Transcript of Anderson Cooper Interview with Jeff Gannon

Here.

Notably:

COOPER: The first record we have now of you actually being at a White House press briefing was on February 28, 2003, as you said, before Talon News even existed. So why were you given a White House pass?

GANNON: I was given a White House -- well, you will have to ask the White House that. But I asked to attend the White House briefing because I was -- you know, because I wanted to report on the activities there.

COOPER: But GOPUSA is not a news organization.

GANNON: Well, we were -- we were -- we had established a news division, and it was later renamed Talon News.

COOPER: Because this is news to just about everybody. You know, Talon News wasn't registered I think until, well, March 29 of 2003. I think the first articles didn't appear until April 1. So I guess the questions that are being raised why were you at -- allowed to go to a White House briefing if you are working for GOPUSA, which is a clearly partisan organization?

GANNON: There are many, many organizations, many people that are allowed to attend the White House briefings. I don't know the criteria they use.

COOPER: But you weren't even publishing anything. You weren't reporting anything.

The Times Reports on Secretly Tapes Discussions Between Future Prez and Friend

Drugs, gays, and right-wing Christian dominance get covered.

Story here.

Ah Yes, the Afghans Are So Much Better for Our Presence

Disease fueled by freezing weather has killed more than 120 Afghan children, with desperate parents feeding their children opium in a bid to alleviate their suffering, the health minister said Saturday.

A total of 128 children have died of ailments including pneumonia, measles and whooping cough, Mohammed Amin Fatemi told The Associated Press. He had no figures for cold-related deaths including adults.

"Many parents are giving opium to the children in the belief it will stop the coughing," Fatemi said. "Maybe for two or three hours it will sedate them, but it is poison for their bodies and can turn them into addicts."

Hundreds of Afghans have reportedly died since heavy snow and freezing temperatures set in across much of Afghanistan in late December, highlighting how vulnerable people remain after more than two decades of impoverishing conflict.

Some have died in accidents and avalanches, while former refugees even in the capital have apparently frozen to death in makeshift camps, also exposing a lack of shelter and health care despite three years of international aid.

And where's Osama?

Just a Few Rogue Soldiers? BS

According to the ACLU, evidence of horrific abuse by American soldiers and contractors in AfghaniBushistan were purged after the abuse at Abu Ghraib came to light:

Pictures of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posing with hooded and bound detainees during mock executions were destroyed after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq to avoid another public outrage, Army documents released Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union show.

The results of an Army probe of the photographs were among hundreds of pages of documents released after the ACLU obtained a federal court order in Manhattan to let it see documents about U.S. treatment of detainees around the world.

The ACLU said the probe shows the rippling effect of the Abu Ghraib scandal and that efforts to humiliate the enemy might have been more widespread than thought.

"It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

Very Deadly Day in Iraq

More than 50 people killed in various bombings.

Yes, I know. It doesn't count if they are Muslims killed (says the freepers), but still.

Was Jeff Gannon Sanctioned by Karl Rove?

I'd bet my coffee-stained eyeteeth on it. And apparently (at least) Dotty Lynch at CBSnews.com thinks so as well. Here's the start of the piece, but it's worth reading the entire thing:

Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.

But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.

GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.

Some of the real reporters in the White House pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.

World O GOPUSA Crap (Indeed)

From World O Crap (and GOPUSA, you may recall, is the parent company of Talon News and Jeff Gannon's favorite employer besides the men who pay his $1200 weekend rate as "hot military stud for hire"):

Steve Findley, who is on the GOPUSA board of directors, is also the founder and President of Titan Dynamics Systems, which is now a "wholly-owned subsidary of The Allied Defense Group." Besides making military products, Titan Dynamics also offers other services, to include coming to your business and setting up "battlefield effects" for your next "training exercise."

Full Service BES Missions

Titan offers hardware, ordinance and personnel as a turnkey package for your next training exercise. Contact us and let our personnel design battlefield effects to meet your exercise objectives. We will set-up and operate the battlefield effects during your training exercise as embedded OPFOR or as out-of-play contractors. Let us support your next training event thus eliminating your workload with on-time, trouble free, superior battlefield effects.

How many people need trouble free, superior battlefield effects for their training exercises these days? (Only Custer Battles and its ilk come to mind.) What the heck are embedded OPFOR? What the heck does this all of this mean? I don't know. But I was impressed by the photo of their personnel dressing up like soldiers and showing off their guns

A Rare Invitation

I've mentioned here that I've been working on a novel about three families in north central Vermont affected by war. It's not my usual venue nor is it a war novel per se.

However, I'm really too close to the work to know whether it's honest, of value, etc. So while agents are asking to look at it - which means possibly that publishers may start to see it soon - I thought I would ask if anyone within this reading audience might be willing to read and critique a few chapters.

Please don't feel obligated. I don't have a shortage of readers willing (thankfully), but many know me too well personally that it may be harder for them to see beyond me as the author. And I'll be honest upfront that not all the feedback is wildly positive (some is, some is not). Nor is this book meant to change people's politics regarding this war; rather, it's an attempt to show how lives are being affected here in Vermont - the state who has given the most young men and women to this war, and lost the most per capita because of it - and look at the divisions created by it.

If you are honestly interested and have the time (and can read Word files), drop me a mail at katejchase at intergate.com. Let me know when you write how many chapters you feel you could comfortably read in a week's time.

All I ask - besides your time - is your honest criticism as a reader. You don't need to be a literary critic.

Thank you.

Bleepity Bleeping Bleeper Bleep

Somebody highjacked one of my links today screwing up the entire blog format. I think I've got it temporarily back to normal but when I get my hands on the person who decided they could hijack a blog to run a full page ad I'm going to temporarily waive my pacifist tendencies to wrap his testicles (the very small ones he surely has) up over his ears.

Congratulations, Taxpayers!

Your tax dollars will be spent sending Rush Limbaugh on a "diplomatic" mission to Afghanistan. Hell, we'll also probably have to pick up the cost for his weight in OxyContin to go with him.

He makes hundreds of millions a year. He's no diplomat. He certainly doesn't represent a huge chunk of America (except in his girth).

But we'll pay the bill.

John Negroponte: The Man People Can't Praise Enough

His selection as spy-in-chief is very curious. But even more bewildering is the praise piled upon the man by Dems, GOPs, and media alike.

Negroponte is not a clean man. By that, I don't mean he forgets to wipe after using the bathroom or doesn't wash his hands. From dead nuns in Honduras to some real questions about his role in drug movement between countries, et al, Negroponte is a purely political pick, someone Bush chose for a position he feels was forced on him by the 9/11 commission and which he chooses to fill with someone who will do and say just what Bush wants. Which, of course, will NOT be good for American safety... or the safety of anyone else, for that matter. A CNN poll has 77% of respondents saying this new position, as filled, will NOT make America safer. But the poll was up early, perhaps before people had their Koolaid jugs filled for the day.

Dig deeper, folks. Start looking at Negroponte. The mainstream media won't.

From nephalim at DailyKos:

With Negroponte's nomination for the new intelligence czar post, this diary holds extra meaning. I hope I will not dissapoint. I will specifically mention Negroponte several times, as well as several others you will recognize.

Today we are going to get really down and dirty. No short history lessons on the CIA during the Cold War. Today the CIA will be effectively selling crack. And tomorrow the CIA will be propping up the very "terrorists" we are currently fighting.

More Flotsam from the Bush Bizarro World

I got this in my e-mail box this morning as a writing lead. Does anyone else find this... oh... hinky?

Freelance reporters for Homeland Security drill
Reporters wanted to participate in press component of Department of Homeland Security's TOPOFF 3 exercise for senior U.S. and local officials simulating a terrorist attack on the United States. Those selected will write copy for online news service reporting events within the exercise for an audience of exercise participants. This position will require seasoned reporters who can write quickly, using AP style, meeting tight deadlines, as if they were covering an actual incident for an actual online news service. Ideal candidates will be reporters with daily or wire experience who can write wire-style stories accurately, completely and quickly. You must NOT be currently employed by a real news organization and will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring you from writing about this in the future. Those selected will be working in Conn., N.J., and/or Washington D.C. The work will start around March 14 and go for 3 to 4 weeks at competitive pay rates. Send cover letter, resume, and three clips via e-mail to: xxxxxx.xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.

Bigotry in God's Name

The far Christian right is offering a package deal to the president: they'll support his brand of Social Security reform but only if he forces through a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Even a fellow from the Cato Institute talking on NPR's "Fresh Air" today who was there to argue for SS reform who very appropriately pegged this Christian right measure as bigotry.

Bush can try for the constitutional amendment but at last check, the idea of amending the constitution - which he and his crew have not treated with the respect it deserves - was not too popular even among Americans uncomfortable with gay marriage. States would have to ratify such a change and I'm not sure that even in Dubya's America, there exist quite enough hate mongerers to do that. Social conservatives like Bob Barr, for example, don't like gay marriage but are opposed to changing the constitution. I know several social conservatives who feel likewise.

Sure, there are the nutcases who would, like Alan Keyes who disowned his lesbian daughter for being - oh golly gosh - a lesbian. He's not alone. I know there are people in my state of Vermont who would go for this, the same who felt that allowing gays to enter into civil unions would ruin society as we knew it.

But truth be told, allowing gays to have civil unions here has really changed the fabric of society here very little. If anything, I would argue that it has improved things here. More couples seem to feel they no longer have to hide. But they're the same responsible, tax-paying citizens they've always been. Slowly, you've heard some of the hateful rhetoric against them quiet down.

Must Read

Frank Rich's piece of Gannon/Guckert and why it matters so much.

Superstar (cough) Sickness

Imagine if you're a normal mortal and you get a little touch of flu the day you're supposed to go to court. Think the judge would give you a whole week off while the poor schleps waiting on jury duty get their lives put on hold? Nah.

Michael Jackson's really got to stop getting himself brought to court because this poor delicate creature just always ends up under doctor's care. My heart just bleeds.

And then there's the news that JLo cancelled a benefit performance because of an unspecified illness. I suspect her illness is that she realized the performance was supposed to benefit someone other than herself (tsunami relief). It's not like she can sing so what's the big deal?

Jeff Gannon Exposed (In Far TOOOOO Many Ways)

From Keith Olbermann:

And number one, the former news semi reporter, formerly known as Jeff Gannon, really James Guckert, a blogger has gotten into one of those adult themed Web site registered to the same person who owned Mr. Cannon‘s personal Web site. And there‘s some photos of Mr. Gannon. And there are 43 photos of Mr. Gannon, and he‘s not wearing too many clothes. But he is showing the highest journalistic skills, the stiffest reportorial standard, but unfortunately, rather a lot dangling participles

The Real Dean

As someone who lived under Howard Dean's government, this makes perfect sense to me.

From Paul Krugman on Tuesday:

The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe."

Those words tell us what the selection of Mr. Dean means. It doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.

Abstinence Only = Stupid Kids

One of those rare times I agree with Nick Kristof:

for all the carnage in President Bush's budget, one program is being showered with additional cash - almost three times as much as it got in 2001. It's "abstinence only" sex education, and the best research suggests that it will cost far more lives than the Clinton administration's much more notorious sex scandal.

Mr. Bush means well. But "abstinence only" is a misnomer that in practice is an assault on sex education itself. There's a good deal of evidence that the result will not be more young rosy-cheeked virgins - it will be more pregnancies, abortions, gonorrhea and deaths from AIDS.

Studies are showing us the phenomenal failure of abstinence-only education while the relative success of true sex education programs, all of which cover abstinence.

But just as with Condi's poor performance (and his own), Bush feels the biggest rewards go to those who have failed the most. Sigh.

Of course, what we really need to abstain from is Bush and his cronies.

New Poll Up

The last poll about the Iraqi elections netted these results:

64% - (election was just another Bush Administration shell game)
27% - (election was an encouraging display of democracy)

I Second the Farmer

(Although I fear this may bring out the Ann Coulter in me, although, unlike Ann, I was born female.)

From the Farmer at Corrente:

And while I'm at it; here's a suggestion for the cloistered prophets at the New York Times: drive Bobolink Brooks over to New Jersey, tie Judith Miller around his neck, and fling em both off a jetty into Sandy Hook Bay. Ok? Good idea? I don't know you, you don't know me, we didn't hear anything about it around here. Just sayin'.

The Jeff Gannon Poll to Die for..er... Fly to

You must, you simply must go take the Corrente crew's poll on Jeff Gannon/aka Jimmy D/aka Hot Gay Stud Muffin for Rent/aka Dubya's favorite journalist. It starts like so:

If Jeff JD Gannon Guckert were a bird he would be a:

Just imagine the possibilities here.

I'm leaning toward the Bald Pated Bushtit myself.

Common Ground Seeks State Leaders

Go here to check it out.

The Dollar Plummets

DailyRead has a post up about one of my favorite topics - that Americans drinking the Koolaid fail to notice what's happening to the US Dollar in George Bush's economy:

In January 2003, the US Dollar was exchanging at 94 cents to one Euro, in December 2003, it was 81 cents.

Today the US economy has rebounded to show the US Dollar exchanging at 77 cents to one Euro.

As I watch the hearings and read the news stories on the proposals for saving Social Security, I am reminded of the now familiar process of audio and visual delusion being hammered into place by all the experts on various radio and television talk shows.

If you are allergic to smoke, you might opt for an extra pair of underpants for a while.

Actually, I went to three pairs of underpants when Bush was first selected. I'll need to own stock in Depends soon which will probably have to substitute for my SS benefit.

More on Depleted Uranium

As you may recall, I pointed you to the excellent discourse on dailyread's Trailing Edge Blog a week or so ago. Now Karlo (after kindly counseling me on my negativism) at SwerveLeft offers more:

A few comments back, Delftsman questioned the dangers of DU armor-piercing shells. I recommend the doubters take a look at the following article (a bit dated now) by Scott Peterson. Visiting various sites (some randomly chosen), investigators found significant radiation from the 75 tons of DU the U.S. used in Iraq. At one site, radiation exceeded 1,300 times that of background levels. The article mentions the fact that "six American vehicles struck with DU friendly fire in 1991 were deemed to be too contaminated to take home, and were buried in Saudi Arabia. Of 16 more brought back to a purpose-built facility in South Carolina, six had to be buried in a low-level radioactive waste dump." It doesn't sound like the sort of things you'd want your children playing around after dinner.

Big, Bad, Bogus FDA

So the FDA is planning on creating yet another group to look at drug safety. But that's what the FDA is supposed to be doing anyway instead of becoming solely a shill for drug companies (I make this point in my book, "Buying Drugs Online: Avoiding a Prescription for Disaster" now available in book stores).

And then there's the story of a scientist who felt bullied by the FDA to prevent him from presenting information about the connection between NSAID drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex and heart disease. I'd point you to this story I read on CNN this morning but - lo and behold - it's magically missing now. When I found the link in my browser history, I'm told it's dead. Hmm.

If you think the FDA is there to protect you, stop. They exist to protect PHRMA and others. You just pay the bills.

Syria and the WH's Response

One of the beauties of the Bush WH is that they never have to prove any of their claims or justify any of their actions. Such is the case today as Washington recalled its envoy to Syria based on specious charges by the WH that Syria as a nation is responsible for the death of Lebanon's former prime minister.

Pesky First Amendment Details

A judge has ruled that Judith ("I'm so important, ask Rummy and Chalabi") Miller of The Times and Matthew Cooper of Time Mag have no 1st Amendment protection against having to answer questions into the CIA/Plamegate leak.

As a journalist myself (and let me be clear that here, as I've said before, I operate not as a journalist but a blogger), this hits me as wrong but with some subtle areas of gray I'll mention momentarily. Why are journalists held to a different standard than Robert Novak, the one who published the outing of Plame, who is a commentator rather than a journalist, or WH officials who've obfuscated, or Jeff Gannon, the so-called journalist/gay male prostitute, questioned in the CIA memo/leak but allowed to continue to lob soft balls at Scottie McClellan and Bush with official WH sanction?

As a citizen who feels that the outing of Plame was so far beyond the pale and done out of spite for what Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had reported about Niger's "yellow cake" debacle, I feel quite differently. I WANT to get to the details of who outed Plame (the truth, as opposed to what the WH spins).

But man does this matter ever have gray areas.

There's the Judith Miller shade of gray in which Miller lied and lied and lied to make this administration's case for war in Iraq. Personally, if a grand jury wants to administer an enema and colonoscopy to her live on the Fox News Network (there's an oxymoron), I'd happily tune in. Miller's advocacy on behalf of the neo-cons and the Bush WH renders her, IMHO, a non journalist. So let her hang.

But re: Cooper, I'm more inclined to feel that he should not have to hang (so to speak) to be forced to tell the truth that no one else will. Journalists are not supposed to be treated (or accept assignments) as intelligence operatives and WH shills.

By having the investigators and courts constantly turn the emphasis and responsibility back to the journalists, I have no doubt they make the Administration happy because it takes the heat off them. Yet heat should very much be on them... and hate-mongerer Bobby Boy Novak, too.

This tactic also works well, I'm sure, in making sure we don't have any brave men or women in the press corps actually do their jobs of questioning what this Administration is doing out of fear they'll be subpoenaed to death and face prison if they don't spill. So instead, we get Jeff Gannons, who take time away from posing for nude cock shots and advertising his services as a male stud for hire, to attend WH press conferences. When he finally gets caught (and remember, it wasn't the press itself who outed him but bloggers), he makes up delusional comments about threats to his family and no journalist asks him to back this up with evidence.

Bottom line: I see this less as a First Amendment issue that a combination of trying to be sure we don't resolve Plamegate, of shutting journalists up, and allowing lies and outings from people like Novak to go unchallenged.

Bush's Star Wars Systems Scores Another F-

Doesn't matter that its cost would fund SS and education for many years to come - even though Bush's missile defense system tests have flunked every damned time, he won't withdraw the plan.

Of course, CNN spins these non-successes differently. In the past, when the tests also failed severely, the govmint used to say they were "spectacular successes" within certain "core" criteria. Meaning, I guess, that somebody spelled the name of the test right in paperwork or that each failure that got Bush's "yahoo!" netted Karl Rove another campaign check.

One Final VD Thought

Uh... as in Valentine's Day.

Do you think Condi made a sweet little heart to present to her hus... president?

And quite a dark little heart at that. Think Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and then take the evil up a few thousand times.

Free Snow

(No, Mr. Bush, not that kind of snow. Please do not apply.)

Free to a good home: 24" of snow and still falling. Just come and take it with you. Bring a flat bed. Do so before the dogs come by tomorrow and it all turns yellow.

Arthur Miller

Another great passes. Again, I haven't posted because I've been rather devastated.

If you haven't read "All My Sons", it's really required reading during the Bush Administration and Condi's diplomacy by bomb. Just FYI, that work was one of many factors making me the person I am today, feeling the way I do about war and defense contractors and all that goes on beyond sending our soldiers to war.

"The Crucible" was very telling about the McCarthy era, but becoming very appropriate to read again today while so many voices are being silenced in the name of patriotism Bush style. My family was historically part of the region and the time period depicted in colonial New England in "The Crucible" but this work also helped educate me tremendously about religious and political intolerance and the damage that can be done by those who invoke God to inflict hate.

My sometime-neighbor here in Vermont, David Mamet, has an excellent piece in The Times on Miller.

While You Were Busy

...this Congress, led by this White House has been even busier making a lot of decisions that basically amount to one big FUCK YOU to the American people.

Notably:

* You're going to have to prove you're a citizen now... in your own country.

* Your rights to sue corporations who damage you are effectively cut off at the knees.

* The above extends to asbestos litigation in the same week when it was determined that an entire community in the midwest has been contaminated by a company called WR Grace. Want to bet they probably contributed mightily to Bush's campaign?

* The new fascist director of Homeland Insecurity - who's starting to make Tom Ridge look good - now operates without any laws to protect anyone including you.

* The president - upon discovery that his Medicare drug plan is a big shill that's going to cost a LOT more than planned - told Congress he would VETO (he's vetoed nothing before) any change in law that allowed American citizens to try to get their drugs at more affordable prices.

* Congress with the WH is intent on passing changes to SS that pretty much guarantee big fees to Wall Street and no security for you. Oh, and those "personal" accounts Bush talks about? They will be owned by Washington. You're just funding them.

* It looks like your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters will be going to war with Iran. Hope you're prepared. You might be next.

And that's just the start of what they've done this week.

Wake up. Stop drinking the "free" Koolaid. Get involved. Say NO loudly and often.

Oliver Willis Nails It

From Oliver:

The only logical outcome of Bush's poll dip is that Iran is in material breach of UN 11269 and as such we must invade and liberate the crap out of them.

(Insert bit here about Iran's involvement in The West Wing's plot this week and how President Bartlett opted in to... diplomacy. What a concept.)

Particularly telling this week was how, when former Bush crony and WMD chief weapons hunter David Kay said of the Iran talk, "It's deja vu all over again", the right wing jumped all over him. One wingnut even called Kay "no friend of this Administration."

See, that's where we're down to. The best for the military, the American people, and the world does not matter anymore. All that matters is whether someone is a friend to the Bushies. If they're not, they're eaten alive.

So yes, I'm afraid Oliver has nailed this one perfectly. The more I've heard the last few days, the more certain I am that by summer, we'll be all over Iran like a bad case of fleas. A draft seems inevitable.

A Belated Wedding Blessing

I was pleased to see a very old friend drop by the blog - which I don't recall pointing him toward - in the last couple of days. "AndrewJBorden", as he posts, has been a friend since childhood and a very dear one at that (even if I'm not always so good at keeping in touch).

Hopefully, he won't be too upset that I mention he was one of the couples who had the good fortune to wed his long-time partner when the brave mayor of New Paltz felt it was only just that same sex partners have the opportunity to marry. While I have not told my friend how pleased I am for him (I suck sometimes), I've been very happy for him.

It's an insane system that likes to lambast gays at being "promiscuous" only then to do everything in its power to keep these same people from entering into committed unions or accept the families they form together. What the hell is wrong with two people coming together, making a commitment to one another, and getting the same privileges (and perils) as everyone else?

So to you, "AndrewJ", my best wishes for a long and happy marriage. My only regret is that I wasn't there to give away the bride. (grin)

Latest Bush Poll Hopelessly Skewed

Chris Bowers at MyDD - quoting another piece - gives the low-down on why the new Bush poll that shows his approval numbers improving is hopelessly skewed and why it just may not matter much.

Hint: It helps for Bush's approval ratings if you purposely accept a) small poll population and b) far more Reps responding.

Blogger is Eating Posts

It must be hungry.

What CNN Considers Hot, Breaking News

Unable to sleep at all last night (wired in all the wrong ways), I sat up watching TV - what 7 channels came in on satellite during our not-quite-blizzard-conditions snowstorm - when CNN starts up its fancy music, puts up a BREAKING NEWS banner, cuts to London and....

(trumpeting horn)

Prince Charles will announce his impending marriage to Camilla Parker Bowels er... Bowles.

And they stayed with this for 90 minutes while super-queen Richard Quest interviews all these really "doggie" ladies in France (all with Lady in their title) about how absolutely scandalous it's been to have the heir to the Brit throne living in sin with a divorced woman and would this - oh God! - mean he would give up his line to the throne (not to be confused possibly with line to the womens' bathroom at a sporting event).

CNN could have monkeys typing news overnight and do better.

GOP Bill Gives Homeland Security Right to Ignore ALL Laws

From Raw Story (and extremely scary):

House expected to pass conservative immigration bill Thursday

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

The House Democratic staff of the Judiciary Committee is preparing an extensive rebuke to a Republican immigration bill which would allow the Homeland Security Secretary to waive all laws in the construction of immigration barriers, RAW STORY has learned.

Among other provisions, the bill put forth by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner would give the Homeland Security Secretary “the authority to waive… all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.”

The bill also seeks to strip courts from being able to challenge any of the Secretary’s decisions.

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law… no court shall have jurisdiction,” the Republican bill asserts.

North Korea Acknowledges it Has Nuclear Weapons

That's the story breaking on the MSNBC news alert right now.

Well, Dubya, you going to take them on? Or - more accurately - kill the rest of our weary Armed Forces trying?

Times Killed The Battle of the Bush Bulge Story

From Editor and Publisher:

"It's just as important a story after the election, and they've dropped it," says freelance writer David Lindorff, referring to the alleged bulge under President Bush’s suit jacket during the first presidential debate late fall. Lindorff’s take on how, and why, The New York Times killed a story on the controversy just before the November election gained wide attention this week after it was published in Extra!, a magazine produced by the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.

It's True: Gay Male Prostitutes LOVE Mr. Bush

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Was Rehnquist "Deep Throat"?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Iran

The footsteps are getting louder. More little threats are getting lobbed in Iran's direction.

Ready to give your loved ones to another war without obvious enemy?

If you say, "Well, Iran may get nuclear", understand that we're nuclear. Tiny Israel is nuclear. Lots of places we don't like are nuclear. Russia and Putin - who we've screwed over so many times now - remain our greatest nuclear threat.

Goodbye, Ossie Davis

His passing last week stunned and depressed me. I loved that man long before I realized that he and Miss Ruby had been involved mightily in civil rights.

The timbre of his voice, that great face, the way he delivered his lines and held his shoulders won me as a kid watching him in films. While an impatient person, I could sit and listen to Ossie forever.

In honor of Ossie, I recommend Eyes on the Screen, a project meant to protect and distribute copies of the legendary documentary, "Eyes on the Prize" about the civil rights struggles for African Americans.

God bless you, Ossie. May He keep and hold your loved ones in the knowledge that you've gone to a better place having made this world a better one.

Haughty All the Time

Did you find Condi as conciliatory in her France speech as the media did? I did not.

Deep Throat

My apologies. I'm not referring to the poor budget porn movie with Linda Lovelace.

I've been trying to figure out who in the cast of characters who might be Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat" is ill, thus sparking the debate about revealing who it was.

But even more I wonder:

Where is our Woodward and Bernstein, our Deep Throat, and our courageous Katherine Graham and the WaPo in this time, in this Administration?

SOTFU

Yes, I did not post about it because I'm still running a BP of 5000/2000 at that incredibly patronizing, self-aggrandizing display of the purple fingers like the GOP "owned" the courage of the Iraqis: the same dipshits who ran for cover during the anthrax and other scares.

The GOP showed how tough they were when they whined so badly about a few boos. Anybody care to remember how they used to behave toward Clinton?

And in other sad news, Gonzalez has been sworn in as Ratfuck General while we hear Rummy tried to resign twice for the Iraq debacle but our Commander in Cheat kept refusing to accept it. That was at least several dead hundred soldiers and countless hundreds of dead civilians ago. No circus has ever boasted clowns like this.

This Fellow at MSNBC Needs to Get Out More"

As expected, MSNBC offered Tucker Carlson his own show. Ick. Ugh. Urm.

From the Wash Post talking about Carlson:

"He is without a doubt one of the sharpest minds and best writers in this business," said MSNBC President Rick Kaplan. "His passion and enthusiasm are both energizing and remarkable. He is truly a pleasure to work with."

My God. I've seen more remarkable wits at the bottom of my soup bowl.

I keep wondering if Michael Jackson has ever invited Carlson, with his perenially 80s sense of preppie boy style and his signature hair replacement and bowtie, over to Neverland Ranch for an afternoon of magic. Perhaps this explains Carlson's huge overcompensation in ways like having 4-5 kids in almost as many years (see? really, I'm virile!) and his attempts to sound like an intelligent wingnut (oxymoron, anyone?).

Testing

Blogger has been a bad little blog server today.

Announcing My Candidacy for the Pope

I hope JP2 all the best, but just in case, I'm tossing my hat (actually, I only have a Siberian snowcap) into the smoke ring to be the next Pope.

Here are some of my strong points that should be considered by the Papal College:

* I'm a woman (and it's high time for a Popette)
* I promise to loot Vatican City and send the money back to the parishioners who've funded all their gold and precious art treasures
* I'll get rid of the silly hat and Vatican City; we'll run the Church from Jersey City or someplace
* I'll sell the PopeMobile to Michael Jackson or Arnold S or some dipshit like that to start funding programs for those who were abused by priests
* I'll keep the Latin (I like Latin) but dispense with a bunch of the "great mystery" that's just a way for the current Papal system to commit egregious acts outside of public scrutiny
* I'll personally spank some sense into Antonin Scalia
* Think "women" priests and "married" priests
* Think training and evaluating priests so the molestation shit doesn't happen
* This teaching poor people that contraception's a bad thing's gonna stop

Oh, I've got a lot more, but there's my smarting platform.

Surrounded by Fumes of Sulphur and Brimstone

From CNN:

In a stinging parting shot at administration critics, Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday warned of serious threats to public safety and security if Congress fails to restore stiff sentencing guidelines and does not renew portions of the Patriot Act.

In his final hours in office, Ashcroft delivered the hard-hitting remarks notable as much for his characteristic stark language as for his uncompromising message.

He was especially blunt in his view of the 5-4 Supreme Court decision that dealt a blow to federal sentencing guidelines.

And then John Ashcroft spontaneously combusted in a fit of rapture, cursing Mel Carnahan's name as he went.

Pope's Been Taken to the Hospital

Could we please get a progressive one this time, asked the lapsed Catholic?

It's time everything in the Catholic Church didn't flow to Vatican City to buy more and more gold, while leaving local parishes poor. It's also time to get a Pope whose mind isn't stuck somewhere around the 15th century. We had one perhaps in JP1, but if you notice, he didn't last too long (popes don't retire, they expire).

But JP2 isn't dead but frankly, I thought he would pass soon after that special year they had around the millennium where he traveled everywhere.

Er... Uh... I Was Having a Bushian Moment

That has to be why I listed the incorrect URL for Trailing Edge Blog in my blog roll.

Wait! Phone's ringing. With this kind of goof, I know they're calling from 1600 Penn Avenue to offer a lucrative consulting job.

Uh... I Hope this is a Joke But With the Bushies, Who Can Tell?

From Michael Berube:

Washington, January 31– Following on her protest last week against a PBS cartoon character’s visit to Vermont, where he encounters a lesbian couple, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced at a press conference today that her department was not engaged in a “trivial” or “merely symbolic” campaign against a children’s television program.

“Buster Bunny is not the problem,” said Spellings. “Though I note with some dismay that Buster travels the country accompanied only by his father because his parents are divorced, and I do not see why our children should be subjected to yet another glamorization of the divorce lifestyle. No, the problem is Vermont itself. It is Vermont to which I object. Christians everywhere should be outraged that it was represented in this children’s program.”

Spellings proceeded to unveil the Department of Education’s proposed map of the “forty-nine God-fearing United States,” with the “territory of Vermont” represented by a lightly shaded area. “Until such time as Vermont sees fit to rejoin the rest of the nation in condemning gay ‘civil unions,’” Spellings said, reading from a prepared statement, “we propose that Vermont be visually expelled from the heterosexual Union. We further propose that the nation’s students be instructed that Vermont is no longer a real state, and that they will not be responsible for remembering its capital, which is not only obscure but French-sounding as well.”

Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, had warm praise for Spellings. “Parents don’t want their children homosexualized in the name of ‘education,’” Knight said. “Mrs. Spellings has given notice that left-wing lobbies will have to find other ways to peddle their pansexual propaganda. Let’s hope that other leaders in federal and state agencies find a backbone thanks to her courageous example.”

Focus on the Family director James Dobson also endorsed Spellings’ decision, saying that “it kills a lot of birds with one stone” by taking a strong stand against gay rights while eliminating “three or four really bothersome figures” from American politics. “We’ve long known that ‘Vermont’ is basically just a code word for the gay agenda,” Dobson said, “and it’s about time our nation’s leaders eliminated Vermont, just as we at Focus on the Family have eliminated other homosexual code words like ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance.’”

As a Vermonter, I can honestly say we're not much in love with a good part of the rest of the U.S. either. Each week, more and more people are talking about breaking off to become a separate republic again.

Uh... There's This Little Matter of $9 Billion We Misplaced

From the Kansas City Star and other venues:

The US occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it gave to government ministries lacking financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, a government audit has found.

Nine billion is ALMOST enough to buy Richard Perle a month of dinners.

Apropos of Nothing

Did anybody happen to notice that Condi Rice wore to her "official" swearing in as Sec of State ceremony a white suit of the style many women of her age might be married in?

There is a weird and strange thing going on between her and Bush. I don't mean they're having an affair. It's sicker than that.

New Poll, Changed Some Links

Killed Jeff Jarvis (his link - what was I thinking) and added DailyRead's Trailing Edge Blog.

Not to Be Overlooked: The Dangers of Depleted Uranium

Dailyread has some excellent refs up about all the depleted uranium we've dumped into Iraq and elsewhere. If you aren't aware of what's going on and how it affects both their citizens and our soldiers, you should go read and check out the links.

Juan Cole's Remarks on Election

From his blog:

...if the turnout is as light in the Sunni Arab areas as it now appears, the parliament/ constitutional assembly is going to be extremely lopsided. It would be sort of like having an election in California where the white Protestants all stayed home and the legislature was mostly Latinos, African-Americans and Asians.

Telling Polls

CNN's been running some polls the last few days which have been interesting.

At one point yesterday, 80% of respondents did not feel that the Iraqi elections would bring democracy to the country, while one being conducted right now shows 69% of respondents saying "no", that violence in Iraq will not decline after elections.

What I suspect it may do is bring us closer to an out-and-out civil war there, of our making.

I also worry how many Iraqis will die because they bear those big purple stains on their fingers which mark that they've voted. Those are difficult to miss since the marks I've seen aren't small dots but one third to one half the index finger dipped in indigo ink.

Iraqi Election Coverage

I'm glad that the violence seems to be much less than expected, but a voter percentage of 18% overall is REALLY slim. Only Kurds voted in large numbers.

I don't think this is the big end of strife. I think this begins the new phase of conflict.

I'm Not Ignoring Comments

I see comments have been left but HaloScan or my net connection isn't allowing me to open them to view them. I promise I'll get to them ASAP.

Bush Starting to Rub Off on Cheney?

From CNN:

Vice President Dick Cheney raised eyebrows on Friday for wearing an olive-drab parka, hiking boots and knit ski cap to represent the United States at a solemn ceremony remembering the liberation of Auschwitz.

Other leaders at the event in Poland on Thursday marking the 60th anniversary of the death camp's liberation, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, wore dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots.

"The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower," Robin Givhan, The Washington Post's fashion writer, wrote in the newspaper's Friday editions...

"And, indeed, the vice president looked like an awkward boy amid the well-dressed adults," Givhan wrote.

God forbid Cheney dress respectfully.

But a bigger problem is that I wonder if 60 or 100 years from now, Muslims will be holding their own "Auschwitz" style memorials about whar the U.S. under Bush has done to Muslim countries.

As a child, as I became aware that this terrible atrocity had happened to so many Jews, Catholics, and dissidents, I felt some hope in the idea that the world would learn from this horror. But watching the Middle East and our approach to Muslim countries now, I'm not sure any of this crew understands The Holocaust or their role in creating a new one, this time featuring Arabs and Muslims. Sure, we don't have gas chambers but these people are still dying en masse. We might not be killing them specifically for their religion, but for their geography.

The Bush Admin's To-Do List Just Keeps Growing

From RDF at Corrente (and well said):

They’re intent on destroying Social Security.

They’re in absolute denial that invading iWaq was a criminal mistake, while they make plans for the next illegal invasion.

They’re guilty of international war crimes and a long list of domestic crimes.

They approve of torture.

They’ve hijacked the language in a way that would make Orwell shiver.

The list goes on and on.

Now, we’re back to protecting what’s left of the wilderness (again):
Citing a need for domestic energy, the government plans to open for exploratory drilling thousands of acres on Alaska's North Slope that have been protected for decades because of migratory birds and caribou.

God Bless Karlo at SwerveLeft

I like his take on this. Go read the whole thing:

Have you ever seen those bumber stickers that proclaim GOD BLESS AMERICA. This has always struck me as an odd sentiment. Why would Christians be urging God to bless America? With hearts full of altruistic compassion, you'd think they'd be asking God to turn his attention to more troubled parts of the planet, to Sierra Leone or perhaps Bangladesh. Apparently, God operates much like the Republicans, constantly giving blessings to the well-heeled while harassing the poor with war and pestilence.

Iraq Not Under Control

From Cursor:

Amid "intense pre-election violence," the New York Times' John Burns reports that "Baghdad is not under control, either by the Iraqi interim government or the American military," adding that while the "American military command has cited surveys purportedly showing 80 percent of Baghdad's residents are eager to vote ... In one Baghdad office, only one of 20 people who were asked said he intended to vote."

A Project on Defense Alternatives briefing report calls the Iraqi elections a case of "bait and switch," in which "most Iraqis will go to the polls expecting to achieve one thing" -- ending the U.S. occupation -- "while actually legitimizing a different outcome." Plus: "Here Comes 'The Freedom.'"

Stop the Propaganda Act? I Wish

As noted by Oliver Willis from this piece:

In response to continued revelations of government-funded
"journalism" -- ranging from the purported video news releases put out
by the drug czar's office and the Department of Health and Human
Services to the recently uncovered payments to columnists Armstrong
Williams and Maggie Gallagher,who flacked administration programs --
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
will introduce a bill, The Stop Government Propaganda Act, in the
Senate next week.

"It's just not enough to say, 'Please don't do it anymore,'" Alex
Formuzis, Lautenberg's spokesman, told E&P. "Legislation sometimes is
required and we believe it is in this case."

The Stop Government Propaganda Act states, "Funds appropriated to an
Executive branch agency may not be used for publicity or propaganda
purposes within the United States unless authorized by law."

"It's time for Congress to shut down the Administration's propaganda
mill," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It has no place in the United
States Government." The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin
(D-Ill.) and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.).

I am 157% for this. However, it won't fly.

Today, I was reading on CNN that the GOP is soliciting HUGE donations to promote Bush's "vision" which they insist can't get promoted because of the "liberal media". Liberal media? Practically all we're getting on TV and many newspapers is the swill the Bush folks are touting.

No one except the left has yet to acknowledge that the payola to Armstrong and now Maggie Gallagher is even slightly improper. If we think it's just these two people taking tax dollars to promote this crap, dream on. Neither of these are A list players. So one has to assume the really big bucks are going to A and B list people. So we're spending yet more tax money - not on health care or educating kids or securing our ports - to pay people to lie for the Bush administration. And nothing will come of it.

Death, Death, and Yet More Death

The media seems very careful to make it sound like the deaths of 30+ Marines and one Navy man in Iraq yesterday was weather related. But does that really make it any better?

Mr. Bush himself was so damned defensive yesterday in his remarks about it, clearly worried some of his Kool-Aid drinkers would switch to some sobering coffee. He should be defensive. This is a horrific mess of his own making. By keeping Rumsfeld on as Defense Secretary, he's basically saying that Rummy has a blank check to run all military operations - and the soldiers involved with them - into the ground.

Then he gets on Arab TV and threatens Iran. Fucking amazing.

Where I've Been

I've actually been wrestling with a novel I'm writing about the war but more specifically the impact of it on the families back home, from soldiers coming back missing limbs and functioning brains, to payroll screwups, to financial disaster, and beyond.

But it's at the point where I'm starting to send this out to agents. So wish me luck.

We're Flying Missions Over Iran

That's the story from today's Democracy Now program, saying we're deliberately violating Iranian air space so we can identify - so we can later take out - their radar installations.

Unfortunately, I am becoming increasingly concerned that we'll be in a war with Iran very soon, very much as Sy Hersh has said. I don't see how we do that without a draft. But the draft is just one issue. The more we're hated in the world, the more likely it is that your son, daughter, father, mother or you will end up fighting Bush's war of empire, voluntarily or not.

Video Surfaces Showing Iraqis Beheaded on Sidewalk

Lovely. Just lovely.

I noticed the words "civil war" were used to refer to Iraq again and again today while the president choice never to mention either Iraq or terrorism yesterday. But boy did he pepper his speech with tyrant.

Does he really have no clue that this is exactly how the rest of the world - and 49% of Americans - see him?

The Bush "horn" sign

Ray asked about this in comments so let me answer it broadly related to the Bush family hand signs during the inauguration, since someone else IMed me about it, too.

My understanding is that dumb hand signal has to do with supporting some dipshit Texas team. But the horns of Azmodeus, as the signal is often called, seems really weird for a crew that believed even John Ashcroft didn't belch enough brimstone.

I'd think the far-flung Christian quotient would be pissing themselves over the hand gestures because it's believed to be Satanic (I'm not one of those Christians who subscribes to the belief that there has to be a devil). If Kerry did that, they'd be burning him at the stake. But Laura was doing it yesterday with her little white gloves on.

Maureen Dowd Does Some Math Today

and concludes that Condi Rice is a negative number.

Here:

Condi may not know Einstein's theory of relativity, but she has a fine grasp of Cheney's theory of moral relativity. Because they're the good guys, they can do anything: dissembling to get into war; flattening Iraqi cities to save them; replacing the Geneva Conventions with unconventional ways of making prisoners talk. The only equation the Bushies know is this one: Might = Right.

Iraq: That Big Missing Word Today

How could the president speak SO much and not once reference Iraq?

Who Knew SpongeBob SquarePants was the Demon's Spawn?

Well, James Dobson (I won't call him a doctor or a man of God since he's neither) says he is.

This with the president giving the "devil's horn" sign countless times today. It was damned weird.

Pull DOWN that Curtain!

The Myth of Red Dominant America

Look here.

The Terror Level

Wow... since the election, suddenly there's no chatter, no indication of attacks, no nothing. Gee, that's soooo strange. They're saying there's like no terror worries about the inaugural tomorrow at all, even though they're spending the most money ever for it. You'd almost think the Bush Administration wanted to color the vote (or de-color the vote, if you will) and now, since Diebold delivered, they had no more need.

That's of course a cynic's view. Sadly, I also think it's dead on true.

Boxer Has Balls Indeed

The great Madeleine Kane has another blog, devoted to the subject of courageous California Senator Barbara Boxer. Says Madeleine:

Why President Boxer?

Republicans feel free to create their own realities, so why can't I? And in my idealized reality, Senator Barbara Boxer is the President of the United States.

She's a true liberal, she does her homework and, unlike the weenie-dems in the Senate and House, she has the courage of her convictions.

Barbara Boxer's actions throughout the Ohio vote and Condi Rice hearings are more than enough to earn my support. Moreover, Boxer puts her fellow democrats to shame.

Hey, I'd take her over rehashed Kerry anytime, and Gore is really no longer viable. His chance to run was 2004. There won't be another.

By 2008, however, the Dems-in-the-know will be telling us we have to vote for a man who personally ate the heads off Osama's men, believes women should be barefoot and pregnant and gagged, and who feels that Wal-Mart isAmerica and democracy at its best. Ugh.

New Poll: Americans Split Over Whether Bush is a Uniter or a Divider

That's really just so apt.

It's a Three-Mile Island - No, it's a Chernobyl. NO! It's Faux News Having an Off-Script Meltdown!

Courtesy of Oliver Willis, here's a video example of what happens on Faux when they accidentally have someone as a guest who refuses to polish the boy king's hairy little butt.

Gee, $40 million would pay for a lot of school books, veteran health care, and troop body armor plus bullets. Point back to other presidents, sure, but understand that the coronation of this boy king - not something you might expect in a democracy is seeing unprecedented corporate money and pomp n circumstance at a time when this country is hurting very badly. The corps are buying influence when no normal mortals can attend this shindig. It's the Bush White House's way (yet again) of screaming Fuck You at all of us.

Juan Cole on Iran

Juan's been extremely savvy about what's going on abroad, and here's his take on the Hersh/Iran story:

I don't think there is any doubt that Bush and his appointees at the head of the Department of Defense intend to do something to Iran. If Iraq had gone well, they probably would already have attacked it. Since their land army is tied down in Iraq, they have to use special operations forces for aggressive action against Iran. The Pentagon and also Pakistan are denying the report heatedly. But it makes sense. Iran has formed a close military alliance with India, Pakistan's chief rival in South Asia, and Iran has come out on top in the new Afghanistan, with Tajik and Hazarah allies displacing the largely Pushtun, Pakistan-oriented Taliban. And Pakistan has reason not to want Iran to get nukes, thus surrounding Pakistan with nuclear powers on both the east and the south. So Pakistan has every reason to cooperate with the US against Iran.

As for Bush and his DoD hawks, they have been quite clear about their intentions. They announced that Iraq and Iran were part of an axis of evil, and we have already seen what happens to regimes so categorized.

The potential for trouble for the United States if the Bush administration acts aggressively toward Iran is enormous. It could turn the Iraqi Shiites and the Afghan Hazarahs decisively against Washington. An Iran in chaos similar to that in Iraq would be three or four times the problem for the US and the world that Iraq is.

Ironically, Bush revealed the day before Hersh's article that he has learned nothing from his mistakes in Iraq.

Barbara Boxer and the Rice Hearings

I thought she made some good points. Unfortunately, I don't think this will do a damned thing for keeping Rice out of the SoS office.

Happy Fatherhood

Best wishes to Jerome Armstrong, his wife, and their new baby, Maya. And no, Maya was not paid for by Howard Dean either.

Well, I Would Agree Rev. King Would Be Appalled But...

I differ on what he would be appalled by.

This from Media Matters:

In a "Talking Points Memo" devoted to "[h]ow Martin Luther King would view things today," FOX News host Bill O'Reilly declared that King "would be appalled by the secular culture" and by "the attacks on Christmas, the demonizing of Christianity." Media Matters for America has documented how in late 2004 O'Reilly used a recurring segment titled "Christmas Under Siege" to hype a series of bogus "anti-Christmas" stories, distorting and omitting key facts to declare that "progressive secularists" were "attacking" Christmas as part of a broader campaign to advance a radical agenda of "gay marriage, partial-birth abortion, euthanasia, legalized drugs, [and] income redistribution through taxation."

What I think King would be appalled by is the way Christianity is being used as a sword to draw and quarter anyone who doesn't agree with the right wing. He'd also be appalled with the way Bush is using African Americans to exemplify how Social Security is unfair, but saying that the thing to do is privatize and bankrupt SS faster rather than address the real problem: that our society is set up in such a way that African American males live shorter lives than their white counterparts.

He's also be appalled that Bush pulled out the "Help America Vote" act that forced electronic (rigged) voting down the throats of everyone on MLK's birthday a few years back, particularly ironic because it's often people of color and the poor who are often disenfranchised under the Bush system.

In fact, had King lived, I doubt very much we would have reached a point where Mr. Bush would have made it to office once, let alone twice.

The Rewards Keep Coming

From The (UK) Guardian:

Two US defence contractors being sued over allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon, despite demands that they should be barred from any new government work.

Oh, yes, let's reward these people. After all, the more one screws up and cost lives in the Bush universe, the more they should receive accolades and large sums of cash. Oy! (and from a goy!).

Nods to Cookie Jill at Skippy who posted a link to this.

(And a question: With a track record like this, why hasn't Anna Nicole Smith been named to some high-paying intelligence position? She's certainly at least as competent as Mr. Bush or Ms. Rice.)

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Late last night, unable to sleep, I began to think about this quote from the first of Franklin D. Roosevelt's four inaugural speeches and how Bush - just as he's sought to destroy everything else FDR set out - has never embraced this quote.

In Bush's world, Americans have to fear everything: God, brown people, Muslims, compassionate Jews, Social Security, librarians, thinking, people who won't sign loyalty oaths, judges who act like they're meant to uphold laws and not God's dictate, and most of all, fear those who say the emperor has no clothes given the enormous amount of money the emperor spends on fabric.

Bush can't rule the world unless we're terribly afraid because only people who are scared shitless would put up with all this horrific nonsense.

So what if we stop playing? What if we stop being afraid? I used to feel that I was much more afraid of Bush and his minions than I was of anything Osama could do to us. But you know what, I refuse to do that anymore. I'm not playing this fear game. Fear makes you hope and pray and do other basically ineffective things because you're too scared to actually do anything.

Thus, I repeat FDR's bold words: We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Me Thinks They Doth Protest Too Much

The White House is in overdrive disputing and trying to discredit Seymour Hersh's article about how Iran is our next target and that it's likely we'll be hitting them by summer. But as former Defense Secretary William Cohen noted, Sy Hersh has a better history of accuracy than this White House.

We should all be gravely concerned. Iran sits right in the middle of what we've already bombed to hell.

Charles Graner, Abu Ghraib and Torture

I've been struggling with the results from the CNN poll asking if Graner's (the man often referred to as the leader of the abuse movement at the prison and presumed father of "leash girl" Lindy England's baby) 10 year sentence is too light, too harsh, or just about right.

Set aside for the fact that the majority of respondents say it's either too light or too harsh (a sum total of about 56%). The single largest majority was 44% saying it was too harsh.

Do I believe Graner acted on his own? Absolutely not. I think orders came directly from the Pentagon on down. But even with that, there's a difference between "softening up prisoners for interrogation" and what we saw done at that prison. Graner may not have acted in a vacuum, but how can one excuse what was done? To men, women, young boys? How can one justify that 10 years is too harsh?

Struggling with this, I happened to find a link to Ratboy Anvil from Karlo at SwerveLeft (another very good blog) and I'm glad I discovered it. Here's what Ratboy Anvil wrote:

How can 44% of polled people think that a ten year sentence for Charles Graner is too harsh in light of what he did to the detainees at Abu Ghraib prison? I believe him when he complains that he was just following orders, but that didn't wash at Nuremberg when the Nazi's tried that excuse and it certainly doesn't apply to him.

Something to bear in mind is that the detainees were just that; detainees, not convicted criminals or known terrorists, most were simply rounded up in sweeps and detained with little or no evidence of any wrong doing, many eventually released. Graner is a bully and an asshole who gets no sympathy from me whatsoever because his actions are exactly what lent legitimacy to the insurrgency.

Well said. I'll definitely be visiting this blog again.

"Kerry for Prez in 2008? Over My Dead Body!"

From John in DC at AmericaBlog:

He has got to be kidding.

The man couldn't even beat the totally lame George Bush, and now he's hinting at running again? No. Good God, imagine if Kerry had to go up against John McCain next time? He'd be obliterated.

People didn't like Kerry. Hell, Democrats didn't like Kerry. What would be so different next time he runs? His history of waffling (and let's face it, he does waffle - his positions on gay issues were alone proof of that, let alone the old "I voted for it before I voted against it")? His war record? His personality and warmth? And how exactly would Kerry overcome his already signficant negatives in the public eye?

I mean, look, I voted for the guy, I wanted him to win, truly. But Kerry was just like Gore, the candidate WE HAD rather than the candidate WE WANTED. And the candidate we had was a nice man who simply was not good enough. Close, but no cigar. Do we get Bob Shrum again? And how long will it take next time before Kerry decides to fight back? Will he develop an actual opinion on the war on terror next time?

I agree COMPLETELY.

Hiding Indeed

Check out Oliver Willis' powerful representation of the Post article I cited late last night with Bush's limp-minded response.

If we wanted to find Osama, we would have. So you might want to ask yourself why we don't.

Sy Hersch: We Could Be Fighting Iran by Summer

That's what he's saying on Wolfie's show on CNN now. Funny thing is, whenever they show Wolfie why Sy's talking, Wolfie looks like he's reading a take-out menu.

Holy crap, Batman.

Where exactly will we find the troops to do this - setting aside, of course, the moral reprehensibility, the fact that the rest of our War on Terror has done little except produce more terrorists, and the fact that this president has largely bankrupted the U.S. for decades to come.

Why Haven't We Caught Bin Laden? Bush: "Because He's Hiding."

From Sunday's Post - the president endangers everyone and everything in the world to (supposedly) hunt him down, but we're supposed to believe that our lack of success is just because he's "hiding". More bu'shit.

From the same article:

President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

Fuck THAT! And I'm not even talking about the rigged voting.

Really? Even you Bush voters: is that the only accountability this president needs to withstand for sending your sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers to death?

Join Barbara Boxer in Holding Condie Rice Accountable

Petition here. Thanks to the mighty Skippy for posting the link.

Happy Birthday and Thank You, Martin Luther King

You don't have to be African-American to appreciate who King was, what he did, or feel sorrow that we lost him so soon. I remember so keenly the forgiveness that his son extended to the man charged with killing him (although I'm still not fully convinced Ray acted alone).

We need men like King today. Men and women who rise up and change the world despite the much tossed at them. We need dreams and we need to find ways to fulfill those dreams.

When I was growing up, you saw these awful pictures of race riots in Newark and Watts and other places. The problems that helped fuel those riots did not magically get resolved. Unfortunately, however, through the introduction of crack and other drugs, we've seen large populations of the males in such neighborhoods end up in prisons rather than being activists in the streets. It makes me wonder how much our government indeed sanctions some of this to make it harder for voices of color - operating outside of the traditional system - to rise up.

First Picture from Huygens Probe

You know, it almost dims in comparison to the rest of the shit going on, but seeing that first picture of Saturn's Titan from the probe today was exhilarating.

Sharon Couldn't Postpone This Hissy Fit

Abbas isn't even sworn in as president and Sharon has cut all diplomatic ties to the PA. One thing you can always count on with Sharon: make a bad situation worse.

Brad and Jen Have Split, But There's Always Mel and Michael

I keep meaning to talk about the Freeper meltdown over Mel Gibson saying nice things about Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911, but Karlo at SwerveLeft beat me to it - and eloquently (did you know, for example, that you can be opposed to the Iraq war and a Christian?).

Being a Democrat is Enough to Get Your Insurance Killed?

Apparently so. This is unreal.

From the AP printed in the Times Argus:

Helen Johnston is an 80-year-old retired pediatrician who hardly considers herself much of a risk for being sued.

That's not how her insurance company sees it, however.

Johnston is losing extra coverage she bought years ago while she still practiced medicine — not because she's a retired doctor, but because she is active in Francestown politics.

The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. sent her a letter last month notifying her it is not renewing her $1 million umbrella policy next month due to "the political positions the insured holds."

"If she was just a retired doctor, it wouldn't be an issue," said Dale Groves, vice president for underwriting for the Providence, R.I., company.

Johnston is vice chairwoman of her town's Democratic committee and a member of the Hillsborough County Democratic Committee. She helps campaigns by distributing posters and making calls, and she held a get-out-the-vote session for Howard Dean at her house.

Groves said that's enough.

Not Even an "Oops, My Bad!"

What the hell is it with the response to the news that the hunt for WMD in Iraq is officially over and that nothing was found?

That's what we went to war on, before we changed it to "liberating Iraq" (only now today we're hearing that it shouldn't matter if only 5% of Iraq will be able to vote and then only for the candidates that our government has put forth). But Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are getting far more headlines.

This unfuckingbelievable.