Must be sad being a conservative blogger nowadays

Kind of like being a mixture between the Maytag repairman and, well, someone really stupid.

(Hat tip to Kos) Read More......

Open thread

I'm watching "Rome." An amazingly well-written episode, this last one. The show is actually getting me curious as to how Roman society was set up. I mean, I know a lot about Ancient Greece and Rome, to some degree, but not a lot about the structures of the society, etc. Got me curious. Thing is, I don't much enjoy reading online. I do all day, but I dont enjoy it. Still not as pleasurable as a book. Anyway, it's a very good show, I highly recommend it. Read More......

AP: Bush almost admitted for the first time that he made a mistake

Seriously. There's an entire AP story out there about how Bush has now come the closest ever to admitting a mistake. He's a pathetic child. We're at war and we have a leader who can't admit to any mistake he's ever made, and thus refuses to make course corrections even when they're necessary, because that would be akin to admitting a mistake.

Bush would rather see our soldiers die than admit a mistake, and in the process, help make their mission more successful, or at the very least, spare their lives from a mission that's a total disaster. Read More......

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says it is every soldier's obligation to stop torture if they see it

Great exchange between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who seems to be a normal, real, honorable human being - and then there's idiot Rumsfeld...

When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.

But [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs] Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.

Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.

Read More......

Rudolph is on CBS now!

I really hate cable. Too many channels, I never know when anything is on anymore. I was just channel surfing and almost missed Rudolph. Grrr... The first person who figures out how to design a new TV Guide, or whatever, to deal with the hundreds of channels we now have will make it rich.

Anyway, put on Rudolph damnit.

PS I think we should live blog Rudolph. Apparently, Herbie doesn't like to make toys...

NB The Rudolph story is so gay. I can't wait until the religious right figures out that we've been feeding pro-gay propaganda to our kids for the past 40 years. The jack in the box? Gay. Hermie? Gay. Rudolph? Bi, at best. Read More......

New Alito memo talks of "goal" of overturning Roe

The man is toast.

And let me remind all you gay and gay-friendly folks out there. Whether you like it or not, the major Supreme Court cases siding with gay rights - and they are few and far between - use Roe v Wade as their basis. This includes the case that recently outlawed anti-gay sodomy laws. Roe gets overturned and gay civil rights go with it. Your position on abortion is irrelevant. This is a fact.

More here. Read More......

Shiites want to take on more aggressive role in war

And to think we are concerned and bothered by the US tactics, I can only imagine what the Shiites want to do when they speak of getting tough. If the distubring photos of tortured Iraqis is any indication of what we could expect with this aggressive fight, Iraq is getting even closer than before to civil war. All in the name of freedom and democracy, GOP style.

During much of the interview, Hakim was critical of U.S. policies toward Iraq, though he acknowledged that U.S. forces must remain in the country as a "guest" of the Iraqi government while it builds its security forces. The Americans are guilty of "major interference, and preventing the forces of the Interior or Defense ministries from carrying out tasks they are capable of doing, and also in the way they are dealing with the terrorists," Hakim charged.

Hakim gave few details of what getting tough would entail, other than making clear it would require more weapons, with more firepower, than the United States is currently supplying.

His repeated assertion that the United States was being too weak against Iraq's insurgency, allowing attacks to mushroom, appeared to suggest that any future Iraqi government that included him would share his view.

Read More......

Open thread

Victory is ours! Read More......

Dems are all over the place on Iraq

You don't deserve a chance to lead the country until you can lead yourselves.

House of Representatives Minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday backed a call by Democratic Rep. John Murtha to quickly start the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and said she believed a majority of her caucus supported it as well... But she said was speaking for herself and would not press for a united Democratic position on the issue.

So what do the other leading Dems think?

Steny Hoyer, one of the top House Dems, is still living in la-la land:

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who supported the war, rejected Murtha's idea for a quick pull-out, saying "a precipitous withdrawal of American forces in Iraq could lead to disaster, spawning a civil war, fostering a haven for terrorists, and damaging our nation's security and credibility."

Then there's John Kerry:

"Jack and I and others believe that you need to approach it in the way that we've set out, where you have certain measurements for that success over a period of time," Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said at a news conference with fellow Democratic Sen. Jack Reed (news, bio, voting record) of Rhode Island.

So here's my question for Hoyer and Kerry. Yes, a precipitous withdrawal will lead to chaos, and yes, we need measurements for success. But what if the war is already lost? What if there will be no success and we know it? What if there's going to be a civil war anyway and there's nothing we can do to stop it? We still sit there and let our troops get blown up every single day because none of you have the cojones to admit you made a mistake?

That's a hell of a way to show leadership. You guys are no better than Bush and Cheney.

Answer the question: What if we've already lost? Do we keep the troops there anyway? Read More......

Jeff Gannon goes to Iraq

Only metaphorically, sorry. Read More......

SCHWARZENEGGER - Gays working for him? Okay! Letting them marry? Not so much.

I'm not sure what I think of this story. To be honest, I'm personally disgusted that any self-respecting gay person would ever go work for someone like this (from MSNBC):

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."

Yeah, those unelected legislators huh? Which makes this story all the more bizarre. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- attempting to regain his political footing after a devastating special election defeat this month -- has begun a shakeup of his administration by replacing his chief of staff with a former state Democratic Party official and top adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, Democratic and Republican sources said Tuesday.
...
Appointed by Davis to the California Public Utilities Commission in 2003, Kennedy had made her name as a political operative as the head of the California branch of the National Abortion Rights Action League. A longtime gay rights activist, Kennedy married her partner, Vicki Marti, in a 1999 ceremony in Hawaii attended by many California political insiders.

We know that the Republicans will judge Schwarzenegger. Should we judge Ms. Kennedy for going to work for him? Read the article and tell us what you think.

(Thanks for the heads up from Callie in the comments) Read More......

Open Thread

The "Victory" Plan is another dud. Another major speech with nothing new. No strategy. No ideas. No surprise. Read More......

Why is the Transportation Security Agency facing a "tight budget"?

What the hell is going on? I read this in today's Washington Post in an article explaining why they're allowing scissors and other pointy objects back on airplanes:

Faced with a tighter budget and morale problems among its workforce, the TSA says its new policy changes are aimed at making the best use of limited resources.

Limited resources? We're talking about an agency whose job it is to stop your mom's airplane from blowing up. What limited resources and tight budget problems are they facing? Who in the GOP-controlled congress isn't giving this vital agency the money they need?

Funny, but when Bush needs $300 billion to fight a war that's a lie and a quagmire, we find the money in a snap. But when we need the money to stop our commerical airliners from blowing up, suddenly the budget is tight.

The GOP, the party of treason. Osama must be so proud that the Republicans are making his job easier. Read More......

"Victory" Deconstructed

Think Progress already has an analysis of the Bush-Iraq "Victory" Plan:

After two-and-a-half years and 2,110 U.S. fatalities, the Bush administration finally released a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” (NSVI). The problem is, it’s not a new strategy for success in Iraq, it’s a public relations document. The strategy describes what has transpired in Iraq to date as a resounding success and stubbornly refuses to establish any standards for accountability. It dismisses serious problems such as the dramatic increase in bombings as “metrics that the terrorists and insurgents want the world to use.” Americans understand it’s time for a new course in Iraq. Unfortunately, this document is little more than an extended justification for a President “determined to stay his course.”

Bush had barely started to speak when this report was released...that's some damn good rapid response from Think Progress. Read More......

The "Victory" Plan is out

Steve Clemons posted a link to the document at the Washington Note.

Reuters has a first look:

Terrorism and insurgencies historically take many years to defeat. "Iraq is likely to struggle with some level of violence for many years to come," it said.

Lack of a troop withdrawal timetable does not mean the U.S. stance will remain static, the White House said. "We expect, but cannot guarantee, that our force posture will change over the next year, as the political process advances and Iraqi security forces grow and gain experience," the document said.

So, nothing new. Same old. But it's a major speech today. Read More......

Today Show sucks Open Thread

Okay, I know the Today Show has become pretty much useless. I know. But this morning, their "expert" to discuss Bush's latest Iraq speech was Bill O'Reilly. Yeah, that Bill O'Reilly. It used to be that the Today Show pretended to try to have real news in the first half hour. Those days are long gone -- but portraying Bill O'Reilly as a remotely serious commentator was beyond the pale. They suck. They really suck. Read More......

Global warming and the global problem

Being an American who resides in Europe, I have heard my fair share of criticism of the US and in particular, criticism of the Bush administration and their failure to accept Kyoto and global warming. While I agree with a lot of that criticism I have always questioned the pollution across Europe which seems on par with the American problem and Europeans have always quickly dismissed the problem and focused only on the US.

The reality is that the air in Paris during the summer is disgusting not to mention dangerous to your health and many other cities in Europe such as Munich and London are hardly worth bragging about as well. There are exceptions such as Stockholm but in general European cities always seem to be as polluted as US cities. A new study by the European Environment Agency confirms that Europe, we have a problem. The US shares plenty of blame with global warming but I would like to see Europe also recognize that there is a local problem here as well.

Tony Long, director of WWF's European policy office, said this illustrated the extent to which Europeans used more than their fair share of global resources. He argued: "Europe needs to learn to consume less, pollute less and tread more lightly on the planet. Perpetuating the inequality of living at the expense of some of the poorest countries in the world makes European environmental standards nothing to be proud about. This makes the EU's sustainable development strategy even more timely to get Europe back on track to sustainability."

Read More......

Cheney continues to alienate his new neighbors

Big surprise there. Dick and his delightful peach of a wife have already built reputations as annoying neighbors amongst the locals in St. Michaels and now he's continuing to expand his list of pissed off neighbors with the security zone around his new house on the Eastern Shore where he seems to be all of the time. A security zone in the middle of nowhere Wyoming is one thing but down on the Eastern Shore which is just a short drive over to DC and there are so many more people around not to mention the popularity of St. Michaels among weekenders. What's next? No boaters allowed on the Miles River or near the Cheney estate? We're probably not hearing about it because it's off season and the boats are all in dry dock but just wait until next summer when Dick wants to continue spending almost all of his days down there instead of in DC.

Most people living down there prefer discretion, something that does not come naturally for the Cheneys so this is going to get interesting. Read More......

Open thread

I really need to get to bed. Read More......

GAO: House Republicans killed air marshall effort to protect commercial flights from terrorists

This program was killed by the House, which isn't just controlled by the Republicans, in the House, unlike the Senate, the minority party has NO POWER WHATSOEVER. That means this was a Republican buzzkill, 100%.

From AP:

Efforts to train thousands of federal agents to protect commercial flights during heightened terror alerts were quietly abandoned more than a year ago because Congress objected to the cost, government investigators said Tuesday.

The AP article didn't make clear who in Congress killed the program, so I looked up the actual GAO report that was released today about this issue. It makes clear it was the House Appropriations Committee, which is run 100 percent by the GOP.

This, from the GAO report:

In October 2004, ICE suspended its cross-training efforts in response to congressional concerns that the cross-training was an ineffective use of resources and training. Specifically, in a June 2004 House Appropriations Committee report, the Committee expressed concerns regarding how ICE agents would maintain their skills as federal air marshals since they did not regularly perform federal air marshal duties. The Committee directed that each cross-trained ICE agent fly missions with a federal air marshal for a minimum of 24 hours per quarter, beginning October 1, 2004. However, in the October 2004 report that accompanied the fiscal year 2005 DHS Appropriations Act, the Conference Committee suggested that the cross-training provided to ICE agents was an ineffective use of resources. The Committee further suggested that the training of ICE agents to serve as federal air marshals in a surge capacity be discontinued. In response, DHS suspended its cross-training efforts at that time.

Osama can breathe a little easier knowing the Republicans are doing his work for him. Read More......

Back from the American Airlines voyage of the damned

Man. Just had a 6 hour voyage from Chicago to DC. Apparently we had a little tornado in the area here, and that shut down the airports.

And can I just say, when did the cheapskate airlines start charging 2 bucks to check your bag curbside? Because the airlines would prefer if we all lined up inside to check our bags and make their crew work twice as hard and make the lines twice as long? Apparently charging us 5 bucks for a tostito wasn't enough for the airlines, now they need to start making us pay to make THEIR job easier. And, to add their cheapness, American Airlines puts a big ole sign up informing you that not only will it cost you 2 bucks, but the gratuity isn't included, thank you very much.

I've got one word for American Airlines and all the rest of you hideous American carriers: Bankruptcy.

The surest way to get service back to the quality it used to be is to get rid of a carrier or two and let the rest start making some real revenue again. We paid $15 billion or so after September 11 to bail these useless teet-suckers out, and what did our 15 billion get us? A lousy tostito and smaller seats. I always flew American because of the bigger leg room. Apparently that's a thing of the past too, at least on the flights I've been flying lately. It's as bad as flying United now (I have 28 inch legs and I stopped flying United years ago because of their absurdly cramped seats).

I'm not impressed.

I've said this before. Fly foreign carriers to go abroad and you not only get free liquor and a hell of a lot better service, AND actually get good food (Delta's pasta surprise, in business class no less, on the way to Europe a while back made high school cafeteria food taste good). And there's another thing - I worry whether flying US carriers to go abroad entails greater risks. It's just my own personal opinion, but in the great rankings of "Great Satans," we're the greatest to these nutjobs. So if I fly a US carrier abroad - or fly domestically on a carrier that just so happens to be named after the "Great Satan" - I'd like a little appreciation for supporting the home team.

Our airlines need to learn that we have a choice as consumers. And my choice is to finally let some of these hideous wretches go bankrupt. I'm sick and tired of being treated like I'm intruding on Bill and Ted's excellent adventure every time I fly a US carrier. Read More......

Oh, yeah, tomorrow's the speech to finally explain Iraq...again

So, we get yet another speech tomorrow that's going to clear up the whole Iraq mess. It's really phenomenal how the media keeps falling for this:

The administration is under pressure to convince increasingly skeptical Americans that the president’s strategy for Iraq is headed in the right direction nearly three years after the U.S.-led invasion. The president is to give a speech on the subject Wednesday at the Naval Academy and the White House is to release a 35-page document titled “Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.”

Yep, it's been three years in to a war we started but finally they've come up with a "victory" plan. This guy really is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER. Read More......

Because the Speaker of the House has nothing else to worry about

Forget Iraq, ignore the deficit, never mind the budget crisis, pretend the GOP caucus isn't self-destructing, Dennis Hastert is dealing with real issues:

Hastert, R-Ill., in a letter to the Architect of the Capitol, recommended that the annual Capitol Holiday Tree, as it has been called the past several years, be renamed the Capitol Christmas Tree.

"I strongly urge that we return to this tradition and join the White House, countless other public institutions and millions of American families in celebrating the holiday season with a Christmas tree," Hastert wrote to Architect Alan Hantman.

Read More......

Viveca Novak's testimony supposed to help Rove

Busy day, so we never got to the Washington Post article claiming that the testimony of Viveca Novak from Time Magazine was going to help exonerate Karl Rove:

The reporter for Time magazine who recently agreed to testify in the CIA leak case is central to White House senior adviser Karl Rove's effort to fend off an indictment in the two-year-old investigation, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Viveca Novak, who has written intermittently about the leak case for Time, has been asked to provide sworn testimony to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the next few weeks after Rove attorney Robert Luskin told Fitzgerald about a conversation he had with her, the two sources said.

This didn't make much sense to me. More spin from Rove's team? Read More......

Open Thread

Give some good thread. Read More......

Clueless Joe

Lieberman, the biggest cheerleader for the Bush war in Iraq, was on CNN touting the great progress he saw during his recent visit. He said, "I can only report what I saw."

However, Atrios heard some on the ground insight about Joe's perspective:

Time magazine Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware on Morning Sedition this morning:

I and some other journalists had lunch with Senator Joe Lieberman the other day and we listened to him talking about Iraq. Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he's completely lost the plot or he knows he's spinning a line. Because one of my colleagues turned to me in the middle of this lunch and said he's not talking about any country I've ever been to and yet he was talking about Iraq, the very country where we were sitting.

Read More......

Warner commutes death sentence

From Reuters:

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner will stop the execution of convicted murderer Robin Lovitt, who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, CNN reported on Tuesday.

CNN is in contortions about the political implications of this decision given Warner's political aspirations. Read More......

Froomkin looks at Bush's "safety zone"

It's shrinking:

What does it say about the president of the United States that he won't go anywhere near ordinary citizens any more? And that he'll only speak to captive audiences?

President Bush's safety zone these days doesn't appear to extend very far beyond military bases, other federal installations and Republican fundraisers.

Couple more months and he probably won't leave the Oval office. Read More......

Republicans now saying WMD were found in Iraq

And we wonder why 70% of Republicans think Bush is a good president? Because they're gullible idiots who lie, and are willing to be lied to. And if you're a Republican reading this, and it pisses you off, good. Do something about it. You sit back and you let your own far-right party leaders and party organizations lie to you and lie to the public, and you do nothing to correct those lies or hold those leaders accountable.

Do something about it, or stop complaining when we rightfully point out that the GOP is a party of liars, idiots, and lemmings.

To wit: The latest email I just received from Newsmax, a far-right GOP-sucking online news-zine. The subject line of the email: WMDs Found in Iraq!

Uh huh.

According to the Newsmax email (apparently it's on behalf of Human Events, another Republican rag, and they're pushing some new book that exposes the media's bias - uh huh), we learn that we've discovered in Iraq:

1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium

1,500 gallons of chemical weapons agents

Chemical warheads containing cyclosarin (a nerve agent five times more deadly than sarin gas)

Over 1,000 radioactive materials in powdered form meant for dispersal over populated areas

This is only a PARTIAL LIST of the horrific weapons verified to have been recovered in Iraq to date. Yet, Americans overwhelmingly believe U.S. and coalition forces found NO weapons of mass destruction.

The question is... WHY do they believe this lie?

So why is that Americans don't know about this amazing truth? Two guesses. More from Newsmax:

Have you heard that Osama bin Laden is on kidney dialysis? I'll bet you have. Much of the Western media report bin Laden's presumed affliction as a matter of fact -- and most Americans believe it. But...

...it's just not true.

Now, you may well be thinking: "Why would the news media want to make me believe that Osama bin Laden is a very sick and perhaps dying man?" Well, here's why...

The news media are -- overwhelmingly -- against the Iraq War.

Wow, pretty amazing stuff. Only problem is, the story about Bin Laden on dialysis didn't come form the media, it came from, among others, George Bush's number one ally in the war on terror, Pakistani President Musharraf:

"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a ... kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN.

Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. "One was specifically for his own personal use," he said.

Holy crap in my pants, Batman. But there's more. The "lie" about bin Laden and dialysis also came from a senior official in the Bush administration. From the same CNN piece:

"A senior Bush administration official said.... U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout."

Doh! But I'm confused. Newsmax and Human Events and the far-right Republicans running the GOP wouldn't lie to us, would they?

But, hey, notice how CNN is all too happy to publish these "lies" about Bin Laden needing dialysis - so maybe Newsmax is right, CNN WANTED to get these lies out there. More from CNN:

Other U.S. officials contradicted the reports of bin Laden's health problems, saying there is "no evidence" the suspected terrorist mastermind has ever suffered kidney failure or required kidney dialysis. The officials called such suggestions a "recurrent rumor."

What? You mean CNN, a member of the liberal anti-Bush fag-loving mainstream media actually publicly doubted the Osama dialysis story? But Newsmax and Human Events told me that the mainstream media was actually PUSHING this story. I'm so confused.

Like I said. The Republican party is the party of liars, idiots, and lemmings. And don't forget traitors too. They can't handle the truth, so they'd rather just make shit up.

And by the way, I hear we're winning in Iraq. Read More......

Open Thread

Keep it coming... Read More......

Bush to announce a "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq"

Huh? Three years too late.

Think Progress has the scoop and asks the right question: Shouldn’t we have had a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” before the war started? Read More......

This is a photo begging for a caption

"I... can't... breathe..." Read More......

Why is the Pope so obsessed with gays?

The Prada-wearing Pope approved one of the first major documents of his papacy today. It's basically just another theocratic slam on gays:

The Vatican published its long-awaited document on gays in the clergy Tuesday, saying men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies should not be ordained but those with a "transitory problem" could be if they had overcome them for three years.

The Vatican and other religious fanatics spend more time thinking about gay sex than most gay people I know. It's really quite odd.

I heard on the Today show that the Vatican studied this issue for 10 years. What were they doing all that time? What makes these religious types such experts on homosexuality? Their obsession is a little too creepy. Me thinks they doth protesteth too much. Read More......

Bush on the GOP campaign trail

Bush is out working for the GOP candidates:

Despite his low standing in the polls, President Bush is working to help Republican House and Senate candidates build their campaign war chests while promoting his own troubled agenda.

The president is expected to assume the campaign role more often in the coming months as the 2006 congressional election year begins.

Let's hope Bush can do next year for the rest of the GOP what he did for Jerry Kilgore in Virginia this year. Read More......

Who else in the GOP profited from corrupt defense contractor MZM?

MZM, Inc is the slimey contractor that bought off disgraced Congressman Duke Cunningham who quickly resigned yesterday and pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4M+ in bribes from MZM. Talking Points Memo is connecting the dots and our old friend, Katherine Harris and at least one other in Congress seemed to have enjoyed a flurry of campaign contributions from MZM. Oh dear, more scandal for the GOP coming in 2006. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Any GOP officials getting indicted or convicted today? Read More......

Another neocon mess/scandal in Iraq?

Good grief, do the neocons and GOP always have to have the US taxpayers fund their experiments in politics? If they want to fund the clowns that provided the US with false information about pre-war Iraq let them do it with their own money and let the neocons go and fight and die for this nonsense. The US Air Force is now recognizing that they made a mistake when they handed out a $45M+ no-bid contract to fill Iraq with translators who were political exiles, no doubt with ties to the bogus information that was used for starting the ridiculous war in the first place. It's quite clear that the GOP and their wingnut leadership cannot be trusted with US taxpayer money or any political process either at home or abroad.

"Our Defense Department has continued to pay, through pliant contractors, for a flock of Iraqi political exiles as our paid political agents in Iraq," said Charles Tiefer, a government contracting professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Read More......

Mansions, yachts, cash...all in return for government favors from GOP Congressman

I sure hope that someone in Congress creates a special committee to investigate the full extent of this and bar any of the defense contractors from being involved in any government business, not to mention paying back all of the money that they manipulated from the system. The Senate was half right about causing a stir related to the UN oil-for-food scandal, though they conveniently overlooked the US's involvement not to mention American citizens involvement, so perhaps they want to plan press meetings to discuss and review the gross corruption within the GOP.

Good 'ol Duke can cry a river for the TV cameras but that doesn't hide the fact that the guy was a disgrace to the nation. This kind of corruption is too often considered something that only happens in other countries but with the money that the GOP has thrown around for Iraq it should come as no surprise. 2006 is going to be a tough year for the GOP with all of the corruption scandals that are now coming forward. Why does the GOP hate America? Read More......

Dear Canada,

Hope to see you soon in Iraq. The weather is warm. Wish you were here. And if you elect a conservative pro-Bush government next month, you very likely will be.

Signed, George Read More......

Open thread

Final nite of playing with Carmela the wonder dog. Back to DC on Tuesday... sigh. Read More......

Are US-trained forces in Iraq executing Sunnis?

Looks that way according to the NY Times. Ironic that this is all coming out on the day that Saddam's trial started -- or was supposed to start:

As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni males have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

And, by the way, this is your tax dollars at work:

American officials, who are overseeing the training of the Iraqi Army and the police, acknowledge that police officers and Iraqi soldiers, and the militias with which they are associated, may indeed be carrying out killings and abductions in Sunni communities, without direct American knowledge.

Is this the "noble mission" of which Bush so frequently speaks? Read More......

Wilkerson BLASTS Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld

Very tough criticism from Powell's former Chief of Staff. This is one scary administration. It's as bad -- if not worse -- then we all thought:

A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees arose from White House and Pentagon officials who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful" and the Geneva Conventions irrelevant.

In an Associated Press interview, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of postwar planning. Underlings exploited Bush's detachment and made poor decisions, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. He said Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

Read the whole article. It's worth it. Read More......

Far-right religious fanatics trying to ban Maya Angelou, other famous books

But this isn't like when the Nazis banned and burned books because, uh, the Nazis were, uh, German.

Here are the books America's Taliban are trying to ban:

1. All the Pretty Horses
2. Animal Dreams
3. The Awakening
4. The Bean Trees
5. Beloved
6. Black Boy
7. Fallen Angels
8. The Hot Zone
9. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
10. Lords of Discipline
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
12. Song of Solomon
13. Stotan
14. This Boy’s Life Read More......

Supreme Court Crumbling - Literally

Maybe the gods are finally taking notice of what's going on in America today? From Reuters:

A chunk of marble fell from near the roof of the U.S. Supreme Court onto the stairs in the front of the building but no one was injured, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.
...
The marble was above the inscription near the top of the building saying, "Equal Justice Under Law" and above the allegorical figure representing "Order," one of nine sculptured figures on the pediment.

This is more than irony... Read More......

Open Thread

Busy week and it's only Monday. Read More......

Ocean County, New Jersey. Homophobia capital of America

Sickening.

When lung cancer finally kills Laurel Hester -- and it will, in a matter of months -- she wants to know that her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, won't lose their home in Point Pleasant.

That legacy, however, is in doubt.

Ocean County's freeholders have refused to act on a request from Hester, an investigator for 23 years in the county prosecutor's office, to provide domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian employees under a state law enacted last year. Without a resolution by the freeholders, her pension benefits cannot go to Andree.

"That's not what I hoped for with the legislation," said Sen. John Adler (D-Camden), a prime sponsor. "It's a missed opportunity for Ocean County to show that it respects families. ... It's a crummy, cold decision."

The surviving spouse benefit amounts to about $13,000 a year and would be paid from the state pension fund. For Andree, an auto mechanic, the money would "mean the difference in whether or not she can stay in the house," Hester said.

More on this here. Read More......

Please consider making a contribution to AMERICAblog

It's that time again, our once-a-month AMERICAblog-athon where we ask you to consider making a not-tax-deductible contribution to the blog, using the yellow boxes at the top of the screen.

For any of you who are relatively new to the blog, this is a full-time job for me. I gave up 99% of my political consulting work to do the blog full-time starting this past February (during the Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert White House journalist/prostitute story). Since that time, I've relied almost wholly on your donations to pay my salary, and to pay for the upkeep of the blog.

There's good news, in that regard. My goal is to eventually make the blog self-sufficient - in the future, I want the ads to pay 100% for the maintenance of the blog (tech costs, monthly bandwidth, salary, etc.). At that point, I want to only seek contributions for specific advocacy projects, such as raising money for candidates, for specific causes, for an ad campaign, i.e., for some specific "I gotcha" moment we want to take advantage of immediately and for which we need a few bucks to do it. I.e., we could pay an organizer to raise some hell, send Kyle on more trips to trouble spots (wouldn't it be cool to send someone to cover Camp Casey?). I also think it would be cool to consider doing some kind of "up and coming blogger" scholarships - i.e., raising some cash to help smaller bloggers (who already kick ass) for whom a couple hundred or a couple thousands bucks could make a world of difference in the work they do. These are all just in the planning stage, but that's the kind of cool stuff we can do when we become totally self-sufficent via the ads.

As for now, there are the technical costs of running a big blog. As many of you know, we're in the process of moving to our own dedicated server. We've pretty much grown too large for the Blogger system we now use (it's free) - we're getting a lot of traffic, have incredibly large archives, and Blogger is extremely limiting in the functionality it offers, though it's a great system and I'd recommend it for new bloggers.

Anyway, we need to move to our own dedicated server, which will also entail redesigning the entire architecture of the blog. That's pretty cool, because AMERICAblog 2.0 will have a lot more functionality for us, and you, to do lots of cool things. Moving the blog over to our own server, redesigning it, creating the blogging software that will run the site, having a part-time tech guy on staff to keep things up and running, and hosting it for the first 12 months will cost around $34,000. (And please, don't send me emails telling me this cost estimate is too high, you have no idea what our bandwidth usage is - we used several hundred gigs in just the few weeks we posted those "dead Iraqis for war porn" photos.) I've already raised over half the money to help meet that cost and am hopeful over the next year we can raise the rest.

Anyway, that's a long-winded way of saying "this is why I ask for your contributions."

As I've said before, if you'd consider buying a subscription to a print magazine or newspaper, or if you'd consider making a donation to your favorite advocacy group, then consider treating AMERICAblog the same way. We're part newspaper, magazine, advocacy group, and therapy all wrapped up in one.

Here's to bigger and better things in the year ahead :-)

JOHN Read More......

GUILTY: Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA)

UPDATE: He resigned.

UPDATE 2: Video of resignation speech here. Click watch video to the right of the lead paragraph.

Another one bites the dust:

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges, admitting taking $2.4 million in bribes in a case that grew from an investigation into the sale of his home to a wide-ranging conspiracy involving payments in cash, vacations and antiques.

Read More......

The 25th Amendment

There's increasing chatter that Bush may not longer be mentally fit for office. There is a way to remove a president from office that has nothing to do with impeachment. It's called the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

Twenty-Fifth Amendment - Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principle officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

The question is no longer whether Bush is an idiot. The question is whether he's mentally competent, or whether he's an unreformed alcoholic who is suffering from a massive depression combined with religious megalomania, all of which have made him totally detached from reality.

Say what you will about Bill Clinton, we never had to worry about whether he had gone crazy. Read More......

For Lott, revenge is best served cold

In case you missed it this weekend, the NY Times had an article about the fun Trent Lott seems to be having with some of his GOP adversaries:

So Mr. Lott is taking aim where he will. When Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court, Mr. Lott, who had been openly critical of Ms. Miers, was practically gleeful. "In a month," Mr. Lott said, in an interview on the Fox News Channel, "who will remember the name Harriet Miers?"

The senator has also thrown darts in the direction of Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser. With Mr. Bush's poll ratings dropping, Mr. Lott has said the White House might consider "bringing in some new people" - a jab at Mr. Rove, who helped engineer Mr. Lott's departure as Republican leader.

The current majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, also seems to be in Mr. Lott's sights. In his book, "Herding Cats: A Life in Politics," published in August, Mr. Lott wrote that he considered Mr. Frist's leadership bid in 2002 "a personal betrayal."

Lott sat back and waited. It's actually entertaing to watch him play now. Read More......