Dick Traitor

"One Nation Under Cheney"

Anyone who has been watching American politics for the last six long insufferable years should have become aware of one thing. The real power in the White House is not in George W. (must stand for witless) Bush's Oval Office, but down the hall in Dick Cheney's 'undisclosed location', known officially as the OVP (Office of the Vice President.) Bush is nothing more than Cheney's sock puppet - giving speeches, taking the heat, acting as a potential bullet sponge for any possible assassination attempts, and always decidering on things exactly the way Cheney wants them to be decidered. To even imagine the situation otherwise is to be suffering from some Bizarro-world delusions. The chimperor is obviously the monkey to Cheney's organ grinder.

This diary from Kagro X at DailyKos puts some new perspective on just how powerful Cheney is, or at least how powerful he believes himself to be. Not that the Master of All Things Evil has not previously tipped his hand. He has already gone on record recently as saying that if he was subpoenaed by Congress, that he would probably refuse. In his own mind, at least, he is above the law. It remains to be seen if he will actually flaunt the law in the Scooter Libby trial, where he is expected to be called as a witness for the defense. But I digress. Here's the DailyKos story, which is about Cheney's refusal to catalogue his activities in the classification and declassification of official documents;

"A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and 'any other entity within the executive branch'" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents.. ..but Cheney insists he is exempt."

Where this story really takes wing is WHY Cheney feels himself to be exempt.

"The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch (see Article I, section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see Article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code)"

But wait, there's more. Kasgro divulges that Cheney has even invented his very own SYSTEM of classification, with no basis whatever in law.

"The OVP has been out of compliance with executive orders on the classification of sensitive national security information for several years. During that time, they've been inventing their own classification system (and spending taxpayer money for official-looking stamps bearing this fake classification)"

Wow. In two hundred and thirty years, no-one has come close to making any sort of claim like this. Not only has Cheney pronounced himself as uniquely occupying both the legislative and executive branches of government, but in doing so he has also intruded on the powers of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution. This is a power grab parallel to, and quite possibly exceeding, the odious theory of 'unitary executive' powers conferred unilaterally on the pResident by Justice Department functionary John Yoo. And finally, in case it escaped anybody's attention, the authority Dick is flaunting here is BUSH's EXECUTIVE ORDER. Unbelievable.

As with much of what BushCo™ have accomplished over the last six years, they are likely to get away with this too. Why? Because no sane person in the late eighteenth century could have possibly provided for the monumental degree of pure evil exhibited here, the deliberate brutal concentration of ill intent. Even while calling King George III a tyrant, conceiving a tyranny like this would only have driven Jefferson, Madison, Adams, etc. into despairing madness. Just as, even knowing about the careers of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy, each one of us still insists on taking solace in the fact that Hannibal Lecter and Freddy Krueger are only fictional characters. To confront the real horror is to invite insanity.

TAGS: Constitution, Secrecy, Dick Cheney, Power Grab

Share the Brown Man’s Burden

"He has enormous influence in shaping what the Army should and will be — not next year, not in five years, but in maybe 20 years." - Rick Atkinson, military historian and reporter.

David Petraeus’s very name brings to my mind that of a Roman general. That’s only appropriate, since our ongoing and neverending occupation of Iraq is less than a safeguarding and planting of freedom and democracy as it's an imperial annexation designed to do nothing more or less than divide the spoils, or oil, of war.

Further reinforcing the all too convincing illusion that this is a page straight out of the latter chapters of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was the ostentatious ceremony in which Gen. David Petraeus took control of American forces in Iraq, the third commander in what is looking to be an endless succession of Can-do and Yes men who are getting more and more media-savvy with each refilling of the uniform.

With a calculated choice of venue that was every bit as obvious as that for Barack Obama’s announcement of his candidacy, Petraeus took command under a blazing thirty foot-wide chandelier standing on a marble floor in one of Saddam Hussein’s many palaces. That alone underscores hypocrisy, selfishness and just plain neocon cynicism in so many ways and on so many levels.

Let’s start with the fucking chandelier, which caught my attention long before I knew why. While most of Baghdad gets no more than four hours of electricity a day, these brassed-up assholes in their camo costumes walked on gleaming marble floors reflecting more light and using more juice than Baghdad residents generally get in a week.

All this does for me and for any other perspicacious reader is underscore our continuing ongoing failure to provide these people with even basic services such as electricity, sewage, enough hospitals and security from the military and police. Bechtel waddled out of Iraq last year after miserably failing to provide Baghdad with more than a fraction of the energy required to run the Iraqi capital, something that Saddam at least managed to do. We paid Bechtel several billion dollars to basically do half the job (the worse things got in Iraq, the more money they made). But what did they care? They were cost-plus contracts, which means you get the payday plus the bonuses regardless of how lazy or incompetent you are.

But if you want to swear in a new general, well, of course the juice will be on.

Then there’s the fact that the ceremony took place at the ludicrously-named Camp Victory, which proclaims its boastful name from behind the heavily-fortified walls of the Green Zone, which is in itself an enclave in what is arguably the most dangerous city on earth today. Is that why Petraeus’s ceremony had to be indoors?

Then there’s the monstrous irony of having this dog and pony show in the middle of one of Saddam’s old palaces, in a place called Camp Victory, which seemed to imply, despite massive amounts of evidence contradicting it, that Saddam Hussein’s very existence was still a just and legitimate reason to unleash the dogs of war on a nation that had nothing to do with September 11th. Petraeus might as well had just dug up Saddam’s rotting corpse, dumped him under that blazing chandelier and put his big ole boot right on his torn-up neck, flexing biceps bulging from rolled-up camo sleeves.

And now, while we’re on the subject of Orwellian enduring victory, let’s examine what was perhaps the most outrageous statement that Petraeus had made just minutes after playing Capture the Flag with his predecessor Gen. Casey:

"We will have to share the burdens and move forward together. If we can do that and if we can help the people of Iraq, the prospects of success are good. Failing that, Iraq will be doomed to continued violence and civil strife."

Oh my fucking God. Where can I begin with even this brief paragraph of three sentences? In the headline, the AP writer, Lauren Frayer, calls Petraeus a “blunt” talker. “Blunt” usually means speaking tersely and truthfully without regard to decorum or sensibilities. “Blunt” never implies merely mouthing empty platitudes from Bush and Cheney.

Well, let’s start with Frayer’s own addition that comes right under Petraeus’s comments:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported the deaths of three more American soldiers, killed in an explosion Friday in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in Diyala for months.

The deaths raised to 36 the number of Americans killed in Iraq so far this month. At least 3,120 service members have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

At least 51 Iraqis were killed or found dead Saturday across the country. In one attack in central Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in a shopping district, killing six civilians and wounding 14.

So, according to this Princeton academic, that still doesn’t count as sacrifice and assuming our fair share of the brown man’s burden, in spite of the fact that 3120 US troops and possibly close to 700,000 Iraqis (an average of over 100 a day) have been killed in the glorious cause of freedom. Petraeus might as well have made that statement while doing a Moe Howard impression and saying, “Get back to work like I told you! Go o-o-o-on, get busy,” punctuating his pep speech with a dollop of Moe’s patented domestic violence.

So if Iraq permanently falls into the abyss of several civil wars and death squads and militias killing their own countrymen, it won't be the fault of the idiot who was the catalyst for this, in the first place: It'll be the fault of our troops, who from the gitgo had to defend themselves from a growing and increasingly sophisticated insurgency with wooden planks and sandbags instead of the fucking steel plate armor that the Pentagon's procurement office denied them year after year.

And you can’t possibly expect me to look over the fact that this was said in the middle of a posh palace on a posh base isolated from the daily horrors that’s jokingly referred to by those lucky enough to serve on it as “Campus Victory.”

So, bottom line, we’ve been given platitudes by an academic in an isolated palace that were in turn given to him by a brain-damaged rube from an even more isolated palace.

Excuse me for sounding defeatist but wasn’t this hare-brained scheme hatched by academics in think tanks like PNAC?

And before we start applauding this guy Petraeus and hoping for the best, let’s not forget two things: Number one, this guy was a Lieutenant General, a three star, before being given the job by a Senate that alternately ranged from brainlessly supportive to outright desperate. In other words, after two commanders and four years, George Bush and his administration couldn’t find one four star full general who could be trusted to manage this war.

Number two, let’s not forget what Gen. Petraeus did for his second tour of duty in Iraq: Overseeing the training of the Iraqi Security forces to replace the experienced Iraqi military disbanded by the CPA who would later battle as insurgents the new army that, to this day, still largely cannot stand on their own without US help. Says a former colleague, Col. Douglas MacGregor, "The Iraqi army today is, by anyone's definition, a disaster, and it is substantially his creation.”

So, my question is: Do we have twenty years to wait before this guy can retrofit our army to meet the demands of a nation that plainly wants us out?

Charity Rejects Donation from Strippers

Breast Cancer Society of Canada Says Money Not Good Enough

Out of the goodness of their hearts, a group of strippers in Vancouver B.C. called Exotic Dancers for Cancer have put on a special show at the Drake Hotel in Vancouver for the past few years to raise money to fight breast cancer. Only thing is, the recipient Breast Cancer Society of Canada has turned down the money, even though they accepted a $3,000 donation last year. As The Vancouver Sun explains,

" 'Our bottom line was that any woman can get breast cancer. It doesn't matter what they do, what their profession is,' Rany Xanthopoulo, the executive director of the BCSC, said at the time."

So what's different this year? This from (The Vancouver) Courier.com:

"In a letter to [organizer Trina] Ricketts, the society's executive director Rany Xanthopoulo, wrote: 'Unfortunately we will have to decline your kind offer as we have certain major donors that are not in favour of this connection. This decision came as a result of donor disgruntlement and together with the board of directors we have decided not to accept any donations from what donors consider controversial sources.' "

As it happens, I used to work as a musician in the very kind of bars that hire strippers, and often had them living across the hall. They are not, as some people assume, turning tricks on the side, and in my personal experience they are no less 'moral' than any other women. Quite often they are single mothers trying to raise their children, or students raising tuition for their university education. Just ordinary people who happen to look very good naked. And is there anything wrong with that?

Should you doubt their sincerity, they have another organization called Naked Truth, and discussed this issue on their Forum Page. They also do shows to raise funds for Prostitution Alternatives Counseling and Education (PACE) Society, a sex worker advocacy group in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. So they are actively working to get women out of the sex trade and away from the drug addiction and exploitation that often accompanies it. Good for them.

As for the BCSC, I have to agree with the Sun on this one,

"Shame on them and shame on the Breast Cancer Society for caving to this prejudice against these women who are as vulnerable to the disease as anyone else and who are trying to do some good.. ..Last year the Breast Cancer Society got it right. Breast cancer does not discriminate. Neither should it."

TAGS: Strippers, Charity, Pole Dancers

Mythbusting the Bush Administration

“I reject your reality and substitute my own.” - Adam Savage, The Dungeon Master and George W. Bush, the other dungeon master.

“Well, Buster can’t give the Nazi salute without help, Jamie.”

Any week now, I expect to watch an edition of Mythbusters and to hear this exchange:

Jamie: What’s the myth, Adam?
Adam: We got a daunting challenge in an email from a viewer. The myth is that George W. Bush is even a nominally competent President.
Jamie: (chuckling) Sounds like a no-brainer to me, Adam.
Adam: A slam dunk.
Jamie: A cakewalk.

Before the first commercial break, they’d no doubt come to the conclusion that that not only is the myth of Bush’s competence smashed to dog shit but that Buster, their long-suffering stunt dummy, makes a more suitable chief executive.

Because one fact is readily obvious: This rube named George W. Bush would be pumping gas in a sleepy gas station in East Texas if it wasn’t for who his father is. No amount of shredded or disappeared incriminating documents, no volume of spin doctoring, white-washing, denials or right wing bloviating and bellowing can change the fact that this breathing Brooks Brothers suit mannequin has been a miserable, catastrophic failure his whole life. Yet, he’s been spared the indignity of leaning on fenders and squeegeeing bird shit off windshields by dubious virtue of his and his father’s powerful friends.

Oh, yes, Jamie and Adam could bust the inexplicably enduring myth of the competence of this barely-functioning tool of every earth-crippling right wing agenda on the planet. I imagine it would go something like this:

Jamie: OK, there are a few things we can gauge to determine the competence of a chief executive. One of them is their foreign policy. We collected some clips from Youtube of George Bush’s speeches and we’re going to compare the results.
Adam (wheeling in Buster): Well, Buster’s up to the challenge.
Jamie: Nice business suit. It actually looks good on Buster.
Adam: I got it from Duke Cunningham’s yard sale. OK, run the tape of Bush announcing Shock and Awe in Iraq.
Bush on TV: “On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign… Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly -- yet, our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder…”
Jamie: OK, that was back on March 19, 2003. Icasualties.org says that 3118 US troops have been killed since then. Let’s see what Buster would’ve done about Iraq.
Narrator: So Jamie and Adam waited a half hour but Buster just sat there in his suit and didn’t invade anyone.
Adam: No mention of an illegal and unjustified invasion of a sovereign nation, no bogus WMD or al Qaeda claims. Troops killed in Iraq under President Buster: Zero.
Narrator: So, Buster wins this round. But President Bush is just getting warmed up and isn’t about to exit in defeat quite yet.
Adam: So, what’s the emergency response test?
Jamie: Another qualification for a chief executive is said to be how well as well as how quickly they respond to emergencies. There’s no better way of testing that than by watching archived footage of what happened on 9/11.
Narrator: So Jamie rolls the tape of George Bush in that classroom on 9/11 and gives America an education.
Jamie: Now as you can see on the playback Chief of Staff Andrew Card tells President Bush about the other plane hitting the 2nd WTC tower. Start the timer.
Narrator: Finally, after seven minutes, Bush gets up.
Jamie: So, it took George W. Bush a full seven minutes to get up off his little chair and to respond to the nation’s biggest disaster. You have My Pet Goat?
Adam: Right here. My boys didn’t want to part with it, though. I’ll just put this in his lap…
Jamie: Upside down? There’s no call for that, Adam. Start the timer…
Narrator: Like his flesh and blood counterpart, Buster does nothing but look somewhat presidential. Then, six and a half minutes into the experiment, Buster does something extraordinary and… busts a move.
Adam: Whoa!
Jamie: Buster keeled over!
Adam: Time elapsed?
Jamie: 6:27.
Adam: So, Buster moved before Bush!
Jamie: Well, it wasn’t as if Buster actually displayed any disaster response skills. You just didn’t sit him up straight.
Adam: Still…
Jamie: Yeah, still… Buster the dummy actually moved before George W. Bush and that has to be factored in.
Adam: So, are you ready to declare this myth busted?
Jamie: Not quite. I want to do one more experiment…
Narrator: After the break, the boys give Buster the all-important pretzel test.
Jamie: Well, it’s been three minutes now and Buster hasn’t choked, yet.

The Iraq News

Death of Anna Nicole Smith, Some War's Going On... More

With the death of Anna Nicole Smith providing cable and network news with manna from heaven in the form of endless tragedy-bleached headlines AT THE EXPENSE OF REAL NEWS STORIES, coverage of the war will be on the back burner. Off the stove, really.

But what's a few billion dollars on pallets or confirmation of manipulated intel compared to one famous, drug-addled, heiress supermodel reality show hasbeen? Godspeed Anna Nicole.

For the rest of you diehards, here's...

...The Iraq News:

• The insurgents are targeting our helicopters. Filming it too.
• The French were right. We know. We're okay with it.
• CBS points out that Bush administration opponents have, despite administration claims, offered alternatives in Iraq. USA today thinks that Joe Biden has a clean and articulate take on Iraq.
• Republican Senator Norm Coleman is shocked--shocked!--that the Senate won't debate Iraq resolution. By the way something, he's in deep shit in his 2008 re-election campaign.
• Alicia at Last Left Turn Before Hooterville writes about the mistrial in Lt. Watada's courtmartial.
• Maybe we're not going to have a draft, but we're all ready for one.

VIDEO: BBC reports on a scam involving contractors in Iraq. I thought the whole war was... screw it. We go forward.
VIDEO: Fox Noise owner Rupert Murdoch admits trying to lead nation into war.



TAGS: Iraq War, Anna Nicole Smith, Ehren Watada, Fox News

Crossposted at Ice Station Tango.

Evolution Sunday

On Sunday, February 11th, congregations across the country will celebrate Evolution Sunday. Sponsored by the Clergy Letter Project,this movement is an effort for Christian voices to say loudly and publicly that we do not have to choose between faith and science. That Christians celebrate the God of faith and science, who loves our hearts and our minds. It is our prayer that the day will surely come when truth is not restricted by anyone, and mystery is embraced by all.

They've put out a pretty good video in connection with the project (keeping in mind that it wouldn't be progressive Christian if it wasn't just a little cheesey). Tell me what you think.




TAGS: Faith and Science, Creationism, Evolution

Manly Men for Jesus

Want to catch up on two recent news items in the church this past week.

First, Doug Giles, a conservative theologian, was on Fox News recently lamenting that society as a whole and the church in particular are raising up "nice boys," which I interpret as the politically correct rendition of "girlie men." Seems that Giles didn't grow up wanting to be a nice boy, but rather envisioned a world where he could slay dragons and rescue damsels in distress. And so Giles dreams of a church that goes back to the biblical example. Men should be "[L]ike David. David was a warrior. You know, Moses, he was a tough, rowdy guy. He defied Pharaoh and all of his hosts. You know, Jesus wasn't a bearded lady."

So Giles wants to model manly behavior from a murderer and a womanizing murderer. Maybe instead of blaming secular society and the feminists for your problem, you might look instead at your leading conservative pastors. My personal Exhibit A:

That's Joel Olsteen of the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. If I had to listen to his voice week in and week out, I would turn to self-mutilation. Just the soundwaves produced by his manly voice may be responsible for countless aural castrations.

Which leads us to our second news story: Manly Man Ted Haggard, who after three weeks of intensive therapy has successfully prayed the gay right out of him. This is nothing short of stupendous. And it is my hope and prayer that these amazing prayer warriors might tackle a few other problems in the world today. Maybe they could start with the letter "A". Three weeks to cure: aids, als, alzheimers, anorexia....

TAGS: Christian Men, Homosexuality, Gay Ministries

Rogue Nation

U.S. Declines to Join Accord on Secret Detentions

OUTRAGE OVERLOAD - It's hard to know where to begin. At the same time, how can one begin knowing that there is no end to the list of crimes being committed by your government with your tax dollars. Come to think of it, because of the huge deficit, your children's and grandchildren's taxes will still be paying for GOP policies under the Bush/Cheney regime.

Let's start with this Washington Post article. The US, along with Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, refused to endorse an agreement obviously aimed at the American government's practice known euphemistically as rendition. I insist on calling it kidnapping. Whatever you call it, the Bush administration still wants to preserve their 'right' to do wrong, in the face of international law and common decency.

"PARIS, Feb. 6 -- Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting governments from holding people in secret detention. The United States declined to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expectations.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said the treaty was 'a message to all modern-day authorities committed to the fight against terrorism' that some practices are 'not acceptable.' ...The Associated Press reported that [ State Department spokesman Sean ] McCormack declined to comment on whether the U.S. stance was influenced by the Bush administration's policy of sending terrorism suspects to CIA-run prisons overseas, which President Bush acknowledged in September."

Meanwhile as the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq passes 3,100, Paul Bremer is coming under intense pressure from Henry Waxman in Congressional hearings for his lack of control over billions of dollars sent to Iraq to 'kick start' the economy. Truckloads of hundred dollar bills have gone missing. Charges have been laid against five individuals for illegally diverting over 8 million dollars in funds allocated to rebuilding Iraq. Among those five, three high-ranking US military officers. Still, this accounts for the merest drop in the 12 BILLION dollars that has gone missing due to the absence of any accounting techniques to keep track of it. It's looking more and more as if the real reason for invading Iraq was to make some GOP supporters filthy rich. It's getting me pissed off. Really steaming.

So, now that it is painfully obvious that the Bush administration is little more than a very sophisticated criminal enterprise, what is being done? Due to Republican resistance, the Democrats can't even debate the war in the Senate. Seems their slim majority has been taken away from them by Tim Johnson's illness and Joe Lieberman's...well, Joe LIEberman. Period. The disdain the GOP show for even the appearance of democratic process is staggering.

It would seem that the rule of law has simply ceased to exist in the United States of America. An Italian judge has ordered a US soldier to face trial over the 2005 death of Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent in a car at a checkpoint in Baghdad - but it seems unlikely that US authorities will co-operate. "He will probably be tried in absentia as he has been cleared in the US." (BBC news)

The administration supports the troops when they are killing foreigners for no good reason, or participating in an illegal war, but what about those like Lt. Ehren Watada, who refuse to follow orders that they feel are illegal? Watada's Court Martial started Monday with the presiding Judge, John Head (whose first and last names, BTW happen to be synonyms for 'toilet') ruling that Watada could not examine the Iraq war's legality in his defense.

"[Watada's defense attorney Eric] Seitz has unsuccessfully sought an opportunity to argue the legality of the war, saying it violated Army regulations that specify wars are to be waged in accordance with the United Nations charter.

Their final attempt was quashed following a hearing last month in which military judge Lt. Col. John Head ruled Watada cannot base his defense on the war's legality. He also refused claims that Watada's statements were protected by the First Amendment, saying that would be up to a military panel."

So, long story short - secure in their control of the White House, Senate, and Supreme Court, the Republican party continues to move towards a legal system where guilt or innocence is determined by how meticulously one agrees with the Codpiece in Thief. In doing so, they are also making America into an international pariah. It makes me so mad.

TAGS: War Crimes, Injustice, Police State, Doomsday

Iranian Diplomat Kidnapped

..By Gunmen in Iraqi Uniforms

From CBC.ca:

"Thirty armed men dressed as Iraqi soldiers kidnapped a senior Iranian diplomat on the streets of Baghdad, an Iraqi government official said on Tuesday.. ..The Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying the Defence Ministry was ordered to detain Jalal Sharaki, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy.

'Iran holds American forces in Iraq responsible for the safety and life of the Iranian diplomat,' Hosseini was quoted as saying, in his condemnation of the 'aggressive act.'

One Iraqi government official backed those statements, telling the Associated Press the diplomat was seized by a special Iraqi army unit that reports directly to the U.S. military.

But a military spokesman denied any U.S. troops or Iraqis could have been involved. 'We've checked with our units and it was not an MNF-I (Multi-National Forces-Iraq) unit that participated in that event,' U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said."

Whether the unidentified gunmen were acting under US authority or not, this is incredibly bad news. On the one hand, assuming they were not acting on American orders, you have a scenario very similar to events of Jan. 22 in Karbala, when a group in Iraqi uniform entered a government compound in GMC SUVs;

"Once inside, [ ] the men unleashed one of the deadliest and most brazen ambushes of U.S. forces in a secure, official area. Five U.S. service members were killed in a hail of grenades and gunfire in a breach of security that Iraqi officials called unprecedented."

One has to ask, how did these uniforms, weapons, and equipment (GMC SUVs for cryin' out loud !?!) get in the hands of the insurgency? And the simplest answer would be that the insurgents simply stood in line and signed up with the Iraqi army. They were then issued all the necessities to wage war against coalition troops, trained in their use, fed and payed for months.. then, when the time was ripe they deserted, taking as much with them as they could lay their hands on. That's what happens when you arm and train people who hate you. I'm waiting now for the inevitable 'Who could have anticipated this?' statement from Condi Rice.

Of course the alternative scenario, where the kidnappers were under US command, although covertly so, is much worse. That would signal the US invasion of Iran, the expansion of the war in the Middle East, and all the bloody horror that would entail. With only two years to achieve Armageddon, the Stuffed Codpiece in Chief may be kicking it up another notch. Anyone who believes that the Iraq war isn't the biggest foreign policy boondoggle in American history should read this editorial from Common Dreams, by Jay Bookman. Pretty gloomy - but true.

TAGS: Iraq War, Insurgency, Iranian Diplomat, Armageddon

The Economy News

Robert Reich, Levee Funds Diverted, Minimum Wage "Passed", Tim Ryan on the Warpath, More...

President Bush is always out there, touting the economy, because his deregulation regime yields positive growth statistics, which drive the DOW up. Well, how is the economy actually doing? I don't know. Let's read some...

...The Economy News:

• Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich writes, "Bush on CEO Pay, and the Truth about CEO Pay." Marc McDonald weighs in too.
• Unemployment is up. Highest level in four months. Jobs growth is down. Just sayin'.
• Thursday the Bush Administration announced it intends to divert $1.3 billion away from the rebuilding of the levees. I don't think they'll be putting the Bush Library over at Tulane.
• Center for American Progress breaks down some risks for the middle class.
• The Texas Rainmaker has the Bush-licking version of the economy down. Check out the debt clock there, Rainmaker.
• For the first time in a decade the House and Senate have passed a minimum wage increase. Over to Bush for the big veto.

VIDEO: Tim Ryan lambastes the Republicans for the grim budget mess they left behind.

TAGS: Economy, Katrina, Minimum Wage, Tim Ryan

Can’t You Take a Hint?

I guess this, to the Decider in Chief, is just another 102 commas and over 200 hyphens on the way to the glorious surprise ending when Horatio Alger arrives in Baghdad, gives the Iraqis inspirational stories about Ragged Dick and Luck ‘n’ Pluck and they pick themselves up by their bootstraps.

But the good news, comrades, is that the Decider is being conciliatory and is offering an olive branch to Democrats and other critics of the Surge, even magnanimously waiving the usual “You’re with the terr’ists if you disagree with the Decider!” response. Of course, it’s easy to welcome debate if you continually stick your fingers in your ears and loudly sing “Onward Christian Soldiers” offkey.

In a speech to over 200 lawmakers at a Virginia retreat, Bush claimed, as he has all this time, that he’s listened to Democrats (whom he said until election day kept saying No to fighting terr‘ism), his troop commanders in Iraq (the ones that he hasn’t fired for straying from the party line) and, believe it or not, the GOP (like Chuck Hagel, of whom Dick Cheney told Newsweek it was difficult to keep from telling to go fuck himself as per Reagan’s 11th Commandment of never speaking ill about a fellow Republican).

Bush is deliberately conflating hearing with actually listening. If you hear a car alarm going off endlessly, your first instinct is to think, “Will somebody shut that damned thing off?” However, if you’re listening to what it could mean, you’ll check it out to decide whether the alarm is legitimate. But Bush has demonstrated time and again that that’s one of the things that he can’t be bothered Decidin’.

Then again, the suicide car bombs that kill massively large groups of Iraqis, such as the one in Baghdad that killed over 102 and sent another 200+ to the hospital, is also a potent form of debate. These almost monthly car bombings that kill 90-200+ plus people are being mainly orchestrated by Sunni insurgents who are not only lashing out against the Shi’ites who are ethnically cleansing them with a vengeance for Saddam’s crimes against them, they’re also telling us in the most obvious, visceral language possible that they want us out. In fact, over 90% of Sunnis polled by a Maryland university said that they want us out. I’m sure an even higher percentage definitely don’t want us sending in tens of thousands of more troops.

You’d think that blood and flaming car and body parts occupying the air would be the one language that could be understood by a man who’s never once considered, in his 6+ year-long Presidential squattage, diplomacy a valid option. He’s already gone on record today as saying that our involvement in Iraq is “not an open-ended one.” That means that the only person he’s listening to is Dick “Enormous Progress” Cheney, whatever few neocons who still see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow over Baghdad and a whole host of Yes men like Robert Gates and newly-installed generals and admirals who’ve replaced the ones who dared to debate with the Decider.

Deja Vu All Over Again

There's nothing much I can add to this. Keith Olbermann lays it all out perfectly, and anyone can draw the correct conclusion seeing Bush's arguments for war with Iraq in 2003, and his parallel rhetoric now regarding Iran.

Keith Olbermann Video

TAGS: Iran, Iraq, War-mongering, Insanity, President Shrub