hit. Cheney was off shopping for a mansion. While Condi was busy buying thousand dollar shoes in NYC. Bush then put Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, in charge of post-Katrina reconstruction. The GOP congress refused to get involved, or to provide oversight after the fact - remember, they even opposed an independent commission to find out what went wrong. We trusted in the Republicans and their vision of limited government, and it lost us an entire American city. Never forget that fact.

Let's revisit Katrina and just what Bush and the Republicans did.

Bush administration loses nearly $1 billion in Katrina aid

AP documents the failures of Bush to keep his promises after Katrina

You can check out our coverage from the first few days of Katrina here. It's horrifying. Read More......

Cheney is quite literally risking the security of classified documents

The Washington Post reports the latest on Cheney's refusal to obey the rules governing the safekeeping of classified documents:

Vice President Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee yesterday.

Since 2003, the vice president's staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney's staff this year proposed eliminating it.

I had a high level security clearance when I was on the Hill, beyond Top Secret, so I'm familiar with how serious the government is about the security of classified documents and information. What Cheney is doing isn't some esoteric battle over protocol. He's refusing to let the national security watchdogs make sure that his staff isn't being sloppy with classified information. He is quite literally risking our national secrets during a time of war. These rules exist for a reason, the oversight exists for a reason. People are sloppy, and sometimes they're even evil. When you're dealing with classified information, information that can quite literally get someone killed, you need several layers of protection to ensure that the information doesn't slip out, by intent or neglect. That's why we have inspections of offices and individuals who receive and retain classified information, to make sure that their sloppiness (or worse, duplicity) isn't putting our nation, and our troops, at risk.

That's what this issue is about. It's about protecting our national security secrets during war time. For some reason, Dick Cheney doesn't think his staff needs to be as careful with our national security secrets, with the national security secrets of our allies, as do other officials in the federal government. That's an incredibly dangerous and reckless decision that puts at risk the classified information itself, the sources of that information, and every one of us who rely on America's, and our allies', intelligence apparatus to keep us safe.

CREW has more. Read More......

General Peter Pace, incompetent and a liar

From the Washington Post:

The recent rise in U.S. troop deaths in Iraq is the "wrong metric" to use in assessing the effectiveness of the new security strategy for Baghdad, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday in a news conference with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.

Despite military reports to Congress that use numbers of attacks and overall levels of violence as an important gauge of Iraq's security status, Gates and Pace told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that violence is not a useful measure of progress.

So levels of violence are not an indicator of success, but they're in fact the very indicators that Peter Pace has been using to sell this war to the Congress. So Pace either lied to Congress and the public when using such indicators, or he's lying now when claiming that levels of violence aren't an indicator at all. Either way, he's a liar. Read More......

NBC's Today Show features bigoted, homophobe Bill Donohue as authority on bigotry

This is rich. This morning, the Today Show ran a piece on alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. The guest they used to defend Catholics from bigotry? Bill Donohue.

So, let's review Bill Donohue's record. A couple months ago, after the Associated Press treated Donohue like some kind of credible arbiter of what's right and wrong in America, John also did a post on Bill Donohue. Doesn't take much research to find out that Mr. Donohue is a hater:

The "Catholic group" in question is none other than the Catholic League, a far-right fringe group of activists run by a loud-mouthed and somewhat-unhinged-appearing president William Donohue. Donohue is AP's expert on bigotry and religion. And in fact, Donohue is an expert on religious bigotry and hate speech - an expert in spewing it, that is.

Donohue said the following on December 9, 2004 on MSNBC about Jews:

Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex.

Hollywood is controlled by Christian-hating Jews who like anal sex. This is the AP's only source for a story attacking a leading Democratic presidential candidate as being supportive of alleged hate speech. Oh yeah, Donohue also refers to homosexuality as a "gay death style." And Donohoe had this to say about gay actors:

I don't know what about -- the queer-bashing is all about. I'm pretty good about picking out who queers are and I didn't see any in the movie. I'm usually pretty good at that.

Nice job NBC. Donohue is a poster child for bigotry -- and the Today Show just gave his hatred added credibility.
Read More......

Senate Democrats pass energy reform despite GOP efforts

The GOP continues to coddle and protect their friends in Big Oil who are always open to a free ride on the backs of the American middle class consumer. Senate Democrats continue pressing forward with dragging the GOP, Big Auto and the oil industry into the modern world, succeeding to increase the average fleet mileage for the first time in 20 years and starting the process of changing our energy policies. The GOP did succeed in defeating a tax increase for Big Oil, once again choosing to prop up the best interest of the oil industry over average Americans who are already suffering with earnings problems and increases in daily expenses for food and gas.

Bush meanwhile is asking that Congress is "realistic" about an energy policy. For non-CEO Americans, getting serious about energy is in fact realistic and a plan for the future. Ignoring the problem and throwing corporate welfare to Big Oil and the automobile industry is not helping the vast majority of Americans who want change, who want to move beyond the best interests of Big Oil and who would like choices with cars. Just because Detroit, Big Oil and the GOP want something doesn't mean 300 million people have to follow. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Ah, Friday. This felt like a long week.

Let's get it started. Read More......

Mugabe forcing regime change with inflation

For those living in the industrialized first world, comprehending such levels of inflation are almost impossible. My first experience with such numbers were in the early '90s when working with Brazilians who told stories about getting paid and running out to buy groceries immediately before the value declined. In Zimbabwe today, the scene is even more extreme with valuations being adjusted twice per day with expectations of 1.5 million percent by the end of 2007. Black market currency trading, while illegal, is necessary for anyone who hopes to keep pace with the staggering rates.

All of this adds up to continued misery for the general population and the strong likelihood of regime change for Mugabe, brought on by himself and his self-centered policies according to US ambassador Christopher Dell. Read More......

Least popular president since Nixon

Who else?

The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.

Read More......