Saddam forced to watch the South Park movie

Okay, I have watched the South Park movie "Bigger, Longer, Uncut" over and over and over. Apparently, so has Saddam:

Saddam Hussein has been forced to watch South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, according to the film's co-creator Matt Stone.

The former Iraqi leader is portrayed in the movie as a homosexual who is in a relationship with the devil, and Stone claims the prisoner is being forced to watch it "repeatedly" as he is held by US Marines.

I wonder if he gets "Blame Canada" and "What would Brian Boitano do?" stuck in his head.

Hat tip to Raw Story for this one. Read the rest of this post...

Buchanan: Bush should be impeached (over Immigration, not Iraq)

Pat was on CNN today spewing his hate rhetoric. He's apoplectic about the immigration issue and was using the "i-word" against Bush:

BUCHANAN: I think the president is not going to be impeached, but he's guilty of an impeachable offense. The Constitution commands the president of the United States to defend the states from an invasion.

When he himself says six million people have been stopped, we don't know how many have gotten in. Most people think about half that number. You've got an invasion.

He hasn't been enforcing the immigration laws and he hasn't been defending the border against an invasion, John. He ain't going to be impeached, because the Democrats are going along with the program, because both of them are beholden to the same corporate people right down there on K Street who want limitless immigration and who want cheap labor, and who want to be able to go abroad and bring in foreign workers into this United States.

So I think that the president of the United States has been derelict in his duty, unlike Dwight Eisenhower who put together something called ["]operation wetback" excuse me, on the border when he had a million immigrants coming in from Mexico. He said we have to stop this, he sent down a general to do it, and they deported those folks. Something has happened to the elites in this country if they can't defend America's border.

He's a real hater, that Pat Buchanan. And he does love kicking that Bush family. Is he preparing for another failed presidential campaign? He does love the limelight . The key plank in his platform this time will be immigrant bashing, although I'm sure we could count on Pat's gay bashing, too.

Buchanan is despicable. The news channels sure give him a lot of air time to spew his venom. Read the rest of this post...

He didn't do it.

That dude didn't kill JonBenet - big f'ing shock. The media right now look like the asses they are. ASSES.

Fire every producer who led with JonBenet for the last week and a half instead of covering:

• The President unconstitutionally spying on the American public. (Remember, the story you were covering just a DAY before JonBenet?)
• Our nation's war in Afghanistan.
• Our nation's war in Iraq.
• War in Lebanon.
• Iran's growing nuclear activity.
• High gas prices and their economic impact.

Care to add to the list? (Just in case producers complain that they have nothing to fill all those 24 hours with...) Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

What were you doing a year ago tonight -- as Katrina was bearing down on the Gulf Coast? We know the Prez was enjoying his vacation in Crawford. The Veep was enjoying his vacation in Wyoming. Condi was getting ready for her NYC shopping spree. And Brownie was getting ready to do a heckuva job. Read the rest of this post...

Nine US soldiers killed this past weekend in Iraq

This weekend, Bush was enjoying his vacation in Maine and getting ready to survey the damage from his biggest domestic disaster. This weekend, in Bush's biggest foreign policy disaster, Iraq was exploding in increased violence and Americans soldiers were dying:

Shiite militiamen battled Iraqi forces for 12 hours Monday, leaving at least 40 people dead and underlining the government's difficulties as it tries to rein in the sectarian forces of an anti-U.S. cleric.

The fighting in this southern city dominated a bloody day that saw at least 20 other people killed in Baghdad, including 16 in a suicide bombing targeting the Interior Ministry complex. The U.S. military announced that nine U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad, eight by roadside bombs and one by gunfire.

Read the rest of this post...

Some say Dick Cheney is wrong to have sex with a six-year-old boy

There are some who say Dick Cheney is right to want to have sex with a six-year-old boy. To them I say, you're wrong.

Now, sure, I don't know for a fact that Dick Cheney wants to have sex with a six-year-old boy, but I also don't know for a fact that he doesn't, or hasn't. But judging by what Cheney just said today about Democrats, and what Patricia Wilson of Reuters reported as apparent truth, Cheney being a practicing pedophile is just as true as what Cheney or Wilson allege. Here's what Dick had to say:

"Some in our own country claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone," Cheney told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. "A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be ... a ruinous blow to the future security of the United States."

And America's own Pravda, also known as Reuters, in the shape of "reporter" Patricia Wilson, simply quotes Cheney's words as though anyone in America, other than Mohammad Atta, has ever said anything about needing to "satisfy the appetite of the terrorists." Cheney has entered the land of the delusional, and Reuters the land of FOX News.

But Patricia Wilson of Reuters couldn't just leave it at that. No.

Her next paragraph, as inartful as she could make it, suggests that Democrats actually have said that we should appease terrorists:

Cheney did not use the word "Democrats," choosing instead the anonymous "some," but he rejected the argument many have made that by invading Iraq in March 2003, the United States simply "stirred up a hornets' nest."

Now Wilson and Reuters will claim that this previous paragraph really refers to the NEXT paragraph that follows. Well guess what Sherlock? You never bothered mentioning anything about how no one has ever suggested that we need to appease the appetite of the terrorists, so your reader is going to assume that you meant the Democrats.

Seriously, you people call yourself journalists? And you wonder why your credibility keeps dropping.

Do your damn job.

(Hat tip to MattMcD in the comments for the first paragraph.) Read the rest of this post...

Backdoor draft continues

Having a professional military is a moral and strategic good. While I'm a big fan of national service, I don't think it should be compulsory unless absolutely necessary, and nobody -- especially after Vietnam -- wants people in the military who haven't volunteered to be there. Certainly soldiers may not like what they're asked to do once they're in, but having that initial choice goes a long way towards the professionalism and skill that the vast majority of our troops bring to the table.

Which is why it's a huge problem when people are getting involuntarily yanked back into service. This first line really says it all, but it goes on to explain the increasingly drastic steps the military has taken up to this point:

The Marine Corps announced this week that it will involuntarily activate 2,500 reservists. [...] Some of those in uniform are on their second or third deployment to the war zones. From time to time, the Army has had to recruit more soldiers from the "lowest acceptable" category based on test scores, education levels, personal background, and other indicators of ability. Some military recruiters - always under pressure to produce - have been reprimanded for illegally inducing clearly unqualified young men and women into signing up. "Citizen soldiers" in the National Guard have played an extraordinarily large role on the ground in combat areas. To some experts, the call-up of Marine Corps reservists indicates that the war is likely to last longer and be more hard-fought than earlier official predictions.

Some experts? Some?? It's like parts of the article were written in 2003 and spliced in. Uh, yeah, last week was really the turning point which showed that all those rosy predictions were wrong. Ohhhhhkay.

But the greater point is that troops aren't coming home in any significant numbers for a long, long time. The media can scream about how Democrats can't agree whether we should start to reduce troop numbers in 2006 or 2007 ("Ohmygod! They're so divided!"), Republicans can run away from the Bush administration for this election cycle, and the pundit class can bash leaders' incompetence, but it's all academic. The President will make those decisions, and he's said with both word and deed that we'll be there, in force, for years to come. If you want the same perspective, but with hilarious understatement, from the same article:

Troop strength in Iraq today is back up to 138,000, notes military analyst John Pike of globalsecurity.com, a research and consulting firm specializing in security issues. "All that happy talk earlier this year about getting below 100,000 by the end of this year now seems premature."

Yeah. Seems premature. Read the rest of this post...

Oh what a difference a Macaca makes

Webb leads Allen in latest poll.

Honey I shrunk the epithet. Check out how Zogby describes "macaca." A city in South Africa? Yeah, that was why it was such a big story. You know how much we hate South African cities. Especially when they move in to our neighborhoods.

Read the rest of this post...

Real wages in Republican America and the "golden era"

Back in late 2004 when I tried to find the silver lining to the pathetic showing by the Democrats, I used to think that at least Bush and the GOP would have no excuses when things went south. With such complete control in DC, the GOP may try to wiggle out of ownership and the Democrats often let them get away with it, but the reality is that the GOP owns the government in Washington.

This story about real wages and the sorry state of the American working class is coming at a very interesting time since the election is just around the corner. There is nobody out there to blame for this one because the current business model in the US, where the select few profit while most don't, has been the result of years of GOP assistance. The American public may have been fooled for a while, but I'm guessing people have had enough and want some balance once again.

With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.

That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year in midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years.

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity - the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation's living standards - has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as the golden era of profitability.

Until the last year, stagnating wages were somewhat offset by the rising value of benefits, especially health insurance, which caused overall compensation for most Americans to continue increasing. Since last summer, however, the value of workers benefits has also failed to keep pace with inflation, according to government data.

Oh what a golden era...for the select few.

Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

What's new? Read the rest of this post...

While George Bush is on vacation, US Iraq vets have to take the 20 hour bus home

The military can't be bothered to actually fly our veterans home. They put them on 20 hour bus rides like cattle.

You get the government you vote for, folks. Half of America preferred false patriotism to actual substance, and they got it in spades. Republicans don't give a damn about our troops, unless it's a photo op right before the election. But we Democrats knew that back when the Republicans sent our troops to war based on a lie, in inadequate numbers, and without the necessary body armor. Oh, but the Republicans said THEY were the ones who REALLY loved the troops. And the American people fell for it.

The rest of America is finally waking up. Republican talks tough, then screw everything up.

(Hat tip to Virtual Matter blog.) Read the rest of this post...

Another hurricane is coming, and Bush is staying on vacation

Yep, it's the one-year anniversary of Katrina, another hurricane is coming, and Bush is STILL on vacation, AGAIN - just like he stayed on vacation for a full three days after Katrina destroyed New Orleans.

...with Bush's image as a leader still tarnished by the halting federal response to Katrina, the president wants to make clear that he has been fully engaged in planning for Ernesto as he vacationed over the weekend at his family's summer home on the Maine coast.

Yes, he's fully engaged... while on vacation at his rich daddy's "summer" home. Too bad the folks in New Orleans still don't have spring, summer, winter or fall homes. Read the rest of this post...

In early American public schools, there was no separation between church and state

From the Wall Street Journal

In early American public schools, there was no separation between church and state. Tenets of Christianity were embedded in almost every lesson and book, including spelling, reading, history, grammar, arithmetic and science.

Yeah, and we had slaves. And women couldn't vote. And no one would hire the Irish. And children made great factory labor.

Oh yeah, we also burned witches.

Your point would be? Read the rest of this post...

Start the day with a French humor blog

It's good. A French comedy writer does a video blog for Americans about France. This one is about cheese. Get beyond the intro, it takes off from there. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

I got up early today. Chris and his wife are coming back shortly, need to clean the house. Read the rest of this post...

Blogging -- and communicating -- through war

Interesting article in the Washington Post about bloggers in Israel and Lebanon communicating with each other during the recent war -- often communicating for the first time ever with someone in the other country:

The Lebanese government forbids its citizens contact with Israelis. But keeping a lid on the Internet is a bit like trying to shovel sand with a sieve. And in the midst of war, scouring online for views from the other side has been one way for Lebanese and Israelis to alleviate the terrible sense of the impotence of standing by as their countries bled. Thousands of people, often posting in English, seem compelled to try to make some sense of the chaos -- or, through personal narratives, to help debunk stereotypes and misperceptions.

"Bloggers from both sides of the border . . . have been providing live updates, commenting on one another's blogs and sometimes linking to posts by bloggers on the other side of the border," wrote Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli blogger and journalist, on her site On the Face six days into the war. "Will this turn out to be the first time that residents of 'enemy' countries engaged in an ongoing conversation while missiles were falling?"

The war, paradoxically, provided the common ground, and blogging -- a roughly three-year-old medium unavailable in previous conflicts -- offered the space for it.

Blogging seemed to helped some citizens in both countries understand that there were actually human beings on the other side. Read the rest of this post...