See you next year!

Craig's list eats away at newspaper classified revenues:

A popular online community for selling goods and finding jobs and housing is diverting US$50 million to $65 million annually in classified advertising from newspapers in the San Francisco Bay area, according to Classified Intelligence, a consulting firm in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

The firm released a report this week, a copy of which has been obtained by TechNewsWorld, consisting of articles and essays about Craigslist, an online community that began in the Bay area and has branched out into more than 70 U.S. cities as well as several metropolitan areas overseas.

In one of the report's essays, Bob Cauthorn, who used to run interactive media operations at the San Francisco Chronicle, noted that in one week alone in November, Craigslist had 12,200 paid and unique job listings, compared to 4,900 for the online editions of the Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times.
(via TechNewsWorld)

Now, if only CraigsList covered the news... Oh, wait, the newspapers don't cover the news either! So there's a whole new market here!

So, the Bush Department of [cough] Justice tries to put the toothpaste back in the tube by writing a memo that says Oh, we were wrong. We thought torture was legal, and White House [cough] Counsel Alberto Gonzales even wrote a memo saying that it was legal, but never mind, it isn't legal after all.

And the new memo came out before the Gonzales confirmation hearings! Fancy that. Nice timing, eh?

Of course, we've been saying all along (here and here) that the truly reprehensible part of the Gonzales memos isn't the fact that they try to justify torture, but that they claim the [cough] President has the "inherent authority" to set aside the law.

And guess what! The malAdministation (seemingly) back-pedalled on torture, but not on the Divine Right of Presidents. That should be the lede, right? Since it means there's not such thing as the rule of law, and the Constitution is inoperative? But let's count. AP buries the lede, oh, one two three four five six seven eight paragraphs in:

The 17-page memo does not address two of the most controversial assertions in the first memo: that Bush, as commander in chief in wartime, had authority superseding anti-torture laws and that U.S. personnel had legal defenses against criminal liability in such cases.
(via AP)

So, Justice issues a new memo. Yawn. So what? Bush believes he can set the law aside whenever he wants, so what does a memo matter?

NOTE WaPo doesn't mention the "inherent authority" issue either. How very odd.

$350 million.

Wouldn't it have been great if He'd done the right thing, right away?

I'd like to write that He was shamed into it, but sociopaths don't know what shame is. Doubtless helping Jebbie's succession is the real motive. And, of course, we don't know where in the budget the $350 million will come from...

So Dear Leader is sending poor old used up Colin Powell out to Indonesia—a sure sign the White House regards the entire relief exercise as pointless. But they are giving Colin a minder: Jebbie. Hey, finally Jebbie gets to prance on the world stage and get plenty of coverage on FUX!

Meanwhile, the US is still looking pretty, well, stingy:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that the United Nations had received pledges of $500 million to pay for emergency assistance to victims of the south Asia earthquake and tsunami.

More than 30 nations have pledged $250 million, including a U.S. promise of $35 million, which Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday was "only the beginning."

The other $250 million will come from the World Bank. Even so, Annan said the United Nations would issue an appeal for more emergency funds next week.

Because of the magnitude of the catastrophe, he said coordination is vital to make sure that the right supplies reach the areas hit hardest. The World Health Organization estimates that 5 million people need some assistance; about a third are children.
(via Seattle Times)

$35 million out of $500 million.... Still, let's try for a little balance here. I mean, they aren't "Christians," so they're going to Hell, right? So why spend any more than the minimum that public relations requires?

UPDATE Alert reader Palolo lolo:

Isn't Neil the one with connections in Thailand? Maybe he gave Jebbie the names or just the hotel room number to stay in!

Heh.

(text of the Conyers letter back here.

Oh, wait... I wrote the headline before actually checking Google News... Just a sec.... all two related.

Interesting. No coverage at all in any major, or minor, media outlet. I wonder why?

UPDATE RDF writes:

Your local county party should be drafting a letter of support to Rep. Conyers, and letters of urging to your Sens, like, ummm, NOW.

Seems to me that counting all the votes, regardless of the outcome, should be a no-brainer. Why would anyone want not to count all the votes?

Watching the news coverage on the tsunami in Indonesia reminded me of something. Especially the videotape of all that water rolling over the beach and into the interior. Namely that this is the image that goes through your head when you're waiting for a hurricane to roll ashore. Except in the case of what happened in Indonesia, you, dear hurricane watcher, are not caught off-guard by the moment but rather subjected to the possibilities of such natural powers over a period of days.

Listening to the weather people on your television deliver continuous warnings on the destructive power of storm surges and so forth. Sixteen to eighteen foot storm surges which are, as I recall, some record setting storm surges pushed ashore by powerful hurricanes in the past. I have no idea how great the storm surge (or tsunami) was in South Asia but that isn't the point at this point. The point is that what those people experienced in South Asia is the terrible actuality of the nightmare that bangs around in the skull of anyone who has ever waited out a hurricane(s) possibilities at two or three feet above sea level. Which is about how many feet above sea level I was living at when I had my own deep dark thoughts banging around in my skull in this regard. On a number of occasions as a matter of fact.

Anyone who reads here, who currently lives, or has lived, in South Florida for any period of time, will most likely understand what I'm getting at here. And has no boubt entertained such humbling possibilities.

When hurricane Andrew swept its way toward South Florida in August 1992 I had all these kinds of scary thoughts banging around in my skull because, as the weather people will tell you, its the water stupid! Its the water - the storm surge - that kills thousands of people.

What you think about - the images that go through your head - as you sit in your hurricane shuttered sweatbox - is basically what you see in those videos coming from Indonesia today.

Although Andrew roared ashore north of where I lived I nevertheless planned carefully what I would do should the worst come to pass waterwise. The first moronic notion that comes to mind in such last minute planning situations is the idea that you will be able to float on something. So you look around your yard and home and take note of things that will float. Like boats. But in the event you can't drag a boat into your living room you examine air mattresses and sofa cushions and the fat labrador retriever snoring in the corner of the living room for potential bouyancy properties. At least you do if you're me.

Then of course you figure out where exactly 16 or 18 feet is located at. Because who the fuck really knows. Do you really know where 16 or 18 feet is? I didn't think so. You will need to know these things so you can scamper quickly onto your roof and leap like a human gecko into the fronds of a twenty five foot palm tree should the waters rise beyond the towering heights of your fiberglass carport roof. Which I did. Figure out where 16-18 feet was that is. I had it all figured out.

Next you check the weather station for the latest updates. Then, because you are afterall, at least if you are me, which your aren't, but nevermind...if you are as I say, a fabulous action figure, you pretend that you will escape to the nearest high rise hotel should the waters rise above your ten inch tall porch stoop. There you will introduce yourself to the lovely young maiden at the front desk and be escorted straightaway to a moderatly priced suite thirty feet above the tragic drowning action. Oh yes. Where you will be warm and dry and treated to a complimentary bottle of Chateau St. Michele and a half dozen freshly steamed stone crab claws and a half eaten Toblerone bar that was never rotated out of the minibar - oh goddamnit - where's the fuckin' phone - get me the food and beverage director son-of-a-bitch immediately!!!!. Oh sure.

And then you snap out of it and sit your ass down in your sweaty home hurricane shelter and prepare to die on your sofa like the ultimately helpless and stupid and unseaworthy creature that you are. At some point you come to the awful realization that the last face you might see before you are swept away and deposited in a mangrove tangle or discovered floating naked somewhere in the ocean west of the Marquesas Keys is the jabbering mug of one of those morons on the weather channel. Yee gads, what a way to go. So you turn off the TV. Which drives you nuts after about three minutes. So you turn it back on.

Now you have fully resolved yourself to your fate. Sort of. You put on a life jacket if you have one. Which naturally you don't. So you clutch on to your favorite philodendron plant and wait and hope for the best. What else can ya do?

And thats what I was reminded of when watching that water wash over those towns in South East Asia. Those imaginings which seem silly to me today because the worst case scenario outlined above - and the silly imaginings I have cartooned for you above - were never realized in any manner whatsoever in my case. But what happened in Indonesia is exactly what I imagined might happen to me all those years ago at three feet above sea level. But on a much smaller scale geographically and populationally. At least it went through my head. I'm not kidding either.

Which isn't the case in Indonesia. And they never saw it coming. And none of it is silly at all. And the gravity of what happened there gives me pause even now when it comes to mentioning my own seemingly silly recounting of my own imagingings of such things all those years ago at three feet above sea level. But I guess that's the kind of generous luck of the draw and hedge against despair that life affords us. What else can ya do?

What really bothers me while watching the coverage of what has happened in Indonesia - especially with respect to a good deal of the quivering lower lip commentary coming from some of the dippity-doo wowsers in the television media - is the realization that these very same media dolts never shed a single tear or a single lower lip quiver while they hooted and cheered and made squeally sounds as the United States of America rained explosives on thousands of innocent people in places like Iraq. "Liberating" little kids and mothers and fathers and on and on and on from their arms and legs and heads and dreams. Where were the sad theatrical refrains from the showroom dummies at CNN and MSNBC and you know who then?

Tsunami's and earthquakes are natural disasters. The earth is a scary living thing. When people get in the way - when nature gets really crazy and people are killed - it's very sad and that is the case. But it isn't a malignant intentional act. Unless God is a jabbering lunatic who hates his children.

But when we as a nation actively plan and execute and unleash a tsunami of airborn hellfire on a population of innocent people in a carefully targeted location - well - that malignant monstrous intentional action is given a parade and big thumbs up from the very same quivering lower lips that are currently grieveing at me, one photograph at a time, from the cozy confines of some TV studio sound set, as I write this. Its creepy. Downright creepy and scary. It makes me want to grab my philodendron plant and hold on and hope for the best. And I live well above sea level these days.

Bernard Weiner

The Hell That Is South Asia
The Asia quake/tsunami disaster hit too close to home: My wife had been in southern Thailand, at the beaches, only a week before the disaster struck; I had been in Southeast Asia a week before that. - [continue reading... The Hell That Is South Asia]

Damon Poeter:

Sports talk has its time, but this isn’t it - Wednesday, December 29, 2004

T Rex has a list of: NAMES


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Being mildly occupied with trying to get a new website up for my business, which involves cooking several dozen complicated historic recipes, which besides being cooked have to be photographed, Photoshopped, and FrontPaged, with circles and arrows on the back of each one explaining what it is all about, with a deadline of Monday, has put me a bit behind in blog posting.

If that sentence sounds complicated, convoluted, whiny, irrelevant and kinda stupid, it ain't a patch on this apparently overlooked Op-Ed which ran last Sunday, and has been up on their website for most of the week, at the usually-better-than-this LATimes:

Twenty-five years ago, on Christmas Eve, Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan with the aim of restoring order in a few months. Nine years later they withdrew amid continued violence. In their wake, civil war erupted and the Taliban rose to power, providing a haven to Al Qaeda.

Critics of the U.S. military effort in Iraq often cite the Soviet experience in Afghanistan as evidence that using foreign troops to put down an insurgency is bound to fail. But that "lesson" is misleading because it depends on a depiction of the Soviet-Afghan war that is downright inaccurate.

When Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan, they initially failed to protect their logistical and communications lines. But Soviet commanders quickly corrected these mistakes and brought in better troops, including helicopter pilots trained for mountain warfare. From mid-1980 on, the Afghan guerrillas never seized any major Soviet facilities or prevented major troop deployments and movements.

When Soviet generals shifted, in mid-1983, to a counterinsurgency strategy of scorched-earth tactics and the use of heavily armed special operations forces, their progress against the guerrillas accelerated. Over the next few years, the Soviets increased their control of Afghanistan, inflicting many casualties — guerrilla and civilian. Had it not been for the immense support — weapons, training, materials — provided to the Afghan guerrillas by the United States, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan, Soviet troops would have achieved outright victory.

Even with all the outside military assistance, Afghan guerrillas were often helpless when facing the Soviet military machine. Raids conducted by Soviet airborne and helicopter forces were especially effective....In a long study of Soviet military progress as of mid-1987, a leading Westren military expert concluded that Soviet forces were proving "devastatingly effective against the Afghan resistance," were "presently winning in Afghanistan" and were "very close to crushing the resistance."

The announcement in 1988 by then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev that forces would be withdrawn from Afghanistan within a year was a political and diplomatic decision, not a military one.

Anybody find this as odd as I do? What this guy is saying is that if what really happened just hadn't really happened, They Coulda Been A Contenda! They Coulda Been Somebody! And who betrayed this noble military (keep in mind this is the goddam Soviet Army we're suddenly rehabilitating here) effort?

You got it. Stabbed in the back they were, by the craven politicians. And diplomats. Liberals, you know!

And of course he ties this all in with Iraq. If the feeble Soviets coulda defeated guerillas in Afghanistan, who were getting all this wink-eye Western support 'n' arms 'n' stuff, well then of course OUR military, which is so much manlier and righteous and higher-tech and all, must be right on the verge of winnin' against the bad guys in Iraqistan--and if they don't, it can only be because they are stabbed in the back.

I haven't seen this piece commented on elsewhere, I suspect because this argument is so stupefying that everybody is acting like they do when Uncle Ernie gets drunk after dinner and pukes on the cat. The automatic response is for everyone to pretend they didn't see, move with as much haste as dignity allows to the other room, and let Aunt Eunice deal with him.

The author of this piece is one Mark Kramer, credited as "director of the Harvard Cold War studies program and a senior fellow at the university's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian studies." I never heard of the guy and know nothing of his ideology. If his "credentials" were AEI or Cato we would know this was the start of a Mighty Wirlitzer chorus. If this is one of those, and it's starting from a guy at Harvard, that's scary.

This reminds me of nothing more than the start of the Lost Cause movement after the Civil War, which ties in with farmer's Klan story back here, but that's too long a story to tell at this time of night except to say that it's the same logic that motivates the Swift Boat Liars hatred for John Kerry (the real hatred I mean, not the bought-and-paid-for outrage part) so we best leave it for another time.

And happy New Year's Eve morning, everyone.

Guess I've got to start working on those revsolutions..,.

Go Keith Olbermann!

From a letter Congressman John Conyers wrote to Senator Barbara Boxer:

"As you know, on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M...

Mark the date. Of course, Florida 2000 should have been challenged, but better late than never. The spectacle of Al Gore gavelling down the theft of his own election, while the (gutless, feckless) Beltway Dems didn't give protesting Florida representatives the right to be heard, is one of the most shameful moments in the history of the modern Democratic party (and a chilling moment in F911).

... the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress, commencing at 1:00 P.M. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law. I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election.

"3 U.S.C. §15 provides when the results from each of the states are announced, that "the President of the Senate [Dick Cheney, hah] shall call for objections, if any." Any objection must be presented in writing and "signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. The objection must "state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof. When an objection has been properly made in writing and endorsed by a member of each body the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each body meets separately to consider the objection. "No votes . . . from any other State shall be acted upon until the [pending] objection . . . [is] finally disposed of." 3 U.S.C. §17 limits debate on the objections in each body to two hours, during which time no member may speak more than once and not for more than five minutes. Both the Senate and the House must separately agree to the objection; otherwise, the challenged vote or votes are counted.

"Historically, there appears to be three general grounds for objecting to the counting of electoral votes. The language of 3 U.S.C. §15 suggests that objection may be made on the grounds that (1) a vote was not "regularly given" by the challenged elector(s); and/or (2) the elector(s) was not "lawfully certified" under state law; or (3) two slates of electors have been presented to Congress from the same State.

"Since the Electoral Count Act of 1887, no objection meeting the requirements of the Act have been made against an entire slate of state electors. In the 2000 election several Members of the House of Representatives attempted to challenge the electoral votes from the State of Florida. However, no Senator joined in the objection, and therefore, the objection was not "received." In addition, there was no determination whether the objection constituted an appropriate basis under the 1887 Act. However, if a State - in this case Ohio - has not followed its own procedures and met its obligation to conduct a free and fair election, a valid objection - if endorsed by at least one Senator and a Member of the House of Representatives- should be debated by each body separately until "disposed of".
(via MSNBC)

Spines!

There's a lot of Inside Baseball stuff in this article about how the Republicans and the Democrats used their money in campaign 2004, but one sentence really leaped to my eye:

The Kerry campaign hired mainly consultants entrenched in the Democratic establishment, led by Robert Shrum, a speechwriter, media adviser and strategist on eight losing presidential campaigns dating to Edmund S. Muskie in 1972.
(via WaPo)

I think it's Vince Lombardi who said, "Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser." Eight times? That's a record that doesn't come by chance. These consultants are, indeed, playing the Washington Generals to the Republican Globetrotters.

Eight times. Let me spell it out:

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Lose.

Had enough? Let's start with Dean for the DNC chair.

Working his way up to the higherups, of course:

Prosecutors [i.e., Ronnie Earle's office] agreed to drop an illegal campaign contribution charge against Sears, Roebuck and Co. in exchange for its cooperation in an investigation of contributions to a political action committee associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Sears was accused of donating $25,000 to Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 legislative campaign. The use of corporate money for political purposes is illegal in Texas.

Under the agreement, Sears will cooperate with Texas officials in their prosecution and investigation of other people for any offense related to the corporate contribution that Sears made. O'Leary said Sears also will give $100,000 to the University of Texas for a campaign finance law awareness program.
(via AP)

Of course, when the Republicans don't like the way the law works out, they just change it:

In Texas, state Republican lawmakers are considering some maneuvers of their own in light of the investigation.

One proposal would take authority for prosecuting the campaign finance case away from Democratic district attorney Ronnie Earle in Austin, who has already indicted three DeLay associates, and give it to state Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican.

Another move would legalize corporate campaign contributions such as the ones that figure into the state case, potentially undermining the prosecution.
(via Houston Chronicle)

Beautiful, isn't it? Remember all that crap about "the rule of law" when the Republicans were staging their coup against Clinton? Turns out they meant "the rule of laws that we like." Oh well!

Here are some choice quotes from Ronnie Earle, though (who has, BTW, prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans during his tenure:

Ronnie Earle I. After House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, blasted Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in February for investigating him in a vindictive manner, Earle replied, "Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."

Earle II. Earle, a 1960 graduate of Birdville High School, said in November of the DeLay probe, "This investigation is a little like clowns coming out of a Volkswagen in the circus. There's always another clown coming out."
(via Fort Worth Star Relegram)

Let's hope there are plenty more clowns to come...

Fine, I’m harping on this, but I’m old and easily moved by memories and overwhelmed by how close we were and how far we have to go. If you already plan to make MLK day a day that we vow to continue the struggle, fine, skip to another post. Otherwise, read and consider what you plan to do on January 17th. Like Labor Day, this is a day for the people.

Consummate organizer. On target. On message. Scaring the shit out of the Establishment so badly they had to kill him. And a Christian preacher. Almost 38 years ago he said the following. In a church. To other clergy. And all we need to do is substitute “iWaq” for “Vietnam” and it’s clear that these words and others like them from this man need to be shouted loud before the coronation of the sociopath. The struggle is far from over, and we owe it to someone to continue…

…If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war…

…It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." [applause] Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. [applause]

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it haseverything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. [sustained applause]

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

from “Beyond Vietnam,” speech on 4/4/67

Coupla weeks left till we celebrate his birth… right before a sociopath takes the oath of office and “swears” to uphold the Constitution and create an America in Rove’s image, not Dr. King’s. Let's make it a loud and proud holiday. Peace and justice, me hearties... arrghhhh!

The wowsers at MSNBC are handing out miracles willy-nilly this morning. The miracle baby, the miracle child, the miracle puppy (oh, there must be a miracle puppy!) - this miracle and that miracle. So many miracles not enough dewy-eyed MSNBC TV-media drips to announce the miracles. Why it's all just one big festival of miracles at MSNBC this morn. Of course they don't like to characterize the 84,000 (one third of the victims children) dead people as anti-miracles, but, well, ya know, fuck off will ya...we're MSNBC and we have miracles to report. Of course a floating mattress has nothing to do with the less than miraculous buoyancy of an actual physical object like a mattress or anything like that - so again, fuck off, miracles - miracles - miracles!

Keep it dumb, keep it simple, keep it boing-eyed miraculous! Thats MSNBC. Its a miracle anyone watches it.

You can send your earthly dollars to help victims of nature's powerful comings and goings in Indonesia by visiting Loaded Mouth and taking The Tsunami Blogger Challenge.

Donate to the relief efforts.

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Prices slashed on domestic terror. While supplies last!





Via Atrios this quote on "domestic terrorism":

"Gangs are a forum to promote terrorism," said Balboni spokeswoman Lisa Angerame. "Therefore, the anti-terrorism statue would be applicable against them, even if the original intent for this law was not exactly to prosecute them."

Speaking of "forums" for domestic terrorism and "gangs" and so on... over in wingnut retail world - hypocrisy sells:

Selling Extremism
Wal-Mart drops Protocols, but controversy lives on

(The book on which 'Birth of a Nation' is based is offered in four different versions on Wal-Mart's Web site.)

Wal-Mart is notoriously vigilant about protecting consumers from products it deems offensive. The world's largest retail chain refuses to sell any CD with a parental warning sticker. Wal-Mart even banned Sheryl Crow's music because the singer/songwriter criticized its gun sales.

The chain has also implemented policies against literature it deems offensive, stripping men's magazines like Maxim and Stuff from the store's racks along with gay publications like The Advocate and Out.

Wal-Mart's standards of offensiveness became an issue last fall when customers and civil-rights groups complained about its Web site selling The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

A notorious forgery that describes a vast Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, the Protocols are carried by other online booksellers such as Amazon.com, but with a disclaimer that describes it as a "pernicious fraud," and "one of the most infamous, and tragically influential, examples of racist propaganda ever written."

Wal-Mart's site featured quite a different description of the controversial product: "If ... The Protocols are genuine (which can never be proven conclusively), it might cause some of us to keep a wary eye on world affairs," said WalMart.com.

"It's outrageous that they would sell it in the first place," said Deborah Lipstadt, director of the Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. "It's unbelievable, but I'm glad they pulled it. It's the equivalent of selling 'Birth of a Nation' in the film section."

In fact, "Birth of a Nation," a 1915 filmic ode to white supremacy based on the 1905 novel The Clansman, is still available on WalMart.com for $17.28. The site also sells four different versions of The Clansman.

The book and movie were largely responsible for the 20th-century rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, introducing the tactic of cross-burnings to the new generation of racists the story inspired. ~ Southern Poverty Law Center

Several printings available from WalMart Books: Thomas Dixon

Thomas Dixon is the author of the Klan trilogy which also includes The Leopard's Spots and The Traitor. The Clansman was, as the item above notes, the inspiration for David Wark (D.W.) Griffith's 1915 film Birth of a Nation.

Dixon wrote a whole lot of other crap too; including The Flaming Sword in which crazed commie negroes try to help destroy America and puppies and indoor plumbing and pretty much everything else they could get permission to destroy. Basically, God fearin' white Christian western civilization in general. You know how those sneaky negroes are. Unfortunately the sneaky homosexuals have picked up where the commie black people left off so western civilization will have to remain on its vigilant toes for a short while longer. At least until WalMart shoppers - or those beady-eyed cousin fuckers at MSNBC's Scarborough Country - can mount some kind of glorious counterterror counteroffensive. To the Daniel Decatur Emmett monument brave avengers! (Emmett wrote the song "I Wish I Was In Dixie's Land" - just in case you were wondering.)

Yes, where was I ....oh, Thomas Dixon's The Clansman... here's a sampling (intro snip) from the book. On the birth of the Invisible Empire:

In the darkest hour of the life of the South, when her wounded people lay helpless amid rags and ashes under the beak and talon of the Vulture, suddenly from the mists of the mountains appeared a white cloud the size of a man's hand. It grew until its mantle of mystery enfolded the stricken earth and sky. An "Invisible Empire" had risen from the field of Death and challenged the Visible to mortal combat.

How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon's death, and saved the life of a people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the Aryan race. - Thomas Dixon, December 14, 1904

Well I'm plucking a tear from my eye. Makes ya just want to run on down to WalMart right now and pick yer'self out a set of everyday low priced white King size polyester-blend bed sheets and mount a spirited chestnut steed and gallop off to rescue a golden haired lassie trapped in a burning manor. Now don't it?

I think I'll give up blogging to write KKK bodice rippers. I think it's an entire unexplored genre that could fill a niche these days. Any interested publishers please feel free to write me and offer me a generous amount of advance money. I will accept gold bullion as well.

Good day Sirs.

americanus moronicus idioticus

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Okay, here goes. Examples of disturbing symptoms exhibited in public. There have been posts on so many of these. And this is only Bush. I haven’t touched the others. The list is far from complete, so dig in…

1. Egocentricity—aircraft carrier display ("Mission accomplished", back when there were only 138 dead)


2. Callousness; Impulsivity; Conscience defect—blowing up frogs (here)


3. Exaggerated sexuality—codpiece


4. Excessive boasting—claims about Air Force service (here)


5. Risk taking—playing with chain saws, crashing bicycles (here)


6. Inability to resist temptation—drunkard (here)


7. Antagonistic, deprecating attitude toward the opposite sex—awww, honey


8. Lack of interest in bonding with a mate—check with unsatisfied LauWa


9. Glib and superficial charm—the kind of guy Joe Six Pack would have a beer with


10. Grandiose sense of self-worth—repeat ad nauseam “war president”


11. Need for stimulation—cocaine (Snort!)


12. Pathological lying—oh, hell, where to start?


13. Conning and manipulativeness—follows Rove’s script (back)


14. Lack of remorse or guilt—Inerrant Boy, as Lambert aptly coins it (here)


15. Shallow affect; Callousness and lack of empathy—call it collateral damage


16. Parasitic lifestyle—well, he is a Bush, the haves and have mores are his base (here)


17. Poor behavioral controls—easily angered with criticism (back)


18. Promiscuous sexual behavior—the aborted maid story? Ewww! Don’t wanna think about it


19. Early behavior problems—frogs again (here)


20. Lack of realistic, long-term goals—iWaq (here), economy


21. Impulsivity—turkey trip?


22. Irresponsibility; Failure to accept responsibility for own actions—Inerrant Boy again (here)

And remember, a positive hit on a cluster of 5-7 of these symptoms warrants a diagnosis (see, e.g., here for the DSM criteria for sociopaths).

Catherine O’Sullivan over at a Tucson fishwrapper has a good terse take on this, too: Tucson Weekly : Opinion : Guest Commentary She starts with

The real problem with the idea of the president being a psychopath is that it generates the vexing question: What kind of nation re-elects a psychopath to the highest office in the land? The answer could be one or all of three things: a dumb one, a mean one or a thoroughly conned one.

and ends with

Maybe my friend's right. Anyone who could manipulate a tragedy like Sept. 11 into a mess like this must be a serious lunatic…Could be, could be. I've read up on the subject further and--according to the literature--egocentricity, deceit, shallow affect, manipulativeness, selfishness and lack of empathy, guilt or remorse are quite common in the realms of corporate America, the military establishment ... hell, even academia. The ability and willingness to ruthlessly exploit the fears and weaknesses of others so you can get what you want is not ultimately nor exclusively the domain of people who wind up in metal cages. Not even close.

This last bit is telling, because if, as some claim, Bush is merely a product of his milieu, then consider his corporate upbringing and who he surrounds himself with. Szasz and the Libertarians would argue that one person’s psychopathology is another person’s lifestyle, and to some extent I agree, but Bush’s own behavior on this front shows that he prefers profit to liberty. See Law Project for Psychiatric Rights for more, but remember this from it:

The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) was developed with 1.7 million $ of initial financing from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, provided indirectly through a connected Foundation, and subsequent direct cash funneled through subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica. It was developed and implemented in the Lone Star State's hospitals, prisons, the Juvenile Justice system and the Foster Care system during George W. Bush's watch as governor. Bush used the "extended mental health care" scheme as a point in his 2000 presidential campaign. Before leaving for the White House, he recommended a 67 million $ spending increase to pay for additional medications for the Texas Prison and Mental Health Systems… TMAP, the Texas project, was also exported to other states, including Pennsylvania, where an investigation into what is called PENNMAP there, uncovered improper pharmaceutical pressures and financial enticements in connection with the program.

And I dug up this telling quote from a paper. You’ve probably seen it before:

Mark Crispin Miller, author of The Bush Dyslexicon and professor of media studies at New York University, who also sees the darker Bush, said in a Nov. 28 interview with the Toronto Star, ""Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think that Bush is a sociopathic personality. I think he's incapable of empathy. He has an inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and he's a very skilled manipulator. And in all the snickering about his alleged idiocy, this is what a lot of people miss."

Miller said he did intend The Bush Dyslexicon to be a funny book, but that was before he read all the transcripts, which revealed, according to reporter Murray Whyte, "a disquieting truth about what lurks behind the cock-eyed leer of the leader of the free world. He's not a moron at all on that point, Miller and Prime Minister Jean Chretien agree."

"He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking punitively, when he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge," Miller told Whyte. "When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine. It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes."

Yes, we all know people like this. But society usually puts some restraints on their behavior. That’s why we have corporate regulation, EEOC, etc. Now imagine a cabal in a position of what they think is ultimate power that actually likes this way of life—enjoys displaying these symptoms and intends to make them acceptable—and the only answers I can think of as to why he was reelected are: 1) fraud, 2) fear, 3) 51% of American society also shares these “symptoms” and sees no problem with sociopathy.

Peace, love and justice. Soon to be back by popular demand? See Xan's post below, and then go take a pill. It’s all in your head.


UPDATE I (Lambert) went through the list of Bush's troubling symptoms that RDF compiled, and added links to posts that give evidence for the symptoms.

Readers, some of the symptoms still don't have links; perhaps other links can be improved. Can you help?

In memoriam Susan Sontag. Go read.

Um, rationalizations and academic theorizing aside—is torture evil? Are torturers evil?

Heh.

[T]he administration's plan to partially privatize the system sounds appealing to many. But that better return won't always happen.

Just ask Stanley Logue of San Diego.

For 45 years, the defense-industry analyst paid into the system until his retirement in 1994. But with all the recent hoopla over reform, Mr. Logue, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, decided to go back and check his own records. Would he have done better investing his money than the bureaucrats at the Social Security Administration?

He recorded all the payroll taxes he paid into the system (including the matching amount from his employer), tracked down the return the Social Security Trust Fund earned for each of the 45 years, and then compared the result with what he would have gotten had he been able to invest the same amount of payroll tax money over the same period in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (including dividends).

To his surprise, the Social Security investment won out: $261,372 versus $255,499, a difference of $5,873.

It's an astonishing finding. T
(via Monitor)

Astonishing? Only if you're accustomed to believing what the SCLM and the wingers tell you.

This is the speech I heard the other day on a tape that at some time in the past I had just marked “MLK Speeches.” I found it’s the one he gave when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. I excerpt the part that made me get choked up and teary when I heard it. I dunno why. I guess I’m an old softie who remembers the power this voice had, still has, to confront evil:

…Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.

If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are traveling to find a new sense of dignity.

This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

"And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid."

I still believe that we shall overcome.

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born. …

I ain’t religious folk, but for the faith he describes, AMEN.

I should point out that the man who spoke these words has a birthday remembrance right before the coronation. Make plans to assure that his birthday party is noisier than aWol’s have-mores bash.

Now I must for bed, perchance to dream…

Here (via, however, old media AFP)

Stingy? Did someone say "stingy"?

The Bush administration more than doubled its financial commitment yesterday to provide relief to nations suffering from the Indian Ocean tsunami, amid complaints that the vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.

As the death toll surpassed 50,000 with no sign of abating, the U.S. Agency for International Development added $20 million to an earlier pledge of $15 million to provide relief, and the Pentagon dispatched an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in morning television appearances, chafed at a top U.N. aid official's comment on Monday that wealthy countries were being stingy with aid. "The United States is not stingy," Powell said on CNN.

That brings to a whopping 10 cents per capita, our contribution to alleviating one of the great human tragedies of all time. How inspiring. I just wrote a check to Doctors Without Borders for 1000 times that amount, so I guess that makes me Albert Fucking Schweitzer. Yet I somehow still feel strangely unvirtuous.

I must lack the self-esteem of my Christian exemplars in the White House.

More from Xan here.

What's the antithesis of "genius"? Or "saint"? Or "remotely intelligent man"?

(via Juan Cole)

As John F. Harris and Robin Wright of the Washington Post cannily note, US President George W. Bush has missed an important opportunity to reach out to the Muslims of Indonesia. The Bush administration at first pledged a paltry $15 million, a mysteriously chintzy response to what was obviously an enormous calamity. Bush himself remained on vacation, and now has reluctantly agreed to a meeting of the National Security Council by video conference. If Bush were a statesman,

Yes, we will pause here to allow laughter and/or nausea to pass...if Professor Cole ever loses his job in academia he could follow in the comedic footsteps of Steven Wright.

he would have flown to Jakarta and announced his solidarity with the Muslims of Indonesia (which has suffered at least 40,000 dead and rising).

Indeed, the worst-hit area of Indonesia is Aceh, the center of a Muslim separatist movement, and a gesture to Aceh from the US at this moment might have meant a lot in US-Muslim public relations. Bin Laden and Zawahiri sniffed around Aceh in hopes of recruiting operatives there, being experts in fishing in troubled waters. Doesn't the US want to outflank al-Qaeda? As it is, the president of the United States is invisible and on vacation (unlike several European heads of state), and could think of nothing better to do than announce a paltry pledge. As Harris and Wright rightly say, the rest of the world treated the US much better than this after September 11.

The Indonesian government itself has an opportunity to gain some good will in troubled Aceh, and appears to have taken a good first step by allowing international aid agencies into the area.

If Karl Rove were even remotely smart at anything except dirty tricks, we would have had a scenario like this: The first C-130 full of supplies lands at wherever it's headed to, the rear cargo bay opens up, and there's Flightsuit Boy in full regalia, directing the offloading of the cargo.

No Air Force One, no panoply or pomp of state, just a minimum number of Secret Service and the like. The astounded media gathered to cover the flight are told that the US President did not want to take valuable time away from the relief effort but wanted to personally express sympathy for the victims of this disaster, etc.

Imagine the worldwide reaction.

Sigh.

Cough syrup for me, too. Eesh. Rather: [cough, hack], eesh [cough, cough, hack].

Oh heck, it's only 51,000 dead and still counting. But then, most of them aren't Christians, so they're going to Hell anyhow, right?

There was an international outpouring of support after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and even some administration officials familiar with relief efforts said they were surprised that Bush had not appeared personally to comment on the tsunami tragedy. "It's kind of freaky," a senior career official said.
(via WaPo)

Or maybe He fell off his bike?

Oh, but wait! The Pentagon is sending an aircraft carrier! WTF?

Money talks:

The Homeland Security Department has allowed federal grants for improving security at America's ports to be spent on low priority problems rather than the most serious vulnerabilities, the agency's outgoing watchdog says.

Well, let's be reasonable here. What could be a higher priority than leaving the Blues who didn't vote for Bush vulnerable to attack?

In a draft report to be released next month, Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin says port security spending should be governed by the most pressing priorities rather than local politics.

The grant program has been criticized in the past for being too cumbersome and for awarding money to projects of questionable use. To make his point, Ervin cited the report of the Sept. 11 Commission, which said homeland security spending should not be used as a "pork barrel" for politicians to send money to their home districts.

The report is one of the last submitted by Ervin, who earned a reputation as a blunt critic of the department before leaving the job earlier this month. Ervin won a recess appointment to the position in December 2003, but the Senate failed to confirm him and the White House appeared unlikely to nominate him again.
(via AP)

Another truthteller gone. Surprise!

Not that we haven't been saying this over and over again (reckless indifference to the nightmare scenario)

Nefarious temptations at work in the Mockingbird state:

Careful Not to Get Too Much Education...Or You Could Turn Liberal - by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to a conversation I overheard at a Starbucks in Nashville last winter. It was a cold and rainy night as I worked away at my laptop, but the comforting aroma of cappuccino kept me going. My comfort was interrupted, however, by two young men who sat down in upholstered chairs near my table. One was talking, the other listening, in what appeared to be an informal college orientation.

"The only trouble with David Lipscomb (a conservative Christian college nearby) is that old man Lipscomb apparently didn't like football. So we don't have a football team, but we have a great faculty."

"But you do have to be careful about one thing," he said more quietly, coming closer and speaking in hushed tones, "My professor-I have this great professor-told me that you have to be careful not to get too much education, because you could lose your foundation, your core values."

The neophyte nodded solemnly, his eyebrows raised with worry.

"If you get a bachelors," the seasoned student reassured, "you'll probably be okay. But my professor said that when you get a master's, and definitely if you go beyond that, you can lose your values. He said that college students have to be watchful because if you get too much education, you could turn LIBERAL. He's seen it happen to a lot of good Christians." ~ more

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Haifa Zangana: "Iraqi-born novelist and former prisoner of the Saddam regime" - Guardian UK - 12.22.04:

Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has confined them to their homes

The US state department has launched a $10m "Iraqi women's democracy initiative" to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. Paula Dobriansky, US undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared:"We will give Iraqi women the tools, information and experience they need to run for office and lobby for fair treatment." The fact that the money will go mainly to organisations embedded with the US administration, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) founded by Dick Cheney's wife Lynn, was, of course, not mentioned.
Of all the blunders by the US administration in Iraq, the greatest is its failure to understand Iraqi people, women in particular. The main misconception is to perceive Iraqi women as silent, powerless victims in a male-controlled society in urgent need of "liberation". This image fits conveniently into the big picture of the Iraqi people being passive victims who would welcome the occupation of their country.

[...]

By the early 90s, Iraq had one of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world. There were more professional women in positions of power than in almost any other Middle Eastern nation

The tragedy was that women were living under Saddam's oppressive regime. True, women occupied high political positions, but they did nothing to protest at the injustice inflicted on their sisters who opposed the regime.

The same is happening now in "the new democratic Iraq". After "liberation", Bush and Blair trumpeted women's advancement as a centrepiece of their vision for Iraq. In the White House, hand-picked Iraqi women recited desperately needed homilies to justify the invasion of Iraq. In June, nominal sovereignty was handed over to a US-appointed Iraqi interim government, including six women cabinet ministers. They were not elected by Iraqi people.

Under Ayad Allawi's regime, "multinational forces" remain immune from legal redress, rarely accountable for crimes committed against Iraqis. The gap between women members of Allawi's regime and the majority of Iraqi women is widening by the day. While cabinet ministers and the US-UK embassies are cocooned inside the fortified green zone, Iraqis are denied the basic right of walking safely in their own streets. Right of road is for US tanks labelled: "If you pass the convoy you will be killed."

Lack of security and fear of kidnapping make Iraqi women prisoners in their own homes. They witness the looting of their country by Halliburton, Bechtel, US NGOs, missionaries, mercenaries and local subcontractors, while they are denied clean water and electricity. In the land of oil, they have to queue five hours a day to get kerosene or petrol. Acute malnutrition has doubled among children. Unemployment at 70% is exacerbating poverty, prostitution, backstreet abortion and honour killing. Corruption and nepotism are rampant in the interim government. Al-Naqib, minister of interior admitted that he had appointed 49 of his relatives to high-ranking jobs, but only because they were qualified.

[...]

The silence of the "feminists" of Allawi's regime is deafening. The suffering of their sisters in cities showered with napalm, phosphorus and cluster bombs by US jet fighters, the death of about 100,000 Iraqi civilians, half of them women and children, is met with rhetoric about training for democracy. ~ Quiet, or I'll call democracy

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New York City is the place he ought to be so he loaded up the truck and became a FOXNewzi:

Sellout Zell, a Friend of Appalachia No More - By Chris Pepus

In January, Sen. Zell Miller ends a political career in which the one constant was his claim to be a champion of his native Appalachia. Miller was quick to criticize stereotypes of "hillbillies" and "white trash," and he would probably like to be remembered for pioneering the Hope Scholarship program while governor of Georgia. But his tenure in the US Senate overshadowed everything else he did and proved that he was only interested in helping the poor of Appalachia when it was politically advantageous.

[...]

... mostly, Miller used his Appalachian background as a prop to help sell George Bush Jr.'s aristocratic agenda to prime-time TV audiences. By the end of his career, Miller had become the southern accent of Wall Street and Harvard Business School.

more on this squirrelly idiot's past schenanigans via Progressive Populist

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Maybe Blackwell will take to wandering around the neighborhood in his bathrobe babbling to himself and drolling down the front of a sleeveless t-shirt:

Ohio GOP Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas as Kerry Enters Stolen Vote Fray - by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

COLUMBUS -- Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell refused to appear at a deposition on Monday, December 27. The deposition was part of an election challenge lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court. Meanwhile John Kerry is reported to have filed a federal legal action aimed at preserving crucial recount evidence, which has been under GOP assault throughout the state.

Richard Conglianese, Ohio Assistant Attorney General, is seeking a court order to protect Blackwell from testifying under oath about how the election was run. Blackwell, who administered Ohio's November 2 balloting, served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.

James R. Dicks, Miami County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, filed a motion to block a subpoena in his county while Conglianese filed to block subpoenas in ten key Ohio counties.

President George Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove received notice that they will be deposed Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28 and 29. The trio’s Ohio attorney, Kurt Tunnell, so far claims his clients have not been properly served. Under Ohio law, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is responsible for serving the three with subpoenas.

Meanwhile, ... continue reading

And I suppose all three will be huddled together holding each others hands during the deposition. Oh, the persecution! Maybe they'll dress Commander Costume up as Jesus for the event.

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Race to the bottom continues - 12.27.04:

Steinbeck's hometown to close libraries
Seattle Post-Intelligencer/AP

SALINAS, Calif. -- Mary Jean Gamble organized the John Steinbeck historical archives, supervised the Steinbeck literature collection and ranks as an authority on Salinas history and genealogy.

After nearly 23 years with the Salinas Public Library, she may know more about the "Grapes of Wrath" or "Cannery Row" than anyone else in the author's hometown.

So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is closing its libraries in the spring?

"He'd obviously be upset. He knew that literature can lift and elevate the spirit and enable humans to rise above any situation," Gamble said. "He probably even read some of the great literature at the Salinas library."

Facing record deficits, the City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three of Salinas' libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar town of 150,000 could become the most populous U.S. city without a public library. ~ MORE

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I am somewhat better today, thank you all. Took a big old slash of cough syrup and my antibiotics around dark yestiddy and slept until the roosters woke me up. And while I slept in opiate-induced cough-free bliss, like Coleridge using opiates purely medicinally, I dreamt. They were dreams like Kerouac’s intricate clockworks stretching into the sky…

Now, filled with coffee and antibiotics, a friend generously taking care of my animals, under enforced geriatric rest (as Elvin Bishop says, time to get off the alcohol and get on the Geritol, get off the cocaine and get on the Rogaine), I searched the shelves and found of course several things, building on what started yesterday as a post and ended up as a symposium where I learned a lot. MJS said in comments, quoting Jung: "When one adopts the standpoint of psychopathology, it is not easy to address an audience which may include people who know nothing of this specialized and difficult field. But there is one simple rule that you should bear in mind: the psychopathology of the masses is rooted in the psychopathology of the individual. Psychic phenomena of this class can be investigated in the individual. Only if one succeeds in establishing that certain phenomena or symptoms are common to a number of different individuals can one begin to examine the analogous mass phenomena."

MJS follows up on Jung by noting and asking, “There is, in the United States, a collective ‘delusion/madness’ going on, fomented by cynical leaders for financial gain and the cementing of their power. In the micro so goes the macro...?”

Or, as Gandhi was said to have remarked when asked what he thought of Western Civilization: “I think that’s a fine idea.” If these defects lie in all of us, which of course they do to some extent, then looking at a more comprehensive list of symptoms for sociopathy and psychopathy might lead the way. I culled this from the DSM building on (yeah, I know):

Egocentricity; Callousness; Impulsivity; Conscience defect; Exaggerated sexuality; Excessive boasting; Risk taking; Inability to resist temptation; Antagonistic, deprecating attitude toward the opposite sex; Lack of interest in bonding with a mate, Glib and superficial charm; Grandiose sense of self-worth; Need for stimulation; Pathological lying; Conning and manipulativeness; Lack of remorse or guilt; Shallow affect; Callousness and lack of empathy; Parasitic lifestyle; Poor behavioral controls; Promiscuous sexual behavior; Early behavior problems; Lack of realistic, long-term goals; Impulsivity; Irresponsibility; Failure to accept responsibility for own actions; Many short-term marital relationships; Juvenile delinquency; Revocation of conditional release; Criminal versatility.

Would anybody have trouble finding oodles of examples of symptoms in the modern Republican Party matching these?

But alas, we have met the enemy, and it is us. That is, the extent to which we are manipulated by sociopaths and psychopaths may lie in the extent to which we are ourselves afflicted and willing to change—a down and dirty method might lie in looking at the dichotomy of greed/fear and generosity/compassion. In a society driven by the former, we get statements like this:

Goering: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.Goering: Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Herman Goering interviewed by Gustave Gilbert in Gustave Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary

In a society driven by the latter, we get “The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.”

So, treatment options…? Begin by cleaning our own houses? Then by exposing the pathology of the powers that be? Surely only a psychopath would want to be governed by psychopaths? And remember, it’s all a matter of degree. And of a balance of power, just like a balance of power supposedly residing in the U.S. Constitution, that is “supposedly” only because as of now there is no balance. And that other great balancer, the free press. Oy! Rest in Peace.

So the struggle is to restore harmony and balance? Sounds awful touchy-feely, but sometimes the most revolutionary ideas are touchy-feely. I think of the coalitions and actions of yore: the Salt March, the Selma March… and didn't Arundhati Roy speak to America on this topic?

Leah and Tresy could address this more coherently than I. And I know the corrente readers can. Mebbe I better take another big old slash of cough syrup…

I'm sure I join with all our readers in hoping for RDF's return to health. (OTOH... If he keeps posting like he has been, maybe ... Naah, that's not kind!)

Red Cross/Red Crescent donations for the Asian tsunami disaster.

A little cognitive dissidence from David Sirota.

Hey, and Europe. What's with the weird times? I mean, 17:00 is five o'clock. Who knew? What is this, metric?

I wonder why?

[Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell], who declared President Bush the official winner in Ohio, is seeking a court order to keep himself from being interviewed as part of a court challenge of the Nov. 2 vote.

[Blackwell] claims his deposition is not required, and accused 37 voters challenging the election of "frivolous conduct."
(via AP)

Could it be he's been reading The Free Press?

It is my professional opinion that these numbers are fraudulent, and that this election has been hacked. There simply was not a 98.55% turnout in Concord South West precinct or anywhere else in Ohio. Nor was there a 94.27% turnout in Concord South precinct. I do not believe that Bush won 111 of 129 new voters in Tipp City Precinct F, or 173 of 189 new voters in Tipp City Precinct E, or 273 of 325 new voters in Troy Precinct 4-F, or that voter turnout increased by 194.58% in Troy Precinct 4-F, or that voter turnout increased by 152.78% in Troy Precinct 3-G, or that Bush increased his margin by 110 votes among 54 new voters in Monroe East Central Precinct, or that 72 Democrats who voted in the 2000 election chose not to vote in 2004 in Troy Precinct 2-D while all the Republicans did. To further illustrate my point I have included the other three precincts with 80% turnout, all of which show modest increases for both candidates, as would be expected.

Hmmm.....

Great stuff at this Free Press site. But none of this material seems to be making its way into that liberal media. Funny, that.

Here.

Thanks to alert reader thedarkbackward [and abysm of time?]

“If I wanted to face insurgents I would’ve spent Christmas with my relatives.”
(via Philly's own Daily News)

Rim shot!

The big European project, over the next decade or so, will be integrating Turkey (population 70 million, predominantly Muslim) into the European Community.

The big US project, over the next decade or so, will be... Well, who knows? Putting the PNAC neo-con project to impose democracy on the Muslim world by force?

Compare and contrast...

From the LA Times (naturally):

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off Indonesia on Sunday morning moved the entire island of Sumatra about 100 feet to the southwest, pushing up a gigantic mass of water that collapsed into a tsunami and devastated shorelines around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

The quake was the largest since a magnitude 9.2 temblor struck Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1964 and was one of the biggest ever recorded by scientists. It triggered the first tsunami in the Indian Ocean since 1883, civil engineer Costas Synolakis of USC said.

Sunday's temblor, which occurred off Sumatra's northwestern tip in an active geological region, ruptured an estimated 600-mile-long stretch of the Earth beneath the Indian Ocean. The quake caused one side of the fault to slide past the other, much like seismologists expect the San Andreas fault to do when the "Big One" hits California.
(via LA Times)

Moved an entire island 100 feet... Yikes...

Fella I was talking to told me that he’d been listening to a local radio guy’s call-in show (on a station you couldn’t pay me to listen to) talking about what everybody liked about Bush was that he was decisive. He could make a decision and stick to it. That if something bad happened while Kerry was in the White House, there’d just be a lot of hand-wringing and doomsaying, not enough decisive action.

Fella said he just had to call in. Said that aside from the fact that Bush frequently changes his mind to blow with the prevailing right-wing winds (he gave the examples of creating Homeland Security, the 9-11 Commission, etc.) that being bold and decisive was often confused with recklessness and hypocrisy.

He told the story of a colleague he once had (he’s a school administrator) who was a rising star in his district because he was “decisive and bold” and had “strong values and principles” and “you always knew where he stood.” However, the problem was that most of his decisions were bad ones, and he was usually bold where caution would have been better. It was also widely known that his values included ones that aren’t on the Moral Majority’s list, casino gambling high among them. Still, he remained popular somehow, and eventually, he rose to a position of prominence in the school district.

His crash was equally stupendous when he was busted for drunk and disorderly conduct in the parking lot of the casino, and it was found out later that the district’s funds had been mismanaged by him and his staff and that thousands of dollars were missing.

Fella went on to say that after this fall from grace, everybody expressed shock, shock I tell you, that this man was so reckless.

He said the guy ended up not doing any jail time, and is probably either retired or at another district.

Anyway, he said he wasn’t a psychologist, but that often these kinds of people are easy to spot and rise to power based on this sense of boldness and self-confidence they project that people like. Even when it’s clear this “self-confidence” and “boldness” are clearly having negative results and are probably more like “reckless confidence,” or even flat-out lying, people tend to still trust these folks. He didn't know why. It seems more than a simple con, but maybe it isn't.

Fella said Bush and the people he chooses to work with—he cited Kerik as a good example—all tend to have this trait.

But what is this trait called? Is it a personality flaw masquerading as a political philosophy? If so, what’s the flaw/philosophy called? And why does it sell to the public? “Evil” just covers too much ground. I just got through reading Jon Judis’ Folly of Empire, and he called the traits, as far as I can tell, nationalism and internationalism. But that seems too broad and philosophical, lacking the personality flaw. Readers?

Oh, and speaking of decisive action, these guys got my lunch money this week: Bengal Bay tsunamis: Red Cross Red Crescent launches appeal

In case you have any lunch money.

UPDATE Thought I'd link back to some golden oldies in NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) from Tresy here and here. It's troubling... —Lambert.

The Abramoff gang and the GOP: ...just helps illustrate further what the party of 'W' is really made of. Namely elitist skybox swindlers and arrogant pious frauds.

Tribal Money Linked to GOP Fundraising - By Susan Schmidt and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post Staff Writers

For most politicians, fundraising is a dreaded chore. But until recently, Rep. John T. Doolittle of California and other members of the House Republican leadership had adopted a painless solution: fundraising events in luxury sports boxes leased largely with the money of Indian gaming tribes, where supporters snacked on catered fare in plush surroundings as they watched the Wizards, Caps, Redskins or Orioles.

Doolittle, a Mormon, is an ardent opponent of casino gambling, so it is somewhat ironic that he would invite supporters to watch the Wizards play the Sacramento Kings from an MCI Center suite paid for by casino-rich Indian tribes. But the plaque at the door to Suite 204 did not say Chitimacha or Choctaw. It said "Jack Abramoff," a name synonymous with largesse and influence in the GOP-controlled Congress.

Until the power lobbyist's downfall this year, Abramoff spent about $1 million annually in funds largely provided by his tribal clients to lease four skyboxes -- two at FedEx Field and one each at MCI Center and Camden Yards. Season after season, he kept them brimming with lawmakers, staffers and their guests, part of a multimillion-dollar congressional care and feeding project that even the brashest K Street lobbyists could only watch with awe or envy.

Long article, I haven't even finished reading it yet myself, but -- continue reading here: WaPo via YahooNews

More Swine:

Big Pharma's Dirty Little Secret - by Peter Rost

The American healthcare system is the best in the world. Or so we are often told. But is it really true?

It is certainly the best system for drug companies, which can charge the highest prices in the world to some U.S. consumers. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that average prices for patented drugs in 25 other top industrialized nations were 35% to 55% lower than in the United States.

And it is a pretty good system for hospitals, insurance companies and others that deliver healthcare services. Americans spend about twice as much per person for healthcare as do Canadians, Japanese or Europeans, according to the World Health Organization.

But it's not a good system for American citizens. The U.S. has shorter life expectancies and higher infant and child mortality rates than Canada, Japan and all of Western Europe except Portugal, according to the WHO.

I'm a drug company executive who has spent 20 years marketing pharmaceuticals. And I'm troubled. I'm most troubled by the fact that we stick it to the people who can afford it the least. ~ Sunday, December 26, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading via Common Dreams

*

Great stuff at The Free Press.

Nice!

The College Republican National Committee is under fire for using front organizations to collect millions of dollars in contributions, including money from elderly people with dementia.

During the 2004 campaign, the group sent out direct-mail solicitations under such letterheads as "Republican Headquarters 2004" and "Republican Election Committee."

One four-page letter asked prospects to send $1,000 together with an American flag pin for President Bush to wear to "Republican Headquarters" to ensure that Bush knows "there are millions who are giving him the shield of God to protect him in the difficult days ahead."

Shameless.

Dan Centinello, New York College Republicans chairman, complained that the national leaders have not taken prompt and decisive action to correct the situation. "I don't want to see hard work by all of us be tarnished by a fundraising scandal," he said.

The [Seattle, hah] Times reported that a number of elderly donors gave far more money than they could afford.

"I don't have any more money," Cecilia Barbier, 90, a retired church worker in New York who made more than 300 donations totaling nearly $100,000, told the paper. "That was all the savings. . . . Now I'm scrounging."

Monda Jo Millsap, 68, of Van Buren, Ark., told the Times that she emptied a savings account, then got a $5,000 bank loan to give a total of $59,000.

In the immediate aftermath, Hoplin e-mailed top state officials of the organization, telling them not to speak to the news media. "We need the story to go away," he wrote. "The story is full of lies and distortions written by a well-known liberal who is out to get us. If the press asks you about it, tell them you have no comment."
(via WaPo)

And we want to put the Republicans in charge of Social Security? When they loot the savings accounts of the elderly of their savings for a political campaign? Say, come to think of it, it's about the same thing, isn't it?

Good to see the DNC and the Beltway Dems and all those consultants really hammering this point home. After all, saving Social Security is important, right? Oh, wait...

The day after Christmas in Sri Lanka:

I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. All seemed peaceful. There was barely a ripple in the sea.

Then I noticed that the water around me was rising, climbing up the rock walls of the island with astonishing speed.

In less than a minute, the water level had risen at least 15 feet -- but the sea itself remained calm, barely a wave in sight.

The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible -- a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before.

As the waters rose at an incredible rate, I half expected to catch sight of Noah's Ark.

Instead of the Ark, I grabbed hold of a wooden catamaran that the local people used as a fishing boat. My brother jumped on the boat, next to me. We bobbed up and down on the catamaran, as the water rushed past us into the village beyond the road.

After a few minutes, the water stopped rising, and I felt it was safe to swim to the shore. What I didn't realize was that the floodwaters would recede as dramatically as they had risen.

All of a sudden, I found myself being swept out to sea with startling speed. Although I am a fairly strong swimmer, I was unable to withstand the current. The fishing boats around me had been torn from their moorings and were furiously bobbing up and down.

For the first time, I felt afraid, powerless to prevent myself from being swept out to sea.

We have no water, and no electricity and are practically cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka. It is impossible to buy food, we are existing on cold ham and turkey sandwiches, leftovers from last night's Christmas Dinner.

The holiday that we planned and dreamed about for many months is in ruins. We feel fortunate -- fortunate to be alive.
(via WaPo)

Of course, there are historical parallels...

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't read the Times any more. And aside from one slip, where I was tempted by a free copy left behind on the train, I've been good with that. And one of the best things about being in Europe was that there was no temptation to read the Times at all. (The Herald Trib has deteriorated, now that The Times runs it alone, without WaPo, but the rot hasn't reached the core, yet.) But when I got back, I thought I should catch up. That was a rationalization, I know. Look, I'm sorry, OK?

Anyhow, here's Dan "Bud Man" Okrent, the "reader's [cough] representative," on the Times's readers:

The point: beyond the continuing daily miracle of well-considered, well-executed articles, photographs and graphics on every subject under the sun (including, inevitably, a few subjects some of us might do without), The Times this year has done a number of things that affirm its bond with readers.

Well, I think that's splendid. I feel all warm and runny on the inside. And I feel happy for Dan; a little self-fluffing never hurt anyone. But read on:

Assistant managing editor Allan M. Siegal believes that communication with readers has improved: "I think desks and many individuals are less likely to disregard reader complaints, or to procrastinate in replying, because 'he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake.' " You're welcome.
(via The Poor Old Times)

Well.

Dare I point out that Okrent's job wouldn't even exist unless countless readers tried to get The Times's attention the way you get a donkey's—that is, by hitting its head with a 2x4? And that it's the readers who know when The Times screws up, not Okrent? And that it's the readers who bring that to Okrent's attention, such as it is?

"You're welcome," indeed. Everything would be great for the reader's representative, if it weren't for those pesky readers, that is...

Oh, and thanks for the war, Judith. And Whitewater, Jeff. Great to see you still have jobs.

Man, with the Euro at 1.35, a hundred bucks is like a cab ride in from the airport... I mean, I understand that we need to debase the currency so we pay back our debts with worthless paper, and I'm happy to dig deep for a patriotic effort like that, but, man... It hurts....

On another note, the new slogan for US Customs seems to be "The Face of the Nation" or some such. Except—can we talk here?—border controls are really sphincters; they're about controlling what comes out and goes in, eh?

So, America's new face is a sphincter... Come to think of it...

Oh. Merry Christmas, folks! Or, um, whatever.

I have an idea how Harold Ford can make new friends and be so popular that he could get elected to the right hand of the Holy Spirit. Without having to help sell out Social Security and the better half of the Democratic Party to do it. How you ask?

TV variety show! That's right Harold. We'll call it the The Tennessee Harold Ford Show! This will be HUGE Harold, HUGE I tell you!

We'll get Norman Lear to help produce! Then again maybe not. Who can say for sure. But in any case, all you'll need is one of them dapper pencil thin mustaches and a few old time celebrity guests each week and off ya go. What's Burt Reynolds doing these days anyway? Is he still dating Lonnie? Burt can be your first guest. How bout Sandra Dee? She's back in the public spotlight you know. More or less anyway. She must be in her late thirties by now. Boy-o-boy would I like to fling her little gidget into the back seat of a Fairlane and uh... oh, sorry, I'm getting excited -- where was I - oh yeah - well anyway we'll find someone fresh and perky to appear on the show each week. Maybe Alan Keyes will come on the show and sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow with Ellen DeGeneres? That would make for a nice bi-partisan reaching out across the isle gesture on Ellen's part. And at the end of each show some lucky viewer at home will win the keys to a brand new Ford Motor Corporation Crown Victoria! And this time we'll have the DLC cover the cost of taxes on the damned cars. Don't want to make that mistake again. If ya know what I mean Harold.

You can do this Harold. The people will love it. Red Staters, Blue Staters, all Americans will love The Tenessee Harold Ford Show. You'll be able to fill your election coffers with purple love votes as people from all over the deeply divided political color spectrum tune in each week to win a Crown Victoria. We will fill the hills and hollers of Tennessee with brand new Crown Victorias! You'll be so popular you could get elected to both the House and the Senate at the same time. And you won't have to sell Social Security up the creek to those GOP freetbooter swindlers at the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation to do it!

So how bout it HF? There is no need to be cynical about any of this. However, there is one catch. You'll have to close each show with a hymn. Yup, thats right. Can you sing? Something like Hail to the Lords Anointed or There is a Fountain Filled with Blood. Or What a Friend we Have in Jesus. Stuff like that. Anyway, you get the idea. It's a win win situation all round HF. You get elected to the Senate or House or wherever and America gets entertainment, Crown Victorias and Social Security coverage well into mid-century and beyond.

Oh yeah, by the way, do you know the words to Sixteen Tons?

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

You better learn that one because that will be one of your biggest hits.

*

...as told to the "the farmer", more or less, during traditional "the farmer" family Christmas day dinner celebration/occasion. Some of you may have heard this story too but it goes something like this:

See: George W. Bush dies and goes to Hell. And an arch-fiend greeter angel meets 'W' at the entrance to Hell and informs him that there are many different activities and torments for him to pursue for all eternity while he enjoys his eternal stay in Hell. And, that many of his old friends and associates are also here in Hell should he like to pursue one or another of their particular interests.

Well, ok, agrees 'W', that sounds very nice and fabulous... please show me around the place and point out to me some of the eternal activities my old pals are pursuing these days. Follow me replies the demon - and off they go.

First they come upon Strom Thurmond bent over in a field of cotton. His fingers and hands are bloody stumps and he groans and grunts in agony as he leans over and frantically picks cotton in the blistering heat for all eternity. How'd ya like to pick cotton with Strom for all eternity the fiend asks. Uh, no thanks responds George, please please, lets keep moving. Ok then, agrees the demon.

Next they come upon a naked sweaty Richard Nixon who is rolling around on a hot bed of glowing coals kicking and screaming as Katherine Graham pokes at him with a hot fork. Well, asks the tour guide, you like cook-outs don't you Mr. Bush? We can spit-roast or barbeque your foolish ass Texas style if ya like. No no!....GW pleads and shakes his head and winces in horror, not that! Please, can we continue?

Ok, sure, agrees the angel.

Next they happen a upon a lovely fieldstone garden wall and 'W' listens and hears some pleasing sounds emanating from behind the wall. Whats that he asks his guide. Oh, responds the angel, thats Bill Clinton. Would you like to have a look? Yes indeed responds George. And so the angel grabs 'W' by the scruff of the neck, spreads its great oily black wings, and lifts GW over the wall. On the other side 'W' finds big Bill sitting comfortably in a lawn chair in a shady spot in a small rose garden; his trousers at his ankles and Monica Lewinsky kneeling between his thighs giving him a big slurpy slow motion blow job.

Oh yeah, replies George W, now that looks like the way to spend eternity. Are you sure asks the angel? Yes yes, replies 'W', I was, after all, in a fraternity in college. Well, ok says the angel.... have it your way... and he takes out a small trumpet and blows a short blood curdling screech into the charred horn.

Bill immediately looks up and Monica stops perfoming her faithful routine and turns to see what's going on. Parden me Mr. Clinton, exclaims the tour guide, but I have a brief announcement to make.

MONICA! says the fallen angel.... YOU'RE OUTTA HERE!

Haha! Even grandma "the farmer" got a big hoot out of that one, shook like a bowl full of jelly, and cacked up a half chewed rum ball cookie in the process.

We don't have many 'W'ingnuts or Republicans or "Red-State" Shriekers in "the farmer" family. One or two or three...maybe, I'm not sure of the exact number to be honest with you.. they mostly remain hidden in the hallway shadows in they event they even decide to show up for the festivities in the first place.

I expect David Horowitz and his little 'W'itler Youth movement will attempt to infiltrate my family's holiday family dinner occasions at some point in the very near future. Assuming the little runt doesn't get eaten by cat or carried off by a horned owl in the middle of the night.

*

Esteemed reader riggsveda writes in comments to say “Merry Christnmas, and may your new years be wonderful, RDF, Tom, Xan, Tresy, farmer, Lambert, Leah, and all ye others who inhabit this ether here. I'm so glad to feel a part of your community.”

Back atcha, riggsveda and all others. Hope all of you in this weird and wonderful web commune who celebrate Christmas or Xmas or whatever are having a good one. I am hoisting a toddy in your honor right now as I write this--salud!

[Oops, that makes two toddies. Oh, well. I’m not driving anywhere today, and nobody ever got hurt blogging while intoxicated. I don't think.]

Couldn’t hurt. We got the Reps. We just need ONE senator to contest the vote before aWol puts on the ermine robe and bejeweled crown on Jan. 20. A gentle note of urging to your spawn of Cato might help, or there’s an online route to take if you prefer:

CONTEST THE VOTE

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.” Luke, VI, 36.

“We must take care to indulge only in such generosity as will help our friends and hurt no one; for nothing is generous, if it is not at the same time just.” Cicero

THURSDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDayNews) -- Money problems are the leading cause of holiday stress for Americans, says a survey by the American Psychological Association (APA).

“Holiday” stress, eh? Damned liberals won’t even call it “Christmas” stress. But this psy ops pandering is what gives me hives:

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The questions from the troops for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were considerably more friendly on his Christmas Eve visit to Iraq than they were on his previous trip to the region a couple of weeks ago.

"How do we win the war in the media?" asked one soldier in Mosul. Another soldier in Tikrit wondered why there is not more coverage of reconstruction efforts going on in the country.
"I guess what's news has to be bad news to get on the press," Rumsfeld responded to the first question — after supposing, with a big grin, "that does not sound like a question that was planted by the press."

No, that sounds more like a question that was planted by a CO and the lapdog media treats it as a “balance” story. Please, contest the vote. And call on the German Federal Prosecutor to INVESTIGATE RUMSFELD and other U.S. officials for war crimes at Abu Ghraib. See if that “big grin” is operative in a courtroom.

And that’s it for the RDF psy ops team today.

*

You look a little downhearted.

I am.

But why? The latest report says that consumers are supposed to be “buoyant.” You know, happy. Haven’t you been shopping?

It’s just all of this greed and commercialization. Everybody talks about the “holidays.” Nobody talks about Jesus.

Hey, that’s not true. I hear about Jesus all the time. About how Jesus saves people from going to hell, and gives the president advice, and stuff like that.

Not about the Jesus who said to give your money to the poor. Not about the Jesus who said that one can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Well, come on, Big Fella. That kind of talk is hardly festive. Here, I bought you something.

What’s this?

It’s a Jesus action figure. See, the arms go up like this, and it has little hidden wheels so it can glide on the floor. And, it comes with a little WWJD bracelet, too. (Jesus Action Figure)

Gee, thanks. But you shouldn’t be spending money on me.

Hey, it’s okay—these were on sale at WalMart. I was going to get you a communion gift box, but I don’t have a credit card for online purchases since the bankruptcy. (A & C Relgious Supplies)

You know, I feel a little more buoyant already. I feel like I could go shopping. Maybe I’ll order a whole set of Biblical Action Figures and we can play with them instead of thinking sad thoughts about poor people and stuff. (View Entire Collection)

That’s the spirit! Keep that up and soon we’ll return this nation to its Biblical roots and stimulate the economy at the same time!

When will the wowsers at Time Warner/CNN and GE/MSNBC and elsewhere begin hyperventilating and fainting all over themselves about Our Dear Leader Commander Costume's family support for a messianic quack who insists upon removing a mainstay of Christian symbolism from our collective American doma pastoralis? Huh?

Where's all self righteous "Christian" OUTRAGE! - OH, THE OUTRAGE! - over that?

When will the likes of cheery "Dueling Ban-Joe" Scarborough or Pat "Franco Way" Buchanan or that bloodless falangist sluice carp William Donohue work themselves into a frothy televised dither over Lord Moonie's fierce purge of the Christian rood? Well?

None-time too soon I suspect.

Not with all them roving bands of heathen Debil' saluting libril' Christ-haters uprooting blowmolded platic statues of the Mother Mary and her half buried orchestral bathtub and spiriting them both off to some peaty morass filled with pantheistic toadstool worshipers.

Ooo, it's all that Michael Moore guys fault! Oh yes, by the way, The Great Atheist Nativity Abduction Scare of 2004 continues following this brief commercial message. Stay tuned to CNN and MSNBC and FOXNoise for the latest breaking "news"....and burble burble burble....

Odd, isn't it? John Gorenfeld has more on the Moonie's - and their fellow true-travelers - obsession with removing Christian crosses from churches. Read here via: Gadflyer.

And this isn't just one more kooky religious nut story either. This ain't the same thing as Billy James Hargis boffing the bride and groom in the back of a Coupe DeVille, or whatever, following the cake eating ceremony. That's real traditional 'Murican religious service at it's honky tonkin' best. This cross begone thing is something else entirely and I've never actually been entirely sure what to make of it all. Except to surmise that it fits the pattern of ongoing Unification Church attempts to help fortify support for some kind of hybrid American "Reich Church" exemplar initiated under the leadership of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his flock of radical theo-fascist clerical crazies. Steal the symbol - steal the flag - become king of the shiny city on the hill? Or something to that effect?

Listen to this eerie exchange:

In Monday's video, Bush declared: "I want to salute a man I respect: Wes Pruden," referring to the Times editor, whose paper frequently publicizes Moon projects that most newspapers would ignore. On December 7 he ran a piece by ACLC Rev. Donnie McLeod, who has argued for the removal of the cross in sermons covered by Unification Church publications.

The cross-disposal theologian wrote: "as the president is now free from the election concerns and can never be reelected, he can now build a legacy for America and the world." ACLC leaders, he said, "are ready to see the president as I see him, a man to God who is truly ready to make the sacrifices and commitments to create a legacy of faith and family that will guide our nation for the next 200 years." [Via John Gorenfeld - link above]

Two hundred years huh? I'm assuming they don't expect Commander Skybox Pilot to outlast the twenty second century and therefore have some kind of long term plan for the future of the Republic? Perhaps there is some operational potting shed somewhere full of a thousand little true-fuhrers waiting to bloom in the full glory of the messianic Moonlight?

And perhaps the Rev. Moon knows where the Bush family fetchlings have buried all the bones. I suspect so. I suspect they can identify each and every skull fragment as well. Since I suspect they helped pay to have them dug under. And the Bush klan knows it too.

Moon played an integral role in financing openly resurgent fascist networks in Latin America during the Reagan/Bush sponsored bloodletting, coke smuggling, gun running, and nun raping years... WACL for one, CAUSA...etc. Refresh your memory via Consortium News and Robert Parry's extensive online vault of investigative reporting on the Bush family Moonie relationship.

Remember Carlton Sherwood? The guy who produced the anti-Kerry hit-flick "Stolen Honor," during the last election? [See backstory: "Veteran files suit against producer of anti-Kerry film", via Sid the Fish.

Well, Carlton also penned a nifty book (published in the 1980's) portraying the poor put-upon "True Parent" as the victim of an inquisitional federal witchhunt and investigation into his "illicit financial operations." Cute ain't it, considering the Unification Church, and Christian Right wingeroo, historical fondness for the latest trends in inquisitional pogrom manufacturing, marketing and distribution.

And one can't forget John Kerry's role in congressional investigations into the Contra Cocaine connections.... Apparently that didn't sit well with Carlton Sherwood and the greater circle of heaven sent Maji he moved within. For much much more on Sherwood - Rev. Moon connection etc...see: Kerry Attacker Protected Rev. Moon, By Robert Parry - October 15, 2004.

You won't hear about any of this from the TV "news" media Beltway cocktail party eunuchs or those vacuous cosmetic counter lipstick peddlers in Atlanta so follow along with Parry and John Gorenfeld on this topic.

Again, I'm not sure what the deal is with the cross eradication project unless perhaps it involves replacing those crosses with giant 'W's. Or inverted 'W's. If ya know what I'm sayin'.

On and on it goes. Best keep a telescope aimed at the Moon at all times.

John Gorenfeld's blog: I Approve This Messiah

*

Beaumont, Texas - 1901:

"When it poured over the derrick floor they moved back. With each pulsation the flow went a little higher. Finally the momentum was so great that oil shot through the top of the derrick. With it came rocks and sand and shale from the conglomerate formation they had drilled into. It spurted skyward in a sream over 160 feet high - at least twice the height of the derrick. Once the oil was in full flow, there seemed to be no lessening.

After a few minutes, when their excitement had subsided somewhat, they crept closer, getting soaked with a spray of black oil. Their excitement changed to disgust. The machinery was damaged. Mud flowed all over the derrick floor. Strings of drill pipe lay on the ground, twisted and useless. They saw no way to control the power they had unleashed." ~ From: "Gusher At Spindletop" by William A. Owens, 1958. Recounting the famous Beaumont, Texas oil strike of January 1901 and the beginings of the Texas oil boom.

DarkSyde at Unscrewing the Inscrutable uncorks a very dark oily tale of his own. From Pan troglodytes to petro-politics, man, monkey business, and peak production:

In the blink of a cosmic eye, one species of ape came down out of Miocene treetops to forested Pliocene floors, and walked onto Pleistocene plains. They learned to make stone tools, usurp the kills of others, and hunt their own. They domesticated The Flame, overtook their less fortunate bipedal cousins with luck and evolution, eradicated them forever from the planet, and spread all over the globe. They soon turned their swollen brains onto domesticating the flora and fauna and focused their new found wealth on waging their wars to defend it, or steal it. They enlisted their most trusted ally, fire, to melt rocks into metal, pound metal into molds, contrive massive mechanical devices belching black smoke driven by fire's generous sibling, heat, and learned to turn the wheels of industry powered with the fluids and condensates from putrefied bacterial mats. Armed with these inventions, the gibbering self aggrandizing hominids, glibly slaughtered ever-greater numbers as each respective herd proclaimed themselves the pinnacle of creation, unaware or uncaring that the beasts created from their own Id now on the prowl was tracking them all. The newest camouflaged predator padding silently behind them through their metal and concrete rain forests is no mere ice age mega-predator stalking nomadic Paleolithic apes intent on filling it's belly with the tender meat of talking chimpanzees. It is a monster of their own making and one they're nurturing with reckless, unstoppable, abandon.

Consumptus vampirik:

We use oil because it is by far the cheapest and most convenient form of stored energy many times over... and production is peaking while consumption climbs. The consensus among those in the Petrology Community is that global oil production will peak within five years or so, maybe less, while world oil consumption, fueled largely by the insatiable US addiction and the burgeoning economies in Asia-India, continues to grow steadily. Production Vs consumption. Those lines will cross next year. What happens then?

Find out. Continue reading A Midwinter Night's Mare, December 22, 2004. BTW: this post by DS not only contains a whole array of interesting information but it's framed in the context of a apocalyptic nightmare. Which, IMHO, makes for one rollicking good hellborn read.

*

Oddly (or not) that liberal media is focusing on new revelations of acts of torture, not who's reponsible for them. The lede from Izvestia on the Hudson:

F.B.I. memorandums portray abuse of prisoners by American military personnel in Iraq that included detainees' being beaten and choked and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears, according to newly released government documents.

The lede from Pravda on the Potomac isn't much better:

The Bush administration is facing a wave of new allegations that the abuse of foreign detainees in U.S. military custody was more widespread, varied and grave in the past three years than the Defense Department has long maintained.

But—Surprise!—our liberal media is burying the real story: Bush is directly responsible for authorizing torture. We've always thought so; now we have hard evidence. Here's the paragraph from the memo that nails Bush from the FBI memos released by the ACLU under FOIA:

We [the FBI] are aware that prior to a revision in policy last week [May 22,2004] an executive order signed by President Bush authorized the following interrogation techniques among others: sleep "management," use of MWDs (Military Working Dogs)[back], "stress positions: such as half squats, "environmental manipulation" such as the use of loud music, sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc. We assume the OGC instruction does not include the reporting of these authorized interrogation techniques, and that the use of these techniques does not constitute "abuse."

As stated, there was a revision last week in the military's standard operating procedures based on the Executive Order. I have been told [by whom?] that all interrogation techniques previously authorized by theh Executive Order are still on the table but that certain techniques can only be used if very high-level authority [whose?] is granted.

So, case almost closed, one would think. Either someone in the FBI chain of command saw the Executive Order signed by President Bush, or they didn't. Could that special FBI someone be subpoenaed, perhaps? Just to clear the matter up?

Then again, that process would enable Bush to use The Fog Machine (back) to stonewall some more, so maybe we need a backup plan.

Here's a suggestion: Follow the bytes!

We already know (back) that "some of the information being collected from prisoners [at Abu Ghraib] had been requested by "White House staff." And we also know (back) that photographs of the tortured prisoners were taken as a matter of policy. Back then we asked:

Where were the torture photos stored, what was the chain of custody, and who has them now?

We've may have had an answer to the first and third of this question since August:

[T]he Army has one investigator looking at more than 100,000 documents contained in a secret computer server at Abu Ghraib and that the work would not be finished until December unless more staff workers were assigned to the job.
(via USA Today)

December, eh? I wonder how the investigator is coming along?

The Abu Ghraib photos were digital. Who wants to bet some were stored on the secret server at Abu Ghraib? And we know people in the White House (OK, Bush) keep photos of "terrorists" and put red X's through them when they're, um, no longer a threat (here). And we know the White House really likes to set up parallel institutions that it controls, outside of regular channels. So, who wants to bet that digital photos, taken under torture, made it all the way from the Abu Ghraib server to clients in the White House, and onto Bush's desk? (Maybe through a cut-out at the CPA?) Seems like a no-brainer to me—but it should be easy to find out. Someone should find out who the system administrators for that Abu Ghraib server were, and ask them.

Follow the bytes!

NOTE And what about the videos of screaming boys being raped at Abu Ghraib? They've been seen; when is someone going to leak them?

Just when you get used, almost, to the breathtaking gall with which the BushCoInc cabal lies, cheats, steals and kills its way around the world, they manage to stun you yet again with the level of pettiness to which they can sink in their determination to rub everyone's nose in the fact that no matter how much we loathe them, they won, they won, they won and don't you for a moment forget it.

This wasn't even some insiders-only Republican event either--it was the annual White House "party" for the print media. Broadcast media, it seems, has a separate (but no doubt equal) gathering so they do not have to soil themselves by breathing ink-stained air:


(via Chicago Trib)

To remind people of the reason for the season, as ministers say, there's the large 18th Century creche in the East Room that's trundled out of White House storage every year, despite risks that someone could file a church-state constitutional challenge.

In the State Dining Room, there's a model of the White House done in gingerbread and chocolate. It's an incredible (and edible) piece of confectionary art, with arresting details, including holiday carolers fashioned from marzipan and a miniature elephant, symbol of Republican triumphalism this year, cavorting on the Truman Balcony.

Nowhere in the scene is there a donkey, the symbol of Democrats. That suggests all you need to know about where bipartisanship stands in the nation's capital these days.

Remember the winger yahoos (ok, "management") who shut down an artshow, because artist Chris Savido used monkeys to form an image of Bush? (Good thing he didn't use sad-eyed clowns! God knows what would have happened!) Anyhow, nothing but good things have happened since:

Animal Magazine, a quarterly arts publication that had organized the month-long show, said anonymous donors had paid for the picture to be posted on a giant digital billboard over the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, used by thousands of commuters traveling between Manhattan and New Jersey.

The original picture will be auctioned on eBay, with part of the proceeds donated to parents of U.S. soldiers wishing to supply their sons and daughters with body armor in Iraq.
(via Reuters)

Nice to see all those frothing and stamping wingers raising money to buy the troops body armor. Oh, wait...

Good thing the days are now going to be getting longer, since the to-do list just keeps growing. Readers were wondering how to get the international community rolling on indicting war criminals. Well:

The Center for Constitutional Rights and four Iraqis who were tortured in U.S. custody filed a complaint on November 30 with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office against high ranking United States civilian and military commanders over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq.

We are asking the German prosecutor to launch an investigation because the U.S. government is unwilling to open an independent investigation into the responsibility of these officials for war crimes and the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court. CCR and the Iraqi victims brought this complaint to Germany as a court of last resort. Several of the defendants are stationed in Germany.

The Pentagon and the U.S. government are taking this suit very seriously. According to the Deutsche Press Agency, Donald Rumsfeld has warned Germany that he will not attend an upcoming security conference in Munich if there is any indication of an investigation going forward, and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Larry Di Rita, calling the complaint “frivolous,” said that he raised the case with the State Department: "State is engaged in this. Obviously, it's something that we're focused on and very concerned with…” Please encourage the German prosecutor not to bow to U.S. pressure.

You can apply pressure here: INVESTIGATE RUMSFELD

Oh, and if you’re still wondering about whether or not the election was fairly conducted, it wasn’t. Of course, the liberal media will stay all over this one, so there’s no need to worry. The system works just fine. Don’t loiter here.

…Too many commentators continue to claim the recount effort is the result of bad losers. Some have even gone so far as to say that if the Republicans lost, there would be no recount—that Republicans “play fair.” In fact, concern about "fairness" is in part what is driving the recount. These commentators overlook the fact that this effort is not only about verifying the outcome of the vote. More importantly, it’s about ensuring accountability of a highly fallible elections process.

As long as any votes are miscounted, misplaced or misdirected, our elections cannot be said to be properly working. And with an electoral system that provides no consistency in how votes are counted—and some election officials hostile to a full accounting— there remains work to be done to restore voters' faith in the system…

…It is shocking that the cherished right to vote, which should be a major issue in this country, has become an invisible one. Even in the Ukraine, there will be a new election because of widespread irregularities in the presidential election. As the Supreme Court stated over a century ago, the right to vote is "a fundamental political right, because preservative of all rights." Now, more than ever, we must fight for this right. via Tom Paine

Well, a Scalia court will soon put a stop to that voting is a "fundamental political right" liberal nonsense. They had a good go at it in 2000, after all.

What's to be done? I dunno. Let's take a vote. A thank you note to Rep. Conyers would be nice. Local votes perhaps do count--the county next door just elected a new local party chair, I hear. A pissed off young woman. One county at a time.

The master purveyor of the slightly stale conventional wisdom has long since passed his Sell-by date. Get a load of this:

Just think what it will mean when Republican Tom DeLay and Democrat Nancy Pelosi walk off the House floor after another marathon roll call, in which Republicans have squeezed out the narrowest of wins. Instead of sulking and scheming revenge, she turns to him and says, "Hey, Tom, let's go to the ballgame. I've got good seats and we can still see six innings!"

That way lies salvation.
(via WaPo)

Oh? Allow me to translate that: Salvation means the Dems are professional losers; it lies in a future where Tom DéLay plays for the Harlem Globetrotters, and Nancy Pelosi plays for the Washington Generals. Permanently.

As Vince Lombardi famously said: Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.

The solution is for Nancy Pelosi, and the Dems, to stop losing, start winning, and whip Tom DéLay back to the hellhole he's made for himself in Texas, before he does any more damage where he is. Now that would be salvation.

Reader "MD" (Dr. of Doggerel) sent me a poem parody and we decided to form a duet and perform this holiday number for your enjoyment. So, here ya goes....:


The Fright Before Christmas

Twas the night before WXmas, and all through the home
Not a Wingnut was stirring, no calls on the phone
The stock-holdings were hung by the chimney, each share
In revere of St BushNick and Gawd-blest laissez faire

The children tucked in, prayers guarding their dreads
While visions of Walmart crap danced in their heads
And Mom in her sweatpants and dad in his flannel
Had just tuned in teevee's, FauxNews cable channel.

When out on the lawn there arose such a natter
They sprang from the couch to see what was the clatter!
And away to the window they lunged in a daze
Threw open the curtains, knocked over a vase!

The moon on the breast of the freshly dewed grass
Brought a flicker of romance, or a quick piece of ass
When what to their dumbstruck eyes appeared shapes
Were a bulletproof Hummer and eight tiny man-apes

With a smirking-faced driver just strutting around
They knew ol' St BushNick had arrived in their town
More rabid than missiles his flunkies they came
And he whistled and shouted and called them nicknames

"Now Turd-Blossom! Now Crash! Now Nine Pin! and Stilt!
On Snake Hips! On Goober! On Prophet and Gilt!
Get your asses to work, let's round up my stash
Bring me more, Bring Me More, BRING ME MORE AND MORE CASH!”

As Iraqis that before the exploding bombs run
When they venture outside for a glimpse of the sun
So directly to wallets the flunkies they flew
To loot pension funds for the rich and the few

When suddenly the Wingers saw overhead
The BushFamily banner, greed-green and blood-red
As they covered their eyes and were turning about
Through the back door ol' BushNick appeared with a shout

He was dressed in Armani, his choice of fine suits
A ten gallon hat, and some nice cowboy boots
A bundle of swag he'd flung over his back
And he looked like a guy you just wanted to smack

His eyes they were beady! His lips they were pursed!
His cheeks were all ruddy, but his nose was the worst!
His pinched little face was bent into a grimace
As he said, "Gimme all of your money for WXmas!"

The smell of cheap whiskey came hard off his breath
And fumes swirled around him – like some stovepipe of death
He had a big swagger, and a bit of a reel
As he shook down the Wingers, Oh! what a heel

He was arrogant, rude, an obnoxious absurd
And they shuddered and tried to get in a brief word
But he winked and he told them, "Just shut the hell up!
Fork over the boodle, or boo-hoo in your cup."

"You voted for me, and I’m what you get,
Not one of you dared, put a stop to my threat."
And he flipped them the bird, as he flapped out the door
And they now understood what the lefties abhor.

He jumped in the Hummer, to his team gave a whistle
And away they all went, as the Wingers did bristle
And they heard him say as he drove down the lane,
"You fools - ho ho! - have each swallowed my bane...

Merry WXmas Merry WXmas Merry WXmas to Me
If it weren't for the Wingers I'd be Unemployed 43".

the end

So Merry Christmas Wingnuts. Enjoy playing on your slag heap for the next four years. I know I will.

Scary WXmas to all, and to all a good smite.

*

Ahhh, Winter Solstice. I wonder how much evil Bushco can pack into the shortest day of the year? Maybe

--Start another unnecessary war (use tactical nukes?)
--Make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer (tax cuts for rich, cut entitlements, reopen idea of debtor's prison? check w/ Scalia)
--Extend the arms race to outer space (must be kept SECRET!)
--Rationalize the continuing qWagmire in iWaq (blame on U.N.?)
--Sign letters for dead and wounded, attend funerals (sorry, no time for that)
--Authorize, rationalize and defend the use of torture
--Claim that he has a mandate and will outlaw man dates
--Surround self with more sycophants (photo ops…order new codpiece?)
--Rationalize away the health care crisis (maybe blame it on trial lawyers?)
--Reinstate the draft (national emergency?)
--Antagonize some more other countries for no good reason
--Assure more oil and gas profits for his friends (note: call it “energy policy”)
--Rationalize away global warming and other looming environmental disasters (maybe blame them on trees, volcanoes and third world countries?)
--Claim to channel for Jesus (maybe a new revelation? check with Falwell.)
--Deflect public attention from all of the above with a new moral crisis (sodomy’s been done, maybe bestiality?)
--Redact troublesome portions of the U.S. Constitution
--Borrow royal jewels from QE II for the coronation next month (dissolve Congress? check w/ Scalia)
--Declare martial law (must check with Gonzales Re: rationalization)

Well, some of these can be checked off right now. But still, so much to do. Oh, wait--place all media under White House control. No, never mind. No need to do that. How about--?

Merry Christmas from all those Godly men and women in the White House:

.

Sherman, set the Wayback machine for May 2004.

Then (here), we pointed out that authorizing the use of military working dogs (as in the picture above) was, like everything else in the Army, subject to the chain of command, and we cited the regulations. Someone has to authorize the use of dogs for any purpose, and that includes torture.

And we asked: Who let the dogs out? And now we have the answer:

Bush did.

A two-page FBI e-mail message refers to "a Presidential Executive Order" and contends President George W. Bush directly authorized interrogation techniques that included sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc.," the ACLU said.
(via the have-the-wingers-started-to-eat-their-young Washington Times

Rule by secret decree, setting dogs on prisoners, torture.... Does this sound like a Constitutional government? Does this sound like the rule of law?

Evil, that's what it is.

The memos are here. Thanks, ACLU. And Merry Christmas, Mister President.

UPDATE Nice coverage roundup by Suburban Guerilla.

Remember (back here) how Froomkin found the Bush "tell"—the words "of course"—that shows He's lying? Well, Bush managed to suppress that tendency during the campaign right after Froomkin posted the article, but now He's relaxed and doing it again:

[BUSH] I'll be talking about the budget, of course; there is a lot of concern in the financial markets about our deficits, short-term and long-term deficits. The long-term deficit, of course, is caused by some of the entitlement programs, the unfunded liabilities inherent in our entitlement programs.
(via White House transcript)

And, bien sur, the tax cuts for the superrich had nothing, but nothing, to do with anything.

Radio Boy how on earth he will be able to replace Kerik:

[BUSH] Now, in terms of the NDI -- DNI, I'm going to find someone that knows something about intelligence, and capable and honest and ready to do the job. And I will let you know at the appropriate time when I find such a person.
(via White House transcript)

Kerik, of course, was none of those things. Kerik knew nothing about intelligence, wasn't capable, wasn't honest, and wasn't ready to do the job—although, in a world that wasn't insane, you'd have expected him to be. It's amazing the way Bush can turn the merest, most obvious platitude about reasonable behavior into a lie.

Inerrant Boy, at his latest press conference. Plenty of fodder here, but He starts out, shockingly, by advancing the forces of evil, that is secularization and political correctness:

[BUSH] Good morning, and happy holidays ...
(via White House transcript)

Doesn't He know He's the head of a state religion? WTF?

A few postings ago RDF quoted Arthur Link's observations on the 1920's ~ see: Future Rama Lama.

Responding to that post reader Kyle Lanclos wrote in with the following on the topic:

A quote from Edward Chancellor's "Devil Take the Hindmost" (no, this is not my typical idea of light, pleasant reading), in sort of a Mad Libs format to show how history can repeat itself:

As [president] famously expressed it, "the business of America is business." His Treasury Secretary, the wealthy Philadelphia banker [banker], agreed. In his opinion, government existed mainly to facilitate business, indeed it was no more than a business itself. [Banker] set about improving the conditions by reducing the top rate of income tax from [high percent] to [low percent] percent, cutting corporation taxes to 2 1/2 percent, and slashing capital gains taxes. As a result of these tax cuts, the rich had more money to invest in stocks, companies reported higher after-tax earnings, and more of the profits of speculation could be retained by the players. While the rich became richer during the [decade], unions were weak and workers were unable to enjoy the benefits of their improved productivity. At his Baton Rouge plant, [car maker] employed armed thugs to terrorise his employees against collective action. Unable to maintain their share of the economic surplus, workers experienced a decline in real wages during the decade, and corporate profits rose as a percentage of national income. Capitalism, however, requires consumers as much as savers and demand was maintained by the massive expansion of consumer credit, then called "instalment purchases." [...] There was a decidedly speculative element in the growth of instalment credit: present consumption was being financed with anticipated earnings. Put another way, in their appetite for gratification, the consumers of the [decade] were devouring their future. When the future eventually arrived, they found the cupboard bare. At the time, however, instalment purchases were seen as yet another beneficial new era development. Credit and consumption, it was argued, formed a virtuous circle since from the immediate increase in prosperity would come the ability to pay off debt.

With a few judicious snips, it sounds a lot like the present. But when you fill in the blanks:

president: Coolidge
banker: Andrew Mellon
high percent: 65
low percent: 32
decade: 1920's

...we're leading up to the great depression. From reading the book, bouts of speculation come and go (often at the peril of the unexperienced speculator), but it takes a more widespread impact for it to affect the economy at large.

How about massively over-extended consumer credit, and a helping-the-big-guy government, while said consumers reap none of the economic benefits? Sounds disturbingly similar to our present economy. When the next speculation bubble bursts, will it take the consumers with it? To a large degree, consumer spending helped ease the pain of our most recent recession, but those mortgages and credit cards have not been paid off.

One added note here with respect to the post WW1 speculation of the 1920's - which did have a huge and widespread impact especially with respect to industrial workers and communities (the cotton mill towns as one example) - was the combination of a largely clueless and vapid mainstream media bewitched by the bells and baubles of faith based investing and a political cheerleading environment which was seemigly without a clue when it came to the gravity of the situation at hand. These were the days of Arthur Brisbane and great promises of two chickens in every pot. A rollercoaster ride of wild boons and busts. Wage cuts due to a surplus of labor returning from post war Europe, over production and dumping and slowdowns, and race to the bottom pricing. Everyone for themselves. A kind of dotcom bubble Jesus shouting laissez faire freebooter Klansman on bad-acid world gone insane.

(Kind of like Scarborough Country meets Kudlow and Cramer meets WalMart.)

And the Great Depression was its great ultimate hangover. Of course all of it was all the fault of the poor little flapper with a hole in her stocking, and theories of evolution, and bobbed hair, and lazy IWW ingrates and the ultimate evildoer, the bootlegger, each of which were no doubt trying to destroy Christmas.

The heroic cleansing neo-falangist mumbo jumbo of Pat Buchanan and William Donohue, well, they mosey into the picture a little later. As you might have noticed lately.

Hey. You can't go home again.

*

From Francis Volpe at The Sentinel, (PA), Dec., 20, 2004:

Now you guys went and upset Virginia

Don't worry, Virginia. Christmas is in no danger of disappearing.

I can understand the consternation you and your friends must feel at the notion that this beloved holiday might cease to be. At your age, it is important to believe what adults say, so it pains me to tell you that some adults are abusing their position of trust on this matter.

I'd like to say that the host of Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor" really believes that Christmas is in danger of being rubbed out by, pick any three, atheists, liberals, Christian-haters, Kwanzaa celebrants, Islamofascists, secular humanists, leftist documentary filmmakers, communistic billionaires, gay decorators who are sick of all the red and green, and Jews who didn't vote for George W. Bush.

But he doesn't, really. And neither do Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, John Leo, Cal Thomas or those radical clerics Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. By exaggerating the significance of a few odd stories from around the country, and throwing in untrue interpretations of others, they are exacerbating the skepticism of a skeptical age.

They are doing this to encourage their followers to think the worst of fellow Americans who have done nothing to them except to hold different opinions on a handful of political issues. If this is how they celebrate a holiday founded on peace and brotherhood, Virginia, you might want to hide in the basement when these guys party down for Guy Fawkes Day.

They love to tell how a performance of "A Christmas Carol" banned at a school in Kirkland, Wash., because Tiny Tim says "God bless us every one." Apparently they didn't talk to the school principal, who explains the play was banned because the non-scholastic organization putting it on intended to charge students admission -- a violation of the school's policy on outside building use.

But the first version fits the fake story line better, so that's the one you hear repeated more often than "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." ~ [...more..finish reading Now you guys went and upset Virginia]

Well, gee I dunno... scaring girls with "odd" creepy "holiday" stories - that doesn't sound like the Bill O'Reilly I've come to love.

*

Wouldn't it be nice if Bill O'Liely and his pet fundies would get their knickers in a twist over stories like this, rather than how Us Liberals 'n' Secularists, personified oddly enough by sales clerks at Macy's, are "trying to ruin Christmas" for "real" Americans?

Yeah, I'm holding my breath too.....

(via The (Columbia SC) State)

Most Americans who rely on just a full-time job earning the federal minimum wage cannot afford the rent and utilities on a one- or two-bedroom apartment, an advocacy group on low-income housing reported Monday.

For a two-bedroom rental alone, the typical worker must earn at least $15.37 an hour - nearly three times the federal minimum wage, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in its annual "Out of Reach" report.

Just to rant for a moment, everybody talks about "lifting people out of poverty" by getting them edumacation and training so they can get "better jobs."

But the problem is that somebody still has to do a lot of those "not-better" jobs. Take motel maids. You can get the maids currently working some training so they can do something that pays better...but back at the motel somebody still has to change those sheets, scrub out the toilets, fill those mangers (yeah, catch me in a sly attempt to tie in the Christmas angle just like the fundies want) , every damn day.

It's honest work, it's hard work, it's often unsavory work. So shouldn't the people who do that work be entitled to enough pay to afford a decent room of their own to live and sleep in? If rooms have to go up five bucks a night to pay for it, would it pinch the traveling public all that hard?

Just wonderin', I guess. Must be that time of year thing.

This rather scholarly perspective on evil comes from Professor Edward Hinchman of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, passed on by a friend of mine:

Being good – at least, avoiding evil – therefore begins in the thought that you must sometimes give others’ perspectives on you normative standing as such; you mustn’t view them solely through the lens of your rationalizations. What we might call proto-evil lies in the conviction that you can avoid evil without ever thus being normatively receptive to the wills of critical others. It is a most general refusal of empathy. As Hume saw, it is not enough to sympathize merely with potential victims; you must sympathize with potential critics –themselves perhaps in sympathy with the victims – to get a motive sufficient to forgo the tempting bad act. I’ve defined evil from the perspective of its victims, but an evil agent will prove just as incapable of resonating to the perspectives of critics. The problem is not that the criticism can’t reach him but that he won’t let it. He isn’t deaf but inwardly shouting it down. The insensitivities to victim and critic are two sides of a single deliberative disposition. A secular analysis of evil [PDF file]

The article itself glosses over some important practical aspects of the problem of evil, methinks. But it's worth a visit. What’s of particular interest to me, following on Lambert’s post referent to POTL, is that 1) it’s a secular analysis flowing from a logical axiom, 2) it posits that seeing the world solely through the lens of rationalization precludes avoiding evil, and 3) it points out that a willful aversion to criticism is a logical aspect of “proto-evil,” that, taken to an isolationist extreme, can only produce willful harm.

In other words, Bubble Boy meets OBL, Rumsfeld meets Saddam, meets... it fits the fundie framework perfectly.

Makes Viktor Frankl’s work on responding to evil worth another look, maybe. I mean, if we’re grappling for frames of the problem and of a rational response to it. Or Frankl answering Fromm—“If I am what I have, and what I have is taken from me, what then am I?”

Of course all of this requires critical thinking, something that’s increasingly hard to do in a world where the norm is to accept as doctrine that which is spoken by authority. Critical thinkers may soon be forced to wear special clothing and ring a bell when they come to town…

UPDATE Alert reader Mr. Jones cites an interesting article about Frankl here. Would take a historian to dope this out, though.

There's a pleasing mini-firestorm building over unindicted felon (back) Donald Rumseld's nasty habit of using a signature machine to rubberstamp the letters of condolence to the families of troops who were killed in Bush's war of choice in Iraq.

Personally, I think the controversy is a little overblown and off-point—heck, is Rummy busy? All the time! Doing manly/Godly stuff? You bet!—and in any case, the story broke way, way back in November.

Of course, the really interesting thing about the original November story is that not only do the families say that Rummy's signature looks rubberstamped, they say that Radio Boy's looks rubberstamped too.

Funny, nobody's raising that issue. I wonder why?

China, and Chinese street vendors:

"Did you do Christmas shopping when you were in China before 1997?" I did some, but it would be hard to call it Christmas shopping when you compare it to the hundreds and thousands of shopping bags that block the London streets. I was already too old for Christmas shopping, which in most Chinese eyes was considered a western romantic bit of fun for the young.

In fact, the first Christmas things after "open policy" was introduced came not from those big department stores where staff were trying to change their manner from very officious to more encouraging and commercial; nor from "the foreigners' friendship shops", which sold only to foreign diplomats and top officials, who paid in dollars. At that time most Christmas things were sold in the markets full of "xiao shang, xiao faner" - hucksters shouting "the best from western Craze Mass".

I once asked a market trader in Nanjing, a woman in her 60s wearing a red beret, "What is Christmas? What's it for?"

"That is the date for USA God! You see my hat, this is their Craze Mass hat, westerners like the colour red ... I did wonder if that was true after everybody said capitalists like black; but as you know, those rich capitalists are very colourful. Money and wealth bring colour to human lives ... come on, buy one, forget your age ... we have missed out on a lot." I bought my first ever Christmas tree from her. It was made from paper, was no bigger than my hand and had sesame seed-size stars.
(via Guardian)

"Craze Mass" ... Through the magic of the Chinese market, they know us better than we know ourselves...

And when is the US edition of the Guardian going to happen, anyhow? I am so, so ready for it...

I should retire from blogging after posting this one. It has, I swear to you, everything that a story should have.

SUV's. Those godawful ribbon stickers. "Support" for the "military." Shameless astroturfing. Country music. The military (well, sorta...you'll see.) So far I have seen no mention of hound dogs, one's mother, or prison, but I keep cracking up before I can get all the way through it. I would suspect the Tennessean of making this up, it is so good, but as it is well known that Gannett editors have no detectable sense of humor that is impossible. Go, read the whole thing:

(via Nashville Tennessean)

Country singer Chely Wright said yesterday she was dismissing the head of her fan club and shutting down a team of volunteers after The Tennessean learned that some of them posed as members of the military or their families to promote her latest song.

Seventeen members of a handpicked team of fans contacted radio stations around the country asking for more airplay for Wright's pro-military ballad, The Bumper of My SUV. It was all part of an organized campaign by leaders of the fan club who encouraged the team to do such things as ''tell 'em your husband is a marine — whatever it takes.''

After Wright learned that The Tennessean intended to publish an article about the campaign in today's newspaper, she issued a statement saying that she had dismissed Chuck Walter, a longtime friend who has headed her fan club since 1996.

Wright said she was ''shocked, saddened and deeply upset by this unethical behavior.'' She said Walter was ''an unpaid volunteer who acted without my knowledge or direction.''

In an interview a day earlier, Wright had described Walter as ''my best friend. We talk all the time, about everything.''

Wadda ya wanna bet she's invited to perform at the ReCoronation?

If you are ever tempted to think that maybe the winger's hatred of an individual's right to control their own body doesn't really apply to you, remember this guy. And if you think this one too is inapplicable because you aren't on welfare and can't imagine you ever could be, remember the saying about "First they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up..."

(via Mnpls. Star-Tribune)

State Rep. Marty Seifert, a conservative with a knack for inflammatory proposals, wants to mandate testing to determine whether welfare clients smoke cigarettes. He'd reduce their benefits if they do.

And he said his proposal, which he plans to introduce in the Legislature next month, could be extended to others who are subsidized by taxpayers, such as college students on state grants.

"I only wish I could somehow test and comply for alcohol and gambling, too, since there shouldn't be taxpayer subsidization of any of these unnecessary vices," Seifert said.

Not being quite desperate enough for welfare yet, I intend to go smoke a couple of the leaves of my choice and meditate on just what this pompous asshold would consider to be a necessary vice. My guess is he's got a few of them.....

The war goes on. The madness continues. Our Sunday paper has sixteen ounces of lurid greedmongering advertising and two ounces of tepid news. The historian Arthur Link said, referring to the 1920’s, that they were “an era when great traditions and ideals were repudiated or forgotten, when the American people, propelled by a crass materialism in their scramble for wealth, uttered a curse on…years of reform endeavor.” That during this time “political representatives of big business and Wall Street executed a relentless and successful campaign in state and nation to subvert the regulatory structure that had been built at the cost of so much toil and sweat…to restore a Hanna-like reign of special privilege to benefit business, industry and finance… to engulf the land in fear of communism…manifested in suppression of civil liberties, revival of nativism and in the triumph of racism and prejudice in immigration legislation.” Days of intense research in the RDF labs have concluded that history is repeating itself. The future is ours to envision. Marge Piercy’s Luciente in Woman on the Edge of Time said it well to the traveler from our time:

”Can I give you tactics?” Bee turned her chin back toward him. “There’s always a thing you can deny your oppressor, if only your allegiance. Your belief. Your co-oping. Often, even with vastly unequal power, you can find or force an opening to fight back. In your time many without power found ways to fight. Till that became a power.”

“But you’re still fighting. It isn’t over yet!”

“How is it ever over?” Luciente waved a hand. “In time the sun goes nova. Big bang. What else? We renew, regenerate. Or die.”

“But you don’t seem to believe really in more—not more people, more things, or even more money.”

Luciente leaned against a pine, her fingers playing with the ridged bark. “Someday the gross repair will be done. The oceans will be balanced, the rivers flow clean, the wetlands and forests flourish. There’ll be no more enemies. No Them and Us. We can quarrel joyously with each other about important matters of idea and art. The vestiges of the old ways will fade. I can’t know that time—any more than you can ultimately know us. We can only know what we can truly imagine. Finally what we see comes from ourselves.”

Happy holidays, if you get any. Know that the idealists of the '20's could envision us today, fighting the same powers. We are hunkering down in the middle of the wintertime web at RDF, making sure to have funeral clothing for the January 20th temporary interment of American Idealism, but while we sit shiva in sackcloth and ashes for peace and justice, at the same time we mourn, we will be lifting a glass or three of fine whiskey with an eye to a better future and in memory of those progressives that came before us. Salud! The Democratic Party is ours to take back. The past is ours to embrace and the future is ours to envision.

So now, unindicted felon (back) Rumsfeld can actually sign the condolence letters to the soldiers he and his boss killed in their war of choice:

In a statement provided to Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, Rumsfeld said: "I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action. While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter."

"Expeditious contact with grieving family members..." I love it! And call me crazy, but it seems to me one way to really expedite the process would be not to have so many letters to sign.... So get off the pot and get these guys the armor they keep asking for, Rummy!

The controversy arose when soldier-turned-writer David H. Hackworth penned a column on Nov. 22 reporting that two Pentagon-based colonels told him that Rumsfeld "has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself." After checking with various families of the dead, Hackworth wrote that "one father bitterly commented that he thought it was a shame that the SecDef could keep his squash schedule but not find the time to sign his dead son's letter."

Hackworth wrote that a Pentagon spokesman, Jim Turner, dutifully told him that "Rumsfeld signs the letters himself." Now, that assertion turns out to be inoperative.

Film at 11...

Stars and Stripes quoted families of the dead saying they were insulted that Rumsfeld did not sign the letters himself. They also said they were suspicious about the signature on similar letters they received from President Bush, but a White House spokesman said Bush does put pen to paper himself.
(via WaPo)

Right. And a White House statement becomes inoperative when Hell freezes over. Poor Rummy. He's starting to look expendable. I wonder if he has a nanny?

BuyBlue.org and ChooseTheBlue.org (via WaPo)

Why give your money to people who are trying to screw you by contributing to the Republicans? you?

(via Chicago Tribune)

A public relations onslaught for [Illinois] Gov. Rod Blagojevich backfired Friday when state school officials mistakenly promoted the wrong Internet site for his new crusade against violent and sexually explicit video games, directing Web users to one that ridiculed the governor.

Compare and contrast:

SafeGamesIllinois.org

SafeGamesIllinois.com

People do weird things when they're bored and lonely...but they do really awful things when they're scared:

(via Raleigh-Durham NC News & Observer)

A North Carolina National Guard member thought to be the first U.S. soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi said he "snapped" and shot the 17-year-old boy after they had consensual sex, according to court-martial records released this week.

Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida, 21, of Biscoe, a tiny town south of Asheboro, pleaded guilty during a court-martial in Iraq to shooting the Iraqi national guard private, whose name the Army withheld. The Los Angeles Times reported shortly after the court-martial that the victim's name was Falah Zaggam

According to the records, Zaggam and Merida were on guard duty May 11 in a tower on the perimeter of an Army camp near Tikrit in northern Iraq. About 10:30 p.m., Merida shot Zaggam repeatedly with his M-4 carbine.

The "gay panic" motive was the third that Merida offered. He first told investigators that Zaggam demanded money at gunpoint. Later, he said he killed Zaggam because the boy forced him to have sex.

Merida was sentenced Sept. 25 to 25 years in prison and reduced in rank. He will be dishonorably discharged. Friends and family members wrote the Army asking for a reduction in Merida's sentence, citing the fact that his son, a toddler, needs him and that his wife speaks little English and relies on him. Merida was born in Veracruz, Mexico, and moved to the United States as a child.

From an EasyInternetCafé™ near Zoo Station, Berlin:

EasyInternetCafé™ is a great European invention: a coin-operated Internet cafe. Costs only two Euros per hour—sure, that's what, ten American dollars, but still, compare Kinkos! And naturally, where you have access to information, you want acccess to caffeine; as true in in the 21st Century as it was in 18th Century London. In the US, the caffeine that comes with your bytestream generally comes burned, as at Starbucks, or faux European, as everywhere else. And the last time I was in Berlin, it was just the same: Espresso, little pastries... But in 2004, the Europeans have taken globalization to heights undreamed of in America: Every EasyInternetCafé™ now has an on-site Dunkin' Donuts! Tell me it's not a great continent!

Anyhow, I just took the train in from Paris—and it wasn't on time! Rim shot. Thanks, I'll be here all week—or as long as it takes me to learn this German keyboard! As Groucho Marx said: Put it in a box—it'll never get there in brackets. Because I can't *£%T&"*$& find them!

But seriously folks...

I went over to Unter den Linden this afternoon. Past the Stalinist weddingcake architecture of the Russian embassy, past the Hotel Adlon, where Goering and his posse once chilled, through the Brandenburg gate, and down a path into the Tiergarten which, unlike, say, Central Park, is not a park or a lawn, but a forest, and quite a dark one; for a moment, the Tiergarten seemed a small survival, a remnant of the urwald that once covered Europe, but of course it's third or fourth growth: 1945 would have blown down all the trees in its path.

When the path through the Tiergarten opens onto the city again, there is the Reichstag. I waited in a long line to get in, and had plenty of time to contemplate
the Corinthian columns, the metal motto ("Dem Deutchen Volke") across the plinth, and under the plinth, three initials&emdash;F_III,W_I, W_II. Three emperors, the last ("Wilhelm II") the last of his line, and the last ruler of an empire that no longer exists on any map, and perhaps not even any culture: Prussia. After unification, of course, the Germans hired Norman Foster, the great architect, to make the building fit for democratic uses, which he did,
brilliantly, by placing a transparent dome over the deliberative chambers. Within the dome, there is a wooden, spiral staircase that leads to a platform at the top. So, the people can climb, figuratively and literally, above the people's house. They can look up at the sky, and look down at, and on, their representatives at work.

I'd hoped to get into the Reichstag again, and climb up to the top of the dome, but the line was too long and it was too cold. So I walked back to the Brandenburg gate, and stopped to read the historical plaque.

Two words jumped out: Massenmord and Katastrophe. Nothing new under the sun.

No political institution is forever, is it? And human evil always endures.
Wansee is not just a stop on the U-Bahn...

So, our Constitution, with its Bill of Rights, its checks and Balances, could be no more permanent than the Prussian Empire—or the Roman Republic. And evil, ever changing and never changing, reproduces by taking the human faces, and the human hosts, appropriate to its time. Leading me to recommend to you, once again, the work of M. Scott Peck: People of the Lie (POTL). In examining evil, Peck comes to three conclusions, which are certainly relevant when thinking about the thirties, and may be relevant today. (1) The evil can be recognized by their pervasive, promiscuous lying. Lying is central to their identity. (2) The evil, like all of us, surround themselves with people who are like them. They cluster. And, not relevant to the thirties, but perhaps relevant today, (3) the evil congregate in churches, as a form of protective coloration. (Not to say that all, or even a significant minority of the churchgoing are evil; indeed, it is because most are good that the evil find protective coloration there.)

And yet I love Berlin...

So, good night...

Yeah, folks, I live in Maryville, in Nodaway County, Missouri, the location of this whole sick affair with poor unfortunate Bobbi Jo Stinnett. The best local coverage of it is here. Skidmore is about 12-15 miles from my house.

I'd really like it if my town, Maryville (the county seat), was on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News simultaneously for, um, a different reason. (They played our sheriff's press conference live on all three news networks at 6:00 last night.)

Sigh.

Oh yeah, you're right, Skidmore is that town too.

Manzanar, here we come:

Nearly half of Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Of course they do. This isn't something important, like "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Gotta have priorities, you know.

In a cheerful Friday-night, holiday-spirit, channelling Hunter Thompson-ish sort of way, we present, (via a comment thread over at Atrios, posted by one Konopelli)

Holiday warnings!

1. Avoid carrot sticks.
Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit.
In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving stollen and rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare.
In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now.
So drink up!
Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it.
That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk.
If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating.
The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free.
Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge.
Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each.
Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake?
Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention.
Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

With all due respect to the "live forever or die trying" crowd, I am more inclined to the "Everything in moderation...including moderation" point of view. We spend way too much time afraid, and not enough doing things to repent about on our deathbeds. Go, shoo, get out of here and do something outrageous. Piss off the fundies by enjoying yourselves at all times.

I get nervous any time I hear of military people moving into political turf. This time I think these guys are doing their duty, to the Constitution to which they swore an oath:

(via NYT)

Several former high-ranking military lawyers say they are discussing ways to oppose President Bush's nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales to be attorney general, asserting that Mr. Gonzales's supervision of legal memorandums that appeared to sanction harsh treatment of detainees, even torture, showed unsound legal judgment.

Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination are expected to begin next month. While Mr. Gonzales is expected to be confirmed, objections from former generals and admirals would be a setback and an embarrassment for him and the White House.

Mr. Gonzales, as White House counsel, oversaw the drafting of several confidential legal memorandums that critics said sanctioned the torture of terrorism suspects in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and opened the door to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

A memorandum prepared under Mr. Gonzales's supervision by a legal task force concluded that Mr. Bush was not bound either by an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation.

The memorandum also said that executive branch officials, including those in the military, could be immune from domestic and international prohibitions against torture for a variety of reasons, including a belief by interrogators that they were acting on orders from superiors "except where the conduct goes so far as to be patently unlawful." Another memorandum said the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Mr. Hutson, who is dean and president of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., said that Mr. Gonzales "was not thinking about the impact of his behavior on U.S. troops in this war and others to come."

"He was not thinking about the United States' history in abiding by international law, especially in the wartime context," he said. "For that reason, some of us think he is a poor choice to be attorney general."

Brig. Gen. James Cullen, retired from the Army, said on Wednesday that he believed that in supervising the memorandums, Mr. Gonzales had purposely ignored the advice of lawyers whose views did not accord with the conclusions he sought, which was that there was some legal justification for illegal behavior.

The memorandums produced largely by lawyers in the Justice Department and other government agencies created great bitterness at the time among military lawyers, who said they were not consulted.

Quite a bit snipped here, but I didn't see this get much play in either the over- or underground media* so thought I would post it.

*Looking for new, short terms for the "mainstream media" and the news-oriented blogosphere. Suggestions welcome.

if one man had designed the Titanic and the Hindenburg, and then was put in charge of the space program.

Jon Chait on conservative economist Martin Feldstein's discredited spiel about taxes at W's lame "economic summit" about the "financial challanges" we face today.

You know it's tragic that these folks don't see the utter moronic idiocy of going down the supply-side economic road once again. If you compare economic growth in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the 90s had the most growth, the 1970s second, and Reagan's 1980s come in a distant third.

So much for the efficacy of tax cuts to spur the economy, eh?

It didn't work the first time and it won't work now.

This would all be great comedy if we weren't all being dragged along for the ride -- and if it wasn't you and me and our children and grandchildren that were going to be paying the bill for this monumental idiocy on the part of W and the Republicans.

Paul Martin comes clean as a member of the reality-based community:

Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday he does not believe the U.S. ballistic missile shield will succeed in shooting down incoming rockets, as he threw up new roadblocks to counter President George W. Bush's strong appeal for Canada to join his continental defence plan.

Zoot alors! No wonder they have a $10B surplus. What next?

In another issue that could cause friction with Bush, Martin said Canada was prepared to accept U.S. citizens who do not want to serve in the war in Iraq.

"In terms of immigration, we are a country of immigrants and we will take immigrants from around the world. I'm not going to discriminate," said Martin, when reminded that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau opened Canada's doors to draft dodgers and deserters during the Vietnam War.

This is really intolerable. If we all don't clap our hands and believe, the terrorists will surely win. What ever happened to our President's recent "charm offensive"?

Guess Canadians got the second part.

How do I know? What are the odds of the name Melanie turning up two days in a row?

(via NYT)

Why should it just be parents of kids in Iraq who send them compasses and Kevlar vests? Everybody wants to support our troops.
If the Olympics can attract top corporate sponsors, why can't Rummy's Global War on Terrorism? Bring it on, Bank One!

Picture this: a truck rumbling across the desert on the evening news, completely armored and emblazoned with golden arches. Or a fleet of Visa Humvees. You know Donald Trump would love to slap his name on a few Chinooks. The 82nd Trumpborne.

And what about product placement? When soldiers give their Christmas greetings on Fox News or MSNBC, they could be holding cans of Pepsi or calling home on Samsung phones. Why merely send their love when they could be writing love letters in the sand on Apple computers?

Like athletes or Nascar drivers, they could sell every inch of their body: STP helmets, Nike boots, Staples "Yeah, we got that" dog tags, Starbucks M.R.E.'s, CamelBak canteens by Camels, Sony laser target designators.

All those old, out-of-shape reservists being dragged back by Rummy would be great pitchmen for arthritis medication. And Celebrex night vision goggles.

The really big corporate sponsors might set up some hospitality yurts dispensing Wellbutrin in the desert. Sure, security's so bad that Rummy was afraid to go any farther than Kuwait last week, but Michael Eisner might want to visit with some Disney imagineers and check out a different kind of Fantasyland: the neocon variety. Mr. Eisner could use some good publicity.

In this day and age, when every sports arena has been hideously renamed for some corporate entity - like Minute Maid Park in Houston, Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and FedEx Field in D.C. - Rummy could easily think big.

So how about Tommy "Stop Writing Books and Finish the War" Franks, Paul "You Disbanded the Iraqi Army, Dummy" Bremer and George "Slam-Dunk" Tenet taking off those preposterous Medals of Freedom and contributing them. Just as Scarlett and Melanie took off their gold wedding rings for the Confederate cause, those medals can be melted down for a little Humvee armor.

With help like that and some corporate support - maybe Levitra could even sponsor his next trip to Iraq - Rummy could get the Army he wants and wishes to have sooner rather than later. Like, while we're actually fighting a war.

I had originally saved her column on The Twelve Days of Rummy from a couple days ago but didn't get time to post it. Just as well, this one is better.

Smoking Gun of Election Fraud is in Ken Blackwell’s Hand, says Anthony Wade of OpEdNews:

On Friday, Ken "GOP Whore" Blackwell decided to stop the legal recount being conducted in Greene County Ohio, in mid-count. When the volunteers asked under what authority they were being stopped they were told that Ken Blackwell had determined that “all voter records for the state of Ohio were “locked-down,” and now they are not considered public records.” For those who may have been unaware due to the media lockdown, Ken Blackwell is not only the Ohio Secretary of State, but he was also the State Chair of the Bush reelection campaign.

Conflict of interest anyone? Katherine Harris redux anyone?

Now, here is the kicker. Blackwell not only did not have the authority to take this action, he is actually in violation of the law. Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that requires all election records to be made available for public inspection and copying. ORC Sec. 3599.161 makes it a crime for any employee of the Board of Elections to knowingly prevent or prohibit any person from inspecting the public records filed in the office of the Board of Elections. Lastly, ORC Sec. 3599.42 states: “A violation of any provision of Title XXXV (35) of the Revised Code constitutes a prima facie case of election fraud within the purview of such Title.”

Read the whole enchilada here: www.OpEdNews.com

Glad to see the zealous prosecution here. Where’s Ohio’s Ken Starr? Oh, well. At least the media is all over this, so I'm sure justice will be done and Blackwell will be held accountable. Oh, wait…

I have to run and catch a plane, but this is just too, too beautiful... Kerik really is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he?

The Nanny probably doesn't exist.

Wonderful the way these guys just make shit up, isn't it?

Yuletide cheer, Alberto. You vetted the guy.

The "Kinsey" movie is coming out. That means loony Judith Reisman will be haunting every talkshow for the next two solid weeks.

Who's Judith Reisman, you ask?

Read this.

Here's a clip to whet your appetite:

Bill Condon's new movie, "Kinsey" may have reawakened America's interest in the largely forgotten but influential post-War era sex researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey, but for Judith Reisman, he has been a singular obsession for decades. Reisman has cast herself as the anti-Kinsey, a self-styled moral monger in an existential – and admittedly personal – battle with the forces of cultural decay and sexual permissiveness. In her writings and lectures, Reisman conjures a dark world in which Playboy magazine insidiously pushes kiddie-porn, where homosexuals crusade for the hearts and behinds of America's youth and "erotoxins" as powerful as crack cocaine fill the somatasensory cortexes of porn watchers. From Reisman's writings and lectures, one could get the impression that this world is entirely the creation of Kinsey, the Master of Perverts.

While Reisman's ideas have naturally endeared her to a Who's Who of ornery theocrats and survivalist militia types, in recent years she has found herself kibitzing with the likes of GOP senators and Bush administration officials. Though the "Dr." that precedes her name on her book and her web site is practically cosmetic, earned with a degree in communications, this November she provided expert testimony on Capitol Hill for Republican Sen. Sam Brownback on the scientific perils of pornography. There, she also lobbied for the reintroduction of a bill that would mandate an investigation into her claim that Kinsey sexually abused children during his research. Through friends in the Justice Department, Reisman has helped push for an increased focus on prosecuting porn. And she is a favorite speaker at conferences of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, a federally funded non-profit which provides technical assistance to controversial abstinence-only programs in public schools. As Reisman gathers influence in Republican-dominated Washington, her work is bearing an increasingly apparent mark on the Christian right's political agenda and by extension, on the White House's social policy.

I could tell Reisman was crazy from the stories I read about her in the Bloomington Herald-Times back in the early 90s while I was in grad school at IU. She was on a jihad against Kinsey back then.

And let me tell you the H-T is a truly bad newspaper and I could still tell she was stark-raving mad from their coverage!

These are the loons that the illiterate and incompetent Bush administration are bringing in to help write social policy folks.

Scary, huh?

Don't forget to go over to Wampum Blog and nominate us for something or other. It doesn't really matter what. We'll take whatever we can get at this point. Hell, make something up. Best blog post involving a man and a deer and a gun and a series of life and death situations. That'll do.

If you do not choose to praise us I'll be compelled to send Pete Deer and my crazy nervous brother Randy over to Tucker Carlson's house to shoot at his holiday lawn ornaments and strangle him with an outdoor extension cord. So don't press your luck. Go here now: 2004 Koufax Awards





Hey, wait a minute. Forget that! I know what you're thinking: where's the incentive in that? Let em strangle Tucker Carlson with an extension cord. Who the hell cares? Ok, I see your point. Well, suppose I send em over to David Brooks's place to steal his liquor and chop off the tips of his fingers with a brush cutter machete and... uh, oh, wait, no no, forget that too. Ok, look, just forget the whole thing for now until I can work this out.

And by the way: WTF is it with the giant inflatable holiday lawn ornamnet crap now-a-days?





GZS H. Christ. As if it weren't bad enough when this kind of obnoxious shit was only four feet tall. If I lived next door to these idiots I'd call up John McCain's wife Cindy and have her murder the whole family with a hatchet on Christmas Eve.

Hey, that's it! Why didn't I think of that before. If you do choose to vote for us for something or other I will have Randy call up Cindy McCain and "persuade" her pay a visit to...

...well, you know what I mean. It's a win win situation. There are no losers here at Corrente.

*

Travelling for the holidaze tomorrow, so very light posting.

You'd think the Dems could put together a counter Economic Summit, maybe even with real professional ecnomists instead of serivce providers from the winger think tanks, just to suck a little air out of Bush's coverage, but n-o-o-o-o-o.....

Don't worry about that "vetting" stuff Boss--this guy is a real go-getter, just the sort of young fella who likes you, which is the kind of young fella you like. Yeah, he's had a couple of hard knocks in his past that the damn press likes to pick on people for, that'll blow over in a couple of weeks.

(via Philly InkWire)

By Mark Fazlollah
Inquirer Staff Writer

John "Digger" Dolan, a former president of the Main Line Young Republicans, likes to drive a Mercedes and hobnob with politicians.

Dolan, 44, now of Wilmington, considers himself a soldier in the war on terror. He designs telephone software for that war, and he's offered it to Uncle Sam - with help from a friend.

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Delaware County) has twice asked House committees to allot $5 million for Dolan's software company. In June, Weldon asked the CIA's chief of clandestine services to meet with Dolan.

There's another side to Dolan, though: He drinks and drives. When he's caught, he sometimes drops names: Weldon, Tom Ridge, the Department of Defense.

Dolan faces sentencing today in Delaware County, where in 2002 he drove drunk into a crowd of July 4 revelers in Radnor. Between 1988 and 2003, he had five drunken-driving convictions, resulting in jail terms ranging up to six months.

When Philadelphia police stopped him in March, they say he reeked of alcohol and couldn't recite the alphabet, but managed to tell them to "call Tom Ridge."

Dolan has also used another man's identity. Last month, as an Inquirer reporter looked on, Dolan answered in a Philadelphia courtroom to another man's name. That man says he has tried to get his old ex-friend Dolan to stop using his name.

Dolan, interviewed in jail on Dec. 4 after an arrest in Maryland, said any news article about his driving record would hurt the war on terror. "You're helping the enemy if you write about it," Dolan said at the Cecil County jail, where he was serving 10 days for disorderly conduct.

I suppose it would be hard to prove that every slick-talking scam artist with a taste for drunk driving, name-dropping and sucking at both the public and venture-capitalist teat is a Republican...but let's just go way out on a limb in this case. Go read the rest if you need a laugh.

And I'm sure Mr. Leavitt is just so very, very sorry that the people named just MUST be sacrificed to pay for tax cuts for the rich:

(via Clarion-Ledger (I think))

Michael Leavitt, President Bush's choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services, may have to cut billions of dollars from the government's mammoth health programs for the elderly, poor and disabled to pare the budget deficit.

The Medicare and Medicaid programs, consuming nearly $500 billion a year and growing quickly, could be vulnerable in the context of last year's $413 billion budget deficit, the ongoing war in Iraq, costly domestic security commitments and administration plans to revamp Social Security without raising taxes.

Bush selected Leavitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief, on Monday, filling one of the last two openings in his second-term Cabinet. Bush praised Leavitt as a "fine executive" and "a man of great compassion ... an ideal choice to lead one of the largest departments of the United States government."

Before becoming governor, he was chief operating officer of the Leavitt Group, a family insurance firm in which he maintains an investment worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to a financial disclosure report he filed in 2003.

The company owns 100 independent insurance agencies that sell supplemental Medicare policies, among other insurance products, according to company literature.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, "We're confident that Gov. Leavitt will take the necessary steps to avoid any conflicts of interest." Donna Shalala, a Democrat, called him "a very skillful administrator and manager."

Leavitt shares Bush's enthusiasm for market-based approaches to fixing problems.

I'm also sure Mr. Duffy has had his already-atrophied ethics gland surgically removed in order to be able to make those "conflict of interest" statements with a straight face.

O Loyal Opposition, go forth and oppose this dipshit, okay? And may Donna Shalala be cast as Zell Miller's sidekick on his new Fox TV gig and never cited as a "Democrat" in public again.

Good for him!

Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman has twice in recent days said "no" when approached about the possibility of a major job in the second Bush administration, CNN has learned.
(via CNN)

Of course, I'd prefer that the Dems actually had their own Rove, someone who could have left a horse's head in Whiney Joe's bed....

Unfazed by being humiliated by Bush, who first wanted to dump him, but then couldn't find anyone reputable to replace him, John Snow compares his package to Rummy's (back).

Guess those Europeans aren't so stupid after all. They may have an informational warfare thing going:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.
(via AP)

Well, um, read on, and you'll that, as usual, terrorism is just the excuse for something far worse.

The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.

"Also." Right.

The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this month. It designates the GPS network as a critical infrastructure for the U.S. government. Part of the new policy is classified; other parts were disclosed Wednesday.

Gee, I wonder what the classified part is? I wonder if it works at well as Bush's anti-missile fiasco? Or is it just defense contractors at the public tit again? (back)

The White House said the policies were aimed at improving the stability and performance of the U.S. navigation system, which Bush pledged will continue to be made available for free.

Right. Bush "promises," a sure sign it won't be free for long.

Bush also said the government will make the network signals more resistant to deliberate or inadvertent jamming.

Weird. It's not resistant to jamming now? If true, what a total fuckup, given that GPS is a critical part of our infrastructure...

In any case, the militarization of space was recommended by the PNAC (back), the same neo-con cabal that recommended Iraq, so having already had his punch telegraphed, I can't imagine why Bush imagines he can keep militarizing space a secret...

And how often does that happen, eh? (Sure, I know it's the Times, but there's such a horrid fascination to this train wreck of a story I can't help looking at it....)

The story of Mr. Kerik's nomination is one of how a normally careful White House faltered because of Mr. Bush's personal enthusiasm for Mr. Kerik, a desire by the administration to quickly fill a critical national security job and an apparent lack of candor from Mr. Kerik himself.
(via the sadly-sadly-dimished New York Times)

Lizzie even writes about the beauty part:

[Kerik's] use of an apartment, donated as a resting spot for police officers at ground zero, where he conducted an affair with [wingerly] book publisher [Judith Regan, 51], according to someone who discussed the relationship with him..

Well, I'd say Kerik was using the apartment as a "resting spot," wouldn't you? What's the issue here? Be reasonable, people! Hey, maybe he was giving her Bible lessons!

And now we come to Department of [cough] Justice nominee, Alberto "Der Fluffmeister" Gonzales:

Mr. Gonzales, who is himself in the middle of a background review as Mr. Bush's nominee for attorney general, spent hours grilling Mr. Kerik, the official said.

Some grilling! Gonzales managed to miss the mob ties, the illegitimate child with the abandoned wife, the outstanding arrest warrant, the conflicts of interest, the quick exit from Iraq... Literally everything, and all material easily available to even our lazy press corps.

Of course, we know that Gonzales is notoriously, indeed lethally, careless (Death Penalty Memos). His only redeeming characteristic is his "loyalty" to Bush (i.e., he's a total suck-up and a yes man).

In fact, you really get the impression that Bush is the kind of boss you can't tell bad news to—because he's vicious, retaliates, won't listen, etc. Far worse than anything in Dilbert:

Throughout the process, the Republican close to the administration said, everyone at the White House knew that Mr. Bush liked Mr. Kerik, placing him in the special category of "this guy's our guy." Mr. Bush admired Mr. Kerik for his service as New York City's police commissioner on Sept. 11, 2001, for his willingness to try to train the police force in Iraq and for campaigning tirelessly for the president's re-election.

Yep, "this guy's our guy." And you can see, with Bush whoring and shilling 9/11 every chance that he got, why a guy who used an apartment donated to the 9/11 first responders for a fuck pad would fit right in!

Unbelievable? All too believable.

Radio Boy on Social Security [cough] reform:

Bush refused Wednesday to provide details.

"The great desire for people in Congress is for me to negotiate with myself," he said. "And therefore, I will continue to articulate principles that I think are important and reach out to members of both parties to fashion a plan that solves the problem."
(via San Jose Mercury News)

That's just silly. Since Inerrant Boy speaks with the voice of God, why would He need to negotiate with himself?

Abhinav Aima slaps around those who deserve it…

…As this nation’s newspapers salivate over the possible trial of Pinochet over Operation Condor, no American newspaper listed in the Lexis-Nexis archives has yet published a story this past month that even dares to put the name Nixon in the same story as Pinochet. None. In the last 30 days!

…Why are most American-sponsored foreign leaders usually former salesmen for gas, oil, weapons, drugs or any other commodity thereof? Don’t rely on the Times or the Post to tell you. Not when it was the anti-Sandanista Contras, and certainly not when it is the anti-Taliban Afghans.

Killing Us Softly: The Cowardice of the Mainstream Press in the Face of American Wars

When (if) Pinochet goes on trial, will he rat anybody out? How about when (if) Saddam goes on trial?

For those who don’t remember Pinochet and Nixon’s love affair, try Chile Documentation Project where you will find such things as this:

FBI documents on Operation Condor--the state-sponsored terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.

These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually, international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain--providing evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.

Accountability? Is that possible? With our press? If so, how long will it take to hold Bushco accountable? Another 30 years?

I'm sorry, I know this stuff is serious, part of an unceasing crusade by the American Taliban--but try to read this without picturing Dr. Zaius from Planet of the Apes sitting on the bench hearing this poor guy's DUI appeal:

(via Alabama news feed)

A south Alabama judge refused to delay a trial Tuesday when an attorney objected to the judge wearing a judicial robe with the Ten Commandments embroidered in gold on the front of the garment.

Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan showed up Monday at his Covington County courtroom in Andalusia wearing the robe at the start of a week of jury trials of cases that were being appealed from lower courts — mostly cases like driving under the influence and possession of marijuana.

Attorneys who try cases at the courthouse said they had not seen the judge wearing the robe previously. The commandments were described as being big enough to read on the robe by anyone near the judge, but not like eye-catching slogans on T-shirts.

Andalusia attorney Riley Powell said he was defending a client charged with DUI and filed a motion objecting to the judicial robe and asking that the case be continued. He said McKathan denied both motions.

"I am all for the Ten Commandments for me personally and for my family," Powell said. "But I feel this creates a distraction that affects my client."

McKathan told The Associated Press that he believes the Ten Commandments represent the truth "and you can't divorce the law from the truth."

"The Ten Commandments can help a judge know the difference between right and wrong," McKathan said.

He said he doesn't believe the commandments on his robe would have an adverse effect on jurors.

"I had a choice of several sizes of letters. I purposely chose a size that would not be in anybody's face," McKathan said. He said he does not always wear a robe in court, but plans to wear the Ten Commandments robe on a regular basis.

So let's decide who to blame here. My nominees:

1) CJOTUS Wm. Rehnquist, for those Gilbert & Sullivan-ish sleeve stripes. He should race NASCAR in such an outfit.

2) Morton Haack and John Intlekofer [uncredited]: Costume designers, 1968 version of "Planet of the Apes"

3) Roy Moore, unemployed ex-judge, High Priest of the Sacred Rock Idol ((c) 2003, R. Moore, it sez on the rock)

4) "Judge" McKathan's parents, for naming their son "Ashley" in this day and age. Having a sister named Melanie I realize that there was a whole generation sadly influenced in offspring-naming program related matters by "Gone With the Wind," in which a male named Ashley played a prominent role, but sheesh!

5) Nominee of your choice.

Earlier last evening, while listening to Pat Buchanan making grunting noises about the outrages of something he called "Christianophobia" - an exciting new buzzword the mob-baiters at MSNBC's Scarborough Country have, apparently (?), invented - I dunno... but anyway, it occured to me that maybe he's right. Maybe Falangist Pat's on to something here. Maybe there is a toxic "Christianophobia" fermenting in the outlands. And maybe this new so called phobia has become more potent and apparent because of stuff like this...

Some rattleskulled village bigot named Wanda lights up a cross for Dear Leader and the greater glory of the Christian Cultural Revolution. Listen to this bullshit:

Christians Are Taking Back America - LINK
by: wanda_for_decent_values (47/F/Des Moines, IA)
12/13/04 10:29 pm

And we are THROUGH kowtowing to muslims, atheists, homosexuals and anti-American "artists" living on our tax dollars!

By the end of President George W Bush's 2nd term:

1) Iraq will be well on the way to being a peaceful Christian country. Once Iraq has gone Christian, the Gospel of Jesus will spread throughout the Middle East. The region will be at peace and millions of Arab souls will be saved through the grace of Jesus Christ.

2) Bush will have appointed at least two USSC Justices and the baby slaughterhouses will finally be closed down forever.

3) Gays will be put back in the closet for good. The sodomy and decency laws will be reinstated and their disgusting disease spreading activities will be outlawed again. Maybe we can’t get rid of them, but we can get them out our children’s view.

4) School vouchers will allow parents to send their kids to decent Christian schools instead of the NEA-infested cesspools that exist now.

5) Worthless liberal social welfare programs will be dismantled and replaced by Christian faith-based government funded programs. People will finally get REAL help through Jesus Christ.

6) Filthy shows like Howard Stern, Jerry Springer and Will & Grace will be off the air and replaced with decent Christian family programming. Families will once again be able to turn on the radio or television and not be embarrassed to listen or watch together.

7) The abominable scourge of Internet pornography will end with the expansion and ENFORCEMENT of the Online Decency Act. Pornographers who expose the public to this sickening material will be behind bars where they belong.

You can be with us or against us, but you had BETTER believe one thing:

Christians are DONE sitting at the back of the bus.

Done finished sitting in the back of the bus huh? Well, good. Lets hope those Christians leave their seats, walk to the front of the bus, grab Wanda by the scruff of her red theofascist-state sponsored neck, bid her adieu, and heave her stupid ass out the door at the next bustling intersection.

"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." ~ Iowa State Motto.

And don't you forget it - Wanda.

*

Welcome back, Xan. Sorry, readers, my posting has been so light. The Holidaze....

Yep, the media fix is definitely in on helping Bush gut Social Security.

Remember CBS's "man in the street" interview on Social Security? The one where the man in the street Tad DeHaven just happened—incredible but true—turned out to be a shill for the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute?

Now the straight-out-of-Dawn-of-the-Dead Times does the same thing with "single mother" Sandy Jaques, who is a winger Astroturfer and anti-Social Security activist (via Josh Marshall.

Coincidence? You be the judge!

Funny how they just can't seem to find any real men in the street or single mothers, eh? I wonder why that is?

In the middle of the road
Is my private cul de sac

Listening, Dems?

The following is an exchange between Lawrence R. Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law and Scott Horton, Committee on International Law, NYNY. Read entire post/exchange HERE

Velvel:

Dear Colleagues:

The attached e-mail, a response to a blog posting called The Neroes Fiddle While the Humvees Burn, is from the Chairman of the International Law Committee of the prestigious Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The e-mail contains information that I think is shocking.

Scott Horton: Chair, Committee on International Law, ABCNY:

Dear Dean Velvel,

Another good column. Of course, as Joe Conason points out in his piece on salon.com posted this morning, this was the second or third time soldiers in the field had put just this question to Rumsfeld--the story goes back at least to a May 13, 2004 townhall meeting in Baghdad. In my view, Rumsfeld's responses show a callous indifference to the plight of soldiers in the field--a shocking attitude to find in a secretary of defense.

Our group at the Bar here have been studying recently disclosed documents from the CIA, DIA and FBI which relate to the abuse of detainees in Guantanamo (and elsewhere). One thing emerging from these documents is that Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the abuse or torture of detainees, and that the CIA, DIA and FBI all felt the "extreme" measures he authorized were illegal and unethical. Another thing that we see is that the worst abuses are done by some special ops groups which are being directed straight out of the Office of Secretary of Defense, with Undersecretary Steve Cambone and LTG Jerry Boykin clearly exercising operational control over them. We can now link the Cambone-Boykin special ops groups to at least two cases of apparent torture-murder as to which investigations are mysteriously stagnant.

"Tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don't tell me.":



RELATED Via Common Dreams:

Published on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 by Reuters
Rights Group Puts Rumsfeld on Spot Over Afghan Deaths

KABUL - An international rights group said it knows of more prisoners dying in U.S. military custody in Afghanistan and called on Washington to reveal details of the cases.

In an open letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Human Rights Watch revealed two new cases of deaths in custody and demanded an investigation into a third that took place three months ago.

*

Happy Birthday, Daniel De Leon.

With the reactionary and therefore conservative ballot of the capitalist parties, backed by their guns, the oppressing class seeks to conserve its usurped position and continue to enjoy its stolen goods. Biography of Daniel De Leon

Now, remember that quote. A Native friend stopped by this morning to buy some chickens and we ended up drinking coffee and talking, and the conversation came around to this history class he’d taken at the tribal college and the text for the class had a chronological history of events in Native history, and he said he read it every day to see what had happened. He mentioned that his book said that on this day in 1763 was the Conestoga Massacre. He told me what he remembered, and so this led me to the history books at the library, where I had to go to return some books, anyway. And he was right. I paraphrase from several accounts:

A group of men from Paxton Township (Pennsylvania) wanted to destroy the entire tribe of Conestoga Indians, a relatively peaceful tribe who had had good relations with the settlers. On December 14, 1763 the “Paxton Boys” attacked the Conestogas. Only 14 Native American men, women, and children survived. For their own protection, the remaining Conestogas were kept at the Water Street jail in Lancaster. They safely remained there for two weeks. Then on December 27 the murderers came back to town, broke into the jail, and slaughtered the remaining 14 survivors. These were the last of their tribe. After this the “boys” marched on Philadelphia. They were persuaded to return to their homes by a group headed by Benjamin Franklin, who promised the Assembly would authorize paying bounties for Indian scalps.

This foul taste of history led me to a chronological history of socialism, where I found out it was Daniel De Leon’s birthday. And his quote jibed with the account of the slaughter of the Conestogas so well, I just had to post them together.

Now, on to iWaq to continue to enjoy god’s promise of prosperity to his chosen; that is, stolen goods.

First of all I just want to point out that I am not a Christian. At least I don't think I am. Then again maybe I am. I'm not really sure. As a small child I was briefly subjected to the rituals and oratorical ravings of the Catholic mass. My mother was a loyal visitor to one Roman Catholic emporium or another and for many years and I would accompany her on some of these visitations. I was also present for some pseudo cannibalistic orgy called a first communion. But I recall little of the affair or how exactly I came to earn a place at such an occasion in the first place. What I vividly remember of the event for the most part was being fed an ash-dry tasteless wafer which unfortunately lodged itself to the roof of my mouth without me fully understanding why I was being subjected to such cuisine in the first place. Ultimately this experience caused me to begin gagging and cacking and retching. Panic stricken I reeled up, tongue lolling wildly about in my head, I dropped thrashing to the floor where I dug the horrible thing from the roof of my mouth with my finger and flung it away from me like someone freeing themselves from the strangling coils of a small python. So concluded my religious training.

My father never showed any interest whatsoever in these sacrosanct junkets and instead spent his Sunday's yelling at lawn mowers or wading a trout stream flinging dry flys into the tangled voracious dry fly eating foliage overhanging shady fishy pools. For which he would then give thanks by offering a few words on behalf of some holy order of deciples called the God Damned Dirty Bastard Sons of Bitches. Whoever they were. Just to acknowledge, one would surmise, God's divine role in the ill conceived placement of tangled voracious overhanging frondescence. Then he'd thrash his way out into the creek to engage in a hellish battle of wits pitting man v. tangled foliage v. monofilament and leader. Once again unleashing an additional round of firey sermonizing which I will refrain from repeating here but much of which was also preached to the lawn mower on various alternating sabbaths.

Since my dad seemed to spend a good deal more time actually conversing, more or less, directly with the father, the son, and the holy goddamned ghost, it seemed logical to me that I'd probably stand a better chance of actually getting to know the Creator if I were allowed to follow my old mans strict regimen of worship. As opposed to being strangled to death by some hoo-doo shaman with a rosary garrotte and a bag of stale cookies.

In any case, what I'm getting at here, is that aside from the occasional wedding, or funeral, or baptismal dip, I haven't attended a church for any good reason in decades. Which leads me to believe that my original subscription to Catholicism ab ovo usque ad mala may have fully expired. Hoo-boy.

I bring all of this up because I'm satisfied that it qualifies me as some kind of specialist on the subject of theology and religion and other important stuff in general and I just wanted you all to be aware of my flawless credentials. Plus, I have a fancy degree from an art school where I spent several years looking at Italian Renaissance oil paintings and illuminated manuscripts depicting fat naked ladies and Saints and white guys on horses with swords. Not necessarily in that order or all on the same page. If ya know what I mean. I've also read a good deal of Will and Ariel Durant's History of Western Civilization, which I've thouroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone. Although, if you're over the age of fifty, and still haven't cracked one of these volumes, I would suggest you hop to it because, assuming you live to be ninety, you might still keel over stone cold dead before you flail your way through forty percent of the material contained therein. Tick-tock. Times a wastin'.

Also, I believe, given my obvious expertise, that I'd make a good religious figure. In fact I'm thinking of becoming one sometime after the new year. It's a lucrative and lively trade and clearly in demand. I'm thinking of something in apocalyptic end time prophecy sales, management, and dispensational accounting. Possibly publishing. On the other hand it might just be fun to buy me a used camper van and a catering tent and hit the road as the Pastor Animus Poole; The Bawl and Jump Hellfire Hotdog!

Why the hell not? Hey, it's become increasingly evident to me that American Christianity is sinking rapidly to the bottom of the genotypical pond. Sinking like a sack of sash weights. Not to mention drowning aesthetically. Retreating back to some kind of fundamental primordial infantile playpen where it will ultimately, in the end, lay gurgling like an imbecile, batting stupidly at whatever colorful blowmolded plastic gee-gaw is dangled before it's worshipful eyes. Religion as teething ring, rattle, and inflatable "terror-eyes yellow balloon."

I offer you privilege and amnesty from tribulation. A secret rapture will be yours alone on the condition of absolute faith in my Word. You will join an Elect, moral, virtuous, purged of original sin, peoples just like you, sulphur free, and you will return a conqueror. Redeemed. Kind of like a membership to Sam's Club but without the parking congestion. Go forth and multiply. Everything, and I mean everything, you need to know to secure your own salvation and future heroic legacy is available on six easy to use video tapes for three easy payments of $19.95 each. Restrictions may apply. And on and on and on.

A few summer seasons of this kind of hornswoggle and harangue and I could afford to buy myself a small market radio station and and/or a Republican House Rep from xxxxx and then perhaps a gaudy television ministry complete with phone banks with a hotline to the fabulous beyond - if ya know what I mean - and a vacation home in the Panhandle and so on and so on and so on.

On the other hand - I could just go ice fishing with my brother. Imagine that.

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair."






*

Very interesting item yesterday (or maybe the day before? I haven't been on vacation in sunny Guantanamo, just hideously busy which makes my time sense more warped than usual) from our esteemed friend Juan Cole.

It's a slighly different topic from his usual fare but one which he has had cause to look into since he became the target of a very well-organized witchhunt. (Go read back a few days, but the the short version is, the Likudniks are gunning to shut him up from telling inconvenient truths.)

Starting from an item at Martini Republic he discourses as follows:

The phenomenon of blog trolling, and frankly of blog agents provocateurs secretly working for a particular group or goal and deliberately attempting to spread disinformation, is likely to grow in importance. It is a technique made for the well-funded Neoconservatives, for instance, and I have my suspicions about one or two sites out there already.

The manipulation of public information by rightwing think tanks in collusion with corporate media is already well advanced. Kevin Drum points out that supposedly "liberal" CBS News interviewed a think tank author on the need to "privatize" (in other words, get rid of) Social Security, portraying him as an ordinary 28 year old citizen who "doesn't expect the program to be there" when he retires. I guess not, since he is working so hard to destroy it. Journalistic ethics should have required CBS to identify the interviewee as a principal with an axe to grind.

Will the blogging world go the same way? So far, if you look at the top hundred sites at technorati.com with regard to incoming links, what is striking is how above-board they are. Is the collective wisdom of the blogging world such as to reduce the dangers here? Is the blogging world actually less open to manipulation than corporate media? Stay tuned.

There have been some very ominous statements made in DC of late on the "need for regulation of the Internet" in such areas as political fundraising and a widely-quoted remark by ex-CIA chief Tenet on the need for "greater security" on the Net. At the same time we are seeing individual reporters being threatened with, or actually subjected to, jail time for upholding the right to protect sources.

Frankly, folks, I think They are out to get all of us in the news-dissemination business. Shut us up, shut us down, or scare us into self-censorship. I guess I have to take back the rude things I said about Judith "Kneepads" Miller earlier this year and stick up for her too (ack, hack, gag, but oh well.)

CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW...ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS. That's it. If that goes down the Republic goes with it.

A superb analysis--NOT an op-ed or opinion piece, just actual, factual analysis, with real numbers, in terms anybody can understand--about how the current hysteria over "the looming Social Security crisis" is the biggest bunch of hoo-haw since, oh gee, maybe the hysteria about "the looming crisis of Sadaam Hussein" and how Iraq was going to use their Gliders of Mass Destruction to wipe out YOUR neighborhood any day now.

(via LATimes)

Even before settling on a proposal to privatize part of Social Security, President Bush is mounting an aggressive campaign to convince the public of something that many Democrats and economists say is mistaken: that the massive government retirement system is hurtling toward disaster.

Three times in the past week, Bush has created or used public relations events to promote his view that Social Security is facing a dire financial threat and needs major repairs. Most recently, Bush said in his Saturday radio address that "the system is headed towards bankruptcy down the road. If we do not act soon, Social Security will not be there for our children and grandchildren."

The issue will also be central to a White House conference scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday meant to draw attention to Bush's economic agenda for the next four years.

Having lavished this story with praise I now have to find fault with one thing: they left the whole point, the motivation for this latest batch o' lies, to the very last graf:

Said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform: "Social Security should be reformed not because the system is going broke but because it's a lousy program."

There, you have it. The hysteria IS a lie, the program is NOT going broke, the Thugs hate it because it's a government program that works and helps average, not-rich people. Repeat this to everybody you see. Don't let the lie take hold this time.

Hey, the letters-to-the-editor editor at the local paper misses you, (s)he really does. You two were so close once, then suddenly you never write any more. Now is the time to get back in touch. This relationship can be saved.

The tiresome thing about stomping weasels is how many, many times you have to stomp them before they're actually all the way gone:

(via Jackson MS Clarion-Ledger)

Since losing his job as Senate Republican leader two years ago, Trent Lott has used his encyclopedic knowledge of Congress and deal-making prowess to remain one of the most effective members of the Senate.

"He's regained esteem," said Marty Wiseman, head of the Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, noting that Lott's GOP colleagues consider him a valued adviser.

Now that your morning is ruined and you are thinking of putting Wild Turkey on your cornflakes, I will spare you most of the rest of this very informative piece. Just a few items noted for future reference:

...Lott, 63, says he plans to run for re-election in 2006 and may even try for a leadership post. He had nearly $825,000 in his personal campaign committee as of Sept. 30, and he is raising money for his leadership political action committee so he can donate to other Republicans' campaigns.

...Lott accepted the deal his GOP colleagues offered him — resign as Senate GOP leader and take over the Rules and Administration Committee — and made the most of it.

...Running the rules committee, which determines lawmakers' staffing budgets and allocates office space, is one of the least-sought-after Senate jobs, but Lott has used it to expand his influence.

...Last week he strengthened the GOP's clout in the Senate by deciding that two-thirds of each Senate committee's resources should go to Republicans and one-third should go to Democrats. During the previous Congress, when the Senate was almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, there was a 50-50 split in resources.

...Lott's committee also has approved controversial legislation that would prevent Democrats from holding up Senate confirmation of judges. If President Bush has the opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice, Lott would play an important role in pushing the Senate to approve the legislation.

Trent Lott, loathesome as he is in many ways, is at least not (IMHO) an out-and-out wingnut. He's an old-school Southern Senator who sees his first, last and only duty to keep an unceasing flow of Federal money coming to Mississippi. Of course since funding that might move that miserable state out of its perenial last-place status in statistical rankings of education, health care, and other quality-of-life issues might go in part to (gasp!) black people, he makes sure it all goes to military bases.

I had hoped he might serve as a voice of sanity, or as close as you're going to get to it from a Republican, against the outright lunatics--but from the evidence cited here about his games with the Rules Committee to help trash the filibuster, this hope is fading fast.

So I find out over at Eschaton that nominations are now open for The 2004 Koufax Awards.

So I go there to see where we're leading....while it would be immodest to dream of Best Blog (on the other hand, screw that, when did modesty get anybody anywhere??), I wonder only whether we will be sweeping the field in:

--Best Series (for Lambert's unceasing efforts on "The Fog Machine"),
--Best Writing (anything by the farmer, the more so the later at night the item is posted),
--Best Post, wherein "Pete & the farmer Kill the Devil" was my assumption but others are entitled to their own opinions and might prefer RDF's collected work in the Green Sagebrush Campaign (name me one other blogger anywhere who is on record as having donated a sheep to the Kerry GOTV effort, dammit)
--Best Humor

And what do I find? Two, count 'em, two, nominations in Best Group Blog (thanks penny and Kevin, your checks are in the mail) and one for Best Post for something of farmer's from r@d@r.

We are gettin' our butts kicked by fafblog for humor, and Pandagon for Groupers. No category for Best Art, which is rank discrimination against farmtoons productions, dammit. No big surprise that Kos and Atrios are battling it out for overall Best in Show, or Juan Cole for Expert again.

Therefore I am going to assume that our hordes of faithful fans just haven't heard the news yet. Get thee hence and start nominating. For your convenience just right-click on Corrente, Dammit! and click "copy", or "copy shortcut" if that's what's available. Then head over to Wampum and swampum.

Remember: Moderation in pursuit of this effort is no virtue, and extremism in promotion of Corrente is no vice. Just mention our name a lot, that's all we ask.

We wants the precious Koufax, yessss we do.....

A poli-sci quiz for a Tuesday morning: What country is being described here?

(via Don't click here, that's cheating)

Editors say the Propaganda Department has received a fresh mandate to micromanage daily news coverage and to ban coverage of an increasingly long list of sensitive issues, including broad topics like _____________'s growing social inequality.

I guess I just don't see what's wrong with making a portrait of George Bush out of monkeys.

I mean, would they prefer to make the portrait out of the faces of dead soldiers?

Censorship takes hold:

Artwork in an exhibition that drew thousands to the Chelsea Market for its opening last week was abruptly taken down over the weekend after the market's managers complained about a portrait of President Bush fashioned from tiny images of chimpanzees, according to the show's curator.

Bucky Turco, who organized the show, said that a market director had expressed reservations about the Bush portrait, a small colorful painting by Christopher Savido that from afar appears to be a likeness of the president but viewed up close reveals chimps swimming in a marshy landscape
(via the let's-bury-the-story-in-the-metro-section Times)

Land of the free and home of the brave, my Aunt Fanny. What's free and brave about this?

The artwork is here. Help out a starving artist, eh?

UPDATE More:

"We had tons of people, like more than 2,000 people show up for the opening on Thursday night," said show organizer Bucky Turco. "Then this manager saw the piece and the guy just kind of flipped out. 'The show is over. Get this work down or I'm gonna arrest you,' he said. It's been kind of wild."
Reuters

Um, arrest her for what? Blasphemy?

I can see Lindsay Graham wanting to eff the Dems, since he's a Republican, but why on earth is Jon Corzine trying to help him?

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator John Corzine -- interviewed on Fox News Sunday -- also both closed ranks behind Lieberman's name.

"They all seem to be good. Senator Lieberman, if he's interested, would be a terrific pick, but there are a lot of good people out there," Graham said.

"I think we need to move forward with a strong Homeland Security director. I hope that Joe Lieberman concept flies," Corzine added.
(via AP)

Can anyone imagine that Whiney Joe will have any real power at all at DHS? No, the only thing he's good for is putting a veneer of bipartisanship on the Republican's ruthless drive to destroy the Democratic party and all its good works. Why is Corzine helping them?

Oh, and if Lieberman gets appointed to the DHS, the Republican Governor of Connecticut will certainly appoint a Republican Senator, bringing the Democrats one more step closer to total irrelevance in the only branch of the Federal government over which they have any control.

WTF?

You can share your feelings with feckless Senator Corzine here:

One Gateway Center, 11th Floor
Newark, New Jersey 07102
(973) 645-3030
FAX:(973) 645-0502

208 White Horse Pike, Suite 18
Barrington, New Jersey 08007
(856) 757-5353
FAX: (856) 546-1526

U.S. Senator Jon S. Corzine
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
FAX: (202) 228-2197
(TDD/TTY) (202) 2241984

or email him here.

What the Sierra Club said to the nomination of Bodman to Energy:

There's a better way [than Bodman]. The Bush Administration should promote a visionary energy policy by:

--Increasing average automobile fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon

--Producing 20 percent of America's electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar power by the year 2020

--Increasing energy efficiency to reduce our energy usage by two percent every year for the next ten years

--Eliminating distorting energy subsidies that promote bad energy policies

--Improving and increasing mass transit systems

Sierra Club Reaction to Nomination of Samuel Bodman for Energy Secretary

Alert reader shystee writes:

Soldiers liberate some spare parts = dishonorable discharge (back.

Coalition Provisional Authority makes millions "disappear" = no charges

It's the same thing back home:

Guy steals a Lion King video = 25 years to life (third strike law)

Enron steals millions from taxpayers and stockholders = nobody goes to jail

The list goes on but the pattern is the same.

You know, this pattern was all covered in Matthew, chapter 23:

1: Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples,

2: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat;

3: so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.

Limbaugh. Bennett. Swaggart. Bush AWOL. And so on, and on, and on.

4: They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.

Shifting those risks, eh?

5: They do all their deeds to be seen by men...

6: and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues,

Sounds like the RNC. And the coming inaugural.

11: He who is greatest among you shall be your servant;

12: whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.

15: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
(via the Bible, Revised Standard Edition)

All too familiar. The Republican "leaders" are exactly the people Jesus preached against.

Kevin Hayden at American Street has a poetry contest up and running: Details Here

MJS, Steve Bates -- the call for entries has been sounded.

*

Responding to an earlier post of mine titled: "Fundamental fundamentalism; and stuff like that" | Saturday, December 11, 2004 - back here: Link - or scroll down page a couple of days...

John McKay - archy and American Street - writes a followup to my post and clarifies some points that I made (or tried to make) better than I did, I think, and emphasizes a couple of important details that I did not hit upon. For instance:

During the Progressive era, the dissidents in American Protestantism also objected to the social gospel of secular good works. Mainstream Protestantism, in those days, was involved in actively promoting secular liberal social programs.

This emphasis on faith over works not only agrravated tensions between the Protestant Fundamentalist faithful and the more liberal mainstream Protestant denominations but helped fan the flames of anti-Catholicism as well. The Fundamentalists wing contending that any stray from a strict inerrant reading of Biblical text (as defined by Fundamental doctrine) and the doctrine of salvation through "faith" alone, the Redeemer , "truth in the absolute truthfulness of every statement that comes from God, (divinely inspired and recorded in the Bible) amounted to apostasy on the part of those embracing liberalization or modernization within the church, and, ultimately, povided a useful cultural and political wedge when applied to issues and arguments taking place within society as a whole.

John concludes the post with what I was attempting to get at in my earlier post. Although I think he sums it up a little more neatly than I did:

I think this is the problem the liberal/Democratic/blogger left has with religion. It's not that we are anti-religious or anti-Christian; it's that the right has succeeded in portraying everything we say as such. [...] This is a painful indicator of how successful the right has been in fragmenting the left over the last 30 years.

OK, thats all for now on this subject. Go read archy for the full context.

*

Mel Giles at Michael Moore’s site reframes the “victimization” theme in a way that I find moving…

…We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 57 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don't know how.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: Stop responding to the abuser.

Don't let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he'll win, not because he's right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it fail-proof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, "loose,” irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they'll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education…

Read on...

There’s victims and then there’s people who refuse to be victims, and stand as an example to us all. The DLC should take a page, here… or better yet, just roll over and shrivel up, because we’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it any more. The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party (which right now in my county means all the Greens, too) is taking over. The woman who was responsible for taking time off from work to watch the canvassing and who raised hell about irregularities when nobody else would has officially been nominated to succeed our current local party chair (who is a fine candidate for the DLC and oblivion). Word is, he’s isn’t going to fight it or put up a name, and nobody else accepted the nomination. It should be all done by the end of the month. Then, we’ll be ready to pick delegates to the state convention—and you bet they’re going to be young and full of piss and vinegar. And, we’re going to have a New Year’s party, too. Yeeaaaaaarrrrrrrgghhh!

Story: Was at the trading post Saturday and a guy saw my Kerry-Edwards and Dump Bush and aWol and More Trees/Less Bush and etc. stickers and pointed and said: “Might as well scrape those off. You lost.” I said, “No, we all lost, and when Bushco pushes the flush handle, I want it to be clear where I stood. They’re staying on until we win in ‘06 and ‘08.” I could have added that, along with baling wire and duct tape, they hold the truck together, but he was already laughing like I was delusional.

We’ll see who’s delusional.

It's not a full moon, so what accounts for the craziness? In fact, what The Good Doctor, Hunter Thompson, would call "bad craziness"? Maybe reality is finally giving the members of the "Unreality-based Community" some therapy?

We can but hope...

I'm going to light my tiny candle in the room under the stairs....

It's a new organization. But it doesn't have very many members. But here's what one of them has to say about Social Security transition costs:

"I think it's irresponsible to borrow the whole trillion dollars," [U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina] told FUX News [cough] Sunday [Hey, should these guys even be working on the Sabbath?]
(via Reuters)

Savor that, for a moment.... "Irresponsible to borrow the whole trillion dollars"... Don't you love it?

Um, undermanning, anyone?

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he's 70 years old and had already retired - twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago.

"My first reaction was disbelief," Caulfield said. "It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old."

In fact, he was so sure it was an error that he ignored the postcards and telephone messages asking if he would be willing to volunteer for active duty to "backfill" somewhere on the East Coast, Europe or Hawaii. That would be OK, he thought. It would release active duty oral surgeons from those areas to go to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.
(via Marion, Ohio Star)

Hey, look on the bright side! Now the guy has no Social Security worries!

Way to support the troops, guys. It would be nice to see Radio Boy step in with an exective order granting these guys clemency. When weasels fly out of my butt!

The shameful story:

Six reservists, including two veteran officers who had received Bronze Stars, were court-martialed for what soldiers have been doing as long as there have been wars--scrounging to get what their outfit needed to do its job in Iraq.

Darrell Birt, one of those court-martialed for theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up the crimes, had been decorated for his "initiative and courage" for leading his unit's delivery of fuel over the perilous roads of Iraq in the war's first months.

Now, Birt, 45, who was a chief warrant officer with 656th Transportation Company, based in Springfield, Ohio, and his commanding officer find themselves felons, dishonorably discharged and stripped of all military benefits.

The 656th played a crucial role in maintaining the gasoline supply that fueled everything from Black Hawk helicopters to Bradley Fighting Vehicles between Balad Airfield and Tikrit. The reservists in the company proudly boast that their fuel was in the vehicles driven by the 4th Infantry Division soldiers who found Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole last year.

But when Birt's unit was ordered to head into Iraq in the heat of battle in April 2003 from its base in Kuwait, Birt said the company didn't have enough vehicles to haul the equipment it would need to do the job.

So, Birt explained, he and other reservists grabbed two tractors and two trailers left in Kuwait by other U.S. units that had already moved into Iraq.

Several weeks later, Birt and other reservists scrounged a third vehicle, an abandoned 5-ton cargo truck, and stripped it for parts they needed for repair of their trucks.

"We could have gone with what we had, but we would not have been able to complete our mission," said Birt, who was released from the brig on Oct. 17 and is petitioning for clemency in hope that he can return to the reserves.

"I admit that what we did was technically against the rules, but it wasn't for our own personal gain. It was so we could do our jobs."

The severity of the punishments was surprising to many members of the company, who regularly saw off-the-books trading and thefts of military property in Iraq by troops in other units.

Theft of military equipment is legendary among American war veterans, and the act has its own lexicon. In past wars some called it "scrounging," while others called it "midnight requisitions" and "liberating supplies," said writer and Vietnam War veteran Robert Vaughan.

The problems for the 656th started days before the company was to move into Iraq. The company had only two cargo trucks to haul six containers filled with tools, spare parts, ammunition, biological-chemical protective wear and other supplies.

In the first several months of the Iraq war, the supply line moved at a glacial pace. Obtaining even basic parts to repair vehicles took as long as six weeks, said Robert Chalmers, who had been a sergeant with the 656th. He received a court-martial for stripping the cargo truck for spare parts and disposing of its frame.

Sitting in his kitchen in Greenville, Ohio, Chalmers recalled the rocket attacks, bomb explosions and small-arms fire his company faced on the road between Tikrit and Balad.

The situation has left Chalmers in debt and bitter. His wife, Tina, said she had to borrow against her retirement savings to pay his $20,000 in legal fees.

"We were sent to Iraq without what we needed," said Chalmers, who has spent 15 years on active or reserve duty.. "If they don't make that decision to get the vehicles we needed, we are worse off and can't do our mission. If we don't do our mission, those tanks at the front stand still."

For Birt and Kaus, the court-martial and confinements are a devastating end to long and successful military careers. Both are holding onto a thin thread of hope that they will be granted clemency by Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, so their benefits will be reinstated and they will have a chance to continue their military careers.

Birt and Kaus were dishonorably discharged, and unless they receive clemency, they lose all military benefits, including the right to have the U.S. flag draped on their coffins.

This month, Birt received a certified letter from the trucking company he worked for as a shop foreman, telling him that it could no longer employ him because of his felony conviction. Kaus said her employer, sporting goods manufacturer Huffy Corp., has informed her that it is unlikely she will be allowed to come back to work because of her conviction.

(via Chicago Tribune)

So, aWol is honorably discharged, while not doing his job, and these guys are courtmartialled, for doing their jobs—in a war of choice that aWol set in motion, but didn't give these guys the tools for.

Life's little ironies, eh?


NOTE Thanks to alert reader Nancy.

Wait! There's more! Forget about (0) Kerik's Nanny cover story. Forget (1) about Kerik's mob ties (back). Forget (2) about the outstanding arrest warrant (back). Heck, forget (3) about Kerik bugging out from Iraq and the farcically bad job he did "training" [cough] the Iraqi police force on the CPA tit (back).

Let's even forget (4) that Kerik's being sued for trying to ruin a subordinate's career after the subordinate reprimanded Kerik's girlfriend (Newsday)

The real issue is this: Gonzales, who vetted Kerik (back), made Rove and Inerrant Boy look bad. All the information in points (1)-(4) above was really, really easy to get. That's why it all came out the hours and days after Kerik was nominated. (Oddly, the only information that was hard to get, because known only to Kerik, is point (0), the Nanny cover story. She's left the country, by the way (here). Um, was she just a nanny?)

So, since the information was so easy to get, why didn't Gonzales get it?

Seems like Rove and Radio Boy were the last to know about Kerik's flameout: From the same Newsday story, here's how the famously disciplined Bush team was operating right until Kerik crashed and burned:

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said the White House seemed to have been caught off guard.

He said that as late as 7 p.m. Friday, just 90 minutes before Kerik telephoned President George W. Bush and withdrew, the White House faxed King talking points defending the nomination for his use during a TV appearance.

King said he talked with Bush and White House political strategist Karl Rove on Monday about Kerik during a White House Christmas party. He said both spoke enthusiastically about the nomination and showed no concern about its fate.

Later that same night, King said, he ran into Kerik at a Washington restaurant. King said Kerik indicated he was aware that questions would be raised about his background but showed no hesitancy about answering them.

In the end, however, Kerik, a proud protege of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, withdrew his nomination with the disclosure that he failed to pay taxes on a housekeeper and nanny who may have been undocumented.

So, Gonzales blew something that should have been really simple. Blew it really, really badly (just like the Texas clemency memos if it comes to that.) And now, he's already the Justice [cough] nominee. Sweet!

Pass the popcorn!

NOTE Of course, there's another area where Radio Boy, Gonzales, and Rove all have a set of interests in common: the Plame Affair which, oddly, hasn't been in the news lately. I wonder who owns who on that one?

Great Quotations of Our Time. Here's Saint Rudy on Bernard "Bumboy" Kerik, shamelessly still pushing the Nanny cover story:

[SAINT RUDY] "Everything seemed pretty normal, at least by Washington or New York standards," his mentor and boss, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, told TIME.
(via Time)

Hey, where's Fran Drescher when we need her? I'd like to hear her deliver that line. "... pretty normal...."

So, Rudy, were the mob ties "normal" too? Not just in New York—that we expect, though not from nominees to head the DHS—but in Washington? Hmmm.....

This Kerik story is the gift that keeps on giving!

However, The News probe calls into question his conduct while holding two of the city's most important public offices.

The probe revealed that for many years, one of Kerik's main benefactors was Lawrence Ray, the best man at Kerik's 1998 wedding, according to Ray, other sources and checks shown by Ray to The News.

Ray and another Kerik pal, restaurant owner Carmen Cabell, helped bankroll Kerik's 1998 wedding reception, contributing nearly 10,000.

Ray also gave Kerik nearly $2,000 to buy a bejeweled Tiffany badge that Kerik coveted when he was Correction commissioner.

And Ray said he gave Kerik $4,300 more to buy high-end Bellini furniture when Kerik allegedly griped that he couldn't afford to furnish a bedroom for a soon-to-be born daughter.

The city's Conflicts of Interest Board requires officials to report any gifts of $1,000 or more.

The board's definition of gifts includes cash, free travel, and wedding presents not given by relatives.

Intentionally failing to report gifts is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $1,000. The board also can impose civil fines of up to $10,000. The News has examined Kerik's disclosure forms and there is no record of any of the gifts for the period concerned.

At the time of the gifts, Ray was working for Interstate Industrial, then a major city contractor. City ethics rules bar officials from accepting gifts worth more than $50 from anyone doing business with the city. The company hired Ray based on a recommendation from Kerik, according to a sworn deposition by Interstate's owner Frank DiTomasso. New Jersey gaming regulators said Kerik had confirmed to them that he had vouched for Ray.

A week after Kerik's daughter was born, Ray and 18 other men were indicted in a $40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle. Kerik repeatedly spoke to Ray's criminal defense attorney before the indictment, but he dropped his longtime benefactor when the case became public.
(New York Daiy News via No More Mister Nice Blog)

And No More Mister Nice Blog goes on to ask, and answer, Who is Lawrence Ray?

The Federal investigation of the DiTommaso brothers concerned their purchase of a Staten Island waste station controlled by Edward Garafola. who is married to the sister of former Gambino Family Underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Garafola was indicted in March 2000 along with Lawrence Ray, an executive of the DiTommaso brothers’ Interstate Industrial Corporation, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico, on Federal charges involving a $40 million stock ‘pump and dump’ scam. Interstate Industrial Corporation was also denied a contract by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 2000 to perform work on an Atlantic City gambling casino.

This stuff is really, really obvious. It's all there in plain sight, which is why the reporters are having such an easy, gleeful time digging it up.

So at this point, the question has to be asked: Were Kerik's mob ties in fact his qualifications? (Like JFK, the CIA, and the mob, eh?) And has the Bush team gotten so arrogant they just thought nobody would call them on it?

UPDATE More from The Daily News.

I'm not paying the Times tax because I'm not buying the newspaper, and I'm reading the online edition as little as possible (Krugman, of course, excepted). I just don't have time to play Kremlinologist with these guys anymore, or to wait for them to hit bottom and realize they aren't really a newspaper anymore, or to listen to Okrent explaining yet again why his readers are wrong, or why reporters should never be held accountable.

Poor old Times. The VWRC worked them, they bent over, and called that "balance." Now, too late, they're discovering that the VWRC has its own media outlets, and doesn't need them. And the people who ought still to be Times readers, who cared about it, who wanted it to succeed, who believe in a free press, won't be reading the Times either.

Of course, the Times doesn't want to be a newsgathering organization any more—to the minimal extent they still are. They want to be a lifestyle publication. That's why the new magazine they broke this year was on fashion. Of course, their editorial instincts are bad whatever they try their hand at; I mean, the book review has been a font of massive suckitude for decades, and it still sucks.

It's going to take me awhile for all the toxins to leave my body, but if I stay clean one day at a time....

Good luck to them.... And when is the Guardian going to start up that US edition, anyhow?

I mean, really.

Bush nominates a guy with an outstanding arrest warrant to be head to the DHS? WTF?

Oh, wait. The Dems don't seem to be all over this one. I guess it's the holidays?

RDF's right.

See MyDD. "Bloggers out!" The DNC we expect to be this effed, but the state Dems too? Apparently so.

Wait, that's a headline?! "Sun slated to appear in East"...

Anyhow, here's a juicy little detail on the fiasco from WaPo:

In the vetting process, which was conducted by the office of White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales...

So, the guy that screwed up Kerik is none other than Bush's nominee for Attorney General! Sweet!

...Kerik also never mentioned that a New Jersey judge had issued a warrant for his arrest in 1998 over a civil dispute over unpaid bills, the sources said. The existence of the dispute was first reported by Newsweek Friday night.

It is unclear why White House lawyers could not uncover [the outstanding arrest] warrant that Newsweek discovered after a few days of research....

Actually, I think it's quite clear. We're going to have to lift ol' Judy's sobriquet and apply it to Al: Alberto "Kneepads" Gonzales. After all, Gonzales got where he is by enabling—and I mean enabling in the classic recovery movement sense here—Inerrant Boy to do exactly what he wants. Prime example: The Texas Clemency memos. Second prime example: The memo saying the President has the inherent authority to set aside the law. And many, many more. (See back).

NOTE Great news! I think we have our first troll in a good long while on this post. They must be concerned Gonzales will be tainted. Beer cooler time again for GOP Gaulieters!

We used to have ambulance chasers and "frivolous lawsuits"; now we have F-word chasers!

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which promotes itself as a seller of clean music, deceived customers by stocking compact discs by the rock group Evanescence that contain the f-word, a lawsuit claims.

The hit group's latest CD and DVD, "Anywhere But Home," don't carry parental advisory labels alerting potential buyers to the obscenity. If they did, Wal-Mart wouldn't carry them, according to the retailer's policy.

But the lawsuit claims Wal-Mart knew about the explicit lyrics in the song, "Thoughtless," because it censored the word in a free sample available on its Web site and in its stores.
(via AP)

Oh, did I mention there's money in it?

The complaint, filed Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court, seeks an order requiring Wal-Mart to either censor or remove the music from its Maryland stores. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 for each of the thousands of people who bought the music at Wal-Marts in Maryland.

Of course, part of me takes a grim pleasure in watching the wingers turn on each other; this lawsuit couldn't happen to a nicer small-business-killing downtown-blighting sweatshop-promoting rapacious corporation.

My God, though—$75,000 apiece? Inerrant Boy wants to cap malpractice awards at $250,000.... So, lose the use of an eye or a limb for life because a doctor butchers an operation, you get $250,000; hear the F-word just once—that would be fuck, not fascism—and you get a quarter of that. The Pecksniffians certainly do have a sense of proportion!

Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Foundation maven John Perry Barlow arrested on a warrantless search, appealing it. (Via Suburban Guerilla)

Box of something, anyhow. And I'm sure they wouldn't put anyone from the EFF on a watchlist, just because they were from the EFF. They would never do that.

Hey! I just took care of my retirement. Yes, I went out and bought some lottery tickets! And best of all, it really isn't going to cost me anything. I pawned my laptop to get the money for the tickets, and when I win, I'll go get it back!

Sounds loony, doesn't it? Well, that's about what Bush's plan to privatize Social Security boils down to. See Krugman's essential "Borrow, Speculate, and Hope", where Krugman writes:

There is, by the way, a precedent for Bush-style privatization. One major reason for Argentina's rapid debt buildup in the 1990s was a pension reform involving a switch to individual accounts — a switch that President Carlos Menem, like Bush, decided to finance with borrowing rather than taxes. So Bush intends to emulate a plan that helped set the stage for Argentina's economic crisis.

So what's Krugman whining about, anyhow? Argentina escaped their creditors by defaulting; we'll screw China and Japan by defaulting. What's the big deal here? If they were stupid enough to buy our bonds, they deserve whatever happens to them, right?

Bush says Social Security faces a "looming threat". Yawn. Like the WMDs are an imminent threat?

Honestly. How stupid do they think we are?

Here's a nice soundbyte:

[From] Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation

Aggregate top-five compensation was equal to 10 percent of aggregate corporate earnings in 1998-2002, up from 6 percent of aggregate corporate earnings during 1993-1997.

Got that? A full ten percent of corporate earnings go to the top five people in the company. The. Top. Five.
(via Kevin Drum)

Yep, oligarchy. Tell me again what's so bad about progressive taxation?

Today I went to Reading Terminal in Center City, Philly, and bought steaks and chops from an Amish farmer, potatoes from a certified organic grower, a superb artisanal Brie from Green Valley Dairy, and honey from a local beekeeper. In each case, I was doing three things: (1) Supporting a local small business, (2) not polluting my body (or my mind) with chemical-laden corporate food, and (3) providing tastier food for myself. (I also got a copy of the Philadelphia Independent, so I didn't pollute my mind with corporate media product either).

I was also doing a fourth thing. Read Kid Oakland at Kos, who missed it, and see if you catch it.

It was a mostly idyllic day at the Berkeley farmer's market...

I went with 15 dollars in my pocket and some good friends and came home with a handful of organic brussels sprouts, a world class pear (the kind they serve at Chez Panisse for dessert), an artisanal loaf of bread baked by a friend of mine, an unwaxed apple, a tangerine, three organic yellow onions, a head of the best looking broccoli I've ever seen, and the lingering taste of a bite of vegan chocolate banana cake...mmm...oh, and 7 dollars and change...

Berkeley's farmer's market is a tribute to everything that is great about "Blue" America...

Here I part company with Kid Oakland. I don't see the significance of our purchases as, primarily, a Red/Blue thing at all. (It's probably a purple thing—some red, some blue.)

So, (4)—the fourth thing—by purchasing local produce, I was helping to heal the relationship between the American City and the American Country. (Corporate farming, obviously, can't do that. Not even on their radar.)

A healthy relationship between (blue) cities and (mostly purple and red) country is important for the country, and for Democrats to win. Unfortunately, the political establishments (bluest blue or reddest red) can get in the way of this rapprochement.

Is there a political issue around which local growers in the country and their buyers in the city can coalesce?

I think there is. The issue is water (profound, primal). Recall that one reason the blue states are blue is that they are water states: On the oceans, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi and its tributaries (the famous red/blue maps, though hopelessly polarized, also show this clearly). Blue states can't tolerate polluted water. I don't think local growers can either. But Republican policies, and Red State political establishments, encourage pollution in the name of corporations.

So, can water be a wedge issue? "We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water." (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer). Well, how are the Republicans treating this gift?

I told you Bush's next choice for DHS Fuhrer would be worse than Kerik:

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who heads the Senate committee that will take up the nomination, said two "terrific choices" would be Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary for border and transportation security, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
(via AP)

If there's anything that conclusively demonstrates Al Gore's tone-deafness, it was Gore letting Whiney Joe anywhere near a national ticket. After which, of course, Whiney Joe promptly sold Gore out, on national TV, by caving to the Republican thugs on the military vote during the Florida 2000 Republican coup.

Of course, I do like the spectacle of Connecticut's Littlest Senator twisting slowly, slowly in the wind, and then not getting nominated, but even the merest hint of Joementum makes my skin crawl.

Please, God, let the nominee be Hutchison. Otherwise the odor of sanctimonious and deeply fake bi-partisanship will be way too stifling.

And Susan. Why haven't you crossed the aisle, yet? Maine's Blue, and it needs Social Security to work.

Not letting profits get in the way of wiping out genomes and fouling the air and water, Bushco fearlessly plows ahead:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Friday it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species. Bush OKs Ruling That May Endanger Species

When our grandchildren look at the earth that corporate greed has left them, we’ll all be indicted. Won’t matter what your religion is when we’re all choking to death on corporate effluvia and shooting at each other to protect our share of dwindling non-renewable resources. Remember the Dave Bartholomew song, The Monkey? "Another thing you will never see: a monkey build a fence around a coconut tree. Letting the coconuts go to waste, forbidding all others to come and taste. Why, if I built a fence around this tree, starvation would force you to steal from me. Yes, man descended, the worthless bum, but brothers, from us he did not come. The monkey speaks his mind..."

The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.

After reading Sidney Blumenthal's scathing piece a couple of days ago about Kerik's resemblance to Caligula's horse (if you don't get the reference, go here), I knew it was only a matter of time before he'd have to step down. Just the things that Blumenthal recounts were enough to derail his nomination.

But, little did we know, it was going to get a lot better:

And just five years ago he was in financial trouble over a condominium he owned in New Jersey. More serious trouble than anyone realized: NEWSWEEK has discovered that a New Jersey judge in 1998 had issued an arrest warrant as part of a convoluted series of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on his condo. The magazine faxed documents, including the arrest warrant, over to the White House around 6:00 p.m. Friday, asking for comment. Neither Kerik nor the White House had any immediate response. At 8:30 p.m., Kerik had submitted his letter to the president.
(via MSGOP)

If you read the story closely, this warrant was apparently never withdrawn!

Holy cow, BushCo just nominated a guy for a cabinet post for whom there was an active arrest warrant! And they wanted the guy to be the head of the agency concerned with national security!

Bwahaaahaaaahaaaa!

That's gotta be a new low for an administration, even for this bottom-feeding administration, don't you think?

Boy the "nanny problem" excuse looks really lame now, doesn't it?

The press is still digging. Plain Dealer. Not, of course, that the Times or the Post would dirty their hands.... (via Kos).

NOTE Cuyahoga on 11/2-3 back and back here.

And speaking of kulturkampf:

McDONOUGH, Ga. (AP) - A 14-year-old boy accused of bringing a pipe bomb to school wanted to sell it to pay for Christmas presents, but several classmates thought his $35 asking price was too high, the principal said.
(via AP)

I love it. "His $35 asking price was too high" ...

So, there's a market in pipe bombs that 14-year-olds know about?

rumpa bum bum - rumpa bum bum....

Via Dr. Atrios, who is, apparently, one of the great mysteries of the natural world - at least if you work at CBS News. But anyway...:

From Big Bad Bill O'Falafel:

"That's why nobody sticks up for Christmas except me. Did Peter Jennings stick up for Christmas last night? I don't believe he did. How about Brian Williams, did he? Did Rather stick up for Christmas? How about Jim Lehrer -- did he? Did Larry King -- hello -- I love Christmas -- did he? No." -- Bill O'Reilly, The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, December 9, 2004

Well well, apparently Yuletide Billy is something of an anti-"founding father" type because the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritan nuts outlawed the celebration of the Christmas holiday in 1659. Including all that blasphemous liberal Christmas tree hugger bullshit. (unfortunately repealing the law 25 years later) So, Bill, you heretic, you should cease all that liberal pagan idol-worshiping bad craziness if you really know whats good fer ya! If them Puritan founder-like folks had spy'd you snuggling your loofah sponge under a blinking Douglas Fir on a frosty Christmas morn in 1660 they would have lashed you to a post in the public square in your jammies and peed in your bowl of parched corn meal mash and heaved your sorry fried falafel ass into a frozen pit with a toothless witch! For the glory of God and King and corporate colony and the errand in the wilderness and other such sanctified heroic flapdoodlry.

I know all this because I killed the Devil with my bare hands and have been afforded knowledge that most mortals will be never be afforded. Please help me afford this statement by making a donation to the 1-800 number currently flashing on your computer screen. Whether you can afford it or not.

*

I just want to write this quickly because I think it's relevant to the post below. The one titled "Dayton Tennessee...," which includes a newspaper article written by HL Mencken following the Scopes Trial in 1925.

I get the impression some readers believe that this kind of criticism represents a larger criticism of religion in general; or Christianity in general; or the role of religion within society in general. I get this same impression whenever the term "fundamentalism" arrives in the conversation and the battle between Christian "fundamentalism" and "liberalism" is waged.

So I think it might be a good idea to clarify where I'm coming from with respect to this argument and to clarify what "fundamentalism" means to me in this context.

First of all, "fundamentalism" was a term dervived from a series of essays written from between 1910 and 1915 by a group of Protestant religious clerics and scholars and so titled "The Fundamentals." (Type "the fundamentals" and "1910" into a Google search and see for yourself.)

In 1919 "The World's Christian Fundamentals Association" was founded to advance among other doctrines premillenarianism (which is a different animal from postmillenarianism). Thus, Christian "fundamentalism" was for all practical official purposes stamped with approval by certain factions of the Protestant church. But not all. And that's is where the battle between "fundamentalism" and "liberalism" or "modernism" enters the equation.

Today, when people speak of the Christian fundamentalism vs. liberalism argument, they go at it in terms of Christians vs. secular political interests; or in the context of a church vs. state battle. Or religion vs. no religion. Or any number of other similar combinations all pitting Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity against lefties or liberals or secular society and so on.

But that is not what the original battle between fundamentalism and liberalism was about, despite how it has evolved to this day.

The original "fundamentalism" vs. "liberalism" (or modernism) smackdown was an inter-ecclesiastical debate waged within the Protestant church and its denominations. The "liberalism" which conservative fundamentalist factions reacted against in the early 1900s was the mainstream Protestant church's own "liberal" attitudes and policies and willingness to reconcile itself with, and adapt itself to, advances in science and medicine and Darwinian theory and the German "higher criticism." Or any theories which the fundamentalist mob believed undermined Biblical inerrancy or authority.

The original collection of essays titled "The Fundamentals" written in 1910 also cited "Romanism" (The Catholic Papal Beast scare), socialism (the Red Scare), modern philosophy (Enlightenment principles and the higher criticism), atheism (read: Bolshevism), Eddyism (fear of multiple designer ice cream flavors), Mormonism, and spiritualism among the grave dangers awaiting the flock. (I made that one about the ice cream flavors up myself. Just for the record.)

The anti-liberalism crusade amounted ultimately to a defence of what the The General Assembly of the northern Presbyterian Church cited, in 1910, as the five essentials: [1] the innerancy of scripture, [2] the innerancy of the virgin birth, [3] the physical resurrection of Christ, [4] the historical authenticity of the miracles, [5] the Atonement. "The World's Christian Fundamentals Association" noted above would also seek to replace the miracles with the second coming of Christ.

In any case, each of these five (or six) essentials was deemed to be under attack from liberal/modernist quarters within the church. In 1923 Presbyterian J. Gresham Machen published "Christianity and Liberalism" in which he essentially concluded that "liberalism", and all those within the church who advanced the acceptance of such horrors, as they applied to fundamentalist church doctrine, was an outsider trojan horse riding bastard breaching the walls of the true historic Christianity and the big stinkin' shining city on the big stinkin' hill. But not exactly in those exact words. But you get the idea.

And so on and so on evermore this battle raged during the early years of the 20th century, eventually spilling over into politics and into the greater secular society as well. The Scopes trial in Tennessee in 1925 ultimately would become a kind of Waterloo for the noisier and more aggressive elements of the early Christian fundamentalist movement. And the wave rolled back off the beach. At least for a while. Until, as we see today, fundamentalism (especially as it has re-emerged in certain sectors of the evangelical community) has come roaring back with a vengeance. And it's replaced its traditional "liberal/modernist" enemies within its own ranks with "liberal" political ememies and secular enemies as they exist in the current left vs. right - "liberal" vs "conservative" political arena.

So, that said, despite my simplification of a whole lot of historical complexities and such, I'd just like some folks like THB to know that any critical references made here with respect to Christianity as it is advanced by Christian fundamentalist or the Christian Right or Christian Dominionists or any similar fauna has nothing to do with Christianity as such, or even the rules and regulations one denomination or another sics upon its own clubhouse; or religion, in general. I don't much like poison ivy but that doesn't mean I don't like ivy, or plants. Know what I mean?

Anyway, liberal, moderate, and mainstream Christians, (Catholic and Protestant and all others) just remember, the Christian fundamentalist fired across your bow first. Then they began sniping from the belltowers at everyone else. This battle here ain't about religion vs. secular or Christians vs. atheists etc... It's about modern democracy and religious freedom and the rights of secular civil society to all co-exist together on a neutral ground under the umbrella of constitutional government without being hijacked by a narrow agenda of crazies branding their own theocratic clubhouse rules and regulations and so-called pious holier than thou moral fetishes and limitations on everyone else's backsides. That's about it, I think.

Oh yeah. Please, this Christmas, won't you all, in the spirit of the holidays, send a basket of fresh loofah sponges and a box of falafel mix and a bottle of hand lotion, on my behalf, to Bill O'Reilly. Do it for the fundamentalist hell of it.

Update: Uh oh! The cross lighters at CNN (the Cakewalk News Network) are announcing the heroic return of Judge Roy Moore to the public square. So to speak. Just in time to join the Christmas torchlight cable media parade.

*

Of course, Bush's next nomination will be worse than Kerik...

Oops! This couldn't be Inerrant Boy's fault, since He never makes mistakes, so who screwed up?

In a surprise move, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik abruptly withdrew his nomination as Bush's choice to be homeland security secretary Friday night, saying questions have arisen about the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny he employed.

"Have arisen," eh? I wonder who dropped a dime?

The decision caught the White House off guard and sent Bush in search of a new candidate to run the sprawling bureacracy of more than 180,000 employes melded together from 22 disparate federal agencies in 2003.

One administration official helping prepare Kerik for Senate confirmation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerik's unexpected decision shocked senior leaders at the Homeland Security Department.

Weird language. Generally, we think of "officials" in government departments, not "leaders." Of course, under Fuhrerprinzip this may change...

This official said Kerik still had not filled out all his ethics filings — which would detail his sources of income and financial liabilities — and said the FBI background investigation of Kerik was still incomplete.

Meaning this Nanny hoo-ha was just the pretext for Kerik to bail, right?

But the only moderately troubling information uncovered...

By the Bush fluffers in our supine media, that is.

...about Kerik so far was news that Kerik had earned $6.2 million by exercising stock options he received from Taser International, which did lucrative business with the Department of Homeland Security, this official said.
(via AP)

Well. I don't find it troubling at all, not in the slightest, that Kerik is a coward who took only four months to screw up the Iraqi police force, then bailed. Or that he was fined for conflicts of interest. Or that his friends were. Or that he appointed fraudsters to office, screwed up the chain of command, and calls Democrats traitors (back) I mean, all that—especially the fraud part—is standard operating procedure for today's modern Republican!

But an illegal immmigrant for a Nanny? Now that's troubling...

The Amazin' Froomkin quotes a relentlessly on-message Inerrant Boy on Social Security:

[BUSH] "Therefore, the question is, does this country have the will to address the problem. I think it must. I think we have a responsibility to solve problems before they become acute. . . . [W]e must be willing to address this problem. . . . [T]he time is ready for us to solve this problem. . . . I think what's really important in the discussions is to understand the size of the problem. . . . What's important, Steve, is before we begin any discussion is to understand the scope of the problem. And that's why these trustees are vital in helping educate the American people, and Congress, as to the size of the problem. And I will not prejudge any solution. I think it's very important for the first step to be a common understanding of the size of the problem. . . . (via WaPo)

Right. "I will not prejudge any solution." [Cough. Gag. Vomit]

The Sex Pistols:

Too many problems oh why am I here
I don't need to be me
'cos you're all too clear
well and I can see
there's something wrong with you
but what do you expect me to do? ...

That's no problem
problems, problems
the problem is you
what you gonna do with your problem
(what you gonna do problem)

Set you thought you had it all worked out
Bet you thought you knew what I was about
Set you thought
you'd solved all your problems
but you are the problem

Oh what you gonna do with your problem I'll
leave it to you problem the problem is you.
You got a problem Oh what you gonna do
they know a doctor gonna fake you away
they take you away and throw away the key
they don't want you and they don't want me
you got a problem the problem is you
problems what you gonna do... (etc.)
problem... (etc.)
(The Sex Pistols, Problems)

If only Inerrant Boy was half the musician Johnny Rotten was....

They've got a study! Issued from The Department of "How Stupid Do They Think We Are?"

Yawn.

Kevin Drum on CBS.

Turns out CBS showed what looked to be a man in the street who was in actuality a Heritage Foundation operative. Cowardly Broadcasting System indeed...

And a nice quote, also from Kevin Druma, on the Chilean experience with Social Security:

The World Bank found that half of the pension contributions of the average Chilean worker who retired in 2000 went to management fees. The brokerage firm CB Capitales...found that the average worker would have done better simply by placing their pension fund contributions in a passbook savings account.

Wow. I wonder which party the people who collect those management fees are from? Looting! After lying and lawbreaking, it's what Republicans do best!

Sure, Bush is speeding up production—why only now? Did God come to Him in a dream?—of armored HumVees at the (monopoly) supplier:

The Army entered negotiations with an armor manufacturer Friday in an effort to accelerate production of armored versions of the Humvee to get them to the troops more quickly, Army and company officials said.

Why only now? Why did it take a reporter and a soldier working together, and pressure from the Democrats, to get this done?

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey spoke with officials at Armor Holdings, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Fla., who told him Friday they could increase production by up to 100 vehicles a month.

How odd. Didn't they know this before? I mean, they have time to make Bush a fancy new uniform with a special embroidered patch for a photo-op, and they don't have time to armor the troops? I don't get it.

Army officials had previously believed the factory was working at capacity until the company told the news media Thursday that it could make more.
(via AP)

Again, how odd. Thank heavens for a free press, eh? At least in Chattanooga.

Meanwhile, of course, alert reader Bryan (back) has already pointed out the misdirection. The Army is talking about a bad program for HumVees, because they have no program for trucks.

And specialist Wilson's question to Rummy was specifically about trucks (back).

"We definitely did not have a glitch-free election," said EAC chairman DeForest Soaries Jr., a Bush appointee.

Doubts persist about U.S. election results

Ya think?

This train leaves for Scopesville:
Is Dover PA lining up for the honor of hosting the next "monkey trial"?

Runaway train in Dover schools | Everyone who might help stop the intelligent design express is jumping off. Thursday, December 9, 2004

Watching what's going on in the Dover Area School District is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. The intelligent design express has gathered momentum and seems unstoppable except in a court of law.

1925:

"Aftermath"
by H.L. Mencken, September 14, 1925
The Baltimore Evening Sun

The Liberals, in their continuing discussion of the late trial of the infidel Scopes at Dayton, Tenn., run true to form. That is to say, they show all their habitual lack of humor and all their customary furtive weakness for the delusions of Homo neanderthalensis. I point to two of their most enlightened organs: the eminent New York World and the gifted New Republic. The World is displeased with Mr. Darrow because, in his appalling cross-examination of the mountebank Bryan, he did some violence to the theological superstitions that millions of Americans cherish. The New Republic denounces him because he addressed himself, not to "the people of Tennessee" but to the whole country, and because he should have permitted "local lawyers" to assume "the most conspicuous position in the trial."

Once more, alas, I find myself unable to follow the best Liberal thought. What the World's contention amounts to, at bottom, is simply the doctrine that a man engaged in combat with superstition should be very polite to superstition. This, I fear, is nonsense. The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.

True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge. Did Darrow, in the course of his dreadful bombardment of Bryan, drop a few shells, incidentally, into measurably cleaner camps? Then let the garrisons of those camps look to their defenses. They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy.

The meaning of religious freedom, I fear, is sometimes greatly misapprehended. It is taken to be a sort of immunity, not merely from governmental control but also from public opinion. A dunderhead gets himself a long-tailed coat, rises behind the sacred desk, and emits such bilge as would gag a Hottentot. Is it to pass unchallenged? If so, then what we have is not religious freedom at all, but the most intolerable and outrageous variety of religious despotism. Any fool, once he is admitted to holy orders, becomes infallible. Any half-wit, by the simple device of ascribing his delusions to revelation, takes on an authority that is denied to all the rest of us.

I do not know how many Americans entertain the ideas defended so ineptly by poor Bryan, but probably the number is very large. They are preached once a week in at least a hundred thousand rural churches, and they are heard too in the meaner quarters of the great cities. Nevertheless, though they are thus held to be sound by millions, these ideas remain mere rubbish. Not only are they not supported by the known facts; they are in direct contravention of the known facts. No man whose information is sound and whose mind functions normally can conceiveably credit them. They are the products of ignorance and stupidity, either or both.

What should be a civilized man's attitude toward such superstitions? It seems to me that the only attitude possible to him is one of contempt. If he admits that they have any intellectual dignity whatever, he admits that he himself has none. If he pretends to a respect for those who believe in them, he pretends falsely, and sinks almost to their level. When he is challenged he must answer honestly, regardless of tender feelings. That is what Darrow did at Dayton, and the issue plainly justified the act. Bryan went there in a hero's shining armor, bent deliberately upon a gross crime against sense. He came out a wrecked and preposterous charlatan, his tail between his legs. Few Americans have ever done so much for their country in a whole lifetime as Darrow did in two hours.

That about says it all as far as I'm concerned. Likewise... I fully expect the network and cable "news" culture war wowsers to remain in shut-up mode - with respect to this entire "intelligent design" matter - until they get the green light from their right wing think tank handlers and public relations department fetish conjurors. Once they figure out how to game the issue as some kind big mean liberal atheist vs. helpless gurgling baby Jesus argument - or some other intoxicating brew of semantic hocus pocus and boo-scare lost morality tale drivel - all designed to provoke and titilate the stunted intelligence of the reactionary simians of the land, then, and only then, will the media's "official statement" readers and pundit squawks light up the big cross and begin fanning the smoke around the room. In any event, keep an ear to the tracks for that runaway train.

"Know your creationists" - UTI has profiles and background info.

*

Andrew Buncombe reports that this is the testimony of a former Marine who’s testifying in, yes, Canada, for the refugee status hearing of Jeremy Hinzman:

A former US Marine has claimed that he saw American troops in Iraq routinely kill unarmed civilians, including women and children. He said he had also witnessed troops killing injured Iraqi insurgents.

Jimmy Massey, 33, a staff sergeant who served in Iraq before being honourably discharged after 12 years' service, said he had seen troops shooting civilians at road blocks and in the street. A code of silence, similar to that found in organised crime gangs, prevented troops from speaking about it.

via The Independent

No wonder they love America. Remind me, which religions tolerate this kind of behavior? God is on whose side?

A “code of silence,” eh? Similar to “organised crime gangs,” huh?

Of course—that’s exactly what we’re dealing with in this administration. As the code of silence is broken, watch back for knife insertion. Tenet has a book coming out...

UPDATE: thedarkbackward in comments wonders what the American media is doing with stories like this testimony…

Antonia Zerbisias’ column in the Toronto Star reported recently on what the SCLM is doing with this and similar stories. Here’s a taste:

…here's a positive piece of media news from Iraq: Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose harrowing private e-mail to friends describing the hazards of Baghdad made international news, is back on the war beat after what many suspected was a month-long suspension. She returns despite vicious criticism from the right that she is too "biased" to work there — just because she felt it was a deadly situation.

But then, what would she know?

She's just there, in very real danger of getting killed. Stateside, she's threatened with being shot down, along with other reporters, just for telling the truth.

And you should read Fassihi’s email. Yeeesh.

In a parallel universe not run by sociopaths, not so far away...

A federal proposal to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians would be constitutional, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday in a unanimous opinion.

Prime Minister Paul Martin responding by saying that his government would introduce the new legislation "as soon as possible" in the new year. It will be a free vote, except that cabinet ministers will have to support the government position.

"I do believe it will pass the House," Mr. Martin told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, back here in the lunatic asylum, the prisoners are ratting each other out for a pack of cigarettes:

The leadership of the Human Rights Campaign, at a meeting last weekend in Las Vegas, concluded that the group must bow to political reality and moderate its message and its goals. One official said the group would consider supporting President Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security partly in exchange for the right of gay partners to receive benefits under the program.

Earlier, the HRC had considered, then rejected, supporting US attacks on civilians in Iraq in return for extended shopping hours at Crate & Barrel.

I've got to start decorating my tiny room under the stairs.

But... I... just... can't... stand... it....

And guess what! The economists are surprised again!

U.S. jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week in more worrying news for the labor market, government data showed on Thursday, while other indicators offered more positive signals for the economy.

The Labor Department said the new claims for jobless benefits grew unexpectedly last week to 357,000. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast first-time claims would fall to 335,000 from 349,000 the previous week, which had been shortened by Thanksgiving Day.
(via Reuters)

Um, what was "unexpected" about it?

Can't we outsource the economists? If we got it wrong as often as they do, we'd be fired....

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts worked with the soldiers who asked Rummy the famous question. Drudge (via the Poynter Institute) has his email. Here's the question, and Rummy's stammering response:

Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary. My question is more logistical. We’ve had troops in Iraq for coming up on three years and we’ve always staged here out of Kuwait. Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromise ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles and why don’t we have those resources readily available to us? [Applause]

SEC. RUMSFELD: I missed the first part of your question. And could you repeat it for me?

Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary. Our soldiers have been fighting in Iraq for coming up on three years. A lot of us are getting ready to move north relatively soon. Our vehicles are not armored. We’re digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that’s already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles to take into combat. We do not have proper armament vehicles to carry with us north.
(Pentagon transcript)

Now, it turns out a reporter helped the soldier craft the question:

NEW YORK The editor/publisher of the Chattanooga [Tenn.] Times Free Press offered support late Thursday for his embedded reporter who has been criticized for working with a national guardsman to ask Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a controversial question during a visit to Kuwait.

Implying that the emperor has no clothes does tend to be controversial...

"I think he was doing what he felt he was embedded to do: tell the stories of the soldiers of this unit, " said Tom Griscom, editor and publisher of the paper. But he criticized his story about the incident, which did not mention the reporter's onnection to the soldier who ask the question.

The embed, Edward Lee Pitts, sought a response from Rumsfeld about why military units in Iraq are lacking proper armor for many vehicles. A lengthy email that he wrote to a fellow reporter ended up on several Web sites, including Romenesko, the Drudge Report and E & P Online, which Griscom lamented.

"He is there to write stories, not make news himself," Griscom said of Pitts

But since Rummy wouldn't take questions from reporters, the question otherwise might not have gotten asked. Is that what Griscom wants?

Griscom was communications director in the Reagan White House in 1987-1988.

He said Pitts' story on the incident, which ran Thursday, should have included an explanation of how the embed, barred from questioning Rumsfeld himself during an appearance in Kuwait Wednesday, convinced a Tennessee national guardsman to pose the question.
(via Editor and Publisher)

Aren't selective ethics strange? Rummy sends the troops off to war without armor. No ethics problem there. The soldier asks the question—and other soldiers cheer! Is there a problem there? I don't think so. What is the ethics problem? A reporter aggressively organizes a question...

Unbelievable? All too believable.Expect the winger frothing and stamping to begin...

Quoting Carl Luna's column almost in its entirety:

Just a passing thought. Back in 1993, following the infamous “Blackhawk Down “ disaster in Somalia, Clinton’s Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned amidst allegations that he had failed to provide the troops in Somalia with the armored support they needed to do their mission. House and Senate Republicans, including several who hold majority leadership positions today, were in the forefront calling for Aspin’s ouster.

Why then aren’t these same voices calling for the resignation of Donald “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” Rumsfeld? Aspin’s Somalian botch resulted in the deaths of 18 US servicemen and the wounding of 75. Rumsfeld’s apparent failure to insure proper armor protection for US troops has already, to date, resulted in more lives lost or maimed than happened in Somalia.

Meanwhile Rumsfeld’s off the cuff musings that, "If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up,” has to rank as one of the great non-sequiturs of any modern Defense Secretary. Does this mean you might as well go into combat naked, painted blue with beards tarred like the Celtic warriors of old? I thought the goal was to produce tanks that blew up the other side before they blew up you and armored vehicles that kept soldiers from dying at the hands of low-grade homemade bombs? Rumsfeld’s job is to make sure the troops go into combat with everything they need to minimize loses. That he should have done so and hasn’t is indicative of incompetence, if not outright criminal negligence. That he makes light of it by essentially telling the troops “Life’s not fair – tough cookies—borders on reckless endangerment. For Republican members of Congress not to call for his head, they way they did with Democrat Les Aspin a decade ago, is partisan hypocrisy of the most brazen and dangerous kind.

Support the Troops-- Dump Rumsfeld!
(via Union Tribune)

Well, of course we can't dump Rummy. He Who Does Not Make Mistakes just granted Rummy a second term. Let's be reasonable, here.

Bush, of course, takes no responsibility at all. Alert reader Julia has the followup story.

The lie:

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the Army was working as fast as it can and supply is dictated by ``a matter of physics, not a matter of money.''

The Truth:

Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.

Leave it to a Republican to blame science—and then screw it up!

But, I thought "we make our own reality?" Can't Bush just pray, and have the armor delivered?

And, um, maybe there's a more earthly problem—not the lack of planning, but the fact that the armor manufacturer is a sole supplier, i.e. a monopolopy? Military industrial complex, anyone? Hey, I thought the free market was supposed to solve what Bush praying didn't...

Insurgent attacks on the vehicles with homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades are accounting for as much as half of the more than 1,000 U.S. deaths and 9,000 U.S. wounded in Iraq, according to Congressional estimates.

President George W. Bush said concerns raised by soldiers in questions to Rumsfeld yesterday in Kuwait are being "addressed," Bush said in response to a reporter's question. ``We expect our troops to have the best possible equipment. If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country I'd want to ask the Secretary of Defense the same question, and that is are we getting the best'' equipment, he said. ``They deserve the best.''

No no. They deserved the best—back when the war was being [cough] planned. Of course, they didn't get it.

`Hillbilly Armor'

U.S. troops preparing for deployment to Iraq told Rumsfeld yesterday they are salvaging armor from landfills to install ``hillbilly armor'' on their Humvees. Rumsfeld replied that ``you have to go to war with the Army you have.''
(via Bloomberg)

Right. So, to show his contrition, Rummy's going to ride a bicycle from The Green Zone to the Baghdad Airport—naked. After all, if armor doesn't offer any real protection....

Oh, and it's nice to see the Dem on this one. Oh, wait...

UPDATE Alert reader Bryan distinguishes between HumVees and trucks. Note that Wilson was asking about trucks:

Specialist Thomas Wilson was not asking about Humvees. He couldn't care less about Humvees. If they produced Humvees with more armor than an Abrams tank it would have zero effect on the safety of Specialist Thomas Wilson and the other transportation units in Iraq because they load Humvees on the backs of the trucks they drive.

The Pentagon is talking about Humvees because they are doing something about them. They don't want to talk about trucks, because they have no program for upgrading trucks.

The little guy everyone made fun of is right. Dennis Kucinich:

…In the wake of the attack on Iraq, questions have been made regarding the responsibility of members of the Administration and their contractors, for authorizing torture, for the destruction and appropriation of property, unlawful confinement, attacks on civilians, attacks on civilian objects, exacting excessive incidental death, injury or damage, destroying or seizing the enemy's property, employing poisoned weapons, and outrages upon personal dignity, all of which constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity under the International Criminal Court statute, which entered into force on July 1, 2002.

Given the public record of its conduct in Iraq, is it any wonder that the Administration, in order to avoid accountability under the ICC for the results of its own directives, would go to extraordinary efforts to weaken and even destroy the ICC, and to threaten nations which support it with economic reprisals?

The Administration has told the American people that it refuses to participate in the ICC in order to protect our troops from being brought to the Hague. One might ask should troops be held accountable and those who sent them not be accountable? In fact, all troops are protected because there is a specific provision in the ICC in which all military personnel have the right to be returned to their home country for trial. The ICC gets involved only if a suspect is being "shielded from criminal responsibility."

It is more likely that those whose protection the administrators seek wear not the uniform of our nation, but the business suits of top civilian government officials who wrap themselves in the flag and hide behind the troops while insisting upon impunity for the deadly consequences of their own political decisions…

…The power of human unity is as inexorable as the power of human love. No matter how challenging things may seem in the moment, with compassion and patience we will create the world we seek, and those who today stand at the periphery of that world must continue to be welcomed inside, without fear...

The US Administration and The ICC

There are a few spines in the Congress.

How about this for for a frame? On June 15, 1898, the Anti-imperialist league was formed in response to the “war” in the Philippines. Their platform read, in part:

We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is "criminal aggression" and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our government.

We earnestly condemn the policy of the present national administration in the Philippines. It seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands. We deplore the sacrifice of our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust war. We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods.

We demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty, begun by Spain and continued by us. We urge that Congress be promptly convened to announce to the Filipinos our purpose to concede to them the independence for which they have so long fought and which of right is theirs.

The United States have always protested against the doctrine of international law which permits the subjugation of the weak by the strong. A self-governing state cannot accept sovereignty over an unwilling people. The United States cannot act upon the ancient heresy that might makes right.

Imperialists assume that with the destruction of self-government in the Philippines by American hands, all opposition here will cease. This is a grievous error. Much as we abhor the war of "criminal aggression" in the Philippines, greatly as we regret that the blood of the Filipinos is on American hands, we more deeply resent the betrayal of American institutions at home. The real firing line is not in the suburbs of Manila. The foe is of our own household. The attempt of 1861 was to divide the country. That of 1899 is to destroy its fundamental principles and noblest ideals.

We deny that the obligation of all citizens to support their government in times of grave national peril applies to the present situation. If an administration may with impunity ignore the issues upon which it was chosen, deliberately create a condition of war anywhere on the face of the globe, debauch the civil service for spoils to promote the adventure, organize a truth-suppressing censorship, and demand of all citizens a suspension of judgement and their unanimous support while it chooses to continue the fighting, representative government itself is imperiled…

We propose to contribute to the defeat of any person or party that stands for the forcible subjugation of any people. We shall oppose for re-election all who in the white house or in congress betray American liberty in pursuit of un-American ends. We still hope that both of our great political parties will support and defend the declaration of independence in the closing campaign of the century.

Change a few dates and countries around, and voila! Found my online copy here:

Anti-Imperialist League - Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League

UPDATE: Mark Twain, who was head of the Anti-Imperialist League for awhile, said this stunningly 2004 bit: "I thought we should act as their protector -- not try to get them under our heel.... But now -- why, we have got into a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater."

Kevin Drum finally realizes that the Republicans are out to wreck the Federal government.

Except for the parts of the Federal government that they can (a) loot or (b) corrupt to help them find and kill destroy their political enemies, Kevin might have added, but didn't.

And the troops know it. I wonder what they think about Rummy still having his job?

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (AP) - In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

"You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have."

Heh. Right. "You [the troops] go," alright. None of the chickenhawks went, and none of their children go, either. "You go." Unbelievable.

Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., concluded after asking again.

Wilson, an airplane mechanic whose unit, the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, is about to drive north into Iraq for a one-year tour of duty, put his finger on a problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon for more than a year. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum.

Rumsfeld said the Army was sparing no expense or effort to acquire as many Humvees and other vehicles with extra armor as it can. What is more, he said, armor is not the savior some think it is.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up," he said.

Right again. "You [the troops] can." Not the chickenhawks or their kids. But you know, Rummy's right! Why are we armoring anything? It's useless! I say, sell all the armor for scrap and go naked!

The deputy commanding general of U.S. forces in Kuwait, Maj. Gen. AlbertGary Speer, said in an interview at Camp Buehring that as far as he knew, every vehicle deploying to Iraq from Kuwait had at least "Level 3" armor protection. That means it had locally fabricated armor for its side panels, but not bulletproof windows or reinforced floorboards.

Speer said he was unaware that soldiers were searching landfills for scrap metal and discarded glass.

Well, he should start paying attention. But of course, he's lying.

However, Maj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett, the adjutant general of the Tennessee National Guard, disputed Speer's remarks. "I know that members of his staff were aware and assisted the 278th in obtaining these materials," he said.
(via AP)

But it is great that Bush issued that Executive Order thanking all the parents who sent their children body armor, and thanking all the Chambers of Commerce that put together armor kits for the Humvees, and not only thanking them, but reimbursing them.

Oh, wait.

That would imply that it was possible for Bush, who is, after all, The Chosen of God To Be Leader, could make a mistake. What was I thinking?

Honestly, what is there to say about nonsense like this?

“[The question is] whether blogs are analogous to a sole person campaigning or whether they are very much a media publication, which is essentially akin to an online newspaper,” said [Goldberg, who is the legal counsel to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

“Ultimately, I think, the decision will have to come down to whether the public will be allowed to decide whether bloggers are credible or whether some regulation needs to occur.”
(via CBS)

Odd. Why wouldn't the public be allowed to decide? Odder still: Why would the industry in which Judith "Kneepads" Miller still has a job imagine that it has an iota of credibility?

But wait! There's more! Now these clowns are going for Atrios!

“The question is: What are the appropriate regulations on the Internet?" asked Kathleen Jamieson, an expert on political communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communications. “It’s evolved into an area that we need to do more thinking about it.

Funny how nobody raised need to do "more thinking" when Matt Drudge was pimping leakes from the VWRC elves in their plot to overthrow Clinton.

And it's funny, too, how the SCLM just can't seem to get its facts straight:

The author of the popular liberal blog Atrios, Black wrote under a pseudonym.

Just like James Madison writing the Federalist Papers. What's the problem?

All the while, he was a senior fellow at a liberal media watchdog group, Media Matters for America.

"All the while"? Not so, as many of us know from personal knowledge (see Atrios).

“People are pretty smart in assuming that if a blog is making a case on one side that it’s partisan,” Jamieson said. “The problem is when a blog pretends to hold neutrality but is actually partisan.”

Somebody thought Atrios was pretending to be neutral? You could have fooled me!

That is not a legal problem, however, but an ethical one. Black eventually claimed credit for his blog and fellow bloggers heavily publicized his political connections. But he is still blogging.

"Eventually"?? "But he is still blogging?"??? Unbelievable?! All too believable!

And now the sting in the tail of the story:

Beginning next year, the F.E.C. will institute new rules on the restricted uses of the Internet as it relates to political speech.

Does this mean we won't be able to call them whores any more?

Let 'em try.

As always, the Internet will interpret censorship as damage and route around it....

Yet another lunatic scheme...

Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security.

In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."

Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators - Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon - refused to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities.

The compromise noted that the four senators believed the mystery program was unnecessary and its cost unjustified and that "they believe that the funds for this item should be expended on other intelligence programs that will make a surer and greater contribution to national security."

Each senator - and more than two dozen current and former U.S. officials contacted by The Associated Press - declined to further describe or identify the disputed program, citing its classified nature. Thirteen other senators on the Intelligence Committee and all their counterparts in the House approved the compromise.

Despite objections from some in the Senate, Congress has approved the program for the last two years, Rockefeller said.

The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project in such a public forum intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the program was almost certainly a spy satellite system, perhaps with technology to destroy potential attackers. They cited tantalizing hints in Rockefeller's remarks, such as the program's enormous expense and its alleged danger to national security.

A U.S. panel in 2001 described American defense and spy satellites as frighteningly vulnerable, saying technology to launch attacks in space was widely available internationally. The study, by a commission whose members included Donald H. Rumsfeld prior to his appointment as defense secretary for President Bush, concluded that the United States was "an attractive candidate for a Space Pearl Harbor."

Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike said other countries would inevitably demand proof that any weapons were only defensive.

"It would present just absolutely insurmountable verification problems because we are not going to let anybody look at our spy satellites," Pike said. "It is just not going to happen."

Rockefeller's description of the spy project as a "major funding acquisition program" suggests a price tag in the range of billions of dollars, intelligence experts said. But even expensive imagery or eavesdropping satellites - so long as they're unarmed - are rarely criticized as a danger to U.S. security, they noted.

"From the price, it's almost certainly a satellite program," said James Bamford, author of two books about the National Security Agency. "In the intelligence community, it's so hard to get a handle on what's going on, particularly with the satellite programs."

Another expert agreed. "It's hard to think of most any satellite program, at least the standard ones, as dangerous to national security," said Jeffrey T. Richelson, who wrote a highly regarded book about CIA technology in 2001.
(via AP)

That Bush would militarize space comes as no surprise to Corrente readers; just like Iraq, militarizing space is part of the PNAC's plan (back here)

What with all the Dem-bashing lately, it’s time to reward good behavior… Dr. Dean:

Our challenge today is not to re-hash what has happened, but to look forward, to make the Democratic Party a 50-state party again, and, most importantly, to win.
To win the White House and a majority in Congress, yes. But also to do the real work that will make these victories possible -- to put Democratic ideas and Democratic candidates in every office -- whether it be Secretary of State, supervisor of elections, county commissioner or school board member.

If this election had been decided on moral values, Democrats would have won.

It is time for the Democratic Party to start framing the debate.

We have to learn to punch our way off the ropes.

We have to set the agenda.

We should not hesitate to call for reform -- reform in elections, reform in health care and education, reforms that promote ethical business practices. And, yes, we need to talk about some internal reform in the Democratic Party as well, and I'll be discussing that more specifically in the days ahead. via The Future of the Democratic Party

Yes, one county at a time, one precinct at a time… and then there’s Feingold remarking on Condoliezza:

The administration's record of the past four years suggests a foreign policy careening out of control, driven by ideologues who want to test their theories in the laboratory of the Middle East one minute, by domestic political considerations the next, and by spiteful attempts to punish those who disagree with their methods the next.

Where is this going? Who is in charge? Who knows? No one ever seems to be held accountable for the blunders, the failures, the wildly inaccurate presentations and projections or the painfully ineffective initiatives. Congress cannot simply accept more of the same, keep our heads down and hope that somehow we will muddle through. The stakes are far too high. Our national security, the stability of the world that our children will inherit, our troops - even our country's honor - are on the line. Congress has an obligation, not to oppose every administration effort, but to reassert our role in helping to steer the ship of state wisely rather than recklessly. I look at our foreign policy over the past four years, and I know that America is so much better than this. via "America Is So Much Betterthan This"

I sent ‘em each a nice thank you email.

Look, you whining do-gooders, there’s a WAR on. We’ve got better things to do with our money…

LONDON, England (AP) -- The amount of aid rich countries give to poorer nations has fallen by half since the 1960s, risking the lives of millions of children, a leading development charity said in a report released Monday.

As a proportion of rich countries' income, aid has fallen from an average 0.48 percent in 1960-65 to 0.24 percent in 2003, Oxfam said. The United Nations has set a target of allocating 0.7 percent of national income to aid.

Oxfam said wealthy nations need to give more aid to help meet the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, which include cutting poverty in half, reducing child mortality and improving education by 2015.

"As rich countries get richer, they're giving less and less. This is a scandal that must stop," Oxfam Director Barbara Stocking said. "The world's poorest children are paying for rich countries' policies on aid and debt with their lives."

Oxfam calculated that 45 million more children will die in developing countries between now and 2015 than if the world were on track to meet the U.N.'s goals. via CNN

45 million dead kids, a scandal? Oh, please, Barbara. Gay marriage, now THAT’S a scandal!
I am, yes, a believer in redistributing wealth. Instead of distributing bullets and bombs and spewing corporate pollution.

How best to achieve that? The UN?

I's so glad the holiday season isn't stressful. Otherwise, I might feel tired and irritated.

Patronizing, or what?

BUSH: Thank you very much, good job.

[IRAQI PRESIDENT AL-YAWER]: Thank you.

BUSH: We'll answer a couple of questions in the spirit of democracy.
(via White House transcript)

[Cough]

A followup to farmer's post here, via Blue Lemur. One comment on what programmer Curtis says, posted there:

“If you inspect the code, you will see it,” [programmer Curtis] states. I understand this point.

“Once the vote is flipped, you will not.” What the hell does this mean?

We need to be as clear as possible when reporting on this issue and press on Mr.Curtis for further details. We don’t need another Karl Rove worm to spoil the hard work of ALL our net community members.

Mr.Curtis,

Thankyou for your bravery in these cowardly times but please provide more details.

Alert reader bobo mentions a thread on Slashdot: Hre it is. One good quote on the "you will not see it" after the vote issue:

Some of what hes said isn't entirely true - you could certainly find any rigging from looking at the binary, it might take allot of work but it would always be possible. What you really need is to have the program stored on a memory card in the machine, you could then design it to write over the incriminating parts of itself after the election. You would need two versions of the source code - one would be the dirty original which you would want to keep secret and the other would be the 'public' version which would compile to the identical binary that was in the machine after it had over-written itself, obviously you would have to prevent inspection of the binary in the machines until after the election and the whole thing would be very difficult to design, but do-able. Come to think of it, the diebold machines stored their programs on flash didnt they?

I dunno.

Alert readers stress the tinfoil hat stories that have later been shown to be true ("Killing Castro with an exploding cigar? Pshaw!"). Alert readers here, as did those at Blue Lemur, also stress the possibility of Dan Rather-style disinformation, where a discredited version of real events ended up obliterating the entire story. (Funny how it happens when we get close...).

It would be nice if Curtis kept a backup of the code, so we could test it and inspect it. That might, at least, answer some of the technical questions....

Not all churchgoers are evil. In fact, most churchgoers are good—and that's why The Evil tend to seek out churches and join them. Like many parasites, The Evil find the protective coloration provided by their lies useful. (The theology comes from M. Scott Peck.)

One of the latest examples: Mike Hintz (via Atrios).. Mike Hintz: Bush supporter, Assembly of God youth minister, family man—and child molester.

Yeah, I'd say that's evil.

Hintz certainly goes beyond the Pharasaical hypocrisy exemplified by other Republican idols like Bill Bennett, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Rush Limbaugh. (via Kos).

Remember this one? From the senior advisor to Bush?

"We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. "
(Ron Suskind in the Times here)

When the sun never set on the British empire, Britain was a creditor nation. The whole world owed them money.

But nobody has ever explained how the US can be an empire as a debtor nation. Presumably, if we're an empire, we need a strong military. And we buy our oil for our tanks, the metal for our armor, the chips for our avionics from other countries. If the dollar collapses, how are we going to continue to do that? Nobody has explained, least of all the Republicans.

Here's a frightening article on the dollar from the UK's Economist (via Josh Marshall here)

The dollar has been the leading international currency for as long as most people can remember. But its dominant role can no longer be taken for granted. If America keeps on spending and borrowing at its present pace, the dollar will eventually lose its mighty status in international finance. And that would hurt: the privilege of being able to print the world's reserve currency, a privilege which is now at risk, allows America to borrow cheaply, and thus to spend much more than it earns, on far better terms than are available to others. Imagine you could write cheques that were accepted as payment but never cashed. That is what it amounts to. If you had been granted that ability, you might take care to hang on to it. America is taking no such care, and may come to regret it.

The dollar is not what it used to be. Over the past three years [the dollar] has fallen by 35% against the euro and by 24% against the yen. ... [C]an a currency that has been sliding against the world's next two biggest currencies for 30 years be regard

A fall in the dollar sufficient to close the current-account deficit might destroy its safe-haven status. If the dollar falls by another 30%, as some predict, it would amount to the biggest default in history: not a conventional default on debt service, but default by stealth, wiping trillions off the value of foreigners' dollar assets.

The dollar's loss of reserve-currency status would lead America's creditors to start cashing those cheques—and what an awful lot of cheques there are to cash. As that process gathered pace, the dollar could tumble further and further. American bond yields (long-term interest rates) would soar, quite likely causing a deep recession. Americans who favour a weak dollar should be careful what they wish for. Cutting the budget deficit looks cheap at the price.

Not, of course, that we would ever claw back any of the money we gave the super-rich for the tax cuts they don't need, and which haven't stimulated jobs...

Can Bush believe that the US is "too big to fail?" I certainly hope we don't get the chance to test his theory.

Maybe without an empire we can be a Republic again... But it sounds like the collapse of the dollar is a very heavy price to pay for that. But then, reality therapy is often painful

Pump me up mister programmer...

Via Blue Lemur

In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s office silent. [corrente ed note: Republican Tom Feeney's office]

In a sworn affidavit (pdf file) Monday, a former programmer for a NASA contractor said that he developed a vote-rigging prototype at the request of a then-Florida state representative who is now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

RAW STORY acquired the affidavit from The Brad Blog, which has been in contact with the programmer in Washington.

[...]

The programmer, Clinton Curtis, said that he was told the program needed to be "touch-screen capable, the user should be able to trigger the program without any additional equipment, [and that] the programming was to remain hidden even if the source code was inspected."

Thanks to The Dark Backward for the heads up on this story.

UPDATE: More details from Wayne Madsen

UPDATE2: Yang family $$$ contributions to Feeney campaign - 2004:

[1] Yang, Tyng Lin Yang Enterprises Inc./president 1,250 06/23/2003 Merritt Island FL 32952

[2] Yang, Li-Woan Yang Enterprises Inc./ceo 2,000 03/23/2004 Merritt Island FL 32952

[3] Yang, Li-Woan Yang Enterprises Inc./ceo 2,000 09/05/2003 Merritt Island FL 32952

*

Easter Sunday, April 16, 1933:

A state that once again rules in God's name can count not only on our applause but also on enthusiastic and active cooperation from the church. With joy and thanks we see how this new state rejects blasphemy, attacks immorality, promotes discipline and order with a firm hand, demands awe before God, works to keep marriage sacred and our youth spiritually instructed, brings honor back to fathers of families, ensures that love of people and fatherland is no longer mocked, but burns in a thousand hearts.... We can only plead with our fellow worshipers to do all they can to help these new productive forces in our land reach a complete and unimpeded victory. ~ Official blessing of Nazism - endorsed and delivered by Bavarian Protestant pastors - Germany, 1933.

*

Via AP:

Speaking on the 63rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Bush was to express appreciation for the troops' service and their families' sacrifice, especially during the holiday season. He also was to suggest ways Americans can actively support the troops.

Several options include a Defense Department program called "America Supports You," designed to showcase support for the military from individuals, businesses and groups as a way of encouraging others to do the same.

Media control. Support our troops. Danger all around us. Be afraid. Wait! Look, a nurse handing out condoms to teenagers!

...Let me begin by counter-posing two different conceptions of democracy. One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free....

An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing of their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled. That may sound like an odd conception of democracy, but it's important to understand that it is the prevailing conception....

Duh! I read this from Chomsky ten years ago. How could I forget?

The bewildered herd is a problem. We've got to prevent their rage and trampling. We've got to distract them. They should be watching the Superbowl or sitcoms or violent movies. Every once in a while you call on them to chant meaningless slogans like "Support our troops." You've got to keep them pretty scared, because unless they're properly scared and frightened of all kinds of devils that are going to destroy them from outside or inside or somewhere, they may start to think, which is very dangerous, because they're not competent to think. Therefore it's important to distract them and marginalize them.

When you have total control over the media and the educational system and scholarship is conformist, you can get that across... The picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies. It's all been a marvelous success from this point of view in deterring the threat of democracy, achieved under conditions of freedom, which is extremely interesting. It's not like a totalitarian state, where it's done by force. These achievements are under conditions of freedom. If we want to understand our own society, we'll have to think about these facts. They are important facts, important for those who care about what kind of society they live in. Media Control

Wow--there's a lot in there. This is the model of democracy we are exporting under the gun. Support the troops—nevermind the policy. Look, over there—it’s a (insert scare du jour). But as malleable as this “democracy” is to the regime, aWol himself said that a dictatorship is easier.

Maybe someone smarter than me and less academic than Chomsky can frame this in a more useful way.

Funny how AQ blowing up the American embassy in Saudi Arabia is just another yawner now that the election is over, isn't it?

Digby. Go read.

Thanks, George!

ember nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of their deposits denominated in dollars by more than 13 percentage points in the past three years, mainly to the advantage of the euro, the Bank for International Settlements said Sunday.
(via Times)

Let's hope the dollar just keeps sliding, and doesn't crash, eh? After all, that would leave millions of Japanese and Chinese widows, whose governments bought our bonds, holding the bag!

Oh, but wait! Paying for our SUVs and our wars with funny money! That's a cute trick! What will those Republicans think of next?

This I like. Guess I went nucl-ee-ar on Reid too soon. Typical Lambert. Sorry, guys. Good message here:

MR. RUSSERT: Private accounts for Social Security--the president has made that a priority of his domestic agenda. Will you work with him in privatizing part of Social Security?

SEN. REID: Tim, I can remember as a little boy my widowed grandmother with eight children. She lived alone, but she felt independent because she got every month her old age pension check. That's what this is all about. The most successful social program in the history of the world is being hijacked by Wall Street. Yes, Social Security is a good program. And if the president has some ideas about trying to improve it, I'll talk to him, and we as Democrats will, but we are not going to let Wall Street hijack Social Security. It won't happen. They are trying to destroy Social Security.

MR. RUSSERT: No private accounts?

SEN. REID: They are trying to destroy Social Security by giving this money to the fat cats on Wall Street, and I think it's wrong.

MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, there are now 40 million people on Social Security. In the next 20 years, there's going to be 80 million. Life expectancy used to be 65 years old. It's approaching 80. If you have twice as many people on these programs for 15 years, you've got to restructure them in some way, shape, or form. What is your solution?

SEN. REID: Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: What is your alternative?

SEN. REID: Tim, all experts say that Social Security beneficiaries will receive every penny of their benefits that they're entitled to--100 percent of them--until the year 2055. After that, if we still do nothing, they'll draw 80 percent of their benefits. I want those beneficiaries after year 2055 to draw 100 percent of their benefits. But this does not require dismantling the program. For heaven's sakes, they're crying wolf a little too regularly here. There is not an emergency on Social Security. We can do this. The president should not try to jam this private accounts in an effort to destroy Social Security.
(via MSNBC)

One idea that is implicit in what Reid is here is that the Republicans have a very narrow notion of family values. Never mind the gay marriage stuff—the wingers don't have a notion of an extended family that can stretch across several generations, which is what Social Security does. Reid made me think about something that I never thought of before: That since Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program, I've been paying for my Mother's retirement, in the expectation that I too, would be taken care of. And now that I think about it, I'm proud to have given my Mother that money. Certainly it was better to give her a guarantee too, which is what the payroll tax does, or would do if the Republicans weren't trying to steal it.

So, ownership society? Screw that! I'm taking care of my Mom.

UPDATE The Howler has more.

OK, I was wrong (here) to trash Reid. The material AP left out of the story is underlined:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to judicial nominations. Again, Harry Reid on National Public Radio, November 19: "If they"--the Bush White House--"for example, gave us Clarence Thomas as chief justice, I personally feel that would be wrong. If they give us Antonin Scalia, that's a little different question. I may not agree with some of his opinions, but I agree with the brilliance of his mind."

Could you support Antonin Scalia to be chief justice of the Supreme Court?

SEN. REID: If [SCalia] can overcome the ethics problems that have arisen since he was selected as a justice of the Supreme Court. And those ethics problems--you've talked about them; every people talk--every reporter's talked about them in town--where he took trips that were probably not in keeping with the code of judicial ethics. So we have to get over this. I cannot dispute the fact, as I have said, that this is one smart guy. And I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reason for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute. So...
(via MTP)

OK. So it was part of a "clever plan" Crafty Reid is setting up the counterpunch. Too bad he thinks the SCLM still reports the news....

Just asking.

You know. The one that details the VWRC and its funding sources (Kos, today, and back)

Just asking.

I mean, maybe ordinary Democrats should be able to see it?

Welcome to Thieresenstadt. Form a line over here, please, to enter the "model city…"

Returning Fallujans will face clampdown

By Anne Barnard / Boston Globe

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised.
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.

Badges, huh? I guess armbands and patches would be so, well, you know… I mean, it’s been done. Oh, and in case you were wondering why… I mean, the overall strategy:

"You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time.

Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he said. "They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with you.' We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe.

"They're never going to like us," he added, echoing other Marine commanders who cautioned against raising hopes that Fallujans would warmly welcome troops when they return to ruined houses and rubble-strewn streets. The goal, Bellon said, is "mutual respect."

See, you just have to understand how these people THINK. For the record, I am not a member of your “benevolent, dominant tribe.” Although I suspect that this may just be a dress rehearsal for when they come after me with the retina scanners and benevolent cavity searches, and so forth… for non-compliance, of course. Failing to understand my own best interests. No! They would never do that!

Oh, that liberal media!

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest radio station operator, has picked FUX News Radio to be the primary source of national news for most of its news and talk stations, officials announced Monday.
(via AP)

Doyle Davidson - 'Muriken Kook

Pastor Decried After Child's Arms Severed
Sun Dec 5, 5:49 PM ET U.S. National - AP
By LISA FALKENBERG, Associated Press Writer

PLANO, Texas - Long before Dena Schlosser took a blade to her baby's arms, her parents had begun to worry. In the years after she moved to Texas with her husband and children, their gentle, dependent daughter had become increasingly isolated. And, according to her stepfather, she was dangerously consumed by a self-described prophet and his church.

Dena's stepfather, Mick Macaulay, said that although he blames mental illness for Schlosser severing the arms of 10-month-old daughter Margaret and leaving her to die, he believes the teachings of Doyle Davidson also played a role.

"I don't think there's any question that what we saw happen here is postpartum psychosis," Macaulay said in a telephone interview. "But that doesn't mean there aren't dynamics in force to push the person toward the psychotic break."

Schlosser was charged with capital murder after police found the 35-year-old mother on Nov. 22 covered in blood in her living room, still holding a knife.

[...]

Schlosser received psychiatric treatment for postpartum depression and the agency determined she was stable in August.

By then, though, Schlosser's association with Davidson's church had intensified, Macaulay said.

He said Davidson used violent imagery and told women they possessed a rebellious "Jezebel" spirit, and that they should submit to their husbands, he said.

"I'm not saying that anybody suggested 'Go cut your baby's arms off,'" said Macaulay, a mental health counselor who lives with Schlosser's mother, Connie, in Canada. "This diminishing of women, this diminishing of women's powers, women's importance, referring to women as jezebels, I think, further undermines an already fragile ego state that Dena's experiencing."

That's absurd, the 72-year-old minister said.

"I'm an apostle and I'm a prophet," Davidson said. "I only teach what's in the Bible and that's what makes them mad."

Davidson, a former veterinarian, said God told him to start Water of Life Ministries in suburban Dallas in the early 1980s. His sermons, based on literal interpretations of the Bible, are available on his Web site and broadcast on TV and radio in several states.

He refers to Methodist, Catholic and Baptist denominations as cults and believes the Ten Commandments apply only to the disobedient, not the righteous.

Davidson doesn't deny his teachings are unconventional. He said he avoids violent imagery, but he does teach that women are weaker and should submit to their husbands.

He also said he isn't well-liked by much of the religious community, and he was removed from the Daystar Television Network, a major Christian broadcaster, after his sermons offended top officials.

In September, Davidson was arrested on a public intoxication charge after a couple, longtime members of his church, called 911, alleging the minister attacked them at their home. Davidson said he was only trying to cast the devil out of the wife, who had become rebellious and rejected his teachings. He said he entered the home with the permission of her husband.

The couple told police Davidson choked the woman. The couple declined to press assault charges and several calls by the AP to their home went unanswered.

Davidson said he believes the incident was a "setup of Satan himself to try and destroy my ministry."

Davidson claimed he's had little interaction with Dena since the Schlossers began attending his roughly 200-member church in 2002.

Look, over there, a lesbian!

*

'under attack'...:

The US consulate in Saudi Arabia is 'under attack' officials say and gunfire can be heard echoing around the compound.

Two plumes of black smoke can be seen pouring from the building and officials say it is an "emergency case".

Link: Sky News

*

Great revelations:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake that has made the world a more dangerous place, but a swift withdrawal would make matters worse, Pakistan's president said this weekend.

"I think it's less safe," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." Asked whether he considered the invasion a mistake, the Pakistani leader said, "With hindsight, yes. We have landed ourselves in more trouble, yes."

Musharraf was in Washington on Saturday for a brief meeting with President Bush. The two discussed the issue of terrorism, bilateral concerns, relations between India and Pakistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. more via CNN

Media WOWsers past: Dec. 05, "Somewhere in the Middle...", via Atrios

*

Aargh!

Please, please tell me this is part of some clever plan:

Reid suggested he may be open to the possibility of Justice Antonin Scalia as a replacement for ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

"This is one smart guy," said Reid. "I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reason for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute."
(via AP)

"Hard to dispute"? Isn't number two supposed to try harder?

More of the same:

Payrolls grew by just 112,000 workers in November, far below the 200,000-job gain many economists had expected.

And, yet again, the economists are surprised that the jobs market sucks! Why not outsource them, not us? And get this:

Also, the government revised significantly downward the job gains for the previous two months.

And of course it's only a coincidence that that one of those months was right before the election, right?

COULD 2005 BE BETTER? Some analysts believe stronger job growth will occur as companies exhaust their ability to squeeze more work out of existing employees and finally begin sustained hiring.
(via AP)

Yeah, a touch of the lash (back) never hurt anyone... Especially a wage slave... In fact, it's Bush's plan!

RDF, for some absurd reason—self-deprecation??—left his answer in comments. Here it is:

1. Take back the party, one county at a time.

2. If you don't have a record, run for office.

3. Write letters to papers, congresscritters, etc. Be shrill.

4. Demonstrate.

5. Have house parties, block parties.

6. Watch how you spend your money. No GOP coffers.

7. If you don't mind jail, don't pay taxes.

8. Join the ACLU, NOW, and etc. Memberships in ACLU, NOW, NAACP, etc. make great holiday gifts.

9. If you live where you can make it, don't forget to attend the coronation in January.

10. Join a union.

I know, I know—"Man bites dog." But the numbers tell the tale:

Bottom line:

When all was said and done, after close to 675,000 votes cast in the city, here is the number challenged as potentially invalid by Republican lawyers:

Ninety-two.
(via Inkwire)

Can Ohio say the same? I wonder why not?

Insightful comment from Pandagon's Ezra:

In a winner-take-all system, being principled and powerless is, for those you want to help, no better than being unprincipled and powerless. You can keep your purity, I want universal health care. And the road to that leads through a concerted effort to drag the religious right over to the left.
(via Pandagon)

Discuss.

Bush Fuck-The-Blues policies have only just started

As President Bush lays the groundwork for a possible overhaul of the U.S. tax code, one option under consideration would deal its biggest financial blow to citizens of blue states such as California and New York.

Some conservative activists are urging the Bush administration to scrap the federal deduction for state and local taxes as part of a broader plan to revamp the nation's tax system.

Although the proposal would hurt some taxpayers in nearly every state, it would hit hardest in states with higher-than-average income levels and bigger-than-average state and local tax burdens. High on the list are a number of blue states — those that were carried by Democrat Sen. John F. Kerry in last month's presidential election.

Taxpayers in California and New York, for example, which have top state income tax rates of 9.3% and 6.5% respectively, would be highly affected; residents of Florida and Texas, which have no state income taxes, much less so.

"There's no question this effort would punish blue states," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. Over time, he said, it could force state and local governments to cut expenditures.

Supporters of the change insist the disproportionate effect on blue states is a coincidence, but they acknowledge that the proposal could hurt most in states that voted against Bush.

"Let me put it like this: It certainly isn't something that's a discouragement," said one prominent conservative. "Yes, we talked about this. The fact that it hits blue states is not something that's been missed among Republicans."

But in a political complication, some blue states that would be hit hardest by the tax change are led by Republicans. If the White House adopts the proposal, it could create a rift with some of the GOP's biggest stars in those states, such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Gov. George E. Pataki, among others.

Right. Let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt.

It remains unclear whether the administration will adopt the proposal. Some administration and congressional advisors said they believed the idea had been floated as a trial balloon to see how much support or opposition it attracted.

Bush has said one of his top second-term priorities is to revamp the tax code so that it is simpler, fairer and more pro-growth. He also has said he would be guided by the recommendations of a bipartisan commission he planned to appoint by the end of the year.

Right. Hey, I'm with Norquist on this one—"bipartisanship is date rape." Why on earth would any Democrat participate in an effort designed to fuck their own party and their own constituents?

Bush has hinted strongly that his proposal would preserve two popular tax breaks: the deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. That [Bush] has not mentioned preserving the state and local tax deduction has been interpreted by some as a signal that it is fair game as the administration looks for ways to finance other tax changes.

"This is very real," said one congressional staffer close to the tax discussion. "They need the money desperately…. It's one of the only things they can attempt to do to finance tax reform."

When a Republican says "reform," keep your hand on your wallet!

Last year, 5.5 million California households, or 37% of all tax filers in the state, claimed deductions for state and local income taxes. In New York, 3.2 million households, or 37%, did.
(via LA Times)

So, the citizens that actually use their taxes to provide services for their citizens (unlike, say, Texas) are going to get penalized. Nice! Now the whole country can be like Texas!

49% of the country has no effective representation.

It's taxation without representation.

What is to be done?

NOTE I'm writing "Blues" instead of "Blue States" because it's clear that the all-too-seductive Blue/Red state meme is designed to force Democrats into the corner of being a permanent minority, by making it impossible to reach out to the "purples." So when I say Blue, I mean, essentially, Democratic voters—predominantly concentrated in the cities and around the ("blue") coasts, lakes, and rivers. And I'm guessing that the Bush taxes will hit Blue cities just as badly, if not worse, than Blue states.

UPDATE Alert readers Nancy and flory point out that even though the Blues are fucked relatively more than the Reds, the Reds are getting fucked too.

flory:

No Texas taxpayer is going to look at relative fuckedness and think this is a good idea. Trust me - I know a few people who recently moved from CA to TX and think their taxes have skyrocketed because of the property tax bills they have to write.

I almost hope Bush does try this. Any red state Rethug Congresscritters who went along with it would be in a world of hurt electorally. If they opposed it, Bush's man date would be a thing of the past.

Nancy:

I read the article in LA Times and although it will hit the blues the hardest, it will hit me in a red state as well. I will no longer get to deduct from my federal income tax the money I pay for taxes on my house. I will be able to take the mortgage interest so far but without the taxes deduction I will be back in the standard deduction. Trust Bush to screw up anything he touches!

A little more "obstruction" and maybe 1260 (and counting) American soldiers and unnumnbered thousands of Iraqis wouldn't be dead.

A little more "obstruction" and maybe the nominee for DHS head would be someone other than a cop who looks good on TV and leaves a trail of fraud and administrative fuckups behind him whereever he goes.

A little more "obstruction" and maybe the man who briefed Bush saying that the executive has the "inherent authority" to set aside the law wouldn't be the nominee to head the "Justice" Department.

A little more "obstruction" and maybe Philly wouldn't be breathing poison from upwind power plants.

A little more "obstruction" and maybe we can save employer-supplied health insurance in 2005.

A little more "obstruction" and we wouldn't have been left with an IOU when generations's worth of payroll taxes were handed to the superrich in the form of tax cuts.

If this be obstruction, let us make the most of it!

NOTE This post is an implicit response to some thoughtful remarks by alert reader hadenough, in comments.

UPDATE Employer-supplied health insurance is better than nothing, eh? Especially if you need it now. Oh, but don't worry! I'm sure the employers will raise your salary enough so that you can get your own insurance, when Bush eliminates the tax structure that supports health insurance today...

Especially since Rummy is an unindicted felon?

Of course, Xan would say that Kerik is one of Rove's distractions... And she could be right. After all, the Republicans have social security to loot, and your employer-sponsored health insurance to abolish... And, amazingly. on these issues 49% of the American people have no effective representation at all.

"I knew Tom Ridge. Commissioner, you're no Tom Ridge." Words you thought you'd never hear, right?

I mean, who would have thought that Tom Ridge—He of the Extremely Non-Political Terror Alerts—wasn't sufficiently loyal? Well, amazing but true, he wasn't. After we unboggle our minds from this classic fluffing headline—"A Tough Cop Tempered by 9/11 and Iraq"—and read w-a-a-a-a-y down in the story we get this, about Bush's nominee for head of the Department of Homeland Security:

"[Bernard Kerik's] most consistent trait is blind loyalty [In the original German, Kadaver gehorsam] to his boss." [said City Council member Bill Perkins].
(via WaPo)

OK! That clears up the troubling question of whether Bernard "Bumboy" Kerik is qualified for the job! But wait! There's more! Kerik is qualified in so many, many other ways!

1. Kerik is a coward who fucked up Iraq! Just like so many other Republicans!

Appointed by President Bush to train a new Iraqi police force in 2003, Kerik came under criticism for inadequate screening of recruits as U.S. authorities rushed to deploy the force. It has been plagued by desertions and by allegations that insurgents have infiltrated the ranks.

Kerik quit four months into his six-month tenure in Iraq, telling New York reporters later that he needed a vacation.

Wow! I bet the troops wish they could take a vacation! And he can't make it for a six month tour of duty?! WTF?

2. Kerik uses the public purse for private gain! Just like so many other Republicans!

The city's Conflicts of Interest Board fined him $2,500 for sending two police officers to Ohio to help research his best-selling 2001 memoir, "The Lost Son."

3. So do Kerik's friends! Just like so many other Republicans!

Kerik several times promoted Anthony Serra, finally to bureau chief. But this summer -- well after Kerik left the department -- the Bronx district attorney filed a 146-count indictment against Serra, charging that he had over several years used corrections officers to work on his home and in Republican Party campaigns.

4. Kerik appoints thieves and looters to office! Just like so many other Republicans!

The [New York City Correction Foundation] was supposed to fund programs that strengthen the department. But it had few fiscal controls, and Kerik appointed a deputy commissioner who later pleaded guilty to defrauding it of $142,000. The former aide is serving a federal prison term.

5. Kerik fucks up the chain of command! Just like so many other Republicans!

Remember the chaos on 9/11? Remember the CPA? Abu Ghraib?

But when the city commissioned McKinsey & Co. to examine New York's response to the attacks, and later when the Sept. 11 commission held hearings, Kerik heard sharp criticism of the fire and police departments, particularly of the failure to establish a clear line of command.

6. Kerik thinks democracy is for traitors! Just like so many other Republicans!

"Political criticism is our enemy's best friend," Kerik said.

One of the most endearing things about Bush is that when he's got one of his enemies—i.e., you or me or any of the Blues—down on the ground, and he's really put the boot in, he doesn't stop. Once he's done with the ribs, he goes for the face and the balls. A totally politicized Department of Homeland Security not enough? Let's make the DHS department head a guy who's only qualification is that he's a toady and a suck-up, and looked good on TV in the days after 9/11.

And He's going to ram Keriks's appointment through and make us like it. Fuckhead.

Can someone explain to me why the Beltway Dems are putting up with this crap?

WTF?

The Republican Party of Virginia has tentatively agreed to pay Democratic lawmakers almost $750,000 to settle a federal lawsuit stemming from a 2002 incident in which the party's former executive director eavesdropped on a Democratic conference call, sources familiar with the case said yesterday.

Resolution of the case would end a two-year legal nightmare for the Republican Party. The scandal led to the resignation of several top party officials and threatened to drag the Republicans' likely nominee for the next governor -- Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore -- into a civil trial that was set to begin Thursday in Richmond.
(via WaPo)

So.

Yet another example of Republican lawbreaking. And the Dems are, essentially, letting the Republicans pay them off to make the problem go away. Why? And can't they at least get the award to seven figures? Six figures is so... paltry. Makes a girl look cheap, don't ya know.

Good God:

NEW YORK New York area Democrats say they're pleased the city's former police commissioner has been tapped to head the Department of Homeland Security.

But some are still smarting from comments Bernard Kerik made in campaign appearances for President Bush this year. And they say they hope he'll be less partisan in his new role.
(via KESQ)

"Less partisan in his new role...." What was it Garth said? Was it Garth? "When weasels fly out of my butt?"

Kevin Drum made a good start nailing Kerik's slippery little opportunistic butt right here.

When are the Dems going to figure out that the duty of an opposition party is to OPPOSE?

What a turnabout to see the wingers support something public—besides looting the public purse, of course.

So, there's good news!

[A] bus system will provide free transportation. No cars will be allowed in the city at first ...
(via the once-proudly-mediocre NY Times)

Oh, wait ...

... to prevent car bombs.

It's Fallujah.

Not that every city in the US won't look like Fallujah, after the wingers get through with raining fire from Heaven onto the heads of the ungodly their Fuck-the-Blues policies.

Of course, there's a slower moving front in the same war here in Philly: The Republican legislature is gutting our own much-loved [cough] SEPTA, thereby encouraging their constituents to drive their SUVs into Blue Center City, filling it with deadly fumes, asbestos, rubber particulates, dirty oil, noise, and the odd bloody mess from flattened pedestrians. Can't anyone see that this is not sustainable? What could possibly be the incentive? Oh, of course! Could it be money? The Republicans in the legislature took over the Philadelphia Parking Authority, so now every parking lot in Philadelphia is a cog in the Republican patronage machine. Spreading Santorum indeed. Now it all makes sense. Phew. My faith was shaken there for a minute. Please continue with your Godly activities. Fuckheads.

Keith at The Invisible Library has an excellent holiday gift idea:

John Halbo suggests that Joseph Moncure March's The Wild Party would make an excellent stocking stuffer. And I agree. Just search inside the book and you'll see (Gads! Now I'm rhyming! Oh what luck, and timing...)

See Twice a Day, In Vaudeville

I agree too. A friend of mine gave me a copy of "The Wild Party" (the lost classic from 1928) several years ago. Illustrated by Spiegelman and released in 1994 here's a couple of snips:

His woman at present was Mae. She was blonde, and slender, and gay: A passionate flirt, So dumb that it hurt, And better for night than for day.

And:

He had two cars. He had been behind bars - For theft, public nuisance, rape: Once extra for trying escape. Too bad? Nonsense! He was fun. A good sport: The only son - Of some un-heard of preacher father - Who had kicked him out as too much bother...[and so on and so on]

Well, you get the idea. Definetly one for Steve Bates to add to his doggerel library. (assuming he doesn't already have a copy on the shelf.)

*

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
(Milton)

If that last sentence doesn't send a chill down your spine, you're dead. - Charles2 at The Fulcrum

I could never before imagine reading something like this about my country: [continue reading...] Fascism by Degrees

*

Fortunately the "news" theater department at CNN, etc - this very frosty morn - is once more hot on the heels of that Michael Jackson weirdo - whew! While also asking important questions such as: why won't conspiracy theories surounding Princess Di go away? Or something like that, which, of course, has nothing to do CNN's own seemingly endless cavalcade of Princess Di royal family "fairytale" courtship neverland gah-gah story "conspiracy theory" coverage. But, well, you know... its CNN, it doesn't have to make any sense.

Meanwhile....silly "internet conspiracy theory" stories which might interest people over the age of 12, or involve, oh, lets say, flip little matters such as the integrity of national elections in, oh, lets say, the United States of 'Murica, will no doubt be dismissed with a giddy tut-tut and a haughty southern sniff by the playpen "fairytale" wowsers in Atlanta....

So contact C-SPAN for, hopefully, further information...

Via Hungry Blues:

Tell C-SPAN and Your Senators and Representatives They Must Attend!

Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, ranking Minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday 08 December 2004 to investigate allegations of vote fraud and irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential election. The hearing is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

[...]

Expert testimony will be offered, and a good deal of data on potential fraud previously unreported to the public will be discussed and examined at length.

EMail C-SPAN: events@c-span.org
Tell em to cover the hearings. More info, including contact numbers, at Hungry Blues link (above).

*

I hope somebody with good technical skills is trolling the online photo albums for atrocity photos... God knows what else will turn up...

The Amazing Froomkin in Salon:

If current workers are allowed to invest some of their Social Security taxes, that amount will have to be made up in some other way, unless the government reduces payments to current or future retirees. So what's it going to be?

How can the government reduce the deficit if it won't increase taxes and it doesn't reduce spending?

If the tax code overhaul is to be revenue neutral, and one goal is to reduce the tax rate on savings, what taxes go up?

If preemptive war against Iraq was justified, what other nations might merit preemptive action?

Not that Bush will answer, of course.

(Thanks to Burnt Orange Report)

Gee, I hope the guy in the hood isn't a voter. But if he is, I bet he's not undecided....

UPDATE More from Robert's soapbox.

A Friday night horror:

THE PHOTOS: Dozens of photos appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, while others appear to show bloodied detainees and the aftermath of commando raids on homes.

WHAT'S NOT KNOWN: The identities of the troops, the detainees and the photographer, and what happened before and after the photos were taken.
(via AP)

More fraternity pranks. Again, don't blame the troops. Blame the chickenhawks who put them where they are.

Of course, this violates Navy regs and the Geneva Convention (which, an international treaty ratified by the Senate, is the law of the land):

John Hutson, a retired rear admiral who served as the Navy's Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000, said they suggested possible Geneva Convention violations. Those international laws prohibit souvenir photos of prisoners of war.

"It's pretty obvious that these pictures were taken largely as war trophies," Hutson said. "Once you start allowing that kind of behavior, the next step is to start posing the POWs in order to get even better pictures."

At a minimum, the pictures violate Navy regulations that prohibit photographing prisoners other than for intelligence or administrative purposes, according to Bender, the SEALs spokesman.
(via Kansas City Star)

And the Navy's reaction? Investigate how the photos got out!

"They presented copies of them to us last week and once we were presented with these photos we then launched an investigation as to how the photos got on the Internet and who is responsible," navy Commander Jeff Bender said.
(via ABC News)

Interestingly, the photos predate Abu Ghraib.

Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse [torture] of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later.
(via Strib)

Oh, and how were the photos found? Google:

The images were posted to the Internet site Smugmug.com.

The images were found through the online search engine Google. The same search today leads to the Smugmug.com Web page, which now prompts the user for a password. Nine scenes from the SEAL camp remain in Google's archived version of the page.

Before the site was password protected, the AP purchased reprints for 29 cents each.

Some men in the photos wear patches that identify them as members of Seal Team Five, based in Coronado, and the unit's V-shaped insignia decorates a July Fourth celebration cake.

The photos surfaced amid a case of prisoner abuse involving members of another SEAL team also stationed at Coronado, a city near San Diego.
(via Kansas City Star)

29 cents? Well worth it!

And I can't seem to get the photos out of Google's cache. Readers?

UPDATE Ah, here are some photos (thanks to Memeorandum)

(Via CNN)

Via Thom Hartmann, via Common Dreams, gives another glimpse into the deep historical grasp and razor sharp reasoning skills of Tony Baloney:

Antonin Scalia, the man most likely to be our next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [G-d forbid!], turned history on its head recently when he attended an Orthodox synagogue in New York and claimed that the Founders intended for their Christianity to play a part in government. Scalia then went so far as to suggest that the reason Hitler was able to initiate the Holocaust was because of German separation of church and state.

The Associated Press reported on November 23, 2004, "In the synagogue that is home to America's oldest Jewish congregation, he [Scalia] noted that in Europe, religion-neutral leaders almost never publicly use the word 'God.'"

"Did it turn out that," Scalia asked rhetorically, "by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America?" He then answered himself, saying, "I don't think so."

Scalia has an extraordinary way of not letting facts confound his arguments, but this time he's gone completely over the top by suggesting that a separation of church and state facilitated the Holocaust. If his comments had gotten wider coverage (they were only noted in one small AP article, and one in the Jerusalem Post), they may have brought America's largest religious communities - both Christian and Jewish - into the streets. Scalia To Synagogue - Jews Are Safer With Christians In Charge

Myself, I’m beginning to doubt that ANYTHING will bring folks into the streets. Everybody’s outrage-o-meter is clipping red, and there are too many issues to count. This black-robed fool can spout things like this in public, and nobody cares.

I’m thinking that a new Anti-Imperialist League might do the trick. Surely we can all agree that Imperial Power and Ambition is the central problem, the motivation being greed, the tool being fear? Problem is, we don’t have churches to meet in weekly, and I can tell you that house parties—while a lot of fun—don’t match up organizationally. And in the country there ain't no streets to go into.

But good ol’ Dr. Zinn is on target… A few highlights:

The reelected Bush triumphantly announced that he had the approval of the nation to carry out his agenda. There came no sign of opposition from what was supposed to be the opposition party. In short, the members of the club, after a brief skirmish on the campaign trail (costing a total of a billion dollars or so) were back having drinks at the same bar…

Freed from the sordid confines of our undemocratic political process, we can now turn all our energies to do what is discouraged by the voting system--to speak boldly and clearly about what must be done to turn our country around…

…Will the Democratic Party, so craven and unreliable, face a revolt from below which will transform it?

Or will it give way (four years from now? eight years from now?) to a new political movement that honestly declares its adherence to peace and justice?

Sooner or later, profound change will come to this nation tired of war, tired of seeing its wealth squandered, while the basic needs of families are not met. These needs are not hard to describe. Some are very practical, some are requirements of the soul: health care, work, living wages, a sense of dignity, a feeling of being at one with our fellow human beings on this Earth…Harness That Anger Howard Zinn

What existing structures do Lefties have that will serve for organizational purposes? And what issue—like the antiwar issue once did—unites us? Peace and justice too broad? No outrage left? And what do us rural folks do? It’s even harder to organize out in the sticks, especially in the winter (of our discontent). But then, the city-dwellers seem fractured, too. Arrggghhh? Call out the instigators, coz there's something in the air...

Burn a book for Jesus:

Onward and backward. Cultureghost has this item with quotes from Rep. Gerald Allen (Republican) Cottondale, Alabama - on books and literature:

"I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said. When asked about Tennessee Williams' southern classic "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," Allen said the play probably couldn't be performed by university theater groups.

More from Cultureghost

And JC Christian writes "Mr. Cottondale" a letter: here

Ya know, "Cottondale" (just east of Tuscaloosa) sounds so, uh, gay. What a sissy name for a town, huh? I say burn the whole cousin fuckin' nest to the ground. Whaddya think? Moving along.....

Hey all you hero worshipping Right Wing little green booger picker 101st Fighting Keyboarders! Listen up! Nows your big chance to hang up your JC Penny Cotton Docker pants and pay your land-lady and kiss your Laura Ingraham calendars goodbye and head off to Iraq! Dreams do come true. Yeah, sure, I'll bet all the cute little Charles Johnson's and Virgin Ben's will be lining up at the induction center well into early 2005. Oh sure.

Via Marines Girl -

Don't be left out in supporting YOUR cause and YOUR party. Dear Leader needs YOU!

If I can just get one Reserve Recon guy of the right rank to go active, maybe mine can be sent home. You think? - help bring a real Marine home

Dick should take up ice fishing... dipping his pole in a hole in a frozen lake and..., oh, no, wait a minute...Via TBogg:

For the past twenty-so odd years, Dick Cheney has successfully avoided .....um...how should I put this? Oh yeah, he has avoided "drilling" in the "frozen tundra" of Lynne Cheney preferring to pass his spare time fly fishing,..."...Rock me like a hurricane."

hehehe...I wish I'd written that - I'm glad TBogg is back...

All added to the blogroll - finally:
Unscrewing the Inscutable
It's My Country, Too (Riggsveda)
inanis et vacua
The Daily Delay (Tom Delay Watch)
Now More Than Ever
Left in the West
Dahr Jamail
Spontaneous Arising
Grannyinsanity
WA State Political Report
Loudocracy
Fierce Planet (Jennifer)

*

Kevin Drum has a very interesting post up over at his blog. Go read it. I'll wait.

Okay. As a historian, it's always interesting to watch someone else tackle historical topics.

In many ways I think Kevin is onto something very important here. I think Beinart is wrong because it is obvious to anyone who pays attention that Islamic terrorism is not the threat that communism and a nuclear-armed USSR was. Republican policy choices and behavior today prove that they really don't view it as much more than a political issue as Kevin has said.

However, let me be contrary and make a different sort of historical argument. I would contend that Truman OVERSOLD the communist threat in his administration in the middle 1940s by knowingly exaggerating the threat in Greece and Turkey and then spending the next couple of years convincing Americans that monolithic Soviet communism was truly the coming of the anti-Christ. Well, after successfully selling this simplistic good vs. evil view of the world, then several things happened that put Democrats and Truman in a world of hurt. China fell to communism, thus making the Cold War a global struggle. And then, lo and behold, the devil got the bomb. Now Americans were truly scared to death.

And this was exactly what Republicans needed to run the Democrats out of all three branches of government by the early 1950s. The Republicans said "Hey, these guys have screwed it all up, you've got to elect us! We won't screw it up."

In many ways I would contend that Bush may very well have made Truman's mistake. He has oversold the terror threat in such a way that it has won him an eyelash narrow re-election effort -- just like Truman's in 1948. Now the hard part begins. If the terrorists strike again it's going to be hard for him to defend his administration's record. Democrats can make the case that W screwed it up horribly, you've got to elect us -- and they won't need scumbags like Joe McCarthy to make their case for them, it'll just be obvious.

I always tell my students that when "good vs. evil" tropes start appearing in our foreign policy, dangerous things happen: disastrous wars are embarked upon, soldiers die, and the world becomes a much more dangerous place.

Was Truman right to resist communism? Absolutely! Was he right to pursue the Marshall Plan and attempt, therefore, to understand what caused communism and put a stop to it? Again, absolutely!

However, Truman's ultimate failure was in overselling a threat and scaring Americans to death. It was then awfully easy for Republicans to make the case that Truman wasn't doing enough to combat the threat and defeat Democrats at the polls.

Now, what implications does this have for the present situation? Are Republicans putting themselves into a similar situation today?

I'm really not quite sure. But I would caution you Kevin that there are dangers in overhyping a threat, in playing the scare-o-matic at too high a volume. Truman did it -- and it cost the Democrats bigtime the following eight years.

I guess my main point is that Truman's approach of trying to ameliorate the conditions that led to communism was certainly the proper one. However, the overhyped threat (and it was overhyped until the Soviets got the bomb in 1949) was what ultimately led to a frustrating decade for the Democrats in the 1950s.

W may have set Republicans up for a similar fall. However, the consequences for the world of W's failure will be doubly disastrous because W and the boys have done absolutely nothing to ameliorate the conditions that led to the rise of Islamic terrorism and fundamentalism in the first place.

Truman paid a political price for his exaggerations in the early Cold War but ultimately did the right things to combat communism in western Europe. In contrast, Bush has done absolutely nothing to deal with the root causes of terrorism and has in many ways made the problems worse.

That means the price for W's mistakes will be more than political. The whole world and the rest of us will be paying for them -- not just with money but with our dearest blood.

Many great comments, alert readers. Thanks!

Get a load of this:

Calling the current system of Social Security benefits unsustainable, a top economic adviser to President Bush on Thursday strongly implied that any overhaul of the system would have to include major cuts in guaranteed benefits for future retirees.

"Let me state clearly that there are no free lunches here," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, at a conference on tax policy here.
(via NY Times)

Sure there are. For a generation, payroll taxes were raised precisely to keep the system solvent. Those funds were left in general revenues, and then Bush blew them on tax cuts for the super-rich.

That's outright theft.

So, if you're already rich, you do get a free lunch.

In fact, you get my lunch.

NOTE More here.

Six months in office,and UN ambassador Danforth wants to spend more time with his family. What's up with that?

Because I have someone in mind:

Walter Cavanagh owns 1,497 valid credit cards (he assumes a card is valid until he hears otherwise) with a potential credit line of about $1.7 million.
(via AP)

Love the URL, too—"Plastic Fantastic". Those droll wire services guys!

WalMart advertising low prices is like Hooters advertising, well... I mean, everybody knows it, so why say it?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., stung by a lackluster start to the holiday shopping season, said Thursday it is launching a new advertising campaign to remind its customers of its low prices.
(via AP)

Cheap clothes are OK; but as Xan points out (somewhere, sigh), cheap clothes that fall apart because of cheap thread are not OK.

Patronize a local retailer, and you might get satisfaction, and even be able to improve the product line. Walmart? Ha. Besides the fact that Walmart doesn't pay a living wage, and its "associates" need to get welfare in addition to their lousy wages.

The wingers are voting for their guys; LGF is #1. Go thou and do likewise.

From WaPo via The Amazing Froomkin, who informs us that the backdrop of FDR and Churchill is "White House" designed.

Say, where's Stalin? Oh....

And moments of self-righteous moral excellence...





LOUISIANA
The State Baptist Annual, circa 1927:

Decent people no longer find lake and sea-shore a place of rest and relaxation. Modern bathing suits make modest men and women feel like hiding their faces in shame. Again and again I have been told, in different parts of Louisiana, that the present day swimming-pool is a menace to the morals of the young. Mixed bathing must be abolished.

Dance-halls are ticket-offices to Hell. The dance-hall has always been the handmaid of the brothel and the saloon. If we are to have men and women worthy to become parents of the coming generation, we must abolish the dance-hall. It leads to carnality and ought to have been abolished when we abolished the brothel and saloon. I would as soon have my son frequent a saloon as to have my daughter visit dance-halls. The modern dance, with its music, is nothing if not carnal. It leads to carnality, and, when kept up for hours, it leads straight to Hell. Two-thirds of the women of the street fell as the result of the dance-hall. The majority of the men who frequent dance-halls go there with nothing but carnal thoughts in their minds. The youth who goes to the dance-hall looking for clean pleasure is considered lacking in carnal technique. Innocence can not endure dance-halls, where the atmosphere is heavy with sensual music, and men and women seem to be held together with adhesive tape. If girls would dance with girls and men with men the movement against dance-halls would not be necessary.

Well cripes, ya just can't seem to please some folks these days. (bold emphasis above is mine) Theres a duct tape joke somewhere in there - too - so go at it.


"The dance has a secret language.... I would not like to die dancing. Would you?"


IOWA
Des Moines. Leaflet circulated circa 1927:

REASONS WHY I DON'T DANCE
BY EVANGELIST CARL BASSETT
I would not like to die dancing. Would you?
Three-fourths of the fallen girls in America were ruined by the dance, according to the testimony of dancing masters.

Dancing is contrary to the spirit of the whole Bible. The dance originated in a house of prostitution and was never danced outside of a house of prostitution for the first hundred years, and the steps they used then are tame compared to the steps they use now.

There are no soul-winning dancing Christians.
I couldn't pray at a dance. Could you?
I wouldn't enjoy reading my Bible after the dance.
No young man will go through the motions of the dance, hour after hour, without thinking impure thoughts.
I would be miserable if I knew God were watching me while dancing.
A girl who dances cheapens herself in the eyes of the finest men in town.
If a girl heard the ordinary conversation of men between dances, as they discuss her, that girl's cheeks would blaze with mortification and she would run home and never dance again.

The dance has a secret language, by which the man can silently learn if the girl in his arms is pure or not, without one word being uttered.

Dancing has created a condition in the public schools that is almost as bad as the white slave traffic.

I'm confident that CBS and David Brooks and all the rest of our newly recruited SCLM Christian crosslighters will be all over the story. Especially with respect to the "testimony" of them "dancing masters." Don't want to let them buggers slip away without a good goin' over.

I wonder what our "founding fathers" would do?:

"There is nothing that holds the family together like a little family prayer. Our Puritan fathers lived on parched corn, but they talked about God. They shot Indians through the port hole with one eye and taught the Bible to their children with the other."
~ remarks of Pastor Perry C. Hooper, as reported by the Toledo 'Blade', 1927.

Thats what I thought. Thats why them divorce rates is so much lower in Massachusetts. No womenfolk be runnin' off with some tall romantic swarthy savage as long as the port hole is blazin' away. I hope they emphasize this old time moral standard in the revised Red State highschool textbooks. Perhaps a new sticker is in order. As for all that naked carnal spirit dancin' and hooting and whoopin' it up around some pow-wow inferno of pagan lust till all hours of the morning... why, that'll get ya heaved into the Lake of Fire faster than a pair a blazing mortified cheeks at a dusty Ken Mehlman bunkhouse mixer. Serves them crazy chowder-head "Indians" right.

And keep your damned nebular hypothesizing to yerself, hippy!

*

DNC—or DeanC? Kos has a nice post here on a Reform Democrat showing the other guys how it's done.

"Will the nominee please raise their right arm?"

A steady stream of high-level officials are headed for the exits as President Bush prepares for his second four-year term, and the administration is grabbing the opportunity to exert greater influence over agencies that often act independently - too independently, some say - of White House control.

In selecting replacements, the president appears to be taking a course that differs in a subtle way from the manner in which he chose his first Cabinet. In 2001, he displayed a willingness to tab potential public servants - like Powell and Rumsfeld - even if he had no personal ties to them.

This go-round, to a large extent, Bush is nominating people who are close to him and, hence, establishing "there is only one boss in this administration," according to Richard Skinner, a government instructor at Bowdoin College.
(via Scripps-Howard)

Blest be the ties that bind...

More proof that we're winning!

The casualty figures are coming in. And the trendlines are not good:

Fueled by fierce fighting in Fallujah and insurgents' counterattacks elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military death toll for November is approaching the highest for any month of the war.

At least 134 U.S. troops died in November, according to casualty reports available Tuesday.


On Nov. 8, U.S. forces launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, and they have engaged in tough fighting in other cities since then. More than 50 U.S. troops have been killed in Fallujah since then, although the Pentagon has not provided a casualty count for StalingradFallujah for more than a week.

So 134, the total everyone is reporting, is not the real total, which is higher. Fuzzy math with the troops' lives; disgusting. And I don't know why they're holding the totals back—we already had the election. Maybe they just play politics all the time? Say it isn't so!

From the viewpoint of the United States and Iraqis who are striving to restore stability, the casualty trend since the interim Iraqi government was put in power June 28 has been troubling. Each month's death toll has been higher than the last, with the single exception of October, when it was 63.

Looks like the insurgents wanted Bush re-elected...

The monthly totals grew from 42 in June to 54 in July to 65 in August and to 80 in September.

And another bad trendline:

U.S. forces have put extraordinary effort into countering the IED threat, yet it persists. U.S. troops in Fallujah reported finding nearly as many homemade explosives over the past three weeks as had been uncovered throughout Iraq in the previous four months combined.
(via Mining Journal)

Oh, and guess what? Iraqi civilians are dying in even greater numbers, with nary a mention.

Boy! Aren't you glad "major combat" has ended? I sure am.

Shitheads.

Since Microsoft is a fast follower, I guess this news means the bloom is off the rose:

Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) on Wednesday said it will offer blogging to the online many-headed. Under the rubric MSN Spaces, Bill Gates' colossus will debut the Web journal service in test form on Thursday. It will be specifically geared to Internet "civilians" without vast technical acumen.
(via Forbes)

So, what's next for cutting edge bloggers like Corrente and, alert readers, you? Not more of the same, but what?

TROLL PROPHYLACTIC No anti- or pro-MS ranting, please. Keep the focus on the blogosphere and its direction (if spheres can be said to have a direction).

Well, that was depressing. I ran into a brother who’d I’d worked with some on the GOTV efforts while I was out on the road this week. We hit the same café at breakfast. He’s a spontaneous guy, always has a fresh idea.

And he’s just now crawling out of the whiskey bottle he crawled into on November 2nd. I wasn't even sure I wanted to tell his story.

I mean, he looked bad. Not that I look much better, but still…

We ate some eggs and toast and swilled coffee. He said that he wasn’t sure America would survive four more years of Bushco. He said he smelled more wars, more repression, economic collapse, civil liberties boiling away. And he said he couldn’t take it any more.

And so, of course, I said, well, yeah. But what do we do, man? What’s to be done? I ran down all of the possibilities, most of which have already been posted, and he said, yeah, sure, we should do all that.

But, he said, you know what? It isn’t going to do any good, man. These fuckers have thrown so much shit at us at once that we can’t fight back. And the rest of the country won’t fight—they’re brainwashed. Zombies. My friends are all back to their single issue politics, fighting amongst themselves about what to do, what went wrong…

So what, then? I asked. We just give up, go underground, and wait for the shit to hit the fan so hard that there’s a spontaneous uprising, the country wakes up and says No More?

Yeah, I guess. That’s what I’m going to do, anyway. I’m headed underground and root for the underdog until the smoke clears.

And this was the spontaneous guy who always had a fresh idea.

Shit… and then on the way home I hear this on the radio:

"We just had a poll in our country when people decided that the foreign policy of the Bush administration ought to stay in place for four more years," Bush said at a joint news conference with Martin.

Iraq polls show that indeed, the 51ers like the war. And listen to George iWaq Bush preening in public.

Shit. And now one more of the 49ers has gone underground. I hope he was just moping, but he didn't sound like it.