Slam dunk

Bush seriously wants us to go to war with Iran. With what Army? I don't believe a single thing in this story.

From AP:

Serial numbers and other markings on bombs suggest that Iranians are linked to deadly explosives used by Iraqi militants, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in some of the administration's first public assertions on evidence the military has collected.

Read the rest of this post...

Friday Orchid Blogging

(click photo)

Paphiopedilum esquirolei

I'm quite proud of this guy, he just bloomed this week. I've had this plant for a year now, it started to bud at the end of the summer, and only now the flower finally matured and opened. But what a flower. The plant is relatively easy to grow, likes a lot of sun, an open mix, and that's about it. It's quite a large flower too, and dark, for this kind of plant - it's a nice one. Reminds me of the bat signal. Enjoy. Read the rest of this post...

Snickers, still a bunch of homophobic idiots

This is the latest mass email Snickers is sending people who complained about their homophobic violent ad campaign associated with the Superbowl. Before Snickers talked about how much their target audience loved the ad. Now they've changed tune and are saying that the majority of the entire Superbowl audience and beyond like the ad. And this is better?

Whoever does their marketing should be looking for another job. This is ridiculous. Just who is Snickers trying to pander to with the "the majority enjoyed the ad" crap? Are they afraid to simply say "some of our viewers were offended and we apologize"? Then why, when someone writes an email to a company saying that the company just slurred them, does the company feel the need to write back and say, well you know, most everyone disagrees with you? Idiots.

From: consumer.care@masterfoodsusa.com
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: SNICKERS BRAND .

In response to your email regarding SNICKERS BRAND

We value you as a consumer and appreciate your letting us know your viewpoint.

We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive; that was not our intent. While the majority of viewers enjoyed the ad, out of respect for everyone, the ad will no longer be on television or on our SNICKERS website.

Thank you for sharing your comments with us. They will be forwarded to our Marketing Associates for their review.

Sincerely,

Consumer Care
Masterfoods USA
A Division of Mars, Incorporated

I've had a number of people tell me that we need to start contacting the ad company that made this ad for Snickers, TBWAChiatDay New York, and the customers of that company, asking them why the ad company thinks mocking gays is so damn funny? With Snickers' latest obnoxious email, I'm thinking we may just have to do this come Monday. Stay tuned. Read the rest of this post...

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel physically attacked

Create a world of intolerance, fueled by intolerance, and look what happens. Read the rest of this post...

FYI Blogger promises me that moving AMERICAblog to the "new blogger" is perfectly safe

UPDATE: Wow, it worked. Other than a few images disappearing, like the flag at the top (why does Blogger hate America?)

I'm assuming that means that any moment now the blog will disappear for the next two days. If it does disappear, or you notice that this is the last post we ever make, now you know why. Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 2/9/07

Another week, more preposterousness to report.

I think there should be a new edition of All The President's Men. In the case of the Bush Administration, however, it would have to be more accurately dubbed "All The President's Stepfordized, Retro-Moronic, Disgustingly Dubya-Enmamored, Bizarro-Betty Friedan Women."

Think about it for a minute. Former White House Communications Director/stand in for Sasquatch Karen Hughes thinks "God" is mentioned in the Constitution and is about a decade from "normal."

Condi Rice refers to Bush as her "husband" at cocktail parties and gives the evil eye to Nancy Pelosi at SOTUs for not standing by her man. When she is not busy, of course, hanging out on "ladies nights" (I use that term loosely) with the nominee for worst nominee for the Supreme Court in the history of the Republic: Harriet Myers (although with Myers now in Bush-retirement, will Condi have to hit the Hung Jury alone?).

Remember how legal eagle Ms. Myers was the "most qualified," person for the Supreme Court according to the Dunce of Kennebunkport?

Reality check Mr. President: She is slightly less qualified than Anna Nicole Smith right now.

Then there was the spectacle of dreary-voiced, Tammy Faye Bakker-faced, snarling little Bubonic-rat, Mary Matalin going on Imus to explain away how court testimony in the Libby case revealed she hates Chris Matthews--and coming off on the program like she just shared a speedball with Ted Haggard to celebrate his completion of hetero boot camp (he's cured! Bless the Lord!).

But the one who takes the cake, or in her case the political equivalent of The Golden Rasberry (how about The David Duke?) is that WATB, self-flagellating lover of internment camps everywhere, Michelle Malkin. Sadly for Michelle, her book on the plight of Japanese-Americans during WWII is not just theory. Michelle's had to live with the fact that her IQ's been locked away in an internment camp for the better part of her existence.

Most recently, Malkin, whose dictionary definition could not be more spot on, has been one of the "unhinged" idiots trying to get Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan fired from their jobs on the Edwards Campaign. Now that she failed, much like she failed to write a book best read without having crayons handy (and perhaps scissors for ocular mutilation), she'll probably go back to her day job of trying to top Ann Coulter (when we all know she's really a bottom).

Oh, my Michelle. Of the Minutemen, she spittles with glee that they are "the mother of all neighborhood watches."

Well, sure, on Kristallnacht perhaps.

Maybe that's why when a legislator in Arizona threatened to ban them, they behaved like this:

One wanted to kick me in the uterus until I couldn't have children. Others have all kinds of really lewd and awful threats. There's not even this shared respect for another human being that you may disagree with.

Nice people, all. Much like Michelle's friend and colleague from VDARE Steve Sailer, who thinks white people are smarter than pretty much everyone else (um, that would include you Michelle, however hard you imagine you're really Ann Coulter, and click your heels three times to try and get into the kind of country club that wouldn't have you), and put together the usual right-wing, pseudo-scientific piece of Hannity to try and prove it.

So go out for ladies night sometime, Michelle, I hear it's lots of fun. Especially when members of the Aryan Nation show up and get down to "Play That Funky Music White Boy."

For more on this and other stories, please go to cliffschecter.com Read the rest of this post...

This just in: Anna Nicole's condition unchanged

ThinkProgress puts it all in perspective:

The death of Anna Nicole Smith yesterday was a feeding frenzy for the national media, and coverage of the war was drowned out: NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

Then PLEASE go to ThinkProgress and watch the video compilation of the coverage, it's hysterical. Read the rest of this post...

House security chief: Pelosi didn't ask for plane; I did

Note to Lou Dobbs, read CNN.com:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not request a larger plane for personal use to travel cross-country without stopping, Bill Livingood, the House sergeant at arms, said Thursday.

Livingood said the request was his, and he made it for security reasons.

"The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable," Livingood, who has been at his post for 11 years, said in a written statement.

"I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue," the statement said.

Read the rest of this post...

First report from "the surge" - Iraqis forces are a mess

McClatchy Newspaper:

Two weeks with American units that patrolled with Iraqi forces in west and east Baghdad found that Iraqi officers sold new uniforms meant for their troops, and that their soldiers wore plastic shower sandals while manning checkpoints, abused prisoners and solicited bribes to free suspects they'd captured.

During a patrol last week in a violent west Baghdad neighborhood that's the scene of regular sniper fire at U.S. and Iraqi troops, Staff Sgt. Jeremie Oliver saw Iraqi soldiers gathered in the middle of the road, near a streetlight, making them an easy target for gunmen on the surrounding rooftops.

Thinking that something might be wrong, Oliver, 30, of Farmington, Maine, jogged over. The Iraqis were looking at pornography on a cell phone.

Even our own intelligence reports say the Iraqis won't be ready to handle it on their own in 12 to 18 months.

The declassified version of a report last month by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said sectarian divisions "erode the dependability of many units, many are hampered by personnel and equipment shortfalls, and a number of Iraqi units have refused to serve outside of the areas where they were recruited."

Despite improvements, the report concluded, Iraqi forces "will be hard pressed in the next 12-18 months to execute significantly increased security responsibilities, and particularly to operate independently against Shia militias with success."

Then there's this:

In a west Baghdad neighborhood where bodies often turn up beside the road, facedown on the pavement with bullets in their heads, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Brendan Griswold looked on last week as Iraqi soldiers patted down three men at a checkpoint and thumbed through their documents. The Iraqi soldiers found a fake Iraqi passport on one of the men, whom they suspected was Jordanian and possibly an insurgent.

Griswold didn't stir, determined to let the Iraqis conduct the search on their own.

"I like going out with some of them. But some of the others are hard to control; they run away when things happen," said the 24-year-old 1st Cavalry Division platoon commander from Leavenworth, Kan.

An Iraqi soldier approached him. "Where do we put them?" he asked.

Griswold pointed to the Iraqi army Humvees in front of him. Iraqi soldiers grabbed the three men, opened the back trunks of their Humvees and started to stuff them inside.

"No, not in there," Griswold yelled, as he cussed under his breath and walked over to supervise.

(Hat tip, E&P;) Read the rest of this post...

Scooter Libby's defense

The Washington Post reports that prosecutors rested their case yesterday in the Scooter Libby perjury trial (Libby was the former chief of staff to VP Dick Cheney). The Post notes the key points the defense plans to raise. And they're pretty weak.

1. The defense plans to show that Libby did not mention Plame to every reporter he spoke to. The defense hopes this proves that Libby did not intend to leak Plame's identity, or he would have done it with every reporters.

Of course, this is bull. Anyone (smart) who works with the media knows that you don't leak a story to every reporter at once, otherwise the reporters get ticked when they find out that they've worked all day on a scoop and suddenly they're scooped by someone else. Also, typically, you leak things to different reporters depending on the kind of leak you're making. First, you choose the reporter based on what issues they cover. Second, you choose the reporter based on your perception of how you think they'll cover the issue - you want to give the story to a reporter who you think will spin the story your way (thus the reason the White House sends Cheney to Meet the Press, assuming he'll get an easy ride). All of these are reasons why Libby may not have told every reporter he spoke with about Plame's identity. It all could have been part of his grander plan to out her.

2. The article says that Scooter's defense is trying to undermine Tim Russert's credibility (since Russert's testimony suggests that Scooter may have lied to Fitzgerald, the prosecutor), claiming he was out to get Libby - which is kind of ironic since he's the reporter Libby's former boss, Dick Cheney, always went to first because he was allegedly Cheney's patsy.

The proof that Libby's team is offering of Russert's animosity is that Russert was excited by the prospect of Fitzgerald's impending indictments in the case. Libby's people are claiming that Russert was excited because he hated Libby.

Again, bull.

Anyone who's worked any amount of time in DC, and especially in news, knows that there is a weird phenomenon in town where you just get darn excited when bad things happen. Hurricanes, fun. Scandal, more fun. Anna Nicole Smith dies, well, I won't say "fun," but I will say that CNN was probably not upset about devoting all of their coverage yesterday to this woman's death. Tragedy and scandal are the lifeblood of the newsman. So you bet a good reporter would be excited about impending indictments against senior White House staff. It's not bias, it's a zeal for his job, it's excitement about having an impending exciting day. Sick, perhaps (though I don't think so), but we all have it in us. (In the same way that, I suspect, weathermen love a good hurricane or tornado.)

What I want to know is when the media is going to force George Bush to answer the question as to whether he's going to pardon Scooter, Cheney and Rumsfeld, among others, for their various offenses. Certainly, it's fair for the White House to postpone answering that question until Libby is convicted, if at all. But after that point, we need to demand answers, because you know they're all getting pardons. Read the rest of this post...

Death toll mounts as GOP Senators continue to block Iraq debate

Three more U.S. soldiers died in combat yesterday. Fourteen in the past three days. How many soldiers have to die before the Senate Republicans deem that the Iraq war is worthy of a debate? Read the rest of this post...

Pentagon report confirms Iraq/al Qaeda intel was "dubious" -- a "devastating condemnation" of Bush Iraq policy

A report from the Pentagon's Inspector General used the word "dubious" to describe the intelligence provided by Douglas Feith, an neocon who served as Undersecretary of Defense. Feith basically substituted the political agenda of George Bush for the work of the U.S. intelligence community as he tried to manufacture links between al Qaeda and Iraq. So much of what we all need to know about the Bush Administration is summed up in the response from Feith to The Washington Post:

In a telephone interview yesterday, Feith emphasized the inspector general's conclusion that his actions, described in the report as "inappropriate," were not unlawful.

Inappropriate, not unlawful. Tell that to the families of dead soldiers here or any of the Iraqis who've lost family members.

The new standard for the Bush team is, hey, we didn't break the law, we just lied and manipulated evidence so we'd go to war with Iraq -- without a plan. Senator Carl Levin has a more apt description:

"The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq," Levin said yesterday. "The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."

Now, that's an accurate assessment. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Wild week, huh?

The TODAY Show is obsessed with Anna Nicole Smith. However, they did manage to snag an interview that star witness for the Libby prosecution, Tim Russert. Again, Russert said his reaction when he read Novak's column outing Valerie Plame Wilson was "Wow." Wow, then it's funny how NBC never busted the White House for leaking the name of an undercover spy while we're at war. That's a real "Wow."

Wonder if any of the news shows will manage to cover all the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq this week. Not sexy enough?

Thread, please. Read the rest of this post...

New US initiative in Iraq kicks off - 8 Kurds killed

After stumbling out of the starting gate with a delay, the latest report out of Iraq is not sounding much better.

Sheik Kabir Goran, deputy in charge of the party's branch in Mosul, said U.S. warplanes hit a guard post that was protecting the PUK branch in eastern Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. He said eight Kurdish guards were killed and six were wounded in the strike.

Goran identified those killed as peshmerga, members of the Kurdish militia that fought Saddam Hussein's regime for decades. Many peshmerga fighters have been incorporated into the Iraqi military since the U.S.-led invasion.

Read the rest of this post...

Help me understand this Edwards house story

So Bush spends his life spending family and other peoples money and ends up building a 10,000 square foot house plus countless additional guest houses on 1600 acres of land in Texas and when purchased the value was seven figures, certainly much more expensive than other houses in Crawford. As you can see from these photos, the Bush compound spares no expense, whether you are talking about the fishing lakes, the bikes paths, the swimming pool, the guest houses and right down to the exclusive country chic interior. John McCain sold his Phoenix area house that was also worth millions but when John Edwards - a guy who is a self made millionaire and not silver spoon fed or a legacy to Annapolis and son of two generations of Navy Admirals - builds a nice property it is suddenly a worth a good old fashioned media smear campaign?

What am I missing here besides the media lapping up GOP talking points? Is it now a crime in the US to live comfortably with the wealth that you generated on your own? Edwards has experienced both sides of America which is a hell of a lot more than McCain or Bush can say so I don't even see where his new house means anything other than being the new Swiftboat campaign.

Back in 2004 I used to choke up my morning coffee when Republicans and their media lapdogs would talk about Kerry being an elitist and somehow overlook the obvious fact that Bush was from one of the American royal families, the top of the top on the old money scale. Is it so difficult to offer a bit of balance these days or will the media continue to regurgitate GOP messages without question? Read the rest of this post...