An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.Does it really need to be made more obvious that we should have consolidated things in Afghanistan instead of going charging off after Bush's bête noir?
The White House for the first time has claimed possession of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.
So I wonder if the people who were railing against Murtha last week are going to be saying the same things about the "remarkably similar" White House now?
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27. Beatings-of a kind that leave no marks. They use rubber truncheons, and they use wooden mallets and small sandbags. It is very, very painful when they hit a bone-for example, an interrogator's jackboot on the shin, where the bone lies just beneath the skin. They beat Brigade Commander Karpunich-Braven for twenty-one days in a row. And today he says: "Even after thirty years all my bones ache and my head too."
In recollecting his own experience and the stories of others, he counts up to fifty-two methods of torture. Here is one: They grip the hand in a special vise so that the prisoner's palm lies flat on the desk-and then they hit the joints with the thin edge of a ruler. And one screams! Should we single out particularly the technique by which teeth are knocked out? They knocked out eight of Karpunich's.
As everyone knows, a blow of the fist in the solar plexus, catching the victim in the middle of a breath, leaves no mark whatever. The Lefortovo Colonel Sidorov, in the postwar period, used to take a "penalty kick" with his overshoes at the dangling genitals of male prisoners. Soccer players who at one time or another have been hit in the groin by a ball know what that kind of blow is like. There is no pain comparable to it, and ordinarily the recipient loses consciousness.
19. Then there is the method of simply compelling a prisoner to stand there. This can be arranged so that the accused stands only while being interrogated-because that, too, exhausts and breaks a person down. It can be set up in another way-so that the prisoner sits down during interrogation but is forced to stand up between interrogations. (A watch is set over him, and the guards see to it that he doesn't lean against the wall, and if he goes to sleep and falls over he is given a kick and straightened up.) Sometimes even one day of standing is enough to deprive a person of all his strength and to force him to testify to anything at all.
For example, the Lefortovo punishment cells were entirely unheated. There were radiators in the corridor only, and in this "heated" corridor the guards on duty walked in felt boots and padded jackets. The prisoner was forced to undress down to his underwear, and sometimes to his undershorts, and he was forced to spend from three to five days in the punishment cell without moving (since it was so confining). He received hot gruel on the third day only. For the first few minutes you were convinced you'd not be able to last an hour. But, by some miracle, a human being would indeed sit out his five days, perhaps acquiring in the course of it an illness that would last him the rest of his life.
When you stare long into the Abyss the Abyss also stares into you.
- Nietzsche
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He doesn't address my pet theory that when the Pacific islanders sailed from Micronesia to the Hawaiian islands by raft, they encountered a storm in which most of their consonants were blown overboard. They were later found washed up on the shores of Wales by the thrifty natives, who put them to immediate use.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in court filings that the ongoing CIA leak investigation will involve proceedings before a new grand jury, a possible sign he could seek new charges in the case.drip...drip...drip...In filings obtained by Reuters on Friday, Fitzgerald said "the investigation is continuing" and that "the investigation will involve proceedings before a different grand jury than the grand jury which returned the indictment" against Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Seemingly stung by polls showing that 57 percent of Americans now believe that he “deliberately misled” the nation into war with Iraq, President Bush did what a successful con man always does in a tight spot : He doubled his bet, resorting to falsehoods so brazen as to invite citizens almost to doubt the evidence of their senses. Who are you going to believe, your president or your lying eyes ? On Veterans Day, Bush chose another of the handpicked audiences he likes best—soldiers at a Pennsylvania Army depot—to accuse Democratic critics of a “deeply irresponsible” effort “to rewrite the history of how [the Iraq ] war began.” He alleged that Congress saw the same intelligence regarding Iraq’s mythical weapons of mass destruction that the White House saw ; consequently, “when I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support.” The president also claimed that a “bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community’s judgments.” None of these things is true. (emphasis mine)
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Well, I guess that settles that.After the end of World War II, the US led the way in developing a (dare I say it?) new workd order, a more civilized and lawful world than the one which had allowed the atrocities of the Nazis and Japanes (yes, and our own as well). This was, as everything, not purely altruistic. We used it to make the Soviet Union look bad at every opportunity (and it wasn't difficult, nor undeserved). I guess the neocons figure that since the Soviet Union is gone, those old ways are....quaint."We do not torture," President Bush said on Monday. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture.
"We do not torture," said the president. And that's that, right? I mean, if you can't believe the Bush administration, who can you believe? No torture. Period, end of sentence.
But . . . What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made?
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Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
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He reveals that Karl Rove, the political adviser to the president, told him there would have been no problem for Mr Bush in waiting until the end of 2003 or even early 2004 and this would not have risked entanglement in the US presidential campaign.
Does that make you feel safer? I wouldn't like it if an Administration I trusted had that kind of power. I sure as hell don't trust the current clowns with it.
So why does Karl Rove still have his security clearance?
Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.This whole thing reminds me of the old joke with the punchline, "We have established what you are, madam. Now we're just haggling over price." I can't believe that these people don't understand that the point of foreswearing torture is that we will not become torturers. Morally, it's really not about the prisoners. It's about us, and what we are willing to become.Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.
Reality: Homeland security and defense only accounts for 1/3 of increased spending during the Bush administration, and Republicans have been in control of Congress since 1995.
Reality 1, DeLay 0.
And just for icing on the cake,
"I'm not here to defend the highway bill," DeLay said. Then he defended it, saying that without the bill, his Houston district wouldn't get its fair share of highway money.
A Dutch designer has created a wall of fake breasts to help male shoppers buy bras that fit their wives or girlfriends.
...
"Most men have a selective memory," she explained. "They know all about their car, but never seem to know their wife's bra size."When trying to buy a sexy bra for their wife or girlfriend, usually they point to other women in the shop or, when asked about size, they say a 'handful'."
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That's the Cover of Dazzle Ships, by 80s synth-pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or as they later became known, OMD. I own a copy. I like it. I never knew where the name came from, though, until I ran across this.
Apparently "dazzle ships" came from the experiment of painting garish cubist designs on military ships in WWI to try to make it more difficult for submariners to estimate their speed and heading, and reduce the risk of torpedo attacks.
That's the French cruiser Gloire in full dazzle kit. Follow the "read more" link for a few more photos and explanation.
It's a better derivation than Spandau Ballet, to be sure.
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Q Some Democrats say that the President should apologize for the role of some administration officials in the unmasking of the name of a CIA undercover operative. What's the White House reaction to that?He tries the usual "investigation in progress" blahblahblah, but the press (bless their little ink-stained hearts) isn't buying it:
Q Let me just follow up on an aspect of this and try it again here. On October 7, 2003, you were asked about a couple of the key players here, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, as well as another administration official who has not figured in the investigation, so far as we know. And you said the following, "There are unsubstantiated accusations that are made, and that's exactly what happened in the case of these three individuals," including Rove and Libby. "They're good individuals, they're important members of our White House team, and that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved." You were wrong then, weren't you?After that, Scottie manages to get into full filibuster mode.MR. McCLELLAN: David, it's not a question of whether or not I'd like to talk more about this. I think I've indicated to you all that I'd be glad to talk about this once this process is complete, and I look forward to that opportunity. But, again, we have been directed by the White House Counsel's Office not to discuss this matter or respond to questions about it.
Q That was a public representation that was made to the American people.
MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on. We can have this conversation, but let me respond.
Q No, no, no, because it's such an artful dodge. Whether there's a question of legality --
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I disagree with you.
Q Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't think that's accurate.
Q So aside from the question of legality here, you were wrong, weren't you?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, David, if I were to get into commenting from this podium while this legal proceeding continues, I might be prejudicing the opportunity for there to be a fair and impartial trial. And I'm just not going to do that. I know very --
Q You speak for the President. Your credibility and his credibility is not on criminal trial. But it may very well be on trial with the American public, don't you agree?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm very confident in the relationship that we have in this room, and the trust that has been established between us. This relationship --
Q See those cameras? It's not about us. It's about what the American people --
MR. McCLELLAN: This relationship is built on trust, and you know very well that I have worked hard to earn the trust of the people in this room, and I think I've earned it --
Q Is the President -- let me just follow up on one more thing.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and I think I've earned it with the American people.
Q Does the President think that Karl Rove did anything wrong?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think it would be good for you to allow me the opportunity to respond to your questions without jumping in. I'm glad to do that. I look forward to the opportunity --
Q I haven't heard a response.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, no, I have been responding to you, David, and there's no need -- you're a good reporter, there's no need to be rude or disrespectful. We can have a conversation and respond to these questions, if you'll just give me the opportunity to respond. I'm glad to do that.
We need to let this legal process continue. The special counsel indicated the other day that it is ongoing. And that's what we're going to do from this White House. That's the policy that we have set for quite some time now.
Q In the year 2000, the President said the following: "In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal, but what is right; not just what the lawyers allow, but what the public deserves." Doesn't the American public deserve some answers from this President about the role of his Vice President in this story and what he knew and when he knew it, and how he feels about the conduct of his administration?
That said, I don't expect the Chisox to repeat, at least not so easily. They had an outstanding record in 1-run games this year, and that's almost always luck; over the long run, teams are about .500 in 1-run games, so I expect some regression to the mean for them next year.
But for now, enjoy it, White Sox fans. I know how you feel. Hmmm...last year the Red Sox won for the first time since 1918, this year the White Sox won for the first time since 1917, who won in 1916....? Why, the Red Sox! They beat the Brooklyn Robins, no less. So let me be the first to name them the early favorite for 2006. And Cubs fans...don't worry, your turn is coming in 2014!
Yep, that's ol' Anakin his own bad self, carved out of several hundred pounds of butter at the Tulsa State Fair. Yoda also there is, hmmm.
Imagine a well-dressed Marine coming up the walk to knock on the door of a house, the bearer of bad news. Imagine that happening once per second. It would take over a half an hour.
Imagine giving each dead soldier a minute of silence. After you'd spent an entire day, you'd have over 9 hours left to go.
Imagine spending a day remembering the sacrifice of each dead soldier. You'd be finished on July 21. 2008.
The government's roll-out of its $40-billion-a-year Medicare prescription drug plan has hit another snag.People trained to help seniors figure out which plan to choose under the new program said they don't have the pricing information they need and seniors are scratching their heads in confusion.
Earlier this week, Dr. Mark McClellan, head of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, launched a prescription drug plan finder designed to help those on Medicare plug in specific financial information and prescription needs so they can determine which plans are best for them. The tool is available on www.medicare.gov and is also used by those trained to counsel seniors.
But a crucial piece of data -- pricing information on the drugs -- is still not available...
"Historically, Southerners do have a states' rights mentality," he said. "Christians in the North are experiencing the most liberalism, or you could say persecution."The organization claims about 1,000 members, but only managed to draw 50 to their first conference last week.
And really, what parent hasn't wanted to do unspeakable things to that Sam I Am after the thousandth or so reading?
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Heh. My former employer is one of those tied for #42. Now, I generally liked working there, but never, ever thought it was the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
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As we continue homeschooling, I expect you will end up reading a fairly large portion of the ones you've missed. You're a computer geek, not an English major.
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THEY'RE saying the President, spending inordinate time working on handling his multiple problems of Iraq, Supreme Court, Karl Rove, gas prices, sliding polls, economy, has begun rehearsing answers to questions that might come up at a press conference. More importantly, he's even watching reruns of "West Wing."OK, so it's from a gossip column. Still, it's sad that it seems fairly plausible.
One has to ask what sort of God would take Doohan and leave Bill Shatner to win an Emmy, though.
"I believe they will rig the results and announce the success of the referendum, but our monitors reported to us that more than 80 percent of the voters in three governorates have said no to this draft," Saleh Mutlaq, a spokesman for the Sunnis' National Dialogue Council, told reporters at a news conference; Iraq's provinces are formally called governorates. "This constitution is a menace to the unity and stability of Iraq, and we shall have no legal or legitimate means in order to defeat it."It is acknowledged that the Constitution will fail overwhelmingly in two provinces: Salahuddin, with an 81 percent "no" vote, and solidly Sunni Anbar, where an even larger no total was expected. It is expected to fail also in Diyala and Nineveh provinces, though by less than 2/3. Failing by 2/3 majorities in any three provinces would cause the entire vote to fail.
But supposing the Constitution passes (which I expect it will, even if Fat Tony Scalia has to cast the deciding vote), what then? Will US troops start coming home? Will insurgent attacks begin to drop off? Will the Iraqi government begin to have sovereignty in fact, not just in name? Will the price of gas start dropping?
I'm dubious on all counts. Whether that's cynical or just realistic remains to be seen.
Well, hell, yes, we should save the rich people first. You know, they're the ones that are responsible for this prosperity. I mean, you go out there and you look at this vast sea of evacuees, OK? You want to get an economy going in some city? Well, who you gonna take back? The people who own businesses? Or the people that sit around waiting to get their minimum wage job, work 'til Friday, get a paycheck and then not show up again until the following Wednesday? Come on. Just put a little logical thought into this, folks.Logical? Ummmm....je quoi que....no.
HOWARD FINEMAN, NBC CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That‘s the point of the lance of this whole thing.Right now, my sense, in reporting this, Chris, is that the Bush family, political family, is at war with itself inside the White House. My sense is, it‘s—it‘s—it‘s—it‘s Andy Card, the chief of staff, and his people against Karl Rove, the brain.
MATTHEWS: Right.
FINEMAN: And that runs through a whole lot of things, whether it‘s Harriet Miers or Katrina. But it all starts with Iraq.
And some submerged, but now emerging divisions within the administration over why we went into that war, how we went into that war and what was done to sell it. There are people are out for Karl Rove inside that White House, which makes his situation even more perilous.
My understanding, from talking to somebody quite close to this investigation, is that they think there are going to be indictments and possibly Karl Rove could be among them, if not for the act of the leaking information about Valerie Plame, then perhaps for perjury, because he‘s now testified four times.
And there are conflicts between what Matt Cooper told the grand jury and what Rove evidently told the jury himself. And Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, is an absolute stickler for detail who has no political axe to grind here, other than keeping his own credibility. Having put Judy Miller in jail, having gone to the lengths he had, my understand is, he has got some people here, not only Rove, but perhaps Scooter Libby, the vice president‘s chief of staff.
MATTHEWS: I also get the sense he reads the law book. He doesn‘t care about the politics.
(CROSSTALK)
FINEMAN: That‘s what I meant. That‘s what I meant. He doesn‘t care about the politics.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, you just raised a curtain-raiser for me. I didn‘t even know this.
You believe that the fight between those who may be headed toward indictment, the vice president‘s chief of staff, Karl Rove, there is a war between them and the people who are going to survive them, Andy Card, etcetera.
FINEMAN: Yes.
“In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative’s name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame.”I hope Scooter looks good in orange.
Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.
...a powerful Bronze Age princess, living in the Greek city-state of Sparta around 1250BC. Basing her argument on extensive archaeological research, as well as surviving friezes from the period, Hughes conjures a picture of Helen as a dominant woman who would have worn a handful of snake-like strands of hair over an otherwise shaven, and perhaps brightly dyed, head. Her breasts would almost certainly have been exposed to reinforce her power and sexuality, and she would have been a fit, trained fighter.
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Half seriously, I don't understand why they don't just make a goal count 3 points or something. That would give the impression of "higher scoring games", and I bet a whole lot of people would buy it. After all, there's the same amount of scoring in a 4-3 hockey game as in a 28-21 football game, but I bet most people wouldn't guess that if you asked them about it.
President George W. Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, a new BBC series reveals.Man. I used to think the religious right was Bush's base. Apparently he thinks it's the Big Guy himself.
...
Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."
Riviera Beach is a town that's on the north side of West Palm Beach, FL, population 29,884. The median household income there is $32,111 (2000). 68% of the population is black. And they want to use eminent domain to move 20% of their population and build a billion-dollar yacht club/waterfront housing complex. To "bring jobs" to the city. Well, you know, I guess they'll need lots of waiters and janitors at the yacht club.
Other humans that lived after Adam and Eve but before the Flood were different as well. They grew larger just like the animals. The Bible says there were giants in the Earth (Gen 6: 4). Dr. Baugh has found fossilized human footprints that are 16” long near the museum. Other fossilized human footprints that are even larger have been found all over the world.You didn't know that, did you? Admit it, now. And why were things so different?
First of all, before the Flood, the Earth had more atmospheric pressure.And it's so cool! Before the Flood, no one needed sunscreen!
But before the Flood, there was a canopy of water that stretched around the entire Earth like a huge bubble. The sun rays had to go through that canopy and the other layers of our sky before it could reach Earth. The canopy was colored magenta or pink and it blocked the bad rays of the sun but only let in the sun rays that would be helpful for our body. Humans, therefore, did not have to worry about getting sunburn.Wow! How cool is that?
You know, it really frightens me to think that there are people who take this stuff seriously. Go check it out. Some of his stuff about dinosaurs is just roll-in-the-floor funny.
Well, the bill came to a vote in the Senate. And passed. 90-9. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) didn't vote. He's busy campaigning for Governor of NJ. Nine Senators - nine Republican Senators - voted against the bill. Who are these slime, the nuttiest of the wingnuts, the ignoble nine who think we shouldn't behave better than people we consider barbarians?
Take a bow, gentlemen. You have given your votes in service to making America a disgrace in the eyes of the world.
This vortex would be produced inside a large cylindrical wall, 200 metres in diameter and 100 metres tall. Warm air at ground level enters via tangential inlets around the base of the wall. Steam is also injected to get the vortex started. Once established, the heat content of the air at ground level is enough to keep the vortex going. As the air rises, it expands and cools, and water vapour condenses, releasing even more heat. This is, in fact, what powers a hurricane, which can be thought of as a heat engine that takes in warm, humid air at its base, releases cold, watery air at the top of the troposphere, about 12 kilometres up, and liberates a vast amount of energy in the process. (Just as water requires heat to make it boil, it releases heat as it condenses back into a liquid.)It sounds pretty cool, and he estimates that a 200m diameter vortex could produce 200 MW (yeah, that's megawatts) of power. I have to wonder, though....what's the failure mode? And what's it going to do to weather patterns in the surrounding area?
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The trial presents a particular challenge for the journalists from science magazines. In the courtroom hallway during a break last week, Celeste Biever, a reporter for NewScientist, was interviewing a courtroom regular, a bearded local pastor who says he considers evolution a lie.No wonder they think evolution is nonsense: they have an image of evolution that would have to be significantly improved to be a caricature."You want half-bird, half-fish?" she asked, drawing a dotted line on her notepad.
"Yeah, why not," the pastor said.
Later, out of the pastor's hearing, Ms. Biever said with fascination, "He thinks evolution is a bird turning into a fish turning into a rabbit" - one straight line of common descent, instead of a tree with common roots.
"They're babblers," said the pastor, the Rev. Jim Grove, who leads a 40-member independent Baptist church outside of Dover. "The more Ph.D.'s you get, it seems like the further away from God you get."The Dover school board is being supported in their endeavor by Thomas More Law Center, a nonprofit law firm dedicated to providing legal representation to Christians, and its chief counsel, Richard Thompson. Here's what he had to say:
"I do feel that even though Christians are 86 percent of the population, they have become second-class citizens."I can't even begin to think of how one would hold a rational discussion with someone who is so utterly detached from reality. These people are scary.
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Oh I remember! Because it will remove your epidermis when peeled off of muscle and bone.
Yikes.
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The generals' comments reflect an evolving outlook that senior military officials and even Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have articulated in recent months. The battle against Iraqi insurgents will not be won by the U.S. military [emphasis mine], they have said, and the insurgency will persist long after U.S. troops have left.It even seems to have gotten through to Captain Oblivious, who seems to have discovered the advantages of nuance:"If [the insurgency] does go on for four, eight, 10, 12, 15 years, whatever … it is going to be a problem for the people of Iraq," Rumsfeld said in June.
"They're going to have to cope with that insurgency over time. They are ultimately going to be the ones who win over that insurgency."
The generals' words also represent a less ambitious definition of military success than what President Bush has put forth in recent statements.A dose of reality: we're not succeeding at training Iraqi troops (recently the number of Iraqi battalions considered "ready to operate independently" was revised from 3 to 1. That's "one battalion", as in "somewhere between 300 and 1000 troops". In over two years we've been occupying the country. We're not going to defeat the insurgency on our own. We're not going to successfully install a puppet government. And we're not going to stop terrorists from operating in Iraq. Not without a much bigger commitment of troops and a plan for a long-term occupation government, at least.At his ranch near Crawford, Texas, in August, Bush said that "when the mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will come home."
More recently, Bush has offered a more nuanced view of success, emphasizing the importance of training Iraqi troops as part of the U.S. mission to defeat the insurgents.
So let's bring the troops home. Haven't enough Americans been killed there in the service of lies, bad judgement, and worse planning?
Numbers for the Army National Guard were worse.
Perhaps concerned Americans should start putting recruiting flyers under the wipers of all those SUVs with "support the troops" magnets.
No base runners, but one run? A strikeout, but no outs? Here's what happened: he came into the game with two out and pitched to one batter. He struck out the batter, but the catcher dropped the third strike and the batter reached first. Eyre was then removed, and a subsequent pitcher gave up a double which drove in the runner from first. Since there had been two out when the third strike was dropped, the run was unearned.
Actually, it's an art installation. Pretty cool, though.
(This one certainly didn't look anything like I expected....)
As our Sister Toldjah noted earlier, the "indictment" of Tom Delay is entirely bogus - from what I've read, Tom Delay didn't know about the perfectly legal transaction he is accused of conspiring to make. We have now left entirely the field of normal political conflict and entered a twilight world where fantasy is presented as fact and the only standard of conduct is "will it work?". This is not the actions of a political Party engaged in seeking a majority - it is the action of a Party determined to destroy its opponents entirely and sieze all power for itself...it is, in short, the stuff from which civil wars are made.This, from the people who have brought us Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. The people who threw the 2000 election into the courts. The people who proudly claim that they "make their own reality".
Two words for you, guys: Ken Starr. OK, two more: Swift Vets. And since it's Friday, two more: Vince Foster.
Oh, the title is Hosea 8:7.
The Army Criminal Investigation Command in Iraq conducted the preliminary inquiry within the past week but closed it after concluding no felony crime had been committed and failing to determine whether U.S. soldiers were responsible for the photos and whether they showed actual war dead, Army officials said.Pardon the language, but what the fuck kind of seriously bad drugs are these people on? Look at the photos Aravosis has up. You mean they can't identify the soldiers in those photos? And if those aren't "war dead", exactly what are they?
I weep for my country.
"The only thing we see about these people on the news is what happened in the Superdome," said Philip Devall, 42, a white resident of Greensburg, at a recent meeting of the parish government. "They're rapists and thugs and murderers. I'm telling you, half of them have criminal records. I've worked all my life to have what I have. I can't lose it, and I can't stand guard 24 hours a day."Amazing. 2,000 evacuess have been living in the parish, but all this guy knows is "what happened in the Superdome". Of course, it didn't actually happen, but when your fear circuits are engaged, reality often comes in a poor second.About 2,000 evacuees have been staying with friends and family in the parish since Hurricane Katrina, and police officials here say that crime related to the newcomers has been virtually nonexistent. But many residents say that fear is the driving force behind their opposition.
"I want to know how many sex offenders they're going to move in next to me," said Marci Kent, 36, also a white resident of Greensburg, at the meeting. "And I got daughters, too."
"I don't know if these allegations are true," McCain said. "But they have to be investigated. We've got to make it clear to the world that America doesn't do it. It's not about prisoners. It's about us."He's right. It is about us. As terrible as the happenings at My Lai were, it spoke volumes about America that we were revulsed by the conduct of a few of our countrymen and we did something to deal with the problem. Now, it seems that outrage is in short supply, and "addressing the problem" means "making excuses and locating a few patsies to take the fall."
What have we become, my friends?
OK, it could have.
The picture of Tillman that emerges from this story is much more complex than the government and media have given us so far:
On the other hand, the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has identified 65,000 housing units which could be used immediately, and rental rates are at historic lows (adjusted for inflation). So the Senate acted (and good for them!)-- unanimously! -- to provide $3.5B in HUD housing vouchers to Katrina victims. A similar House proposal is pending, sponsored by the Democrats. House Republicans are waiting for marching orders from the White House. The Bush administration is showing their characteristic urgency on policy matters: the GOP official said they're expecting a response in mid-October.
You would expect to find such a psychologist:
Friends, the brain cell trend out there is not, I say not, encouraging.
Their statements included vivid allegations of violence against detainees held at Forward Operating Base Mercury, outside Fallujah, shortly before the notorious abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison began. The soldiers described incidents similar to those reported in other parts of Iraq -- such as putting detainees in stress positions, exercising them to the point of total exhaustion, and sleep deprivation.Why does the 82nd Airbore hate America?They also detailed regular attacks that left detainees with broken bones -- including once when a detainee was hit with a metal bat -- and said that detainees were sometimes piled into pyramids, a tactic seen in photographs taken later at Abu Ghraib.
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You forgot to mention that the 82nd Airborne is now helping out in Louisiana.
At first glance, Eric Paone does not seem your typical conservative true believer. The 35-year-old guitarist of the New Hampshire thrash metal band Candy Striper Death Orgy (yeah, no typo) has a flowing mane of hair, swears like he’s in a Make-the-Sailor-Blush contest and cackles as he relates dirty jokes. His band’s odd name was inspired by an…um, adult feature Paone and his friends checked out once in college, which is appropriate enough, actually, since the thrasher’s day job consists of running a string of adult bookstores christened "The Moonlight Readers."Gee, wonder if Paone has heard about AG Gonzalez' plan to crack down on porn?
When he’s behind that counter selling “marital aids” and creatively titled magazines, however, Paone’s always wearing either a George W. Bush hat or button along with his Nuclear Assault T-shirt and Napalm Death shorts. Contradiction? Hypocrisy? Paone doesn’t see it that way.You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
“The commies have closed more porno stores from us than the Bible thumpers ever did,” he said authoritatively. “There are people on both sides that want to take away everyone’s fun, whether it’s for the kids or the environment or whatever. They’d have no porn stores and we’d all be riding horse-drawn buggies to work if it were up to them. Still, nobody believes me, but the Republican party really is the party of tolerance these days.Yes, well, there is a limit to the number of impossible things you can get people to believe.
“I’d never start in on guys in my store wearing Kerry shirts or Howard Dean pins they way they start in on me for my Bush gear; for thinking different than them, basically,” Paone added. “I’d never stoop that low. Never. But liberals do it all the time.”Can it be...I think it is...yes! YES! He's played the "poor persecuted conservative" card!
As one might imagine, supporting Bush in the last election cycle wasn’t exactly a cause celeb in the underground music scene and Paone took more than a little guff for his politics at shows and on online metal gossip forums. He’s been mocked and blacklisted, but never defeated, only emboldened. In fact, the worse he’s treated the closer he assumes he is to the truth, he said.They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Einstein. Of course, they also laughed at Bozo. And Jeebus, guys, I know it's French and all, but it's not that difficult to get cause cèlébre correct. You'd think that they didn't have copy editors, or maybe it's just that their official language is English so nobody's allowed to actually know a foreign language. Oh, and once you spell it correctly, you might even look up what it means. A cause cèlébre is a cause or issue that rouses public opinion. In other words, he's just been saying that it was a cause cèlébre before claiming that it wasn't. With bad spelling. But hey, it's not like he's getting paid to write like this or anything. What? He what? Damn.
Paone’s experience speaks to a larger truth: There always has been a delicious-yet-maddening irony in anarchists and punk rockers — for who the individual is supposed to be supreme — vociferously supporting candidates that want to expand government and narrow the ability of individuals to function as they choose.Candidates like....George W. Bush, perhaps? Sponsor of the Patriot act, expander of government, mangler of the English tongue?
“These bands and kids are dumping on government all the time, talking about all this conspiracy theory stuff and how we’re like this Nazi fascist state, and then when it comes time to vote they fall for this mindless talk and vote liberal,” Paone said. “They vote for more government. They fall into the trap. They hate the government but they’re basically asking for it to run their lives.”Well, bonus points for getting oeuvre, though I think that may be the first time I've heard it applied to a C-list heavy metal band. Hey, you know, now that they've raised the recruiting age limits, somebody should suggest to this guy that if he's so concerned about terrorism, maybe he should enlist instead of playing the same local venues for 15 years!In order to make as clean a break with that way of thinking as possible (and to further enrage the people who wanted him to shut up), Paone recently went back and rewrote the lyrics to several older songs from the band’s 15-year oeuvre to take away any sort of lefty slant possible, turning some older bits on nuclear warfare and environmental devastation into ruminations on terrorism and a call to arms to fight it.
“I don’t want people thinking I’m liberal because I’ve got long hair and play guitar,” Paone lamented. “So I got to be careful to be very clear. I don’t want to get lumped in with these Rock Against Bush idiots.”That is actually a very apt description: "like the uncle who just discovered the Drudge report". Just drill right into the skull, install the funnel, and dump in the propaganda.Paone talks about politics like the uncle who just discovered the Drudge Report, reeling off a litany of Clinton missteps and shortcomings from the 1990s and rejecting the Democrats’ desire to fight the War on Terror by “sitting around the U.N. building and feeling sorry for crazy terrorists.”
“People say to me now, ‘You’re starting to sound like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh,’ and I just have to tell them, ‘Fine by me. I like those guys,’” Paone laughed. “I want lower taxes. I am all for cleaning up that mess in the Middle East. Try telling that to anyone raised on this Hollywood garbage, though. It’s impossible. They want everything handed to them and they don’t care if some working stiff has to pay for it all.”Wow. He doesn't want "everything handed to him". Why, I bet he's off at his local recruiting office right now to help with "cleaning up that mess in the Middle East". Huh? What? No, I don't want to place a bet on that.
A self-described right-leaning independent, Paone said he never liked John Ashcroft and was open to voting for a Democrat in the last election — he looked seriously at Wes Clark — but ultimately stuck with Bush when the “insanely liberal” Kerry was nominated.All righty, then. As long as they nominate a Republican, he could vote for a Democrat. That makes perfect sense on his planet, I guess.“In the middle of a war they want me to vote for a guy who crapped all over his brothers when he came back from ‘Nam?” Paone asked incredulously. “I don’t think so. I never knew what he was talking about. His wife had more of an agenda than he did. I could vote for a Democrat in the future, but not any like of liberal like they put up this last time. And if it’s Hillary? Forget about it.”
It can be surreal to have a guy you once heard bellow “God bless nuclear warfare” at a dirty beach club explain his theories on skyrocketing gas prices.Wow. Just....wow. How oblivious can you be? Even if you didn't know that the reason we haven't built a refinery in years is because the oil companies didn't want to build any (and in fact, shut down a couple because they weren't making enough money), how stupid do you have to be to think that allowing drilling in ANWR would do anything about gas prices now? It's like they believe that there's some sort of sympathetic magic that would miraculously ratchet down gas prices the moment the bill allowing drilling was passed.“Look at the EPA,” he said. “We haven’t built a refinery in years. They know where the oil is in Alaska and how to drill for it without making a mess, but the tree huggers won’t let us go get it. GPS is good from something other than spying on ourselves, you know.”
According to mainstream-media mythology, Bush pulls the wool over voters’ eyes by playing the average guy, not by convincing them his policies are right. So, if that’s true, what does an adult-bookstore-owning thrash-metal guitarist have in common with our in-bed-by-10-P.M. president?A simple-minded approach to the world? Blind faith in the right wing mythology? Native stupidity? Wait, I bet he's going to tell us!
“I don’t want a president exactly like me,” Paone answered. “You know, I’m all for screwing or whatever, but I like that Bush has always been with Laura and is kind of boring. Clinton was a party animal who worked in as many ladies as he could, and look what that got us: A nuclear North Korea, Saddam spitting in our faces and Osama bin Laden having plenty of time to do whatever he wanted. Thanks, anyway. I’ll take boring any day.”Eeeeeerrrright. 1900 dead servicemen is boring? 9/11 is boring? The London subway bombings are boring? Abu Ghraib is boring? A significant recession and loss of jobs is boring? Please. Excite me some more.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of ice meant for the Gulf Coast arrived yesterday not in storm-ravaged New Orleans or Mississippi, but in Gloucester [MA], where almost two dozen tractor-trailers spent the day idling.Yes, it's as crazy as it sounds. But surely FEMA has an explanation? Yes! Here's Kathy Cable, FEMA spokesbeing:Hundreds of truckers from Minnesota, Alabama, Georgia and even Massachusetts have been crisscrossing the country since the beginning of September, moving loads of ice from storage facility to storage facility and earning big bucks from the federal government to do little more than sit in their cabs and not unload their precious cargo.
...
[Trucker Ron] Johnson said he picked up an oversized load of ice in Sandwich last Tuesday. From there, he drove to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he spent eight days waiting to unload. All the while, his truck's engine continued to run in order to keep the ice from melting.And after those eight days — he made around $900 per day, with some truckers earning in excess of $2 per mile — Johnson said he got the news his load was needed in Gloucester.
"Sometimes we have more ice and water that was ordered than is necessary," she said. "The drivers are then redirected to various mobilization centers across the country. If these centers are full, which sometimes happens, they are sent to another storage facility. Unfortunately, the truckers don't quite understand that. We know that they want to help."Oh, those poor dumb truckers.
You know, I bet most of those truckers could come up with a better logistical plan given 45 minutes and a white board.
Worst. Administration. Ever.
David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and the officials.Yep. The guy who's in charge of fairness in government contracting has been indicted on corruption charges. That story doesn't mention that he worked for Jack Abramoff before coming to GSA, or that he'd previously worked for Grover Norquist.
Worst. Administration. Ever.
The Bush administration, not content with sending your tax money to Iraq by the C-130 load, is going to be doing internet-based fundraising for the reconstruction effort. Yep, you read that right. They're asking you to give them more money to send to Halliburton. Well, they won't say that it's going to Halliburton. You'll just have to trust them. In fact, no donors will know where the money is going or who's getting it for (wait for it) "security reasons."
Let's leave aside for the moment that it would be utter politcal suicide to go after farm subsidies. Leave aside also that a lot of them go to states that supported Bush and have Republican Congresspeople. Things that would probably be considered "farm subsidies" are mostly in the Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency; total budget, $20.1B. There's also the "Agricultural Marketing Service" ($1.1B), so call the total there $21.2B. Just a touch over 10%.
You can add in a whopping $.4B for the Corporation for public broadcasting, $.8B for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (Dept. of Ed.), which probably covers DARE, and throw in the entire House ($.8B) and Senate ($1.2B) budgets and come to a grand total of...
$24.4 Billion
Yep, a whole 12% of the recovery cost.
But you know, as much fun as it is to point out that these people have no clue what they're talking about, there's a larger point. Bush has been in office for 5+ years now. The GOP has controlled the Congress for 2.5+ years. If there's $200 billion in "unnecessary spending" (as Bush put it) in the budget, just who put it there? It's a typical Bush maneuver: try to arrange it so you get credit for fixing something that you broke in the first place.
An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.
When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.
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This has been such a monumental screwup that "incompetent" no longer captures the essence. After some reflection and surfing the thesaurus, I think "malfeasant" nails it.
Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for "evidence of homosexuality" and for faculty members who dissent from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the process.It's sad to see that the Vatican is falling into the "pedophiles are homosexuals" error. And even sadder to hear that they thing that anyone with "strong homosexual inclinations" should be excluded from the already-sparse priesthood. How are they going to measure that, anyway? Do they have a "homosexual inclinometer" or something? It sounds pretty arbitrary to me, frankly.
...
In a possible indication of the ruling's contents, the American archbishop who is supervising the seminary review said last week that "anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity or has strong homosexual inclinations," should not be admitted to a seminary.
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American seminaries are under Vatican review as a result of the sexual abuse scandal that swept the priesthood in 2002. Church officials in the United States and Rome agreed that they wanted to take a closer look at how seminary candidates were screened for admission, and whether they were being prepared for lives of chastity and celibacy.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.Reality Check:Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans' choice to borrow money and add to this year's expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn't seem possible.
"My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.
Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."
Annual nonmilitary and non-homeland security spending increased $303 billion between fiscal year 2001 and 2005; the acknowledged federal debt increased more than $2 trillion since fiscal year 2000; and the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill is estimated to increase the government's unfunded obligations by $16 trillion.
Hughes picked up the theme. "We have to offer a positive vision of hope," she began. As if preparing troops for combat, she described her plans for improving world opinion of the United States: a "rapid-response unit," a plan to "forward-deploy regional SWAT teams" and create "a dual-headed DAS for public diplomacy."One of her underlings rose to ask how this effort squared with the administration's famously tight control over its message. "Recently, we've had tremendous amount of difficulty in some cases getting clearance for our ambassadors to speak," he said.
Hughes replied that ambassadors are free to talk -- if they use the talking points she sends them. "If they make statements based on something I sent them," she said, "they're not going to be called on the carpet."
It's so unfair! You're in trouble again, just because you called your uncle - or rather, your new stepfather, Claudius - a usurping git. It's true, though. Your real dad was SO much better than that guy. Too bad he was found mysteriously dead in the orchard a couple of weeks back. Anyway, your mother (who was, incidentally, looking quite something today in a sparse leather number, er...) sent you to your room, and here you are.So go play, already! Just don't forget to wash your hands afterward....
[LA Governor] Blanco has had several skirmishes with Bush and sent signals that she did not trust his administration. She brought in James Lee Witt, former president Bill Clinton's emergency management director, to advise her. She rejected Bush's proposal that the federal government take control of National Guard troops under her command. ("If that would have improved our situation, it would have been a no-brainer," she says).vs.She says that two days after Katrina, desperate for help, she couldn't get through to Bush and didn't get a callback; hours later, she tried again, and they talked.
[MS Governor Haley] Barbour hasn't had to wait hours to talk to Bush. In fact, Barbour said in an interview with USA TODAY, the president called him three to four times in the wake of Katrina. "I never called him. He always called me," he said.Amazing how much difference being of the same party as the President can make. At least when the President is as small and petty as the current one.
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I have to disagree. For three years, the "Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (the self-named GOP cabal who has been vetting SC nominees for the Bush Administration) has worked hard to find the perfect stealth candidate for the SC. Now they have their man, who won't answer a straight question regardless, and who has the steely eyed glint to make me suspect more than just mere right wing motives are at play here. He's going to dismantle the Great Society and the New Deal and we're going to be a corporate fascist state before this guy finishes his work in 2050. Slick isn't the same as compassionate, nor even sane.
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For once, I agree with Steve. Did you miss Robert Reich? He made very good points--most particularly that Judge Roberts' record and language show that he consistently values property rights over human rights.
According to its most recent filing with the Internal Revenue Service, Operation Blessing gave more than half of its yearly allocation of cash donations -- $885,000 -- to the Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, of which Robertson is also the chairman."There is no accountability when you have two boards working hand in hand like this," said Henderson. "One never knows when you're contributing to Operation Blessing whether the money is really going to the hurricane victims, or whether it's going to pay for some more television time for Pat Robertson's television show."
Some charity watchdog groups have given high marks to Operation Blessing. Bill Horan, the charity's president, at first denied his charity gave any money to Robertson's television operation.
"Well, that's an absolute, total and complete distortion of the truth," Horan said. "Operation Blessing does not give 1 red cent to CBN."
When he was told of the Operation Blessing documents obtained by ABC News, which show a contribution of $885,000 to CBN, Horan called it an accounting issue. [Oooh, isn't there something about "bearing false witness" in the 10 Commandments? - ed]
"I'm president of a charity that's been working 22 to 24 hours a day for the last week trying to save lives down there," he said, "and I'm not going to talk any more about the issues that involve accounting."
A spokesman for Operation Blessing later told ABC News that the charity utilizes Robertson's television network as a conduit for delivering donations overseas, and that none of the money has been used for network activities. [And if you believe that one, you probably still think we're going to find WMD in Iraq just any day now.... - ed]
As for FEMA, Director Michael Brown says that he does not know who decided to recommend Robertson's charity so prominently. [Well, there's a surprise. - ed]
The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.We already knew he didn't read the papers. Apparently he doesn't watch TV or listen to the radio, either. Worst. President. Ever.How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
I was particularly impressed by this bit:
Dean Nugent, of the Louisiana State Coroner's Department, who accompanied the soldier, added that it wasn't safe to be in Bywater. "They'll kill you out here," he said, referring to the few residents who have continued to defy mandatory evacuation orders and remain in their homes."I'm sure Mr. Nugent would vehemently deny - and probably believe - that he's neither racist or sexist. Sigh."The cockroaches come out at night," he said of the residents. "This is one of the worst places in the country. You should not be here. Especially you," he told a female reporter.
Nugent, who is white, acknowledged he wasn't personally familiar with the poor, black neighborhood, saying he only knew of it by reputation.
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Hello! Super work performed. Top PAGE, further so!
What this is supposed to do if the terrorists are living among us, or in caves in Tora Bora, is unclear. Nor does it explain how the deterrent would be useful if "no one could have foreseen" an attack, as was said about the 9/11 attacks.
Really, you know, can't we just neuter a bunch of these fools and see if lower testosterone levels would lead to more rational policy decisions?
Speaking of forgotten, what about this blog?