That was John Kerry's message today and it was sorely appreciated here. I am far less worried about what a terrorist attack can do than I am about what our perilous standing in the world - and among ourselves - has already done. We can recover from an attack, but when the rot comes from our core.... well...
All these people picked up, held without benefit of counsel, and we haven't prosecuted one damned case.
But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of the roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged. Preliminary hearings for those suspects brought such a barrage of procedural challenges and public criticism that verdicts could still be months away. And since a Supreme Court decision in June that gave the detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal court, the Pentagon has stepped up efforts to send home hundreds of men whom it once branded as dangerous terrorists.Oh, I can just about guarantee it's been hidden, along with these human beings.
We've cleared whole forests of paper developing procedures for these tribunals, and no one has been tried yet," said Richard L. Shiffrin, who worked on the issue as the Pentagon's deputy general counsel for intelligence matters. "They just ended up in this Kafkaesque sort of purgatory."
The story of how Guantánamo and the new military justice system became an intractable legacy of Sept. 11 has been largely hidden from public view.
Gee, all the challengers will be in urban largely Dem neighborhoods. Sound like they're hitting a particular demographic in Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere? We let them get away with it in 2000 and now they're sure they're entitled to it.
Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the Nov. 2 elections.
Election officials in other swing states, from Arizona to Wisconsin and Florida, say they are bracing for similar efforts by Republicans to challenge new voters at polling places, reflecting months of disputes over voting procedures and the anticipation of an election as close as the one in 2000.
Ohio election officials said they had never seen so large a drive to prepare for Election Day challenges. They said they were scrambling yesterday to be ready for disruptions in the voting process as well as alarm and complaints among voters. Some officials said they worried that the challenges could discourage or even frighten others waiting to vote.
Ohio Democrats were struggling to match the Republicans' move, which had been rumored for weeks. Both parties had until 4 p.m. to register people they had recruited to monitor the election. Republicans said they had enlisted 3,600 by the deadline, many in heavily Democratic urban neighborhoods of Cleveland, Dayton and other cities. Each recruit was to be paid $100.
From CNN:
More than 800 former soldiers have failed to comply with Army orders to get back in uniform and report for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Army said Friday. That is more than one-third of the total who were told to report to a mobilization station by October 17.Oh, I have no doubt that Rummy's trying to keep this as quiet as possible.
Three weeks ago the number stood at 622 amid talk that any who refused to report for duty could be declared Absent Without Leave. Refusing to report for duty normally would lead to AWOL charges, but the Army is going out of its way to resolve these cases as quietly as possible.
Now he's "still funding all these insurgents." Just how long can Bush continue to use him as an excuse for everything? They just cycle through these different versions of excuses.
After that bullshit joint press conference with Iraqi PM Allawi where they kept telling us Iraq is going great, it turns out the insurgency is growing each day along with the number of Iraqis who feel we've made things so much worse there and that the majority of the country may not be able to vote in the puppet elections in January.
If you haven't caught it the last few days, Bush 41's NSA chief Brent Scowcroft has made some very critical comments about Bush 43, the handling of the Iraq war and other policies.
Now, this isn't new. Scowcroft - who's been rumored to be a front man for Bush 41 in trying to get his son to listen to reason - began voicing his concerns about going into Iraq when the drum beat for war was still fairly low. But I've never been quite sure how to take the comments about Scowcroft being the front man. I don't think Bush 41 has had any illusion he could talk sense into his son since Shrub was 6 or 7.
From The Nation:
The national security adviser under the first President Bush says the current president acted contemptuously toward NATO and Europe after Sept. 11 and is trying to cooperate now out of desperation to "rescue a failing venture" in Iraq and Afghanistan.The situation with Ariel Sharon has been very tough to read. Bush has behaved at times like Sharon's poodle which isn't necessarily good for Israel because I don't think Sharon stands for even a simple majority of Israelis in his policies and practices. The right wing Likuds there have been every bit as influential in keeping Sharon afloat as the right here has protected Bush no matter what he does.
Brent Scowcroft, a mentor to the current national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, also said in an interview published in London that Bush is heavily influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Sharon just has him wrapped around his little finger," Scowcroft told The Financial Times. "I think the president is mesmerized."
Scowcroft's remarks are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly contested presidential election.
I (of course) in no way condone the folks who were trying to strike political nutjob and professional hate mongerer Ann Counter with cream pies yesterday (condone, no - made me smile for a moment, oh yeah).
However, it would have been a more effective means of torture if they had forced her to eat them instead. Somewhere inside that body lies a 600 lb Sara Lee enthusiast concealing the darkest heart of all.
Got this from the Vermont Dem Party tonight:
In what amounts to the hijacking of Vermont’s 2004 campaigns, two
out-of-state groups are dumping well over $350,000 into Vermont on
behalf of Republicans Jim Douglas and Brian Dubie. These shady
groups are buying television and radio ads and they are flaunting
Vermont’s campaign finance laws in the process.
The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) is dumping over $300,000
into Vermont in the final two-and-a-half weeks of the campaign to buy
TV ads supporting Jim Douglas. This is more money than Douglas or
Peter Clavelle will spend on TV advertising for the entire
campaign! Where does the RGA come up with so much money to dump
into Vermont? Good question. Because the RGA has failed to file the
required papers with Vermont’s Secretary of State, there is no way to
know. Papers filed with the IRS give only vague information
indicating that huge pharmaceutical, tobacco and energy companies are
the primary source of the RGA funds. The RGA has already broken the
law in New Hampshire and North Carolina this year.
This type of corporate bombardment is unprecedented in Vermont. We
need your help to make sure that Vermonters and Vermont’s interests
are what drive this election, not big tobacco and pharmaceutical
companies.
From Roger Ailes (the great one, not the rubbery Faux prawn):
Jimmy Breslin finds this nugget of self-recognition in O'Reilly's new parenting book, The O'Reilly Factor for Kids:Gee, Bill dehumanizes the world with the lies he spews, so what's one "broad" (and you know O'Reilly would smirk as he says the word, too)? I do hope Mrs. Kobe Bryant has called Mrs. Bill O'Reilly to tell her where to shop for the $4 million rock. I know everytime I've felt fucked over my a straying partner my mind immediately jumps to very large jewelry that mined from countries where they hack off arms and legs to keep the workers and villagers under control."Here's a big word for today: dehumanization.
But what about one human being and one battery-operated phallic object?
"That's when you go out with someone only for their appearance - their big pecs or long legs. When you are interested in someone only on the basis of physique, you're dehumanizing him or her, seeing that person only as an attractive object. If you are doing that, remember, good sex occurs between two human beings, not between two objects ...
"Are you surprised by my thoughts on the subject? Did you think that O'Reilly would tell you sex is off-limits? As you know, things are more complicated than that. But I repeat my mantra: Sex is best when you combine sensible behavior with sincere affection ...
"It is also smart to recognize that there is no area more potentially dishonest than the sexual arena.
"And if you exploit a girl, it will come back to get you."
I caught one of the attorneys for Faux or O'Reilly on CNN and the only impression it left me with is that they are truly desperate.
Apparently, they've decided people were not aghast enough at the fact they purport that the woman suing O'Reilly for sexual harassment wanted $60 million upfront (her lawyer says that was never asked, that this was a figure appearing only in their research to determine how much O'Reilly's enterprises may bring in each year, so they've conflated it to $600 million.
The O'Reillys also insist she was trying to market a book about the case. The problem is that according to reliable other sources, Mrs. Mackris' book is a novel, and doesn't reference the situation at all. In fact, at least one source says the novel (about a younger woman in the big city) was written some time back.
To see this huge wave of lies so early on makes me truly believe O'Reilly must be desperate. What will be interesting to see is if other women come forward since sexual harassment is rarely a one-woman deal (someone who harasses in this manner frequently moves the behavior to any eligible person in their pool). However, perhaps that's behind the lie campaign now: to discourage other women from stepping up to the abuse that morphs from dirty talk from Bill to trash talking about themin the international press. If it were me, I'd be concerned about coming forth just because of what Faux and Company would aim.
From today's Boston Globe:
THE REPUBLICANS are out to steal the 2004 election -- before, during, and after Election Day. Before Election Day, they are employing such dirty tricks as improper purges of voter rolls, use of dummy registration groups that tear up Democratic registrations, and the suppression of Democratic efforts to sign up voters, especially blacks and students.
On Election Day, Republicans will attempt to intimidate minority voters by having poll watchers threaten criminal prosecution if something is technically amiss with their ID, and they will again use technical mishaps to partisan advantage.
But the most serious assault on democracy itself is likely to come after Election Day.
Here is a flat prediction: If neither candidate wins decisively, the Bush campaign will contrive enough court challenges in enough states so that we won't know the winner election night.
Whether they make it through the World Series is an entirely different matter, but my hearty congratulations to the Sox for wiping the field with Torre's boys. I knew this afternoon with every smug NY smile, where all guaranteed the Sox could not do it, that the Sox would indeed.
I doubt curses are real. It's only how we make them real by believing in them that we actually color the course of events.
Man, I hope this bodes well for November 2nd. And please let all those cellular-crazed young 'uns get out and vote (and that they vote for the candidate less apt to send their sweethearts, fathers, and even grandfathers needlessly to war: John Kerry). There's a smug, smarmy look on Karen's, Condi's, and Karl's faces I'd like to see go away, too.
I've been afraid to admit my life-long rooting for the Red Sox, but tonight's the deal. Forget the World Series right now. Just beat the Yanks (with apologies to Hally, Bill, and Steve, all great lovers of the Yanks) and wipe the smirk off their faces.
why is Condi Rice spending all her time campaigning for Bush - and scaring the hell out of people with rhetoric as well as the faces she makes - in key battle ground states? Her speeches are all highly partisan and none, of course, acknowledge her many, many failures?
Even though very few fall into the high-risk category.
As President Bush indicated in the last debate, we pay very good money for their health - health care too good to be wasted on the American people.
To retort that Heinz-Kerry is completely off-base because Laura was an educator and librarian is a tad ridiculous. Mrs. Bush worked for a very short time after she completed her schooling and has not held any position - save for less than sumptuous Stepford Wife - for nearly 28 years, long before her twins were born. The twins have been jetting off on their own all over for more than six years.
Mrs. Bush was welcome to make that choice as the well-heeled wife of a well-heeled screwup. But for four years, we've had her label as educator and librarian pushed in our faces while she's been a wallflower for longer than she was anything else.
Today, most people don't have the choice whether to work. I'm fine with that myself. I'm also fine with Heinz-Kerry's comments.
Hmmm.
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says he warned President Bush before U.S. troops invaded Iraq that the United States would sustain casualties but that Bush responded, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."The lord also told him: "c) you're a dangerous whore, Pat."
Robertson, in an interview with CNN that aired Tuesday night, said God had told him that the war would be messy and a disaster. When he met with Bush in Nashville before the war Bush did not listen to his advice, Robertson said, and believed Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant who needed to be removed.
"He was just sitting there, like, 'I'm on top of the world,' and I warned him about this war," Robertson said.
"I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you better prepare the American people for casualties.' 'Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties.' 'Well,' I said, 'it's the way it's going to be.' And so, it was messy. The lord told me it was going to be, A, a disaster and, B, messy."
Kind-hearted person that I am, I've actually thought of a way to help poor Bill O'Reilly with his (alleged) sins of the battery-operated and cellular.
If only he tapes that picture of Katherine Harris (scroll down) to his vibrator and phone, I don't think he needs worry about making any of those hot and bothered telephone calls again (if he did; while he has not denied making them he also has not admitted it). Even the poor phone-humping kid from Levittown or Smithtown or Westbury (wherever the hell he was spawned) couldn't get in a shower with Katherine, and certainly not if his back was to her. Cough.
Well, retiring Tom Delay seems like a good start.
[Ed. note: Actually, retiring him to a brutal corporate-run prison where he's made the bitch slave of a huge, enraged, wildly muscled, erroneously imprisoned former Hells Angel cellmate named Bruno where Tom is made to scream, "I'm sorry for screwing you up the ass all these years, America," while Bruno has his way with him sounds pretty good, too.]
Additional Ed. note: Oops. Sorry. I blame the sodomy reference on Wonkette (she seems quite fascinated with it and I blame all this talk of Bill O'Reilly and the idea of him doing anything sexual with falafel (I LIKED falafel until this) for the fact that I feel far less threatened by male homosexual dark fantasy. But this could be rooted in my misspent youth; as teens, my friend Rusty and I were talking on the phone one night and we dared each other to talk dirty and when he did, I was like really horrified and speechless.
And this brings me to another point about sexual harassment. When you're the target of it, it feels - as with the really vile stuff coming out of my best friend's mouth that time - as if it comes completely out of left field. You immediately wonder what the hell you did to warrant that. Or at least, that was my reaction as a woman. Today, I realize the ridiculousness in that. But even today, if someone out of the blue (especially when it's someone I don't like or respect) approaches me hot, bothered, and not listening to the words "No Dipshit!"), it still crosses my mind. That kind of mindset is helpful to predators, of course.
The funny little thing about having minds is that even when we're confronted with a sexual situation, we can actually choose not to act upon it. Plenty of men get erections at physical stimuli but very few actually rape. Plenty of bosses entertain the idea of at least a flirtation with an underling (all sex involving some kind of power and power balance) but that's really about as far as it may go outside of a slight increase in sexual tension. Hmmmm... what was I saying again? Oh, btw, the comments being left on Amazon.com for O'Reilly's children's book ("The No Spin Guide to Taking Showers") are hilarious.]
UPDATE: Ooops. That's Katherine Harris, the woman (and I use that term loosely - in her case, very loosely) so influential in having the 2000 vote stolen in Florida. But my God, she's scary.
Click here to send this witch back to Florida.
From today's Times:
Those who are worrying about a revived draft are in the same position as those who worried about a return to budget deficits four years ago, when President Bush began pushing through his program of tax cuts. Back then he insisted that he wouldn't drive the budget into deficit - but those who looked at the facts strongly suspected otherwise. Now he insists that he won't revive the draft. But the facts suggest that he will.
Online venues like Howie the Putz's Reliable Sources have really butchered up the appearance by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart saying something quite powerful to the Crossfire hosts, Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala: that by just representing the politicians they give nothing to the average voter.
Wonkette offers a whole roster of sites where you can see it, including through Media Matters and Indy Media.
From the AP via Newsday:
"We are losing guys left and right," says Cpl. Cody King, 20, of Phoenix, not hiding his anger. "All we are doing around here is getting blown up."
Most of the incidents these days, in this land of endless desert, dried-up river beds and winding dirt roads, include 155 mm artillery shells, mines and other sorts of crude homemade bombs. They make the Marines' enemy faceless and only heighten the feeling of vulnerability. The armor at their disposal is in short supply.
King and his fellow Marines from the weapons company of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, spoke between patrols, huddled together and sifting through their log book, venting their anger and frustration. They never talked of fear.
Among other things their green leather bound book lists are the number of times their company has been hit by homemade bombs since they arrived in the country two months ago. Also listed in book, in fine, careful print, are the names of those who were killed or wounded during those incidents.
Juan's Informed Comment blog notes the following:
AFP/ ash-Sharq al-Awsat report that a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani said Monday that the spiritual leader supports the formation of a committee of "independents" to form a party ticket to contest the elections scheduled for January.
Hamid al-Khaffaf said at a gathering at the Sadr Center in Najaf that "A committee of independents has been formed, the mission of which to to help everyone be represented on a unified list that would gain the confidence of the supreme Shiite leadership."
The election is now slated to be held in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, such that if a party get 20 percent of the vote it gets 20 percent of the seats. Since no indpendent candidate is likely to get more than a fraction of a percent, this way of proceeding disadvantages independents.
Al-Khaffaf admitting that no ideal parliament could be elected under such an election system. He warned that the grand ayatollahs would not hesitate to bring people into the streets for the sake of a good result in the elections such that the righteous win their rights.
At least the fellow knows he's not a whore.
The Washington bureau chief of Sinclair Broadcast Group was fired yesterday after accusing the media company of "indefensible" conduct for planning to air a movie attacking Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam record in the coming days.
Jon Leiberman, who also was the lead political reporter for the 62-station television chain, told CNN last night that he was terminated for his criticism, which was quoted in yesterday's Baltimore Sun. He spoke out, he said, because "I feel so strongly that our credibility is at issue here. . . . I feel our company is trying to sway this election."
Britney Spears is staying our of our faces for at least the length of time she was married the first time (55 hours?). I love it when 22-year-olds retire.
From Josh Marshall:
Exactly, Josh.Late this summer, at the first sign of new problems at Chiron Corp.'s long-troubled plant, the British began searching for other suppliers of flu vaccine.
The article goes on to point out that even if US officials had reacted as proactively as the Brits, we still would have had a more difficult time grappling with the problem.
“When Chiron informed us of the potential problems at the end of August, we made contingency agreements,” said Alison Langley, a spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, or MHRA, the British equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Armed with essentially the same information, however, U.S. officials relied on Chiron's early assurances that only a small portion of the flu vaccine from its Liverpool plant was contaminated.
It was not until Oct. 5, when the British pulled Chiron's license, that they knew that half the U.S. flu vaccine supply had just disappeared, producing the lines and shortages that the country is now enduring.
There are a) more Americans than Brits, b) the British were relying on this one plant for a smaller percentage of their flu vaccine needs, and c) a smaller percentage of the British population gets a regular flu shot. For all those reasons combined, the US shortfall is about 45 million doses while the Brits' is probably a bit under 2 million.
Still, it seems clear that not only were we depending on too few suppliers, but that someone was asleep at the switch when the warning lights started blinking.
That seemed to be the message on MSNBC tonight, with Hardball indicating it at least in passing but especially with Joe ("I know the medical examiner who ruled my female office worker's death was a rare one in a trillion situation has been totally discredited but why else would she have died on my floor?")Scarbrough announcing the above. That was the theme tonight, with "wasn't it hateful that Kerry called the Cheneys' daughter a lesbian" as sub-text.
Joe did everything but order folks not to waste his time going to the polls on 11/2.
What about what about revelations that those (mostly under 35) who don't have a regular telephone aren't being included in polls because pollsters don't call cell phones?
What about you? Do you think the fat lady's singing?
From James Wolcott's blog:
Watching the case unfold in the media, it's impressive how much supposedly informed people get wrong. On Howie Kurtz's Reliable Sources, Laura Ingraham, who received her law degree at Virginia Law School and clerked for Clarence Thomas, said that it was illegal for Mackris to tape O'Reilly without his consent; not so. And "expert" after "expert" hurls the $60-million figure Mackris was supposedly demanding as evidence of how ridiculous the case is. On Anderson Cooper's CNN show, Mackris' lawyer Benedict Corelli explained where the number came from. They were working out ballpark numbers as a basis for the settlement, and Corelli mentioned that a recent Business Week article put the yearly take from O'Reilly's various enterprises at $60 million a year; this was the basis for them to work from. He was not demanding every dollar O'Reilly makes in a given year. I think O'Reilly slapped that number on the screen during his Talking Points memo because he knew it was a sum everyone would find outrageous--highway robbery!--and make Mackris and her lawyer look like fortune hunters. As a public relations gambit, it's worked.Over the weekend, I saw some of the most egregious bits of misinformation placed out there - like Laura Ingraham whom James Wolcott mentions - and read a couple of articles that contend, as Wolcott writes, that the $60 million figure was not what is being sought by the woman suing O'Reilly and was placed out there just to spin the story against the woman.
But the legal system is a whole 'nother labyrinth, and as Steve Gilliard says, once Corelli is able to depose O'Reilly's present and past coworkers and subordinates, dig into his past at other stations, who knows what'll seep to the surface.? Most of the supersavvy legal experts and media watchers didn't think Martha Stewart was going to be convicted. Those who blithely declare Bill O'Reilly will tough this out and emerge bigger than ever may be equally surprised.
Read the entire Wired article, which starts:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a report published Saturday.Other articles have indicated that the success Jeb had with Katherine Harris in 2000 (giving his brother the vote when later analysis showed Bush lost the state and its electoral votes) have emboldened them and that far more minorities will be kept from voting this time around.
As both a former Vioxx consumer and a writer, I happened upon a Craig's List entry looking for a writer to document the Vioxx recall. Then I saw what these low lifes .. no, they're scum... were suggesting:
Easy One Million Dollars From Vioxx Lawsuit.Vioxx, taken by 1.3 million Americans, is used extensively for the treatment of many types of pain. Study shows the Vioxx side effects include Heart Attack, Intestinal Bleeding, Kidney or Liver Impairment, Respiratory Infections, and Stroke. Launched in the United States in 1999, Vioxx was sold $2.5 billion in 2003. Merck currently has $6.8 billion cash. (source) That is enough to pay $5000 per Vioxx taker. Experts in our firm estimated the class action lawsuits will award $5 billion, 50% of which will go the top 1000 sufferers, or $2.5 million per person. Get your share. It is the easiest way to become a millionaire. If you have heard of Million Dollar Awards from Tobacco Lawsuits, Vioxx cases will be easier to win, as in tobacco cases, consumers were warned before purchase, while Vioxx recall is a combination of mismanagement and lies from Merck. Merck did not had enough trial data before releasing Vioxx into market. Merck did not accept early warning signs. You need to take actions now. Following proper steps, a Monetary Compensation is guaranteed to you.
For $100, you can receive a document showing how an average person can benefit from this Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to become a millionaire. You need to have proof that you have taken Vioxx. The chance of winning is much greater, if you had any heart attack in your medical record. Small heart attacks are untraceable. Many have this record without ever detected by doctors. If you win a case before class action, your reward is much higher. We will show you how to prove you had taken Vioxx, to prove that you had related side effects, and to find a good lawyer to win your case. There are still countries selling Vioxx after the recall, you can find them online or we can help you. If you purchase Vioxx now, not only you can sue Merck, you can also sue the pharmacy store. Many law firms want your information. Contact as many as possible online. Don't miss the Opportunity
we knew it was true, and now awol admits it...though, to be fair, he only made a mistake saying it, and went back to correct himself as soon as he realized he said it wrong.Emphasis mine. Bush often tells the truth in his misspeaks... (example: "The world would be safer without us." and "Some say Iraq would be better off if we never went there. And they was right!").
campaigning in ohio today, awol said it out loud: if he's elected*, there will be a draft. oops! reuters:the president said he was outraged when the massachusetts democrat told the des moines register this week that there was "great potential" for a draft for iraq if bush were re-elected -- even though bush had said in a televised debate with kerry that there wouldn't be one. but he made a gaffe in his delivery.
"after standing on the stage, after the debates, i made it very plain: we will not have an all-volunteer army," bush told a rally in daytona beach.
realizing his error a few seconds later, bush said: "let me restate that: we will not have a draft. no matter what my opponent tries to tell people and scare them, we will have an all-volunteer army. the only person talking about a draft is my opponent."
Boy, I wish I felt it was impossible that our government somehow fabricated this story on CNN right now:
A statement attributed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group in Iraq -- and which claimed responsibility for the recent beheadings of two Americans and a Briton -- declared allegiance to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Sunday. The statement, posted on Web sites, addressed bin Laden as "the sheik" and said "We will listen to your orders. If you ask us to join the war, we will do it and we will listen to your instructions."It's just coming at a terribly convenient time for this president to backup what he and Cheney have recently said.
As you've likely heard, the U.S. death count alone in Afghanistan and Iraq has been extremely high in the past week (and the local deaths astronomical). Baghdad devolves each and every day.
This is a sad lead-in to this story in Salon (worth looking at the free ad to read in its entirety) about soldiers from that unit who allegedly mutinied. Tore my heart out. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like from the parents who were getting calls from their kids about this suicide mission.
Reader CK happened to mention Steve Gilliard's take on the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment suit so you can find it here.
Specifically, he tenders this suggestion (although Mr. O'Reilly is neither known for accepting different viewpoints or able to pass a reality test):
But because seeing evident stupidity makes me ill, here's a suggestion: SETTLE THIS FUCKING THING MONDAY. Because, you just made Fox compound your stupidity with their stupidity and this will go before a Fox-hating, Post-hating Manhattan jury. Ms. Mackris will enjoy her summers on the Cote D'Azure, her winter vacation in Gstaad, and a Palm Beach condo because of your uncontrolled anger and rage. She will be RICH, as in seven figure plus rich.[Ed. note: I wonder how long it will be before we see a small shriveled looking fake phallus vibrator named the Faux Cox or the No Spin Bone? ::shudder::]
Your ego harms you. It may well ruin Fox if it continues. And while I'm rooting for this, give the woman $5m and save the company.
But since you are evidentally stupid, you will continue to harass and attack Ms. Mackris and make her claims all the more credible each passing day. Thank you for being a wooden headed Irishman from Long Island. I stand to make a healthy profit from this.
Essential Frank Rich:
"The fundamental right of Americans, through our free press, to penetrate and criticize the workings of our government is under attack as never before," wrote William Safire last month. When an alumnus of the Nixon White House says our free press is being attacked as "never before," you listen. What alarms him now are the efforts of Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame-Robert Novak affair, to threaten reporters at The Times and Time magazine with jail if they don't reveal their sources. Given that the Times reporter in question (Judith Miller again) didn't even write an article on the subject under investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald overreaches so far that he's created a sci-fi plot twist out of Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report."
It's all the scarier for being only one piece in a pattern of media intimidation that's been building for months now. Once Woodward and Bernstein did start investigating Watergate, Nixon plotted to take economic revenge by siccing the Federal Communications Commission on TV stations owned by The Washington Post's parent company. The current White House has been practicing pre-emptive media intimidation to match its policy of pre-emptive war. Its F.C.C. chairman, using Janet Jackson's breast and Howard Stern's mouth as pretexts, has sufficiently rattled Viacom, which broadcast both of these entertainers' infractions against "decency," that its chairman, the self-described "liberal Democrat" Sumner Redstone, abruptly announced his support for the re-election of George W. Bush last month. "I vote for what's good for Viacom," he explained, and he meant it. He took this loyalty oath just days after the "60 Minutes" fiasco prompted a full-fledged political witch hunt on Viacom's CBS News, another Republican target since the Nixon years. Representative Joe Barton, Republican of Texas, has threatened to seek Congressional "safeguards" regulating TV news content and, depending what happens Nov. 2, he may well have the political means to do it.
Bush has made us so bloody popular around the world that when the U.S. government all but ordered (Bush Doctrine: Give it to us or we bomb you) other countries to share their flu vaccine, the other countries said no. File that in your voter notes for November 2nd.
Now, when General JC Christian - in his letter of support to Faux chief Roger Ailes over the O'Reilly harassment suit - refers to emptying his magazine, he does mean removing all those annoying blow-in response cards, right?
Dear Mr. Ailes,Man boobs? Urrr.
I am writing you to express my support for Mr. O'Reilly in his hour of need. I've read the Andrea Mackris lawsuit, and I don't think he did anything wrong. I mean, what red-blooded heterosexual man wouldn't call up a pretty underling and demand to have phone sex with her. That's one of the perks of capitalism my friend.
Sure, some people might make unfortunate jokes about a man who calls up an employee and pleasures himself with a vibrating appliance until his little rifle empties it magazine, but who among us hasn't done the same thing. There's nothing wrong with admitting it. A little prostate stimulation is good for a man. Heck, I bet it's what keeps Dick Cheney alive. It doesn't mean anything, especially if it's a woman you're talking to and you've given the appliance a woman's name like "Jo"--that's what I call mine, "GI Jo."
I've been a fan of yours for years, beginning in the days of your service to Ronald Reagan. I like the cut of your jib. You're a warrior, much like myself, and I'd like to pay you the ultimate tribute one warrior can give to another--I want to wrestle you nude in the manner of the ancient warriors of Sparta.
I'm imagining it now as I write this. You'd come over to the compound. I'd have a banquet of buffalo wings and Coors beer all set out. You'd absolutely get a six pack into you just as quick as I could get it into you...maybe intravenously...get those cans of Coors into you...
I'd want to take a shower with you right away. You would basically be in the shower and then I would come in and join you. Your back would be to me and I would take a pumice stone thing and scrape your gloriously naked hairy back...scrape it all over, get you to relax, hot water...and um...you know, you'd feel the tension drain out of you, and uh, you'd still be standing there with your back to me. Then, I would kind of move my hand around the front and rub your big hairy manly belly. Then with my other hand, I'd start to massage your man-boobs and get your nipples really hard...cuz, it's something the warrior in me likes and you really have spectacular man-boobs.
In various interviews with likely voters in swing states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio (Ohio seems to have a large percentage of people who say they don't know anybody "who wants to get off his ass" who doesn't have a job), I keep hearing, "Bush made this mess. He needs to stay in and fix it. Let him learn."
Folks, he's had four years to get better and hasn't. Do all of us have to suffer? He has never cleaned up a mess of his own in his life... and he's not about to start with a mess that involves the whole bloody world, is he?
We can't afford to give him four more years.
...only to have lots more paperwork appear, usually in a Friday dump when no one is paying attention, and always showing he failed to meet his obligation? Here we go again
SHINGTON - Weeks after Texas National Guard officials signed an oath swearing they had turned over all of President Bush (news - web sites)'s military records, independent examiners found more than two dozen pages of previously unreleased documents about Bush.And...
The two retired Army lawyers went through Texas files under an agreement between the Texas Guard and The Associated Press, which sued to gain access to the files. The 31 pages of documents turned over to AP Thursday night include orders for high-altitude training in 1972, less than three months before Bush abruptly quit flying as a fighter pilot.
The discovery is the latest in a series of embarrassments for Pentagon (news - web sites) and Texas National Guard officials who have repeatedly said they found and released all of Bush's Vietnam-era military files, only to belatedly discover more records. Those discoveries — nearly 100 pages, including Bush's pay records and flight logs — have been the result of freedom of information lawsuits filed in federal and Texas courts by AP.
The future president skipped a required yearly medical exam and was ordered grounded as of August 1972. Bush says he missed the exam because he was planning to train with an Alabama Air National Guard unit which did not fly the F-102A.
Bush went to Alabama that year to work on the U.S. Senate campaign of a family friend.
Records show Bush did no guard training at all between mid-April and late October 1972. He's credited with six days of training in October and November 1972, presumably with the Alabama unit.
The Alabama unit's commanders say they never saw Bush or any paperwork showing he performed drills there. A January 1973 document says Bush got a dental examination at the Alabama unit's base.
Maureen Dowd today:
Mr. Bush derives his immutability from his faith. "I believe that God wants everybody to be free," he said in the last debate, adding that this was "part of my foreign policy."Indeed.
In today's Times Magazine, Ron Suskind writes that Mr. Bush has created a "faith-based presidency" that has riven the Republican Party.
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a Treasury official for the first President Bush, told Mr. Suskind that some people now look at Mr. Bush and see "this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do." He continued: "This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them."
A brave judge says enough is enough.
"We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War of Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over," Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote for the three-member court. "September 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country."
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