Religious right money troubles

I guess hate isn't such a profitable industry after all. Read More......

Headlines we were supposed to stop seeing 5 years ago

We "won" against the Taliban five years ago. Then what the hell is going on? When George Bush leaves office we will still be at war in Iraq and still be at war in Afghanistan. And we'll be losing both. Was it really worth thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of American dollars to unseat Saddam and now find ourselves stuck in two quagmires with no end or exit or victory in sight? Computer says 'no.' Read More......

Open thread

Joe and I are in NYC for the night to see the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Eytan Fox's new film, "The Bubble." Read More......

Former CIA chief Tenet: Bush Iraq policy is "a slow motion car crash"

Former Bush CIA chief George Tenet - the guy who Bush gave a medal to - blasts Bush and the entire Iraq reconstruction effort in TIME:

What Iraq needed were Arabists and Foreign Service officers who understood the country's tribal allegiances, or who at least knew a Sunni from a Shia. What CPA seemed to be getting were people anxious to set up a Baghdad stock exchange, try out a flat-tax system, and impose other elements of a lab-school democratic- capitalist social structure. One of my officers returned from a trip to Iraq a month or two after CPA had taken over and told me, "Boss, that place runs like a graduate school seminar, none of them speaks Arabic, almost nobody's ever been to an Arab country, and no one makes a decision but Bremer."

On the Bush administration's decision to de-Baathify the Iraqi government by firing everyone who was a member of the Ba'ath party:

We soon began hearing stories about how Iraqis could not send their kids to school because all the teachers had been dismissed for being members of the Ba'ath Party. In the context of a country armed to the teeth, this was not a good thing. If the kids and teachers were not in school, they were on the streets. I went to see Condi Rice and complained that the indiscriminate nature of the de-Ba'athification order had swept away not just Saddam's thugs but also, for example, something like forty thousand schoolteachers, who had joined the Ba'ath Party simply to keep their jobs. This order wasn't protecting Iraqis; it was destroying what little institutional foundations were left in the country. The net effect was to persuade many ex-Ba'athists to join the insurgency. Condi said she was very frustrated by the situation, but nothing ever happened. Several months later, with a full-blown insurgency under way, an interagency group headed by Deputy National Security Advisor Bob Blackwill desperately looked for ways to reach out to dissident Sunni Arabs. We again raised the subject of rolling back the de-Ba'athification order. Doug Feith retorted that doing so would "undermine the entire moral justification for the war."....

On one of his trips to Iraq, [Deputy Defense Secretary] Paul Wolfowitz told our senior man there, "You don't understand the policy of the U.S. government, and if you don't understand the policy, you are hardly in a position to collect the intelligence to help that policy succeed." It was an arrogant statement that masked a larger reality. In many cases we were not aware of what our own government was trying to do. The one thing we were certain of was that our warnings were falling on deaf ears.

It's Condi's fault:

Without using her name, Tenet alleges that then-National Security Adviser Condi Rice did not exert the kind of scrutiny of Rumsfeld's and Cheney's ideas as she did of the CIA and the State Department. Tenet says the lack of clear White House oversight of reconstruction efforts in Iraq meant US policy was "almost guaranteed" to fail...

Whenever you decide to take the country to war, you have to know not only that you can defeat the enemy militarily but that you have a very clear game plan that will allow you to keep the peace. There was never any doubt that we would defeat the Iraqi military. What we did not have was an integrated and open process in Washington that was organized to keep the peace, nor did we have unity of purpose and resources on the ground. Quite simply, the NSC did not do its job.

The NSC was headed by Condi. Read More......

Bart Simpson criticized for upcoming nude scene

Really.

Click To Play

Here's a screen shot from the film:

Read More......

Limbaugh broadcasts song mocking black people's inability to speak "proper" English

TMP has a clip of both "Barack the Magic Negro" and a parody of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" - except that it's called "Respeck." It also includes other clips that Limbaugh ran mocking black speech. And by the way, the guy doing the voice over is a white conservative.

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Religious right uses victims of VA Tech massacre to slam gays, use Christ as political prop

Special place in hell for these homophobes. Ex-"American Family Association" attorney Joe Murray rips the religious right for their un-Christian level of hate. Joe's article is brilliant and difficult to excerpt, so here's a large chunk - read the entire thing:

A few weeks back, writing on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 (LLEHCPA), a measure that would expand existing federal hate crimes law to include classes such as sexual orientation, gender and gender identity, this author noted that the type of debate emanating from those organizations laying claim to Christian morality was quite disturbing.

Specifically, concern was raised about the tone of the debate. Christian groups were sending out "action alerts" scaring supporters into believing that passage of the hate crimes bill, a piece of legislation that has clear First Amendment safeguards, would result in preachers arrested from the pulpit and Christians shipped off for an indefinite stay at the Hanoi Hilton....

Just when it was thought that the hate crimes debate had hit rock bottom, some pro-family organizations opted to capitalize on tragedy and politicize the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech to score political points.

"Under this legislation, the crimes at Virginia Tech, which some are calling one of the deadliest rampages in U.S. history, would not be punishable to the level of these so-called 'hate-crimes'," wrote Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council (FRC), in an email alert sent out to FRC supporters. Perkins' analysis, however, was far from over.

Explaining why the hate crimes bill is not good for America, Perkins wrote, "If the House approves H.R. 1592 and the Senate follows, a homosexual would have more federal protection under the law than the 32 victims of last week's massacre."

Words cannot describe how disheartening such a comment, from a man who champions the values of Christianity, is.

While parents, siblings, students and staff mourned the senseless killings of 32 members of the Virginia Tech community, Perkins thought it was an opportune time, and perhaps even an exercise of his Christian duty, to exploit the tragic situation to aid in the manufacturing of a "homosexual agenda." This is not only degrading to Virginia Tech and to the gay community, it clearly prostitutes any notion of family values.

And while many would hope that Perkins' actions are isolated instances of political prostitution, one would be wrong as the folks at TVC found it prudent to debase the image of Christ to make a political point.

TVC has produced a "wanted poster" in which Jesus Christ, wearing a crown of thorns, is wanted for violating the proposed hate crimes bill. Under "identifying remarks," the poster reads, "scars along forehead, in the hands and feet, & scar on side." The poster states that Christ is "wanted for revealing the truth about homosexuality in 'The Bible' and encouraging his followers not to offend God by committing such behavior."

Pushing aside the fact that such a poster is more rhetoric than reality, is it not disturbing to all people, Christians included, that a hatred of gays has led to using the image of Christ in a political poster? Is this not using the Lord's name in vain?

How could a group purporting Christian values denigrate the image of their, and my, savior, by placing Him in the same category as Willie Horton? When did it become acceptable to turn a man who preached "love thy neighbor" into a biblical billy club? Christ is a source of salvation, not spin.

This is how far separated Christian activists, possessed by a deep seeded hatred of homosexuals, have become from Christian principles. It is now deemed appropriate, and considering the source of such behavior, "Christian-like," for activists to pit gays against the victims of brutal slayings and make a mockery of Christ's image to defeat a secular hate crimes law.

Can one imagine if the ACLU had used Christ's image in such a fashion? But because a pro-family group has tarnished His image for political gain, there is deafening silence. This speaks volumes on how animosity towards gays has turned principle into politics.

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Stalling in Iraq

Among my Very Serious foreign policy friends (that is, the attorneys and think tank fellows and pundits just waiting for a Democratic administration so they can move en masse into the various executive branch jobs), there seemed to be an increasing general view over the past few weeks that President Bush and the military would have until this summer to put up or shut up on Iraq. That within several months (say, oh, a Friedman Unit), either the "surge" would be working or Bush would have to leave.

Except nobody could ever quite explain exactly how "have to leave" would work. A president who feels no sense of responsibility to popular opinion, other elected officials, or, well, reality, is not likely to believe anything is a "last chance." It's easy to keep asking for "one more try!" when all you have to do is run out the clock.

Now we find out that the administration is already laying the groundwork to extend the timeframe. Kevin Drum elaborates, helpfully translating the NYT article that reported the "surge" is now scheduled to last "well into next year":

Maliki has no authority whatsoever; the Iraqi troops we've been training for the past three years are still useless; there's no political progress in sight; and in the meantime we're stalling for dear life, hoping against hope that something good magically happens. In Republican leadership circles, this is called a "foreign policy." The rest of us have a different name for it.

Everybody clap harder, clapping will solve everything! Clap, dammit! Read More......

"Barack, the Magic Negro" - a new song played on the Rush Limbaugh show

Dick Cheney's favorite racist has been playing playing the song "Barack the Magic Negro" on his radio show. John Amato has the tape, it's hideous. (Update: The guy who does the song is a white conservative who routinely mocks blacks - Limbaugh often plays his stuff.)

Limbaugh claims he's just repeating a term used in an LA Times commentary. Yes, the LA Times commentary made a reference to the historical term "Magic Negro" - in old films, apparently, the black character, the "magic Negro" as it was called in the trade, would absurdly appear out of nowhere to save the white character. Limbaugh, however, decided to adopt the term, use it over and over again in a mocking way, and even went so far as to make a "funny" song about magic negroes. There's a difference between a historical look at the term - and it's still an iffy proposition using it in a serious op ed - and using the term in a "funny" way to continually mock Obama and, implicitly, black people. Limbaugh is using the term because he thinks it gives him license to say "negro" repeatedly on the air, and "negro" (like "homo" and "ho'" and so many other denigrating words) to Limbaugh is funny because to the GOP base, to Limbaugh's base, bigotry is fun.

Limbaugh is the guy Vice President Dick Cheney interviews with regularly. Limbaugh knew exactly what he was doing - and he didn't care. The current extremists running the Republican party find racism funny. To them, bigotry is a big business. And Rush is one of the biggest. So what does the White House have to say about Dick Cheney's favorite radio host? Will Cheney be going on the "magic negro" show in the future? And will Rush be permitted to keep his job?

Chris in Maine was kind enough to transcribe the song:

(sung by an Al Sharpton impersonator, I assume)

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me.

Yeah the guy from the L.A. paper
said he made guilty whites feel good
they'll vote for him and not for me
cause hes not from da hood.

See, real black men like snoop dogg
or me or Farrakhan
have talked the talk and walked the walk
not come and laid and won (not sure about this line).

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically.

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically.

Some say Barack's articulate
and bright and new and clean
the media sure love this guy
a white interloper's dream.

But when you vote for president
watch out and don't be fooled
don't vote the magic negro in
cause...

(background singing the first 3 lines, while the singer is saying)

Cause I wont have nothing after all these years of sacrifice and I wont get justice this is about justice this is about justice, buffet, I don't have no buffet there wont be any church contributions there'll be no cash in the collection plate, no cash money, no walkin' around money...

Read More......

Iraq Death toll surpasses 100 for April

The deadly quagmire gets deadlier:

Five U.S. troops were killed in separate attacks in the capital this weekend, including three in a single roadside bombing, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month so far this year.

Both attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up their activities as part of a security crackdown that began on Feb. 14 to quell the sectarian violence.

CNN just reported 104 U.S. soldiers died in April. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Four years ago, the media was agog that Bush was heading to the aircraft carrier to make his big announcement about Iraq. Yes, tomorrow is the anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" day. Four years later, most of the media still refuses to grasp how often Bush lies to them, flat out lies:
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FDA says tainted pork no problem- dig in and let them know

So the same team that told everyone that melamine was no problem to animals, is now saying that there is no need whatsoever for a pork recall after tainted pork entered the food system of America. Why am I not as confident in the FDA's claim as they are? If their goal is to ruin the American food protection system and move Americans away from eating pork, this is a brilliant plan. If they want to make an attempt at gaining the trust of the public, this might not be Plan A.

"At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued," the Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department said in a joint statement.

"Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken," the agencies said.

Ah ha, the old "let the public be America's food inspector/guinea pig. Does anyone see a problem here? Read More......

Another $30 billion down the drain courtesy of Bush and GOP

The recurring theme with Bush and the Republicans is to throw billions out there and hope that something sticks. We've seen it with previous war spending, Katrina relief, the inaction during the subprime lending fiasco and again in Iraq with reconstruction. All too often the administration provides preference to political hires rather than competence so the results across the board are predictable. The old GOP Congress was overseeing Iraq reconstruction until just a few months ago and none of these problems are new. The Iraqis may very well be responsible for a number of problems, but let's not forget who has been dictating terms in Iraq and don't forget to look at this as yet another failed mission by team Bush.

The report, published today, looks at sample projects ranging from a hospital to Baghdad international airport, and finds serious failures and neglect at the heart of the reconstruction plan. Stuart Bowen, the head of the office of special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says: "These first inspections indicate that the concerns ... about the Iraqis sustaining our investments in these projects are valid."

The inspectors found serious plumbing and electrical failures, looting, and expensive equipment lying idle, either because staff did not know how to use it or those that did were no longer employed.

Of the eight projects which had been declared a success, some only six months before the inspection took place, six were now no longer working properly. The inspectors expressed concern at the speed of deterioration and questioned whether the projects would survive.

Read More......

"Barack, the Magic Negro" - a new song played on the Rush Limbaugh show

Dick Cheney's favorite racist played a little ditty last week about "Barack the Magic Negro." John Amato has the tape, it's hideous.

I'll be writing more about this tomorrow, and throughout the week. This is the guy Dick Cheney interviews with regularly. Coming just two weeks after Imus, Limbaugh knew exactly what he was doing - and he didn't care. Chris in Maine was kind enough to transcribe the song:

(sung by Al Sharpton I assume)

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me

Yeah the guy from the L.A. paper
said he made guilty whites feel good
they'll vote for him and not for me
cause hes not from da hood

see real black men like snoop dogg
or me or farrakhan
have talked the talk and walked the walk
not come and laid and won (not sure about this line)

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically

Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.
The L.A. Times they called him that
cause he's not authentic like me
cause hes black but not authentically

some say barack's articulate
and bright and new and clean
the media sure love this guy
a white interloper's dream

but when you vote for president
watch out and dont be fooled
dont vote the magic negro in
cause...

(background singing the first 3 lines, while the singer is saying)

Cause I wont have nothing after all these years of sacrifice and I wont get justice this is about justice this is about justice, buffet, i dont have no buffet there wont be any church contributions there'll be no cash in the collection plate, no cash money, no walkin around money...

Read More......

Open Thread

Escorts and lying and wars, oh my! Read More......

Condi's star fades as US policy disintegrates

The Sidney Morning Herald:

For all the razzle-dazzle of Rice's first year as Secretary of State, it is hard to think of any real and substantial achievements. Her "transformational diplomacy" in the Middle East has achieved virtually nothing. None of the region's leaders, it seems, takes her seriously. Bush's democracy project, which Rice embraced so enthusiastically, is virtually dead and buried.

And there are no good signs that any peace talks of any kind between Israel and the Palestinians are likely in the foreseeable future, despite Rice's frantic shuttle diplomacy in the region last month. Her decline mirrors the disintegration of the Bush Administration. Her biggest battle right now is to work out how she can defy a subpoena from a key congressional committee demanding she testify about how it was that the Administration, in the months before the invasion of Iraq, used a "fabricated claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger".

Perhaps that's the real reason why she has remained silent as Bush has tried in vain to sell Americans on an Iraq policy that a majority of them are convinced cannot succeed.

Read More......

Open thread

Guh-orgeous out. Read More......

Interior Department continues to look backwards for energy

Predictably, the Bush administration wants to drill for oil and gas offshore in the US. At the earliest this would not be possible until 2011 according to the Interior Department which then raises the question of why this and why not more emphasis on other energy sources? It's doubtful that natural gas along the American continental shelf can be drilled and sold for a profit, which again means massive taxpayer corporate welfare for energy companies.

If taxpayers are going to fund energy programs - and this subject should be debated - why should we throw hard earned money at energy sources that are the past instead of the future? Finding the energy sources for the future is understandable and to the benefit of an energy consuming country like the US. Same old, same old, will only benefit the existing players who have very little interest in new technologies and it will be the average American who will prop up these programs instead of spurring new growth and innovation. Our energy policy needs to climb out of the past. Read More......

The declared rebuilding successes in Iraq are failures, too

Is there anything the Bush administration hasn't lied about when it comes to Iraq? Claims of success on rebuilding projects were lies:

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections were no longer working properly.

The crazy thing is that they are lying about things that can be easily documented.

The Bush administration got away with so much because there was no oversight. Those days are so over. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Condi Rice is making the rounds today. She's defying a Congressional subpoena, but she can make it to the Sunday shows. She's not under oath with the media. And, remember, "progress" isn't a talking point anymore for the Bush team.

McCain is on Fox, right where he belongs. He's become a caricature of himself.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; actress Natalie Portman.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Rice; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., presidential candidate.

CNN's "Late Edition" -- Rice; Reps. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., and Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi foreign minister; European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"Fox News Sunday" -- Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and wife Cindy McCain.

Four years ago this week, Bush was gearing up for his big trip to the aircraft carrier to proclaim "Mission Accomplished"
Read More......

FDA raids tainted-pet food plants - 6 weeks after recall

Now that's prompt action! Whew! I think that everyone has learned a clear lesson with this experience, that if you sell tainted - and deadly - food, the FDA will eventually roll out of bed, have a cup of coffee, read the newspaper, think about the TV schedule for that night, take a serious nap, watch American Idol, go back to sleep and then wait a few weeks until there's a firestorm about the FDA being industry lapdogs and then - bam! - spring into action. How would we survive without the FDA? Oh that's right, we don't. People die because the FDA has been destroyed by the previous Republican congress.

Federal agents searched facilities of a dog and cat food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of pet products, the companies disclosed Friday.

What makes this sorry excuse for action even worse is that these problems were known weeks before the actual recall, so the FDA was even slower to respond to this deadly problem that is now impacting the human food source. Read More......

FDA change to chocolate definition hits a snag

Thanks to lots of online help and an overloaded comments registration system, the FDA has decided to extend the comments period for a few more weeks. It's obvious the factory chocolate makers will not be producing high quality but there still ought to be some minimum standards. The standard is already low, so if they want to diminish the good name of chocolate any more, let them create some new BS marketing name that tells consumers they are buying something that hints at chocolate but was produced with the finest chemical concoction science labs of the world could create. Mmmm, chemicals. Read More......

Bush administration loses nearly $1 billion in Katrina aid

Absolutely sickening. More from the Washington Post. Read More......

Open thread

Disco Saturday night. Read More......

Nine more soldiers killed in Iraq

Another brutal day in a brutal month in the brutal war. This war has to end:

The Americans killed in Iraq included five who died in fighting Friday in Anbar province, three killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside bombing south of the capital.

The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died this month and at least 3,346 who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Read More......

Might as well rename AP the Associated Pravda

Why does the media insist on repeating as truth whatever crap the Bush administration tells them? Yes, AP just published a story saying that military leaders now claim, magically, that the budget impasse over Iraq will hurt our troops right now (I'm not linking to the story - won't give the Bushies what they want, and sure as hell am not giving the AP's yellow journalism any publicity). Too bad that we already know this to be a total lie. And too bad that AP reporter Lolita Baldor didn't even bother putting in her story the fact that we already know DOD has enough money to last it a good several months.

Associated Press, real journalism is more than being a stenographer. You could hire Jeff Gannon for the crap that Lolita just published. So are you lazy, or just unwilling to tick off Karl lest you don't get invited to any more barbeques at Crawford? Read More......

The Democrats should give Bush enough money for Iraq until September

Bush just gave us our solution. In the post below, Joe notes that Bush will now not consider whether we're making "progress" with the "surge" until September. Fine. Then here's what we do. After Bush vetoes the Iraq funding bill in the next week or two, Congress should pass a clean bill, giving Bush all the money he needs... until September. That way, when Bush finally starts paying attention to Iraq again in September, when he makes the assessment of whether the surge is doing anything at all, whether Iraq isn't still going downhill, Congress can at the same time revisit whether the American people fund, again, and again, and again, this disaster of a war.

John Murtha has proposed something similar to this. Give Bush the money he needs, enough money to get him through, say, September 30. Then we use Bush's own benchmark-date to revisit just how well the progress is really progressing. Let him veto that. Read More......

Bush is changing his Iraq talking points. "Progress" is out.

"Progress" is no longer the operative word about Iraq coming from Bush and his lackeys. This should be an indication of just how bad things are in Iraq. The Bush team, which will lie about everything, can't even pretend that the situation is improving. George Bush's Iraq policy is a colossal failure:

The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until September, and many of Mr. Bush’s top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will be limited, according to senior administration officials.

In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.

That prospect would entail a dramatically longer commitment of frontline troops, patrolling the most dangerous neighborhoods of Baghdad, than the one envisioned in legislation that passed the House and Senate this week. That vote, largely symbolic because Democrats do not have the votes to override the promised presidential veto, set deadlines that would lead to the withdrawal of combat troops by the end of March 2008.

What is clear is that Bush has no plans to get the U.S. out of Iraq.

In today's Washington Post, we see further evidence that Iraq was always an obsession of the Bush administration:

White House and Pentagon officials, and particularly Vice President Cheney, were determined to attack Iraq from the first days of the Bush administration, long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and repeatedly stretched available intelligence to build support for the war, according to a new book by former CIA director George J. Tenet.

From the first days, invading Iraq was in the cards. And, the current situation is what they've given us.

Bush and Cheney have been colossal failures for America. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good Morning.

Bob Geiger has the compilation of the week's editorial cartoons. Bush gets pummeled, as do McCain and Gonzales.

The poem of the week is "Ode to a Lemon" by Pablo Neruda. It is an ode to a lemon.

Thread away. Read More......

UK keeps up the pressure on wasteful packaging

The Independent started an awareness campaign earlier this year and the British public has rallied around the cause. Politicians everywhere tend to lag behind the public but now over 100 British MPs (Members of Parliament) have signed on to a motion to move this along under the law. As an outsider looking in, it's impressive to see so much green activity in the UK and the model that is working comes from consumer demand who are prompting retailers to act now or be forced later. This is in stark contrast to so many US companies who fight environmental change and smear environmentalists.

This says a lot about the British public and their ability to be level headed and build a consensus for the benefit of society both in the UK and the world. To me, that's pretty damned impressive. Read More......

April temperatures in UK break records

It won't surprise me if France is up there as well. Worse still, it has been weeks since it last rained in Paris which is extremely rare for this time of the year. Since I spend time in my garden, I follow the weather closely enough and this year has been odd. In February, forsythias and camellias came into bloom a month early. Besides that, a number of flowers that should have died from the cold such as my fuchsia, survived the very mild winter. I usually start my watering system in mid to late May because of earlier rains but the last serious rain was weeks ago. Beyond my little garden, even the delicious and briefly available white asparagus arrived weeks in advance.

Everyone over here is asking, if this is April, what are we in for this summer? Read More......

Dictionary.com "Word of the Day": Quagmire

You can't make this stuff up.

Read More......

Bush official who promoted abstinence and denounced condoms resigns -- after admitting he used "D.C. Madam's" escort service

In April of 2004, Kaiser Networks Daily AIDS/HIV Report noted that Randall Tobias, serving as the Bush Administration AIDS Czar, was promoting abstinence and denigrating condoms:

Tobias, who was in Berlin for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS' 2004 Awards for Business Excellence, said that promoting abstinence and monogamy are "far more effective" than distributing condoms for preventing the spread of HIV, according to Agence France-Presse. "Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective," Tobias said, adding, "It's been the principal prevention device for the last 20 years, and I think one needs only to look at what's happening with the infection rates in the world to recognize that has not been working." PEPFAR has been criticized by AIDS advocates for placing "false hopes" on abstinence and monogamy prevention programs, according to Agence France-Presse.

That outrageous view held by the Bush administration was widely criticized by thinking people.

Today, ABC News reported that the married Mr. Tobias resigned from his post as Deputy Secretary of State after admitting he was a customer of a DC escort service

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias, 65, Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the Ambassador for the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

In a Ted Haggard-like admission, Tobias said he only got "massages."

Abstinence is for the little people, not the loyal Bushies. They don't have to practice what they preach. Read More......

Unusual charges against former U.S. prison chief in Iraq

Finally, an office in charge of prison operations in Iraq is being held accountable for his conduct in dealing with detainees. At long last, we are punishing someone who handles prisoners, after years of reported abuse and mismanagement. This is a vindication for those of us who --

Wait, what's that? This commander has been criminally indicted for being too nice to his prisoners? For allegedly "aiding the enemy" in the camp? Whoa.

The charges against LTC William Steele, who commanded Camp Cropper, which houses thousands of detainees and many high profile prisoners, are serious. They include: giving a cell phone to a detainee ("aiding the enemy"), possessing pornography, possessing and mishandling classified information, disobeying an order, and improperly fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee. Much of this sounds pretty bad, but I'm very skeptical, and it reeks of politics. Of those accusations, all except the first and last are charges that virtually anyone who has served in Iraq could conceivably be charged with. Rules on classified information are so byzantine that virtually everyone who deals with intel "breaks" them at some point, usually in a minor, irrelevant, and widely accepted way. Possessing pornography? For real?? We might as well arrest the entire military. Disobeying an order is a serious charge, but also one that's easily trumped up.

There are no specifics on the nature of the "improper fraternization", but it could be anything from really bad to overblown. As for the cell phone, it's to imagine legitimate scenarios in which a prison supervisor would give a cell phone to a detainee -- an an intelligence operation, as a reward, etc. It's much harder to imagine that a U.S. LTC would purposefully put himself and his men in danger by attempting to aid the detainees under his supervision.

He may, in fact, be guilty of these charges, and they may be more serious and significant than the vague accusations initially seem, but the whole thing is pretty weird. Especially after the James Yee debacle in Gauntanamo (long story short: Yee, a Muslim chaplain in Guantanamo, was charged with five offenses: sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order; every single charge was eventually dropped, and he agreed to plead guilty to "mishandling" classified information -- see above for the reality on that -- and, wait for it, adultery).

And either way it's a joke to have the first serious prosecution of a (regular Army) prison supervisor be for aiding the enemy. The story bears watching. Read More......

YouTube suspends account of white supremacist video maker promoted by Concerned Women for America spokesman

YouTube has suspended the account of the white supremacist filmmaker whose work was promoted earlier this week by a spokesman for the Concerned Women for America. The racist film maker's works included such titles as "Black Intelligence," "Keep America White," and an ode to Hitler in honor of his birthday. Unfortunately, the Concerned Women for America continues to promote on its Web site a known "hate group" whose bigoted "'science' echoes Nazi Germany," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, America's foremost civil rights organization tracking hate groups. The Family Research Council and the American Family Association also promote the "echoes [of] Nazi Germany" science of the same hate group. Read More......

Pro-tolerance article gets teacher fired from school

What kind of country do we live in where teachers let high school kids write articles about tolerance in the school papers? Next thing you know, we're going to be teaching children about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Yes, better our high school kids be writing essays about velvet dogs playing poker. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 4/27/07

Another Week. More preposterousness to report.

Well, it's been a very enlightening week for me, as I have again become more erudite in the ways of the wily Republican. When one oberves them in their natural habitat of Washington--or at least their secondary one outside Attica--it is quite impossible not to come to a few general conclusions:

1) Being a Republican means blaming all of society's ills on liberalism, when most of them from IEDs to STDs can actually be be blamed on your political philosphy and/or Lucky Luciano-like personal life.

2) Being a Republican means having to get the Brinks Bonus Plan to protect your house and business from the inevitable raid the FBI will be conducting on your property in the next week (perhaps Reps Renzi and Doolittle can start a consulting firm to advise other "victims" of the media).

3) Being a Republican means the Big Pharma's your daddy, and ordinary people without healthcare are to be crushed like they're an unlucky varmint that has wandered into the path of Mitt The Destroyer (unless you're the world's most sought after terrorist, then Mitt's ready to swap theocracy tales).

4) Being a Republican means being so unbelievably stupid as to put your counterterrorism center in the only location to have been attacked by terrorists already, in one of the largest cities in the world with endless choices for your HQ, and then inevitably watching it end up like every one of your marriages or our health care system. Oh yeah, and then it means you have the gall to question the other side on terrorist-prevention.

5) Being a Republican means you actually take five-deferment, drunk-driving, war-profiteering, serially-lying, cholesterol-snorting, Gorgon Dick Cheney seriously, even though he's about as coherent these days as a lobotomized Dan Quayle.

6) Being a Republican means having a kickin' case of priapism (see ED commericals if clarification is necessary) for endless war and cronyism while anyone lacking Haliburton stock options or a sweet pad in Kennebunkport is the equivalent of a "historical document" on an impending attack to Condi, to be ignored at all costs.

I'm not sure how they'll continue to up the ante on crazy, but who knows, maybe necrophilia or preemptive war against family-planning clinics is in their future.

For more on this and other stories, go to cliffschecter.com. Read More......

Bush is feeling awfully desperate

He's at Camp David today. The presidential retreat. Bush HATES Camp David. Doesn't go there. He goes instead to Crawford. The only time Bush goes to Camp David is if he's forced to, and usually that means he's going to Camp David because it's where "presidents" go - i.e., if you want to look presidential, and you can't quite cut it by being presidential, you go to presidential-looking places, like Camp David. The man is pathetic. But at least we can see his hand, and it's a lousy one. He's desperate. One might even call it his last throes. Read More......

Economic growth weaker than expected. Weakest since 2003.

Bush keeps telling us that the economy is strong, but why would we believe anything he says? The latest economic growth numbers aren't good:

Weaker exports and a steady slide in spending on homebuilding helped slow U.S. economic growth to its softest pace in four years during the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.

Gross domestic product or GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, increased at a weaker-than-expected 1.3 percent annual rate in the three months from January through March.

That was a little more than half the fourth quarter's 2.5 percent rate and well below the 1.8 percent rate that Wall Street analysts had forecast GDP would expand. The last quarter when growth was weaker was in the first three months of 2003, when GDP expanded at a 1.2 percent rate.

Growth has been slowing since late last year under the impact of a hard-hit housing sector where rising defaults are taking a toll on the subprime lending sector and causing builders to scale back until inventories of completed but unsold homes are reduced.

It doesn't sound encouraging. To figure out what this really means, I turned to Bonddad who explains:

This report is terrible. Growth slowed more than forecast and inflation increased more than expected and well beyond the Fed's comfort zone.

Read More......

Rudy Giuliani, "notorious adulterer," now wants to defend marriage

Rudy Giuliani, one of the most pro-gay politicians in America, is now pulling a Mitt Romney and trying to pretend that he's really not THAT pro-gay. You see, like John McCain and Mitt Romney before him, Giuliani is busy re-inventing himself for the Republican presidential primary - an event in which only Neanderthals pass the virtues test put forward by the extreme right that now controls the Republican party. So Giuliani, a staunch defender of gay rights, is now suddenly against civil unions for gays - even though he's been for them, forever.

Sorry, Rudy. You're an adulterer. You cheated on your wife - which wife was that? - blatantly, flagrantly, publicly. And now you want us to believe that you're the great defender of marriage. You don't get the right to defend other people's marriages when you can't defend your own. How serious a moral crime is adultery, Rudy? Well, since you're doing this flip-flop in order to curry favor with America's Taliban, let's check the Bible, the King James version, to be precise (it's the version my people use), and see what God has to say about adultery:

Leviticus 20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Hmmm... surely put to death - now, no one is suggesting that you and your lover need to be put to death, Rudy, but the Bible makes it pretty clear that adultery is a big no-no. The kind of no-no that disqualifies you from suddenly, a few years after that adultery, becoming the great moral defender of marriage.

Let me quote that Biblical passage again, Rudy, just to get it straight:

the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death

Yeah, no ambiguity there, Rudy.

In the secular world, I did a little Google search on "Giuliani" and "adultery." It turned up 125,000 results.



No ambiguity there, either.

You committed a moral crime that the Bible says is worthy of death. And now you want to turn around and sell yourself as the great purveyor of moral virtue in the very area, marriage, where you committed such a grievous offense.

It doesn't work that way, Rudy. You don't get to judge other people's marriages when you can't keep your own zipper zipped. You cheated on your wife, paraded your mistress in public, and now have the audacity to pass judgment on other people's affairs.

You're an adulterer, Rudy. You don't get that right. Read More......

Active duty Lt. Colonel blasts Bush & generals over Iraq

Read between the lines. The generals are responsible for letting Bush screw up the entire war effort. I've been writing this for years. Now we have active duty members saying the same. Bottom line: The author argues that Bush screwed up, and the generals didn't have the balls to call him on it. They sent their troops into battle unprepared and destined for failure.

From Armed Forces Journal (below are my titles, and then quotes from the article indented).

THE GENERALS REFUSED TO STAND UP TO BUSH

If the policymaker desires ends for which the means he provides are insufficient, the general is responsible for advising the statesman of this incongruence. The statesman must then scale back the ends of policy or mobilize popular passions to provide greater means. If the general remains silent while the statesman commits a nation to war with insufficient means, he shares culpability for the results....

THE GENERALS LIED TO THE THE PUBLIC

America's generals have repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq.... America's generals did not provide Congress and the public with an accurate assessment of the conflict in Iraq....

After going into Iraq with too few troops and no coherent plan for postwar stabilization, America's general officer corps did not accurately portray the intensity of the insurgency to the American public. The Iraq Study Group concluded that "there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq." The ISG noted that "on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence. Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals."

BUSH AND THE GENERALS DIDN'T SEND ENOUGH TROOPS TO IRAQ, AND THEY KNEW IT

The most fundamental military miscalculation in Iraq has been the failure to commit sufficient forces to provide security to Iraq's population. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) estimated in its 1998 war plan that 380,000 troops would be necessary for an invasion of Iraq. Using operations in Bosnia and Kosovo as a model for predicting troop requirements, one Army study estimated a need for 470,000 troops. Alone among America's generals, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki publicly stated that "several hundred thousand soldiers" would be necessary to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq. Prior to the war, President Bush promised to give field commanders everything necessary for victory. Privately, many senior general officers both active and retired expressed serious misgivings about the insufficiency of forces for Iraq. These leaders would later express their concerns in tell-all books such as "Fiasco" and "Cobra II." However, when the U.S. went to war in Iraq with less than half the strength required to win, these leaders did not make their objections public.

Given the lack of troop strength, not even the most brilliant general could have devised the ways necessary to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq. However, inept planning for postwar Iraq took the crisis caused by a lack of troops and quickly transformed it into a debacle.

TYING UP SO MUCH OF OUR MILITARY IN IRAQ PUTS AMERICA AT RISK

Moreover, America's generals have not explained clearly the larger strategic risks of committing so large a portion of the nation's deployable land power to a single theater of operations.

CONGRESS IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE US (I.E., NOT BUSH)

We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policymakers on the preparations needed for our security. The power and the responsibility to identify such generals lie with the U.S. Congress.

Read More......

Tell George Bush: Sign the bill. Bring our troops home.

Americans United for Change is running a new ad with a message for the George Bush: Sign the bill. Bring the troops home. Also, has one of the best lines in an recent ad: "It's the will of one nation....versus the stubbornness of one man." That's exactly what it is.
Read More......

Entire Senate Democratic Caucus rebut Broder's attack on Harry Reid

Yesterday, David Broder launched a bizarre, bitter, partisan attack on Harry Reid about which John wrote:

David Broder, like much of Washington journalism, and much of the country, fell for the Republicans' lies over the past six-plus years. Broder drank the Kool-Aid, kicked Lucy's football, and came running when George Bush cried "wolf." And now, rather than slinking away with a terminal case of professional humiliation, Broder is still fighting the last war. No, not the war in Iraq. George Bush's other war. The war against the truth.

Today, every single Democratic Senator signed a letter to the editor of the Washington Post rebutting Broder and praising their leader:

We, the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, contest the attack on Sen. Harry Reid's leadership by David S. Broder in his April 26 column, "The Democrats' Gonzales."

In contrast to Mr. Broder's insinuations, we believe Mr. Reid is an extraordinary leader who has effectively guided the new Democratic majority through these first few months with skill and aplomb.

The Democratic caucus is diverse, and Mr. Reid has worked tirelessly to make sure that the views of each member are heard and represented. No one ideology dominates the caucus, so that a consensus can be reached and unity achieved. It is hard to imagine a better model for leadership.

Because Mr. Reid has the support of members of the caucus, is a good listener and has an amazing ability to synthesize views and bring people together, the Senate has accomplished a great deal during his time as majority leader. Armed with his years of service in the Senate and with a mastery of procedure, Mr. Reid has led the chamber with a slim majority and a minority that is, at times, determined to stop legislation with which it disagrees.

In the first 100 days alone, we made great strides under his leadership on long-neglected legislation concerning stem cell research, the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations and the minimum wage, to name three. In addition, under Mr. Reid's leadership, we have fulfilled our obligation, left uncompleted by last year's Republican-led Senate, to fund the federal government. He has accomplished all of this in the face of stiff opposition and with a commitment to giving ideas full opportunity for debate.

Finally, in this age of scripted politicians speaking only to their base or claiming that they "don't recall" anything, the fact that Mr. Reid speaks his mind should be applauded, not derided. His brand of straight talk is honest, comes from the heart and speaks directly to the people.

THE MEMBERS

OF THE SENATE

DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS

Washington

This letter was signed by Sen. Reid's 50 colleagues in the caucus.

The Washington press corps hasn't heard straight talk for years. They've been lied to and spun by the Bush team for so long that they can't handle the truth. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Long, productive week. Next week, Bush will veto the Iraq bill. Next week also marks four years since his now infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. Thanks, Think Progress for the photo. Read More......

Holland looks at big picture with biofuels

Glad to see some are being sensible about this important and serious issue.

More than a year in the making, the report reflects a heightened awareness of the risks and complexity in efforts to reduce emissions of the gases blamed for global warming.

Among the criteria in a draft obtained by The Associated Press: Production of biomass cannot contribute to deforestation, deplete reservoirs of carbon captured in the earth, compete with food crops, degrade soil or water supplies, upset biodiversity, or displace local populations,

The report is by the Cramer Commission, named for its former chairwoman, Jacqueline Cramer, who in February became environment minister.

Without going into specifics, it suggests developing a track-and-trace system to follow a product from plantation to power plant, like an express delivery package.

Read More......

China to assist FDA investigation into tainted food

OK, fine. Now the Republicans can stop hyperventilating over China and get back to focusing on the problems they created at the FDA. China has food safety issues, for sure, but by and large that is a problem that China needs to address. If they want to export food to other countries, their standards will have to improve though the US FDA should not make Americans guinea pigs for food testing from anywhere in the world, the US included. Other countries have banned specific products from China, just as many countries have banned US beef.

Let the Chamber of Commerce or other pro-business groups focus on business but that is not the mission of the FDA. This always boils down to the US FDA getting back to its mission of safeguarding the US food and drug system. At the moment, the FDA has a long way to go. Read More......

Shocking revelation - tainted pigs entered human food supply

Who didn't see this one coming? The FDA "was not sure" if the pigs had been sold and eaten by humans but just as they knew about the E. Coli spinach years ago, just as they knew about the peanut butter problems well before they went public, they probably knew about this as well. It's impossible to have any confidence at all with the FDA since decisions are made for political reasons instead of safety reasons. Let the GOP goons who created this monster be the food testers for the country and then let's see how fast the system changes.

Several hundred of the 6,000 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food are believed to have entered the food supply for humans, the government said Thursday. The potential risk to human health was said to be very low.

Let's see how much they downplay the human risk just as they downplayed the risk to pets. Remember, according to the FDA - even today - melamine is not supposed to cause health problems or death with pets so they're simply recycling the lines from the pet food scandal. I used to think that death might bring change to this GOP-run FDA but it's increasingly clear that death is just a speed bump for Republicans. As long as business moves, they just look the other way. Read More......

Giuliani, in effort to appease far-right of GOP, is now reversing himself on gay issues

He's now against civil unions. You've gotta be kidding me. This man is the closest thing to a gay Republican short of being a gay Republican, and now he's trying to promote his anti-gay bona fides? Uh, Rudy, Mitt Romney already tried the "I was pro-gay before I was anti-gay" card and no one is buying it. You did drag, Rudy, repeatedly. You lived with a gay couple after your divorce, though I'm not sure which divorce. You're about as pro-gay as they come, in either party, Rudy. So spare us the 9th inning conversion to God-fearing homophobe. You're a liar and a hypocrite. More from the NY Sun, and from Pam.

Now watch one of Giuliani's many drag appearances.

Read More......

Tenet: "There was never a serious debate" over Iraq threat

Interesting timing. Tenet's book comes out just when Bush is going to veto the Iraq spending bill. It's further proof that the Iraq war was a scam, a deadly scam, pulled on the American people by Bush, Cheney, especially Cheney -- and Tenet himself -- among others:

George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

The 549-page book, “At the Center of the Storm,” is to be published by HarperCollins on Monday. By turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical, it is the first detailed account by a member of the president’s inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war.

“There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat,” Mr. Tenet writes in a devastating judgment that is likely to be debated for many years. Nor, he adds, “was there ever a significant discussion” about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion.

Bush won't even allow a debate now. But, he expects the American people to trust him now. That's not going to happen. Read More......

You don't support the troops when you send them to die for a cause that's lost

I'm sorry, you have zero respect for the troops when you send them to die simply because you're too embarrassed to admit that you screwed up. George Bush botched this war from day one. Even John McCain, who now is Bush's biggest defender of how "great" the war is supposedly going, admits that we should have sent far more troops initially - but we didn't. It has been a downward spiral in Iraq from the day we captured Baghdad. We should have kept our eye on the ball, our eye on catching Osama - but we didn't. Imagine had we sent 150,000 American troops to Afghanistan instead of Iraq. Would Osama could have gotten away if we'd sent our service members to Afghanistan instead of Iraq?

This war is lost. It's been a disaster for years, and the Republicans, led by George Bush, are afraid to admit that they've made a mistake. This war is lost. And anyone who sends even one US soldier into harm's way simply because he doesn't have the courage to admit he's made a terrible mistake - that person is a coward. That person is not someone who gives a dammn about our troops.

You don't send our troops to risk their lives for a lie. You don't send our troops to their deaths for a war that is already lost. Sometimes, when you're commander in chief is an idiot, you lose. This is one of those times. Read More......