I seem to have forgotten to go to bed again. It's now 5:08 AM in North Bumfuck (to quote a regular reader here).
If I hurry, I can get 7 minutes of sleep before it's time to awaken and start the whole wonderful existence all over again.
Good night!...er... morning.
While I don't even promote sales of my own books here, one good turn - like Keith Olbermann's special comments on Wednesday night - deserves another. You can order your copy of Keith's new book, "Worst Person in the World", at Powells (a union book store). Promotion of his title on Crooks and Liars on Friday sent it to #18 on the bestsellers' list (O'Reilly's latest is #728... heh).
Given today's climate, I like to promote those FEW journalists who I feel actually act like journalists which - on some days - amounts to only a handful more than Keith and Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher (also, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Greg Palast of BBC, Helen Thomas, et al).
[Ed. note: For those who missed it, Keith Olbermann's special comments on Donald Rumsfeld's shameful lies and rhetoric, go here.]
This past week [see "Rummy's Rampage" at Countdown with Keith Olbermann], when Secretary of the Indefensible Defense Donald Rumsfeld whined apoplectic that it was a SAD COMMENTARY that a search of newspaper databases turned up SOOOOO many stories about a single case of abuse at Abu Ghraib while almost NO articles about the first person to win a medal in the "global war on terror" (which, for the Bushies, means a war against everything from Democrats and the middle class to any nation with oil reserves that won't just hand them off to Halliburton, Unocal, ExxonMobil, and Dick (and what a dick!) Cheney), you should have been just as pissed off as I am.
See, Mr. Rumsfeld is far more responsible for the soldier - and the climate that created the situation - charged with the torture and prisoner abuse in Iraq than he is for anything else. To PRETEND that he cares about the soldier winning the medal is bullshit.
Mr. Rumsfeld is the man who sent countless troops into battle without body armor. Without armored vehicles. Without enough bullets. Without a plan. Without any good reason. Meanwhile, I hear that Rummy gives some of the most elaborate and expensive dinner parties in ALL of Washington. I mean, nothing says "respect for our troops" being paid less than minimum wage for Bush's Blunders like Rumsfeld serving $50 a bottle wine and the finest pate in ALL of America, right?
So Donny Boy, save your hyperbole and false piety for somebody who gives a fuck about you. WE as progressives and liberals and centrists care FAR more about the troops than you and your sick fuck ilk EVER will.
You know how bad things are in Iraq when even the Pentagon tells a teeny weeny, itsy bitsy molecule of the truth:
Sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq and the security problems have become more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report said Friday.
In a notably gloomy report to Congress, the Pentagon reported that illegal militias have become more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighborhoods where they are seen as providers of both security and basic social services.
The report described a rising tide of sectarian violence, fed in part by interference from neighboring Iran and Syria and driven by a "vocal minority" of religious extremists who oppose the idea of a democratic Iraq.
Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians are a growing problem, heightening the risk of civil war, the report said.
"Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife," the report said, adding that the Sunni-led insurgency "remains potent and viable" even as it is overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing.
"Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population has increased in recent months," the report said. It is the latest in a series of quarterly reports required by Congress to assess economic, political and security progress.
Iraqi forces were dealing with more violence Friday...
Also at Blah3, Monkeyfister points us to an article in Rolling Stone on the one, the only, the incomparable Kurt Vonnegut who says we really ARE at the end of the world (I'm quite sure he feels the Bushies are helping this along).
Read it or weep!
I guess the ownership Bush and his pee-ons meant was the banking industry holding the mortgages upon which they could foreclose at new record rates. From Stranger at the bountiful Blah3:
Atrios has a post up about those rapacious Option ARMs and how people are getting suckered into even higher mortgage rates by seductive numbers that turn out to be flat-out false, then follows it up with a 'cautious prediction' of a massive wave of foreclosures that is about to hit homeowners at all income levels. He suggests that the Dems get out in front of this by coming up with solid proposals to ensure that people all over this country don't get tossed out of their houses en masse.As for the "sucker every minute", I suspect a fair number of these folks "buy" into this awful plan because circumstances have already pushed them into such dangerous financing in the misguided hope (impossible in the Bush years of only billionaires being worthy) of holidng onto homes already set for foreclosure, thinking they could pull themselves up and out later.
While it can be pointed out that there's a sucker born every minute and that the people going for these mortgages are doing so willingly, the banks are guilty of putting thousands of families in jeopardy of losing their homes. That isn't right, and there should be a crackdown on these lending practices. Dems are the ones who could do it, and they should. It's a good idea, and it would be a good policy idea even if there weren't a foreclosure epidemic looming on the horizon. Bush and his thugs have let the banks get away with murder when it comes to bad lending practices (see Bankruptcy Bill), and the Dems should start casting themselves as the Protectors of the Little Guy now. As in yesterday.
Buzzflash brings this bit of truly evil news re: Halliburton (who screws up everything and always at a much-inflated price for bad work) to our attention (and at Associated Content where I am a contributor, too). Buzzflash may be very correct here: this may truly show Bush's motivation for this entire comprehensive cluster fuck to date.
All the hue and cry the last few days about this Brit-produced film which is supposed to portray the fictional (obviously!) ass-asination of President Bush strikes me as pretty damned stupid.
First, it's FICTION. For slow learners, FICTION is NOT meant to be treated as factual (except when the Bushies' release such as reports; example: "The war in Iraq is doing just peachy!").
Second, the Bushies are just FINE with fictional portrayals like that awful film on one of the cable channels after 9/11 that portrayed Bush as this great smart, sensitive man who, so worried about the American public on 9/11, that he tried to fight his Secret Service people to defy his own safety to be with and protect his citizens. ::barf::
Third, I'm sure the Bushies had a hand in the 9/11 movie coming up on ABC in which they put the entire blame for 9/11 not even on Osama bin Laden (or in Bush's case, Osama been Forgotten) but on.. oh yes... Bill Clinton. I mean, this week we even heard about Bill Clinton was responsible for the poor Katrina response even though it happened YEARS after he left office. At this rate, I fully expect to hear how Clinton is also responsible for Lincoln's assassination as well as that of Archduke Ferdinand AND John Lennon.
Fourth, this is an administration that is just FINE with threatening the lives of other leaders and leaving rather blunt suggestions out there some "hero" might want to take one or more of them out. Examples: Kim Jong Il. Ahmadinejad. Aristide. Saddam Hussein. Fidel Castro. Hugo Chavez (whom Bush DID try to take out with that silly coup). And that's just to name a few.
And fifth? Bite me.
I'm sure there is only pure coincidence at work here:
Tonight, just as I heard them announce that pert, perky, and oh too precious Katie Couric would begin as the CBS Evening News anchor on Tuesday (September 5th), I had to race for the bathroom to toss my cookies (and no, no real cookies were involved).
Eww...just talking about it (Katie, not cookies) is making my stomach churn again.
From The Blue State, which goes along with my mention on Thursday that Barbara Boxer (Senate: D-CA) - from her interview on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - will introduce a non-binding resolution calling for Secretary of Defense (and the Indefensible) Donald Rumsfeld to be fired:
Even though the Democrats have been the targets of the Administration's foreign policy offensive all week long, this is also a great opportunity for them. Last week, there were murmurings inside circles of the Democratic Party about calling for a no-confidence vote of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, anticipating that many moderate Republicans up for reelection would join the resolution.
With the Defense Secretary's latest tirade this week where he compared war critics to Nazi appeasers, the Democrats may have their best opportunity to introduce the "no confidence vote" resolution.
Probably for my own mental health (what shreds of it remain), I've avoided discussing former - and failed - Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich since he claimed that it would be to the GOP's incredible advantage to turn Lebanon - and Iran and Syria - into World War III to guarantee righteous Republicans the fear vote this November mid-term as well as the presidential race in 2008.
However, Glenn Greenwald updates us on Gingrich's war-mongering tyranny:
Newt Gingrich spoke at a fundraiser for a GOP Congressional candidate yesterday and made explicit one of the core issues that the 2006 election will resolve:To deal with the threat [of "nuclear bombs destroying U.S. cities"], he said, "we want to replace the North Korean regime. We want to replace the Iranian regime and the Syrian regime. We would like to replace them without using military force if we can."
When Gingrich says "we would like to replace them without using military force if we can," he means, of course, that he wants military force used (i.e. new wars waged) on those countries. It is almost certainly the case that military force is the only way to accomplish regime change in those three countries. That means that, in addition to staying in Iraq indefinitely, we will have three new Iraqs -- including in two countries with far greater military force than Iraq could have dreamed of having (one of which has nuclear capabilities).
It is hard to overstate how extremist is the warmongering agenda of those who exert the most influence among Bush supporters. Isn't that what Democrats should be asking Americans most clearly and aggressively - do you really want to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and on top of that, have whole new wars with Iran and Syria, perhaps with North Korea? That is what Newt Gingrich says he wants, and he is hardly alone.
Watching "Real Time with Bill Mahr" just now, I'm reminded of something I read recently: that only places like Turkey have more people who do not believe in the concept of evolution than today's United States.
Penn Jillette is one of the guests tonight and his argument is that all the people in the U.S. who "need" to know about evolution (as in scientists) do and the rest don't matter.
Say what?
Americans don't need to have any basis in science? Granted, we managed to "select" a president who does not understand the most fundamental and simplest foundations of science, but I'd like to think most American parents would hope that - and aspire to a reality where - their children will be brighter than George Bush.
While we may not know all there is to know about evolution now, it is NOT a "theory", no matter how hard the far righties try to turn Charles Darwin into the anti-christ. From DNA on down, we know evolution is real.
As a society, we cannot afford to have whole generations of people no more intelligent that George Bush and yes, even the so-called doctor Bill Frist. If we do, we're going to lose even more of our power and possibilities than we already have. And remember, George Bush has helped seriously usher in a time where adult children do NOT have a richer life than their parents (unless the child is a Bush or Cheney, for example). Do we want this to continue?
Penn Jillette should damn well no better than to make comments like that. But frankly, I stopped watching his Showtime program, "Bullshit", because he also ridicules government culpability in the attacks on September 11th, 2001 as well as global warming. So I suppose you could say I do not believe in Penn Jillette even though I know evolution and global warming are indeed real. "Bullshit" is apparently not just his show's title, it also represents Jillette himself.
They did it to Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor journalist held for more than 80 days in Iraq before her release. Now they're doing it to the two Fox News journalists just released by Palestinians. Glenn Greenwald has the story here.
The Blue State brings us this horrendously awful story which combines bigotry, with idiotic talking points, and comes wrapped up in a red, white, and blue IQ of less than 70 in yet another Republican politician (my God, he's running for governor!):
Now this is enough to get your blood boiling. Colorado Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez, who is also running for governor in that state, said in a radio interview on Monday that 70% of all African-American pregnancies end in abortion:"In some of our ethnic communities, we're seeing very, very high percentages of babies, children, pregnancies end in abortion," Beauprez said in an interview broadcast on Colorado Public Radio. "I've seen numbers as high as 70 percent, maybe even more, in the African-American community that I think is just appalling."
It looks like someone is jealous of George Allen! Obviously the number Beauprez gave was inaccurate, and he apologized on Wednesday. Even though he did say he was sorry, Colorado voters have to ask themselves whether they want to elect a governor that just throws around numbers like that in order to score points with a fringe demographic.
Also from The Times (Select):
Line of FireI'm in almost full agreement with this author's point about that the international forces being used in Lebanon would be a wise addition in other areas where Israel strong arms.
Daoud Kuttab argues that the international military presence in Lebanon makes clear the need for the same strategy in the West Bank and Gaza.
From David Sirota.
This is just simply heinous and one in a very long list of insulting and harmful actions by the Bush-Cheney-Rove GOP (and I still believe there is a very large part of the GOP who stands for FAR better things than these criminals) against the troops they depend to fight their cooked wars, are happy to have their pictures taken with such troops, only then to take measure after measure to hurt these troops and their families.
From David's article (and David, btw, tells us he will start work on Tuesday with the Ned Lamont campaign in Connecticut - three cheers and my fervent wish that David and Ned wipe the floor with Joe Lieberman):
Back in 2005, when the credit card industry lobbyists were corralling republican and Democratic lawmakers to vote for the corporate-written Bankruptcy Bill, Sen. Dick Durbin offered an amendment (details attached) to preserve existing protections for troops serving in Iraq. National guardsmen, for instance, sometimes are forced to take a pay cut from their regular jobs when they are called into service and deployed overseas. Lord knows our soldiers serving in Iraq have enough to worry about - and gutting their bankruptcy protections while they were deployed was something Durbin thought was unacceptable. Unfortunately, only 38 of his Senate colleagues agreed with him, and his amendment was defeated.
[Check out the names of these fuckers!]
Those voting against the amendment included Montana Sen. Conrad Burns (R), Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine (R), Virginia Sen. George Felix Allen [that's George "Macaca" Allen to you!], Jr., Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R), Missouri Sen. Jim Talent (R), Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R) - all incumbents facing serious challenges for reelection.
Now, according to a new Pentagon report highlighted by USA Today (story linked below), "As many as one in five members of the armed services are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases that can charge cash-strapped military families interestso of 400% or more." Let's be clear - trying to take advantage of soldiers at a time of war when they are under stress is a form of war profiteering. And thanks to our bought-off Congress - it's all perfectly legal. Here's hoping the senators who voted against Durbin's amendment get hammered for it.
Here, from The Times (TimesSelect registration required - ugh):
THOMAS FRANKI think Thomas Frank raises some decent issues here as he has before.
Rendezvous With Oblivion
Everything I have written about in this space points to the same conclusion: Democratic leaders must learn to talk about class issues again.
I find this matter - how the chowderheads in Washington are playing with $2 billion in federal funding for AIDS - massively infuriating. Anytime these dickheads choose to perceive any issue as "controversial" or one their more narrow minded constituents may view as "well, if these people lived a Godly life, they wouldn't HAVE this problem", they totally trash it.
Remember that the far right's "Great Saint" Ronald Reagan was HUGELY responsible for allowing AIDS to take such a hold here because he wanted to ignore it altogether. While AIDS would still be a horrible issue regardless of Reagan, his myopic and hypocritical administration cost us millions of lives and led to a much greater problem.
First, even if AIDS were "only" a gay plague, as it was so often represented in the past and continues to be again by the narrow minded, we still owe it to our citizens - of which gays represent at least 10% or about 30 million souls - to fund research, treatment, etc.
But AID is NOT a gay plague. It strikes throughout the population, with African-Americans and others of color at a much higher percentage than average. Black women are especially hard hit.
According to WaPo, that is... the U.S. is still planning to give Israel at least least $2 Billion to offset Israel's expenses bombing the bejesus (er...) out of Beirut and the rest of largely Christian Lebanon. Why does that still strike me as enormously obscene, just like how much of our hardware killed all those Lebanese children?
Mind you, my first and foremost recommendation to counter anti-Americanism - and please, this is not being sarcastic or even partisan - is to literally impeach the entire Bush Administration and put them to a War Crimes tribunal, an act that would restore some faith in us around the world. But definitely check out some of the many opinions from thoughtful people 'round the world.
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