Wednesday, November 30, 2005

a great answer to Pat Robertson

Whether you believe in it or not
If only the AAAS were run by an insane kook like Robertson:

Washington, DC: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) issued a stern warning today to Televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson had recently condemned the citizens of Dover, PA to the wrath of God for not voting in a school board that would teach Intelligent Design in classes.

"We'd like to say to the good Reverend Robertson: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to Science, you just rejected it from your life," AAAS said on its daily television show broadcast from Washington, the 3.14159 Club.

"And don't wonder why it hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. We're not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just pushed science out of your life. And if that's the case, don't ask for its help because it might not be there," they said. "In particular, you won't have a phone to call the ambulance, and it won't exist even if you could call it. And even if the doctor lived next door and you could call her, she would only bleed you and put smelly poultices on your forehead to balance your humours. And she would be a guy."

"Actually, we're just kidding," the AAAS later corrected. "Science works whether you believe in it or not. That's what's really cool about it," they said.

"What they said," indicated Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an independent statement.


(Pharyngula)

i don't read Pharyngula enough!

I see stupid people
You really don't want to wake up to this kind of thing, and you might want to stop right now: reading on may kill brain cells.

Ed Brayton spots an incredible essay, Once Upon a Time When America Had Christmas. Imagine a future when Christmas wrapping paper is as illegal as heroin…uh, right.

Skeptico finds a whole collection of jaw-droppers at Fundies Say the Darndest Things! My brain hurts after reading their ideas about science.

Only a retard would try to use science to determine the ultimate reality of our existence.

Quick—alert the physicists!

Gravity is NOT a theory. It is completely understood.

People have some very strange ideas about evolution.

god exists because evolution would have given me eyes in the back of my head if there really were such a thing.

evolution would be a mindless bolder of chance and time rolling forward produsing 7 legged dogs with 3 heads and 300 pound spiders with fish fins and the chain from ape to man would still be very visible in our world.

Then there are the amazing cases of overlooking the obvious.

One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.

What strikes me as odd that is, given the current state of genetics, no one has compared simian dna to homo sapien. The differences should be obvious and radical.

Chilling stuff, isn't it? These people probably live very ordinary lives, and somehow believe that their strange sheltered ignorance is an accurate model of the real world.


(Pharyngula)

---

Oh my freakin' gawd! You GOTTA read the Xmas essay! A-flippin'-mazing! The imagination of these wackos is incredible! I love how "liberals" manage to take over the country, even though the repugs are in total control of the government! And, of course, the scenario has nothing to do with anything that any "liberal" has ever expoused or would want for any reason. You just gotta marvel at the victimization of the christians!!

The "Fundies" site is wild, as well! Scary to think that these people co-exist with us!! It's like beings from another, illogical planet!

repugs can't do math!

Sadly, No! proves it!

does NOTHING embarass these people?

CIA chief defends agency over bin Laden hunt
---
Al Qaeda leaders bin Laden and al-Zarqawi haven't been found "primarily because they don't want us to find them and they're going to great lengths to make sure we don't find them," Goss said in the interview broadcast Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

---
I swear - that is an actual quote!!!! We can't find them because they don't want to be found!!!! And this is the freakin' CIA talking!!!!
Have the las 5 years just been a big episode of Punk'd or something?!

more "liberal media" at work

Sebastian "Jeffrey Dahmer" Mallaby
Ah, the lovely level of discourse which our elite media gatekeepers feel fit to use. Calling a decorated war veteran a traitor? No problem!

Furman advised John "Benedict Arnold" Kerry in the 2004 campaign and has never received any payment from Wal-Mart; he is no corporate apologist.


(Eschaton)
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I believe that these dirtbags actually wish that Kerry had become president so that they would have a reason for making him their boogeyman, and they wouldn't look quite so pathetic in their baseless attacks....

a meaningless strategy

Rapid Response: Deconstructing the “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq”
(Think Progree)
---
Check out Think Progress' report on this "new" "plan".
I have not read the document in it's entirety, but it appears to literally say nothing, other than that we are succeeding, while offering no examples. It offers no plans, no concrete metrics for success and no hope of any end of this conflict. Business as usual....

Groundhog Day

See TBogg

freedom of the (Iraqi) press

Freedom
Smell it:
WASHINGTON -- As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents, and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

While the articles are basically truthful, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles -- with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism" -- since the effort began this year.


(Eschaton)
---
Y'know, it's like this administration literally cannot be honest about anything at all!

a modern horror movie

Eschaton reports here and here
Sounds great! Wish that i had Showtime!!
"This is a horror story because most of the characters are Republicans," director Joe Dante

repugs ONCE AGAIN bring up Hilter

On Today Show, O’Reilly Compares Murtha With Hitler Sympathizers
Bill O’Reilly on the Today Show this morning:
These pin-heads running around going, “Get out of Iraq now” don’t know what they are talking about. These are the same people before Hitler invaded in WWII that were saying, “He’s not such a bad guy.” They don’t get it.

(Think Progress)
---
They never get tired of using Hitler's name, do they?! I can only assume it is because they can relate to the guy so well!!! (Oh damn, now i'm doing it too!!!!)
And, of course, O'Reilly's "reasoning" makes no sense whatsoever and, as usual, doesn't address anything that anyone has actually said.

more on torture

RUMSFELD AND PACE....Via Tim Dunlop, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports on a recent exchange between Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The subject was torture:

When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.

But Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.

Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.

This is why Abu Ghraib happened: because of people like Rumsfeld, who insisted on cutting corners, using clever circumlocutions in place of plain language, and refusing to take a firm stand on doing the right thing. Pace is having none of it, and good for him.

The military may not always live up to its ideals, but at least they insist on having some. Rumsfeld should have been fired long ago for not understanding this.


(Washington Monthly)

repugs continue to help terrorists

GAO: House Republicans killed air marshall effort to protect commercial flights from terrorists

This program was killed by the House, which isn't just controlled by the Republicans, in the House, unlike the Senate, the minority party has NO POWER WHATSOEVER. That means this was a Republican buzzkill, 100%. From AP:

Efforts to train thousands of federal agents to protect commercial flights during heightened terror alerts were quietly abandoned more than a year ago because Congress objected to the cost, government investigators said Tuesday.

The AP article didn't make clear who in Congress killed the program, so I looked up the actual GAO report that was released today about this issue. It makes clear it was the House Appropriations Committee, which is run 100 percent by the GOP.

This, from the GAO report:
In October 2004, ICE suspended its cross-training efforts in response to congressional concerns that the cross-training was an ineffective use of resources and training. Specifically, in a June 2004 House Appropriations Committee report, the Committee expressed concerns regarding how ICE agents would maintain their skills as federal air marshals since they did not regularly perform federal air marshal duties. The Committee directed that each cross-trained ICE agent fly missions with a federal air marshal for a minimum of 24 hours per quarter, beginning October 1, 2004. However, in the October 2004 report that accompanied the fiscal year 2005 DHS Appropriations Act, the Conference Committee suggested that the cross-training provided to ICE agents was an ineffective use of resources. The Committee further suggested that the training of ICE agents to serve as federal air marshals in a surge capacity be discontinued. In response, DHS suspended its cross-training efforts at that time.

Osama can breathe a little easier knowing the Republicans are doing his work for him.


(Americablog)
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Nice to know that the repugs care nothing whatsoever for the safety of the American people, isn't it?

"limited resources"?

Why is the Transportation Security Agency facing a "tight budget"?

What the hell is going on? I read this in today's Washington Post in an article explaining why they're allowing scissors and other pointy objects back on airplanes:

Faced with a tighter budget and morale problems among its workforce, the TSA says its new policy changes are aimed at making the best use of limited resources.

Limited resources? We're talking about an agency whose job it is to stop your mom's airplane from blowing up. What limited resources and tight budget problems are they facing? Who in the GOP-controlled congress isn't giving this vital agency the money they need?

Funny, but when Bush needs $300 billion to fight a war that's a lie and a quagmire, we find the money in a snap. But when we need the money to stop our commerical airliners from blowing up, suddenly the budget is tight.

The GOP, the party of treason. Osama must be so proud that the Republicans are making his job easier.


(Americablog)
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Interesting thing - when I read this article elsewhere this morning, it said nothing about the changes being due to budget cutbacks. Damn "liberal media"!! Of course, the repugs care nothing about the people that can be affected by this.
I have no idea whether loosening these restrictions will make us less saf, but the fact that this agency does not have the money it needs to do it's job is pretty insane, since we're supposedly fighting a "war on terror".

Walgreens does the right thing

Missouri Pharmacists Balk at Contraception
ST. LOUIS - Walgreen Co. said it has put four Illinois pharmacists in the St. Louis area on unpaid leave for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception in violation of a state rule.

The four cited religious or moral objections to filling prescriptions for the morning-after pill and "have said they would like to maintain their right to refuse to dispense, and in Illinois that is not an option," Walgreen spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said.

A rule imposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in April requires Illinois pharmacies that sell contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control.

Pharmacies that do not fill prescriptions for any type of contraception are not required to follow the rule.

Ed Martin, an attorney for the pharmacists, on Tuesday called the discipline "pretty disturbing" and said they would consider legal action if Walgreen doesn't reconsider.

At least six other pharmacists have sued over the rule, claiming it forces them to violate their religious beliefs. Many of those lawsuits were filed by Americans United for Life, the Chicago public interest law firm with which Martin is affiliated.

The licenses of both a pharmacy and that store's chief pharmacist could be revoked if they don't comply with the Illinois rule, Bruce said.

Walgreen, based in Deerfield, Ill., put the four on leave Monday, Bruce said. She would not identify them. They will remain on unpaid leave "until they either decide to abide by Illinois law or relocate to another state" without such a rule or law.

Walgreen policy says pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions to which they are morally opposed — except where state law prohibits — but they must take steps to have the prescription filled by another pharmacist or store, Bruce said.


---
What a sane and civilized rule! Imagine! A pharmacy having to fill prescriptions!!! Wouldn't you think that that would be the norm?!
And these wackos are actually considering suing Walgreens for NOT breaking the law - which, if they did, would result in losing their license!!!!
I think that the choices given are pretty reasonable - either do your job (can you imagine any other job where you could pick and choose what assigned tasks you wanted to do?) or go someplace where you can be a bigot! I don't understand why they would choose a profession in which they would have moral objections to fulfilling their duties!

can you believe that people are wasting time on this nonsense?

Hastert Wants to Return Christmas to the Capitol Tree
House Speaker Objects to Calling Decoration a 'Holiday' Tree

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How can anyone be bothered by something as innocuous as this?! Why are people so incensed by government and companies attempting to be inclusive in this holiday season? I don't remember Jesus preaching exclusion and bigotry, but maybe I missed that in my church!

still no plan

Bush Counsels 'Patience' for Victory In Iraq
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Bush's speech did not break new ground or present a new strategy.
.---
Even before Bush finished speaking, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid issued a statement claiming that Bush "recycled his tired rhetoric of 'stay the course' and once again missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in Iraq that will bring our troops safely home."

The Nevada senator charged that Bush failed to meet a call by the Senate to tell Americans the administration's strategy for success in Iraq.


---
Of course, there is no plan and bush just continued to repeat his tired old lies. Hopefully, the people are seeing through his bs these days....

---

27 seconds:
The time it took President Bush to reference September 11 in this morning’s Iraq speech.

(Think Progress)

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

bush's flip-flops on immigration

Think Progress documents them here and here

not all teens are stupid!


Censorship got me pregnant
I love me some rebellious teenagers standing up for a good cause with good humor.

The Associated Press has picked up the story about the Tennessee high school that seized all 1,800 copies of the student newspaper because it featured an informative article about birth control.

School officials say they also object to a story about tattoos and body piercings.

Oak Ridge High School students planned to protest the censorship today by wearing t-shirts such as the one pictured here.


(Pandagon)

do they finally have a plan?!?!

Breaking: Bush To Unveil “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” Tommorow
From today’s White House pool report:
Scott gaggled on AF1 and yes, he gave a preview of tomorrow’s speech on the war. Among the hightlights [sic], the WH will be releasing an unclassified “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.” He said they hope to have it out by 6:30 a.m.

Question: Shouldn’t we have had a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” before the war started?


(Think Progress)

where were these critics last year?!

Wilkerson BLASTS Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld

Very tough criticism from Powell's former Chief of Staff. This is one scary administration. It's as bad -- if not worse -- then we all thought:

A top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees arose from White House and Pentagon officials who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful" and the Geneva Conventions irrelevant.

In an Associated Press interview, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of postwar planning. Underlings exploited Bush's detachment and made poor decisions, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. He said Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

Read the whole article. It's worth it.


(Americablog)

Monday, November 28, 2005

you can't make this shit up!

Brownie hangs a shingle.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown plans to offer
his services as an emergency planning consultant
. Says Brown, “I think people are curious: ‘My gosh, what was it like? The media just really beat you up. You made mistakes. I don’t want to be in that situation. How do I avoid that?’ ” (Via TPM)

(Think Progress)

Fox "rewriting history" (surprise, surprise)

Fox News Host Chris Wallace Claims Bush “Never” Linked Saddam and al-Qaeda
(Think Progress)
---
These people really think that no American can ever remember anything, don't they?! It really is sickening how little respect they have for us!

another corrupt repug down

Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators.

---
Think we'll ever be able to clean up all of the corrupt repugs? It will be a LOT of work, but the country would certainly be a LOT better off!

Whose plan is this again?!

Bush says Democrats have embraced "Bush's withdrawal plan." Only problem? Bush has never offered a withdrawal plan.

It's amazing how willing you are to lie when 66% of the country hates you.

The White House for the first time has claimed possession of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own....

The statement late Saturday by White House spokesman Scott McClellan came in response to a commentary published in The Washington Post by Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he said US forces will begin leaving Iraq next year "in large numbers."....

Even though Bush has never publicly issued his own withdrawal plan and criticized calls for an early exit, the White House said many of the ideas expressed by the senator were its own.

And I guess we're supposed to forget the fact that Bush and Cheney pilloried Democrats for embracing a withdrawal plan only a week ago.Time for the media to ask Bush what changed in the last week that suddenly makes a withdrawal acceptable?


(Americablog)

more on Iraq

Two US congressmen hurt in Iraq

Are we winning yet?And whose brilliant idea was it to ride really fast down the middle of the road (i.e., into oncoming traffic)? Are they surprised that some Iraq driver basically replied "screw you" to this game of chicken?

The congressional delegation was riding in a box-like vehicle that troops call the "ice cream truck" -- it streaks through the middle of the road to deter oncoming motorists, Marshall told the paper. But shortly after dark, an oncoming truck refused to yield.

"Then, all of a sudden, brakes get slammed on. Then we hit something and go off the side of the road and tip over," Marshall said.

Hubris is not a war plan.


(Americablog)

advances in Iraq

Iraq's Human Rights Abuses Worse Than Under Saddam, Says Allawi

Bush wants to claim victory and get the hell out, but Iraq's first Prime Minister says the country is rife with death squads and torture centers and could soon eclipse Hussein's reign of terror. Bush's one-time ally Ayad Allawi is making it very difficult for the President to pretend everything is hunky-dory, thanks to this interview with UK's The Observer. Read it. It's a bombshell. Allawi is a secular Shiite who has been reaching out to Sunnis. Some highlights:

'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison.''

We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.'

And how's this for a kicker?

[Allawi] added that he now had so little faith in the rule of law that he had instructed his own bodyguards to fire on any police car that attempted to approach his headquarters without prior notice, following the implication of police units in many of the abuses.


(Americablog)

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!



Image from Catch

Wha....?!

Heckuva Job.
The Department of Homeland Security names FEMA’s response to Katrina one of the top FEMA “accomplishments” of 2005.
(Think Progress)

limbaugh - "useful idiot"

Limbaugh: Murtha "just the useful idiot of the moment"
(Media Matters)
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Nice of a draft-dodger to call a decorated marine an "idiot" for daring to try to save the lives of other military personnel.
How does this scumbag stay on the air?


as if there was doubt - bush knew that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11

Bush knew there was no Iraq-9/11 link

Murray Waas:
Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.

To be clear -- there wasn't just no connection, but Saddam viewed Al Qaida as one of his enemies. Yet while the administration and its apologists continue to claim that Democrats had the same intelligence they did on Saddam, we can bet that NONE of them had this bombshell of a document.

Meanwhile, the White House refuses to turn over this document (and other similar ones) to Senate investigators.


(Daily Kos)

repug hack calls decorated marine a coward

Washington Post:

Rep. Jean Schmidt flung the word "coward" at a decorated war veteran from Pennsylvania last week, but the Ohio Republican's comments landed with a splat in her own Cincinnati district, where some supporters are backing away as she scrambles to explain what she meant.

Judging by her words yesterday -- the first after avoiding the public for three days -- Schmidt doesn't understand what the fuss is about, and sees herself more as victim than villain. "I am amazed at what a national story this has become," she said in a statement. "I have been attacked very personally, continuously since Friday evening."
---
Bubp, a GOP state legislator and Marine Corps Reserve officer, had campaigned for Schmidt. He put out his own statement yesterday: "The comments and concerns I shared with Congresswoman Schmidt were never meant as a personal reference to Mr. Murtha. . . . We never discussed anyone by name and there was no intent to ever disparage the congressman or his distinguished record of service for our nation." Bubp, through a spokeswoman, declined an interview request.
---
Schmidt said she had not noticed the numerous references to Murtha's military background in the newspaper, radio and TV accounts of his troop-withdrawal proposal, made Thursday. "They keep us pretty busy," she said.

Paul Hackett, a veteran of the Iraq war who lost the August special election to Schmidt, said her comments on the House floor "were at best irresponsible and at worst grossly unpatriotic." Hackett, who has sharply criticized President Bush's Iraq war policy, is running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, but some Democrats are trying to talk him into a rematch against Schmidt.


---
This "person" is obviously trying to make a name for herself by being as obnoxious as possible. She also obviously is a serial liar - saying she never noticed that the marine she was attacking had been in the service and lying about what Bubp said. She has no shame and she thinks that she is the victim. Well, she is a typical repug!

Condi responds to Iraq statement saying it's ok to kill Americans

Condi: just ignore what Iraq's government said about killing our troops

QUESTION: The Iraqi factions, who don't always get along, have been meeting with the Arab League and others as they prepare for next month's elections. A statement they did agree on says that they recognize the legitimate right of Iraqi citizens to resist the occupation forces. How do you explain that to the parent or the spouse of an American serviceman or woman on the ground in Iraq, getting shot at every day, that the people they're fighting for, the people they're trying to protect to bring these elections and this democracy about, say that the people who are shooting at them have a legitimate right to do so?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, that's not how I read the statement, John. I do think there were many, many voices at this conference -- and by the way, the Iraqi Government was there, but so were many, many people who were not -- and the purpose is to try to give all Iraqis a sense of stake in their future. But the line about resistance was very quickly followed by, but of course we condemn terrorism and of course violence should not be sanctioned. I think what they were trying to do was to get a sense of political inclusion while recognizing that violence and terrorism should not be a part of resistance. After all, do Iraqis really want to -- any Iraqi, sitting around that table, want to suggest that killing an innocent Iraqi child standing at a bus stop is legitimate? Or that killing Iraqi soldiers who are lining up at recruitment centers is legitimate? Or even that multinational forces -- who by the way are there under a UN mandate -- are somehow legitimate targets?

I don't think that that was what was being communicated. But I would just remind people that this was a really broad range of voices, and the Iraqis who have governed themselves by violence and coercion are now trying to do it by compromise and politics.

This is outrageous. Yeah, they said they oppose terrorism, but US forces are viewed as occupiers, so that's legit. Rice and Bush are covering for a government that wants to kill our young men and women.

And, the GOP claims to support our troops. In reality, they are supporting a government that sanctions killing them.


(Americablog)
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Funny that the examples that she uses are Iraqis killing Iraqis, which is clearly what the Iraqis consider to be terrorism. Killing occupying forces though, they seem to feel that is legitimate at this point.

another repug conspiracy theory shot down

CNN explains 'X' glitch over Cheney's face
The "X" image, a place-holding marker used by technicians to cue up graphics, is not supposed to be visible to viewers but was inadvertently projected onto the screen by a malfunction in a "switcher" device, they explained.

"So, for all the conspiracy theories out there," Kagan said, " ... that's not what this is about. It's a computer bug that people deal with everyday. It's just that ours was in front of millions of people."


---
This is the big "conspiracy" that the conservatives have dug up on the "liberal media"! A one-seventh of a second image! Man, we liberals are really out of control!!!

scumbags stick together

Cheney to Headline DeLay GOP Fundraiser
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Doesn't this seem like this should be illegal?

utter chaos in Iraq

Sunni Leader Slain at Home in Iraq
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Are we doing anything at all to help quell the violence over there?!

more WH flip-flops

Rice Says Iraq Troop Levels May Draw Down
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They really have no idea whatsoever what they are doing over there, do they? They will say literally anything if they think it will help their "cause" - whatever that is! Wasn't it just a couple of days ago that bush refuses to even entertain the idea of withdrawing? Idiots....

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

this is just strange

George Will and the ideology of punctuation
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Truss, a self-described "punctuation vigilante," wrote in Eats, Shoots & Leaves that her book "gives you permission to love punctuation." According to Will, Truss's book "established her as -- depending on your sensibility -- a comma and apostrophe fascist (the liberal sensibility) or a plucky constable combating anarchy (the conservative sensibility)." Will offered no explanation for how he concluded that liberals oppose proper punctuation or that punctuation breaks down along ideological lines.


---
The repugs will try to make every little thing controversial! How do they come up with this nonsense?

outrageous lies!

Fox's Gibson and Hannity, NY Post falsely claimed that House voted on Murtha's resolution
---
Amazing! The repugs are so blatant in their lies! Murtha's resolution, as anyone watching the news in the last week knows, was never put to the vote. Instead, they voted on the absurd repug resolution that was simply a ridiculous symbolic gesture done in a bizarre attempt to make the Dems look bad. The Murtha resolution would undoubtedly have been approved, which is the last thing the repugs want!

more on bombing Al-Jazeera

Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera, Newspaper Reports
White House Dismisses 'Outlandish' Charge Reportedly in Leaked British Memo
---
The White House said it wouldn't dignify what it called "something so outlandish" with a response.
---
Al-Jazeera offices in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hit by U.S. bombs or missiles, but each time the U.S. military said they were not intentionally targeting the broadcaster.

In April 2003, an Al-Jazeera journalist was killed when its Baghdad office was struck during a U.S. bombing campaign. Nabil Khoury, a State Department spokesman in Doha, said the strike was a mistake.

In November 2002, Al-Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed by a U.S. missile. None of the crew was at the office at the time. U.S. officials said they believed the target was a terrorist site and did not know it was Al-Jazeera's office.


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Doesn't seem quite so outlandish since we have actually bombed their offices! And what was the last accusation that was so ridiculous that the WH didn't want to comment on it? Wasn't that the question of whether Rove outed Valerie Plame? And how did that turn out again?!

liberal media, my ass!

Just heard a commentator on NPR (!) asking if Murtha was irresponsible for asking for an "immediate" withdrawal from Iraq!
I suppose he would be if that is what he said! Of course, that is what the Republicans put forth and was voted down resoundingly.
Wouldn't it be amazing if there actually was any liberal media in this country?!

cheney nonsense

Insane Parts of Cheney’s Speech
When Cheney spoke yesterday he said, "What is not legitimate--and I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible--is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."

No, it’s not. What is reprehensible is that neither he nor bush can deny they purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence. Prove you were right; don’t just spit on anyone who says you are wrong. Show us where you messed up. Show us everything you did. Stop slapping us and come clean with us. We are fairly intelligent people, in spite of the sad fact that over half of us voted last year to keep george bush in the oval office. Explain it to us, maybe we’ll understand.

Why shouldn’t anyone question what the hell went wrong? Bottom line is what they told us was flat out wrong and they knew it when they said it. Now they have all this new bullshit they are saying and frankly, it doesn’t even make sense. For example, yesterday Cheney also stated, "Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions," Cheney said, such as whether the United States would be "better off or worse off" with terror leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control of Iraq."

What? Was Saddam the kind of fellow to allow this to happen? I think not. He sounds to me like a guy who would have mowed this stuff down in a heart beat.

So rather than tell us the truth, Cheney makes up this scary picture to plant into the empty heads that believe everything they hear coming from this contemptible administration.

Also yesterday Cheney said it was Saddam’s responsibility to prove he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Say what? So how do you go about proving a negative?


(Blondesense)
---
I honestly could not believe that cheney was talking about Al-Qaida leaders taking over Iraq! I think that a major part of the problem that everyone has with the war in Iraq is that this administration took us there instead of fighting Al-Qaida! Why is cheney reminding everyone of their failures? These people are truly nutz!

does anyone think that bush will keep his word this time?

Bush Said He Would Withdraw U.S. Forces If The Iraqis Asked
On Monday, Iraqi political leaders called on the U.S. to set a timetable for withdrawal. In January, President Bush said that if asked by the Iraqis, U.S. forces would leave the country:

President Bush said in an interview on Thursday that he would withdraw American forces from Iraq if the new government that is elected on Sunday asked him to do so, but that he expected Iraq’s first democratically elected leaders would want the troops to remain as helpers, not as occupiers.

Bush has now been asked to withdraw. Will he stick to his word?


(Think Progress) and more
---
It's not like bush is known for being honest or for keeping his word in the past (wasn't he going to fire anyone involved with the Plame leak?).....
Man, if bush didn't have this war - regardless of the fact that the majority of the country (and the world) now thinks that this war is a disaster - what would he have? He wants this power - he's not going to give it up without a fight!

"success"

The White House Version of Success
Earlier today on MSNBC, White House Communications Director Nicolle Devenish said the administration supports a “conditions-based withdrawal” from Iraq. As an example of the improved security there, she pointed to today’s transfer of a Tikrit palace to the Iraqis:

…[C]urrent administration policy, which is for a conditions-based withdrawal from Iraq, which means that as the Iraqis can take control of their own security - and you saw an important handover today in Tikrit in Iraq. This was a lavish palace that once housed Saddam Hussein’s mother. It’s now going to be enjoyed by the Iraqi people.

If that’s their example of a success story, things are worse than we thought. From
the AP today:

Insurgents fired a mortar at a U.S. ceremony attended by top officials on Tuesday to hand over a presidential palace in Saddam Hussein’s hometown to Iraqi authorities, sending the U.S. ambassador and top commander scrambling for cover but causing no injuries.

As a U.S. colonel was giving a speech, the mortar whistled as it fell into a field about 300 yards away from the palace in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. The mortar failed to explode when it hit the ground.


(Think Progress)

trying hard to be a "moderate"

Sen. Clinton: Immediate Iraq Exit 'Mistake'
---
Of course, Murtha did not ask for an "immediate" withdrawal - he had a logical plan for a withdrawal over a period of 6 months.
Right now someone - anyone - just needs to come up with an actual plan for Iraq, because this administration obviously does not have one.

somehow i don't see DeLay's charges getting dropped

Ex-DeLay Aide Cooperating in Bribery Probe
WASHINGTON - A former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay who pleaded guilty in a federal bribery probe involving members of Congress has been cooperating with prosecutors since July.

The disclosure about Michael Scanlon, who also is an ex-partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, comes in an investigation of $80 million that the two men collected from six American Indian tribes.

"There have been a lot of conversations" between Scanlon and federal prosecutors over the past five months, Scanlon attorney Plato Cacheris said Monday night. "He had a lot to say."


---
Doesn't sound particularly good for DeLay, does it?!

more on bush's version of freedom of speech!

Report: Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera
---
Yet another way in which bush tries to win the hearts and minds of the people - by blowing up innocents who might disagree with him blowing them up!

not everyone in Kansas is an IDiot!

Univ. of Kansas Takes Up Creation Debate
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution.

A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."

"The KU faculty has had enough," said Paul Mirecki, department chairman.

"Creationism is mythology," Mirecki said. "Intelligent design is mythology. It's not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not."


---
This is exactly how this subject should be treated! Mythology is the perfect description for ID.

and i want a million dollars!

DeLay's Attorneys Want Charges Dismissed
---
And i don't think that either of us will get our wishes granted!
Of course, they don't have any real reasoning behind their request but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask! They are still saying that they want a quick trial, but are still delaying things and asking for the trial to be moved and etc etc.

Monday, November 21, 2005

this week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots

don't they know they are emboldening the enemy?!

Iraq Leaders Demand Timetable
Over to you, Dick:
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi leaders, meeting at a reconciliation conference in Cairo, urged an end to violence in the country and demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq.

In a final statement, read by Arab League chief Amre Moussa, host of the three-day summit, they called for ``the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces.'' No date was specified.

``The Iraqi people look forward to the day when the foreign forces leave Iraq, when it's armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and get rid of terrorism,'' the leaders said in the statement. The session was broadcast live from the Egyptian capital by al-Jazeera.


(eschaton)

not looking good for DeLay

Bye Bob and Tom
For the record Rep. Ney was very nice when I testified before his committee.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- For more than a year, Michael Scanlon has been a shadowy presence behind former partner Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist at the center of a corruption probe. Now, Scanlon may help prosecutors raise the investigation to a higher level.

Scanlon, a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay, is scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court to present a plea bargain with the Justice Department likely to lead to his cooperation with investigators. His testimony would ratchet up the pressure on Abramoff and aid prosecutors in widening the investigation to members of Congress, such as Republicans DeLay and Representative Robert Ney of Ohio.


(Eschaton)

this is just weird

Outback
I'm not going to fault Bush for this, as security requirements (genuine or imagined), make getting out a big deal. But Jeebus Christmas on a Cracker who the fuck are these people?

For the president, it was a rare moment of fun on an otherwise dreary overseas trip. In five years in the presidency, Bush has proved a decidedly unadventurous traveler, an impression undispelled by the weeklong journey through Asia that wraps up Monday. As he barnstormed through Japan, South Korea and China, with a final stop in Mongolia still to come, Bush visited no museums, tried no restaurants, bought no souvenirs and made no effort to meet ordinary local people.

"I live in a bubble," Bush once said, explaining his anti-tourist tendencies by citing the enormous security and logistical considerations involved in arranging any sightseeing. "That's just life."

The Bush spirit trickles down to many of his top advisers, who hardly go out of their way to sample the local offerings either. A number of the most senior White House officials on the trip, perhaps seeking the comforts of their Texas homes, chose to skip the kimchi in South Korea to go to dinner at Outback Steakhouse -- twice. (Admittedly, a few unadventurous journalists joined them.)

And, I include the journalists. I mean, what the fuck? If nothing else one can go grab some Korean BBQ which is not going to be a big shock to the American palate. I understand that when you're in a grueling travel schedule a little familiar comfort is appreciated, but aren't these people curious at all?


(Eschaton)
----
Where to even start on this?! The president of the freakin' united states is so unbelievably incurious about the rest of the world that he won't even try a restaurant and doesn't even buy souvenirs?! I know that he is too damn dumb and uncultured to go to a museum (hell, he might actually learn something if he did!), but freakin' hell - OUTBACK?!?! Why not just go to freakin' McDonalds?!
What a f'k'ing embarrassment!

McCarthy a hero? Repugs think so!

But it's also worth noting that congressional Republicans seem to be taking these inconsequential votes more and more seriously. About two months ago, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wanted to name a post office in Berkeley after a 94-year-old former city councilwoman. Rep. Steve King of Iowa accused the woman, Maudelle Shirek, of having communist ties and he led a fight to defeat Lee's measure. Accused of engaging in blatant McCarthyism, King said, "If [Lee] studied her history, she'd recognize Joe McCarthy was a great American hero."

If anyone's looking for hints as to why the political atmosphere on Capitol Hill has become so toxic, votes like these might offer some insight.


(Washington Monthly)

whose war is this?

Rummy says Bush never asked his opinion on invading Iraq

"I didn't advocate invasion, I wasn't asked." - Rumsfeld on THIS WEEK, this morning.

Now keep in mind, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, says he wasn't asked either.

If true, that means George Bush went to war in Iraq without asking the opinion of the Secretary of Defense of the Secretary of State. Who did he get his advice from, anyone? Are they telling us the president of the United States, who had no foreign policy experience whatsoever, had never visited another country in his life (give or take one or two I believe), made a decision to go to war in Iraq without asking the advice of his top advisers on the issue?

That's insane.


(Americablog)

funny and truly pathetic

Eschaton shows that bush really has NO exit strategy!
Who voted for this guy?!

but THIS guy really was a legend

Guitarist Link Wray Dies at 76
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That is heartbreaking. This guy really changed the face of music and there will never be another one like him. HIS music will certainly last forever!

not much of an egotist, is he?

Bono Says His Music Will Last 100 Years
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Dude, you do really mediocre, middle-of-the-road music. Gawd help the world if anyone is still listening to that crap 100 years from now!

blah blah blah

Cheney Again Defends Bush's Iraq Policy
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If these jackasses spent 1/2 as much time working on a plan for success for Iraq as they do on their PR here at home, we'd have succeeded there years ago!
Will we ever have a plan?

bush's economy

GM to Cut 30,000 Jobs, Close 9 Plants
---
And the repugs continue to tell us how great the economy is?

Good Night, and Good Luck

Saw Good Night, and Good Luck over the weekend and just gotta say, go see it. Very well done, and amazing how just by simply telling a story of the 50's, it can create a commentary on today! Certainly makes me wish that we had journalists these days instead of the talking heads that just read the "news" which is mostly meaningless drivel.

Friday, November 18, 2005

apparently, this is supposed to be an insult

McClellan: Murtha = Michael Moore
STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.

(Democratic Underground)
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They still don't get the fact that a majority of Americans agree with Murtha and that it is this administration that are the extremists!

they'll believe anyone who tells them what they want to hear!

Check out World O'Crap today - debunking yet another incredibly unreliable (and possibly insane) source for repug talking points re: WMDs in Iraq (yes, some people are STILL talking about that!).

and they wonder why there are not more black republicans

Voter ID Sponsor: If Blacks “Are Not Paid To Vote, They Don’t Go To The Polls”
Tom Daschle blogged on ThinkProgress yesterday about the problems with a Voter ID bill proposed in Georgia. He called it a “modern day poll-tax” that would make it harder for people to exercise their right to vote.

Apparently, that was the intent. In a memo released today, the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Sue Burmeister (R-Augusta), explained the rationale of her bill:

The chief sponsor of Georgia’s voter identification law told the Justice Department that if black people in her district “are not paid to vote, they don’t go to the polls,” and that if fewer blacks vote as a result of the new law, it is only because it would end such voting fraud.

The newly released Justice Department memo quoting state Rep. Sue Burmeister (R-Augusta) was prepared by department lawyers as the federal government considered whether to approve the new law.

As Daschle noted yesterday, the Washington Post reported “A team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters,” but were overruled by political appointees.

(HT: War and Piece)

(Think Progress)

do as we say, not as we do!

U.S. warns Iraqis about security efforts, torture
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I literally laughed out loud when i heard something about this on the radio! The American government is telling the Iraqi government that it will not tolerate torture!!!! Wow! We just want all of the "fun" for ourselves, or what?! My gawd, the hypocrisy is boggling!

Afghanistan

By The Way, Afghanistan Is A Disaster and Getting Worse

You already know Afghanistan is basically a narco-state with most of its economy coming from heroin, etc. In fact, it's producing more illegal drugs than ever before. You also know most of the country is controlled by drug lords and the Taliban. (Our puppet government is holed up in a few major cities.)

Now USA Today is reporting that our own troops say the insurgency is stronger than ever and continuing to grow. Sound familiar? More of our troops are dying this year than last, the enemy is getting "fiercer" and they're just waiting for us to leave before wreaking havoc. This is according to US troops on the ground. No wonder Bush has already declared Afghanistan a success.

(Americablog)

the bush message

For Bush, Iraq is only about controlling messages and smearing opponents

The NY Times has an article about how Bush's trip to Asia has been all about Iraq -- much to the surprise and chagrin of his hosts. What has is very clear from that article is that for the Bush team, Iraq is all about the messages, speeches and smears of their opponents. That's their whole strategy, instead of figuring out how to actually succeed on the ground in Iraq. They view success by how they can control the message in America:

Three times so far since Mr. Bush left Washington on Monday, the White House has also issued detailed rebuttals on Iraq issues under the rubric "Setting the Record Straight." One was devoted to answering an editorial in The New York Times on prewar intelligence, and two others responded to Democratic critics, quoting their own words about Iraq back to them, arguing that they, too, had believed Saddam Hussein possessed illicit weapons.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, Dan Bartlett, the counselor to the president who has played a central role in drafting many of the Iraq messages, said that Mr. Bush's decision to fight back - chiefly on the question of how he had used prewar intelligence - arose after he became concerned the debate was now at a tipping point.

We passed the real tipping point in Iraq a long time ago. Bush and Cheney are too concerned with the politics of Iraq to worry about the thousands of dead troops. They actually think they win if the get their message out and if they are smearing opponents of the war.

All they have is a political strategy. And they wonder why the American people don't trust Bush anymore.


(Americablog)

the "party of ideas" is still using last year's lying smear campaigns

ATTACK ON CRITICS: RNC ad targets Reid
Commercial accuses senator of flip-flopping on war in Iraq
The ad, which RNC sources said will air in Las Vegas, provides Reid's office number and tells viewers to call the Nevada senator and "tell him to stop playing partisan politics and stand behind our troops."

On Thursday, Reid joined a growing number of Democrats to publicly condemn the administration for attacking critics of the war.

"Instead of giving our troops a plan for success or answering the serious questions of the American people, they've decided to start up the Rove/Cheney attack machine," Reid said Thursday on the Senate floor. "We're at war. We need a commander in chief, not a campaigner in chief. We need leadership from the White House, not more white-washing of the very serious issues confronting us in Iraq."

Earlier this week, the Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation encouraging President Bush to change course in Iraq. Democrats had pushed for a timetable for withdrawal.

The RNC ad begins with comments Bush made in Pennsylvania on Veteran's Day, in a speech that mentioned the bipartisan congressional support for the war in Iraq, but also criticized Democrats for "rewriting history."

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war," Bush said in Tobyhanna, Pa., on Nov. 11.

The ad tries to paint Democrats as flip-floppers on the war, in similar fashion to the RNC and Bush campaigns' attacks on John Kerry last year.

The spot includes statements from Reid and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Jay Rockefeller. Former President Clinton also appears in the ad.

"Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community," Reid says in the ad, in video taken from a Sept. 18, 2002, CNN "Inside Politics" show. "And I think that the president's approaching this in the right fashion."

The ad is part of an RNC campaign to discredit the critics of the war policy at a time when the president's poll numbers have sunk to record-low levels and a majority of Americans say they do not trust the president.


---
These repugs truly think that the American public are the stupidest people on the planet! They take a quote from BEFORE the war started to use it as defense for the war!!!! And, the stupidest person on the planet would still know that the president has access to information that the Senate does not have access to, which is the basis of the argument! AND, that is beside the point that the Senate never voted for war!
Of course, it has already been proven that the administration DID manipulate the intelligence and, of course, we now know that they did also "out" an undercover CIA agent simply as payback for Wilson calling bush on his lies - even though the administration admitted that they were wrong on that issue - after Wilson came out with the truth, naturally.
And do you think they could come up with a new tag phrase?! Jeez, considering the amount of "flip-flopping" that bush has done lately, you'd think that they would hesitate to use that worn-out phrase!

uhm...ok....guess that rocks!


Angus Young Tops Maxim List of Short Men
NEW YORK - Angus Young, lead singer-guitarist of AC/DC, tops Maxim's list of the "25 greatest short dudes of all time," standing tall at 5 feet 2 inches.

---
He beat Napolean AND Jon Stewart!

repug victory hurts America (again!)

House Passes Sweeping Budget Cut Bill
Measure Takes Aim at Many Programs in Bid to Curb Deficit
WASHINGTON (Nov. 18) - House Republicans sweated out a victory on a major budget cut bill in the wee hours Friday, salvaging a major pillar of their agenda despite divisions within the party and nervousness among moderates that the vote could cost them in next year's elections.

The bill, passed 217-215 after a 25-minute-long roll call, makes modest but politically painful cuts across an array of programs for the poor, students and farmers.
---
Democrats were unanimous in opposing the one-year appropriations bill.

The companion deficit-reduction bill also drew unanimous opposition from Democrats, who objected to both cuts in programs for the poor and the fact that the deficit-reduction bill would increase the deficit when combined with a tax slated for a vote later that would extend tax cuts on capital gains and dividend income due to expire at the end of 2008.

"Name just one religion in the world that preaches the value of asking the most of those who have the least and asking nothing of those who have the most," said Chet Edwards, D-Texas. "Sadly, that is what this budget does."


----
So yet again, the repugs take from the poor and give to the rich. F'k'ing scumbags!
Thankfully, the Dems are standing strong on the right side of this issue - that we should not be giving the rich tax cuts while we are taking away desperately needed programs for the poor.

more madness in Iraq

Friday Beagle Blogging

Don't even think about turning off the dog show!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Dems (and the country) win again!

Another big loss for the House GOP

The Democrats stuck together and defeated the GOP in the House on a key spending bill this afternoon. This is another major setback for Bush and the House leaders:

Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people.

The 224-209 vote against the $142.5 billion spending bill disrupted plans by Republican leaders to finish up work on this year's spending bills and cast doubt on whether they would have the votes to pass a major budget-cutting bill also on the day's agenda.

Democrats, unanimous in opposing the legislation, said it included the first cut in education funding in a decade and slashed spending for several health care programs. "It betrays our nation's values and its future," said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. "It is neither compassionate, conservative nor wise."

This is getting fun.


(Americablog)
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Wow! Are the Dems (and the sane, moderate republicans) going to actually start working for the country again!? Please, please!

Go Wilson!

Amb. Wilson, Valerie Plame's husband, calls on Wash Post to probe Woodward conflict of interest

Good for Wilson.

Joseph Wilson, the husband of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, called on Thursday for an inquiry by The Washington Post into the conduct of journalist Bob Woodward, who repeatedly criticized the leak investigation without disclosing his own involvement.

"It certainly gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. He was taking an advocacy position when he was a party to it," Wilson said....

Before publicly disclosing his involvement in the leak case on Wednesday, Woodward was a frequent critic of Fitzgerald's investigation in television and radio appearances. Woodward has described the case as laughable and Fitzgerald's behavior as "disgraceful" and has referred to him as "a junkyard dog."

One day before Libby was charged, Woodward said he saw no evidence of criminal intent.


(Americablog)
---
I hope that Wilson does start fighting back and start sueing some of these scumbags who are blatantly making up shit about him!

conservatives make crappy music!

Crooks and Liars posts a hilarious video of a ridiculous group of wrong-wingers who are trying to get on MTV with a terrible pro-bush song.
The video was done by Keith Olbermann and is well worth watching!
---
Everyone is talking about this, but check out the Talent Show for more lyrics and some of the band's propaganda.

Ohio vote fraud

The Ohio Vote

This is hot off the presses and guaranteed to raise a stink:

Online Journal.com reported that the GAO report stated that “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”


(Balloon Juice)

someone's been watching the South Park movie again!

Nuke Canada
Michelle Malkin managed to find someone even crazier than herself to guest-blog:

EVIL REGIMES SET TO TOPPLE?

Keep a sharp eye on fresh developments in both Canada and Cuba, two countries with rogue, corrupt and repressive regimes that don't know when to cut their losses and leave town.

We've really allowed this threat to the north gather for far too long. It's time to drop some acid and kick some Canuck ass.


(Blogoland)

more repug lies - cheney edition

Americablog documents the lies here and here.
They truly do rely on people believing them regardless of the facts. I guess it works on a percentage of the population.

more repug lies - racial edition

GOP Lt. Gov of Maryland changes his story on supposed racist criticism he received
(Americablog)
---
It's like that literally cannot tell the truth about anything at all! I guess that since they cannot tell the truth about their horrendous policies, they lie like crazy about the opposition and hope that enough of it sticks before they are proven to be liars. What a way to go through life!

more falling poll numbers

Bush's Approval Rating Falls Again, Poll Shows

President Bush's positive job rating continues to fall, touching another new low for his presidency, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.

Bush's current job approval rating stands at 34%, compared with a positive rating of 88% soon after 9/11, 50% at this time last year, and 40% in August.

And he's not alone. Cabinet members, Congressional leaders and both parties in Congress have also seen their ratings slip, with Democrats seeing one of the biggest dips in approval, the telephone poll of 1,011 U.S. adults shows.

Vice President Dick Cheney's approval ratings slipped to 30% this month from 35% in August, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's approval ratings dropped to 34% from 40% and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's approval ratings fell to 52% from 57%, according to the poll.


---
Bizarrely enough, the Dems overall numbers have dropped as well! I can only guess that bush is f'k'ing up so badly that people do not trust any politician any longer. Dems are desperately trying to repair the damage that he has caused, but I guess that despite everything, the people still believe the repug smear machine.

---

Daily Kos has more on the Dem poll numbers

one of the weirder recent headlines!

Police Search for Gary Glitter in Vietnam
HANOI, Vietnam - Authorities said Thursday they are searching for former British rock star Gary Glitter over his alleged relationship with a Vietnamese teenager.

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woodward has joined the dark side!

Woodward CIA Leak Admission May Aid Libby
WASHINGTON - Bob Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative contradicts a special prosecutor's contention that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was the first to make the disclosure to reporters.

Attorneys for the aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, described Wednesday's statement by the Washington Post's assistant managing editor as helpful for their defense, although Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury and the FBI, not with disclosing the CIA official's name.

"Hopefully, as information is obtained from reporters like Bob Woodward, the real facts will come out," lawyer Ted Wells said Wednesday.

Woodward, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, said he had not told his bosses until last month that he had learned about Valerie Plame's identity and her work at the CIA more than two years ago from a high-level Bush administration official.

When Woodward learned Plame's name, he told The Associated Press Wednesday, he was in the middle of finishing a book about the administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, and didn't want to be subpoenaed to testify.


---
Sounds like woodward has become a dick and a shill for the administration! He didn't bother to tell anyone until last month that he had this information, despite a 2 year investigation! Sounds about as reliable as the Fox employees that suddenly remember a month or so ago that 2 years ago Wilson told them that his wife was an undercover agent! What a bunch of bs!
And his reasoning is all-so-righteous! He didn't wanna be subpoenaed! Poor baby! But now he suddenly thinks that the "truth" is so important!
See Eschaton for LOTS more on woodward and his current unreliability.

taking lessons from America!

Iraqi Official: Torture Claims Exaggerated
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite interior minister accused critics Thursday of exaggerating reports of torture at a lockup seized by U.S. troops last weekend, saying inmates included both Shiites and Sunnis and only a handful showed signs of abuse.

---
Sounds pretty damn familiar, doesn't it?!
---
More from Americablog:
Iraq Deputy Interior Minister: We abuse all religious sects, so what's the problem?

I kid you not. Our puppets in Iraq announced today that their abuse of hundreds of their fellow countrymen isn't that big a deal because they're equal opportunity
torturers.

A top Interior Ministry official said Wednesday the 173 malnourished prisoners found by U.S. forces included all Iraqi sects, playing down allegations of a campaign by Shiite-led security forces to suppress Sunni Arabs ahead of next month's election.

The Shiite-led government sought to dampen Sunni outrage over revelations Tuesday by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that the detainees, some showing signs of torture, were found last weekend by U.S. troops at an Interior Ministry lockup in the capital. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the leading group in the insurgency.

But the deputy interior minister, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, said the detainees also included Shiites, Kurds and Turkomen. He gave no breakdown.

Yes, they abuse everyone, regardless of religious faith.

The new Iraq. Kind of like the old Iraq, just more car bombs.


---

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

what a difference context makes!

Fun With Context: Where Did the President Get Those Democratic Quotes?:
---
The Rude Pundit takes bush's Democratic quotes regarding Saddam and puts them in context to show that, yet once again, bush is flat-out lying about what they said. bush continues to quote people who were flatly and firmly against going to war and saying that they were pro-war. Talk about "rewriting history"!!

some people will believe anything!

York: Bush Officials Met With Chalabi Because ‘A Lot Still Believe’ Iraq Had WMD
How does serial fabricator Ahmad Chalabi manage to still open the most exclusive doors at the White House and the Pentagon? According to National Review’s Byron York, it’s because numerous Bush administration officials still believe (despite all the evidence) that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

From last night’s Hardball:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why is the Vice President and other administration officials like Rumsfeld seeming to reject the notion that this guy [Chalabi] is full of it?

BYRON YORK: A couple of reasons. One, he is now a high ranking Iraqi official.

MATTHEWS: Thanks to us.

YORK: We do recognize his position. And the other thing is, look, I think there are a lot of people in the administration who still believe that there were weapons of mass destruction somewhere that they were spirited away or in some way not found.

MATTHEWS: Who would — who do you know believes that?

YORK: I’m not going to say any brand names, but they do believe that — it was not possible that all of the intelligence was totally wrong.

We can’t figure out which is worse: the fact that Bush officials are still clinging to the myth of WMDs in Iraq, or that they’re still turning to Chalabi to help confirm their misconceptions.


(Think Progress)

the repugs continue to lie & obstruct despite their promises

Phase II Report Being Stonewalled, Senators Charge
Yesterday was the deadline for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to report its progress on Phase II of the investigation into the administration’s use of pre-war intelligence. The prognosis is not good, according to Senators Rockefeller, Levin and Feinstein. They have released a letter, and here is its main finding:

At this time, we are unable to provide an estimated completion date of the Phase II investigation given the substantial amount of work that remains to be done.

This assessment differs greatly from the one offered by Sen. Pat Roberts on November 1st: “It isn’t like it’s been delayed. As a matter of fact, it’s been ongoing. As a matter of fact, we have been doing our work on Phase 2.” In reality, as the letter makes clear at various points, the work of the committee has been stonewalled by an unwillingness on the part of conservatives to investigate the administration. The Senators report that the investigation has been unable to proceed due to the following issues:

(1) Chairman Roberts is unwilling to investigate the “Cabal” inside the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans because he is deferring to the administration to investigate itself.

(2) Roberts has been unwilling to allow for “additional interviews and documents” to conduct a thorough inquiry.

Also, it is important to note that while Bush continues to falsely claim that the Senate Intelligence Committee found the administration had not “manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war,” the Intel Committee Senators say just the opposite:

The Committee staff work on two other sections of the investigation is not finished: whether public statements were substantiated by intelligence information and the use of intelligence information provided by the Iraqi National Congress.

Copy of Rockefeller, Levin, and Feinstein letter here.


(Think Progress)

complaining that Dems aren't as corrupt as repugs!

Lobbyists grumble about lack of Dem love

This story, with lobbyists grumbling about lack of attention from House Democrats, is hilarious. Apparently, that's supposed to be a bad thing.
Sirota:
Why are House Democrats' efforts to distance themselves from K Street corporate lobbyists being portrayed as a problem?

That's the question I have after reading today's Hill Newspaper story which disgustingly portrays House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's independence from K Street as some sort of negative trait. The story says "lobbyists are grumbling that they have not been enjoying the same access to Pelosi as they have in the past." These lobbyists are used to lawmakers "run[ning] plans past K Street early to avoid any surprises or disagreements farther down the line." That's a euphemism for Corporate America expecting the people's representatives to make sure to get Big Business's stamp of approval on every potential piece of legislation.

Pelosi, of course, should be congratulated for her independence, especially since we're living through the Republicans' "Culture of Corruption" whereby K Street essentially dictates everything that our government does [...]

To be sure, this skewed value system in D.C. is being rejected by Democrats outside the beltway. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D), for instance, have both demanded serious lobbying reforms in their states. Similarly, lawmakers in the newly-Democratic Colorado legislature pushed a lobbying crackdown in the last legislative session. These folks understand the powerful potential of actually getting serious about cleaning up government, and pushing for true reform, even if it means going up against Big Money interests.

It's like those big dollar donors whining that Howard Dean isn't spending time kissing their butts. The notion that dissing lobbyists is somehow a negative is really a DC/beltway fiction.


(Daily Kos)

cheney, lies and big oil

Wash Post: Oil execs lied to Congress last week about secret Cheney meetings
No wonder they wouldn't testify under oath.And Cheney's office knew all week that the oil CEOs lied to Congress, and said nothing about it to anyone.
(Americablog)
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Now we know why they wouldn't testify under oath and the repugs let them get away with it - they didn't want anyone charged with perjury!
The amount of lies is simply staggering!

remember when we had a leader that was liked?!

Bill Clinton Calls Iraq 'Big Mistake'
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Nov. 16) - Former President Clinton told Arab students Wednesday the United States made a "big mistake" when it invaded Iraq, stoking the partisan debate back home over the war.

Clinton cited the lack of planning for what would happen after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

"Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done," Clinton told students at a forum at the American University of Dubai.

"It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country."

Clinton's remarks came when he was taking questions about the U.S. invasion, which began in 2003. His response drew cheers and a standing ovation at the end of the hour-long session.


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Damn, can anyone even imagine having a leader that is intelligent and isn't hated around the world?! It really wasn't that long ago! If almost brings me to tears to think of what these scumbag repugs have done to our country. I can only hope that the damage isn't irreparable.

wouldn't it be nice if we were really fighting the war on terror?

Official: Al-Qaida Boosts Afghan Activity
KABUL, Afghanistan - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in explosives, high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a resurgent terror campaign, the defense minister said Wednesday.

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Why are we in Iraq again?! Could you imagine if we had a leader that was actually fighting our enemies instead of creating new ones?!

but really, global warming is just a myth!

Deadly Effects of Future U.S. Heat Waves Predicted
In 2003, a summer heat wave killed between 22,000 and 35,000 people in five European countries. Temperatures soared to 104 degrees Fahrenheit in Paris, and London recorded its first triple-digit Fahrenheit temperature in history.

If a similar heat wave struck the United States, the results would be disastrous, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at what would happen if a comparable extreme-heat event settled on five major U.S. cities, learning that not only would the country experience massive blackouts, but thousands of people could die. In New York alone, the number of deaths would increase to nearly 3,000 in a single summer.


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If this administration didn't fear and despise science, maybe something would be done about this! When are we going to get someone sane in power again? Hopefully, before the end of the human race!

more chaos, anarchy,death and torture in Iraq

Sunnis Demand Probe of Torture Allegations
BAGHDAD, Iraq's main Sunni Arab political party on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.

In fighting in western Iraq, five U.S. Marines were killed and 11 wounded while searching a house Wednesday, according to an embedded New York Times reporter. The U.S. military does not normally report deaths until 24 hours after they happen.

In Baghdad, Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was now clear that majority Shiites in the U.S.-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

"Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is taking place," he said, reading an official party statement. The party "calls on the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment."

In a related development, at least four Iraqi policemen were treated at Yarmouk Hospital for injuries they said were suffered in beatings by men who identified themselves as Interior Ministry commandos after they were stopped Monday on patrol in the Dora neighborhood of southwest Baghdad.
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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed that more than 173 Interior Ministry prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces at a Baghdad lockup Sunday.
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In continuing insurgent violence near Baghdad, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing, the U.S. command said. A U.S. Marine was also killed Tuesday by a car bomb near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, another statement said.

That brought to at least 2,074 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure does not include The New York Times' report of five dead Marines.


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Once again, how is this better than when Saddam was in power?
Will we ever have a plan and will there ever be peace in this country again?