Rover gets out of the dog house

It looks like Rove won't be indicted.

It's not over though.

Check out firedoglake

Separated at birth

Ann Coulter,


and Lee Harvey Oswald.

It's official

We're never actually leaving Iraq.

Training Iraqis

"President Bush said Friday that it's not clear that Iraqi forces will be able to take control of their country's security within 18 months as the new leader there has said." - AP

How long have we been there? 4 years?

We aren't sure that SIX YEARS is long enough to train Iraqi soldiers?

American Boot Camp is TWO MONTHS. Followed by maybe another year before deployment. Iraqis need six years?

Odd, isn't it, that Iraqis are such HORRIBLE soldiers that we can't get them trained in six years, but the Iraqis who are soldiers on the OTHER side seem good enough to fight US. How strange. How come the Iraqis who are AGAINST us seem to be trained just fine?

I don't think Bush WANTS these guys trained, He'd have to stop his precious little war, which is the only thing that makes him feel like a man.

Either that or he's the most incompetent Commander-In-Chief EVER.

Or both.

President Scumbag

Michael Brown, FEMA sadsack and scapegoat, has an email: (warning: pdf file)

Somebody wrote the following to Brown:

Wednesday, September 7, 2005
To: Michael Brown

'I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the President replied, "I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff." Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader.'

What a guy.

Here's the whole article on CNN.

Sanfranciscophobia

By Garrison Keillor


NOTE TO REPUBLICANS: THE PARTY'S OVER

People who live in mud huts should not throw mud, especially if it comes from their own roofs. As Scripture says, don't point to the speck in your neighbor's eye when you have a piece of kindling in your own.

I see by the papers that the Republicans want to make an issue of Nancy Pelosi in the congressional races this fall: Would you want a San Francisco woman to be Speaker of the House? Will the podium be repainted in lavender stripes with a disco ball overhead? Will she be borne into the chamber by male dancers with glistening torsos and wearing pink tutus? After all, in the unique worldview of old elephants, San Francisco is a code word for g-a-y, and after assembling a record of government lies, incompetence and disaster, the party in power hopes that the fear of g-a-y-s will pull it through in November.

Running against Nancy Pelosi, a woman who comes from a district where there are known gay persons, is a nice trick, but it does draw attention to the large shambling galoot who is Speaker now, Tom DeLay's enabler for years, a man who, judging by his public mutterances, is about as smart as most high school wrestling coaches. For the past year, Dennis Hastert has been two heartbeats from the presidency. He is a man who seems content just to have a car and driver and three square meals a day. He has no apparent vision beyond the urge to hang onto power. He has succeeded in turning Congress into a branch of the executive branch. If Mr. Hastert becomes the poster boy for the Republican Party, this does not speak well for them as the Party of Ideas.

People who want to take a swing at San Francisco should think twice. Yes, the Irish coffee at Fisherman's Wharf is overpriced, and the bus tour of Haight-Ashbury is disappointing (where are the hippies?), but the Bay Area is the cradle of the computer and software industry, which continues to create jobs for our children. The iPod was not developed by Baptists in Waco. There may be a reason for this. Creative people thrive in a climate of openness and tolerance, since some great ideas start out sounding ridiculous. Creativity is a key to economic progress. Authoritarianism is stifling. I don't believe that Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard were gay, but what's important is: In San Francisco, it doesn't matter so much. When the cultural Sturmbannfuhrers try to marshal everyone into straight lines, it has consequences for the economic future of this country.

Meanwhile, the Current Occupant goes on impersonating a president. Somewhere in the quiet leafy recesses of the Bush family, somebody is thinking, "Wrong son. Should've tried the smart one." This one's eyes don't quite focus. Five years in office and he doesn't have a grip on it yet. You stand him up next to Tony Blair at a press conference and the comparison is not kind to Our Guy. Historians are starting to place him at or near the bottom of the list. And one of the basic assumptions of American culture is falling apart: the competence of Republicans.

You might not have always liked Republicans, but you could count on them to manage the bank. They might be lousy tippers, act snooty, talk through their noses, wear spats and splash mud on you as they race their Pierce-Arrows through the village, but you knew they could do the math. To see them produce a ninny and then follow him loyally into the swamp for five years is disconcerting, like seeing the Rolling Stones take up lite jazz. So here we are at an uneasy point in our history, mired in a costly war and getting nowhere, a supine Congress granting absolute power to a president who seems to get smaller and dimmer, and the best the Republicans can offer is San Franciscophobia? This is beyond pitiful. This is violently stupid.

It is painful to look at your father and realize the old man should not be allowed to manage his own money anymore. This is the discovery the country has made about the party in power. They are inept. The checkbook needs to be taken away. They will rant, they will screech, they will wave their canes at you and call you all sorts of names, but you have to do what you have to do.

(Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.)

(c) 2006 by Garrison Keillor. All rights reserved.

China Bans 'Code' After Warning From Catholics

I know a lot of Roman Catholics who must find this terribly embarrassing:

BEIJING, June 9 — Chinese authorities ordered theaters nationwide to stop showing "The Da Vinci Code" today after Chinese Catholics warned that the film could threaten social stability.

Great: Communist China agrees with the Catholics about censoring something.

I have no intention of seeing the thing: the movie is supposed to suck, and I had a low opinion of it before that. But what total stupidity.

UPDATE: An online friend has told me the following about the above:

"As to its being embarrassing to Catholics, you do know there is an official Chinese "Catholic" church, which they cite whenever it's convenient, and which has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic church which real Chinese Catholics belong to.

Genuine Catholics in China, BTW, are exceedingly careful not to agitate about anything as long as they're allowed to practice their religion in peace. The persecutions of the past are still too fresh in their minds for them to protest anything unless it's vital. I suspect the official "Catholics" are the ones being referred to." - D.M.

No, actually, I did not know that, and, if accurate, completely changes the statement I made above.

Ann Coulter - Republican Spokesperson

This is a point that everyone should be making about the nutjob.

There are lots of nuts on the left side of the political spectrum. However, they are babbling on streetcorners where they belong.

The right, on the other hand, takes its lunatics, they turn the lunatics into pundits and they make the lunatics wealthy.

As long as they keep buying her book, and placing her on talk shows, she represents them, and that IS the face of the Republican Party.

Rahm Emmanuel (D-Illinois) to the Republicans:

Emmanuel: "Mr. Speaker, as United States citizens, we are blessed with many freedoms, among those is the right to freely speak our minds. While Freedom of Speech is one of the things that makes our country great, it also means we have to endure the words of a hatemonger like Ann Coulter. In her new book, the goddess of the Right slanders the 9/11 widows, writing, and I quote, "these broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefarazzies. I have never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." Lest Mrs—Lest Ms. Coulter forget, more than 3,000 Americans were killed simply because they lived in the United States.

"That doesn't matter to Ms. Coulter because she's doing it to enrich herself. But there is something more sinister in Ms. Coulter's words: The hate she spews is the same kind of hatred we're battling in the war on terror. As a country of thought and reason, I urge all of us to reject it. I must ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Does Ann Coulter speak for you when she suggests poisoning [..] Supreme Court Justices or slanders the 9/11 windows—widows? If not, speak now. Your silence allows her to be your spokesman."

Crooks and Liars has the video.

I DO find it savagely amusing when some right-winger says something along the lines of "If they let gay people marry, more people will become gay." And it amazes me that people who say stuff like that don't realize that they just told us more about themselves than we wanted to know.

“51 percent of Americans disapprove of gay marriage, but 70 percent disapprove of the president, so gay marriage is actually more popular than Bush." - Jay Leno

Zarqawi reported dead.

Couldn't happen to a nicer son of a bitch. I doubt it will make much difference in Iraq, though.

UPDATE: The Generals appear to agree:

U.S. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters there the development would not end the insurgency and an official in Washington, who requested anonymity while details of al-Zarqawi's death were still unfolding, said it should not cause anyone to have unrealistic expectations.

Great point.

Jon Stewart (sadly, the best commentator in America is actually a comedian) beat Bill Bennett soundly about the head and shoulders when Bennet tried to attack gays. Stewart's first point is one that I've made any number of times, and I wish others would point it out. But his last sentence is new, and perfect. Crooks and Liars has the video. Below is a rough transcript.

Stewart: So why not encourage gay people to join in in that family arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?

Bennett: Well I think if gay..gay people are already members of families...

Stewart: What? (almost spitting out his drink)

Bennett: They're sons and they're daughters..

Stewart: So that's where the buck stops, that's the gay ceiling.

Bennett: Look, it's a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a women.

Stewart: I disagree, I think it's a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.

A rush to coherence

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lawyer for a Navy corpsman held with seven Marines over the death of an Iraqi civilian criticized military detention tactics on Tuesday and what he called a "rush to justice" by U.S. politicians.

"There's been this rush to justice. It just is not right," he [Jeremiah Sullivan] said.

No, guy, a rush to judgment is not right. You should rush to justice.

A lawyer said that.

"Rush to justice." Sheesh.

Goobers on Parade

There is a fine rant over at Empire Burlesque. Read the whole thing.

Can I just say, as a Southerner, from a long line of Southerners going back to the 17th century, that these people are a bunch of ignorant goobers? Back in my youth, growing up in the most conservative, traditional, church-going, Bible-believing, flag-waving, rural Heartland community imaginable, these people would have been considered freaks on the fringe, best kept under the slimy rocks they occasionally crawled out from under.

Now they are enthroned on high, in Texas, in Washington, in the White House, in the greasy-money media empires that belch their filth and their perversions of faith over the airwaves and in print in a relentless, unending stream. These people aren't Christians – imagine using the Bible, with its constant refrain of taking in the stranger, caring for the alien, the commonality of the human predictment (rain falling on the just and unjust alike) as a cudgel to beat immigrants! No, they aren't Christians, they are primitive nationalists, proto-fascists who despise democracy and human freedom, preening in self-regard, imbuing their own willfully ignorant, lovingly cultivated prejudices and fears (and their squirmy, creepy sexual obsessions) with divine sanction. They are blind guides, whited sepulchres, exalters of the self, haters of women and traitors to the God they profess to worship

.

I refuse to mention that today is 6-6-6.

Action Alert

John Aravosis is pissed that the Marriage Amendment and is doing something about it.

Paging Mr. Orwell

Bill O'Reilly made a damned fool out of himself yesterday by saying this, in a pathetic attempt to excuse the atrocities at Haditha (video of Keith Olbermann ripping O'Reilly a new one) :

Bill O'Reilly: But I, in, in Mal-, in, in Malmedy, as you know, US forces captured SS forces who had their hands in the air, and they were unarmed, and they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record, been documented. In Iwo Jima, the same thing occurred. Japanese attempted to surrender, and they were burned in their caves.

No, O'Reilly, you buffoon, it was the other way around. SS forces massacred US forces. The Nazis committed the crimes at Malmedy, not the Americans, and it's BIZARRE that someone would make that mistake.

But what's equally bizarre is that Fox News scrubbed the transcript, and changed "Malmedy" to "Normandy":

O'REILLY: And in Normandy, as you know, U.S. forces captured S.S. forces, who had their hands in the air. And they were unarmed. And they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record. Been documented.

Down the Memory Hole.

Even the Post

With the latest move of slashing terrorism funding for New York, the Bushites have even lost the rabidly right-wing New York Post, who have been their ass-licking sycophants for 6 years.

How extreme is it? Check out the article:

D.C.'S STUPID SCROOGES SLASH NYC TERROR AID AND SPLURGE ON THE STICKS

June 1, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Less than five years after the murder of 2,749 people in the Twin Towers on 9/11, the feds yesterday shockingly slashed anti-terror funds needed to protect New York City against future attacks.

The Homeland Security Department announced it was hacking funds distributed to the city by 40 percent compared with last year, while pouring hundreds of millions into unlikely terror targets like Kentucky and Wyoming.

The shocking stinginess from Washington comes just one week after a Pakistani national was convicted of a plot to blow up the Herald Square subway station.

New York City will get its vital anti-terror funding chain-sawed from $208 million this year to $124 million next year - even though security experts agree it is vastly more threatened than any other city in the country.

The unexpected move set New York lawmakers in both parties fuming - especially since Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a native of the region, vowed to dole out money based on risk.

Two cities in Chertoff's home state, New Jersey, made out like bandits - Jersey City and Newark will receive a total of $34.3 million, a 79 percent increase from the previous year.

"As far as I'm concerned, the Department of Homeland Security and the administration have declared war on New York," said Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"It's a knife in the back to New York and I'm going to do everything I can to make them very sorry they made this decision."

King said he would launch "rigorous investigations" of the Homeland Security Department - including a $21 million DHS contract with a Virginia limousine service accused of arranging hotel trysts between lawmakers and prostitutes.

"They have cut $80 million in funding to New York City," King said. "Meanwhile, they gave a $21 million limousine contract to the company that was driving pimps and prostitutes around."

Sen. Charles Schumer had a more personal message for President Bush.

"I don't think the president should come back to New York and stand in solidarity with us without changing this formula," said Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"This is unfair. This is wrong. This is an outrage. This is basically abandoning New York."

Poor George. He's ugly and he's stupid and nobody likes him.

The Tyranny of Balance

One of the problems with the modern news media is that they simply don't believe that facts exist. They think EVERYthing is a political debate between two sides. So if they have a holocaust survivor on a show, they feel the need to have a holocaust denier on, too, for "balance." As though the two had equal validity.

Al Gore has figured that out. From CBS Early Show:

GORE: And the debate among the scientists is over, there is no more debate. We face a planetary emergency, and the phrase sounds shrill, but it is an accurate description of the climate crisis that we have to confront and solve.

SMITH: But if I look at more elements, the more conservative elements of the press, I would say there is a debate going on because, you know, they say that you’re just trying to create this kind of bogeyman to help slow down the economy and everything else. How do you respond to that?

GORE: Well, I guess in some quarters there’s still a debate over whether the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona or whether the earth is flat instead of round. And there may be some media reports that are constructed in a way that says, “On the one hand, on the other hand.” But really and truly, global warming is in that category – there is no more scientific debate among serious people who’ve looked at the evidence.

"I guess there's still some debate over whether the earth is flat, too."

Yep.

Terrorism funding slashed

What the matter, scumbag? They didn't vote for you anyway?

Washington Post - The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento.

Words fail in attempting to describe the sheer mendacity and incompetence of these idiots. They spend TRILLIONS on fat contracts for cronies, and on every stupid piece of shit that crosses through their diseased brains - stuff that has nothing to do with terrorism -while cutting funds that ARE used to fight terrorism. And, no offense to Sacramento or Jacksonville, but I dounbt that they're all the high on the target list.

ITMFA.