A Little Help, Please

Hey, if you see a crate full of M16s, could you, you know, help a dude out or something and not get all huffy?

Already smarting from a high-profile misplacement of nuclear missile components, the accidental burning of radioactive uranium and a friendly fire incident at the Utah Test and Training Range, Hill Air Force Base officials on Wednesday acknowledged that they were searching for a case of missing M-16 assault rifles.

Base personnel said security was out in full force Tuesday as the officials attempted to locate the shipping case, which contained a dozen of the military's standard small-caliber weapon.

"It's possible that the rifles fell off a government vehicle while being moved from one location on base to another," 75th Air Base Wing commander Linda Medler said in a statement.

She called the recovery of the missing weapons "our top priority."

Hill officials were silent on further details, including which unit on base was responsible for the loss, citing a "continuing investigation."

Officials asked for assistance from the public, saying that anyone with information about the loss should contact base security or their local law enforcement agency.

This is going to do wonders for tourism

Two years ago, a Virginia girl met an Italian gentleman in a supermarket in Rome and a romance blossomed. He was prosperous and in a position to make frequent visits to see her, and so he did. His visits were always without incidence until he landed at Dulles last month, and was denied entry.

Normally, persons denied entry are put on the next plane home, but this gentleman was not so fortunate. He was held in a county jail for ten days, and even intervention by Senator John Warner could not gain him his freedom. The case of Domenico Salerno might be extreme, but it highlights a very real danger that travelers to this country face.

Each year, thousands of would-be visitors from 27 so-called visa waiver countries are turned away when they present their passports, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, who said she could not discuss any individual case. In the last seven months, 3,300 people have been rejected and more than 8 million admitted, she said.

Though citizens of those nations do not need visas to enter the United States for as long as 90 days, their admission is up to the discretion of border agents. There are more than 60 grounds for finding someone inadmissible, including a hunch that the person plans to work or immigrate, or evidence of an overstay, however brief, on an earlier visit.

While those turned away are generally sent home on the next flight, “there are occasional circumstances which require further detention to review their cases,” Ms. De Cima said. And because such “arriving aliens” are not considered to be in the United States at all, even if they are in custody, they have none of the legal rights that even illegal immigrants can claim. [emphasis added]

Government officials have acknowledged that intensified security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has sometimes led to the heavy-handed treatment of foreigners caught in a bureaucratic tangle or paperwork errors. But despite encouraging officers to resolve such cases quickly, excesses continue to come to light.

One recent case involved an Icelandic woman who was refused entry at Kennedy Airport because, a dozen years earlier, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, was deported Dec. 10 after what she described as 24 hours of interrogation and humiliating treatment — locked in a cell and barred from making phone calls. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a letter of regret.

In questioning Mr. Salerno, customs agents seemed to suspect that he intended to work here. Ms. Cooper, a copy editor for an educational publication, said she was in the airport lobby when an agent called to ask about Mr. Salerno’s income and why he visited so often.

The youngest son of a prosperous contractor in Calabria, Mr. Salerno helps out in his brother’s law firm in Rome and is able to visit the United States several times a year. Neighbors said he joined volunteers in refurbishing the Wessynton recreation center in 2006, then became one of its summer attractions, kicking a soccer ball with the kids and playing tennis with the adults.

“He just is a very open, fun and helpful guy,” said Christopher M. Porter, a resident of Wessynton.

Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Another agent eventually told her to go home because Mr. Salerno was being detained as an asylum-seeker.

“The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” she recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought. “Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”

Twelve hours later, when Mr. Salerno was granted a five-minute phone call, he called Ms. Cooper and denied saying anything of the kind. Instead, he said, the asylum story seemed to be retaliation for his insisting on speaking to his embassy.

After being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was taken to the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va., where he ended up in a barracks with 75 other men, including asylum-seekers who told him they had been waiting a year.

Ten days after he landed in Washington, Mr. Salerno was still incarcerated, despite efforts by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and two former immigration prosecutors hired by the Coopers.

“He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Luis Paoli, a lawyer hired by the Coopers, said there was no limit on detention while waiting for an asylum interview. But even after officials agreed the asylum issue had been a mistake, Mr. Salerno was not released.

“Now an innocent European, who has never broken any laws, committed any crimes, or overstayed his visa, is being held in a county jail,” Ms. Cooper wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times last Wednesday, prompting a reporter’s inquiries.

Less than 24 hours after the New York Times started probing the case, immigration officials intervened and Mr. Salerno was released from custody and expelled from the country. Ms. Cooper was with him when he departed for Rome, and is considering moving to Italy to be with him there and spare him the possibility of such degrading and humiliating treatment at the hands of overzealous nitwits with too much power and too little accountability.

Talk about your Catch-22's...

Yet another shining example of the idiocy of our federal government with these chuckleheads at the helm.

The Immigration Service allows people who fought in those developing-world, U.S. funded guerrilla wars on our behalf - to enter the country and seek refugee status or a ruling on asylum. But then, the same agency turns around and denies them permanent resident status because fighting guerrilla wars is defined as terrorism:

Most of the applications involve people linked to groups that U.S. immigration and counterterrorism laws have defined as "undesignated terrorist organizations" because they took armed action against a foreign government. The groups include U.S. allies that fought against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Taliban government in Afghanistan....

[Deputy director Jonathan] Scharfen said that USCIS recognized the illogic of admitting immigrants under one provision of the law and then labeling them terrorists for green card purposes, calling it a "very good question." At the same time, he said, the restrictions are "written so that the definition of a terrorist organization and activity is very, very broad." Even groups that have been "closely associated with the United States," such as Montagnard tribesmen who fought with U.S. forces in Vietnam, "fall under the definitions."

Do I even have to say it? I mean it's so cliche, but at the same time so true...One man's freedom fighter is another mans terrorist, it just depends on who you ask. Fortunately, the Immigration Service announced yesterday that they will be suspending the policy while it is reviewed, and a more "logical, common-sense" set of rules can be developed. The future of thousands of people hangs in the balance.

But wait...there's more...even if Immigration decides on a fair, common-sense set of rules, we have a couple of particularly egregious federal laws that codify the stupid in the federal statures.

The Patriot Act and Real ID Act both specifically spell out that opposing the government - any government - is enough to bar permanent residency.

The catalyst for yesterday's decision, Scharfen and other officials said, was a Washington Post article last weekend about a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq. Saman Kareem Ahmad, 38, arrived in the United States under a special visa program for those assisting the nation's war effort, after his life was threatened in Iraq. He had received commendations from the secretary of the Navy and then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top U.S. commander in Iraq, as well as strong support from Marine and Army officers with whom he had worked. Ahmad was later granted political asylum, but his application for permanent residence was denied last month on grounds he had once served with Kurdish military forces that fought against Hussein.

The USCIS letter denying Ahmad's petition said that the Kurdistan Democratic Party forces fit the definition of terrorist, based on information it had gleaned from public Web sites, because KDP forces "conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein's regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom."

The KDP, a U.S. ally, is now part of the elected Iraqi government, and Ahmad teaches Arabic language and culture at the Marine Corps base in Quantico and other military facilities, working with Marines who are about to deploy to Iraq. Although the letter said the denial could not be appealed, Scharfen said yesterday that Ahmad's case is now "under review" and should be resolved "in a matter of days."

Yes - the US was fighting Hussein, and Ahmed was fighting Hussein. He helped us fight Hussein. He was admitted to the country because he fought Hussein. And then, he was denied status...because he fought Hussein. WTF???

I'm not sure what it will take to fix this - or even if it can be fixed so long as aWol is in office, but this demands justice. For everyone, not just the occasional Saman Kareem Ahmad who has enough juice to get a hearing.

The Dumbing Down of America

I can't tell if this is for real, or for fun. I suspect it's just "for money" because there's no other way to explain why ridiculous bullshit like this would appear on The Huffington Post:



Since when does anyone actually believe in Astrology? I mean, WTF? I thought this was left in the dust when the clock rolled over the year 2000. I thought this inane, ridiculous shit went the way of other superstitions and money-making schemes. This is the stuff of Nancy Reagan, terrified housewives on Valium and quackery. And it gets prominent display on a website? And the people who perpetrate this shit actually get paid for it?

Many of you know celebrity astrologer Susan Miller as the uncannily accurate predictor of your fate. You're in good company: She's got A-listers like Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom paying her to do their charts and gets 15 million page views a month on her Website, Astrologyzone. She's asked to analyze the stars for actors, musicians, and starlets all the time -- but when we got the chance to talk with her, we wanted to know what the future holds for a group of guys even nearer and dearer to our heart. Guys like embattled IAC CEO Barry Diller, Blackstone CEO Steven Schwarzman, ousted Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince, and Merrill Lynch newbie John Thain. After all, these people have much more power to wreak havoc in our lives if the stars choose not to shine on them. After the jump, read Miller's uncannily prescient analysis (it would be more precise if she knew the times of day they were born) and learn what warnings these four financial powerhouses need to heed if they want to come out of 2008 on top.

I can understand a twenty-something piece of Hollywood trash believing in something best understood by looking at the world through the helter-skelter eyeballs of a torch-wielding mob, but would the CEO of Merrill Lynch really give a shit whether some twit could make up some lameass horoscope? Don't you think he'd probably be fired before lunch if he actually paid attention? Can't any of these people think clearly and rationally?

Apparently not.

Well, I just deleted "The Huffington Post" from my list of favorites. Not out of pique or anything like that--I'm deleting it because it is overpopulated with stories about twits. Celebrities. And for shit like "Huffpollstrology."

When Religion Collides with Reason

Yes, this is true:

POCZERNIN, Poland - This wind-swept village is bracing for an invasion of demons, thanks to a priest who believes he can defeat Satan.

The Rev. Andrzej Trojanowski, a soft-spoken Pole, plans to build a "spiritual oasis" that will serve as Europe's only center dedicated to performing exorcisms. With the blessing of the local Catholic archbishop and theological support from the Vatican, the center will aid a growing number of Poles possessed by evil forces or the devil himself, he said.

"This is my task, this is my purpose -- I want to help these people," said Trojanowski, who has worked as an exorcist for four years. "There is a group of people who cannot get relief through any other practices and who need peace."

About 70 priests serve as trained exorcists in Poland, about double the number of five years ago. An estimated 300 exorcists are active in Italy. Foremost among them: the Rev. Gabriele Amorth, 82, who performs exorcisms daily in Rome and is dean of Europe's corps of demon-battling priests.

"People don't pray anymore, they don't go to church, they don't go to confession. The devil has an easy time of it," Amorth said in an interview. "There's a lot more devil worship, people interested in satanic things and seances, and less in Jesus."

Amorth and other priests said the resurgence in exorcisms has been encouraged by the Vatican, which in 1999 formally revised and upheld the rite for the first time in almost 400 years.

Although a Vatican official denied reports in December of a campaign to train more exorcists, supporters said informal efforts began under Pope John Paul II -- himself an occasional demon chaser -- and have accelerated under Pope Benedict XVI. A Catholic university in Rome began offering courses in exorcism in 2005 and has drawn students from around the globe.

One of the recruits is the Rev. Wieslaw Jankowski, a priest with the Institute for Studies on the Family, a counseling center outside Warsaw. He said priests at the institute realized they needed an exorcist on staff after encountering an increase in people plagued by evil.

Typical cases, he said, include people who turn away from the church and embrace New Age therapies, alternative religions or the occult. Internet addicts and yoga devotees are also at risk, he said.

"This is a service which is sorely needed," said Jankowski, who holds a doctorate in spiritual theology. "The number of people who need help is intensifying right now."

Honestly, it's hard to figure out where the Catholicism stops and the Scientology starts when you read things like this. Essentially, there is now no difference between one wacky cult and the other wacky cult, since they're both exempt from taxes and have millions of followers. How can you sneer at one when the other sneers back at you? But if you're going to tolerate religion, you have to tolerate what goes along with it. I don't pretend to be smart enough to understand it, I just help out when I can and pass along my own experiences with...the Devil.

To date, I have none.

Has anyone considered that, perhaps--just perhaps--the Devil has better things to do?

The Lawless Insanity of Mike Huckabee

Some snark always works when you're out of ideas, and besides--why attack a Democrat when attacking a Republican is so much more fun and appropriate?

From the campaign trail in Iowa:

On the Republican side, two former governors, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, are vying to finish first in Iowa.

Amid murmurs of "Amen!" at a pizza parlor in Sergeant Bluff, Huckabee urged hundreds: "Don't go alone. Take people with you. Fill up your car. Rent a van. Hijack your church's bus, whatever you've got to do to get people to the caucus who are going to vote for me."

Yes, that's candidate Mike Huckabee, encouraging supporters to HIJACK the buses used by their church in order to support him.

Hijack? Did a candidate actually say that? In a day and age when, if you or I said something like that in line to get on a plane, we'd be tasered and thrown in the back of a van and sent to the county jail?

Irregardless, that little snippet of frantic campaigning stood out to me. A candidate should clearly not be telling people to commit felony vehicle theft and commit a serious act of felony mischief and "hijack" a church bus. There's a word for all of this. It's called "judgement." And, clearly, that sumbitch doesn't have any "judgement."

Case in point, his hiring of Ed Rollins:

Rollins says it had been his idea to show the ad [the controversial attack ad that Huckabee pulled, only to show it to reporters and "hope" they would rebroadcast it for free]to reporters, the logic being that it was already in the hands of television stations. As for the gathering, Rollins says, "Now would I have loved to cancel the press conference? You betcha. Would I have loved to pull the signs down? Yes. But this decision was made about 11, 11:10 in the morning." The news conference was scheduled for noon.

Riding in the elevator afterward, Rollins says, he told Huckabee, " 'Governor, this is what it means to be president. The president gets lots of advice and makes a lot of tough decisions . . . But you made the decision.' "

"I admire the fact he's trying to change the environment," Rollins says. "What I have to do is make sure that my anger with a guy like Romney, whose teeth I want to knock out, doesn't get in the way of my thought process."

Felonies, felonies, felonies. That's what you'll get when you pick someone like Huckabee.

Stop With the Endless Bullshit

There are so many "conflicting" stories that are swirling around the assassination yesterday of Benazir Bhutto that it is little wonder that Pakistan is experiencing widespread unrest.

Just a sampling:

-Benazir Bhutto died from hitting her car's sunroof; no bullet or shrapnel found in her, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry says.
[breaking news headline, CNN.com]

-Bhutto was killed after a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally, police and witnesses said. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, but Dr. Mussadiq Khan, a surgeon who treated her, said Friday that she died from shrapnel that hit her on the right side of the skull.
Bhutto had no heart beat or pulse when she arrived at the hospital and doctors failed to resuscitate her, he said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said he saw the medical report, and it, too, said she died from a shrapnel wound and was not shot. "No bullet was found in her body," he said.
Soomro, the prime minister, told the Cabinet on Friday that Bhutto's husband did not allow an autopsy, according to a government statement.
[From the Huffington Post]

-It was initially reported that Bhutto, 54, was killed by the bullets of an assassin who blew himself up after firing the shots following a public rally in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
But government officials said Friday that a medical report confirmed that Bhutto was killed by shrapnel from the blast -- from which at least 28 more people died and at least 100 were wounded.
The shrapnel hit the right side of her skull, Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said. The bomber did shoot at Bhutto with a pistol, but she had no bullet injury.
[News story, CNN.com]

-Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose funeral was held today, died from injuries she suffered when hitting her vehicle's sunroof, it has been claimed.
Interior Ministry spokesman said no bullets or shrapnel were found in her body.
It had previously been announced Ms Bhutto died as a result of being hit in the neck and chest by shots fired by an assassin.
The Ministry has also blamed al Qaeda and the Taliban for the 54-year-old's death..
It said its agents had intercepted an al Qaeda phone call about the killing.
It says it also has evidence the international terror group is trying to "destabilise" Pakistan.
[Breaking News from Sky News]

You're going to have to excuse me if I don't believe a Goddamned thing about what happened--it's just not possible for so many people to get something like this so completely and utterly wrong without there being, at least at some level, a behind-the-scenes conspiracy being run by incompetents who can't get their stories straight.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall has also picked up on this, and is asking for medical people to weigh in. Given that Bhutto was quickly buried without autopsy (for religious reasons, most likely), I don't know if it is possible to figure anything out from the scant evidence that exists.

I do know one thing--I'm not buying any of the bullshit being spewed by the Pakistani government, and I doubt anyone is ever going to be able to figure out what really happened.

UPDATE 2: Bhutto associate calls out Pakistani regime--

Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Miss Bhutto had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof's lever as she tried to shelter inside the car.

"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Mr Cheema said.

But the explanation was ridiculed by Farooq Naik, Miss Bhutto's top lawyer and a senior official in her Pakistan People's Party.

"It is baseless. It is a pack of lies," he said.

"Two bullets hit her, one in the abdomen and one in the head. It was a serious security lapse."

How about this scenario--Bhutto was pronounced dead at the hospital because she had been killed in the ambulance on the way there by a severe blow to the head...?

Just Want to Hang My Head in Shame

Hey, here's a little Christmas Cheer for you:

ONTARIO, Calif., Dec 21 (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.

The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression.

All I can say is, what the fuck???

I'm sorry I can't be more eloquent than that. I mean, really. What the fuck?!? Will big daddy Bush open up the US Government cheese reserve and allow the local National Guard Armory to be used as a distribution site for the surplus goods?

So Much For Goodwill Towards All...

The Story of Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lilliendahl, an Icelandic Woman who figured she could come to this country for a visit during the holiday season and enjoy the best of what America has to offer:

* * *

During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned. Now I am beginning to try to understand all this, rest and review the events which began as innocently as possible.

Last Sunday I and a few other girls began our trip to New York. We were going to shop and enjoy the Christmas spirit. We made ourselves comfortable on first class, drank white wine and looked forward to go shopping, eat good food and enjoy life. When we landed at JFK airport the traditional clearance process began.

We were screened and went on to passport control. As I waited for them to finish examining my passport I heard an official say that there was something which needed to be looked at more closely and I was directed to the work station of Homeland Security. There I was told that according to their records I had overstayed my visa by 3 weeks in 1995. For this reason I would not be admitted to the country and would be sent home on the next flight. I looked at the official in disbelief and told him that I had in fact visited New York after the trip in 1995 without encountering any difficulties. A detailed interrogation session ensued.

[...]

I was exhausted, tired and hungry. I didn't understand the officials' conduct, for they were treating me like a very dangerous criminal. Soon thereafter I was removed from the cubicle and two armed guards placed me up against a wall. A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody. I have seldom felt so bad, so humiliated and all because I had taken a longer vacation than allowed under the law.

They would not tell me where they were taking me. The trip took close to one hour and although I couldn't see clearly outside the vehicle I knew that we had crossed over into New Jersey. We ended up in front of a jail. I could hardly believe that this was happening. Was I really about to be jailed? I was led inside in the chains and there yet another interrogation session ensued. I was fingerprinted once again and photographed. I was made to undergo a medical examination, I was searched and then I was placed in a jail cell. I was asked absurd questions such as: When did you have your last period? What do you believe in? Have you ever tried to commit suicide?

I was completely exhausted, tired and cold. Fourteen hours after I had landed I had something to eat and drink for the first time. I was given porridge and bread. But it did not help much. I was afraid and the attitude of all who handled me was abysmal to say the least. They did not speak to me as much as snap at me. Once again I asked to make a telephone call and this time the answer was positive. I was relieved but the relief was short-lived. For the telephone was setup for collect calls only and it was not possible to make overseas calls. The jailguard held my cell phone in his hand. I explained to him that I could not make a call from the jail telephone and asked to be allowed to make one call from my own phone. That was out of the question. I spent the next 9 hours in a small, dirty cell. The only thing in there was a narrow steel board which extended out from the wall, a sink and toilet. I wish I never experience again in my life the feeling of confinement and helplessness which I experienced there.

I was hugely relieved when, at last, I was told that I was to be taken to the airport, that is to say until I was again handcuffed and chained.Then I could take no more and broke down and cried. I begged them at least to leave out the leg chains but my request was ignored. When we arrived at the airport, another jail guard took pity on me and removed the leg chains. Even so I was led through a full airport terminal handcuffed and escorted by armed men. I felt terrible. On seeing this, people must think that there goes a very dangerous criminal...

* * *

This is a person--and no, it doesn't matter what color she is or how much she weighs or whether she's young or old--who came to this country, presented their passport at the airport, and was caught in the so-called "Homeland Security" dragnet that is supposed to stop people from coming to this country who should not be coming to this country. Her crime was that she committed a minor offense twelve years ago that amounted to what, exactly? She overstayed her visa, but left the country. Did she commit any felonies here? More importantly, did she shoot and kill anyone with a firearm? Use explosives? Take partial flight lessons? Try to attend a Republican political rally wearing an Obama t-shirt?

It doesn't matter what she looks like--and I post her picture here for a reason. If YOU don't look as good as she does, just wait til you see what they do to you when they think YOU'RE a threat. And that's what is so startling about putting a face with the crime. If you hear that some Eurotrash was accosted at the airport and chucked out of the country, you can tut-tut and go about your business. But when you see what that person looks like and read what was done to them, it's a whole different ball of wax. And nothing strikes me as sensationalized about this, which is why I tend to buy what she is saying. Nothing about it strikes me as being out of line for spending time in a big city lockup or jail, does it?

Anyway, I think the American people need to read about this type of story this Christmas. YOUR government is waging an all out battle of ridiculous proportions with tens of thousands of incompetent, misguided bureaucrats to keep people with Irish surnames from getting through airports, making sure no one takes the wrong kind of fluid on a plane, and jailing people for nothing.

There is, and there was in this case, NOTHING that would have prevented this government from seizing that person and putting that person in Guantanamo. Nothing. No Habeus Corpus, no right to a lawyer, nothing in the way of accountability. They could have rammed things into this person and taken lurid videos of it and no one would have ever found out about it.

As the political season ramps up, I try to be optimistic. Then I read stories like this and all I'm trying to do now is check my E-mail once in a while and just avoid the news. I mean, what the fuck?

What the fuck is this country coming to?

Victor Davis Hanson - Lancing the Boil

VDH wrote a column called "Lancing the Boil" in 2005. It's important to note that there's nothing wrong with making predictions and for someone to go around taking what a pundit says and having a laugh at their expense because they turned out to be wrong is kind of a childish exercise.

EXCEPT when that pundit is just, well, completely and utterly wrong and should have his pundit privileges taken away from him for being so goddamned ridiculous in public. Just when you think VDH has done enough damage at NRO, you can always find Derbyshire. A little Derbyshire goes a long way, though. And I definitely do not have the requisite fourteen hours per day to parse the insanity of a John Derbyshire and expose it to the light of reason.

I won't do the whole thing--no one has that kind of free time--but here's a few classic examples from "Lancing the Boil" that are good for a laugh. Click the link and go find others if you are so inclined. That's what comments are for.

VDH:

--For some time, a large number of Americans have lived in an alternate universe where everything is supposedly going to hell. If you get up in the morning to read the New York Times or Washington Post, watch John Murtha or Howard Dean on the morning talk shows, listen to National Public Radio at noon, and go to bed reading Newsweek it surely seems that the administration is incommunicado (cf. “the bubble”), the war is lost (“unwinnable”), the Great Depression is back (“jobless recovery”), and America about as popular as Nazi Germany abroad (“alone and isolated”).

Now, VDH probably couldn't have forseen the collapse of the ownership society, the devaluation of the dollar, and the beginning of a long march towards seeing entire neighborhoods abandoned because the homes are built on debt and lies, but he should have forseen that if we continued with our policies in Iraq, we would see a decline in our stature. He knew in 2005 that we were torturing people, and when you go down that path, you lose your soul.

--But in the real adult world, the economy is red-hot, not mired in joblessness or relegating millions to poverty. Unemployment is low, so are interest rates. Growth is high, as is consumer spending and confidence. Our Katrina was hardly as lethal as the Tsunami or Pakistani earthquake. Thousands of Arabs are not rioting in Dearborn. American elderly don’t roast and die in the thousands in their apartments as was true in France. Nor do American cities, like some in China, lose their entire water supply to a toxic spill. Americans did not just vote to reject their own Constitution as in some European countries.

Notice how he looked at Katrina in 2005 and predicted that, because several hundred thousand people weren't killed, it wouldn't be considered a real "disaster." Well, the incompetence that was apparent in 2005 has reared its ugly head, and he should have forseen that it is still an issue. It's just not an issue anyone talks about in the media. American cities may not be losing their water to chemical spills, but Atlanta might lose its drinking water because the governor would rather pray for rain than actually change public policy (you know, raise taxes to fix the crumbling infrastructure? heard of doing that?). And interest rates are low because the Fed has enacted a policy of rewarding bad behavior. They simply can't go much lower. You can't have interest rates at zero.

--The military isn’t broken. Unlike after Vietnam when the Russians, Iranians, Cambodians, and Nicaraguans all soon tried to press their luck at our expense, most of our adversaries don’t believe the U.S. military is losing in Iraq, much less that it is wise now to take it on. Instead, the general impression is that our veteran and battle-hardened forces are even more lethal than was true of the 1990s — and engaging successfully in an almost impossible war.

Our veteran and battle-hardened forces are desperate for any kind of relief, and the most pressing relief they need is support from a medical support infrastructure that isn't meeting their basic needs. Their suicide rates are skyrocketing and are being hidden from view, covered up, and barely reported upon. When an Army wins a war, the injured and sick need to be taken care of just the same as when they lose or when they're caught in a perpetual meat grinder. Generally, homelessness, poverty, mental illness and suicides don't go through the roof when someone is winning and doing a good job of running things. Every time someone tries to get them relief--more funding, equal time at home for time deployed, etc., the Republican Party fucks over the Democratic Party in order to win a trivial political point.

On a side note, VDH says that the military isn't broken. Well, certain people know that it is, and they're taking advantage of it to line their pockets.

One egregious example, Borochoff said, is Help Hospitalized Veterans, which was founded in 1971 by Roger Chapin, a veteran of the Army Finance Corps and a San Diego real estate developer. The charity, which provides therapeutic arts and crafts kits to hospitalized veterans, reported income of $71.3 million last year and spent about one-third of that money on charitable work, the philanthropy institute said.

In its tax filings, Help Hospitalized Veterans reported paying more than $4 million to direct-mail fundraising consultants. The group also has run television advertisements featuring actor Sam Waterston, game show host Pat Sajak and other celebrities.

Chapin, 75, the charity's president, received $426,434 in salary and benefits in the past fiscal year, according to a filing with the Internal Revenue Service. His wife, Elizabeth, 73, received $113,623 in salary and benefits as "newsletter editor," the Post's review of the tax filing showed.

Generally, scams that prey on the generosity of the American people come and go with the times. It's scary how many are able to use the lies surrounding the Iraq war to make a nice profit. And it looks like they've turned over a barrel full of rats by looking at the charities that are taking advantage of the Iraq war. So many of them get "F's" that there isn't time to look at all of them.

Anyway, back to VDH:

--Nor are we creating new hordes of terrorists in Iraq — as if a young male Middle Eastern fundamentalist first hates the United States only on news that it is in Iraq crafting a new Marshall Plan of $87 billion and offering a long-oppressed people democracy after taking out Saddam Hussein. Even al Jazeera cannot turn truth into untruth forever.

Stop. You're embarrassing yourself. The war in Iraq has created scads of new terrorists and that "Marshall Plan" you're talking about has been pissed away by the most corrupt government in the world. Iraq's ministries are more corrupt than anything we've ever seen before. They're setting new standards for blatant thievery and corruption.

--Like it or not, wars are usually won or lost when one side feels its losses are too high to continue. We have suffered terribly in losing 2,100 dead in Iraq; a vastly smaller enemy in contrast may have experienced tens of thousands of terrorists killed, and is finding its safe havens and money drying up. Panic about Iraq abounds in both the American media and the periodic fatwas of Dr. Zawahiri — but not in the U. S. government or armed forces.

VDH didn't know anything about asymmetrical warfare in 2005, and it shows. It doesn't matter what the body count is. It never matters how many of them you kill versus how many of yours gets killed. It's a discussion about political solutions versus military solutions, and we're over four years down the road, and trying to save the egg by hitting it as hard as we can with the hammer, and it's not working any better today than it was in 2005.

I'll skip the rest--it's just boilerplate anyway--for this kicker:

--Donald Rumsfeld’s supposed gaffe of evoking “Old Europe” is trumped tenfold and almost daily by slurs that depict Abu Ghraib as worse than Saddam, Guantanamo as the work of Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot, Bush as the world’s greatest terrorist, the effort to democratize Iraq as unwinnable, and American troops terrorizing Iraqi women and children.

"Old Europe" sure looks a hell of a lot smarter than we do. Are they bogged down in the war? Of course not. The British and the Poles are abandoning the Iraqi theater as quickly as they can. Those aren't "slurs" that are being used to describe what is actually going on in Iraq. Unfortunately, those are the proceedings from various courts martial, and they become all too familiar each day. As in, more unnecessary bombings from the air, more unnecessary shootings from skittish guards who are forced to drive politicians and VIPS everywhere for dog and pony shows.

What The Hell Is Really Going On HERE?

While no one was awake or paying attention, the White House went to court:

FROM MSNBC: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order.

But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that the Secret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.

Abramoff? We're still dealing with issues related to Abramoff? Talk about a story with legs. One would have thought that Jack would be sitting in his cell, having washed his hands of this and finished telling everything he knew.

But no, it gets better:

'Sensitive Security Records'
The Justice Department, citing a Cold War-era court ruling, declared that the contents of the "Sensitive Security Records" cannot be publicly revealed even though they could show whether Abramoff made more visits to the White House than those already acknowledged.

"The simple act of doing so ... would reveal sensitive information about the methods used by the Secret Service to carry out its protective function," the Justice Department argued.

"This is an extraordinary development and it raises the specter that there were additional contacts with President Bush or other high White House officials that have yet to be disclosed," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that filed the suit. "We've alleged that the government has committed misconduct in this litigation and frankly this is more fuel for that fire."

A response by White House spokesman Trey Bohn referred to the Secret Service, saying, "We have nothing to add to the USSS. position as stated in the court filing."

Unadulterated bullshit, that's what this is. The White House is on the cusp of getting caught doing something ELSE that betrays the Constitution, ignores the rule of law, and does nothing but feed money into the Republican political apparatus.

Your Republican Party at work.

Will Abramoff STILL be a relevant issue on 2008? It's starting to look like he will be.

"I don't know him," Bush said at the presidential news conference in January 2006. "I've never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy."

After Bush's comments, Abramoff wrote an e-mail to the national editor of Washingtonian magazine saying that Bush had seen him "in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows."

Another lie, another example of pure corruption, another stain on a record full of stains.

What else is there to be outraged about? What else have they done in the last 24 hours. I'm sooooooo glad dignity and honor have been restored to the White House. I'm so glad the adults have been in charge for the last seven years. You know, this country has been so very well taken care of by having two former oil men in charge and by having such professional corporate types running things.

Yeah, it's hard to find the appropriate level of outrage. I'm just being half-heartedly sarcastic because I just can't believe it...I can't.

Wow.

The Shell-Game is Afoot

At the rate things are going, we may well see a doubling of combat troops in Iraq by Christmas, regardless of what General Petraeus reports in September.

By stepping up deployments and extending tours, the number of combat troops will nearly double, from 52,500 to 98,000 - and total troops in the theater of operations will rise to over 200,000. That is more troops than have been deployed to the war in Iraq since the invasion in March of 2003.

"It doesn't surprise me that they're not talking about it," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a former U.S. commander of NATO troops in Bosnia, referring to the Bush administration. "I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this."

And just in time for Congress to roll over and tell him the lube won't be necessary.



[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose & The Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus]

Way to support the troops, Mr. Resident

[Profanity ahead. Family friendly version cross-posted to

the blog you should be reading, Watching Those We Chose]

Please, Republicans, never again tell me how you are the party that supports the military. If you say it to my face, I might do you an injury.

This is just too fuckin’ much. The aWol son-of-a-bitch in the oval is rejecting a 3.5% pay raise for the military. This comes on the heels of last years slap-in-the-face when the ground-pounders got 2.2% while the General staff got an 8% increase.

WTF???

They get their tours extended, they get lousy medical care, they get blown up, and then they get blown off, and screwed out of any benefits at all if it’s at all possible (with a probability approaching 1 if they have the misfortune of needing any services and they are stationed at Ft. Carson. Where the hell is that Inspector General I’ve been asking for?)

This is from today’s print edition of Army Times:

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 16, 2007 17:34:13 EDT

Troops don’t need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.

The Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan. 1, 2008, enough to match last year’s average pay increase in the private sector. The House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-sector pay raises.

The slightly bigger military raises are intended to reduce the gap between military and civilian pay that stands at about 3.9 percent today. Under the bill, HR 1585, the pay gap would be reduced to 1.4 percent after the Jan. 1, 2012, pay increase.

Bush budget officials said the administration “strongly opposes” both the 3.5 percent raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling extra pay increases “unnecessary.”

Can we stop with the rhetoric and dick-measuring please? Zip up. The contest is over, and the Resident lost. He talked a good game there for a minute. Problem is, he never backs anything up, and actually works against the best interests of the American military and the American people.

Fuck! I am so god damned far beyond "had it" with all this. And I am really sick of being told I don't support the troops because I want this bullshit fucking vanity war to end. I think the people who question my patriotism for speaking up...have it exactly backwards.

And I am going to say so. Regularly.

Cowboy the fuck up and

ITMFA!!!