Weekend Opportunity

Just heard from the Freewayblogger and what his plans are for the long weekend and the scheduled shutdown of the Bay Bridge. You go, Scarlet!

Snow Jobbing

From Tim Grieve in today's Salon.com War Room comes this enlightening list of soon-departing White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's greatest hits:

Sparring with Snow

Announcing Tony Snow's resignation a few minutes ago, George W. Bush told the White House press corps that it's been "a joy to watch him spar with you."

We'll agree with the president on that one.

June 15, 2006: Asked if the White House has any comment on the 2,500th U.S. fatality in Iraq, Snow says: "It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks people want something."

Sept. 9, 2006: Six days after the president says, "We will stay the course" in Iraq, Snow says, "The idea that somehow we're staying the course is just wrong. It is absolutely wrong."

Feb. 15, 2007: Snow on what went wrong in prewar planning for Iraq: "I'm not sure anything went wrong."

March 1, 2007: Snow responds to reports that two U.S. combat brigades will "surge" into Iraq without undergoing the usual counterinsurgency training in California's Mojave Desert first: "Well, but they can get desert training elsewhere, like in Iraq."

March 19, 2007: Snow tells reporters that the Democrats' plan for Iraq represents a "recipe for defeat." When CNN's Ed Henry asks Snow to describe the White House's "recipe for success," Snow asks Henry what his "recipe for success is." When Henry says that winning the war in Iraq isn't exactly in his job description, Snow tells him to "Zip it."

June 14, 2007: Asked if any member of the Bush family is serving in the war on terrorism, Snow responds: "Yes, the president. The president is in the war every day." Reporter: "On the front lines, wherever?" Snow: "The president."

-- Tim Grieve

Gee, Tony, do you have to wait until the 14th to leave? What's wrong with, say, today? Trust me, you won't be missed at all. Asshole.

New GYWO

There's a new Get Your War On page up, and David Rees proves that he has lost nothing in the time he's been doing this. Rude, irreverent, iconoclastic and funny as hell, his clip-art strip never fails to kill. (See also his essay excoriating Michael Ignatieff on the Huffington Post.)

Check it out, kids, and have a good long weekend.

Investigate Away... And Good Luck

Despite his resignation, and the desire on the part of the White House and its supporters to make all the bad things people have said about Li'l Abu Gonzales just go away, it appears that the Department of Justice is bound and determined to continue an investigation into whether or not he perjured himself before Congress over the past few months. (Here's a hint: Fuck yes, he did, repeatedly. *ahem*)

That's all well and good, and, if it weren't for the dismal track record of similar investigations ever since George Bush started wiping his ass with the Constitution took office, I might be encouraged that justice might someday be done. But is there anyone out there who seriously believes that anything will come of it --or, that if something does come of it, and that the serial liar and torture-enabler actually is found guilty of perjury, that the ink on Gonzo's pardon isn't already dry?

"The Truth Will Set You Free!" "The Truth Hurts!"

I saw this over at the blog Brilliant at Breakfast, and, after I stopped laughing, just figured that I had to share it with my readers. No offense intend- oh, who the hell am I kidding? Are you offended? Tough beans. Just be glad I'm not spouting off about how even more ridiculous Mormonism and Scientology are.

Predictions

My track record in predicting the future is not exactly stellar, but there are a few things that I think are likely to happen in the coming months that I'd like to get on the record now (and revisit later, if and when they do -- or don't, as the case may be).

• In the wake of the Alberto Gonzales resignation, Bush will nominate another toadying, unqualified crony to take his place. He will obfuscate, evade and blatantly lie during his confirmation process. After a few softball questions, some hearty Republican back-slapping and minimal whimpering and hand-wringing on the part of the Democrats, he will be easily confirmed. Senator Joe Lieberman will announce that he can't imagine a better-qualified candidate, ever. Senator Dianne Feinstein will express some mild reservations, then confidently vote in his favor. The DoJ will remain as politicized and dysfunctional as it was under Gonzales.
• In September, General David Petraeus will present his White House-written and approved report on the "progress" in Iraq. He will tell a glowing tale of wild success, and will let Congress know in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue that success will be to remain in Iraq for the next decade or so. The White House will crow, Republicans will line up behind the General, and timid Democrats, afraid of being labeled "soft on terror" or unsupportive of the troops, will meekly go along with the recommendation. Within 24 hours, the Republicans will accuse the Democrats of being soft on terror and of not supporting the troops. Thousands more Iraqis and Americans will die.
  
• The investigation into the firing of US Attorneys under Gonzales (and orchestrated by Karl Rove) will get less and less attention, and will shortly fizzle out altogether.
• The same will happen with every other Congressional investigation of Bush administration wrong-doing.
• Another Republican Senator or Representative will be caught in a sex scandal. The media will ignore it after the first two or three days of breathless reporting and conjecture on how the scandal will hurt the Democrats.
• Yet another Bush staffer or Cabinet member will resign in order to "spend more time with his family." Republicans and the media will blame Democrats for "politicizing the political process," and subjecting the poor dear to such extreme partisan rancor. Joe Lieberman will weep in public at the rank hatred and animosity displayed by his erstwhile colleagues in the Capitol building.
  
• A number of administration-defending pundits will then attempt to turn that story of yet another rat deserting a sinking ship into a positive for the White House, saying that by having Mr. X leave, it gives the president a chance for a "fresh start," and that his poll numbers will soon be climbing as a result.
• Here in California, the Republican effort to split the state's electoral votes by district will gather enough signatures to get on the ballot. A very well-funded campaign will then be launched, and it will most likely be voted into law in time for the 2008 election, thus effectively handing the Republican presidential nominee enough electoral votes to get elected. Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004 and California in 2008. Get ready for President Giuliani -- or maybe President Romney.
• The US will attack Iran before the end of the year. This will allow Bush to declare another state of national emergency, and then, a month or two later, he will announce "mission accomplished." We will then be in Iran for at least the next ten years, or until the world ends in a nuclear holocaust brought about as a direct result of the US attack. I'm betting on the latter.
  

I'll try to remember to come back to this post in a few months and see how my forecasting ability fared. That is, if we haven't been nuked back to the Stone Age by then.

It Never Ends

Just in case the last post didn't get you quite up in arms enough, here's a brief excerpt from a Sidney Blumenthal piece in yesterday's Salon.com dealing with the Gonzales resignation and the politicization of not only the Department of Justice, but pretty much the entire government by the partisan hacks of the Bush administration:

Typical of the political interference was the 2005 federal racketeering case against big tobacco companies in which government witnesses were suddenly withdrawn, suggested penalties lessened and lawyers ordered to read a weak closing statement prepared for them. Sharon Y. Eubanks, the 22-year veteran federal prosecutor in the case, revealed to the Washington Post in March 2007 that the chain of command ran directly through the attorney general's office. "The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public ... Political interference is happening at Justice across the department. When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration ... The rule of law goes out the window."

Shameless, all of them. Can somebody please go to a closet or a side room or wherever they're being kept now and dust off the articles of impeachment? I understand Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a table that they need to be placed very prominently on.

Your Tax Dollars At Work Theft

Sometimes it seems that I've used up all my reserves of outrage and disbelief at the sheer criminality and depths of depravity that this current administration displays on a daily basis... and then something comes along to make me realize that I haven't even come close to the bottom of the well. It's like that old saying about regurgitation: You can always vomit a lot more than you thought you could when you first thought you were finished.

My pal Marty sent me a link to a story from the current edition of Rolling Stone that has me vomiting a lot more than I thought I could when I first finished. It's called The Great Iraq Swindle, and it outlines, in painful and disgusting detail, just how badly this country and its taxpayers have been defrauded by this most shameless of all administrations and their cronies. I know, I know, old news, right? But take a look at this piece and see if it doesn't make the veins in your forehead stand out (if not burst altogether). Here's just a short excerpt:

Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ­Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.

And just maybe, reviewing this appalling history of invoicing orgies and million-dollar boondoggles, it's not so far-fetched to think that this is the way someone up there would like things run all over -- not just in Iraq but in Iowa, too, with the state police working for Corrections Corporation of America, and DHL with the contract to deliver every Christmas card. And why not? What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureauc­racy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profit­eering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.

That these traitorous bastards could so cavalierly send American men and women off to kill and be killed just so they can reap obscene profits from the bloody debacle they engineered should chill every true American to the bone. How can they so easily -- and so blatantly -- get away with this criminal behavior? Congress, the media and the majority of Americans just don't seem to care. Perhaps many of them are unaware of just how bad the situation is and has been, but it would seem that somewhere, somehow, there must be some lawmakers and reporters outraged enough to make a big deal out of this, to yell and keep yelling until a few people wake up, until someone in authority demands that a stop be put to this obscene spectacle.

Apparently not.

A quote from an article in The Nation puts it succinctly:

But where's the outrage? Where is the leader with the courage to say, as Franklin Roosevelt did during World War II, "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster"? Democrats in Congress--and Republicans who have not placed their conscience in a blind trust for the duration of the Bush/Cheney years, a group we hope still includes Arizona's John McCain in the Senate and Iowa's Jim Leach in the House--should borrow a page from past wars, when the nation's elected leaders knew what to call businessmen who used hostilities abroad as an excuse to raid the federal treasury. Senator Robert La Follette tagged them as "enemies of democracy in the homeland." During World War II Harry Truman referred to some forms of war profiteering as "treason."

For the record, I do not share the author's optimism that either McCain or Leach will ever stand up to the traitors in the White House. Not one Republican has had the spinal fortitude to call bullshit on these enemies of democracy yet, and it isn't likely that they're going to start now. Hell, for that matter, there are very few Democrats willing to point out just how badly this country is being sodomized by these bloody bastards. It makes me sick.

I urge you to read the entire Rolling Stone article. It's a bit long, but it's something that should be published on every editorial page -- no, every front page -- in every newspaper in the country. And if you want more, Alternet.org has a list of the Ten Most Brazen War Profiteers. Surprisingly enough, Halliburton and KBR don't even make the list (though Halliburton is referred to in the introduction of the story); CACI, Titan, Bechtel, Custer Battles, General Dynamics and ExxonMobil all do, though. Treasonous sons of bitches, all of them. All of them, from the White House on down. As I've said before, hanging is too good for these rat bastards.

Excuse me now, my stomach is rumbling again...

You Go, Alberto! ...And Take Dick And George With You!

So Little Abu Gonzales has finally come to his senses and realized that "more time with his family" -- as opposed to "more time being investigated by Congress" -- is what he really needs in the near future, and says he'll do the right thing by stepping down as Bush's personal shill in the DOJ US Attorney General. Hooray. Couldn't happen to a more deserving (read: lying and incompetent) tool. It should have happened months ago; for that matter, he never should have been nominated or confirmed in the first place.

So now what? Speculation is already rampant that he will be replaced by Homeland Security head honcho Skeletor Michael Chertoff, or probably someone equally as distasteful and unqualified. Because if there's one thing this administration is known for, it's putting ass-kissing cronies and people who just aren't up to the job in positions of power. Starting at the top.

Buh-bye, Little Abu, hope someone gives you a parting gift of a big bottle of gingko biloba to help with that faulty memory of yours. You goddamned little weasel.

Monday Rabid Flickr Blogging

Roughly translated, I believe those carved words inform visitors that this is the Church of Our Lady the Voraciously Swallowed by Sea Monsters.

Tim Varney, world's first -- and last -- suicide drummer.

Another peak experience at the Orange Sunshine, Dude, Ranch.

Available for weddings, parties, bar mitzvahs and karaoke brawls, a cappella act The Ties That Bind have been together now for nearly three weeks.

The Rapture began just as Harvey clicked the shutter, and in a matter of seconds, Aunt Enid was completely gone. "Cool," said Jeff and Carla to each other. "Now we can have all her stuff!"

Moe Howard's great-granddaughter dares you to "pick two fingers."

Moments after this picture was snapped, Stan fell victim to the rare Venus Fratboy Trap.

(Original images, #2918, posted here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Tom Hilton here.)

Clearly Criminal

The invaluable Glenn Greenwald posts today in Salon.com about the blatant and blatantly unconstitutional Bush administration/NSA lawbreaking with regard to warrantless wiretapping of American citizens and ignoring the FISA court and the restrictions of the act. He points out, rightly, that the issue really is very simple: The president has broken the law, overtly and repeatedly, and continues to break the law, with the complicity of Congress and the apparent blessing of much of the media. Here's Glenn:

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday gave a strange and rambling interview concerning the new FISA amendments, and several commentators -- including Spencer Ackerman, Digby and Jeralyn Merritt -- have discussed various oddities in what he said. I want to focus on a different, and I think highly revealing, aspect of his remarks.

Unintentionally, McConnell articulated what is an unusually clear and straightforward explanation as to the state of federal law regarding eavesdropping on Americans by our government -- unusually clear particularly for a Bush official, but even in general. McConnell explained:

The reason that the FISA law was passed in 1978 was an arrangement was worked out between the Congress and the administration, we did not want to allow this community to conduct surveillance, electronic surveillance, of Americans for foreign intelligence unless you had a warrant, so that was required.

That is exactly what happened, and the NSA scandal has always been, and always will be, this simple and crystal clear. In 1978, the American people responded to the discovery of decades-long abuses of secret eavesdropping powers by making it a felony for any government official to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant. What McConnell describes an "arrangement worked out between the Congress and the administration" is what most people call a "federal law," but McConnell's basic point -- that "we did not want to allow th[e intelligence] community to conduct surveillance . . . of Americans . . . unless you had a warrant, so that was required" -- is exactly correct.

But in 2001, George Bush ordered the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans in violation of that very law, and continued to do so for the next five years at least. Bush ordered the NSA to commit felonies; we know that he did so; and nothing has happened. It is and always has been as clear as it is extraordinary.

The thing about this that galls me so is that Congress -- both Republicans and Democrats alike -- is bending over backwards to magically make this all "legal," rather than impeaching and prosecuting the criminal son of a bitch for his crimes. What's worse, is that I have little doubt that they will end up caving to his further demand for retroactive immunity for the telecom companies who assisted the White House in this illegal scheme.

Equally extraordinary is McConnell's admission -- which marks, I believe, the first time this has been acknowledged -- that private telecommunications companies enabled this lawbreaking by giving the administration access to the conversations of Americans with no warrants:

Now the second part of the issue was under the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us. Because if you're going to get access you've got to have a partner and they were being sued.

McConnell went on to explain that the number one priority for the administration regarding FISA now is to demand that Congress make further FISA revisions by providing retroactive immunity to the telecom companies to ensure that there are no consequences from their breaking of the law:

Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies. So my position was we have to provide liability protection to these private sector entities. So that was part of the request. . . .

The issue that we did not address, which has to be addressed is the liability protection for the private sector now is proscriptive, meaning going forward. We've got a retroactive problem. When I went through and briefed the various senators and congressmen, the issue was alright, look, we don't want to work that right now, it's too hard because we want to find out about some issues of the past. So what I recommended to the administration is, 'Let's take that off the table for now and take it up when Congress reconvenes in September.' . . . No, the retroactive liability protection has got to be addressed.

Think about how amazing this is. McConnell clearly described that in 1978, we enacted a law prohibiting warrantless eavesdropping; the Bush administration broke that law repeatedly; and the telecommunications companies actively participated in that lawbreaking. And now -- as a matter of national security -- the Bush administration is demanding that Congress pass a new law declaring that telecom companies are immune from any and all consequences -- both civil and criminal -- in the event they are found to have violated the law. It is hard to imagine open contempt for the rule of law being expressed more explicitly than this.

What possible reason is there to protect anyone -- including telecom companies -- with a special law enacted to declare that they are relieved of all accountability for illegal behavior? And the premise of this argument is even more dangerous than the conclusion: it is all premised on the claim that these companies were only acting at the behest of George Bush, and therefore were entitled, even obligated, to do what they did. In other words, the President has the power to order private actors to break the law and when those orders are obeyed, the private actors are immune from the consequences of their lawbreaking, because they acted at the Leader's behest.

There's plenty more, and I urge you to read the whole thing. It should no longer be a surprise just how far we've come from the ideal of an America that values the rule of law to a nation run by outright criminals, aided and abetted by legislators we've elected and the supposed "free" press (and don't even talk to me about the canard of the press being "liberal" -- that's another story, and one that smells too much of horseshit for me to go near any more), but every so often I am flabbergasted anew by the sheer nerve of these rat bastards and their contempt for the Constitution, the law and the American people. Goddamn, I hate this current governement.

In Other News, Sun Rises In East Today

Two headlines caught my eye this morning, not because they were so unusual, but simply because they seem to illustrate what is so much the same in this country these days. The first was Administration Breaking Law by Withholding Global Warming Report, Judge Rules:

Federal officials have "unlawfully withheld action they are required to take," preparing a new scientific assessment by November 2004 and a research plan by July 2006, said U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of Oakland. "Congress has imposed clear-cut, unambiguous deadlines for compliance."

A 1990 federal law requires the government to produce a scientific report every four years on climate change and its effects on the environment, including land, water, air, plant and animal life, and human health.

"This administration has denied and suppressed the science of global warming at every turn," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The ruling is the second legal defeat for the administration on global warming this year. The Supreme Court ruled in April that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted from vehicle tailpipes are pollutants subject to federal regulation - rejecting the government's position that it lacked such authority - and said the voluntary measures promoted by the Bush administration were an inadequate substitute for regulation.

The other one was Bush: Leaving Iraq Would Be Devastating:

President Bush says U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "without getting job done" would be devastating. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, Bush said Iraq is central front in war on terror.

Earlier today, the White House sought to dispel the impression left by President Bush that he was distancing himself from embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in advance of a new assessment of the war and conditions in Iraq.

Bush on Tuesday had offered a tepid endorsement of the Iraqi government, expressing frustration at the lack of progress and saying it was up to the Iraqi people to decide whether to replace those in power. The remark brought an angry response from al-Maliki who said, "No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people."

The White House set out to reframe Bush's comment and the way it was interpreted.

"The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq," Bush said in advance excerpts of Wednesday's VFW speech.

"The defense strategy that refused to hand the South Koreans over to a totalitarian neighbor helped raise up an Asian Tiger that is a model for developing countries across the world, including the Middle East," Bush said.

Bush often uses historical comparisons in urging patience on Iraq, but White House aides hope a specific focus on Asia will get skeptics to rethink their positions on Iraq and get beyond the daily, violent setbacks there.

Bush even cites Vietnam as a cautionary tale for those urging troop withdrawals today.

"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left," Bush said. "Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,''re-education camps' and 'killing fields.'"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., quickly dismissed Bush's position.

"President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two," he said. "Our nation was misled by the Bush administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history."

So, basically, this administration continues to break the law with impunity, and to attempt to spread the same lies to the same people with the same weak arguments over and over and over again. Nothing ever changes. *sigh*

Human Reason Is The Enemy

Back in June, a fellow known as Media Czech at a blog called BlueGrassRoots posted a hilarious piece about his visit to the new-ish Creation Museum in Kentucky, and it's pretty damn funny. My pal Dean in Connecticut sent me a link at the time, and I've been cleaning out some of my old email today and rediscovered it. So I thought I should pass it along to you, my readers, for a good laugh. Find out how the Flood created the Grand Canyon in a matter of days! Discover that "1 in 3 = 30%"! See a picture of the "Jesus horse"!

Media Czech claims that the action of taking a youngster to that museum with the purpose of indoctrinating him or her into this anti-science belief system is akin to child abuse, and I can't say that I disagree with him on that.

I realize they're an easy target, but man, those fundies and creationists and such are totally wacky, aren't they? Just like the folks who fret and write columns about what to call their favorite Invisible Superhero in the Sky. (I don't know why Flying Spaghetti Monster wasn't listed as one of the options in that column.) Of course, that column really wasn't so much about religion per se as it was about drumming up continued hatred of the Islamic Other in righteous, Jesus-loving Americans, but still. The "geeniouses" at the Creation Museum and pundits like Kathleen Parker are all pretty much cut from the same cloth, aren't they?

"Don't think, just listen and believe"!

Red, Red Wine

I can't vouch for the science, but I sure do like the research!

Our good friend and colleague Simbaud over at The King of Zembla (speaking of BARBARians) has a post up that seems to indicate that we can all live forever -- or much longer than we might have -- if only we drink enough red wine. Well, I don't want to live forever, but I sure don't mind drinking more red wine.

Cheers!

Free Pub For The Freeway Blogger

I was at home doing the dishes yesterday evening, about 6:35-6:40. Mrs. Generik had just gotten home from work, and had switched on the TV news. All of a sudden she said to me, "Isn't that your impeach-sign buddy?"

Sure enough, it was the Freeway Blogger himself, being interviewed by one of the blow-dried talking heads on the local ABC-Channel 7 news. The segment lasted about five minutes or so, and featured quite a few pictures of the various signs that he and his cohorts have put up throughout the Bay Area. What a coup!, I thought. Not only did those signs get seen by thousands of drivers passing by them, but now they're being viewed by even more people who are just sitting passively in front of their television sets.

Congratulations to a local legend (and fellow BARBARian) for the free publicity. Let's hope that at least a few people out there were inspired by the segment and will speak out, protest and/or go out and post their own signs -- not to mention work even harder to impeach this most lawless, traitorous and harmful administration ever.

Mundane Random Flickr Blogging

Follow us up the steps to Dick Cheney's fabled "undisclosed location," and a vision of hell on earth like you've never seen before...

"See, my problem is that I was born with a silver spoon on my- Oh, you too, huh?"

After the success of the movies Village of... and Children of..., the production team was surprised at the lukewarm reception audiences gave to Kitties of the Damned.

Here's a tip, kids: Never mix Rogaine with steroids, LSD or methamphetamine. Or especially all three at once.

Participants in the latest Zogby poll who still believe that the US did the right thing by invading Iraq; that WMD have been found there; and that Saddam Hussein masterminded the 9/11 attacks.

Number 342 in a long line of Failed Superheroes: Migraine Vision Man. Has the power to cloud men's minds, blur their vision and make them nauseous and sensitive to light and sound. Weakness: Excedrin-Plus.

(Original images, #1325, posted here, here, here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by the vacationing Tom Hilton here.)

War Criminal

This is from April, 1994 (found here, h/t to my pal Marty for the link). Okay, so what changed between then and 2002? Simply the opportunity for this evil bastard and his cronies and minions to make unprecedented profits on the suffering and deaths and misery of hundreds of thousands of people about whom he couldn't give a skinny rat's ass?

This lying, hypocritical son of a bitch should be impeached, indicted and imprisoned for life. Hanging is too good for this rat bastard.

This Way Out

Love this picture, from Dispassionate Liberal, of the cocksucking evil America-hater so-called "architect" Karl Rove juxtaposed with the perfect sign. Wonder where the sonofabitch will end up? I understand Paraguay is rather hospitable to retired Nazis.

Just in case anyone thinks I'm sugar-coating it too much, let me just say, "Goodbye. Goodbye and fuck you, Karl, fuck you hard with a splintery broomstick."

Goodbye And Good Riddance

Speaking of Turd Blossom, emptywheel at The Next Hurrah lists a number of possible reasons for his rather sudden departure. "Spending more time with his family" ranks at the bottom of the list. Check it out, especially the lengthy comments, which bring up many more possibilities (some of which are a bit spooky).

Kellogg's Raisin Brain

David Horsey in today's Seattle P-I. Thanks to my pal Pete for the link.

Questions Without Answers

From my friend lil_amish, who is affiliated with the law firm mentioned here in a way that I choose not to mention at this time:

National Public Radio, July 31, 2007 — Boston partner Sabin Willett was featured on the National Public Radio program “Talk of the Nation” and discussed the future of several men imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Bingham McCutchen represents several Guantanamo detainees on a pro bono basis. “Somebody in Pakistan collected $5,000 to turn in a foreigner to the U.S. By the time the U.S. had him in possession, it was easier to just ship him over to Gitmo than make a decision to release him,” Willett said. He added, the repeated description of these men, all members of the Uighur community, a Chinese minority, as “terror suspects” has seriously impeded their case. “[Our clients] are congratulated on their innocence four years ago . . . and they’re still [at Guantanamo] this afternoon. Why? Because no one else will take them,” Willett said. “If you are really serious about emptying out the hundreds of absurd cases at Guantanamo, you would take a few here in the U.S. so that our allies could support us. But until that happens, you're going to have the roadblock that exists at the base right now.” Willett said he is disappointed that more congressman and senators are not concerned by the situation at Guantanamo. “When did we become such a puny nation that we can't take responsibility for our own mistakes? These people that have been determined not to be a threat to anyone, they need to be released,” Willett said. To listen to the entire interview click here.

Betrayed And Disgusted

What the hell were the 2006 elections all about? Wasn't that supposed to be some kind of accountability moment, a chance to elect a Democratic majority who would counter the long string of abuses and civil liberty curtailments that marked the Worst Presidency Ever and his gang of Congressional sycophants? The American people wanted some checks and balances in their government after six years of "Do whatever the hell you please, Kings Dick 'n' George." We wanted an opposition party to stem the Republican stampede over the Bill of Rights. We wanted some Senators and Congressmen and -women with the will to stand up to an unpopular president and his costly, illegal and immoral war -- not to mention his destructive and rapacious domestic policies. We wanted a check, a balance, some sense of order restored to the federal government. So what did we get? By all accounts, we got Republican-Lite. We got a spineless, cowardly band of Democrats who are so afraid of a dim-bulb, power-grabbing 30% popular jingoist, that every time he shouts "Terror! Jump!" they meekly whisper, "Yes sir!" and "How high?"

They caved on the war in Iraq. They gave him everything he wanted, essentially shutting up, bending over and handing him the Vaseline when he whined about their wimpy talk of a non-binding resolution. And now they've cravenly given in to his wish to gut the FISA restrictions on domestic wiretapping, just handed him the keys to the nation's privacy and said, "Here, go ahead and gut the Fourth Amendment, we trust you to do the right thing." Not only did they take away any accountability for the White House, but who is now in charge of preventing abuses in the act? The Attorney General, Little Abu Gonzales. Are you fucking kidding me? The man is not only a proven, serial liar and spectacularly incompetent at his job, but he is the King of All Toadies, a sycophant's sycophant and the one guy at DoJ who absolutely believes that there is no difference whatsoever in being the U.S. Attorney General and being George W. Bush's personal attorney.

Excuse me, Democrats, but WTF? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU?!? This is not what we elected you to do. This is not what we spent money, time and effort attempting to achieve. If we had wanted you to go along with every Constitution-busting wish that comes out of Dick Cheney's ass the White House, we would have just elected the goddamn Republicans again! Criminey. Readers -- are you more inclined now to send money to the DSCC or to any Democratic candidate who vows to "fight the Republicans"? I'm sure as hell not. I want to see them fight the fucking Republicans now, when it matters.

Patrick Radden Keefe in Slate (h/t to Steve H. for the link) has a rant about this situation that will make your blood run cold. Here is the first paragraph, but I urge you to read the whole thing:

In an editorial last year, the New York Times likened the Bush administration's efforts to retroactively make its warrantless wiretapping program legal, to a person caught speeding who persuades the legislature to raise the speed limit. The new surveillance bill President Bush signed into law Sunday takes this analogy to its logical extreme: Where government surveillance is concerned, the new law eliminated speed limits altogether. The infrastructure this nation established following Watergate to govern domestic spying has died many little deaths in the years since 9/11. But Sunday was the last sequel in a tired series. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is now dead, and it's never coming back.

I am disgusted, disgusted and betrayed. It probably won't mean much, but MoveOn.org has a petition you can sign expressing your feelings about this travesty. Good fucking luck.

Last Night, Thinkin' 'Bout Last Night

I just wanted to say a brief little something about what a great time I had getting together with my fellow Bay Area bloggers last night -- it was a whole lot of fun and drink. We had a larger-than-usual crowd, with the entire triumvirate of Needlenose (Swopa, who is today in Chicago for the YearlyKos Convention, Greenboy and Fubar) in attendance, as well as The Editors (and his lovely wife) from The Poor Man Institute. Also, newcomers Catherine from Poverty Barn and second-timer Deb from Debsweb (she is also a regular contributor to If I Ran The Zoo), along with reader Ian (how we love to see our readers!) added to the mix and made it a very pleasant evening. Cheers to Simbaud, the King of Zembla, for helping us all get our Manhattan(s) on.

All in all, a damn fine night. If you missed this one, you should definitely try to make the next one -- which will probably be sooner rather than later.

More Right-Wing Idiocy

(Is that title redundant?)

With a tip of the Generik cap to The Editors over at The Poor Man Institute (who, rumor has it, will be in attendance at tonight's BARBARian get-together), I'd like to point out this hilariously shrill screed by one Kaye Grogan about the soon-to-come dissolution of the United States and our absorption into some huge, amorphous Meso-Canadian-American-One-World-Kumbaya-Brothers-And-Sisters state. Ms. Grogan, it seems, has an even bigger hard-on for illegal immigration and the pollution of pure American society by the mud races and terrorist-loving Canucks than noted xenophobe Lou Dobbs. But what really got me laughing was the title of her rant: "Smoking mirrors... or a real firestorm?"

Say what?!? Smoking mirrors? Oh, for yikes. Honey, the phrase is "smoke AND mirrors," not... oh, hell, why bother? Regect illiteracy, Kaye, and just accept that you're a fucking moran.