"What are you lookin' at, sugartits?" - Mel Gibson to a female cop.

Note to Mel: Hey, you stupid, drunken buffoon - she has tits AND A GUN.

Maybe it's a sign of a campaign in disarray, but I somehow got on the Lieberman campaign's mailing list. And every day, I get emails telling me how wonderful Joe is, and how happy I must be that Joe is Joe and not some liberal who actually thinks he should criticize Bush, and every day, I reply with the FOULEST things that my diseased brain can conjure up. And they actually don't seem to have figured out that I'm not a supporter, and keep sending them to me anyway.

Tell us something we don't know.

Senator Kennedy has an interesting Op-Ed today, where he says something that we all knew: that Roberts and Alito were full of shit during their confirmation hearings.

After confirmation, we saw an entirely different Roberts and Alito -- both partisans ready and willing to tilt the court away from the mainstream. They voted together in 91 percent of all cases and 88 percent of non-unanimous cases -- more than any other two justices.

A few examples help illustrate how the confirmation process failed the American people. During Roberts's hearing, I asked him about his statement that a key part of the Voting Rights Act constitutes one of "the most intrusive interferences imaginable by federal courts into state and local processes." In response, he suggested that his words were nothing more than an "effort to articulate the views of the administration . . . for which I worked 23 years ago."

Today -- too late -- it is clear that Roberts's personal view is the same as it was 23 years ago. In League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry , the Supreme Court held that Texas's 2003 redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act by protecting a Republican legislator against a growing Latino population. Roberts reached a different view, concluding that the courts should not have been involved and that it "is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race."

Ok, fine and dandy. But if the Democrats want to know why people have had it up to here with them, read the above. How come there wasn't more of a fight when they were being confirmed? We ALL KNEW what they were doing. Is Kennedy saying that HE didn't know? If so, he wasn't paying attention. EVERYBODY knew. Didn't the Democrats in the Senate? If so, why didn't they filibuster, and more on point, why didn't they make that point in a public and dramatic way, a way in which it would receive press coverage?

The problem with the Democrats - including Kennedy - is that they are afraid of doing anything dramatic. Of ruffling the feathers of those dear, sweet Republicans. They're afraid of pushing the envelope, of countering right-wing extremism with anything that has any FORCE. So here you have Bush and the Republicans making a flat MOCKERY out of the nomination of a Supreme Court judge. And you what the Democrats could do to counter that? CALL IT A MOCKERY. How hard can that be? And wham - the Republicans would immediatelyon the defensive, trying to explain why the mockery wasn't REALLY a mockery.

What Kennedy should do is not write an Op-Ed after the fact. It's an interesting article, but what good does it do? If Kennedy thinks that Roberts and Alito lied during their confirmation, he should publicly raise the possiblity of whether or not what they did constitutes PERJURY, and call for a Senatorial investigation into that question. There won't BE any such investigation, of course, with the Republicans in charge, but the drama of the statement WILL get press coverage, it WILL make the Republicans' behavior grist for the public mill and a matter of public discussion, and it will shift the terms of the debate, with the Republicans actually trying to explain WHY it's acceptable to lie to the Senate.

What we REALLY need is new Democrats.

The Republicans are now agreeing to raise the minimum wage, but only if they can give another tax cut to the rich folks.

Don't you LOVE it when they stop even PRETENDING to stand for anything other than greed?

The Democrats actually seem to be handling this one right, and Ezra Klein over at Tapped has the perfect response.

Why aren't we in the streets?

Exxon Mobil makes more than $10 billion
No. 1 U.S. oil company earns $1,318 a second - topping forecasts - but comes in just shy of a record.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Profits at Exxon Mobil surged 36 percent to a near record $10.4 billion in the second quarter as surging oil prices helped the world's largest publicly traded company soundly beat Wall Street forecasts.

The company's profit - which amounts to a cool $1,318 a second - is the second biggest ever reported by a U.S. company, behind only the $10.7 billion Exxon itself earned in the fourth quarter of 2005.

$1,318 per second. $80 Grand a minute. While gouging you, me, and everyone in America.

Why the F are Americans putting UP with this?

Jon Stewart: But as some see mayhem and chaos in the violence, [Condoleezza] Rice sees chaos and makes mayhem-ade...

Rice (video): What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing birth pangs of a new Middle East.

Stewart: Birth pangs? Yes, I believe today's contraction took out a city block.

How disgusting

Just when you thought actions by a Government couldn't GET anymore immoral:

It is now illegal in Las Vegas to give a hungry guy your own sandwich.

Las Vegas Makes It Illegal to Feed Homeless in Parks

I'm speechless.

Rice to play the piano

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - In keeping with her mood and to reflect the world crises she tackles daily, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to play a somber piece of music to her Asian colleagues in Malaysia this week.

The Association of South East Asian Nations has a tradition of ministers performing usually silly skits at a gala dinner, but Rice, an accomplished pianist, said she was more at ease playing a serious, reflective piece, possibly by the composer Brahms.

"It is not a time that is frivolous. It is a serious time. I will play something that is in accordance with my serious mood," said Rice, who had just attended a conference in Rome aimed at helping resolve the Lebanon crisis.

Rice said she would not be comfortable singing show tunes.

I guess we should thank God for small favors - at least she thinks a show tune would be inappropriate ("And now, a peppy little number from 'Miss Saigon'").

J.D. Salinger said, "Scratch a bad teacher, and you'll find a first class carpenter." By all accounts, she's an excellent pianist. Her mother was a piano teacher, and her name comes from the musical direction "con dolcezza" ("with sweetness").

And wouldn't we all be a lot better off if Condoleezza WAS a pianist instead of Secretary of State? She'd actually be doing something GOOD and USEFUL, instread of enabling the biggest pack of thieves ever to squat in the White House.

They just found a 1200-year-old Psalm Book sitting in an Irish bog.

Neat.

Clueless in Washington

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld yesterday strongly put to rest any notion that he was out of touch with the situation in Iraq:

Q Is the country closer to a civil war?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know.

The rest of do. Why doesn't he?

Here's the whole disgraceful, clueless, rambling pile.

I won't even call it bullshit. Bullshit has some substance.

Which side is Bush on?

So one more time, something happens on the world stage, and one more time, the Bush administration's response helps Al Qaeda gain support and strengthens them, instead of harming them.

Seriously - George W. Bush couldn't help the terrorists more if he WAS on their side.

"It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army. Hard to imagine." – Paul Wolfowitz, Feb. 27, 2003

Bush is a conservative

William F. Buckley says that Bush isn't a TRUE Conservative.

Watch for the right-wingers to grab this as a lifeline, as they try desperately to save their failed philosophy by distancing Bush from conservatism. They are now claiming that he isn't a REAL conservative.

Yeah, and the Communists claim that the Soviets weren't REAL Communists, either.

The fact is that this is the most conservative government EVER in America, and it's a collosal failure.

Bush IS a conservative. He identifies as a conservative, surrounds himself with conservatives and the conservatives vote for him in droves.

Yes, they will claim that it isn't what conservativism is ON PAPER. But it doesn't exist on paper. It exists IN PRACTICE. The Soviet Union wasn't what communism was ON PAPER either. 

But THIS is what it becomes IN PRACTICE.  All the time.  Every time. 

When a movement's leaders always depart drastically from the basic tenets of the movement every time they have the power to implement what they claim are their beliefs, it is the MOVEMENT that is flawed.

This IS conservativism. Runaway government intrusion, government spending, and government power grabs, government secrecy and nation building through war ARE conservativism.

And the last six years PROVES it.

Will Iraq cease to exist?

From the Independent UK, via Chris in Paris, over on Americablog. Is this in any American newspaper?

According to Iraqi government officials, there is basically no chance of Iraq becoming a Democratic Government, or even of surviving as Iraq at all. They are now trying to figure out how to parse up the country among Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: "The parties have moved to plan B." He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. "There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west," he said.

The situation has spiralled even more out of control in the last week while everybody's attention was focused on Lebanon. And the official policy of America is to put on a happy face, and believe anybody who tells us what we want to hear:

Ever since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein a succession of Iraqi political leaders have been fêted in London and Washington where they claimed to have the insurgents on the run.

And America is in the hands of lunatics who not only WILL NOT admit that they were wrong, but are hunting for every opportunity to do the same damned thing again.

What Bush means by "diplomacy."

Condi Rice is going to the Mideast, and before she goes, she wants to make one thing clear:

She doesn't want a cease-fire.

God, how I wish I was kidding.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the "false promise" of an immediate cease-fire in the spreading war between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and said she would seek long-term peace during a trip to the Mideast beginning Sunday.

The top U.S. diplomat defended her decision not to meet with Hezbollah leaders or their Syrian backers during her visit.

"Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem," Rice said as she previewed her trip, which begins with a stop in Israel.

Rice said the United States is committed to ending the bloodshed, but not before certain conditions are met. The Bush administration has said that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the 10-day-old violence, and stop firing missiles into Israel.

"We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," Rice said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

Understand now? A cease-fire wouldn't solve all the problems, so they might as well keep shooting.

"A cease-fire would be a false promise"? It would ALSO be a lot fewer DEAD people. If a truce is an uneasy one, we shouldn't have a truce at all?

And she is going to "negotiate" by refusing to meet with one of the parties, and demanding concessions from only one side.

If you want to know why everything is just spiralling out of control with these clowns in charge, that pretty much explains it, doesn't it?

Thanks for the Memories

I miss George

George Harrison sings the Pirate Song:

DeLay's PAC is out of business

The complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington against Delay's PAC has resulted in a crippling fine, and an agreement to shut down.

CREW FEC COMPLAINT AGAINST REP. DELAY PAC – ARMPAC – RESULTS IN $115,000 FINE
One of Largest Fines in FEC History

Washington, DC – Last night, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released a conciliation agreement reached with Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC) stemming from a complaint Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed against the PAC last August. As a result of CREW's FEC complaint, ARMPAC has agreed to pay a $115,000 civil penalty and go out of business. ARMPAC was created and led by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).

Remember: DeLay is the one that the Republicans circled the wagons to protect. They tried to CHANGE THE ETHICS RULES so he wouldn't have to be answerable for his corruption.

He's the face of the Republican Party.

And he's corrupt, corrupt, corrupt.

``The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." - James Madison

Bush vetoes stem cell research.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060719/D8IV7FS09.html

So President Death finally issues his first veto ever, and it's to prevent the saving of lives. How surprising.

Maureen Dowd: Animal House Summit - The Fool in Presidential Clothing

by Maureen Dowd.

Reporters who covered W.’s 2000 campaign often wondered whether the Bush scion would give up acting the fool if he got to be the king.

Would he stop playing peekaboo with his pre-meal moist towels during airplane interviews? Would he quit scrunching up his face and wiggling his eyebrows at memorial services? Would he replace levity and inanity with gravity?

“In many regards, the Bush I knew did not seem to be built for what lay ahead,’’ wrote Frank Bruni, the Times writer who covered W.’s ascent, in his book “Ambling Into History.”

“The Bush I knew was part scamp and part bumbler, a timeless fraternity boy and heedless cutup, a weekday gym rat and weekend napster, an adult with an inner child that often brimmed to the surface or burst through.”

The open-microphone incident at the G-8 lunch in St. Petersburg on Monday illustrated once more that W. never made any effort to adapt.

The president has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits — no matter how decorous or serious — into a comfortable frat house.

No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same DKE bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach — swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.

Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He’s strangely resentful about the actual core of his job.

Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.

In snippets of overheard conversation, Mr. Bush says he has not bothered to prepare any closing remarks and grouses about having to listen to other world leaders talk too long. What did he think being president was about?

The world may be blowing up, and the president may have a rare opportunity to jaw-jaw about bang-bang with his peers, but that pales in comparison with his burning desire to return to his feather pillow and gym back at the White House.

“Gotta go home,’’ he tells the guy next to him. “Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home.”

A White House spokesman said Mr. Bush had nothing on his schedule after he returned to Washington on Monday about 4 p.m.

When he began meandering about how big Russia was, you expected him to yell, “Yo, Condi!’’ and ask his secretary of state: “Hey, what’s the name of that other big country that has more people than any other country in the world? It begins with a ‘C.’ Dad spent some time there.’’

Perhaps it’s that anti-patrician chip on his shoulder, his rebellion against a family that prized manners and diplomacy above all. But when bored or frustrated, W. reserves the right to be boorish — no matter if the setting is a gilded palace or a Texas gorge.

He treated Tony “As It Were” Blair like the servant in “The Remains of the Day,’’ blowing off his offer to help with the Israel-Lebanon crisis, and changing the subject from substance to fluff at one point, noting about his 60th-birthday Burberry gift: “Thanks for the sweater. Awfully thoughtful of you.’’

Then he razzed the British prime minister, who was hovering and wheedling like an abused wife: “I know you picked it out yourself.”

After doing his best to undermine the U.N. and Kofi Annan, W. talked about the secretary general like a fraternity pledge he wanted to send out for more beer or a keg of Diet Coke: “I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen.’’

His loosey-goosey confidence that everything could be fixed with a phone call — and not even a phone call made by him, and not even a phone call made to the Iranians, who have more control over Hezbollah — was striking.

He seems to have no clue that his own headlong, heedless actions in the Middle East have contributed to the deepening chaos there, and to Iran’s growing influence and America’s diminished leverage.

Mr. Bush may resent the sophistication required of a president. But when the world is going to hell, he should stop chewing and start thinking.

Diane Feinstein isn't my favorite, but this is nice:

Feinstein: "About FISA, you say that the President has the authority to wiretap Americans without warrants due to his war powers under Article 2, correct?"

Gonzales: "Yes."

Feinstein: "And I got a letter from your associate saying that the President could act because Congress had not set up a statute. Well, that's not true. The FISA law clearly says that the President can eavesdrop without warrants for 15 days after a declaration of war."

Gonzales: "Yes, but we didn't have a declaration of war, only an authorization to use military force, so we couldn't work with that provision."

Feinstein: "So you're saying that the AUMF does not amount to a declaration of war?"

Gonzales: "Obviously they are different."

Feinstein: "So if the AUMF is not a declaration of war, the president shouldn't have WAR powers!"

Gonzales: "................."

Stonewall

According to Alberto ("Torture Boy") Gonzales, Bush personally blocked the Justice Department from investigating his eavesdropping.

So Bush breaks the law, and then stonewalls. The Congress can't overrule him, the court can't overrule, his own Justice Department can't question him.

Seriously - what sort of shit is this, and what the F will it take for Congress to get off their collective asses and tell this son of a bitch that he can't just do any damned thing he pleases?

Neck

Ok, so after showing his grasp of foreign policy by making a joke about eating a pig when asked about the bombing of Beirut airport, Bush shows his grasp of etiquette by suddenly giving the female chancellor of Germany an uninvited neck massage. Video at the link.



Somebody please tell the world that a lot of Americans didn't vote for this clown.

Your money or your life.

If you are an American stuck in Lebanon, and want to leave (and you probably do), no problem.

The Bush administration will just charge you for it.

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur.

TONS of money for Iraq. NOTHING to get Americans out of a war zone.

Krugman

Since those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — and since the cast of characters making pronouncements on the crisis in the Middle East is very much the same as it was three or four years ago — it seems like a good idea to travel down memory lane. Here’s what they said and when they said it:

“The greatest thing to come out of [invading Iraq] for the world economy … would be $20 a barrel for oil.” Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), February 2003

“Peacekeeping requirements in Iraq might be much lower than historical experience in the Balkans suggests. There’s been none of the record in Iraq of ethnic militias fighting one another that produced so much bloodshed and permanent scars in Bosnia.” Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense and now president of the World Bank, Feb. 27, 2003

“Earlier this week, I traveled to Baghdad to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq.” President Bush, June 17, 2006

“People are doing the same as [in] Saddam’s time and worse. … These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.” Ayad Allawi, Mr. Bush’s choice as Iraq’s first post-Saddam prime minister, November 2005

“My fellow citizens, not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq.” President Bush, Dec. 18, 2005

“Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits for the region. …Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart, and our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced.” Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002

“It’s time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be the commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.” Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, Dec. 6, 2005

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now.” Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, on the campaign against Slobodan Milosevic, April 28, 1999

Watch the world laugh in Bush's face

Video on Think Progress:

BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.

PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.

George W. Bush has made our claims of "Democracy" the stuff of jibes and mockery, worldwide.

The pig is smarter.

We have a totally out-of-touch, couldn't-care-less, no-grip-on-reality imbecile in the White House.

Reporter: Does it concern you that the Beirut airport has been bombed, and do you see a risk of triggering wider war? And on Iran - they still refuse to respond. Are they past the deadline, or do they still have time to respond?.

Bush: I thought were gonna ask about the pig.

Crooks and Liars has the video. Check out the glance that the German PM gives him when he tosses that crap out.

Church leaders take a hike

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Nearly all the religious leaders serving on a committee created by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to disburse money to churches destroyed by Hurricane Katrina have quit their posts, claiming their advice was ignored...

"I've learned in life that if people say they want your advice and then they change it, ignore it, or undermine it, then they really don't want it," said Gray, also a former congressman...

Numerous disagreements ensued, but Jakes and Gray said the last straw was the fund's decision to cut checks to 38 houses of worship, each for $35,000, without first conducting an audit to ensure the church exists.

Imam Abdelhafiz Bensrieti, another committee member who resigned, said the Washington staff wanted the religious leaders to "rubber stamp" their decisions. "They had their agenda and that's unacceptable," he said.

Good. These clowns wanted to get a bunch of clergymen on hand for PR reasons, to pretend that they had the "support of the religious community" to do whatever they wanted to do, and the clergymen decided that they weren't going to be so used. This is the sort of stuff done by the White House all the time: they do what they want, and make sure that someone else can be blamed for any mess. The reverend's decided that they weren't going to play that game, and weren't going to be patsies. Good for them.

Stab in the back

From Harpers. Read the whole thing. Have a neat weekend and try not to think about Armageddon.

Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monstrous foes. Above all, these foes must arise from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is why, though its origins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.

Happy Bastille Day.

Here's hoping that the folks of this country storm the modern Bastille this November with votes.

You know what would be a good idea? Making flags out of asbestos. This would accomplish two things:

1) No one could burn it.

2) Any politician who wrapped himself in one would choke to death.

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?

Despite the American Press's desperation for Bush to get popular again, it's not happening. He is getting down into Typhoid Mary territory.

But, more importantly, the polls also show that the Democrats are poised to win rather big.

Growing a spine would probably ensure that, but I have no reason to believe that the Democrats will do so. But it STILL looks like they may win big, jellyfish or not. Apparently, when given a choice a between a jellyfish and Satan, most people prefer the jellyfish.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their grip on Congress in November. With less than four months to the midterm elections, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that Americans by an almost 3-to-1 margin hold the GOP-controlled Congress in low regard and profess a desire to see Democrats wrest control after a dozen years of Republican rule....

Not surprisingly, 81% of self-described liberals said they would vote for the Democrat. Among moderates, though, 56% backed a Democrat in their district and almost a quarter of conservatives — 24% — said they will vote Democratic.

Digby on the Bushite Doctrine

How a country like the US can support freedom and democracy, and what tools should be used, is a valid question. There has always been the problem of a mighty superpower seeming to throw its weight around having the effect of creating a certain human resistence to its influence. Nobody has an easy answer to that question, but most liberals believe that the best, if not perfect, hope lies in international law and institutions.

But, honestly, anybody who thought that it was a good idea to illegally (and virtually unilaterally) invade and occupy a middle eastern nation that had not attacked anyone, in the name of freedom and democracy was nuts. (To compound the error by thinking that you could use torture and humiliation in the process and still somehow be seen as a valiant liberator is simply mind-boggling.) If there is ever a case in human events in which you cannot adopt an "ends justify the means" philosophy it's in the realm of spreading liberal values. The minute you do it, you have defeated yourself.

This was not a difficult thing to understand for those who actually believe in liberal values. It seems, however, to still elude those who for the last decade, at least, have been swinging wildly from one position to the other without even pausing for breath.

"This just in, breaking news from Hell,
Ken Lay has just swindled Zarqawi out of his 72 virgins."
-- Dave Letterman

Valerie Plame Sues

WASHINGTON - The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

Just watch: CIA official after CIA official will testify that she was a covert operative, and the wingnuts will keep insisting that she was just a desk jockey, facts be damned.

Bush nominates a war criminal for a judgeship

Seriously.

As General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Haynes helped to formulate policies governing detainee interrogation and detention that violated U.S. and international law. He recommended that detainees in Guantanamo could be subjected to abusive interrogation techniques, including stripping them naked, depriving them of light, forcing them into stress positions, forcibly shaving them, and using dogs to intimidate them. He also advised that using wet towels and dripping water to make the detainees believe they are suffocating (waterboarding) and threatening them and their families with death might be "legally available" options.

Of course Bush wants a guy like that to be a judge.

I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. Unless you're Torquemada you should oppose the nomination of this legal piece of pond scum.


Look at the Left End of the Dial, or kos. This clown's list goes on and on.

I don't see how anybody can even QUESTION the fact that Bush has a weird sociopathic love-affair with torture. The American Press doesn't want to see it, but it's pretty damned hard to miss.

This nomination is NOT a rubber stamp. Democrats may actually try and block this one, maybe even with Republican help.

If you want to send something to your Senator from a religious perspective, try this one.

Even better, here are the phone numbers of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, list courtesy of kos:

Minority Members (Democrats)

Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT)
[Ranking Member]
202-224-4242 202-224-3479
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
202-224-4543 202-224-2417
Contact.

Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE)
202-224-5042 202-224-0139
Contact.

Herb Kohl (D-WI) >br> 202-224-5653 202-224-9787
Contact.

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
202-224-3841 202-228-3954
Contact.

Russell D. Feingold (D-WI)
202-224-5323 202-224-2725
Contact.

Charles Schumer (D-NY)
202-224-6542 202-228-3027
Contact.

Richard J. Durbin (D-IL)
202-224-2152 202-228-0400
Contact.

Majority Members (Republicans)

Arlen Specter (R-PA) [Chairman]
202-224-4254 202-228-1229
Contact.

Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
202-224-5251 202-224-6331
Contact.

Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)
202-224-3744 202-224-6020
Contact.

Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
202-224-4521 202-224-2207
Contact. Mike DeWine (R-OH)
202-224-2315 202-224-6519
Contact.

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
202-224-4124 202-224-3149
Contact.

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
202-224-5972 202-224-3808
Contact.

John Cornyn (R-TX)
202-224-2934 202-228-2856
Contact.

Sam Brownback (R-KS)
202-224-6521 202-228-1265
Contact.

Tom Coburn (R-OK)
202-224-5754 202-224-6008
Contact.

Punks

The right-wingers are apparently bursting blood vessels over the DCCC ad below:

Ohhh! Those nasty Democrats! They actually mentioned the cost of war! How mean of them not to let us sanitize it and whitewash it.

The fact that the right reacts to THAT ad as though it's somehow "unfair" to them shows what a pack of whining little children they are.

As Nitpicker (linked above) points out, they think they own the dead.

"Any online gamblers here? Well, Congress is looking in shutting that down. There's going to be a massive congressional investigation of online gambling and they're going to shut it down. And when they get done with that, they're going to look into this North Korean thing." --David Letterman

Now we see how Bush intends to handle the Supreme Court saying that he has to abide by the Geneva Conventions, and that all prisoners have rights.

He intends to ignore them, on the grounds that this one is different:

WASHINGTON -- Bush administration lawyers today rejected congressional suggestions to try alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban war criminals in the U.S. military justice system, saying military courts provide protections for defendants that are unwarranted in the war on terrorism.

In their most detailed description of administration policy since the Supreme Court struck down the Pentagon's special war crimes tribunals last month, the lawyers said their ability to introduce evidence gathered through coercion or through sensitive intelligence sources would be compromised if they were forced to use the Uniform Code of Military Justice to charge Al Qaeda defendants.

The insistence that Congress readopt the administration's old war crimes commissions is the latest sign that — despite the historic Supreme Court ruling and Tuesday's acknowledgment that the Geneva Conventions apply to all Pentagon detainees — the administration is likely to be just as aggressive in asserting its authority over detainee treatment as it has been in the past.

ITMFA.

"The President is always right"

That's now official.

From Think Progress:

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard testimony from Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel. When questioned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on whether the President’s interpretation of the Hamdan case was right or wrong, Bradbury replied, “The President is always right.” Watch it.

Full transcript below:

LEAHY: The president has said very specifically, and he’s said it to our European allies, he’s waiting for the Supreme Court decision to tell him whether or not he was supposed to close Guantanamo or not. After, he said it upheld his position on Guantanamo, and in fact it said neither. Where did he get that impression? The President’s not a lawyer, you are, the Justice Department advised him. Did you give him such a cockamamie idea or what?

BRADBURY: Well, I try not to give anybody cockamamie ideas.

LEAHY: Well, where’d he get the idea?

BRADBURY: The Hamdan decision, senator, does implicitly recognize we’re in a war, that the President’s war powers were triggered by the attacks on the country, and that law of war paradigm applies. That’s what the whole case —

LEAHY: I don’t think the President was talking about the nuances of the law of war paradigm, he was saying this was going to tell him that he could keep Guantanamo open or not, after it said he could.

BRADBURY: Well, it’s not —

LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong?

BRABURY: It’s under the law of war –

LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong?

BRADBURY: The President is always right.

Yep - that old Constitution is "just a g-d- piece of paper."

Holy crap, Mildred, this church is full of liberals.

There is an article on the CBS News website that's getting some attention from Left Blogistan:

Religion Taking A Left Turn?
Conservative Christians Watch Out: There's A Big Churchgoing Group Seeking Political Power

The article is basically horseshit, and still a good sign anyway.

It's horseshit because there is nothing new about there being a religious left. But it's a good sign because it means that the press is finally noticing that they exist.

The America media do not report: they repeat narratives and tell the stories that they want to tell. There has been a religious left for YEARS. But the many, many things that they do have gotten almost NO coverage. They are routinely treated by the press as though they didn't exist, no matter WHAT they do. I have personally been at religious/political events that drew tens of thousands of people, almost ALL church groups - but from the press coverage, you would have no clue that they WERE church groups. Just standard liberals making noise again.

See, when right-leaning churches do something political, the press treats it primarily as a religious action. But when left-leaning churches do something political, the press treats it ENTIRELY as a political action, and doesn't even MENTION the religious angle.

This article does not mean that religious left is suddenly politically active. It means that the media is suddenly starting to recognize that that politically activity IS religiously inspired, and is part of the narrative, and is actually worth covering.

It's about frigging time.

Well, isn't THIS interesting.

The nutty doctor that blew up the building on the East Side of Manhattan apparently preceded it by sending a ranting and rambling email containing every dumb right-wing cliche and talking point imaginable to both his wife and Sean Hannity.

The liberal side of the Supreme Court to squeeze out more taxes to give it to the " needy" in other words support income redistribution.

The anti American politicians and others who are against the war in Iraq (the same people who was against the Vietnam war) like T.Kenedy, Soros, M.Moore, the New York Times Arthur Sulzberger JR, H.Clinton (who's only hope to be elected was N.Y.S. as was used by a Kennedy years back) and many others, I hope they will succeed so that the the terrorists will move to the states.

The Charles Schumer & Joseph Wilson production yesterday was pathetic. Why would Schumer show up with a looser whose wife is trying to jump-start her husband-derailed carrier by trying to get involved in Kerry's election?

Tried to help her husband to have a job in the Kerry administration by sending him to Niger than return and write a fictitious report on Sadam that he did not want to buy yellow cake to build WOM destructions. It failed. He even gave money to the Kerry campaign.

Air America in N.Y.C. they went, as far as to take over WLIB, 1190 AM the station with no listeners now. The program used to serve in the past, Caribbean listeners now is part of Air America Radio. On some of the programs in the past listeners would call in with their problems for advice. Now they have no outlets. So much of the respect for diversity.

Air Americas a T.V. program on Sundance T.V. channel with far left political content. One can hear Al Franken, Jerry Springer (we know who he is) and other far left lunatics. Soros is one of the contributors.

Jane Fonda (Hanoi Jane) is against the war again. Some people will never mature. Her ex husband is even worst. I hope Mr. Kerry will be in the background during the bus tour again.

A Bush supporter, no doubt.

Blast from the past

"WAYNE, Mich., June 27 -- Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

"I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. "Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot."

Like pulling teeth

Finally. We actually won a battle for human decency and the soul of America.

US applies Geneva Convention to military detainees

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that all detainees held by the U.S. military are covered by the protections of an article of the Geneva Conventions that bars inhumane treatment, according to a memo made public on Tuesday.

The memo signed by Gordon England, the No. 2 official in the Defense department, followed a June 29 Supreme Court ruling that struck down as illegal the military tribunal system set up by the Bush administration to try foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The United States previously has determined that certain prisoners taken in Washington's war on terrorism are not deserving of all of the protections of the Geneva Conventions -- international agreements governing the treatment of prisoners of war...

The memo, dated July 7, stated that detainees held in U.S. military custody worldwide are covered by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which ensures their humane treatment.

The article prohibits violence against detainees, including mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, and "outrages upon personal dignity" including humiliating and degrading treatment." It also ensures care for the sick and wounded.

It also bars sentencing or executing prisoners without a decision by "a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."

It's sad that the people who now run things had to be FORCED to behave like civilized human beings. And it's horrible that whole lot of Americans will view this as some sort of surrender. But that's where we are right now: we actually have to FIGHT to get America to stop torturing prisoners - an act that used to be the very symbol of brutality and cowardice.

Terrorists hit Bombay

137 dead, 230 wounded as series of blasts rock Mumbai trains

Mumbai, Jul 11 (PTI) At least 137 people were killed and 230 injured in a string of seven terror blasts thar tore through first class compartments of suburban trains around 6PM during the peak hour traffic here today.

As the blasts ripped apart train compartments, mangled bodies of passengers fell on the tracks and survivors, many of them bleeding profusely, jostled to come out leading to chaotic scenes.

Lord.

Why would terrorists go after India?

Shocker - Bush keeps secrets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration was running several intelligence programs, including one major activity, that it kept secret from Congress until whistle-blowers told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, the committee's chairman said on Sunday.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday he had written a four-page to President George W. Bush in May warning him that the failure to disclose the intelligence activities to Congress may be a violation of the law.

Bush has run the WHOLE WHITE HOUSE with secrecy as his cardinal principle for six years, now, aided and abetted by the press corps. the Congressional Republicans, and, most disgracefully, some Democrats.

Why is Hoekstra surprised? Bush has claimed that normal standards, rules and laws simply do not apply to him, and has been allowed to get away with such an outrageous claim without any repurcussions whatsoever. The little boy has been told that it is his ball, his game and his rules to change whenever he pleases.

Congress has willingly cut its own nuts off, and now seems indignant when Bush treats them like eunuchs.

It's about time these clowns woke up and took an along and honest look at the monster of their own creation.

But it's not a civil war.

God knows what one would look like, then,

Rampages in Iraq kill at least 60
Shi'ites, Sunnis turn Baghdad to battleground

By J. Michael Kennedy and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times | July 10, 2006

BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite militiamen and Sunni Arab insurgents went on murderous rampages yesterday, killing at least 60 people in shootings and bombings in a bloody outbreak that raised the specter of a city sinking deeper into sectarian warfare.

I'm going away for a few days. See yiz all next week.

Please check out Hecate's blog, and join her in celebrating George W. Bush's birthday.

Marine Returns Medal to Bush

Local Marine To Return Service Medal To Bush In Protest

AKRON, Ohio -- A local Marine who service in Iraq earned several medals for serving his country, but he's giving back one of the medals to the White House as a form of protest.

Sgt. Matthew Bee is a decorated Akron Marine who spent seven months in Hadeetha, serving with the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines Weapons Company based in Brook Park.

Bee received six medals of commendation, but one of them he will give back to President George W. Bush, calling the medal political, NewsChannel5 reported.

The medal is the War on Terrorism service medal, and Bee calls it "eye candy" from Bush.

"So, he took something noble and honorable and made it kind of dirty. And I always thought that medal was the one he pinned on us and said, 'This is my war. This is my stamp in history,'" said Bee.

Bee said he is not anti-war, but rather pro-peace. He plans to travel to Washington, D.C., with a small group of Marines who feel the same way he does. They will all try to return their War on Terrorism medal to Bush personally or to members of Congress.

You know, we keep being told that the troops support Bush, but I doubt it - it isn't like they take a poll, and soldiers aren't ALLOWED to pubicly criticize the Commander-in-Thief.

Out of all the Iraq and Afghanistan vets running for public office, exactly ONE is running as a Republican.

And the largest organization of Iraqi and Afganistan War Vets is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (formerly Operation Truth) and they don't seem to be pleased with Georgie at all, at all.

Oh my God! They killed Kenny!

The bastards.

Just great

We have an idiot in the White House who has spending all of our strength and money fighting something that wasn't a threat, while allowing REAL threats to grow and foment,


WASHINGTON - North Korea defied weeks of international warnings yesterday by test-launching at least one long-range Taepodong-2 missile and at least four other shorter - range missiles, US officials said, sparking several diplomatic protests and a move to hold an emergency session today at the UN Security Council.

Stay the course.

Good God.

Gunmen kidnap Iraqi deputy minister, 19 bodyguards

Jul 4, 2006 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen abducted Iraq's deputy electricity minister and 19 bodyguards after ambushing their convoy in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, police and Interior Ministry sources said.

Get very angry

Bush disbanded the CIA Unit whose job it was to hunt for Osama Bin Laden last year, and didn't bother to mention it:

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

This scumbag stood on a pile of rubble that buried 2,500 smoldering corpses, grandstanding with a bullhorn, yelling "Osama Bin Laden, Dead or Alive."

And he was full of it.

He used the murder of 3000 Americans as one big photo-op.

Asshole

Just came across this old quote from the jerk in the White House. You may have seen it before; I hadn't.

BUSH: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

BUSH: Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.) (2/8/05)

You probably already heard that Joe Leibermann says that he'll run as an independent if he loses the primary to Ned Lamont. What a guy. Looks like the right-wingers may have had something there when they dubbed him "Sore Loserman."

This is on Ned Lamont's blog this morning:

In Other News

• England loses to Portugal on penalites in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup, but coach Sven-Goran Eriksson pledges that his team will play France on Wednesday anyway as a "petitioning semifinalist."


• Andy Roddick loses in the third round at Wimbledon in straight sets to an upstart challenger, but reserves the right to play in the fourth round so that "all the Wimbledon fans can see him play."


• The Kansas City Royals, 28 games out of first place in the American League Central, announced today that they are "taking out an insurance policy" to ensure that they will be able to play in the World Series if they happen to miss the playoffs.

Heh.

Turning a Corner.

Look. Another last throe.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb tore through a crowded market in a poor Shiite district of eastern Baghdad on Saturday, killing 66 people and wounding 87 in the bloodiest attack in the capital for weeks, according to hospital officials.

And I'll bet Bush doesn't even have comment.