Disgusted in St. Louis

"The Check is in the Mail" Stimulus Package

2008-01-25T01:00:00.000-06:00

Strains on the I.R.S. Could Delay Rebate Checks for Months (via NYT):

The checks will be in the mail — eventually.

But President Bush’s plan to send payments to 117 million households to stimulate the economy would impose major strains on the Internal Revenue Service, delays in answering calls to the agency and require a host of technical rules to determine who ultimately collects the benefits, officials said Thursday.

The deal between the administration and House leaders calls for checks to be issued 60 days after the president signs a law authorizing the one-time payments. That may be in as few as four or five weeks if the full House and the Senate come to terms on the details quickly.

In theory, the first checks may arrive in early May, if nothing goes wrong.

Even as the negotiators crunched the numbers, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation warned that the tax-filing season could be disrupted and hinted that it might be June before checks were issued.

...

Determining who is eligible and for how much money will require major reprogramming of an outdated computer system that relies on technology long since abandoned by business. The software changes will have to be made as an estimated 135 million individual income tax returns arrive between now and April 15.

The agency has already rushed to adjust its computers because of a temporary patch to reduce the effects of the alternative minimum tax that was not agreed on until just before lawmakers left Washington in December. More than two million taxpayers affected by the alternative tax cannot file until at least Feb. 11.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. told reporters on Thursday that he did not believe the tax patch would affect the new checks. Agency officials who would not speak on the record because they were not authorized were not so sanguine and pointed to the Congressional joint committee report’s warnings about adding to the workload in the big filing season.

Nobody has authorized the agency to hire extra workers to reprogram computers, enter new data, issue checks and answer calls. The agency will divert resources from serving taxpayers and enforcing tax laws.

A surge in calls accompanied the rebates that Mr. Bush sponsored in 2001, straining the ability to answer calls from people with tax problems and causing other logistical problems.

Charles O. Rossotti, the executive who was the internal revenue commissioner in 2001, warned amid that rush to issue rebate checks that “compression of analysis, testing and production of complex programs poses very high risks of errors in issuing these refunds such as taxpayers receiving incorrect amounts or notices with incorrect information.”

(h/t John Aravosis @ AMERICAblog)

Speaker Pelosi, Why is Impeachment Off Your Table?

2008-01-23T02:20:00.001-06:00

The Iraq War Card from The Center for Public Integrity:

False Pretenses

Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric.

Voice of America: What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor?

2008-01-22T21:35:00.000-06:00

I can't make this stuff up!

The WGA comedy writers may be on strike, but that doesn't prevent Voice of America from employing scabs because you won't see a funnier headline than this (from Google news top stories screen capture):

Will the Democrats answer the following question?

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-12-14T22:29:00.000-06:00

With the latest weather forecast for 6 to 10 inches of snow, here are two newer jazz artists with their renditions of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's "Let it Snow".

Emilie-Claire Barlow: Let it Snow

Jamie Callum: Let it Snow

Imagine

2007-12-08T23:15:00.000-06:00

Imagine Peace

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-12-07T22:56:00.000-06:00

Some Washboard jazz to wash away the Cheney Misadministration's waterboard jazz and the latest "we don't torture (without destroying the waterboarding tapes)" revelations.

Washboard Serenaders: Dark Eyes
Great performance featuring Lannie Scott on the piano.

Washboard Bill: Sunshine Florida
Recorded in 1988 at Washboard Bill's home in West Palm Beach Florida.

Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra: Washboard Blues
Features Hoagy Charmichael, the song's composer, on vocals (and piano?).

A New Dinosaur Mummy!

2007-12-03T04:02:00.000-06:00

I know this sounds like snark (and tastes like chicken), but this is from National Geographic, "Dinosaur Mummy" Found; Has Intact Skin, Muscle:

Scientists today announced the discovery of an extraordinarily preserved "dinosaur mummy" with much of its muscles and bones still encased in an uncollapsed envelope of skin.

Preliminary studies of the 67-million-year-old hadrosaur, named Dakota, are already altering theories of what the ancient creatures' skin looked like and how quickly they moved, project researchers say. (See pictures of the mummy dino and its preserved skin.)

Other Dinosaur Mummies:

Shagadelic Mr. 911

2007-12-02T07:06:00.000-06:00

Image includes Bernard Kerik as Dr. Evil and Michael Chertoff as Mini-Me. An appropriate casting for Chertoff since he was originally hired as a prosecutor by Giuliani when Rudy was the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan.

Inspired by the wall-to-wall "Shag Fund" coverage at Talking Points Memo:

The Shag Fund not only paid for the 11 tryst visits to Hamptons.

-- It paid for hotel and other expenses for mayoral aides -- in addition to the security detail -- who also went with the mayor to the Hamptons on the tryst weekends.

-- Nathan's NYPD-chauffeured trips (without Rudy) to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, 130 miles outside the city.

-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan around the city.

-- NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan's friends and family around the city even when she wasn't in the car.

-- NYPD security detail for Nathan, personally approved by Bernard Kerik.

-- NYPD cops to walk Nathan's dog.

I considered doing a couple other images in this vein. One was a "Shagadelic security detail fun(d)" with a leaping Rudy Powers in front of either the NYPD Blue cast or an NYPD police detail. The other was a "Do I make you Rudy?" with a pose on the round revolving bed.

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-11-30T20:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight's selection is dedicated in honor of the Giuliani Shagapalooza Fund.

Hobo Jazz: Mr. This and Mr. That

(be sure and check out the Hobo Jazz website)

Apropos Return of Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-11-23T21:40:00.000-06:00

Steely Dan: Black Friday

This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

2007-11-12T07:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the Gray Lady published an op-ed online, This Is Your Brain on Politics, written by seven researchers for the results of a study based on MRIs of swing voters. The researchers conclusions are based upon the results of 20 test subjects evenly divided between men and women. The article presents their conclusions in this extensive study "to reveal some voter impressions on which this election may well turn." Accompanying the article, there is a multimedia slide show with the same title, This Is Your Brain on Politics, which contains 8 slides (although the slideshow claims to have 9 images, selecting next from the 8th presents the same image with a popup for returning to the 1st slide).

The following procedure was followed in the testing:

Our 20 subjects — registered voters who stated that they were open to choosing a candidate from either party next November — included 10 men and 10 women. In late summer, we asked them to answer a list of questions about their political preferences, then observed their brain activity for nearly an hour in the scanner at the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Afterward, each subject filled out a second questionnaire.

While in the scanner, the subjects viewed political pictures through a pair of special goggles; first a series of still photos of each candidate was presented in random order, then video excerpts from speeches. Then we showed them the set of still photos again. On the before and after questionnaires, subjects were asked to rate the candidates on the kind of 0-10 thermometer scale frequently used in polling, ranging from “very unfavorable” to “very favorable.”

I had serious doubts about the accuracy of the presented results and accompanying slide show. So, I conducted my own extensive study based on MRIs of swing voters. I used significantly more test subjects, evenly divided between men and women. In addition, I included their children, pets, and least favorite in-law from their spouses family. The following contains my peer reviewed results and own multi-media slide show series (containing 8 of 9 images just like the NYTs).

The identical procedure as in the NYT's study was followed for collecting data from the test subjects. I then compared the questionnaire responses with the brain data, and here’s what I found:

1. Voters sense party brands. When I showed subjects the words “Democrat,” “Republican” and “independent,” they exhibited brain activity.

2. Emotions about Rudy Giuliani are mixed. Voters who rated Mr. Giuliani unfavorably on their questionnaire appeared entirely comfortable with their assessment. When viewing images of him, these voters exhibited significant activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a cognitive center of the brain containing von Economo neurons that respond to humor. It looked as if they were experiencing impulses to laugh at Mr. Giuliani.

This phenomenon, found to a lesser degree in other candidates, suggests that Mr. Giuliani may be able to support himself on the comedy club circuit.

3. Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are on opposite sides of the gender divide. I found indications that Mrs. Clinton was female and Mr. Giuliani was male.

For men, Mrs. Clinton is a woman. For women, Mr. Giuliani is a man. This is evidence that swing voters’ responses change when they see a woman or a man.

4. The gender gap may be growing. Shown the latest U.S. Census Bureau data that a woman earns only 75.5 cents for every dollar a man earns and that women's wages shrank 0.6% between 2000-2003 while men's remained the same, most subjects agreed there was a growing gap.

5. Mitt Romney, "Show me the money!" Of all the candidates’ speech excerpts, Mr. Romney’s sparked the greatest amount of brain activity, especially among those who didn't stop listening. His still photos prompted a significant amount of activity in the nucleus accumbens septi, indicating voter apathy, but when subjects watched his video, their apathy changed to confusion. Perhaps voters will become more comfortable with Mr. Romney when he stops changing his position on issues.

6. In Rudy Giuliani versus Fred Thompson, the latter evokes more sympathy. There is much discussion this year as Republican candidates strive to be worse than Bush. On this front, Mr. Thompson may have a disadvantage over Mr. Giuliani. When my subjects viewed photos of Mr. Thompson, I saw activity in the superior temporal sulcus and the inferior frontal cortex, both areas involved in sympathy. When subjects viewed photos of Mr. Giuliani, they laughed.

My subjects also exhibited a much stronger sympathetic response to a minute-long excerpt from a stump speech by Mr. Thompson than they did to an excerpt of a Giuliani speech. This feeling toward Mr. Thompson showed up in the swing voters’ answers on the questionnaires where they compared him to Grandpa Simpson and Giuliani to Mr. Burns. This suggests that if swing voters see more of both candidates, Mr. Thompson may gain an advantage over Mr. Giuliani.

7. Mike Huckabee has a problem. When looking at pictures of Mr. Huckabee, subjects who rated him high on the theocratic scale showed activity in the insula, an area associated with disgust and other negative feelings. This suggests that swing voters’ negative emotions toward Mr. Huckabee can be quite powerful. So Mr. Huckabee has a strong effect on swing voters — they consider him the new Elmer Gantry.

8. Tom Tancredo and John McCain have work to do. The scans taken while subjects viewed the first set of photos and the videos of Mr. McCain and Mr. Tancredo indicated a notable lack of positive reactions. The male subjects showed some interest in Mr. McCain while looking at still photos, but their engagement fell off after the third or fourth time he said "my friends" on videotape. Women remained outraged throughout the session. My findings suggest that Mr. Tancredo has created a racist impression on some swing voters.

Slide Show: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times
(click any slide to enlarge)

Men’s brains* were activated when they looked at the words “Democrat” and “Republican” and were shot by a taser.

* The images do not represent individual brains, but rather reflect the combined hive consciousness of the Borg mind collective.

Icons by Matt Groening

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Photos of Rudy Giuliani elicited increased activity in von Economo neurons, a part of the brain that responds to sight gags and language-dependent humor, in swing voters who reported having an opinion of him.

Icons by Matt Groening

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Men and women reacted differently to still pictures of Rudy Giuliani. Men (left) showed little engagement, while women responded strongly.

Icons by Matt Groening

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

In response to images of Republican candidates, men exhibited activity in the amygdala neurons, indicating erectile dysfunction.

Icons: The Three Stooges as "Drunk Stooges"

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Looking at photos of Mitt Romney led to activity in the in the nucleus accumbens septi, a brain area linked to apathy, but viewing his videos resulted in confusion over his changing positions on issues.

Icons by Matt Groening

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Images of Fred Thompson led to increased activity in the inferior frontal cortex, a brain structure associated with sympathy.

Icons by Matt Groening

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Subjects who had an unfavorable view of Mike Huckabee responded to pictures of him by reading Elmer Gantry.

Icon: Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

When first shown photos of Tom Tancredo and John McCain, swing voters’ brains had little activity in areas of the brain associated with thought or feeling.

Icon by George Baker; photo of David Duke

RELATED

* Op-Ed: This Is Your Brain on The New York Times

Another Story Missing from National News

2007-11-11T07:56:00.000-06:00

Must have been dropped in favor Veterans Day stories with a George Bush photo-op abusing recovering war veterans while he plays video games or reports from outside a courthouse for the latest Brittney Spears and O.J. Simpson appearances.

Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced:

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.

At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.

That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

Actually, there are probably 500 billion reasons for the story's absence -- the $500 billion Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations Bill just passed by Congress.

Greenwald: No "60-vote requirement" for Mukasey?

2007-11-09T07:16:00.000-06:00

Once again, Glenn Greenwald concisely presents another failure of the Democratic controlled congress.

What happened to the Senate's "60-vote requirement"?:

Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done. Each time Senate Republicans blocked Democratic legislation, the media helpfully explained not that Republicans were obstructing via filibuster, but rather that, in the Senate, there is a general "60-vote requirement" for everything.

Greenwald asks for an explanation on how the Senate could confirm Mukasey on a 53-40 vote after the excuses from Senate Democrats on votes regarding Iraq (and immigration and warrantless surveillance).

A couple of questions I asked last night regarding the missing votes of the four Presidential candidates were partially answered:

Beyond that, four Senate Democrats running for President missed the vote, and all four had announced they oppose Mukasey's confirmation. Thus, at least 44 Senators claimed to oppose Mukasey's confirmation -- more than enough to prevent it via filibuster. So why didn't they filibuster, the way Senate Republicans have on virtually every measure this year which they wanted to defeat?

He points out the sad, pathetic statement by Senator Schumer:

The most amazing quote was from chief Mukasey supporter Chuck Schumer, who, before voting for him, said that Mukasey is "wrong on torture -- dead wrong." Marvel at that phrase: "wrong on torture." Six years ago, there wasn't even any such thing as being "wrong on torture," because "torture" wasn't something we debated. It would have been incoherent to have heard: "Well, he's dead wrong on torture, but . . . "

Now, "torture" is not only something we openly debate, but it's something we do. And the fact that someone is on the wrong side of the "torture debate" doesn't prevent them from becoming the Attorney General of the United States. It's just one issue, like any other issue -- the capital gains tax, employer mandates for health care, the water bill -- and just because someone is "dead wrong" on one little issue (torture) hardly disqualifies them from High Beltway Office.

It's impossible for me to disagree with Greenwald's conclusion:

The so-called "60-vote requirement" applies only when it is time to do something to limit the Bush administration. It is merely the excuse Senate Democrats use to explain away their chronic failure/unwillingness to limit the President, and it is what the media uses to depict the GOP filibuster as something normal and benign. There obviously is no "60-vote requirement" when it comes to having the Senate comply with the President's demands, as the 53-vote confirmation of Michael Mukasey amply demonstrates. But as Mukasey is sworn in as the highest law enforcement officer in America, the Democrats want you to know that they most certainly did stand firm and "register their displeasure."

GO READ THE ENTIRE POST!

Kerik Indicted: Bye Bye Bernie

2007-11-09T02:08:00.000-06:00

Rudy responds to Kerik indictment:

(Rudy singing)
Bye Bye Bernie
I'm gonna miss you so;
Bye Bye Bernie,
Why'd you have to go?
No more sunshine,
It's followed you away;
I'll cry Bernie,
Till you're home to stay.
I'll miss the way you smile,
As tho' it's just for me;
And each and ev'ry night,
I'll write you faithfully!
Bye Bye Bernie,
It's awful hard to bear;
Bye Bye Bernie
Think I'll always care,
Guess I'll always care,
Guess I'll always care!

(image from LOLrudy)

LOLrudy Launches

2007-11-08T11:47:00.001-06:00

FBI Identifies Top Terrorist

2007-11-07T01:53:00.000-06:00

FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here:

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails.

How ridiculous is this considering that falafel is thought of as a pan-Middle-Eastern recipe as well as the national food of Israel?

(h/t Christy @ FDL)

Straitjacket Hunter

2007-11-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

In a recent Los Angeles Times piece, Rosa Brooks writes that it is time to Straitjacket Bush:

The president's warmongering remarks on the Iranian threat suggest he is psychotic. Really.

Forget impeachment.

Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.

Because they've clearly gone mad.

Well, it is time to straitjacket Duncan Hunter. In his quest to out do others in The Continuing GOP Presidential Competition To Be Worse Than Bush, Congressman Hunter has come up with a cunning plan, which was released in this press statement (from his House website):

GO TO WALTER REED AND BETHESDA FOR NEW STATE DEPT PERSONNEL

U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, will be meeting with President Bush today regarding his Wounded Warrior proposal to Congress. During today’s meeting, Congressman Hunter intends to also suggest that State Department personnel who refuse deployment to Baghdad be replaced with wounded veterans at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals.

“When the State Department appears to be filled with reluctant personnel, let’s turn to those who have bravely followed the American flag in the most dangerous of assignments,” said Congressman Hunter. “The U.S. Marines, soldiers, airmen and Navy personnel presently recovering at our national military hospitals have all the character required by the Department of State. They are brave, loyal, intelligent and fiercely determined to win the War on Terror.

“They are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters and you can be sure that when called on for difficult assignments, they won’t convene a town meeting to protest. Especially for those whose mobility has been impaired by wounds, State Department positions, not only in Baghdad but around the world, will provide excellent jobs as well as availing our nation of their enormous talent.”

Hunter will recommend a team of State Department recruiters be immediately sent to Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals, as well as posting application forms on relevant employment websites.

“Let’s replace these reluctant Nellies with America’s finest citizens,” concluded Hunter. “Our wounded warriors will serve our country efficiently, effectively and with undying patriotism.”

Sure, demented Duncan, let's place Iraq and Afghan war veterans suffering from PTSD and "whose mobility has been impaired by wounds" back into a war zone as part of the diplomatic service in which they have no background. Perhaps, you should demonstrate your leadership by immediately assuming the DCM of the US embassy in Baghdad and promise to maintain a minimum 5-year tenure.

Halloween Special

2007-10-31T21:48:00.000-05:00

Fright by Mark Fiore

No Retroactive Immunity!

2007-10-25T12:17:00.000-05:00

Tell Harry Reid: No Immunity for Lawbreaking Companies:

Dear Senator Reid,

Senator Chris Dodd recently announced his intention to place a 'hold' on any bill coming before the Senate that includes provisions for so-called 'amnesty' for large companies involved in illegally spying on Americans, and to filibuster any such bill if necessary. We are writing to ask you use your position as Majority Leader to honor this hold and join Sen. Dodd's leadership efforts to stop legislation that would allow these companies to escape liability.

For decades, it has been against the law in the United States for companies to give data about their customers, or access to their customers' conversations, to the Government without a warrant. But it now appears that for the last five years-at least-AT&T, Verizon, and numerous other politically connected corporations have repeatedly broken the law, turning over to the Bush adminis- tration unfettered access to the telephone calls, Internet activities, and calling records of millions and millions of Americans.
...
The rule of law is the basic guarantee in our society that all Americans are treated equally. Amnesty for big business is an assault on that principle. To grant retroactive amnesty would be to announce that our wealthiest corporations are free to break the laws we pass, and amnesty would be yet another huge step in eroding our core political principles.

Read the entire letter.

Sign on to this letter and tell Harry Reid: No Immunity for Lawbreaking Companies!

Larry Craig to Play Dumbledore

2007-10-23T09:34:00.000-05:00

Dood Abides (aka Dudehisattva) reports, Larry Craig to Play Dumbledore in Final Two Harry Potter Movies:

BOISE, ID (DMZ) - DMZ insiders have learned that Idaho Senator Larry Craig will be announcing that he is giving up his fight to restore his reputation in the U.S. Senate, and instead has signed a contract to star in the role of Albus Dumbledore in the final two Harry Potter films. A spokesperson for Michael Gambon , the popular British actor who has portrayed Dumbledore in the past two films stated that Gambon has elected to pursue other projects. The spokesperson refused to comment if Gambon's decision had been related to author JK Rowling's recent revelation of Dumbledore's homosexuality.

This gives an entirely new meaning to fighting a troll in the bathroom stalls:

Today is Blog Action Day

2007-10-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?
One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

NYT: Stephen Colbert Replaces Maureen Dowd

2007-10-14T03:45:00.000-05:00

In todays New York Times, "mock columnist" Maureen Dowd turned her column over to Stephen Colbert. The NYT should consider making it a permanent replacement.

A Mock Columnist, Amok (from Dowd's intro):

I called Colbert with a dare: if he thought it was so easy to be a Times Op-Ed pundit, he should try it. He came right over. In a moment of weakness, I had staged a coup d’moi. I just hope he leaves at some point. He’s typing and drinking and threatening to “shave Paul Krugman with a broken bottle.”

Some highlights from Colbert's I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!):

Surprised to see my byline here, aren’t you? I would be too, if I read The New York Times. But I don’t. So I’ll just have to take your word that this was published. Frankly, I prefer emoticons to the written word, and if you disagree :(
...
Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

On presidential candidates Clinton and Giuliani:

For instance, Hillary Clinton. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to be scared of her so Democrats will think they should nominate her when she’s actually easy to beat, or if I’m supposed to be scared of her because she’s legitimately scary.

Or Rudy Giuliani. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to support him because he’s the one who can beat Hillary if she gets nominated, or if I’m supposed to support him because he’s legitimately scary.

On Al Gore:

Well, suddenly an option is looming on the horizon. And I don’t mean Al Gore (though he’s a world-class loomer). First of all, I don’t think Nobel Prizes should go to people I was seated next to at the Emmys. Second, winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.

On faith, gender, race and the elderly:

Look at the moral guidance I offer. On faith: “After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up.” On gender: “The sooner we accept the basic differences between men and women, the sooner we can stop arguing about it and start having sex.” On race: “While skin and race are often synonymous, skin cleansing is good, race cleansing is bad.” On the elderly: “They look like lizards.”

Go read the whole thing!

Al Gore: Nobel Peace Laureate

2007-10-12T04:12:00.000-05:00

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.

"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

Run, Al, Run!

The GOP Presidential Competition To Be Worse Than Bush Continues

2007-10-05T03:54:00.000-05:00

Rudy McRomson (Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Thompson) fully supports Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (via NYT):

The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush’s veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.

It is yet another issue — like the Iraq war, North Korea’s nuclear program and the management of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina — where the Republican contenders are treading delicately as they gauge how to position themselves with an unpopular president on contentious issues. While all four are defending the veto, some in full-throated language, the candidates are at the same time forgoing praise of Mr. Bush’s judgment on the issue or of his leadership in general.

Back -Talk: Here Comes Success

2007-09-24T21:13:00.000-05:00

No More Dirty Tricks

2007-09-24T16:21:00.000-05:00

Courage Campaign

Welcome Back, Keith Olbermann!

2007-09-21T10:13:00.000-05:00

KO's special comment last night after returning to work following an emergency appendectomy last Friday:

‘Your hypocrisy is so vast’, a special comment by Keith Olbermann:

So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we would all interrupt him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, stepped before the press conference microphone and after side-stepping most of the substantive issues like the Israeli raid on Syria, in condescending and infuriating fashion, produced a big political finish that indicates, certainly, that if it wasn’t already – the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway.

“I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military.”

“And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

“And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military.”

“That was a sorry deal.”

First off, it’s “Democrat-ic” party.

You keep pretending you’re not a politician, so stop using words your party made up. Show a little respect.

Secondly, you could say this seriously after the advertising/mugging of Senator Max Cleland? After the swift-boating of John Kerry?

(h/t to Susie Madrak for video link, video & transcript also at Crooks and Liars)

Ranked #1 in Disgusted with George Bush

2007-09-20T20:56:00.001-05:00

In the tradition of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo's posts on how people reach his blog and its ranking among various searches,

I'm ranked #1 (and #2) on Yahoo Search for "disgusted with george bush":

Shorter Top News Stories

2007-09-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

Shorter John McCain on the Webb Amendment, "Suck it up!":

You are all wimps! No one specified a minimum time for my deployment while in a POW camp for 7 years.

Shorter George Bush press conference, "I'm the Grader! Nelson Mandela was murdered by Saddam Hussein":

'F' to Congress for wanting health insurance for children. 'A' for me when I veto it. 'B' for me in Econ 101 (up from the 'C' actually received in college). 'A' for me for tax cuts and being fiscally responsible (for turning a budget surplus into massive deficit and adding $4 trillion to the National Debt). 'F' for me in history and foreign affairs with Mandela is dead statement.

Shorter 24-hour cycle cable "news":

Nothing from Paris, Lindsey in rehab, Britney is fat, LOOK THE OJ SIDESHOW IS BACK!

LOL: James Wolcott on Romney vs. Thompson

2007-09-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

Future President of Petticoat Junction Seeks Florida Fun:

Thompson's somewhat lackadaisacal lope is a smart counterfoil to Mitt Romney's executive-vampire zeal and glinty opportunism--maybe it takes a real fake to show up a fake fake. Thompson at least seems to be composed of organic material; Romney is pure vinyl exterior down to the empty core.

Headlines We Like: Bush Resigns

2007-09-12T02:50:00.000-05:00

United States President Steps Down* (via LA Times):

George W. Bush, whose administration was marred by scandal, cites dwindling support.

By DinStL, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 12, 2007

President George Bush announced today that he would quit his office, saying he lacked the necessary support to pursue the agenda that drove his political career.

Bush, 61, had vowed as recently as Monday to carry on as President, despite the crushing defeat delivered to his governing Republican Party in elections for control of Congress in November.

But with his support in polls stuck at 30% or lower and the opposition signaling it would obstruct his plans to govern in defiance of the will of the public, Bush faced the prospect of trying to lead with ever-diminishing influence. "The people need a leader whom they can support and trust," Bush said today in a nationally televised news conference.

The trigger for his resignation was the awareness that he would not be able to renew an illegal and unconstitutional anti-terrorism law that allowed the Executive Branch warrantless surveillance of American citizens. The opposition Democratic Party, which now controls Congress, had promised to block any extension of the law, a crippling blow to a President who had repeatedly broken his pledge to the commitment of preserving civil liberties.

"The United States needs a new leader to fight against terrorism," Bush said.

*If only this article was not about Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. <sigh>

6th Anniversary

2007-09-11T12:04:00.000-05:00

(click for map)

Americans not Buying Bush's Selling of the Surge

2007-09-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

President Bush has repeatedly criticized anti-surge and war opponents with projection of his own politicizing of the Iraq War:

Another new arrival in the West Wing set up a rapid-response PR unit hard-wired into Petraeus's shop. Ed Gillespie, the new presidential counselor, organized daily conference calls at 7:45 a.m. and again late in the afternoon between the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Embassy and military in Baghdad to map out ways of selling the surge.

From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism. Between Jan. 10 and last week, the office put out 94 such documents in various categories -- "Myths/Facts" or "Setting the Record Straight" to take issue with negative news articles, and "In Case You Missed It" to distribute positive articles or speeches.

Gillespie arranged several presidential speeches to make strategic arguments, such as comparing Iraq to Vietnam or warning of Iranian interference. When critics assailed Bush for overstating ties between al-Qaeda and the group called al-Qaeda in Iraq, Gillespie organized a Bush speech to make his case.

Americans not buying it with Wide Skepticism Ahead of Assessment:

Most Americans think this week's report from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus will exaggerate progress in Iraq, and few expect it to result in a major shift in President Bush's policy. But despite skepticism about the Petraeus testimony and majority support for a U.S. troop reduction in Iraq, there has also been a slight increase in the number who see the situation there as improving.

The findings, from a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, underscore the depth of public antipathy toward the Iraq war, the doubts about the administration's policies and the limited confidence in the Iraqi government to meet its commitments to restore civil order.

Fifty-eight percent, a new high, said they want to decrease the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. And most of those who advocated a troop reduction said they want the drawdown to begin either right away or by the end of the year. A majority, 55 percent, supported legislation that would set a deadline of next spring for the withdrawal of American combat forces. That figure is unchanged from July.
...
The public's baseline judgment on the war is little changed -- more than six in 10 said the war is not worth fighting, a sentiment that has been a majority view for nearly three years.

But though the public assessment of progress in Iraq remains largely negative, most expected Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, to express a rosier view when he begins his congressional testimony tomorrow. Only about four in 10 said they expect the general to give an accurate accounting of the situation in Iraq. A majority, 53 percent, said they think his report will try to make the situation in Iraq look better than it really is.

Glenn Greenwald explains how it is The DC Establishment versus American public opinion:

The Washington Establishment has spent the last several months glorifying Gen. David Petraeus, imposing the consensus that The Surge is Succeeding, and most importantly of all, ensuring that President Bush will not be compelled to withdraw troops from Iraq for the remainder of his presidency. The P.R. campaign to persuade the country that the Surge is Succeeding has been as intense and potent as any P.R. campaign since the one that justified the invasion itself. While this campaign has worked wonders with our gullible media stars and Democratic Congressional leadership, it has failed completely with the American people.

Ever since the Surge was announced (and allowed) back in January, Conventional Beltway Media Wisdom continuously insisted that September was going to be the Dramatic Month of Reckoning, when droves of fair-minded and election-fearing Republicans finally abandoned the President and compelled an end to the war. But the opposite has occurred.

Democratic Congressional leaders -- due either to illusory fears of political repercussions and/or a desire that the war continue -- seem more supportive than ever of the ongoing occupation (or at least more unwilling than ever to stop it). They are going to do nothing to mandate meaningful troop withdrawal. Most Republicans are hiding behind the shiny badges of Gen. Petraeus and his typically sunny claims about Progress in Iraq, and they, too, are as unified as ever that we cannot end our occupation.

In September, 2002, CIA Told Bush No WMD in Iraq

2007-09-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

In a revelation which should surprise no one, Sidney Blumenthal informs us in his latest article that Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, but "Bush dismissed as worthless this information" because "Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear":

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.

Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD. No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq. The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD.

On April 23, 2006, CBS's "60 Minutes" interviewed Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief of clandestine operations for Europe, who disclosed that the agency had received documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD. "We continued to validate him the whole way through," said Drumheller. "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."

Now two former senior CIA officers have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it. They described what Tenet said to Bush about the lack of WMD, and how Bush responded, and noted that Tenet never shared Sabri's intelligence with then Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to the former officers, the intelligence was also never shared with the senior military planning the invasion, which required U.S. soldiers to receive medical shots against the ill effects of WMD and to wear protective uniforms in the desert.
...
On the eve of Sabri's appearance at the United Nations in September 2002 to present Saddam's case, the officer in charge of this operation met in New York with a "cutout" who had debriefed Sabri for the CIA. Then the officer flew to Washington, where he met with CIA deputy director John McLaughlin, who was "excited" about the report. Nonetheless, McLaughlin expressed his reservations. He said that Sabri's information was at odds with "our best source." That source was code-named "Curveball," later exposed as a fabricator, con man and former Iraqi taxi driver posing as a chemical engineer.

The next day, Sept. 18, Tenet briefed Bush on Sabri. "Tenet told me he briefed the president personally," said one of the former CIA officers. According to Tenet, Bush's response was to call the information "the same old thing." Bush insisted it was simply what Saddam wanted him to think. "The president had no interest in the intelligence," said the CIA officer. The other officer said, "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."

But the CIA officers working on the Sabri case kept collecting information. "We checked on everything he told us." French intelligence eavesdropped on his telephone conversations and shared them with the CIA. These taps "validated" Sabri's claims, according to one of the CIA officers. The officers brought this material to the attention of the newly formed Iraqi Operations Group within the CIA. But those in charge of the IOG were on a mission to prove that Saddam did have WMD and would not give credit to anything that came from the French. "They kept saying the French were trying to undermine the war," said one of the CIA officers.

The officers continued to insist on the significance of Sabri's information, but one of Tenet's deputies told them, "You haven't figured this out yet. This isn't about intelligence. It's about regime change."

The CIA officers on the case awaited the report they had submitted on Sabri to be circulated back to them, but they never received it. They learned later that a new report had been written. "It was written by someone in the agency, but unclear who or where, it was so tightly controlled. They knew what would please the White House. They knew what the king wanted," one of the officers told me.
...
On Sept. 8, 2006, three Republican senators on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- Orrin Hatch, Saxby Chambliss and Pat Roberts -- signed a letter attempting to counter Drumheller's revelation about Sabri on "60 Minutes": "All of the information about this case so far indicates that the information from this source was that Iraq did have WMD programs." The Republicans also quoted Tenet, who had testified before the committee in July 2006 that Drumheller had "mischaracterized" the intelligence. Still, Drumheller stuck to his guns, telling Reuters, "We have differing interpretations, and I think mine's right."

One of the former senior CIA officers told me that despite the certitude of the three Republican senators, the Senate committee never had the original memo on Sabri. "The committee never got that report," he said. "The material was hidden or lost, and because it was a restricted case, a lot of it was done in hard copy. The whole thing was fogged up, like Curveball."

While one Iraqi source told the CIA that there were no WMD, information that was true but distorted to prove the opposite, another Iraqi source was a fabricator whose lies were eagerly embraced. "The real tragedy is that they had a good source that they misused," said one of the former CIA officers. "The fact is there was nothing there, no threat. But Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear."

Krugman vs. Friedman: Not Very vs. Very Serious Person

2007-09-05T06:54:00.000-05:00

Allow me to present the following contrast between the two New York Times columnists, Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman, to demonstrate the reason for Friedman's much more frequent appearances as a pundit on television.

Not Very Serious Person, Paul Krugman writes, Snow Job in the Desert:

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like "Chemical Munitions Bunker." But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.

Mr. Powell's masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.
...
But, say the usual suspects, General Petraeus is a fine, upstanding officer who wouldn't participate in a campaign of deception -- apparently forgetting that they said the same thing about Mr. Powell.

First of all, General Petraeus is now identified with the surge; if it fails, he fails. He has every incentive to find a way to keep it going, in the hope that somehow he can pull off something he can call success.

And General Petraeus's history also suggests that he is much more of a political, and indeed partisan, animal than his press would have you believe. In particular, six weeks before the 2004 presidential election, General Petraeus published an op-ed article in The Washington Post in which he claimed -- wrongly, of course -- that there had been "tangible progress" in Iraq, and that "momentum has gathered in recent months."

Is it normal for serving military officers to publish articles just before an election that clearly help an incumbent's campaign? I don't think so.

So here we go again. It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years. And those who cannot learn from history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.

Very Serious Person, Thomas Friedman says, Suck On This:

NOLA: Two Years On

2007-08-29T16:23:00.000-05:00

When the Saints Go Marching In
(sign the petition)

Monday August 29, 2005, time line (via Think Progress):

7AM CDT — KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7:30 AM CDT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 “government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees” were breached. [AP]

8 AM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.” [NBC’s “Today Show”]

11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]
MORNING — BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA: In a briefing, Brown warned Bush, “This is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think.” He also voiced concerns that the government may not have the capacity to “respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe” and that the Superdome was ill-equipped to be a refuge of last resort. [AP]

MORNING — MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES: In the same briefing, Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center Director, warns, “This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there’s a big big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. … I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there’s obviously a very very grave concern.” [AP]

MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: “I spoke to Mike Chertoff today — he’s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on — a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.” [White House]

MORNING — BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM CDT — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: “Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as ‘this near catastrophic event’ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, ‘Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.’” [AP]

LATE MORNING — LEVEE BREACHED: “A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.” [Times-Picayune]

11AM CDT — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “This new bill I signed says, if you’re a senior and you like the way things are today, you’re in good shape, don’t change. But, by the way, there’s a lot of different options for you. And we’re here to talk about what that means to our seniors.” [White House]

4:30PM CDT — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

8PM CDT — RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld “joined Padres President John Moores in the owner’s box…at Petco Park.” [Editor & Publisher]

8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]

LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

Un-Happy Anniversary: Hiroshima and PDB

2007-08-06T09:51:00.000-05:00

Sixty-two years ago today, the United States dropped the first deployed nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Japan commemorates Hiroshima dead (via Reuters)

Japan marked the 62nd anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing with a solemn ceremony on Monday as the city's mayor criticized the United States for refusing to give up its nuclear-weapons program.

Tens of thousands of elderly survivors, children and dignitaries gathered at the Peace Memorial Park, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped, to remember the more than 250,000 people who ultimately died from the blast.

"Even to those who managed to survive, it was hell where they envied the dead," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the crowd, describing scenes from the bombing such as charred faces and torn clothes.

Six years ago today, President Bush received a Presidential Daily Briefing, called "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

(Blogswarm call via Blue Gal and Zen Cabin)

August 6, 2001: Bush Administration Warned 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States' (via Center for American Progress April 8, 2004):

Two and a half years after 9/11, the American public learned today that President Bush received explicit warnings that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack the United States – including activities "consistent with preparations for hijacking." Yet, there was no domestic follow-up by the Bush administration. No high level meetings. No sense of urgency. No warnings to FBI agents across the country.

Ghouliani Healthcare

2007-08-01T22:08:00.000-05:00

Shark-fu (aka Angry Black Bitch in a great post today) turned her focus on to Rudy Guiliani's health care scare (proposal) against "socialized medicine":

Mayor Giuliani has called universal healthcare “Socialist” and those who propose universal healthcare for all Americans “Socialists”.
...
First of all, Americans are not all a part of a family unit. Some of us are single. Too many of us are uninsured. How the fuck does that tax deduction help us?

Oh, wait!

He has no details for this magnificent defense against socialized medicine!

Of course!

Let me guess…a bitch should trust you on this, right?

Lawd, have mercy.

The average American family is drowning in debt. Wages have not increased but costs have. If you give the average American family a $15,000 tax deduction they’ll probably need that cash for pesky shit like food and credit card payments.

This inspired me to dig up a few statistics for how this might help the average American family in actual dollars. I posted the following as a comment:

We know there are just so many things wrong with Ghouliani's "healthcare" plan it's hard to pick where to start addressing how bad it is. So, allow me to hit on the following aspect.

The $15K tax deduction presumably is only applicable if applied toward the purchase of health insurance, although there may be some fall over for deducting medical expenditures up to a $15K total (without details who can possibly decipher the "money left over from one year could be used the following year to cover health care costs" statement).

The $15K deduction is for a family, is that independent of family size? What is the deduction for an individual? What is the deduction for a married couple without children or other dependents? What about families in a civil union or gay marriage in states that allow them, but is not recognized by the federal government?

Also, realize that a $15K deduction does not equate to $15K cash back or reduction in taxes owed. A tax deduction lowers the amount of your taxable income -- the point being that even if you received a $15K tax deduction for spending $15K on insurance/healthcare the actual reduction (or refund) in your tax statement would vary according to rates on your taxable income, which was the following for 2005:
10% up to $7,300
15% up to $29,700
25% up to $71,850
28% up to $150,150
33% up to $326,450
35% over $326,450
The median family income for 2005 was $55,832. So, for the average family their taxable income after a standard deduction of $10,300 if married filing a joint tax return (or $7,550 as head of household) plus Ghouliani's $15K deduction would place them in the 25% bracket. What does this mean in real $$$ to the average family? Rough (really rough) calculations would take the median family from an approximate $11,383 tax bill (25% of $55,832 - $10,300) to a tax bill of $7633 (25% of $55,832 - $25,300). That's a savings of $3750 on their taxes assuming they spend $15K on health insurance -- 27% of their total income if they could afford it and get coverage. For comparison purposes, a family earning $200K could spend 7.5% of their total income and would see their taxes lowered by about $4,950.

Ghouliani displaying his GOP credentials by proposing those that are most in need and can least afford something should pay more for it.

None of this addresses the issue that most if not all of this money will not be going to actual healthcare (treatment), but to insurance companies who can continue to happily take in money, now supported by tax dollars, while doing their utmost to deny payments for actual treatment.

For some additional analysis, a family earning $45K would drop down from the 25% to 15% tax bracket if they could afford to shell out $15K (33% of their total income) for heath coverage and would receive a reduction (using the same calculation from above) of about $5720 in their tax bill. It is doubtful that there would be any benefit for families earning less than $45K because even with a tax deduction the cost of coverage would remain unaffordable. For the ridiculous at infinitum factor, a family earning $25,300 (or less) a year that managed to pay for $15K of coverage (59% or more of their income) would see their tax bill drop to zero from $2250 (or less), thus paying (at least) $2700 more for the same coverage as a wealthy family earning $200,000, while families with taxable incomes in the top bracket (35%) would save an additional $300.

Attn: Bill O'Reilly -- You missed this image!

2007-07-30T17:11:00.000-05:00

The Spectre of Joe Lieberman's Pussy

Bill O'Reilly Says He Will "Destroy" Daily Kos Today:

Fox News has apparently been emailing the Democratic campaigns asking them for "comment" on Bill's ongoing Jihad of Jackassery: the following email was sent on to us from one of those Democratic campaigns:
From: Mitchell, Ron [mailto:xxxxxxx@FOXNEWS.COM]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007
To: xxxxxxx
Subject: Fox News Request

This is Ron Mitchell with Bill O'Reilly at the Fox News Channel.

The O'Reilly Factor plans an update on issues involving DailyKos website the story for Monday.

There are some disturbing images on the DailyKos depicting Sen. Joe Lieberman and others along with some very offensive language. We are asking for statements regarding this issue from each of the Democratic candidates planning to attend the YearlyKos convention.

The image attached is from an active posting. I think that most people would agree that this sort of thing has no place in mainstream political discourse.
So, what was this abominable photoshopped image, the one that was supposed to "bury" Daily Kos by the mere fact that some commenter once put it on the site? Well, here it is, but I warn you, it is very graphic and mean and abominable and it causes puppies to cry, so we don't dare post it.

Here is the image that so offended Billo:

Hair, The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

2007-07-23T20:11:00.000-05:00

I'm Back: New Internet Tube

2007-04-29T03:08:00.000-05:00

Well, where to start? It only took 5 weeks to finally get most of my Internet connection problems resolved (see Internet Tube Damage). ATT really sucks. I say most, but not all of my problems are resolved. I'm finally on the fiber optic line I was supposed to be on with the rest of my neighborhood 6 months ago; one other residence in my area and I were never connected. Unfortunately, the SOBs at ATT switched me from DHCP to PPPoE and there is a problem with the PPPoE dropping the connection and forcing me to reconnect -- OFTEN -- despite being configured to 'stay alive'. In addition, for whatever reason their switching me to PPPoE required me to register my account as if it was brand new despite nothing changing, including my email address. On top of that the registration pages wouldn't work properly using Firefox (although they are supposed to) and bombed out, despite using IE, with a database error on their side -- nice work ATT!

No comments posted on my blog and no emails regarding it. Gee, it looks like my 6 regular readers -- that would be the 5 government agencies and my last living relative checking to see if I'm still alive -- may have concluded I gave up blogging or passed on --- sorry to disappoint everyone.

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-03-16T18:08:00.000-05:00

(Jazz Guitar Night)

Lonnie Johnson: Another Night to Cry

Wes Montgomery: 'Round Midnight

George Benson: Breezin'

Jimi Hendrix: Little Wing

Internet Tube Damage

2007-03-14T22:55:00.000-05:00

SBC Communications, Inc. AKA AT&T Inc. AKA Incompetent Idiots of the Internets (see Ted Stevens) are having problems keeping their tubes clear. My access to the Internet is shaky at best; not all at worst, mostly for the worst right now. As if the current round of connection problems weren't bad enough and completely their fault with line problems, I'm sure everyone knows the absolute joy of trying to resolve an issue with their non-existent customer support and billing reps over the phone. SBC/ATT have repeatedly screwed me on billing by always charging me more than quoted than giving a partial credit one month then back to the overcharging a month later. It would be too simple for them to have one person to handle you entire account. If they were to do that they couldn't get away with their incompetence and illegal billing practices. Instead, they expect you to call one person for phone billing questions, one Internet services billing, another for Internet problems, a different one for phone line troubles, an entirely different person for scheduling repairs, and yet one more for arranging service changes that you didn't request. I'm sick of it and with my ongoing health problems I don't need the stress of dealing with their bullshit anymore!

I'm in the middle of preparing a letter detailing what I have gone through over just the past 18 months to the Missouri Attorney General. I have had problems with SBC/ATT for nearly 7 years, but didn't have much of choice for hi-speed access until recently. I'm looking into Charter Cable. They now supply Internet access in my area, I have been a subscriber to Charter Cable TV for a while. I now see the opportunity to leave SBC/ATT behind and go to Charter for cable TV, high-speed Internet, and phone. They can't be any worse than the idiots at SBC/ATT and probably will be better judging from their past cable TV service.

Unfortunately, this means that my postings may be light to none at all until I can get this resolved and a stable connection. The funny thing is my connection went out again yesterday evening and was out till sometime today, but is working perfectly right now despite heavy thunderstorms in the area.

General Pace's Morality: Devoting Time to Teh Gay

2007-03-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

Hmm, the headline of this article was:

"Top general seeks to calm gay sex row"

but now it has been changed to:

"Top general seeks to calm homosexuality row"

The top U.S. military officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, tried on Tuesday to calm anger that erupted after he described homosexual acts as immoral, saying he was expressing only his personal views.
...
"I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is okay to be immoral in any way."
...
Later, Pace issued a statement saying he had made a mistake in devoting so much time to his personal views.

Not sure why they decided to change it, both are pretty humorous. I wonder if General Peter Pace, USMC, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shares Ted Haggard's morality -- the morals of hypocrisy. I'm sure Pace is arranging an investigation and private consultations into the matter with Marine Corporal Matt Sanchez.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi had this to say about Pace's morality:

“We need the most talented people, we need the language skills, we need patriotic Americans who exist across the board in our population,” Pelosi said, calling on the military to “carefully consider” reversing the ban on gay service members. “We don’t need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”

Bush Demonstrates His Carrot 'N' Stick Diplomacy

2007-03-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

"Need some wood?"

(h/t John Aravosis @ AMERICAblog)

Blocked Tubes

2007-03-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Senator Ted Stevens (Idiot-Alaska) parked his SUV illegally and blocked my access to the Internet tubes.

My DSL connection has been down since Friday evening. I knew it had to be a line or router problem with my ISP. After a long, frustrating call to SBC (now ATT) tech support, which lasted about an hour, my connection has been restored. Of course, the call was replete with second and third random transfers for unknown reasons to someone unaware that I had just explained the problem in total to a previous person, who supposedly entered all the information into their incident tracking computer system. After the third person failed to understand why I would want a name or ID to contact them in case of another transfer or a disconnect to prevent me having to explain the problem from scratch to a fourth person, I demanded to speak to a supervisor. Fortunately, they quickly understood the customer service issue, for the supervisor request, as well as quickly being able to identify the problem as a line service problem from their end.

Now that Senator Stevens' SUV has been towed away and I have access to the tubes again, I will attempt to catch up on my blog reading. I don't think I can catch up on the posts I had planned, such as my Saturday morning nature blogging. I will probably save it for this coming Saturday. i will see what I can do about the latest Faux News propaganda attacking Democrats, liberals, and progressives as well as the latest Cheney Misadministration scandals:

Walter Reid and other army hospitals
political purge of US Attorneys (AKA Prosecutor Rendition)
Haliburton moving to Dubai

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-03-09T17:30:00.000-06:00

Special Get Well to Steve Gilliard Extended Edition

Johnny Lee Hooker and Santanna: The Healer

Marvin Gaye: Sexual Healing

Al Jarreau and David Sanborn: Love and Happiness

Glenn 'Gort' Reynolds

2007-03-09T10:41:00.000-06:00

Starring in "9/11 - The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Sadly, No!: TEH GLENN REYNOLDS ROBOSHOP
CHALLENGE VOTING BEGINS!!!!

France Bans Citizen Journalists!

2007-03-07T00:35:00.000-06:00

Is France Giving Bush New Ideas to Eliminate Dissent?

I haven’t seen this reported in the media outside of computer and tech journals like PC World, Macworld, or Info World. This is from Macworld:

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

The French law seems to have a very wide ruling and be sweeping in authority. It will criminalize the recording of any public violence except that of an accredited journalist. It makes you wonder if there are exceptions for private security surveillance cameras. I don't know the details and none of the articles pose or answer that question.

The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities...

The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules. The journalists’ organization Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for a free press, has warned that such a system could lead to excessive self censorship as organizations worried about losing their certification suppress certain stories.

Does anyone doubt the desire of similar measures by the Cheney Misadministration?

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence (Macworld)
How do you say "Drop that video phone" in French? (NetworkWorld)
France Bans Laypeople From Reporting Violence (PC World)
France Criminalizes Citizen Journalists (Celluar News - UK)

(cross posted at Daily Kos)

Why Democrats Should Stop Going on Fox News

2007-03-06T19:30:00.000-06:00

Senator Reid, Don't Legitimize Fox News

"My view is that Fox News is a propaganda outlet of the Republican Party and that I don't comment on Fox News."-- Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, June 12, 2005

Taking a Break to Enjoy a Nice Tuesday Afternoon

2007-03-06T13:50:00.000-06:00

Scooter Goes 4 for 5: Bush Admires Batting Record

2007-03-06T11:19:00.000-06:00

'Scooter' Libby guilty on four of five counts (CNN):

Libby guilty on four of five counts
Libby faces 25 years in prison, $1 million fine
President Dick Cheney's ex-aide accused of perjury and obstruction of justice
Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on four of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

Libby was convicted of:
obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame;
making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert;
perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert;
a second count of perjury when he lied in court about conversations with other reporters.

My Contribution to the Latest Coultergasm

2007-03-05T14:02:00.000-06:00

I was going to have a few comments on Ann Coulter, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘bitch,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Coulter.

(reaction to Republican criticism for use of the word 'bitch')

C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult Lynne Cheney by suggesting that she is like Ann Coulter. That would be mean.

Colorado Slave Labor: Tom Tancredo's Dream Come True?

2007-03-04T22:33:00.000-06:00

Inmates Will Replace Migrants in Colorado Fields (New York Times):

As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields.

In a pilot program run by the state Corrections Department, supervised teams of low-risk inmates beginning this month will be available to harvest the swaths of sweet corn, peppers and melons that sweep the southeastern portion of the state.

Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.

The director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Ari Zavaras, is a real comedian:

“They won’t be paid big bucks, but we’re hoping this will help our inmates pick up significant and valuable job skills”

The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition's director, Christie Donner, had this to say in response:

“This feels like the re-invention of the plantation.”
“You have a captive labor force essentially working for their room and board in order to benefit the employer. This isn’t a job training program. It’s an exploitative program.”

Unfortunately, this concept seems to be gaining acceptance elsewhere:

Although chain gangs and prison farms have long been staples of American correctional culture, the concept of inmates working on private farms is unusual. But there are signs that other states are following suit. The Iowa Department of Corrections is considering a similar program because of a migrant labor shortage in that state.

Several Iowa farmers called recently to request inmates in lieu of migrant workers, said Roger Baysden, the director of the state’s prison industries program. One farmer asked for as many as 200 inmates, Mr. Baysden said.

All ties together doesn't it:

US notches world's highest incarceration rate (Christian Science Monitor)
U.S.: Incarceration Rates Reveal Striking Racial Disparities (Human Rights Watch)
Higher incarceration rates harm social stability (Stanford University)
US Has the Most Prisoners in the World (CommonDreams.org via Reuters)
The Prison-Industrial Complex (The Atlantic Monthly -- subscription required for more than 1st page)
The Prison Industrial Complex: Crisis and Control (CorpWatch)
Unfair Prisoner Counting Skews State Legislative Districting (TalkLeft)
Displacing Prisoners: 21st Century Gerrymandering (Altar Magazine)

(cross posted at Daily Kos)

Conservatives Gone Wild: CPAC Raw and Uncut

2007-03-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

Max Blumenthal of the Nation has released a video, CPAC: The Unauthorized Documentary:

Michelle Malkin goes unhinged and launches a hysterical tirade into the lens of my camera. I ask Ann "John Edwards is a Faggot" Coulter why she isn't the same person on Sunday morning as on Saturday night. Tom Tancredo fanatics lose their cool when asked about connection between race and immigration, then try to conceal their neo-Confederate paraphenalia. A curiously pale black Republican explains why black Republicans can't get elected. Bob Barr, Grover Norquist and "Flipper," the anti-Romney dolphin, discuss the conservative movement. I receive a special gift from David Horowitz...and much, much more!

WARNING: STRONG RIGHT WINGNUT CONTENT
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

Saturday Morning Nature Blogging

2007-03-04T04:36:00.000-06:00

(yeah, yeah I know it's nearly a day late, but I got dragged into this silliness and was swamped by a bunch of email requiring replies -- hopefully, I will be able to complete a post about it soon, which I have started writing since it includes, for first time, right wing bloggers directing emails at me, but don't get the wrong idea the exchanges were all relatively polite and amusing)

I finally managed to catch up on some reading about the Strange New Creatures Found in Antarctica:

Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments.

Others resembled corals and shrimps. At least 30 appear to be new to science, said Julian Gutt, chief scientist of an expedition that was part of the International Polar Year research effort set to launch on March 1. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the marine life below.

“This is virgin geography,” said expedition member Gauthier Chapelle. “If we don’t find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won’t have any basis to know in 20 years’ time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem.”

There were several news articles written about this last week, but this one had some of the best pictures:

Speaking about best pictures, PZ Meyers at Pharyngula has posted this fantastic artist rendering and informative article about newly found fossils of Orthozanclus:

(click on over to his blog for a larger image and a great article)

Also, I want to thank PZ for adding me to his blog roll and introducing me to Craig McClain's and Peter Etnoyer's science blog, Deep Sea News, which I have added to my blog roll. I have an emotional affinity with their blog having once worked for the Deep Sea Drilling Project at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, which I always say, "was the best job I ever had" and really mean it! They had a great post yesterday on the hypothesis that Hydrothermal Vents May Be the Womb of Life in answer to a question posed by one of their readers:

What's the current take on a deep-sea origin of life? I just finished reading Genesis by Robert Hazen where he discusses some of the hypothesis' pros and cons and how there is something of a divide between the "ventists" and the "Millerites" and was wondering if deep-sea scientists naturally fell into the "ventist" camp.

Late addendum

Dhonig at Hynocrites has posted this great map of the world in 2050 entitled, The United States of Creationism:

As if there was ever any doubt...

2007-03-03T12:22:00.000-06:00

I'm George Orwell

Paranoid and Cynical. I am able to understand society and the human psyche quickly and easily. I am depressed a lot of the time, because I am clever enough to see what is really going on in the world.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

(h/t Susie at Suburban Guerilla)

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-03-02T18:45:00.000-06:00

Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance

Back in the late 70s to early 80s I used to do concert and entertainment promotion by booking groups at my university. My favorite bookings were of course jazz concerts. I had the pleasure of having Spyro Gyra in concert a couple of times as well as entertaining them before and partying with them after the shows. This song was the title cut from their second album and concert tour circa 1979. I believe this video is from the 16th North Sea Jazz Festival in 1991.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Potty Mouth Rightwingnuts

2007-03-02T04:14:00.000-06:00

The Rightwingnuts are making a big to do about a post made at one of their websites, The News Buckit (not sure why they can't spell), which attempts to answer the question:

But how different are the Rightosphere and Leftosphere when it comes to "dirty" language?

They approached the problem by Google searching what they considered "the 18 biggest Lefty blogs, and 22 biggest Righty blogs" with George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television".

Of course they started with the biased premise that the Leftosphere would be more profane than the Rightosphere. Needless to say here are their determined results:

With the self righteous glee of The Church Lady, they proclaim:

So how much more does the Left use Carlin's "seven words" versus the Right? According to my calculations, try somewhere in the range of 18-to-1.

Notice that the only "Note" for the Rightosphere is for LGF, "not sure if its counting comments, but it might be."

Well, isn't that special? How convenient.

Just for shits and grins (and to increment my own use of one of the seven dirty words), let's just look at the actual usage at LGF by actually searching their comments. Unfortunately, the LGF comment search doesn't work as well as Google so here are the totals for each of the words from independent searches:

Now, let's compare the LGF results, 123208, to that of Daily Kos, 146000. That's pretty close, however DKos is more popular than LGF, but how much popular? Let's use the Rightosphere's own measure from The Truth Laid Bear's ranking by traffic:

1) Drew Curtis' FARK.com 1064063 visits/day
2) Daily Kos: State of the Nation 499153 visits/day
3) Daily Kos :: Diaries 469220 visits/day
...

13) lgf: cannot just be sitted idly by by 139603 visits/day

Let's be generous and assume everyone visiting Daily Kos that posts comments is looking at diaries only. So, Daily Kos has 469220 visits a day to LGF's 139603. Why, it appears that Daily Kos has nearly three and half times the number of visitors as LGF, but LGF has approximately the same number of usages of the seven dirty words.

Obviously, the Potty Mouth Rightwingnuts are over three times more likely to use profanity than the members of the Leftosphere.

(cross posted at Daily Kos)

Addendum

The General points out priorities of the Rightosphere:

And I supply further hot intel for skippy to hop onto in rebuttal of Call'em Ishmael:

Bush Celebrates the End of Another February in Office

2007-02-28T05:05:00.000-06:00

Get well soon, Gilly!

2007-02-27T00:06:00.000-06:00

Steve Gilliard is in the hospital and can use your good thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery.

Saturday Morning Nature Blogging

2007-02-24T10:06:00.000-06:00

Chimps observed making spears:

Chimpanzees living on the West African savanna have been observed fashioning spears from sticks and using them to hunt small mammals — the first routine production of deadly weapons observed in animals other than humans.

The chimps were repeatedly seen using their hands and teeth to tear the side branches off long straight sticks and peeling back the bark and sharpening one end of the sticks with their teeth, the researchers report in Thursday's online issue of the journal Current Biology. Then, grasping the weapon in a "power grip," they jabbed into tree-branch hollows where bush babies — small monkey-like mammals — sleep during the day.

Hunting chimps may change view of human evolution:

Chimpanzees have been seen using spears to hunt bush babies, U.S. researchers said Thursday in a study that demonstrates a whole new level of tool use and planning by our closest living relatives.

Perhaps even more intriguing, it was only the females who fashioned and used the wooden spears, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani of Iowa State University reported.

(NOTE: Fox News attempts to promote fear of course!)
Killer Chimps Make Spears, Hunt Bushbabies:

After their attacks, the chimps sniffed or licked their weapons, as if to see whether or not they shed blood.

"I was flabbergasted," Pruetz said.

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-02-23T14:59:00.000-06:00

Jimmy Smith: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf

Bush Being Prepped for a Speech

2007-02-22T06:47:00.000-06:00

Prior to Bush's escalation speech and his State of the Union Address there were many news stories regarding his preparations and rehearsing including extended stays at his Crawford ranch and Camp David. The only thing Bush ever does is give speeches. So, I was wondering just what sort of preparation he requires and this is what I discovered.

(cross posted at Daily Kos)

Saturday Morning Nature Blogging

2007-02-17T09:35:00.000-06:00

Many years ago, long before the Birch Aquarium, I worked for the Scripps Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UCSD. One day, I had to transfer a giant octopus from one tank to another. This involved lowering the water level in the first tank allowing easier access to collect the octopus by reducing the free area for it to move around and simplify prying its tentacles off of anything it would grasp to resist capture, including the walls and glass of the tank. Did I forget to mention this was done barehanded? I would have been much more concerned about this task if I knew it could do this:

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-02-16T18:04:00.000-06:00

Quincy Jones: Secret Garden

Featuring El DeBarge, Barry White, Al B Sure, and James Ingram

"What did you learn in the war, DinStL?" (meta)

2007-02-15T22:36:00.000-06:00

Someone asked me about last week, "Hey DinStL, do you know about the meta war? What was it all about?"

So, here is what I told them I had learned in the war.

Markos

is a benevolent,

blog dictator

who works for the CIA

where he met Anna Nicole Smith

and became the father of her daughter.

MSOC

is the holy blog mother

of the suffragettes,

who is now dating John Gibson, but once

she and Markos had a kid in Oakland.

Markos, Atrios, Aravosis, and Bowers

became the Big Boys who now

guard the gates to the Internet tubes,

hold the A, B, C, D and E passes

to the the Wonderful World of Blogging,

and they all are father to Anna Nicole Smith's daughter.

Their complete story is told in the box office hit documentary:

And that's what I learned during the meta war.

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

2007-02-12T22:18:00.000-06:00

Celebrate Charles Darwin's birthday by visiting the The Friends of Charles Darwin.

Charlie Is My Darwin
by Torn Rubbers

'Twas in the year of 'fifty-nine
That Charlie told it clear:
'Tis nought but chance selection, boys,
The reason we are here, oh

Chorus:
Charlie is my Darwin, my Darwin, my Darwin,
Charlie is my Darwin,
Our one great pioneer.

He sailed the oceans of the Earth
To countries far and near,
He spent his youth in search of truth
A-followin' his idea, oh

(Charlie is my Darwin etc.)

Although he'd borne the church's scorn,
He faced 'em without fear.
He spent his wealth and risked his health
To share his Big Idea, oh

(Charlie is my Darwin etc.)

And poor old Bishop Wilberforce
So foolish did appear:
With Huxley's guile and Hooker's smile
They raised a mighty cheer, oh

(Charlie is my Darwin etc.)

There's poor Lamarck, way off the mark,
And Wallace went astray,
Then Mendel's beans and talk of genes
Saw Charlie win the day, oh

(Charlie is my Darwin etc.)

There's Dawkins, Gould and Lewontin
Still arguing the toss,
But none of them would yet deny
That Charlie's still the boss, oh

(Charlie is my Darwin etc.)

White House Interferes with Historical Time Line Once Too Many

2007-02-12T18:17:00.000-06:00

The Bush Administration has repeatedly attempted to rewrite history through White House obfuscation, spin and outright lies. This is having an accumalative effect on the historical time line, which if it continues without correction will have cataclysmic results (Yes, even worse than now).

Follow me through the documented evidence presented of White House interference, the historical record and how to correct the dilemma.

NOTE: All images are either public domain, most having been released by the White House, or qualify for fair parody use. They are work and child safe as long as you consider viewing images of Bush Administration officials 'safe'. All pictures link to transcripts, news articles with quotes or videos.

Part One - The Course

Interference:

History:

Part Two - The Relationship

Interference:

History:

Part Three - The Confirmation

Interference:

History:

Part 4 - The Threat

Interference:

History:

Interference:

History:

Part 5 - The Connection

Interference:

History:

Part 6 - Don't Think

Interference:

History:

Interference:

History:

Part 7 - Thanking God

Interference:

History:

Part 8 - No Plans

Interference:

History:

Conclusion - Correcting the Time Line

Interference?

Correction:

Sign the petition to Draft Gore!
Sign the petition to Draft Gore!
Sign the petition to Draft Gore!
Sign the petition to Draft Gore!

(Cross posted at Daily Kos)

Post 1/31 (ATHF) - DHS Advisory System

2007-02-11T22:27:00.000-06:00

Friday Night Jazz Blogging

2007-02-09T22:20:00.000-06:00

John Coltrane: My Favourite Things

Dirty Mouth?

2007-02-07T12:54:00.000-06:00

Matthews drops the F-bomb.

Tweety needs some

Badges?

2007-02-05T05:55:00.000-06:00

Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

(Something created for a diary comment/request at Daily Kos)

The Continuing Saga of Bush/Cheney Lies in the March to War

2007-02-04T07:12:00.000-06:00

U.S. can't prove Iran link to Iraq strife (LA Times):

Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Administration officials have long complained that Iran was supplying Shiite Muslim militants with lethal explosives and other materiel used to kill U.S. military personnel. But despite several pledges to make the evidence public, the administration has twice postponed the release — most recently, a briefing by military officials scheduled for last Tuesday in Baghdad.
...
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seemed to concede Friday that U.S. officials can't say for sure whether the Iranian government is involved in assisting the attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq.

"I don't know that we know the answer to that question," Gates said.
...
Hadley also said that the administration sought to delay the release of evidence until after a key intelligence report on Iraq was unveiled, so that Americans could place the evidence in the context of the broader conflict.

That report, called a National Intelligence Estimate, was issued Friday, concluding that Iraq was deteriorating and faces a bleak future that U.S. efforts may do little to avert.

However, the report tends to downplay the role of Iran and Syria, another target of U.S. criticism, in fomenting sectarian violence, while acknowledging that Iranian involvement "intensifies" the conflict.

"The involvement of these outside actors is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq's internal sectarian dynamics," says the report, compiled by experts from the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.
...
So far, the U.S. government has provided scant evidence that the government of Iran is directly supporting militant Shiite groups.
...
In a major speech on Iraq last month, Bush accused Iran of "providing material support for attacks on American troops" and vowed to "seek out and destroy" weapon transport networks.

Since then, Air Force officials have said they are planning new missions that could include flights along the Iran-Iraq border aimed at disrupting weapons shipments.

Iranian officials challenged the Americans to produce evidence of their charges, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, pledged last week to do so.

Pnw3d by ATHF

2007-02-02T15:17:00.000-06:00

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday: Beyond Iraq

2007-01-15T08:04:00.000-06:00

Listen to the words of Martin Luther King Jr. from his speech, Beyond Vietnam, delivered on April 4, 1967 which speaks to us as much today regarding Iraq and Iran as it did 40 years ago about Vietnam.

Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the North. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor, weak nation more than *eight hundred, or rather,* eight thousand miles away from its shores.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.
...
If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.
...
It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
...
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Bush's Tears

2007-01-12T10:13:00.000-06:00

President chokes up as he honors a war hero

by Steve Bell of The Guardian

Bush Redraws Mid-East Map

2007-01-11T21:37:00.000-06:00

The General has the goods:

Quiz: Which Famous Revolutionary Are You?

2006-12-06T08:07:00.000-06:00

I appear to be:

Nelson Mandela

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities."

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Congratulations Senator McCaskill!

2006-11-08T01:35:00.000-06:00

Claire wins! (I'm sure Fox News hated posting this story)

Jim Talent concedes he was just a Bush rubber stamp.

And People Ask Why I'm Disgusted

2006-10-30T03:06:00.000-06:00

St. Louis Is Most Dangerous City in U.S.

A surge in violence made St. Louis the most dangerous city in the country, leading a trend of violent crimes rising much faster in the Midwest than in the rest of nation, according to an annual list.

The city has long fared poorly in the rankings of the safest and most dangerous American cities compiled by Morgan Quitno Press. Violent crime surged nearly 20 percent in St. Louis from 2004 to last year, when the rate of such crimes rose most dramatically in the Midwest, according to FBI figures released in June.
...
The ranking, being released Monday, came as the city was still celebrating Friday's World Series victory at the new Busch Stadium. St. Louis has been spending millions of dollars on urban renewal* even as the crime rate climbs.

Mayor Francis Slay did not return calls to his office seeking comment Sunday.

Scott Morgan, president of Morgan Quitno Press, a private research and publishing company specializing in state and city reference books, said he was not surprised to see St. Louis top the list, since it has been among the 10 most dangerous cities for years.

*Disgusted that "millions of dollars" were spent on the new Busch Stadium, despite a public vote against the use of tax money, and prior to that "millions of dollars" of tax money on the Trans World Dome, now the Edward Jones Dome, for the Rams. Disgusted this gets called "urban renewal".

The NSA uses "the Google"

2006-10-26T20:42:00.000-05:00

Another day and another visit from my friends at the NSA. This time it's from their National Computer Security Center to check my enemy combatant status determined by President Bush for opposition to his policies and the War in Iraq.

This visit seems to have been prompted by this Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=141.116.10.&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&filter=0

This returns links to my blog archive, Disgusted in St. Louis: July 2006, and a post Pentagon Investigating My Ties to Terrorism.

The interesting thing here is they did the search on the IP Address 141.116.10.# from the Army Information Services Command-Pentagon, which is the visitor I wrote about in the post returned by the Google search.

Well, whatever their reasons for coming by I'm positive it is tax dollars being well spent on protecting our country from serious terrorist threats and I'm sure President Bush thanks them for their service.

Let's see, the National Computer Security Center is:

a U.S. government organization within the National Security Agency (NSA) that evaluates computing equipment for high security applications to ensure that facilities processing classified or other sensitive material are using trusted computer systems and components. NCSC was founded in 1981 as the Department of Defense Computer Security Center and changed to its current name in 1985. The organization works with industry, education, and government agency partners to promote research and standardization efforts for secure information system development. The NCSC also functions in an educational capacity to disseminate information about issues surrounding secure computing, most significantly through its annual National Information Systems Security Conference.

Perhaps they need a consultant and computer engineer with a background in secure data transactions from the business world to explain the benefits of anonymous IPs, proxy servers, and other means to conceal your IP Address and location. However, I wouldn't be interested in the job because I don't believe the government (or businesses) should be spying on US citizens. Also, I know the NSA is very familiar with the latest technologies and the reasons they leave these footprints probably lie in the area of intimidation or insiders disgusted with the Cheney Misadministration's shredding of our Constitution. Personally, I hope it is insiders joining me in disgust. Welcome guys!

Oh, yes! Before I forget, here are the screen captures of the latest visit recorded by Site Meter:

Cheney: I'm the the brainless Vice President "for torture"

2006-10-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

The Washington Bureau of McClatchy Newspapers has posted the story, Cheney confirms that detainees were subjected to water-boarding:

Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

The story links to the White House's own transcript of Interview of the Vice President by Scott Hennen, WDAY at Radio Day at the White House:

Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the Vice President "for torture." We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in. We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.

And thanks to the leadership of the President now, and the action of the Congress, we have that authority, and we are able to continue to program.

Pagegate Cartoon

2006-10-25T13:37:00.000-05:00

Walt Handelsman, the Pulitzer-Prize winning editorial cartoonist at Newsday has this great animated cartoon, Congressional Page Scandal:

Bush "Surprise" Press Conference This Morning Just Another Rerun

2006-10-25T12:20:00.000-05:00

Here are a few notable reviews of what has become both mentally and physically painful for the majority of Americans -- watching Bush attempt to speak and act coherently. (Transcript with high probability of scrubbing available here).

An Insufficient Explanation by Dan Froomkin at The Washington Post:

At a surprise press conference this morning, President Bush acknowledged the nation's grave concerns about the war in Iraq.

"I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq," Bush said, 13 days before a mid-term election that will in large part be a referendum on the war. "I'm not satisfied either."

"I think I owe an explanation to the American people," he said.

But Bush didn't have much new to say today, other than endorsing yesterday's already largely debunked announcement in Baghdad of a "new plan" that sounds very much like the old plan.

And after an hour of familiar sound bites, the public would be forgiven for feeling it still hasn't gotten that explanation he promised.

Digby has this to say about the Press Conference:

Did you know that the GWOT is harder and more challenging than any war in human history because the enemy are lethal cold-blooded killers? It is. Nobody has ever faced such a terrifying foe as George W. Bush and we should be grateful that he has courageously faced them down with nothing more than a prayer and a codpiece.

Glenn Greenwald delivers some deeper analysis with The President's vow today to stay in Iraq:

The President's Press Conference, devoted almost exclusively to Iraq, just concluded, and the internal contradictions and incoherent claims are literally too numerous to chronicle. But there really are only a few points worth making:

First, the President repeatedly defined "losing" as "leaving before the job is done" -- "the job" being the creation of a stable, unified Iraqi government that can defend itself. And we're not leaving before the job is done, which means that we are staying forever -- or at least as far as the eye can see into the future (or until the President leaves office).
...
In sum, it is clear from what the President said that we are staying in Iraq for the equivalent of forever, which means the next several years at least. And it is almost certain -- at least based on what he said -- that we will send more troops there and become more mired in the conflict, not less so (he said, for instance, that we will send more troops to Iraq if the Generals want them, and there can't be much question that once the election is done, we will learn that "the commanders on the ground" -- who know they aren't leaving any time soon -- will suddenly want more troops).

The Democrats should happily take this Press Conference and use it to drum home the point that the President's will -- if it remains unlimited by a rubber-stamping Republican Congress -- is that we are going to stay in Iraq forever and almost certainly become further mired in the disaster. That is exactly what Americans don't want to hear about Iraq, but it was the unmistakably clear message delivered by the President. We are staying forever because defeat means "leaving before the job is done."

It looks like the Democrats are starting to listen Greenwald:

Worst Person in the World: Rush Limbaugh

2006-10-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

Rush Limbaugh has launched the right wingnuts' attack on Michael J. Fox for his ads supporting stem cell research and Claire McCaskill claiming, "Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting" (audio and transcript at Media Matters):

LIMBAUGH: Now, this is Michael J. Fox. He's got Parkinson's disease. And in this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it's purely an act.

Last night, Keith Olbermann awarded Rush Limbaugh yesterday's 'Worst Person in the World':

But the winner, comedian Rush Limbaugh today criticizing the ad that actor Michael J. Fox did for a Democratic Senate candidate in which Fox, who has Parkinson‘s disease, calls again for stem cell research. Limbaugh says Fox was exploiting the shakes and convulsions of the disease possibly by not taking his palliative drugs. Says Limpbaugh (SIC), “I asserted when I saw the ad—stated when I was the ad—I was commenting to you about it that he was either off the medication or he was acting.”

Rush, given your history, maybe next time you just want to skip the phrase “off the medication!” Rush Limpbaugh (SIC), today‘s “Worst Person in the World.”

MyDD: Google Bomb The Elections!

2006-10-24T15:01:00.000-05:00

Supporting Chris Bowers' effort, Google Bomb The Elections: Let's Do This:

In a separate diary, I have added the plain text format of the Google Bomb. All you need to do on your blog is to copy and past what you see there. You don't have to do it everyday. You don't even have to do it more than once (but feel free). All you need to do is copy and paste the code from the diary on your blog. When you discuss any of these races in the future, please, use the same embedded hyperlink when reprinting the Republican's name. Then, I suppose, we will see what happens. I'll try and take care of the ads today and tomorrow.

I added the text to the bottom of my blog's right side bar.

Arrogance and Stupidity: Well, Duh!

2006-10-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

State Dept. official cites `arrogance´ and `stupidity´ in US effort:

A senior US diplomat said the United States had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al Qaeda in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television aired late yesterday, Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department offered an unusually candid assessment of America's war in Iraq.

"We tried to do our best, but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," he said.

Well, DUH!

Look who's in charge!

Don't forget the lies that accompany the arrogance and stupidity:

Arrogance, Stupidity, Lies.
It's not just Bush, but the GOP!

Listen to Michael J. Fox

2006-10-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

Vote for McCaskill!

The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures

And Listen to the Veterans

2006-10-20T21:01:00.000-05:00

Vote Vets!

UK Desperate for Helicopters in Afghanistan -- US Refuses to Help

2006-10-15T03:49:00.000-05:00

The British are in dire need of helicopters for operations in Afhganistan according to a reports in the The Daily Telegraph, Scotland on Sunday (The Scotsman) and The Independent.

MoD forced to hire civilian helicopters in Afghanistan

Britain is so short of helicopters in Afghanistan that military chiefs are being forced to scour the world for civilian aircraft to support its troops after the US rejected a plea to help plug the shortfall.

'Disbelief' at Chinooks shortage

In what is believed to be an unprecedented military move in modern times, ministers are preparing to rent non-military helicopters from private companies and foreign countries to help transport troops into and around the dangerous Helmand province.

Britain forced to use private helicopters in Afghanistan

Military commanders in Afghanistan have for the last three months been privately demanding more helicopters to help defeat the Taliban and provide supplies to troops in remote villages.

This is having adverse consequences for the UK's efforts in the mountainous area of southern Afghanistan.

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that reconnaissance and intelligence missions in Afghanistan are being affected by the lack of smaller and more flexible helicopters. But senior military officials said that when UK commanders asked for temporary deployment of US helicopters in Afghanistan, they were told there were none to spare.

Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be any problem with helicopters for Kuwait as the Kuwait News Agency in an article last week announced:

First deputy Prime Minister, Defense and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah announced on Saturday that Kuwait would receive new combat Apache helicopters by the end of the year.
...
He added that 16 combat Apache helicopters would be received by Kuwait at the end of this year, praising competence of these fighter helicopters in hitting their targets precisely in addition to adapting to the various weather conditions in Kuwait.

The requirements for helicopters extends further than just reconnaissance and intelligence missions:

The entire UK contribution to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan relies on eight ageing and over-worked Chinook troop-carriers - barely half the number commanders deem necessary for the task of moving their troops around.

A further 12 extra helicopters provide vital attack capability, but they are too small to manage the job of carrying large amounts of men and supplies around a hostile terrain.

Brigadier Ed Butler, outgoing commander of UK forces in the south of the country, said: "If we had more helicopters, we could generate a higher tempo, not just of offensive operations, but also to crack on with reconstruction and development."

The shortage is hurting the much needed reconstruction and development or Afghans will support the Taliban:

NATO fears Afghans may turn toward Taliban

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan warned yesterday that a majority of Afghans would probably switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if their lives show no visible improvements in the next six months.

General David Richards, a British officer who commands NATO's 32,000 troops in the country, said he would like to have about 2,500 additional troops to form a reserve battalion to help speed up reconstruction and development efforts

Sure sign of desperation:

The military was also “doing everything we can” to bring into service eight special forces Chinook helicopters that have never been flown after they were certified unusable following mechanical changes made by engineers.

Meanwhile, during this past week US Chinook Helicopters Complete Aid Deliveries to Remote Pakistan:

They landed on the edge of high mountains in spots that were sometimes less than 16 meters wide. But the pilots and crews of the United States Army Chinook helicopters were determined to airlift vital supplies to as many parts of Pakistan as they could before the severe Himalayan winter cuts off the remotest regions of the country.

The weeklong operation that ferried building materials to the Allai, Kaghan and Neelum valleys was completed October 12. Construction of strong shelters to withstand coming storms now can continue thanks to the cement, iron sheeting and steel bars brought by the Chinooks, dubbed “Angels of Mercy” because of the swift and effective aid they facilitated after the devastating October 8, 2005, earthquake in South Asia.

Blair seems to have mismanaged and abused the British military as badly as the Cheney Misadministration has the US military:

News of the MoD's emergency measures provoked fury among opposition politicians, who claimed the approach to the private sector was "the ultimate humiliation". Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said: "What on earth have we come to when the government has so mismanaged our operations that they have to go out to the private sector to find helicopters to fly in-theatre operations?

"It beggars belief - but ministers cannot say they weren't warned. Ourselves and the military have consistently told them that they were likely to encounter such serious difficulties, but when they decided to do something about it, it was too late."

I Voted Today!

2006-10-14T10:13:00.000-05:00

I chose to avoid the entire GOP driven unconstitutional voter ID BS as well as the new Diebold touch screen voting machines in my district by voting absentee.

There is still time to request an absentee ballot for yourself or help someone you know request one, especially if they are elderly, have health problems, or have time constraint problems due to work/family/school.

You can get a form online from the Missouri Secretary of State's website to print out, fill in, and mail or drop off at their local election authority (a list of them is provided at the link above). They will send you the ballot with a pre-paid State of Missouri official business election return envelope.

NOTE (from the website):

Mail in or faxed absentee ballot requests must be received by the election authority no later than the 5:00 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to any election. Voters can vote by absentee in the office of the local election authority until 5:00 p.m. the night before the election.

Must see TV: The War of the Words

2006-10-12T20:44:00.000-05:00

Visit the "The War of the Words" website and watch the documentary!

(You can view the trailer here)

Another Episode in the Callousness of Caligula Bush

2006-10-12T05:39:00.000-05:00

The Chimperor has outdone his previously callous "comma" statement, which he made during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on September 24:

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "LATE EDITION": Let's talk a little bit about Iraq.

BUSH: Sure.

BLITZER: Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war.

BUSH: Yeah.

BLITZER: I'll read to you what Kofi Annan said on Monday. He said, "If current patterns of alienation and violence persist much further, there is a grave danger the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of a full-scale civil war." Is this what the American people bought in to?

BUSH: You know, it's interesting you quoted Kofi. I'd rather quote the people on the ground who are very close to the situation, and who live it day by day, our ambassador or General Casey. I ask this question all the time, tell me what it's like there, and this notion that we're in civil war is just not true, according to them. These are the people that live the issue.

BLITZER: We see these horrible bodies showing up ...

BUSH: Of course you do.

BLITZER: ...tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, Al-Qaida in Iraq's still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see -- you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people. Twelve million people voted last December.

Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy.

Yesterday, in response to a question during a press conference (via Think Progress), Bush expressed his "amazement" of Iraqi's because he believes they're willing to tolerate the level of violence in Iraq:

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN: Thank you, Mr. President. Back on Iraq, a group of American and Iraqi health officials today released a report saying that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the Iraq war. That figure is 20 times the figure that you cited in December at 30,000. Do you care to amend or update your figure and do you consider this a credible report?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I don’t consider it a credible report, neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do know that a lot of innocent people have died and it troubles me and grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.

Bush Condemns North Korea Nuclear Test

2006-10-11T02:23:00.000-05:00

Cartoon by Steve Bell from the Guardian UK

Did the U.S. Provoke North Korean Nuclear Weapon Test?

2006-10-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

North Korea Appears to Have Conducted a Nuclear Test

South Korean government officials said North Korea performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test Monday, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun convened an urgent meeting of security advisers over the issue, Yonhap reported.

The North said last week it would conduct a nuclear test as part of its deterrent against a possible U.S. invasion.

Newsweek argues that the Cheney Misadministration is responsible for provoking the North Korean test:

North Korea: A Nuclear Threat

On Sept. 19, 2005, North Korea signed a widely heralded denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. Pyongyang pledged to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs." In return, Washington agreed that the United States and North Korea would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations."

Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sweeping financial sanctions against North Korea designed to cut off the country's access to the international banking system, branding it a "criminal state" guilty of counterfeiting, money laundering and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration says that this sequence of events was a coincidence. Whatever the truth, I found on a recent trip to Pyongyang that North Korean leaders view the financial sanctions as the cutting edge of a calculated effort by dominant elements in the administration to undercut the Sept. 19 accord, squeeze the Kim Jong Il regime and eventually force its collapse.
...
During six hours of intensive give-and-take with Kim Gye Gwan, both in his office and in two one-on-one dinners with only an interpreter present, he said over and over to me, "How can you expect us to return to negotiations when it's clear your administration is paralyzed by divisions between those who hate us and those who want to negotiate seriously? At the very time when we were engaged in such a long dialogue last year, your side was planning for sanctions. Cheney did this to prevent further dialogue that would lead to peaceful coexistence. So many of your leaders, even the president, have talked about regime change. We have concluded that your administration is dysfunctional."

Time Magazine: The End of the GOP

2006-10-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

What a Mess

The Descent of GOP

The Descent of Man

Write your own caption

2006-10-07T10:47:00.000-05:00

"Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) explains the meaning of 'dissemble' to President George Bush and Director of FEMA Michael Brown during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina"

How long until the GOP attacks our intelligence agencies as unpatriotic terrorist sympathizers?

2006-09-24T02:50:00.000-05:00

The New York Times is reporting this morning on the National Intelligence Estimate that concludes Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat. Glen Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory points out this report alone ought to dictate the outcome of the election if the Democrats would only run a non-stop commercial until November 7 with someone reading these four paragraphs from the beginning of the NYT's article (Greenwald'semphasis):

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Remembering Ann Richards

2006-09-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

Ann W. Richards (September 1, 1933 – September 13, 2006)

It is amazing how valid Ann Richards's keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention is today concerning the Cheney Misadministration and Boy King George as it was 18 years ago about the Reagan Misadministration and the asshole father of an idiot:

This Republican Administration treats us as if we were pieces of a puzzle that can’t fit together. They've tried to put us into compartments and separate us from each other. Their political theory is “divide and conquer.” They’ve suggested time and time again that what is of interest to one group of Americans is not of interest to any one else. We’ve been isolated. We’ve been lumped into that sad phraseology called “special interests.” They’ve told farmers that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm, and we watched farms go on the auction block while we bought food from foreign countries. Well, that’s wrong!

They told working mothers it’s all their fault -- their families are falling apart because they had to go to work to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes and college. And they’re wrong!! They told American labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days’ notice of plant closings, and that’s wrong. And they told the auto industry and the steel industry and the timber industry and the oil industry, companies being threatened by foreign products flooding this country, that you’re "protectionist" if you think the government should enforce our trade laws. And that is wrong. When they belittle us for demanding clean air and clean water for trying to save the oceans and the ozone layer, that’s wrong.

No wonder we feel isolated and confused. We want answers and their answer is that "something is wrong with you." Well nothing's wrong with you. Nothing’s wrong with you that you can’t fix in November!

We’ve been told -- We’ve been told that the interests of the South and the Southwest are not the same interests as the North and the Northeast. They pit one group against the other. They've divided this country and in our isolation we think government isn’t gonna help us, and we're alone in our feelings. We feel forgotten. Well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. We are one nation. We are the United States of America.

Now we Democrats believe that America is still the county of fair play, that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else; and it doesn’t matter whether we are black or Hispanic or disabled or a women [sic]. We believe that America is a country where small business owners must succeed, because they are the bedrock, backbone of our economy.

We believe that our kids deserve good daycare and public schools. We believe our kids deserve public schools where students can learn and teachers can teach. And we wanna believe that our parents will have a good retirement and that we will too. We Democrats believe that social security is a pact that can not be broken.

We wanna believe that we can live out our lives without the terrible fear that an illness is going to bankrupt us and our children. We Democrats believe that America can overcome any problem, including the dreaded disease called AIDS. We believe that America is still a country where there is more to life than just a constant struggle for money. And we believe that America must have leaders who show us that our struggles amount to something and contribute to something larger -- leaders who want us to be all that we can be.

We want leaders like Jesse Jackson. Jesse Jackson is a leader and a teacher who can open our hearts and open our minds and stir our very souls. And he has taught us that we are as good as our capacity for caring, caring about the drug problem, caring about crime, caring about education, and caring about each other.

Now, in contrast, the greatest nation of the free world has had a leader for eight straight years that has pretended that he can not hear our questions over the noise of the helicopters. And we know he doesn’t wanna answer. But we have a lot of questions. And when we get our questions asked, or there is a leak, or an investigation the only answer we get is, “I don’t know,” or “I forgot.”

But you wouldn’t accept that answer from your children. I wouldn’t. Don’t tell me “you don’t know” or “you forgot.” We're not going to have the America that we want until we elect leaders who are gonna tell the truth; not most days but every day; leaders who don’t forget what they don’t want to remember. And for eight straight years George Bush hasn’t displayed the slightest interest in anything we care about. And now that he's after a job that he can’t get appointed to, he's like Columbus discovering America. He’s found child care. He’s found education. Poor George. He can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

Well, no wonder. No wonder we can’t figure it out. Because the leadership of this nation is telling us one thing on TV and doing something entirely different. They tell us -- They tell us that they're fighting a war against terrorists. And then we find out that the White House is selling arms to the Ayatollah. They -- They tell us that they’re fighting a war on drugs and then people come on TV and testify that the CIA and the DEA and the FBI knew they were flying drugs into America all along. And they’re negotiating with a dictator who is shoveling cocaine into this country like crazy. I guess that’s their Central American strategy.

Now they tell us that employment rates are great, and that they’re for equal opportunity. But we know it takes two paychecks to make ends meet today, when it used to take one. And the opportunity they’re so proud of is low-wage, dead-end jobs. And there is no major city in America where you cannot see homeless men sitting in parking lots holding signs that say, “I will work for food.”

Now my friends, we really are at a crucial point in American history. Under this Administration we have devoted our resources into making this country a military colossus. But we’ve let our economic lines of defense fall into disrepair. The debt of this nation is greater than it has ever been in our history. We fought a world war on less debt than the Republicans have built up in the last eight years. You know, it’s kind of like that brother-in-law who drives a flashy new car, but he’s always borrowing money from you to make the payments.

Well, but let’s take what they are most proudest of -- that is their stand of defense. We Democrats are committed to a strong America, and, quite frankly, when our leaders say to us, "We need a new weapons system," our inclination is to say, “Well, they must be right.” But when we pay billions for planes that won’t fly, billions for tanks that won’t fire, and billions for systems that won’t work, "that old dog won’t hunt." And you don’t have to be from Waco to know that when the Pentagon makes crooks rich and doesn’t make America strong, that it’s a bum deal.