Christians And Patriots

The ignorance, intolerance and racsism of these people knows no bounds. They are neither Christian nor Patriotic merely a bunch of demented, brainwashed pissants who's philosophical, historical and theological knowledge could be contained in an egg cup.

What is the next step for these angry and deluded people? Will they start shooting at invited, non-christian guests of Congress?

The mind truly boggles at the inanity of this ilks 'message'.

Peeling The Onion

The first salvo's for change are being prepared for Mr. Brown's impending state visit to the US.

This will be a very different 'special relationship' with the UK leaning more and more toward it's European partners and less and less toward the Infected States of America.

Brown has no choice but to distance himself from the Blair legacy of Bush appeasement, should be an interesting month.

Quality Snark

Josh Marshall snarks at the McCain and Rudy camps... did I say camp, too funny!

Diplomacy

With the Middle East a cauldron of dissaffection, war, terrorism and potential defeat for American Foreign Policy initiatives, it's comforting to know that Condi is all over it like white on rice, so to speak.

Her travel itinary for 2007 as published at the State Dept. Site:

Trips by Date



June 23-26: France (7,662 miles)
June 4: Panama (4,118 miles)
May 29 – June 1: Europe (9,775 miles)
May 13-16 Russia (9,964 miles)
May 1-4: Egypt (12,126 miles)
April 25-27:Norway (7,751miles)
March 23-27:Middle East (12,963 miles)
March 8-14: Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico (11,875 miles)
Feb. 23: Canada (910 miles)
Feb. 16-22: Middle East and Europe (12,796 miles)
Jan. 24-26: Europe (7,851 miles)
Jan. 12-19: Middle East and Europe (14,374 miles)

That would make it 8 shopping trips to Europe, South America and Canada and 4 working vacations to the Middle East followed by a further 2 quick shopping trips to Europe (just to decompress, you know how stressful the ME is!).

You know, we pay her for this.

Over There

Our staunchest ally, historically and militarily but by no means politically anymore, reals from successive waves of 'terrorism related incidents' as pissed off arabs, some al qaeda 'inspired' others just plain old pissed off iraqis and arabist nationalist exert pressure on the newly minted Brown primacy.

The timing of all this couldn't come at a more opportune time for the PM and his parties flagging support for the 'WiI' and his nations now open hostility toward the Bush administration and it's failed policies.

I think Mr. Brown will be looking for a way out very soon, afterall one of the main pillars of the Bush doctrine was to fight them over there so we would not have to fight them over here. For the UK, much like the WMD, al qaeda-Iraq cooperation and mushroom clouds, fighting them over there rings just a little hollow when the headlines every day elude to homegrown and foreign instigated UK terror plots on the homeland.

Couple this with the increased destabilization of Southern Iraq, Basra in particular, and you have what could appear to be a coordinated attack on the British psyche and it's already waining willingness to continue to participate in this brazen sham of a war.

The fact that the real perpetrators of the crimes against civilization, that got this stupidity started in the first place, remain at-large in the hinterlands of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has not been lost on the general populace much to the chagrin of the Serious People who through subterfuge, mendacity and propaganda lead us into a war without end with an enemy without a face in a place infested with old antagonisms and resentments we were fully ignorant of. Al qaeda took full advantage of that and reaped the wild wind. We really, really wanted bin Laden and would have condoned any costs and actions in that pursuit, what we got was Hussein and his crippled country, a civil war and a breeding ground for pan-arab hostility.

And the Bush administration wonders why nobody believes in them any more when, it's staggeringly obvious.

Dear Reader...

It's been an incredibly busy period for me... I will be posting soon.

Kurdish Delight

The Kurds appear to be deeply enamored with US sanctioned "Enhanced Interrogation" techniques, secret prisons, Gitmoesque interment and abandonment of the rule of law.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

Of course, those commies at Human Rights Watch are not to be trusted, too 'truthy'.

Under The Radar

Been away for a while... meanwhile, this administrations rape of our economy is unabating.

And, the special Saudi envoy to the House of Bush is having difficulty off-loading his US crash pad... (bahk)sheeesh!

The Wolfman joins the AEI... shock, not so much.

The NYT reports on the crisis in Kansas, the BBC also reports on the crisis in Kansas, compare and contrast children.

The Splurge

I love the smell of death in the morning... smells like hubris with just a hint of desperation.

Just Say No

Hopefully, having faced the slings and arrows for the past six years, somebody on Tony's team will tell him, this is a really, really bad idea.

However, given Tony's meglomaniacal thirst for attention, he may just completely ignore them and accept this very high profile yet ultimately thankless task.

I mean, what's two more years of having the sh*t kicked out of you, when compared to all that face time.

Sir Salman

My sensativity button has, strangely enough, been acting up lately. My sanctimony sensors however, have been working fine.

Tasnim Aslam, of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, told journalists in Islamabad: "Salman Rushdie has been a controversial figure who is known less for his literary contribution and more for his offensive and insulting writing which deeply hurts the sentiments of Muslims all over the world. Conferment of a knighthood on Salman Rushdie shows an utter lack of sensitivity on the part of the British government."
The Independent UK, 6/20/07

I would say to Mr. Aslam that in the west Sir Salman is known more for his literary contributions and less for his offensive and insulting writing.

His accolades include:

James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction)
Arts Council Writers' Award
English-Speaking Union Award
Booker of Bookers or the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction
Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger
Whitbread Novel Award (twice)
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Children's Fiction
Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden)
Prix Colette (Switzerland)
State Prize for Literature (Austria)
Author of the Year (British Book Awards)
Author of the Year (Germany)
Mantua Prize (Italy)
Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy)
Hutch Crossword Fiction Prize (India)
India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)
Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism (Harvard University)
Aristeion Prize (European Union)

That a few 'government sanctioned' rent-a-crowd crazies hit the streets at any perceived slight against Islam by the west is becoming really tiresome.

Disgusted of Buffalo

I am content that this man will spend the rest of his days rotting in a prison. What I am disgusted about is that the Buffalo news quotes only Dr. Slepians wife in defence of the conviction whilst quoting two, including one convicted of hiding Kopp during his stint on the run, nutjobs defending this idiot of a man.

Kopp’s supporters outside the federal courthouse rejected that theory, calling Kopp a nonviolent man and repeating his assertions that he intended only to wound Slepian so he no longer could perform abortions.

Joan Andrews Bell, a prominent figure in the anti-abortion movement, described herself as a pacifist but said she believed Kopp took a number of steps to avoid killing Slepian and injuring anyone else.

How can you call yourself a pacifist and then defend someone who aimed, shot and killed a highly respected and well liked human being with a high powered rifle. The contadiction is staggering, the logic... manifestly lacking.

Couldn't Resist...

Most under-rated band evah...?

Cuckoo

Many of the Old World species and some New World species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds.
The Cuckoo

Bloomberg leaves the GOP but, for most of us, he was only in it for the opportunities it afforded him. It would be hard for me to vote for someone who's political ambition transcends their political convictions. Bloomberg, although a fair administrator, lacks a clearly defined set of principles that would allow me to actually figure him out. He brings to the table only an obscured picture of a man who will feather whatever politically expedient nest will further his own designs.

I suppose, in this day and age, those traits could be construed as the political norm, a necessary skill set that all the leading candidates have displayed or utilized at one time or another but, with the leading democratic candidates I at least can find common ground with most of their positions, with Bloomberg, I would if I could, but I can't.

Brownshirt

Let's just put this out there, see how it flies, we can always disavow ourselves later but, the slur is now in the public domain and that is just how we want it.

How very Christian of them.

Slammer Libby

I'm not one to gloat, I genuinely feel that Scoot committed a somewhat honorable, if misguided and ultimately criminal, act. My problem is with the cabal's peculiar and specific code of honor. And how criticism, of any kind, addles their response mechanisms. If this shiny gem of a scandal proves anything, it proves that this was a case of classic over reaction to a situation where, of all things, vengeance, pay-back, political assassination, call it what you will was unnecessary. That they went to such lengths to discredit one of their own and then attempted to cover up and remove themselves from the process by means of denial, obfuscation and deceit speaks volumes about this administrations immaturity and their over-simplistic, flawed decision making process.

That Scooter was willing to lie to and obstruct an FBI investigation with the express intent of protecting his bosses from having to tell the truth is ludicrously juvenile thinking. Unfortunately this kind of thinking is rampant in the Bush administration, where a twisted loyalty system governs over logic and principle. That loyalty only goes so far though because, ultimately their code of honor is based on the singular act of self preservation. As with the Gonzalez situation, they allow this poor, out-of-his-depth, hack to twist in the wind in order to protect the inner circle.

What motivates these second tier dispensibles to such blind loyalty is beyond me. They will eventually and inevitably be tossed aside as circumstances dictate and most probably be ridiculed all the way out by party members, right wing pundits and wingnuttia in general. That kind of humiliation must be tough even for a dyed in the wool neocon apparatchik to take but, take it they do. There must be some big golden parachutes out there in repugland.

But Scooter now makes the ultimate sacrifice, he will go to jail, his humiliation complete and sweeping and for what? To protect the men who allowed him to go through this ordeal, who's orders he was undertaking, who watch from the sidelines, silent as his life and career go down the toilet. That to me is not loyalty, it's idiocy, it's stark, raving madness. Pardon or no pardon, Scooter's reputation can never be rehabilitated, he will always be associated with scandal, his image etched into the pantheon of National Enquirer front pages, poor bugger! Telling the truth, though apparently inconceivable, would have made for very different headlines.

Miss-iles

The US is still intent on deployment of it's European missile shield and NATO has given its guarded approval of the scheme. It's hardly surprising that NATO would get behind this, they are, after all, an extension of the US military industrial complex only with a different name.

That the missile shield is still unproven technology, costs a bloody awful amount of money and is designed to protect Europe from threats that don't even exist, was not mentioned.

Mittens II

By definition, all the large world religious movements could be described as cults, whether orthodox or sectarian, even atheism could be described as the cult of empirical evidence. It's just some are more culty than others. The OED defines the word cult as follows:

cult
1 a system of religious worship directed towards a particular figure or object.
2 a small religious group regarded as strange or as imposing excessive control over members.
3 something popular or fashionable among a particular section of society.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia.

It is with the sectarian religions, like the LDS, that one finds the unhinged opposition of the christian orthodoxies at its most vehement. That Joseph Smith was a bone fide snake oil salesman and charlatan there can be no doubt, but the same could be said, at the time, of Martin Luther and subsequent heretical idealists. Just a few years after the death of Jesus, his followers were persecuted, ridiculed and 'martyred' by the orthodoxy of those times. They were, as far as everyone else was concerned, a bunch of cultist losers with a blithe, incoherent message of universal love and salvation (boy, was that ever twisted).

Unfortunately, for the early leaders of Christianity, nobody, apart from the Jews - another cult - was particularily concerned with salvation, in fact the underlying message to the pantheists seemed to be - have a diabolically good time now and have a diabolically bad time later, heaven was the exclusive domain of the gods, so don't worry, be diabolical. Of course that had to change if religious power was to be consolidated and exploited. Monotheism held out the best hope for the emperors and priests of the time so Christianity was embraced and organized for the funneling of cash from and the stabilization of the masses, in return for their hard earned cash and unquestioning devotion to church and state they would receive an afterlife.

Therefore, given its fractal, handcrafted beginnings it is not surprising that schisms appeared in the early church and throughout it's chequered past as each cult, along economic, philosophic or nationalistic lines primarily, fought for their share of the take by offering varying degrees of pleasure and pain as motivation for feilty or as a repercussion for heresy.

Under successive kings, popes and bishops informed of the ramifications of rocking the boat, the status quo remained prevelant for centuries with little in the way of major change, the protestant schisms were intellectually driven rather than based on some new heretical behavior or system of belief, the catholics were riven by long standing feuds and continental divides but practice, unto this day, almost identical rites.

So when something new comes along, it will attract the attention of not only a now skeptical public but a collusive monopoly of parties extremely hostile to change and inclusion. The LDS stands as a prime example of this argument, they will never be accepted by the established churches, even though the LDS is itself well established, because to do so would mean not only having to embrace Joseph Smith and his preposterous canon but also provide access for future mormon incursions into the diminishing pool that is the convinceable bretheren.

Mitt will have to deal with this, for him to be elected he needs the support of the christian right, because he has pretty much abandoned the center, and that would take a gigantic leap of faith, so to speak, on their behalf. It would mean accepting what for most of them is an aberration. Mitt may lead in some polls but I would like to see the demographics, I personally don't think the monolithic base has broken for anyone yet especially Mitt and they are the ones who will be struggling with this. The wingnuts may like Mitts extreme and increasingly bizare rhetoric right now but they would be much more comfortable with a Fred Thompson or a Rudy rather than having to even think about religion come election day, for them, much like in early christendom it is a tool, a means to an end - exclusive power - not a way of life.

W Is For Winner

Give me a two... two, give me a nine... nine. What have you got?

Abject Failure!

In Fatwa News Today...

More old white men telling women what they should and should not do with their bodies and at the same time ostracizing an organization that has done nothing but good and remains a butress to repression worldwide. Something the catholic church, given it's ties to fascist and repressive regimes throughout history, could learn from.

The catholic church has been steering a course toward ultraconservatism in an effort to win back it's aging benefactor base after a series of scandals, legal improprieties and financial hanky-panky, it is their belief that by appealing to the most intolerant, sexist, fearfilled bigots it can find it may get the religious right vote in the next election. Sorry... that's Guilliani, nobody besides 600 or so fat old white men in frocks gets to vote on the next pontificator. As feudal autocracies go it's a doozy.

Now, if they could just get back to tending to their flock and trying to actually abide by the word of Christ, I might have some grudging respect for them, until that time, which will never come, they can suck my sceptre.

The Splurge

Those Trotskyites at the Pentagon must really hate America.

They must not have gotten the Bush/Cheney/Murdoch memo about rainbows, butterflies and bunny rabbits.

Neither did Professor Cole but he's always wrong! And I reiterate;

"...as Orwell's 1984 reminds us: "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."

Candy For Breakfast

A Lulu...

Partners In Crime

The Iraqi parliament mirrors it's creators minds... inept, dysfunctional, morally bankrupt and driven by personal greed.

With the Iraqi parliament being a mere extension of the Oval Office, should we have expected anything other than complete failure?

Meanwhile, Iraq inexoriably slides into failed state status and captain codpiece fixates on a fake immigration crisis in a last ditch attempt to prove his relevance.

Democracy

Bush goes to the Hill, meets the republican minority that is mostly opposed to his immigration reforms, nothing concrete comes out of it.

Trent Lott, a man who's active gray matter can be measured only in miligrams expounds:

Senator Lott said that today’s discussion with the president illustrated “democracy at its best,” and that Mr. Bush indicated he “won’t sign a bad bill.”

After which, he retired to his private chambers wherein, he anticipated receipt of the bank of test results from his proctologist.

Candy for Lunch

Impossibly cute...

Tony, Tony, Tony

Blair, much like Bush, is incapable of accepting his own role in his demise. That the press played such a huge part in his initial rise in and subsequent domination of the British political scene is paid but short shrift in Tony's tirade.

Blair was one of the first political practitioners in the modern multi-media wonkiverse. His playing of the press made politics hip again, fun for all the family, a cool diversion from the gray Major days.

Now he plays the victim card, brought down by a feral pack of sensation chasing bile mongers.

Tony... not for nothing but, everyone with an ounce of intelligence knows you were played for a fool by some of the most dangerously idiotic sociopaths on the planet. Like a lot of Bush acquaintances you were dragged into a failure of epic proportions and rather than extracating yourself and your people from it, you continued right along even after it became painfully evident that the Iraq fiasco and your righteous sounding justifications for it were fraudulant.

The press was his ally right up until the time the search for WMD in Iraq proved fruitless. There, for the first time, a compliant, one could argue a glorifying and jingoistic, press questioned Britains association with this venture and he was found wanting. When a nation needed an explanation, he gave them Bush administration talking points, that may work over here in the US where the establishment media has pretty much lost all credibility but over there the fourth estate was still a functioning and vital part of the national dialogue and they weren't convinced.

Since 2001 the political roadside has become littered with victims, discards and schills from this malicious administration, I think Tony is just bitter that his legacy, which may have been great, will be forever tarnished by his support for Bush's War but, much like Bush, rather than blame himself, he's out looking for targets.

Loco Logo

Oh! Those Brits... the London Olympics logo is, as far as I am concerned, one of the worst pieces of design I have ever seen, 'Red' Ken Livingston, Mayor of London agrees but says in its defence:


"At a press conference with the inspectors in Canary Wharf, Mr Livingstone renewed his criticism of the logo - but conceded it may "grow on you".

He repeated his insistence that the designers should not be paid, but added: "It is a logo. It is not the meaning of life or a secret code that will identify the bloodline of Mary Magdalene. "It is a logo that will grow on you.""

The more I look at the damn thing the more bewildered I become.

Define Progress

It's a disheartening read really, when every positive is matched or bettered by a negative. Al Maliki's government reeks of inertia and irrelevance, not to mention corruption and sectarian divides.

That we send an active Admiral to do the State Departments work is a very bad sign... if we are losing the diplomatic battle and have now to resort to militaristic bullying to force Maliki's administration into action, what does that tell us?

Maliki's fragile hold on power is bolstered only by his ability to manufacture a coalition of opposing shiite factions, as that function becomes increasingly difficult in a destabilized environment you have to wonder how long Maliki's tenure will last. Afterall, he was a compromise candidate in a stormy scene of US, Kurd and Sunni disaffection at the first choice of a shiite majority exerting its political and religious mandate unaware of its proxy status.

Now that the shiites have awakened to the political realities of US fiat and fragmentation has become the new political game in town, Maliki appears out of his depth (as do most Bush administration appointees), appearing to comply with US demands and edicts on the one side whilst ruminating upon a lack of US real-politik in the region as a whole in a brazen attempt to save face with his diminishing plurality.

The surge was designed to provide political cover for, not only, Maliki and his merry band of death squad supporting, militia friendly shiite bretheren but also for captain codpiece and his not so merry band of vascillating republicans at home.

It was a desperate strategy wholly dependent on flawed analysis and simplistic reasoning and will lead us only to another crisis where, the same mistakes will be repeated.

Mittens

Once you get passed the initial fluff and bluster, contained in every article about this tragic bunch of Republican presidential candidates, the article is not too bad. I think Romney will have problems because of his cultist beliefs however, I think Romney will have many more problems convincing the public that he isn't a blitheringly idiotic windbag who is willing to change longheld and documented fundamental positions whenever it suits him. He is a political shape-shifter lacking any conviction or credibility and the press needs to get over the chiselled chin and wavey hair thing and call him on some of his sh*t.

Ah! Those Sauds...

Monbiot (Guardian UK) is not a happy camper this morning. The Prince Bandar (ex Saudi super ambassador to the US) British Aero Space (UK Governments Official Arms Dealer) scandal is about to go stratospheric . As TPM says, don't expect this scandal to remain on the other side of the Atlantic. Bandar's reach into the Oval Office and OVP is legendary.

This is how the press is supposed to respond to an administration run amok:

This makes a mockery of successive governments' claims to be supporting democracy around the world, and ensures our security is now entangled with that of the Saudi princes. Al-Qaida's primary complaint is directed against the Saudi monarchy and the western support it receives. Like the war in Iraq, like Blair's support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon and his uneven treatment of Israel and Palestine, this deal helps ensure Britain is a primary target for terrorism: not because our government acted on principle, but because it acted without it. Blair has invoked all the strategic threats from which he claims to defend us.

Close down Deso. Reopen the investigation. Sack the attorney general and the senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence. Open a public inquiry to determine what Blair knew. Wage war on tax havens and secret offshore accounts. Hold BAE to account. Then lecture the rest of the world on good governance.

G. Monbiot - Guardian UK, 6/8/07

Climate Unchanged

The heralded 'compromise' was nothing more than another Bush administration smoke screen, designed to give the appearance of concern and collective responsibility.

In fact, it was another completely meaningless charade.

Captain codpiece is a little under the weather this morning... nothing trivial, I hope.

Update: The European press appears somewhat less gullible than their American cousins. Shocking isn't it!

Climate Change

Of course 'seriously considering' but ultimately 'utterly rejecting' are trade marks of this administration, see - Iraq Study Group.

Sludge

If success is measured by a decrease in violence, then why are we asked to anticipate more US casualties during the course of the surge? Surely the equation was; more troops = less violence not more troops = more troop deaths. For me, the natural conclusion is more troop deaths = more violence.

Oh! but wait, we are not fully deployed yet and won't be for another two months. Now, call me a naysayer or a traitor or whatever epithet de jour is popular in wingnut circles right now but is the military telling us that it is going to take up to six months just to deploy the 25,000 or so troops to the theater. Two things, how long did it take us to get the original invasion force into the theater? And, the Generals will have had their surge in full effect for just one month before they have to report to the preznit, congress and the American people, what sort of progress are they going to report on? I suppose getting all the soldiers and stuff into the field will be some kind of achievement.

September is a mirage.

Heels

It takes more than one or two half assed, fleeting visits to the region to even get these peoples agendas coordinated, never mind having them come to some kind of an agreement.

Condi, of course, is somewhat distracted... she's having staffing problems at State. I suppose, like a fine pair of handmade Italian shoes, good 'Bushies' are getting harder to find these days.

The Israel-Palestine conflict is the lynch pin to any successful strategy the west wishes to employ in the middle east. Any kind of negotiated settlement or brokered peace deal would be the catalyst in stabilizing the region as a whole. That is why this administration has a complete light weight like Rice in the most exalted diplomatic position on the planet. She serves at Cheney's pleasure and Cheney, like all dedicated neocons, does not want peace in the middle east, ergo status quo in Israel, chaos everywhere else.

Everytime Condi visits Jerusalem, rest assured, in her exquisitely hand fashioned purse is a hand written letter from Mr. Cheney to Mr. Olmert. It contains just three words "Stay The Course."

The Oracle

Given this preznits track record for simply awful prognostication, I am now officially worried that the Russians already have nervous hands poised above large, red, flashing buttons with the word LAUNCH written on them (in Russian - of course).

Why does he even feel the need to say such a thing? If this were Victorian England - and I sometimes wish it were - he would have been locked up long ago and permanently, in the well appointed but mercifully escape proof attic of his parents, along with all the other glaringly obtuse reminders of their family's centuries of imbreeding.

I need a sedative...

2012

It's not just the epileptics experiencing seizures... strewth, it just screams blow job.

G8

Things continue to go swimmingly in Heiligendamm. Although this administration has now accepted the fact that a few things may be amiss with regards to our planets health it will steadfastly refuse to act as a global partner in any clean up operation. Bush's 'Global Warming' speech of last week, in which no concrete proposals were mentioned, was, for all intents and purposes, a random gathering of verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. designed specifically to fill in a 30 second timeslot on the evening news left vacant after the latest missile test was found to be a complete and utter waste of time and money... again.

Meanwhile, has George 'I call him Vladimir' Bush pissed off a Russian today? It's 4:30pm or so in Germany right now, there's still time!

Partial Brain...

I never knew they called themselves the "Body of Christ" - seems a little pompous - anyway, they're not happy. Religious wingnuts are waking up to two realizations 1) their leadership is a gang of money hungry hypocrites, who have turned their followers demented confusion into a religio/industrial complex generating millions and millions of dollars and 2) the abortionist rabble, all that money is supposed to be spent on defeating, may have actually come out on the winning side in the Partial Birth Abortion Ban SCOTUS decision.

James Dobson, that paragon of virtuous windbaggery, comes in for some serious apoplectic, christianist rage:

"In an open letter to Dobson that was published as a full-page ad May 23 in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Focus on the Family's hometown newspaper, and May 30 in the Washington Times, the heads of five small but vocal groups called the Carhart decision "wicked," and accused Dobson of misleading Christians by applauding it."
Washington Post - 6/4/07

It has taken them so long to figure out they are being used...

Bad Seeds

We all need to take a deep breath...

Wingnuttia Is Not A Happy Place

William Kristol, arch defender of Cool Hand Scoot and Darth, remains calm under the pressure of witnessing the demise of such a good man, a family man, a cold warrior and Gulf War veteran... crikey Libby was almost super-freakin-human, a man betrayed by the President?

So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any
risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?

William Kristol - The Weekly Standard 6/5/07.

Wait a freakin' second here... where's Cheney in this equation? If Bush needs to take a cup of courage here, we know who'll be passing the carafe, the boy king does not make a move without Cheney's say-so. And Bill, if I may call you Bill, Scoot worked for Cheney.

They hate Bush! This could get real ugly...

Prisoner Of Love

Russ Columbo?

Cool Hand Scoot!

Down goes Scooter... down goes Scooter!!!

2 1/2 years in prison for protecting Darth's fat ass...

My guess... he'll be on the Halliburton board in 18 months.

Benched

Of course, your average republican abhors racism, sexism, mysogeny and perpetual dominance by a white, anglo-saxon, male heirarchy.

Riiiight!

This is our South:

"He clearly failed the test when he ruled for a social worker who was rightfully fired for calling a black colleague “a good ole nigger.”"

"...he accepted the social worker’s claim that the use of the slur was “not motivated out of racial hatred or animosity directed toward her co-worker or toward blacks in general.”"
NYT 6/5/07

Given their druthers, the modern republican party would export this filth all over the planet. They are not ashamed, they are not bowed, they are not uncomprehending... this stuff sells, afterall, at the ballot box!

Elites

Some governments have slaughtered or internally exiled their intellectual elites in an attempt to snuff out political or philosophical opposition and debate, some governments ignore their scientists, historians and assorted intelligensia and make up their own sh*t because the truth is too disturbing or may create an imbalance in the status quo - which is where they make their livings, others embrace the spirit of adventure, progress and the cut and thrust that intelligent inquiry stimulates in a society.

In Iraq, today, an entire generation of future leaders, scientists, academics and professionals are readying to depart their homeland for fear of diminished opportunity, prolonged violence, religious intolerance and political assassination. Their government is powerless to prevent it or perhaps, given their bent toward a theocratic rather than secular society, is encouraging it.

Our governments message - Freedom Is Messy!

What kind of freedom forces you to flee your home!

Of Missiles And Men

Please, please let us use our shiney new toys in your back yard, please!

Missing from the entire Times article, which was pretty well rounded, is the fact that the missile defense system is NOT effing working.

So we pay Poland and the Czech Republic gobs of money to position a system, on their territory, that may be of as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike but has all the potential for reigniting the arms race and initiating a new cold war. Is this administration really desperate for a legitimate enemy? One we are all familiar with and know how to despise. Is this more neocon/religeous right formenting for the end of days? Have we completely abandoned our senses so captain codpiece can don another uniform - a radiation suit and gasmask might be a good look for him - aboard the ruined flight deck of the USS Lincoln?

Who thinks this sh*t up?

Can someone, anyone - preferably an adult, please stop this stupidity?

Kurdling

We need this like another hole in the head.

Incursions into Iraqi sovereign territory - ostensibly Kurdish controlled - by the Turkish military may not seem so important but, the neocon agenda has always relied upon agitating for chaos in the region as a means to an end. To what end I have no idea, so this kind of provocation by the PKK, although easily suppressed if the political will was manifest, will likely continue until another unnecessary conflict erupts.

The quicker we abandon the failed neocon doctrines embedded in our political thought processes the better.

Turkey has been very pragmatic towards western goals in the region, we should be protective of the few old friends we have left and be exerting pressure instead on our new found friends, who without us, would not be enjoying the benefits that come with self-determination.

Soul Mates

Another foreign policy 'initiative', that lacks any credibility, based on a supposed threat that doesn't exist, utilizing a system that has failed to live up to expectations - it continues to exhibit zero operational capability - and succeeds only in antagonizing a once and future ally in the GWOT.

And, who will Europe support in this latest fiasco?

If the policy was designed to drive a wedge between and meddle with the developing relationship betwixt Europe and Russia who gains from that? I know who would ultimately lose.

I suppose the idea of a 'Super Europe' stretching from the rocky shores of Galway in the west to the shipyards of Vladivostok in the east is pretty scary to this administration, at least seen in military terms - which is practically the only lens these raving lunatics ever use - but most everything is pretty scary to these self-proclaimed guardians of the American Way, so why not try to disrupt that evolution.

The problem with the concept though is that, I think, Europe has had enough of the sledge hammer approach to global problems and conflicts as evinced by their softly-softly approach toward Iran. I think the US will find very little support at the G8, with Blair pretty much a lame duck, and more pragmatic leadership coming to the fore and with this administrations track record of unsophisticated, ill-conceived, punative foreign policy failures, this half assed attempt at political engineering may find itself back-burnered in-perpetuity.

Update: They rattle a sabre, we, predictably rattle one right back. Odd that we used a NATO spokesman to announce our response.

Good Morning USA

Unsatisfactory

Razin' Hell

Carrying on with the fruit motif, via Atrios comes this plum.

There will be an almighty sh*t slinging contest before this is all said and done.

I don't know how the right thought they would profit from this, once they brought religion into the political arena, where sh*t slinging is pretty much par for the course, it's difficult to avoid getting splattered. One may argue that religion has always been a part of the American political scene, I would disagree, but now it is becoming an issue rather than a given. We are supposed to be electing a President not a preacher.

Billy Graham knew better and warned them of the consequences.

Nuff Said!

It's the 40th Anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's. So here is something not from Sgt. Pepper's, just to be contrarian.

Nuts

Now, I know Billy has said and done a lot of great things in his long life, he lived his belief and will die with it, but he really should have put a stop to this.

'But, how should we f**k-off, oh Lord?'

Melons

Is there an entire branch of archaeology that I've been, up 'til now, unaware of?

The search for ancient fruits is certainly intriguing... today Japan, tomorrow the RNC. Natch! Mehlman left already.

It's definitely Friday.

Banana's

Back in the day, all I ever wanted for xmas was a Bananarama!

Down to two, but still as sweet

Russia's a Bully

They must have stolen our playbook or sumpin'.

WASHINGTON, May 31 — A top Russia expert at the State Department issued an unusually sharp public criticism on Thursday of Moscow’s behavior under President Vladimir V. Putin, describing the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing political opponents and suppressing individual rights at home.
New York Times 6/1/07

Do as we say, not as we do!

Rumor Mill

The BBC 'ticker' is flashing the resignation of Dan Bartlett.

It is Friday, so it could be true!

Update: Here's the link. Super!

The $9Billion Damp Squib

I may have missed the big announcement in the MSM, you know I can't possibly see and read everything, so I checked out this site to see how our latest test went. Apparently... not so good, they've decided to call it a 'no test' which in Missile Shield parlance precludes the use of the phrase 'complete waste of f***ing time and money'. Why, if we are spending all these $$$$$ on new cyber technologies to support the 'hard end' of this defence system, did they use the apparent ICBM equivalent of a Chevy Lumina to carry out the test. Shouldn't the exploding end of the equation be rather important too!

The Russians must have laughed all the way to their weekend dacha's.

Gawd 'elp us!

Playing The Tart...

You, you were acting like it was the end of the world!

Econ 101

So the boy king cooked the books at the beginning of his administration and blamed that recession on his predecessor - hey, they blamed a lot on their predecessor and even after seven years still do - so when Alan Greenspan, now, gives the economy a 1 in 3 chance of slipping into a new recession and we see 0.6% growth (the worst number since '02) for the first quarter of '07, who will they blame?

You and me... probably.

Life's A Beach

So who or what are we protecting in this 'long war'? Now, the discussion may center around the differences between Iraq and Korea and there are many, but, my feeling is, this is exactly where this administration wants to lead the debate. Get us all involved with debating hypotheticals and hot under the collar about cognative dissonance etc. When the real questions fall to the floor like a sucked candy wrapper.

Who on the republican side would get behind this kind of commitment? A substantial number of congressional republicans will be in a fight for their political lives in '08 thanks in large part to Bush's war, would they be willing to sell this idea to an already wavering constituent base?

The republican presidential candidates have shown themselves quite capable of trying to sell any extreme position to the base but eventually they have to go up to the electorate in general where the positions stated within the primary debates are proving to be increasingly unpopular. Will they add the 50 year occupation of Iraq to their box of tricks?

Does this statement imply that Al Qaida, Salafi Sunni's, Nationalist Sunni's, Secular Sunni's and Shiites will be in a perpetual civil war? And, should we have our brave men and women stuck in the middle of it?

Does this statement imply that the other regional governments are incapable of protecting the production and supply of oil without a large US presence in the region? Because, if the US is incapable of pacifying and protecting the Iraqi people, as now seems apparent, and the insurgency has yet to affect the supply of oil regionally, as is also apparent, that would appear counter intuitive.

If our strategic mission all along was to protect the production and supply of oil and project US power in the region as a stabilizing force, then what was all that crap about WMD, Iraq-Al Qaida links, Mushroom Clouds and Freedom?

Will a democrat please stand up and effing respond to this!

Shock & Awe II

The Pod man goes off on another speculative, rambling, historically incorrect and mind-numbingly boring rant about bombing Iran. His entire premise and motivation is so incoherently framed, so amateurishly plastered together with disparate and wholly manufactured instances and hackneyed conjecture that one is left with no other thought than it is a piece of pure propaganda.

It is 5,000 words long which, I think, may prove a little daunting to most republicans who prefer their opinion pieces to consist of nothing more intellectually challenging than a head and by line.

I read the whole thing - I am a sucker for punishment if nothing else - and found within it, not a single convincing reason to bomb Iran. You may like to read it for yourself, that is entirely up to the individual and I respect that, however if you find yourself dropping off or gazing mindlessly at a word like 'Finlandization' don't say I didn't warn you.

Always remember - these are the serious people - and - we are where these serious people have brought us.

Fred Flinstone

Finally, after having his ego sufficiently massaged, primped and puffed up the Republican party gets it's "B" Movie, TV Bit-Parter redux groove on.

Can the Repugs be so truly vaccuous, so utterly devoid of ideas, so panderingly obvious, so... so banal?

Yes! Did I mention craven and unhinged?

Scandal

Time for a spring-clean, it's gotten a little Dusty in here.

Myth-Busting

Torture, yes torture, the torture our military and security agencies have been forced to perform upon other human beings so this administration can look tough to the base and scare the heeby-jeeby's out of a bunch of blood thirsty bin Laden wannabees, doesn't work, or rather our 'quaint' techniques aren't necessarily the 'torture du jour' methodology proscribed in the Handy Dandy Torture for Dummy's Manual (Revised Edition). Time to buy shares in Black & Decker?

This will leave a permanent welt mark on the collective behind of the wingnutosphere. Valerie Plame was covert, she was a spy, it was illegal for this administration to reveal her name to the press. Nuff said!

More fall-out as the base discovers what has been done in their name.

Resurgitation

More of the same... here, these figures are from May 25 and do not include the weekends mayhem. And here in microchosm is some of the fall-out.

There never was a strategy was there?

Grubby - Update

Riza bolts her love-wolf... this should keep Monica off the front pages huh!

GWOT

There was a time in the '90's that I seriously thought the planet was heading in a new, bright, optimistic direction, we had problems, no doubt, but I felt we were coming out of the darkness, now... not so much.

The Smiffs!

Is that with one f or two... (sniff!), three!

Axis of The Willing...

The friend of my friend is my enemy, the enemy of my friend is my friend, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy, the enemy of my friend is my friend, the enemy is mostly friendly with my friend... oh! I can't keep up anymore. It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep all my ducks straight in one basketcase... so to speak.

Bush Whacked

The sweet smell of success...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Twenty people were killed by a suicide bomber in a crowded cafe northeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, while the U.S. military reported the deaths of nine more soldiers in the past 48 hours.

Iraqi police also said they had found the body of one of three U.S. soldiers who have been missing since an attack on their patrol south of Baghdad on May 12. The half-naked body, with bullet wounds and signs of torture, was pulled from the Euphrates River.

Once we let the torture genie out of the bottle, we exposed our people to this...

Once we let the war genie out of the bottle, we exposed our people to this...

Why?

Whaa?

From the annals of Sadly No and highlighted by Atrios comes this turgid piece of pablum from David Ignatius at WaPo. I can't help thinking that I have read every paragraph of this recycled dross before. The bar for 'Victory in Iraq' is now set very, very low indeed. With this current precipitous decline of criteria for victory, what level of success will this administration accept in the future as reason to pack our bags and get the hell out declaring victory all the way; a one hour lull in hostilities?

Walls Come Tumblin' Down...

Sour grapes, disgruntled ex-employee, axes to grind... the canards, they will come a flying. However, I lived in NYC through Rudy's entire administration and although the quality of life, prior to 9/11, improved dramatically it was not such a difficult task to pull off, the rest of his two terms were marked with bizarre statutes, irrational outbursts and the uncompromising, totalitarian actions of a complete egomaniacal despot.

Rudy 'Il Duce' Guiliani as president? I sincerely hope not!

They'll Be Home By Christmas... Probably Not.

If you really need any further indication as to how well the 'Surge' is actually working then read this. Iraq is such a bloody debacle, this administrations strategies and motivations so convoluted and polluted with failure that they now have to operate under a shroud of secrecy and misrepresentation. As Al Qaida continues to grow in strength, wealth and prestige our troops suffer under the command of an incompetent, washed-up band of blithering idiots more concerned with controlling their tattered 'legacy' and staying out of jail than extracating us from this self-imposed morass of ineptitude.

h/t Huffpost on the SFGate article.

With Gusto!

It's encouraging to see the word progressive in an article about WNY. There is a powerful and vocal lobby in this region, especially in Buffalo proper, hell bent on preventing any kind of progress. They get a lot of press and media attention unworthy of their negative agenda. Regardless of how carefully planned or sensative to a neighborhood a design may be, the idiots reflexively respond with a slew of prescribed and pre-judged objections. Investors and developers will only bang their heads against a brick wall for so long before they turn away to leave this city and spend their time, money and energy elsewhere.

Classical Music Friday

Bye Wolfie - we knew ye too well!

OWWOOOOOOOOO!

As a compliment to the grubby little scandal, we have the grubby little resignation of this grubby little man. All to the consternation of his grubby little friends. To paraphrase Orwell: They are all grubby but some are more grubby than others!

The Three R's

Having a close, personal relationship with Jesus (whether sincere or not - it's hard to tell sometimes) comes across as very important to, what appears to be, the majority of Republican Presidential candidates on display at the most recent 'debate', (I have no clear understanding of where Rudy stands on this issue but then again apart from bombing the heck out of brown people I have no clear understanding of where Rudy stands on any issue.) so as an observer of this phenomenon known as pandering to the Christian Right one can't help but notice the plethora of contradictory, mangled, vote driven, talking point inspired, headline grabbing nonesense these drab, white goons are willing to utter in the name of early primary season notoriety, face time, name recognition, exposure, etc., necessary to continue their tired, uninspiring and base-centric or single issue campaigns.

That it has become painfully apparent that the Christian Right has as deep an understanding of the teachings of Jesus Chist as a fourth grader does of Ferme's Last Theorem and as their leaders in procession like uniformity are exposed as the charlatan, hate-mongering, race-bating, homophobic, mysogenist hypocrites that some of us always suspected them of being and that the faithful continue undaunted to blithely tithe these uber-pastors to super wealth and super debauchery regardless of their leaders tawdry actions and grubby exposees, seems to be of little, if no, import to this batch of candidates who faithfully, almost robotically continue their strategic spiral into the gutter of faithbased removal of brain from body by formenting this subjegated, sheeplike bloc. Who, who amongst us but the very ill-informed, very frightened and seriously misled applauds the use of torture by anyone, let alone a nation founded upon an incredibly hard-fought for release from tyranny? It's illogical!

Not one of these candidates strikes me as having anything but complete, if inexcusably temporary, contempt for the principles and mores this nation was founded upon, they are, afterall, embracing a cult that admonishes and wishes to dissolve the separation of Church and State, to radically alter the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to make hay with practically every Amendment except the sacrosanct 2nd and to turn this country into a 16th century theocracy under the supreme leadership of a born again, white, male President, who is supposed to agitate for armageddon and bring about the end of times. Not one of these candidates questions the validity or veracity of this ideological abomination or sees a conflict between it and their own personally held beliefs. What sort of President can that kind of conscious denial and betrayal of trust make? (See: Present Administration - White-House - Bush). Someone has to ask these candidates - Do you believe in the end of times? If the answer is yes who's gonna vote for the guy agitating for the end of the world? If it is no, hmmmm! Obviously, there are a couple candidates who are not, never going to question this credo, it is as much a part of the fabric of their being as breathing but, they are not going to be elected (See: Kansas - Idiot - Brownback), but for the front runners to be seen as goading and embracing this marginalized bunch of crazies for the sake of getting creamed by a generic Democrat appears like a dance with the devil for dancings sake.

If Mr. Romney actually believes that killing varmints, endorsing torture, enlarging Gitmo, apologising for his ancestral polygamus past, believing that being a member of the CLDS is not a hindrance and looking great is going to get him elected he should probably get an entirely new PR team. His pathetic ignorance on foreign policy has already condemned him to having to rely on national issues which, let's face it, he's shifted upon like the proverbial sands and will not be the lede in '08 anyway.

If the lisping mafioso wannabe Guilliani thinks that by holding his crotch and carrying a lead pipe and a saturday night special is all he needs for electoral success then, good luck to him. He's a one issue guy and the issue has passed it's sell by date, on everything else he has no established positions and is, quite frankly, just bluffing.

McCain is ok, he's just old, tired and confused as to where he stands, or shops, or leans, or sits, or lies down. We did this in the '80's, Reagan redux nobody needs.

As for the rest of the field, they are about as inspiring as a corporate memo on office waste and, for the most part, a pocket protector away from lunacy.

Unless one of these candidates has the guts to break away from the rhetoric of enablement and praise for the continued ignorance of the people they hope to represent, then I see them becoming increasingly irrelevant to the greater population who, by and large, have wised-up and turned away from the values espoused by the Christianist wing of the Southern White Party.

The 'Boys

I saw the Waterboys as a back up band in '82 at the Brixton Academy. They were sick-good and had a very subjective crowd rockin'.

The headliners? U2! Nice gig.

It's Just Not Cricket!

Damn those Brits and their disturbing penchant for the truth and stuff. Apparently, our cousins across the water are not as squeamish about the realities of war (pdf) as we have become over here. They prefer their facts served cold and hard, kinda like their gravy.

Still Not Getting It

The MSM, once again, fails to understand the underlying message this Bill sent to the White House. In labelling this a '... stinging defeat' for democrats they miss the fact that this Bill even got to the floor in the first place. That's the message... we're going to keep debating this, we're going to keep sending up Bills rebuking this administrations policies and we are not going to forget that the American people voted Republicans out of office because they came to represent a rubberstamp to a failed policy. The message is, we will force change and the more the American people find out about this war, it's lack of initial planning, the complete screw-up in the aftermath of inevitable victory, the continued violence, the escallation, the treasure spent the more they will turn against it, even those, now, stubbornly opposed to such a course change.

Look at the photo accompanying the Times piece. Does Feingold look too despondent for you!

It's Uncanny

That's another fine mess... yadda, yadda!

D D D D D D David

Absolute Beginners...

Desperate Times

A part of the Comey testimony has revealed what, quite honestly, may be one of the most desperate and tragi-comic episodes in this administrations desperate and tragi-comic history. The WH sends Gonzales and Card to 'heavy' or confuse Ashcroft, fresh out of surgery and still in the fog of a general anaesthetic, into signing a continuation statement for the warrantless wiretapping program that he and his assistant had already deemed illegal and had refused to sign. Luckily, both Comey and FBI Director Meuller (?) were on to this dastardly plan and had made damn sure there would be witnesses and a confrontation.

Gonzales and Card (Stan & Ollie) back off under duress but Card, petulantly, summons Comey to his turf later for a good dressing down.

Although this is really serious stuff (Glenn can fill you in on what this administration was/is up to and what it means to our country and our constitution) it begs the questions;

1) Are Stan & Ollie the best people to be sending on sensative missions like this?
2) If Comey and the FBI were not there, could Mrs. Ashcroft have kicked Stan & Ollie's butts?
3) Say Stan & Ollie had overcome the powerful but no longer in her prime Mrs. A, could they have found a pen?
4) Having found a pen, would they have remembered to bring the document?
5) Alright, say they had a pen and the document, would they have been able to revive Ashcroft?
6) Would they have been able to tell if Ashcroft were revived?
7) If a revived Ashcroft still refused to sign the document, did they have a Plan B?
8) Were Stan & Ollie authorized to 'waterboard' or use other authorized and approved means of persuasion if the AG showed signs of non-cooperation?
9) Having failed in their perverse attempt at coersion and cover-up, were these malingerers chastised and denounced?
10) What,if any, positions within the administration do these two incompetents now hold?

(Look, I'm sorry for using the names of two comedic giants as a foil for my useless attempt at humor... I was going to use Burke and Hare because of the obvious grave robber aspects of this despicable episode but I just see Stan's 'smiley' face everytime I think of Gonzo.)

Knowing When To Leave

Gonzalez, I can understand... he is not a great thinker, ideologue or even a true movement conservative, he is merely a pet reptile, happy to feel the warm hand of White House approval upon his scaley, slick skin. He is not personally responsible for the criminal politization and erosion of credibility at the DoJ, afterall he was only following orders, something he is exquisitely adept at and notoriously well suited for. So, to face the slings and arrows in a vain attempt at protecting his masters and have his name (It was never good) dragged into disrepute means nothing to him. Either he is not smart enough to realize that he is being played or his loyalty to our pot plant president is suppressing his self-preservation gene, neither scenario is very comforting to a public awakening to the irresponsibility, recklessness and incompetence inherent within this administration. That this little, sanctimonious bullshit artist rose so high within the WH cabal leads to a greater understanding of the rest of them and as this WH dissembles and the cracks become chasms, I ask, who's next to be thrust into the arena to be humiliated, ridiculed and ultimately disposed of in the name of protecting the inner circle?

As for Wolfowitz, this is a man supposedly well thought of in neocon intellectual (diminishing) circles. A man who's fingerprints are all over this administrations foreign policy debacles and therefore one who is held in high esteem by wingnut glitterati intent on a position of aggressive denial and intolerance for reality. To have their boy consumed in such a grubby, self-serving - soon to be a movie - pond scum scandal, one would imagine, would be sufficient impetus for the inner circle to take the moral highground and scuttle the good ship Wolfie, if for no other reason than to save one of their own from utter humiliation, not so, Wolfie has their full, if somewhat vascillating and always career threatening support.

Now, who in their right mind would want to join this leaking tub of ineptitude just as the raging sea crests the gunnells? Must be a real bright spark, a man capable of turning this situation around, a man of great fortitude, foresight and imagination... no just another General with a dubious grasp on reality. What? You think the 'commander guy' is actually capable of adapting to the real world? Perish that thought immediately!

Classical Music Friday

Now I feel like a round of golf...

Speaking of Ignorance

I know we have only been in this war for four years and preparing for it for two thousand years but for some, the middle east remains a confusing hodgepodge of competing interests, schisms, tribal and internicine rivalries all wrapped in a veil of mystery and conflicting histories. I am sure that I, as an 'umble observer, still have many things to learn about the holy lands and the boundless, millenia old intrigues. Having said that, there are places to go to research, learn and educate oneself, they are easily accessible and even in synopsis form one can decipher and solve some of the most obvious puzzles currently perplexing our politeratti.

Now, why would I bother, I could just go along with the conventional wisdom on the subject and classify the entire region as bad guy, evil doers intent on creating a super caliphate-a-listic, islamofascist, pan-arab paradise to challenge western hegemony and have done with it. Eventually, we're gonna nuke the heck out of them anyway and well, it's not as if I'm running for president or anything and should, perhaps try and familiarize myself with the whys, wherefores and whatnots of the recently destabilized religio-industrial-complex of the largest and most antagonistic oil producing region on the planet.

That the middle-east represents a veritable gordian knot of western misunderstanding and failed foreign policy over the last 1,400 years wouldn't it be prudent to get a handle on the major players, their provenance, their political or social aspirations, their affiliations and loyalties, where they stand philosophically or ideologically, just what it is they are fighting for... just asking.

That the political players in this country - both Dem and Repug - remain ignorant of whom we are fighting and continue to spout illogical, uninformed, cliched and quite frankly stereotyped rubbish at an even less well informed public might well be the reason we keep finding ourselves embroiled in these no-win situations. Let us always start here: Know your enemy - only strike when victory is certain - withdraw quickly and live to fight another day if a battle seems lost.

Pop On

It's time to break out the good stuff Mabel!

Fear, Ignorance & Vengeance

Are three very powerful singular states of mind but, when combined are literally quite lethal to those caught in the vortex. I watched Frontline on PBS last night, it dealt with teen offenders subjected to life sentences without parole. I think all the incredibly violent incidents happened in Colorado around the same time that a youth crime wave was hitting that state (late 90's) and the adult population was being whipped up into the proverbial lynch mob by the press, elected officials and elected officials within the state justice system. Colorado, up to that time, had had a very progressive system in-place to deal with its youth offenders which had offered some kind of hope to those who had suffered at the hands of an overloaded social services system that '...expected teenage boys to be able to take care of themselves' and, for the most part, at the hands of their parents and extended families since their earliest childhoods.

As I mentioned, the cases highlighted here were of a very violent, almost passionate, nature. The boys did not deny their crimes, or in the case of one boy just being at the scene of a crime, and explained in detail what brought them to the brink of contemplating and almost instantaneously executing such crimes. They had all suffered one form of abuse or another, from rape by a step-parent (male) to sexual abuse by an actual parent (female). The physical abuse in these cases acted as a petri dish to the self-sustaining mental abuse and temporary insanity exhibited by the offenders.

That these boys suffered for most of their short lives from an anguish and unhappiness, that I cannot even imagine, is for me enough to give them a second chance at life. These boys were not thugs, gangsta's, street-urchins nor subject to environmental and social pressures where violence can be glorified and immitated as a kind of circular phenomenon, they were your classic middle-class white boys from decent neighborhoods whose only sense of crime was the ugliness happening to them on a daily basis within the confines of the 'family'. Suffice to say that Columbine was perpetrated by classic middle class white boys but the premeditation of that instance was lacking in the cases presented to us on Frontline.

The most stark and emotional moment for me was when, after a long description of the murder, both boys described the events as lasting seconds, less than a minute. The boy who witnessed the event said he had no time to react, to stop his friend from killing his mother or to even run. I can't imagine how I would react either, how quickly my brain could process that kind of horror, what would I do as an adult, he was 16 years old and although he assisted the young boy in cleaning up the mess he kept expecting the mother to '... wake up and be really pissed at us'. Sorry, but none of these kids were master criminals, all were apprehended within hours of the events - usually dazed and confused, there was no premeditation, no murder aforethought, these were crimes of passion and these boys will pay for them with rest their unfulflled lives.

Now the supporters of such strict interpretations and penalties are a motley bunch of canard spouters who wheel out the usual bromides about the kids being vicious killers, being tough on crime, caring about the victims and their families etc. The DA they interviewed assured us that he had prosecuted many crimes like this and they were always the nastiest, most heinous crime scenes imaginable well, to me that is not surprising and should be effing obvious, these kids - kids - have suffered heinous crimes upon their person and psyches by people who are supposed to be protecting and nurturing them and when they seek help they are ignored or worse under suspicion for alterior motives. They are desperate, unwanted and too young to process rage and its consequences, of course the crime scenes are macabre, they picked up the first thing they could find and beat away the rage. The DA is an ignorant idiot lacking in compassion and intellectual honesty. As for the concerned citizens fearful that crime will enter their smug, cossetted existence it already has, these crimes were committed within the confines of a suburban America that has gleefully abdicated its role in defining America's future cultural and social development for twelve pieces of silver and a McMansion. That these supposed adult's fear, ignorance and vengeance is so total, unforgiving and misguided speaks volumes about America in the 21st Century and why a change in the discourse and priorities of modern America is not only important, it is vital to our national interests. We must take the decision making process away from the fearful, the ignorant and the vengeful, they know not what they do.

This Is Not An Irish Rebel Song...

Back in the day, it was fine for your 'Ax-Man' to wear a nice red sweater bought for him by his mum!

American Exceptionalism

As a follow up to an earlier post and a comment I received. Although conventional wisdom on the right points to 9/11 as a failure of previous policies of containment, appeasement and traditional terror fighting methods, this is a strawman. We are all familiar with the PDB presented to the preznit whilst on his hols in Crawford warning of a gathering threat and the determination of al qaida to strike at the American homeland. It was through the willful disregard of this and other warnings that 9/11 was such a catastrophe and surprise to this nation. It was however, no surprise to the intelligence community and indeed, a few lightbulbs must have pinged at the WH, even though they were quick to deny it and slow, if not reluctant to have the matter investigated. They remain, to this day, close lipped about the events leading up to that day and unwilling to countenance a true independent investigation. The truth can be a terrible, heartless foe.

The chatter and raw intelligence coming into CIA, NSA and all the other institutions internal and worldwide pointed to something 'large' about to happen. This administration acted with, what we now know as systemic, it's usual lack of urgency, ignoring the warnings, failing to alert it's own domestic law enforcement partners, hushing up inconvenient whistleblowers and concentrating instead upon it's policies of pampering and paying back it's corporate, crony sponsors.

The right is also quick to cite the London and Madrid bombings as further evidence of a fatal flaw in the prosecution of a conventional approach to fighting terror. Even though those two events happened after 9/11 and the entire world was on a high alert status. But that is how terrorism works - and matastacizes. The fact that 9/11 was such a stunning success assisted in the development and financing of further plots and schemes, some of which were prevented, others that, unfortunately, were not. The key to fighting terror is to learn from both your successes and your failures, there will be death and destruction but there will be containment and prevention and prosecutions and imprisonment and eventually the money trail will lead us to the true sponsors of international terrorism, they being the true perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity but, perhaps, we already know who and that truth is just too shocking. Spain and Britain - both familiar with domestic terrorism and it's long reach into the collective consciousness - in the aftermath of their respective bombings, did not immediately begin to formulate plans to invade a distant middle east country in revenge for the new carnage suffered on their shores. Both countries bestowed new and unprecedented powers on their domestic law enforcement and internal security agencies and within the letters of these new laws have had some staggering successes.

Every terrorist organization, as is well known, has to fulfill certain needs in order rise and flourish; a charismatic leader, an easily replaceable charismatic leader, reliable financial backers, an easily understood ideology, an easily demonized and recognizable foe, a few spectacular successes as a recruiting tool and the continued ineptitude of its foe to figure out what it is they are up to. As a simplified but demonstrable example of the destruction of the hydra-terrorist organization we can look to the Emerald Isle. With both domestic and international help Britain was able to identify cell leaders of the IRA and through observation, infiltration and intelligence was able, eventually, to identify the very top leaders of the organization - know your enemy. Through the same techniques they were able to identify NORAID as a front organization that funnelled money into the IRA coffers - ultimately, once funds were cut off or at least restricted the IRA was forced to rob banks and gas stations to fund its operations and arms acquisitions, not the best uses of it's men or materiel. By finally engaging and investing the Irish government in the peace process acts of violence were no longer tacitly approved as an inevitable part of the political struggle. The IRA found itself culturally and politically on the sidelines and was forced to politicize in order to be represented at the peace table. Through, initially secret, communications the British government was able to negotiate with Sinn Fein and present, as fait a'complete, the building blocks to Northern Irish self rule and ultimately self determination. It took many years, there were many road blocks and pitfalls but, instead of force an international - we must never forget the American will and resolve displayed in making this succeed - political framework was established and a political solution finally arrived at. History -aint it grand?

Stranglers

'Sometimes, it's tougher to look than to leap!

Plan F

Perhaps the biggest problem this administration had in the aftermath of 9/11 was that it had absolutely no idea how to fight a GWOT and still doesn't. However, they did figure out a - very bad - way to conventionalize it. That they were gifted the backing of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan where the Taliban, initially, turned out to be not much more than a rag-tag militia and were easily swept off the battlefield only to morph into what we see today. And, that the only apparent or manipulated path forward from that first encounter with the ideology of islamofascist-ring-a-ma-ting was to find a predominantly secular, target rich environment and stay for awhile, completely ignoring what we had learned in Afghanistan about the cynical and barbarous nature of our enemy, remaining blithe to the emotional and tactical shifts of both those nations as a direct reaction to occupation, in parallel with alienating the international community - coalition of the willing notwithstanding - through roughshod treatment of pertinent alliances and existing treaties and blatant arrogance, we arrive where we are today, a mere Friedman Unit from turning the tide in Iraq - again - without still never actually having to confront the realities and consequences of the conflicts at hand and where these consequences will lead us to in the future.

There are many nations of the world very familiar and competent at dealing with both international and domestic terrorism within their borders, there are institutions and world bodies tasked with the collection and dissemination of information regarding terrorist entities, the players, their ideologies and their methods. There are enforcement agencies cooperating around the world with the infiltration and fighting of terrorist organizations, some with great success. There are proven - in the battlefield - models and strategies in existence that will help with the fight against terrorism. But, this administration chose to ignore that route, that skill-set of collective knowledge, strategies and techniques and chose instead to invade Iraq, an albeit prominent part of a self-styled 'Axis of Evil' and constant thorn in the foot of dear leader and his neocon cabal, but, for the most part, a contained and strategical non-entity, except that is for oil and as a showcase for crackpot theories and political sloganeering - winning elections and creating a permanent republican majority, that is - certainly not for anything honorable. So, not only do we rebuff the world - 'CoW' notwithstanding - and all the opportunities inherent with partnerships forged in collective and shared responsibility, we ignite a powder keg and strap it to our service men and womens back and talk of 'diminishing expectations'. It is self immolation on a grand and unforgiveable scale. It would be inconceiveable if it wasn't actually happening before our very eyes.

Executive Decisions

Digby finds a nut. Executive pay, meanwhile, continues to rise unabated.

Name That Paper...

You just know there will be a competition to name this marriage of the macabre!

Faux Street Journal
Wall Street Noise
etc.

I know the reporting can be excellent in the WSJ - that will surely come to an abrupt end - but the editorial page is abominable! A pox on both their houses...

Rock On

Dirty F@*%ing Hippy Edition....

Syriaously

Will Condi be reprimanded by Darth Cheney for her "Bad Behavior" - not likely.

Could this be a result of the Pelosi trip described by CNN as 'Talking With Terrorists'

''There has been some movement by the Syrians ... there has been a reduction in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq'' for more than a month, Caldwell said.

Bad behavior indeed!

Old Con

There has been endless debate about the Neocon-Theocratic alliance and it's rise and fall, mostly the discussion centers around who is using who or whether the power bloc in this administration is truely christian in it's belief system or whether there is a belief system at all. Does the Shrub pray or prey, it is probably irrelevant. I think as we move into the end game here things will become more evident, not about the relationship between these two competing philosophies - and they are competing - but about each competing element and how they came to such prominence. Neither side will ever admit that they were used by the other so the infrastructure will never be exposed as perhaps most 'progressive' Americans would like, the secret meetings, in smoke and incense filled rooms, and the agenda discussed therein will remain just that - secret. That a deal was done and 'wish-lists' exchanged there is no doubt, I think SCOTUS and unhinged, unquestioning loyalty to dear leader were the lynchpins to whatever other agreements were thrashed out between the two and if the christian right lost out on many of their cherished theological misinterpretations - quickly abandoned by the neocons - they at least have SCOTUS as a lasting legacy to hang their mitres on and it was a huge victory that I remain furious and discouraged with. The neocon agenda, meanwhile, reached a precipitous foreign policy zenith with the conquering of a third rate power - Iraq, fed in part by a wave of unquestioning patriotic myopia on behalf of the American electorate and a coordinated coup d'etat of a spineless fourth estate initiated and sustained by the bretheren.

As most on the left watch and comment, more astutely than I ever can on, the "slow-motion car crash" that is this administration, the neocon/theocratic blastwall continues to provide political and amoral cover for this administrations incompetence and deceit, even as both entities suffer from perceived hypocracy and irrelevance. Am I sure about this decline? What's on the agenda for the next 19 months, what policies is this administration formulating, in what direction do they want to steer the ship of state? Anyone on the right talking about the next great policy initiative? - I didn't think so! They are still defending NCLB, Tax Cuts for the Rich, the Clean Air Act, Medicaid Reform, in fact every piece of legislation this administration brought forth and had rubberstamped by those idiotic congresses is under siege or under review, under funded or underground in the case of Social Security Reform. And, Iraq and foreign policy in general, the President can stamp his feet and mouth absurdities until the cows come home, the days of preemptive war and never-ending conflicts with zero accountability are over and rightly so.

Both christo-fascism and neocon ideologies have one fatal flaw - inflexibility. They demand that all the laws of society, religion even science conform to their rigid world view regardless of the improbability of that ever really happening and like an unbending piece of metal plunged into liquid hydrogen once exposed and tapped a few times on a solid surface the whole thing shatters. This society and many others like us have thrived on the ability of its people and government to absorb, adapt to and embrace potentially disastrous events, they become moments that define us, change us and mold us but, this requires elasticity of thought not rigid conformity. Catastrophe and contentment should be shared by all of us, no body owns the exclusive rights to either.

We Pay These People?

TPM's coverage of the USA Scandal has been nothing short of exemplary. Can a blog win a Pulitzer...? Maybe they need a new category. The slime installed at Justice and surely Schlozman is the slimiest, are having their cruel handiwork exposed, layer by ugly layer.

What Glenn Sez!

Has America ever functioned as a true DEMOCRACY, or has the most extreme right wing christo-fascist aristocracy always held sway over our national debates and policy making? It's a valid question. I see no evidence, historically, that America was anything other than a fledgling Anglocentric feudal state, replete with a top-down class system, teetering on the brink of outright theocracy - discuss!

Rock On

Just to keep your spirits up, dear reader.

Why anyone imagines that Iggy and the Ramones invented punk is beyond me!

Mission Accomplished

I hate even having this noodles mugshot on my blog but it is Mission Accomplished Day and I think everyone should be reminded of such. Now in our fourth year of the occupation it is staggering to comprehend the death, destruction and chaos this administration has wrought. We have over 3,300 of our servicemen and women dead, 27,000 injured, over 9,000 seriously. New projections on spending have the war costs coming in at around $500 Billion. We have stopped counting the Iraqi dead. There was a 25% increase in terrorist incidents worldwide (the majority of attacks accounting for the increase occured in Iraq - seriously) in 2006 and we have had 104 troops killed in April. If we project that count as an average of, oh say, 90 a month until we receive a non-conclusive, progress unrelated, non-binding, milestone or benchmark free report in September that will be another 450 dead american soldiers with 2,812 injured, 927 seriously.

To counter this auspicious day - suspicious accounts surface of the death of Al Qaida's #1 guy in Iraq - of course our government is being cautious, some would say skeptical, about reports coming out of Iraq on al Masri's demise but it happened to be the #1 story this morning. Now if they had only been as cautious and skeptical of the intelligence coming out of Iraq 4 years ago perhaps we would not be in this mess. Wait a minute, the intelligence coming out of Iraq 4 years ago was coming mainly from UNSCOM - they couldn't find any WMD or evidence of a 'nucular' program - talk about an inconvenient truth. Bush ordered them out in advance of 'Schlock and Bore'.

They really are tawdry little men, I'm still in shock that 62MM people voted for these buffoons... blood's on their hands too.

Update: Whatever the hell Bush is on... I want some!