Spreading It Around

Oh Boy! Taking George Bush to the woodshed Thursday for his disconnect with reality, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann (Countdown) then delivered this scathing criticism of BushCo™'s cabal of top officials, again for their disconnect with reality.
Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, Oh My! Cherry-picking the best lines is a matter of putting your basket on the ground and letting the ripe, juicy fruit fall from the branches.

"Of course inherent in the Pentagon's warmaking functions is the regulation of Presidential war lust. Enacting that regulation should include everything up to symbolically wrestling the Chief Executive to the floor if necessary."

h/t - Pam, at Musings of a Working Mom
TAGS: Olbermann, Special Commentary, Video, Bush Cabal

Olbermann's Finest Hour - In Under Five Minutes

I've been DYING to get this video on Les Enragés.org all day. I downloaded it from C&L as soon as it was up there last night, saved it on my hard drive for posterity, and played it in loop/repeat mode of WMPlayer for about 10 repeats. This guy is DY-NO-MITE!

I've said it before, and he keeps forcing me to repeat it; every special commentary he does is demonstrably better than the last. How long until he passes sublime and turns into a science-fiction bodiless mass of sentient energy?

"The President does not just hear what he wants. He hears things that only he can hear. It defies belief that this President and his administration could continue to find new unexplored political gutters into which they can wallow. Yet they do."

C'mon Keith, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

h/t Pam at Musings of a Working Mom -keeps alerting me to YouTube availability
TAGS: Olbermann, Special Commentary, Video, Bush
LINKS: Crooks and Liars has the transcript.

PAGING KENNETH STARR

Where is a REAL *cough* special prosecutor
when you need one, I ask? You remember Ken Starr, who spent $50 MILLION investigating the affair between President Bill Clinton and then 22-year-old Monica, doncha?? Tell me you haven't forgotten him so soon.
And boy, oh boy, do we ever need a "real" special prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into the ever-widening Pedophiliagate, Pagegate, Foleygate, whatever "gate" you prefer to call it. SIDENOTE: Thank you, Richard Milhous Nixon, for giving a whole new meaning to the word gate. Just imagine a scandal, any scandal, and attach the word gate to it, and voila, it becomes a REAL scandal. But wait, the real scandal is NEVER the crime, oh no, that would be too simple, too easy. No, the real scandal is, yes it is, THE CONSPIRACY. You know, that wall of silence that goes up, up, up among those who KNOW. And who choose to say a big fat zero about it.
Let me see if I can get this straight.
For YEARS, several Congressmen have known about former Rep. Mark Foley's (R-Fla) predilection for young boys. Did they speak out? Hummmm, let me think here, I'm thinking, hmmmmmm....oh, that would be a resounding NO!!!
The players in this sordid saga make the brain turn upside down. I will now attempt to list the KNOWN ones.
Mark Foley - named after a catheter.
J. Dennis Hastert, (R-Ill.), Majority House Speaker. AKA, Fat Bastard. "Git in mah belly..."
John Boehner, (R-OH-08), Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. AKA, Boner.
Kird Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff. He quit. As in, resigned. Promptly.
For a clearer roadmap to this sideshow, please click on this link.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3530/foley4tx8.gif
Feel all better now? Isn't it so much clearer?
And my, oh my, has this Unmagnificent Seven-2 taken such responsibility for the coverup. NOT.
So now, under growing pressure and calls to resign as Majority House Speaker, Hastert decides he wants to appoint former FBI director Louis J. Freeh to, well, check out possible ways to make the page program more, ummm, more better. Yeah, that's the ticket. That, my friends, did not go over exactly well for Hastert. Among screaming opposition, Hastert retreated.
So now, a so-called "Ethics" panel is looking into this mess. One gate at a time.
In the meantime, the blame-game continues. The one I love the best is, of course, the old familiar refrain the repukes are so fond of and use so often.
"It was Clinton's fault."
Gag.

Hey, all you pervs involved in this nasty matter, listen to what these boys have to say to you, then get back to me on the matter, K? I'm right here among these tubes of this big Internet freeway. Let's do lunch. Bye-bye.

Make It Stop

The President Who Made Things Up and
The Congress That Couldn't Say No.

Make it stop.

(And consider this an open thread.)

Diddlegate, War, and Peace

Oh, and habeas corpus, too!

I really don't have anything approaching an opinion on diddlegate and related problems, but I would propose that a once great nation is in free fall, titillating itself with images of supple and stiff 16 year old boys, and the ugly and powerful men who annoy, pay, and abuse them.

The mock outrage is black humor of a particularly low sort. All of this moralistic huffing and puffing by the booboisie is as pathetic as the heavy breathing one can almost hear in the emails and nasty chats.

Nothing more can be expected of a Christian nation which hates itself and hates the passions which animate us one and all. The Bible says that God is not mocked, one of its most basic bits of misinformation. God is mocked, as the panty twisters rustle about with their noxious notions of innocence, sin, guilt, and compensation.

Unless I'm mistaken, we are talking about the sons of fairly prominent Republicans here, which would explain the decade or so which has meandered by with this pathetic letchery in high relief. The stupidity required is beyond belief, and I don't believe it. The dentist who delivered his son to M. Jackson's pajama parties along with his screenplays leaps to mind. He pimped his own son, and I'm sure many of these parents had plenty of ways of knowing the dimensions of the game being played. But the important players were rich, powerful and influential. Not above suspicion, but well connected. And so... the hookups.

My take: the enormous power and riches of national leaders gives them immunity; the immunity gives them delusions, and in that way the abuse escalates.

What we have in Washington DC is hyperinflated impunity, where outrage follows outrage, and the circus becomes increasingly grotesque. Every injustice known to history is in full flight within our government. No one is exempted. Imagine, or rather examine, the rigid and purposeful stupidity of the lady Democrat who sat on the Page Board, like all three of the insensate monkeys, who had charge of the pages, but apparently never spoke to a page, and who certainly never asked an appropriate question, however eccentric some of the behaviors all around her. Her imperturbability is of a diamond hardness.

These Republican men seem to have become gargoyles of perversity. This is only the latest of the child prositution and pedophilic scandals which characterise Republican governance. People are driven to that which is forbidden, and the bodies of boys and girls are among the last frontiers which the powerful are driven to defile, having betrayed their personal values, the duties of their positions, and the social and natural worlds which require their care. Disrespecting sexual expression is the norm of our world, pious platitudes aside. Homoerotic impulses are the springboard to power, money, and prominence, when these impulses are publicly denigrated and denied.

And so this theatre of the salacious and absurd: while time lines of deniablity and boundaries of irresponsiblity are minutely ground out in the press and then in the courts, the world rushes on without us. Bush is free to launch his third war, Israel is free to practice its genocide, Darfur is allowed to escalate, North Korea is ignored, and our sacred liberties are stomped on and eroded.

This is the result of the fear and loathing of those beautiful, slippery boys.

A guest posting from comments, thank you Blue Moonchild, more proof that Les Enragés.org's unruly commenters ROCK! -SBT-

KO on Thin Ice at MSNBC?

How About Gore/Olbermann '08?

Greeting, Mobsters. Before I get into the post (it's about Keith Olbermann) I wanted to invite all of you that are interested in guest blogging at IST to email me here and spread the unruliness.

When Keith Olbermann took Donald H. Rumsfeld over his knee and gave the Defense Secretary the verbal spanking of his life, my first thought was, "Keith, you better get an intern to start your car."

Since that broadcast, Olbermann has not let up a bit, in fact he has intensified his attacks on the administration--calling Bush to task for his cowardly, un-American approach to dissent and for politicizing 9/11 while ground zero remains, as Ray Nagin put it, a hole in the ground.

My concerns for Keith's bodily well being were affirmed when he received some white powder in the mail, that after an 11 hour ordeal, turned out to be soap.

Of course, Olbermann is unflinching. He returned to work immediately and resumed eviscerating Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Condi and even managed a few whacks for O'Reilly from time to time, even though Keith really has moved beyond small game like O'Reilly.

Concern for Olbermann's well being is only one danger for the host. It's the people Olbermann works for, defense contractor owned NBC, that has former MSNBC employer Jeff Cohen thinking Olbermann might be on thin ice.

He writes:

So why do I fear for Olbermann? Because I know his bosses. In the runup to the Iraq war, I too worked for MSNBC--as an on-air pundit and a senior producer on the primetime Donahue show.

As I detail in my new book Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media, the Suits at MSNBC/NBC muzzled us and ultimately terminated us. They feared independent journalism and serious dissent. They smeared Bush critics, with MSNBC's editor-in-chief actually going on air--without evidence--to accuse Iraq WMD skeptic Scott Ritter of being a paid agent of Saddam Hussein.

Olbermann has been gaining in audience ratings. That provides him some security. But perhaps not enough.

(more)

Frank Dwyer has a great idea for KO, should MSNBC can him--Gore/Olbermann 2008, anyone?

VIDEO: Olbermann gets the word out about Foley's membership in the REPUBLICAN party (Crooks and Liars).

Guest Post By Station Agent of Ice Station Tango. A collective roar of thanks from the unruly throng at Les Enragés.org! -SBT-

Update (sort of): Congratulations Station Agent! Blue Gal, filling in at Crooks and Liars this week as guest compiler of Mike's Blog Roundup, has had the perspicacity to recognize THIS POST by Agent. Way to go!! Well deserved!
Tags: Keith Olbermann, Media Bias.

Who's the Boss?

Republicans arrogantly believe they can manipulate anything to their benefit. Like their staff, their constituents, the children placed in their care.There are some things, however, that simply cannot be manipulated. So there.

Let's chat.

Democracy: NOT a Spectator Sport

"No Pasaran" - The Battle of Cable Street
Tomorrow, Oct. 5th is the day that World Can't Wait is calling for a public protest to 'drive out the Bush regime', something they have been trying to do since their inception, as far as I know. On their website's home page they ask a simple but powerful question, "Can a regime headed in a fascist direction be driven from power?" We all hope fervently that the answer to that question is a resounding YES collectively and loudly shouted by millions of voices at once.
Here from the UK's Guardian Unlimited, a fine example of well-balanced and socially responsible journalism IMO, is the story of another protest, today celebrating its 70th anniversary. This protest, Oct. 4th, 1936, was mounted by opponents to a fascist Rally in London's east end. An unruly mob of 300,000 may well have turned the tide of history that day. If they had not taken to the streets, Britain could have become every bit as fascistic as Hitler's Germany.

"Shouting the Spanish civil war slogan 'No pasaran' - 'They shall not pass' - more than 300,000 people turned back an army of Blackshirts. Their victory over racism and anti-Semitism on Sunday October 4, 1936 became known as the Battle of Cable Street and encapsulated the British fight against a fascism that was stomping across Europe.

Mosley planned to send columns of thousands of goose-stepping men throughout the impoverished East End dressed in uniforms that mimicked those of Hitler's Nazis. His target was the large Jewish community.

..The Jews did not keep away. Professor Bill Fishman, now 89, who was 15 on the day, was at Gardner's Corner in Aldgate, the entrance to the East End. "There was masses of marching people. Young people, old people, all shouting 'No Pasaran' and 'One two three four five - we want Mosley, dead or alive'," he said. "It was like a massive army gathering, coming from all the side streets. Mosley was supposed to arrive at lunchtime but the hours were passing and he hadn't come. Between 3pm and 3.30 we could see a big army of Blackshirts marching towards the confluence of Commercial Road and Whitechapel Road.

I push the limits of fair use to reprint so much of this article, and hope that The Guardian will forgive me..

"[Eyewitness, Professor William Fishman] 'I pushed myself forward and because I was 6ft I could see Mosley. They were surrounded by an even greater army of police. There was to be this great advance of the police force to get the fascists through. Suddenly, the horses' hooves were flying and the horses were falling down because the young kids were throwing marbles.'

Thousands of policemen were sandwiched between the Blackshirts and the anti-fascists. The latter were well organised and through a mole learned that the chief of police had told Mosley that his passage into the East End could be made through Cable Street.

'I heard this loudspeaker say "They are going to Cable Street",' said Prof Fishman. 'Suddenly a barricade was erected there and they put an old lorry in the middle of the road and old mattresses. The people up the top of the flats, mainly Irish Catholic women, were throwing rubbish on to the police. We were all side by side. I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley. I shall never forget that as long as I live, how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of racism.'

Max Levitas, now 91, was a message runner and had already been fined £10 in court for his anti-Mosley activities. Two years before Cable Street, the BUF had called a meeting in Hyde Park and in protest Mr Levitas whitewashed Nelson's column, calling people to the park to drown out the fascists. Mr Levitas went on to become a Communist councillor in Stepney.

'I feel proud that I played a major part in stopping Mosley. When we heard that the march was disbanded, there was a hue and cry and the flags were going wild. They did not pass. The chief of police decided that if the march had taken place there would be death on the road - and there would have been,' he said.

'It was a victory for ordinary people against racism and anti-Semitism and it should be instilled in the minds of people today. The Battle of Cable Street is a history lesson for us all. People as people must get together and stop racism and anti-Semitism so people can lead an ordinary life and develop their own ideas and religions.'

Beatty Orwell, 89, was scared and excited. 'People were fighting and a friend of mine was thrown through a plate glass window.' "

There's more: audio links to the actual words of these witnesses are provided at the end of the Guardian's article. These senior CITIZENS are so obviously proud of the actions they took on that day. Their actions put a spine into the entire British populace, something that Winston Churchill could draw upon and build on a few years later when England was under more direct military attack from Hitler's Germany. There has seldom been a finer day in the defense of democracy than Oct. 4, 1936. What stories will you be telling about Oct. 5, 2006 when you reach your twilight years?

TAGS: Democracy, Civil Liberties, Protest, Free Speech, MCA

It's almost election day......

Special Feature: In the fourth installment of our fabulously successful guest blogger series, Pam from Musings of a Working Mom generously gifts us with this terrific post on the vital issue of electronic voter fraud. -SBT-It's almost election day and the polls are showing that the Democrats will win the House and probably even the Senate. With every passing day, things are looking brighter. The end of the Republican occupation is just a month away - right?

WRONG. If there's one thing that we should have learned by now, it's that Rove & company don't play fair. If you can't win it, steal it. Read the following excerpt from the Washington Spectator Online:

OUR RIGGED ELECTIONS
The Elephant in the Polling Booth
By Mark Crispin Miller October 1, 2006

o say that this election could go either way is not to say that the Republicans have any chance of winning it. As a civic entity responsive to the voters' will, the party's over, there being no American majority that backs it, or that ever would. Bush has left the GOP in much the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, the global climate, New Orleans, the Bill of Rights, our military, our economy and our national reputation. Thus the regime is reviled as hotly by conservatives as by liberals, nor do any moderates support it.

So slight is Bush's popularity that his own party's candidates for Congress are afraid to speak his name or to be seen with him (although their numbers, in the aggregate, are even lower than his). It seems the only citizens who still have any faith in him are those who think God wants us to burn witches and drive SUVs. For all their zeal, such theocratic types are not in the majority, not even close, and thus there's no chance that the GOP can get the necessary votes.

And so the Democrats are feeling good, and calling for a giant drive to get the vote out on Election Day. Such an effort is essential—and not just to the Democrats but to the very survival of this foundering Republic. However, such a drive will do the Democrats, and all the rest of us, more harm than good if it fails to note a certain fact about our current situation: i.e., that the Democrats are going to lose the contest in November, even though the people will (again) be voting for them. The Bush Republicans are likely to remain in power despite the fact that only a minority will vote to have them there. That, at any rate, is what will happen if we don't start working to pre-empt it now.

Even though this election could go either way, neither way will benefit the Democrats. Either the Republicans will steal their "re-election" on Election Day, just as they did two years ago, or they will slime their way to "victory" through force and fraud and strident propaganda, as they did after Election Day 2000. Whichever strategy they use, the only way to stop it is to face it, and then shout so long and loud about it that the people finally perceive, at last, that their suspicions are entirely just—and, this time, just say no.

Read the whole article and come back and tell us what you think.

We sit here naively believing that our votes will actually count, despite overwhelming evidence that many will not be counted or will be counted incorrectly. And many, many people will be disenfranchised, once again. They have done it before, and they will do it again unless we stop them. How many elections are we willing to forfeit to these underhanded and illegal tricks? Can our country survive another two years of fascism before we get our acts together and demand that our votes be counted and our voices be heard? If we don't, then envision the future George Orwell predicted, because we'll soon be living it:

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
- George Orwell

Late-night Foley Catharsis

Congressman, Get A Grip!
No, don't grip that! Eeeeeeeewww!

Fellow mobsters, you all know that we here at Les Enragés.org would never stoop so low as to joke about a matter as serious as child abuse. Nor would we ever impugn the dignity of a duly-elected member of the United States' illustrious House of Reprehensibles Representatives. Which is why we are SO very grateful to Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report for doing these things for us. And SO happy to leave this distasteful chore in hands so capable of wringing every last undignified laugh out of a situation that has left the Republican House effectively leaderless in the most important weeks leading up to this critical midterm election.

So, if we appear to be dancing around with glee, it is not because Congressman Foley was caught typing one-handed at a time when it did the most harm to his party. Nor is it because this scandal could well bring down (Oh, I am SO tempted to make a joke here, but I am way too dignified) many other prominent Republicans, including Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Tom Reynolds and John Boehner. (Not gonna go there. Steady on. Dignified.) No, we're just happy to have such upstanding comedic geniuses doing our dirty work for us. Thanks Jon, Stephen, and YouTube.

Trouble in Paradise? Yes...

h/t Free Market News:

PUTS FORECAST OCT. SURPRISE?

Sunday, October 01, 2006 - FreeMarketNews

INITIAL POST 09.30.06

A faithful reader and commentator, "A. Magnus" writes the following email, posted to FMNN General Feedback:

"Do you like October suprises? Is there a big bang coming to hit the markets? If you believe that those in the know use insider information before major events then you might be interested on the HUGE number of October 6th put options for the big indexes. Check out the concentrated puts on the Diamonds DOW Trust (DIA):

Ditto for the S&P Depository Receipts (SPY):

And the NASDAQ (QQQQ):

Even the Market Vectors Gold Miners has significant puts for October 6th:

Make no mistake - something wicked this way comes, and the smart money has already taken preventative steps."

Trouble in Paradise?

Could it be... ?

Rumors about the anticipated "October Surprise" continue to swirl. Will we attack Iran? Will "the terrists" attack us? Will Martial Law be put into effect? Will the election be cancelled? Will the internet be shut down? Will the detention camps be filled? Will we hear that God told George to keep on saving the world one colossal failure at a time? Be assured, Trouble is afoot in the bush garden of Eden. Capital "T."

Opinions diverge on all but the certainty that something will happen, and that it will be every bit as staged as the downing of the Saddam statue, the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, and the debut of Bush's flight costume at the Lincoln Playhouse.

Perhaps it will be that Rummy will get the boot, with Laura cheering on the sidelines, evil eyes wide open. Woodward, for all his late-date flip flopping, gives some reason to consider this a viable hypothesis.

Of course, it may be that Laura is simply starring in another commercial to sell the idea that there is a modicum of reason in the Bush Circle of Obedience, while Bush demonstrates to manly men everywhere how to ignore a reasonable opinion from a woman who is to be seen and not heard. Go Tuffy.

And who really is responsible for leaking all that dirt on Foley?

Opinions, facts, links, distractions...

Bring 'em on.