Oh boo fuckin' hoo!

The GOP can go piss and moan about GENERAL Wesley Clark calling it like it is all they want so long as it is out of my earshot.

Try it around me and get a face full of claws.

They opened that can of worms with this stunning display of respect for the sacrifice of those who serve. We know exactly what they think - service is only to be respected if a republican offers himself up, Democrats are just phony soldiers.

Well, Fuck them and their faux outrage.

When the GOP condoned this and didn't condemn it - on the floor of their convention - they lost all right to pretend to be outraged when that big, fat chicken came home to roost - and now it's crapping all over the car parked underneath the tree. I say "so fucking what?"

The Chickenhawks made their fucking featherbed. Let them lie in it.

~~BG

Hey, can I join in? Because there's no shortage of wingnuts out there who opened this can of worms up a long time ago...well, not so long ago.



And, well, what's one Veteran criticizing another Veteran worth to ya?

Let's not forget what old Bob Dole had to say:

Aug. 25, 2004 Yesterday, Bob Dole joined Republican critics who claim that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry doesn't deserve the Purple Hearts he won in Vietnam. Dole said, "three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds." But is bleeding even necessary? How do you earn a Purple Heart?

Yeah, I think the wingnuts can tamp down on their faux outrage here...

--WS

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

At least 42 57 people have died today, making Easter Sunday one of the most violent days in Iraq in several months.

The warlike tenor of the day was set early, when Katyusha rockets started raining down on the heavily fortified Green Zone. No one was killed, but still in all, it's a rude awakening on a Sunday morning. A second barrage was volleyed about four hours later. Personnel were warned to "duck and cover" and stay away from windows as mortars and rockets were lobbed toward the international zone throughout the day. At least five people were killed by Katyushas that fell short of the Green Zone.

In the Shiite city of Hillah, an American base was barraged by mortar fire, but American forces did not respond to a request for comment about the attack. Although there was no comment, there were also no reports of injuries or deaths.

Iraqi soldiers in Mosul were not so lucky, and did not escape unscathed. A suicide bomber penetrated the security perimeter of an Iraqi army base in a tanker truck and detonated himself in a courtyard. The blast killed thirteen and injured forty-two more. Iraqi and U.S. forces have been engaged in operations in Mosul to root out what U.S. commanders are calling al Qaeda's last urban stronghold in Iraq.

Elsewhere in the north, a roadside bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers in Kirkuk, which has seen growing unrest and sectarian strife in recent weeks.

Back in Baghdad, at least seven shoppers were killed when gunmen traveling in three cars opened fire on a marketplace in the Zaafariniya neighborhood. At least sixteen more people were wounded. The gunmen fled the scene, they were neither killed nor captured.

Elsewhere, in the Shula district of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed five people lined up to purchase gasoline.

In Samara, a suicide bomber plowed into the home of a tribal leader and killed three people.

Yet on every single Sunday chat-show, there was some damned republican jackass or another telling us how it was all going swimmingly, the Surge™ has been a spectacular success, and we have victory in our crosshairs.

Ah well, I guess it's okay on balance, since lying was one of the sins their Jesus died on the cross that they might be forgiven for. Right?

How audacious can this mendacious asshole get?

KKKarl Rove was on Fox News Sunday this morning, whipping a new fear pony in an effort to bolster support for perpetual occupation of Iraq - If we leave, oil prices will skyrocket.

If we were to give up Iraq with the third largest oil reserves in the world to the control of an Al Qaida regime or to the control of Iran, don’t you think $200 a barrel oil would have a cost to the American economy?

Seriously. He said it with a straight face, too. Never mind that he has been stunningly wrong on pretty much everything except the most effective methods of election rigging, we should believe him now!

Of course, he is still peddling the "al Qaeda could take over" meme, too. Even though everyone with two functioning neurons to rub together realizes that the notion is ridiculous. Iraq is 70% Shi'ite, and al Qaeda is a Sunni fundamentalist group. Just as there was no al Qaeda in Iraq before the US invasion, there will be no al Qaeda in Iraq after the US withdraws. They will either be slaughtered by Iraqis or they will flee for their lives.

And besides all that - the American presence in Iraq has had the exact opposite effect on oil prices. Instead of listening to the bullshit he spews, lets take a look at what the numbers say:

Now that Americans are (finally!) catching on to the terrorism fearmongering as a cause for continuing the occupation of Iraq, the GOP has been forced to come up with a new bogeyman to flog in support of perpetual war. It's in our economic interest to stay the course!

Never mind that we undoubtedly could have made great strides toward weening ourselves off the fossil fuels tit if we had spent all those billions on a Manhattan Project type alternative energy development program.

Fortunately, I think the whole "nothing to offer but fear itself" bidness is about played out. People are slowly shaking it off, pulling their No Fear t-shirts out of the bottom drawer, and telling the bastards to piss off.

Someone get a copy of the memo to Karl, because he obviously didn't read it the first time it was issued - Fear doesn't sell any more. No matter how you package it.

About that surge™ and it's so-called "success"

In one way, and one way only, the Surge™ has been a stellar success. It has allowed the miserable failure posing as a president to buy a year and hand his unholy clusterfuck off to the next president. But as the sand slips through the hourglass, he is furiously getting down to business setting up the chess board so it will be an utter albatross around the neck of the next president.

Wednesday the White House confirmed that aWol's budget, to be revealed next month, won't fully fund the war in Iraq for the coming year. Immediately upon the new Congress being seated and the next President taking office, major cost questions will have to be confronted. And the criminal enterprise passing itself off as a presidency will skate out of town leaving the troops in the field unfunded. Should McCain prevail in securing the nomination and gaining the presidency (fat chance, I know) leaving the troops unfunded and in harms way would be a final "Fuck You" from Bush to McCain. Remember, McCain is making perpetual occupation a centerpiece of his campaign.

But not only is aWol not funding it - he is strong-arming the Iraqi puppet government, insisting it give the United States broad authority not only to conduct combat operations, but also to guarantee that mercenaries like the thugs from Blackwater be granted legal protections that would continue to shield them from Iraqi law. The current international mandate will expire before the end of the year.

This emerging American negotiating position faces a potential buzz saw of opposition from Iraq, with its fragmented Parliament, weak central government and deep sensitivities about being seen as a dependent state, according to these officials.

At the same time, the administration faces opposition from Democrats at home, who warn that the agreements that the White House seeks would bind the next president by locking in Mr. Bush’s policies and a long-term military presence.

The American negotiating position for a formal military-to-military relationship, one that would replace the current United Nations mandate, is laid out in a draft proposal that was described by White House, Pentagon, State Department and military officials on ground rules of anonymity. It also includes less controversial demands that American troops be immune from Iraqi prosecution, and that they maintain the power to detain Iraqi prisoners.

Basically, what the bastard is trying to do is put in place a security arrangement - which in normal times with a law-abiding president would require a treaty and senate ratification. But these are not normal times and this is not a law abiding president. The reality is, he could not get the approval of 2/3 of the Senate, so he is bullheadedly going on his own merry way and the rest of the country be damned. Representative Bill Delahunt (D, Mass) pulled no punches:

“Where have we ever had an agreement to defend a foreign country from external attack and internal attack that was not a treaty?” he said Wednesday at a hearing of a foreign affairs subcommittee held to review the matter. “This could very well implicate our military forces in a full-blown civil war in Iraq. If a commitment of this magnitude does not rise to the level of a treaty, then it is difficult to imagine what could.”

Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, who raised concerns in a letter to the White House in December, said the negotiations were an unprecedented step toward making an agreement on status of forces without the overarching security guarantees like those provided in the NATO treaty. He added that the Democratic majority would seek to block any agreements with the Iraqis, unless the administration was clear about its ultimate intentions in Iraq.

Senator Jim Webb was outspoken about his disgust with aWol's ploy. “There’s no exit strategy, because the administration doesn’t have one,” Senator Webb said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “By entering this agreement, they avoid a debate and they validate their unspoken strategy.”

And then there are the eighteen benchmarks set forth to measure the success of the "New Way Forward" that Resident Evil™ laid out when he decided to "surge" troops back to previous levels. A whopping three of the eighteen have been met. Two of eight governmental benchmarks and one of eight security benchmarks have been met. None of the economic goals have been realized.

Remember that the ostensible purpose for the troop buildup was to give the Iraqi government "breathing space" to achieve political reconciliation. A year later, and the surge by necessity drawing down, progress has been minimal, and what has been achieved is not sustainable. Iraqis have not made the necessary compromises to achieve reconciliation. The only thing they seem able to agree on is that vacations are a grand notion, so they have adjourned parliament and spent fully two of the last twelve months on vacation.

They will never step up and deal with the hellish reality the idiot Bush has created for them, so long as Americans occupy the battlespace. Not only is there no military solution, the presence of our military precludes the political solution from occurring.

The only way the political leadership in Iraq is going to step up is for the United States to set a date certain for withdrawal of American forces. It is the only way to prompt the recalcitrant Iraqi leaders to make the compromises necessary for political reconciliation. As American forces redeploy over the remainder of 2008, the best hope is for a "diplomatic surge" to take place among Iraq and all of the neighboring states. But the current administration is not likely to be amenable to such an approach - remember that Syria and Iran are bordering states, and the Bush administration considers them "bad actors."

When one puts the pieces together, it is easy to see that aWol's decision to go forward with the AEI's Surge™ strategy, the only success the shell game (with live shells!) has realized is running out the clock so the next president will be the one who has to clean up his murderous mess.

Heckuva job, there George, you mendacious drooling cretin. Heckuva job.

It's enough to piss off Pollyanna herself!

On the day that House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on legislation that will codify in law the prohibition of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation torture methods when interrogating suspected terrorists; CIA director Michael Hayden came clean and admitted that the CIA had destroyed video evidence of "harsh interrogation techniques" employed in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah (yet another top lieutenant of ObL - but aren't they all?) and another unnamed suspected high-ranking al Qa'eda member. (Zubaydah is one of three suspects who has been identified as having been waterboarded. Waterboarding, in case you have been under a rock for the last two years, is not just a "dunk in the water" as that bastard Cheney so glibly put it. It is controlled drowning.)

From the Washington Post:

All the tapes were destroyed in November 2005 on the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the CIA's director of clandestine operations, officials said. The destruction came after the Justice Department had told a federal judge in the case of al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui that the CIA did not possess videotapes of a specific set of interrogations sought by his attorneys. A CIA spokesman said yesterday that the request would not have covered the destroyed tapes.

The tapes also were not provided to the Sept. 11 commission, the independent panel that investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which demanded a wide array of material and relied heavily on classified interrogation transcripts in piecing together its narrative of events.

The legislation hammered out on Thursday will, in essence, make the Army Field Manual the last word on acceptable interrogation methods.

It also sets up a battle-royal between congress and the candy-assed, draft-dodgin' coward, Chimpy McWarPorn.

Of course, he is threatening to bravely veto the bill.

The spin coming off the decision to destroy the tapes is almost enough to create it's own gravitational field. The spooks doing the torturing are identifiable, and would be criminally liable. Period.

The spin is that the tapes present a security risk. "Beyond their lack of intelligence value -- as the interrogation sessions had already been exhaustively detailed in written channels -- and the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them, the tapes posed a security risk," Hayden said. "Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the program, exposing them to and their families to retaliation from al-Qaeda and it sympathizers."

This, children, is what is known in the common vernacular as a bullshit story.

The CIA is in the business of keeping secrets, and of protecting their employees and the families of their employees (well, unless you are Valerie Plame Wilson, then you are Fair Game, but I digress.) They could most certainly secure a couple of videos. What they were scared of was the long arm of the law as the earth erodes beneath the feet of the feckless, and the fifth horseman (Accountability) appeared on the horizon. The tapes were destroyed because they likely contained evidence that could land former GOP congressman and CIA chief Porter Goss in the slammer, and Donald Rumsfeld might be in the next cell.

I am left with but one thought as I mark off another day of life under the inept, corrupt and floundering Bush regime...thank god these bastards are incompetent to their very core. You only think we are screwed now - If they had the savvy to pull off a two-car parade, then we would really know from screwed.

Can we impeach Cheney now?

So - the administration has known for a year that all sixteen intelligence agencies have determined that Iran halted their nuclear weapons program in 2003, but that little bit of inconvenient truth did not deter Cheney from not only advocating for another illegal war, one that would possibly (probably) use nuclear weapons, but he didn't stop there - he also attempted to stifle the report and tried to get the parts they didn't agree with stricken.

Remember how, a couple of months ago, the meme changed? Resident Evil said that the Iranians couldn't be allowed to have the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon. In October, aWol gave a dire warning about WW III if Iran obtained a nuclear weapon, and the warmongering old prick vowed "serious consequences" if the Iranians didn't (re)abandon their nuclear program. (It's all very cartoonish, in a tragic way. Remember your Looney Tunes? Bugs: "Batten down the hatches!" Buster:"I did! I did batten 'em down!" Bugs: "Well batten 'em down again. We'll teach those hatches!")

Gareth Porter pointed out a month ago that the NIE was being held up. (h/t Kevin Drum)

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.

But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. The White House has now apparently decided to release the unsatisfactory draft NIE, but without making its key findings public.

Cheney got his knickers in a twist over more than the nuclear part of the NIE. He was also furious that there was no conclusive evidence that the Iranians were meddling in Iraq and arming Shiite militias.

So, congresscritters, especially you, Nancy Pelosi, read the god-damned NIE for yourselves, and then riddle me this:

Is it enough yet? Can we please make with impeaching the warmongering, pathological old prick? We can't risk another year with this psychotic madman at the levers.

Six hours later, and I'm still in shock

He just stood in front of the VFW and did a backflip with a 180 and stuck the landing - and nobody noticed! I actually think he freakin' believes his own bullshit!

After rejecting parallels with Vietnam, he is suddenly stripping to his skivvies and ready to climb into the sack with those very comparisons, albeit with a kinky twist. Now it seems he thinks that we should have stayed in Vietnam - you remember Vietnam - that was the war that he, draft-dodging, war-mongering, chickenhawk that he is - refused to fight, the draft he dodged - you remember Vietnam. I certainly do, and so do my aunt and uncle who lost their oldest son....And Veterans of that conflict embarrassed me today by clapping for that sonofabitch who so spectacularly failed the test back then.

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

And the idiots who voted for this clown called Kerry a flip-flopper. None of you should EVER call a Democrat a flip-flopper in my presence again. Not with this fucking political gymnast representin' y'all.

Well - I am not the only one who was stunned speechless by the "say anything, what do I have to lose?" resident's speech. Noted UCLA historian Robert Dallek, who has written extensively about the conflict in Iraq as compared to Vietnam, accused Bush of playing fast and loose with history.

"It just boggles my mind, the distortions I feel are perpetrated here by the president," he said in a telephone interview.

"We were in Vietnam for 10 years. We dropped more bombs on Vietnam than we did in all of World War II in every theater. We lost 58,700 American lives, the second-greatest loss of lives in a foreign conflict. And we couldn't work our will," he said.

"What is Bush suggesting? That we didn't fight hard enough, stay long enough? That's nonsense. It's a distortion," he continued. "We've been in Iraq longer than we fought in World War II. It's a disaster, and this is a political attempt to lay the blame for the disaster on his opponents. But the disaster is the consequence of going in, not getting out."

So - will the mainstream media give him a[nother] pass, or will they finally call him on his delusional bullshit? What will you bet he gets a pass? But I think I have maybe figured out why...it is that he is just so fucking wrong, wronger than anyone has ever been, so wrong that in the history of incompetence and failure he gets a special category...That there is just an air of "Holy shit. Where do I even start???"

Well - enough already with the feeling overwhelmed. Pick a point and start making sense, and don't stop.

Abu G Went Up the Hill to Carry Bushie's Water

Alberto went back up the Hill today and once more faced a stern and scowling Senate Judiciary Committee. By the time it was all said and done, Senator Leahy was hinting at perjury charges and Senator Specter raised the specter of a special prosecutor.

Noting aWol’s unprecedented invocation of executive privilege, Specter observed that “the president’s word stands and the constitutional authority and responsibility for congressional oversight is gone.” He went on to voice that one of the alternatives he has been kicking around is the appointment of a special prosecutor. “The attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor,” said Specter. “You’re recused, but somebody else could do it. You’re recused because you know all of the principals. You have a conflict of interest. But doesn’t the president have an identical conflict of interest?”

The AG did not disappoint those of us who have come to expect the very worst from his pathetic, pathological appearances.

He disputed charges that morale in the Justice Department has plummeted under his leadership, saying that morale can best be measured by "output." The department's output in the last six months has been "outstanding," he asserted.

"I've decided to stay and fix the problems," he said in response to a question.

Senator Leahy was decidedly not buying what Gonzo was selling:

But Gonzales came under withering criticism from the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), and from its top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.)

"The attorney general has lost the confidence of the Congress and the American people," Leahy said. He said the administration "has squandered our trust" and told Gonzales bluntly, "I don't trust you."

And Senator Specter seemed to blast the hapless Gonzo with both barrels:

Specter said there was "evidence of low morale" at the Justice Department and blasted what he described as Gonzales's lack of "personal credibility." He called the department "dysfunctional." Specter raised the prospect of calling for a special prosecutor to press a potential contempt-of-Congress citation over the White House's refusal to provide certain documents and sworn testimony regarding the firing of nine federal prosecutors last year. He denounced the Bush administration's stand that it would prohibit the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from pursuing a contempt citation.

"Now if that forecloses a determination of whether executive privilege has been properly imposed, then the president in that manner can stymie congressional oversight by simply saying there is executive privilege," Specter said. That would spell the end of congressional oversight and take the controversy "to a really incredible level," he said.

"Now we've been exploring some alternatives," Specter said, noting that "the attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor." He told Gonzales, "You're recused, but somebody else could do it."

Specter added, "We also have the alternative of convening the Senate and having a contempt citation and trying it in the Senate."

Gonzo’s pledge to stay on and roll up his sleeves and get to work setting the department back right is simply staggering. WTF???

There is no confidence in the Attorney General from the rank-and-file in the Justice Department. They are despondent and have zero confidence in their compromised, beleaguered “leader.”

Senior staff has resigned in unprecedented numbers. Candidates refuse employment with the department. At least half of the top jobs at Main Justice are unfilled and others are staffed with temps.

Legislative priorities are not being addressed, including revisions to the intelligence laws and anti-crime proposals. "It takes away from normal work," one recently departed Justice official said about the persistent controversy over Gonzales's role in the firings and the use of improper political considerations in hiring career employees. "It obviously has a serious impact," said the former official, who would discuss the department's internal workings only if not identified.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called on Gonzales to resign, but he has steadfastly refused, taking the slings and arrows of public and congressional outrage for his boss. He staunchly, stubbornly hangs on, knowing that his boss will never fire the firewall that stands between him and criminal investigations and prosecutions. The Senate has no confidence in him, and the vote indicates. No, it wasn’t sixty – but it wasn’t less than fifty, either. Remember that.

Let’s face it – without Gonzales, a competent attorney general would have to be installed. The Democratic-controlled Congress would not confirm a lackey like Gonzales. (Imagine Jack Danforth as AG…Oh, reverie…Not only would those Main Justice jobs get snapped up by well-qualified candidates, there would be resignations in the West Wing sufficient to stop the administration dead in its tracks.)

So make with the impeachment of this hapless, sad little man who feebly feigns a desire to do his job, now that it’s all come undone and he is exposed for what he is: a not-to-bright, ideologically driven, inept and compromised failure.

Let me finish with an installment of “What My Lawyer Said”

“This is precisely why I have been a raving lunatic for months … about the necessity of initiating an impeachment investigation, even if it is only as to Gonzales to start. Running out the clock in order to protect our majorities, gain some seats and install a Democratic administration does not cut it. That is akin to doing some public service announcements and hoping crime disappears in your community. The facts and extent of harm must be fleshed out in a formal investigation, the public must be allowed to understand the full nature and extent of what has occurred, and those responsible must be held to account. If not, the ugly beast continues to raise it’s ugly head with impunity in the future.”

Well said, Counselor.

Where I come from, they call lying to a senate committee “Perjury”

Two years ago, when AG Abu G went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on behalf of not letting the Partiot Apostasy Act sunset, he looked the Senators in the eye and lied. Blatantly and flat-out, he chose to not tell the truth to the Senators impaneled before him. He assured the lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzo insisted.

Except – that was a lie, and he knew it when he told it. Less than a week before (even his notoriously feeble memory should go back six days) the FBI had sent a copy of a report to Gonzalez, and that report confirmed that agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to possess. That report was one of at least a half dozen that detailed abuses of the Patriot Act that had been received in the three months before Gonzalez appeared before the panel to lie his ass off. The reports he conveniently ignored detailed instances of “unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.”

Additionally, the reports detailed the abuse and over-use of the specious anti-terror tool, the national security letter (NSL). This was well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a scathing report this past March.

You might recall, this was all happening about the time they were touting him as a possible successor to the Supreme Court – which given what we know now and they knew then is especially sickening. Jolly Roberts and Scalito are bad enough – can you imagine a Supreme Court with Bush’s Chihuahua enjoying a lifetime appointment? I’m reaching for a valium at the mere thought…

So – have you had enough yet? It is time to bring these feckless traitors to heel.

To that end…

It's time to

ITMFA!!!

Some free advice to Lindsey Graham, et al - saying it doesn't make it so

Three Blind Lice

There seems to be a tremendous disconnect between the die-hard war supporters and reality.

On the one hand, you have Lindsey Graham drinking deep from the Raspberry Red and stepping up to the mike to declare that things in Iraq are definitely looking up. “The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al-Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al-Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”

It’s hard to tell, the way objectives shift and goalposts get moved, but I seem to recall that the purpose of the escalation was to secure Baghdad, and on that point the numbers do not lie. Violence in Baghdad is not appreciably down. In fact, 2% is a mere blip, and certainly not statistically significant. Between 20 June and 5 July, 472 civilians died in attacks in Baghdad. This represents a whopping 2 percent drop in civilian casualties from the previous 16-day period, according to a tally collected by the Associated Press from daily reports by Iraqi security and hospital officials.”

Just a brief perusal of the major news outlets would indicate that Graham is either delusional at best, or flat-out lying at worst. I’m going with the lying until proof is submitted to the contrary.

From Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs and mortar attacks killed 50 people in Iraq, police and local officials said on Saturday, while the U.S. military said six of its soldiers had been killed in the past two days.

One British soldier was also killed in the south.

The fresh violence follows a lull in Iraq, where tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents in a bid to halt a slide into sectarian civil war.

And the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, July 7 -- Suicide bombings across Iraq killed nearly 150 and injured scores, including a massive truck assault in a northern Shiite village that ripped through a crowded market, officials said Saturday.

The violence came as the U.S. military on Saturday reported the deaths of eight American soldiers over the past two days, all killed in combat or by roadside bombs in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar. A British soldier was reported killed in fighting in southern Iraq.

The worst carnage unfolded in the Shiite Turkoman village of Amarly, 50 miles south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber rammed a truck laden with explosives into the central market, which is near a police station, officials said. The attack killed at least 115 people and wounded at least 210, according to district and hospital officials, adding that they expected the death toll to rise.

And finally, from the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, July 7 — Suicide bombers killed at least 122 people in two attacks north of Baghdad, officials said Saturday, and the strikes raised questions about whether insurgents who had fled intense military operations in Baghdad and Diyala are turning to more vulnerable targets nearby.

In the worst blast, a truck loaded with explosives demolished dozens of fragile clay-built houses and shops on Saturday in Amerli, a village of poor Shiite Turkmen about 15 miles south of Tuz Khurmato. The Iraqi police said the blast killed 1o5 people and wounded 210 more.

The American military also reported Saturday the deaths of nine soldiers and marines on Thursday and Friday, eight of them during combat or from roadside bomb attacks.

Witnesses in Amerli described a horrific scene of people running while on fire, and others shrieking for rescuers to pull them free from beneath scores of buildings that were turned into rubble by the blast.

Perhaps Lindsey will do us all a favor and next time he visits Iraq and conduct one of his patented pep-rallies outside the Green Zone, in the middle of Baghdad – without two Apache gunships, three Blackhawks, an entire company of U.S. soldiers surrounding him – and enough body armor to pass himself off as a body double for RoboCop.

If he did that, I might, for a couple of minutes, stop bitching about the stupidity of these dog-and-pony-shows when potentates visit the “troops in the field” to “get the real story” – oh please! You can take my first-hand account on this – any “troop in the field” who might be inclined to say something the potentates don’t want to hear, doesn’t get anywhere near the potentates. These trips are a waste of taxpayer money, and for what just one of these junkets costs, at least ten teachers could be trained for placement in inner city schools, and a couple of doctors for inner-city hospitals, too.

And I can tell you something else first-hand…when the word comes down from on high that a dignitary is coming, the cursing is voluble and eye-rolling is blatant...even from the commanders making the announcement, in a lot of cases. I can only imagine the reaction of troops in a war zone.

What is it going to take to get impeachment back on the table?

Let's see - he has turned our nation into a laughing stock on the world stage, broken the military, started an illegal war, and bankrupted the treasury. Then there is the contempt for congress, the politicization of the justice department, and now he has audaciously flouted the rule of law and excused treason against our nation.


If I were Judge Walton, I would resign from the bench tomorrow (Bush will never successfully appoint anyone else to anything ever) and make a big god-damned deal out of why I was stepping down. Why do we need judges, or juries, or due process, anyway? Just let the decider decide everyones fate, based on their politics and their bank balance.

This is an affront to decency, to say the least. Was it enough?

This is what Nancy Pelosi had to say in the wake of Benedict Bush’s commutation of the traitor Libby:

"The President's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people. The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable."

So cowgirl up, Nancy. Locate your ovaries (or borrow mine) and push back. Impeach the mother fucker already. He has scuttled the ship of state and must be held accountable.

In closing, I refer Madam Speaker to the words of James Madison.

"If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty..."

The Biggest Traitor of them All

So, one treasonous mother fucker commuted the sentence of the other treasonous mother fucker.

I'm not surprised.

I am, however, in mourning for my nation and the rule of law we used to live under.

America, the grand experiment, is over.

It's time to

ITMFA!!!

Fred Fielding Goes Long

Okay, buckle up and grab the dashboard. The route of Republican logic (snort at that oxymoron) we are about to traverse is as twisted a path as any Missouri two-lane blacktop.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding has sent along a letter ‘splainin’ why the White House is refusing to let Sara Taylor and Harriet Meyers testify if there is any record of the exchange.

Writes F²

"Obviously, there has been a lot of discussion back and forth in that regard. The position that the president took and conveyed to the committees and the offer of compromise did not include transcripts. The accommodation was designed to provide information, not to appear to be having testimony without having testimony. One of the concomitants of testimony, of course, is transcripts.

"As far as the debate goes, often cited is that a transcript is not wanted because otherwise there would be a perjury trap. And, candidly, as everyone has discussed, misleading Congress is misleading Congress, whether it's under oath or not. And so a transcript may be convenient, but there's no intention to try to avoid telling the truth." (emphasis added)

Perjury trap? Are they planning to lie?

I guess if you are a part of this freakshow, it’s better to be assumed a liar than to open your mouth to prove it.

Sara Taylor was overheard explaining to a friend at lunch that “orange makes me look sallow.”

For Dick Lugar, Party Trumps Principle

This is why I put a 24-hour-hold on reporting anything that comes close to looking encouraging if it comes from a party apparatchik Republican. They always backpedal and retract and spin and explain what they really meant to say – probably after a visit from Karl’s boyz, but that’s just speculation…

Yesterday evening, Think Progress posted the following:

In a major speech on the Senate floor, Lugar said that “victory” in Iraq as defined by President Bush is now “almost impossible.” The current course of the war “has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond,” he said.

Lugar warned that “persisting indefinitely” with Bush’s escalation strategy “will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term.” He specifically rejected claims that withdrawing U.S. forces will increase instability. Downsizing the U.S. military presence in Iraq would “strengthen our position in the Middle East, and reduce the prospect of terrorism, regional war, and other calamities,” Lugar said.

And today, MSNBC tells us that I was smart to hold off on praising him, because he intends to take the sniveling cowards way out, and has no intention of backing up his bold rhetoric.

Lugar won't switch vote
However, [Lugar spokesman Andy] Fisher said the speech does not mean Lugar would switch his vote on the war or embrace Democratic measures setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.

In January, Lugar voted against a resolution opposing the troop buildup, contending that the nonbinding measure would have no practical effect. In spring, he voted against a Democratic bill that would have triggered troop withdrawals by Oct. 1 with the goal of completing the pull out in six months.

Next month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to force votes on several anti-war proposals as amendments to a 2008 defense policy bill. Members will decide whether to cut off money for combat, demand troop withdrawals start in four months, restrict the length of combat tours and rescind Congress' 2002 authorization of Iraqi invasion.

Expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass controversial legislation, the proposals are intended to increase pressure on Bush and play up to voters frustrated with the war.

…the proposals are intended to increase pressure on Bush and play up to voters frustrated with the war. Fisher says that like it’s a bad thing! In reality it is the only thing. Change ain’t gonna happen until this president is forced to deal with the reality that is “dealing with” ~30 Americans a week – and the only way he is going to be forced into facing facts is if members of his own party insist that he do so.

Dick Lugar should hang his head in shame. And he should also attend the funeral of every Indianan who falls and explain to the grieving family members why he puts party and politics above the lives of their loved ones.

[Crossposted at WTWC & OOIBC]

Does this mean we can forget about that “Unitary Executive” nonsense they’ve been peddling?

From the “you can’t have it both ways” chronicles, we have this dandy little paradox – the president claims the right to do as he damn well pleases because he is a "Unitary Executive" in a time of war…and then yesterday, he turns around and claims he is not a member of the Executive Branch?

Good thing surrealism is my cup of fur. Otherwise I might set my locks alight.

I just can’t square how an executive order, signed by the executive, covering all the executive agencies somehow doesn’t apply to the executive and vice-executive. WTF???

We are talking about vital National Security information, and frankly, these weasels have a lousy record of protecting and safeguarding that information (Scooter “Treason” Libby, anyone?) In fact, they have a track record of cherry-picking intelligence and they used their phony intel to start an illegal war that has displaced 4 million Iraqi’s, hastened or directly caused the death of up to a million more, indebted the American treasury to the Chines to the tune of 4 trillion dollars, killed over 3500 American GI’s and wounded ~30,000 more.

That these feckless fools would even try to peddle this bullshit reasoning makes me livid. Who the fuck do they even think they are?

This is not a monarchy. We as a nation eschewed that notion in 1776. And our founding fathers lie spinning in their graves.

From the LA Times:

"We don't dispute that the ISOO has a different opinion. But let's be very clear: This executive order was issued by the president, and he knows what his intentions were," Fratto said. "He is in compliance with his executive order." (Bloggers aside: Where is the signing statement that clarifies the resident’s intent?)

Fratto conceded that the lengthy directive, technically an amendment to an existing executive order, did not specifically exempt the president's or vice president's offices. Instead, it refers to "agencies" as being subject to the requirements, which Fratto said did not include the two executive offices. "It does take a little bit of inference," Fratto said.

Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' government secrecy project, disputed the White House explanation of the executive order.

He noted that the order defines "agency" as any executive agency, military department and "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" — which, he said, includes Bush's and Cheney's offices.

Frankly, I don’t trust these ideologues, morons and warmongers with information even with oversight. And the experts on national security are as non-plussed as I am about the White House assertion that the executive branch is exempt from executive oversight that has to be inferred from an executive order.

[These claims of exemption] fit what they saw as a pattern in the administration of avoiding accountability, even on matters of national security.

"If the president and the vice president don't take their own rules seriously, who else should?" said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington that lobbies for open government.

"If they get a blank check, it's a recipe for disaster. I can't think of a quicker way to break down the credibility of the entire security-classification system."

Blanton noted that the White House had acknowledged that a substantial number of in-house e-mails had disappeared in recent years, at a time when investigators wanted to review them for possible evidence of inappropriate leaks of classified information.

"If there are all these great safeguards in place, then where are the e-mails?" Blanton asked.

These offenses are deadly serious folks. They undermine the Social Contract, practically to the point of nullification.

Bush and Cheney are two men with a handful of craven minions doing their bidding. We are a nation of 300 million, and we are represented by 535 Senators and Representatives, whose job it is to protect our interests and the Social Contract.

If they take this latest exhibit of mendacity lying down – we need 535 new Representatives and Senators.

Welcome to America, 2.0

[Crossposted from WTWC]

“I wasn’t angry about what he said but disappointed that he would say that to me,” Taguba said. “I’d been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia.”

Sometimes you have to hang back. You become aware of something, and you go charging hell-bent-for-leather into the topic. And by god – you are preachin’ the gospel. That is what I was doing when I first read the Seymour Hersch article on Saturday evening.

And then it hit me. The reason I was so fucking mad is because what I was writing about is the invalidation of my entire life, spent in service to the Constitution of this nation.

That is the net effect of what is revealed in Seymour Hersch’s article in The New Yorker. Everything my life has stood for up to now is null and void. I’ve suspected for quite some time, but now I know for sure. I feel stateless. You might as well revoke my god-damned citizenship, because I am a woman without a country.

The perfidy of the Bush administration, well documented and so vast as to be overwhelming, has undermined the Honor Code and the confidence of – and in – the officer corps.

At this point, I don’t have to rehash the article. Everyone has read it who is going to. But I am going to excerpt the passage that made me livid and enraged me:

When Taguba urged one lieutenant general to look at the photographs, he rebuffed him, saying, “I don’t want to get involved by looking, because what do you do with that information, once you know what they show?”

(Let me answer that for you, General. You stand the fuck up for the ideals that your uniform represent, and you stand up for what is right because you are a god damned General, and by definition a leader of men, and when you act like a punk you are a disgrace. You stand the fuck up and you aren’t too chickenshit to even look at some god-damned photographs.)

Here is how I see it. We have destroyed the military and trashed the Honor Code, and as far as I can tell, the chain of command is as quaint as the Geneva Conventions, the Great Writ, and the Constitutional guarantee of Due Process (rooted in the Great Writ “Set forth in the Meadow Runnyemead” – all of which have been sacrificed on the altar of the “Global War On Terror™”

Rumsfeld lied to Congress – under oath. He needs to face the consequences of that action. Plausible deniability my ass. Common sense needs to trump weasel-words in this instance.

If these bastards get away with this – then the American experiment is over. It is that simple, and that much is at stake.

Nancy and Harry Write a Letter

And I say “So what? A letter? You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

A letter?

So the fuck what?

Nancy, Harry, man the fuck up. Put your names on something besides a wimpy-assed letter and send that to the dipshit-in-chief.

He is laughing at you, and I am getting pissed. Everyone knows he won't even look at it. You are just trying to stroke the constituents. It ain't gonna work.

If you want to have an impact, do something besides write a god-damned letter. Now, if Nancy put her name on Articles of Impeachment, that would have some heft. But a letter? Please. Get over yourselves with that notion.

The letter was “sent to the Resident” but it wasn’t for him. It was for Democrats and other voters who supported Democratic candidates in the last election. It’s to appease the rabble, not influence the stubborn sumbitch in the oval office.

Give me a fucking break…I don’t know about you, but all this Kabuki exercise did was piss off this Democrat.

Sure would be nice to have Valerie Plame on the job about now...

MOSCOW - Russia test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, the Russian Space Forces said.

The missile, called the RS-24, had not yet reached its designated target, a space forces spokesman said, declining to give further information.

Russian news reports said the missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces.

Yes – You read that right. This morning the Russians tested a new MRV. For the uninitiated a MRV is a Multiple Reentry Vehicle. In layman's terms, one missile goes up, and multiple guided warheads fall back to earth. MRV’s are prominent players in my cold-war-steeped nightmares. Remember this bit about MRV's: some warheads can be set to “air burst” and kill a lot of people, and others can be set to “ground burst” for the purpose of destroying infrastructure. With a MRV, you don’t have to choose! Do both!

So much for that view of Pooty-Poot’s soul that the Useless Tool™ famously took a gander at.

Seriously – this is really bad, people. Bad to the point that my husband, upon hearing the news, poured a shot of whiskey in his coffee this morning, and he doesn’t drink. The country that could actually represent a clear and present danger to the American way of life is now in the catbirds seat, and we are suckin’ hind tit.

We are buried under a mountain of Chinese debt, accrued to finance a vanity war that was launched on lies. A war that didn't need to be fought against a third rate dictator which was run by a second rate wannabe dictator who doesn't have a single first-rate person serving in his government. How serious are these people? They had to go find a war czar. They've ignored the Iraq study group--now they're paying attention to it. They stand in front of row after row of uniformed soldiers because that's all they have left--they have to stand in front of people who face punishment if they criticize the government or speak out. They are a captive audience, forced to obey. Tell me again that we don't have an authoritarian in charge. Tell me again that Rudy Guiliani doesn't give these people their throbbing war woody because he's exactly the type of authoritarian they love...

And a real threat looms, reemerging from the nooks and crannies of the Kremlin, and brings with it more danger than we need have faced.

In a week, Scooter Libby will be sentenced.

Scooter Libby committed a treason against this nation when he “outed” Valerie Plame Wilson, our number one intelligence asset on the issue of nuclear proliferation.

I do hope that at his sentencing, this action on the part of the Russians is taken into consideration by the judge, because the actions of Libby damaged irreparably the intelligence program that confronted issues like the advent of entire new Russian MRV IBCM systems.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]

The Shrub Addresses the CGA Graduating Class

The fearmonger-in-chief went to the Coast Guard Academy in New London Connecticut to deliver the commencement address today. (All the parts I listened to received tepid applause at best.)

Let’s just cut to the chase and fisk this fucker, shall we? (Without the happy-chatter and Bush one-liners – I just ate.)

Americans rely on the Coast Guard in times of disaster. When Hurricane Katrina hit our nation's Gulf Coast, the men and women of the Coast Guard swung into action, hanging from helicopters, pulling people off rooftops and out of trees, and rescuing more than 33,000 people. (Applause.) When storms and floods and tragedy strike, Americans know that they can count on the United States Coast Guard.

Yes they did. The Coast Guard stood head and shoulders above everyone else at that moment in our history, and one particular Coast Guard Officer risked his career to save lives, because the orders authorizing intervention were not forthcoming. So yes, the Hurricane survivors owe a debt of gratitude to the Coast Guard, but it is in spite of your punk ass.

You'll need all this training to help keep your fellow citizens safe. In this war, we face a brutal enemy that has already killed thousands in our midst, and is determined to bring even greater destruction to our shores. We're blessed that there has not been another terrorist attack on our homeland in the past five-and-a-half years. This is not for lack of effort on the part of the enemy. Since 9/11, al Qaeda and its allies have succeeded in carrying out horrific attacks across the world; al Qaeda leaders have repeatedly made clear they intend to strike our country again.

So where is Osama “to tell you the truth I just don’t think about him that much” bin Laden these days, anyway?

In January of last year, Osama bin Laden warned the American people: "Operations are under preparation and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished." Seven months later, British authorities broke up the most ambitious known al Qaeda threat to the homeland since the 9/11 attacks: a plot to blow up passenger airplanes flying to America. Our intelligence community believes that this plot was just two or three weeks away from execution. If it had been carried out, it could have rivaled 9/11 in death and destruction.

Just yesterday the Resident declassified this information, expressly so he could use it in his fear-mongering diatribe in New London. (How conveeenyent.) Declassify yesterday and flog today before any proper scrutiny can be applied to determine if he is lying his ass off again.

You remember his reaction to the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing titled bin Laden determined to strike within U.S. – he smirked and said “Okay. You’ve covered your ass now.” And resumed clearing brush. (No one could have imagined….)

To help stop new attacks on our country, we have undertaken the most sweeping reorganization of the federal government since the start of the Cold War. We created the new Department of Homeland Security, merging 22 different government organizations, including the Coast Guard, into a single Department with a clear mission: to protect America from future attacks.

Ask the residents of New Orleans what they think of this “restructuring” and I bet you’ll get your hat knocked in the creek.

All these steps are making our country safer, but we're not yet safe. To strike our country, the terrorists only have to be right once; to protect our country, we have to be right 100% of the time. That means the best way to protect our people is to take the fight to the enemy. So after 9/11, I vowed to America that we would go on the offense against the terrorists, fighting them across the world so we do not have to face them here at home. And since 9/11, that is precisely what that United States of America has done.

Backing off at Tora Bora and letting bin Laden abscond a part of that brilliant plan?

In Afghanistan, we removed a regime that gave sanctuary and support to al Qaeda as they planned the 9/11 attacks. Today, because we acted, the terrorist camps in Afghanistan have been shut down, 25 million people have been liberated, and the Afghan people have an elected government that is fighting terrorists, instead of harboring them.

The Taliban and al Qaeda are seeking to roll back Afghanistan's democratic progress -- but forces from 40 nations, including every member of NATO, are helping the Afghan people defend their democratic gains. Earlier this month, Afghan, American, and NATO forces tracked down and killed a top Taliban commander in Afghanistan. His death has sent a clear message to all who would challenge Afghanistan's young democracy: We drove al Qaeda and the Taliban out of power, and they're not going to be allowed to return to power.

So that’s why we are fighting in Iraq. Clears that right the fuck up…

In Iraq, we removed a cruel dictator who harbored terrorists, paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, invaded his neighbors, defied the United Nations Security Council, pursued and used weapons of mass destruction. Iraq, the United States and the world are better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

And was no threat to us. Not only that but anyone with a sense of world events can point to many worse offenders who haven’t been deposed by U.S. led forces. But then, those countries aren’t sitting on top of the third-largest oil reserve in the world.

And today the Iraqi people are building a young democracy on the rubble of Saddam Hussein's tyranny. In December 2005, nearly 12 million Iraqis demonstrated their desire to be free, going to the polls and choosing a new government under the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world.

The Iraqi “government” is probably about to fall. The only thing the parliament can agree on is that the United States should leave.

There is a reason that bin Laden believes that if al Qaeda can drive us out, they can establish Iraq as a new terrorist sanctuary. Our intelligence community believes that, "al Qaeda leaders see victory in Iraq -- the heart of the caliphate and currently the most active front in their war -- as a religious and strategic imperative." If al Qaeda succeeds in Iraq, they would pursue their stated goals of turning that nation into a base from which to overthrow moderate governments in the region, impose their hateful ideology on millions, and launch new attacks on America and other nations. Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden -- and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America.

Yeah…Sunni militant al Qae’da is going to take over Shi’ite Iraq. Only in the non-functioning melon that sits atop the shrubs neck, and in the mind of a very few foam-flecked idiots who drank deep of the Raspberry Red.

(And we are all getting ponies for Christmas!!!)

The fight in Iraq is tough, but my point today to you is the fight is essential to our security -- al Qaeda's leaders inside and outside of Iraq have not given up on their objective of attacking America again. Now, many critics compare the battle in Iraq to the situation we faced in Vietnam. There are many differences between the two conflicts, but one stands out above all: The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland. The enemy in Iraq does. Nine-eleven taught us that to protect the American people, we must fight the terrorists where they live so that we don't have to fight them where we live.

Okay, the bile is rising. What, exactly, does this pussy know about “tough fights”? He finished his hitch snorting coke off a stripper’s ass in the back of a titty-bar in Houston.

The part he leaves out is that terrorism is a tactic that has been used by the outgunned for centuries. We are always going to be a target of terrorism. That is reality. So what is this fuckwit’s solution? Make more terrorists by destabilizing the entire fucking middle east with feckless and reckless abandon! (The idiot twits aren’t over there, so what the fuck? Run amok!)

The question for our elected leaders is: Do we comprehend the danger of an al Qaeda victory in Iraq, and will we do what it takes to stop them? However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it. Al Qaeda is public enemy number one for Iraq's young democracy, and al Qaeda is public enemy number one for America, as well. And that is why we must support our troops, we must support the Iraqi government, and we must defeat al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al Qaeda is not enemy number one in the mind of anyone whose brain has not been turned to mush by years of Cocaine and alcohol abuse.. They are a scare tactic used by a petty little warmonger with Daddy issues and no skin in the game. If the U.S. left Iraq tomorrow, al Qaeda would be gone within a week – either slaughtered brutally by pissed-off Iraqi's, or fleeing with their lives.

Victory in this struggle will require valor and determination and persistence, and these qualities can be found in abundance in the Class of 2007.

Qualities that we wish our president possessed, but sadly, he wouldn’t know them if they bit him in the ass. But I digress and state the obvious. Victory in this struggle will require old-fashioned police work and dogged determination, and a reassessment of the world and out place in it. But that just doesn't sound as good, does it?

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]